The Canada Cup of Curling will be having its playoffs this weekend from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Two Alberta teams are still in the mix–Calgary’s Kevin Koe and Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin.
Koe (4-2) will be playing an early morning tie-breaker against Manitoba’s Mike McEwen (Saturday, TSN, 7:00 a.m.) with the winner playing Glenn Howard in the men’s semi-final (Saturday, TSN, 5:30 p.m.). The winner of the semi-final will then play Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg in Sunday’s final (TSN, 1:30 p.m.).
On the women’s side, Nedohin will face Team Jones (without Jennifer Jones who gave birth two weeks ago) in the semi-final, and then Stefanie Lawton of Saskatchewan in Sunday’s championship final (TSN, 8:30 a.m.).
Once again this weekend I’ll be watching four kinds of football from both side of the border.
Th most interesting matchup will be the Western Final on Sunday afternoon between the Calgary Stampeders (12-6) and the British Columbia Lions (13-5) (2:30pm, TSN). This week there has been more drama in the Stampeders’ dressing room than an entire week of the Young and the Restless, and for that I give the Lions the advantage.
Travis Lulay is expected to be at the top of his game and the Lions are well rested. My only concern however is that it has been a while since they played a very meaningful game, so it will be interesting to see how they come out mentally.
Many football fans have been cringing over the last couple of days with the enormous amount of injuries at the quarterback position since Sunday.
The list includes Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers.
Cutler, Smith and Vick all suffered concussions while Roethlisberger went down with a shoulder injury. Unless Cutler and Smith make significant improvements, next Monday’s prime time game featuring the 7-2 Bears and 6-2-1 49ers, will see Jason Campbell versus Colin Kaepernick at the helm. Yikes!
Getting back to the 49ers, they tied this week at 24 against St. Louis on Sunday. It was the first game that ended in a tie since 2008 when Philadelphia and Cincinnati tied at 13. From the San Francisco-St. Louis game Sunday, ESPN was reporting last night that many players didn’t realize the game could end in a tie. It made Donovan McNabb not look so dumb after all.
I am now 69-50 on the season after San Diego’s impressive defensive performance Thursday night where they completely shut down the Chiefs offense. Both Demorrio Williams and Shaun Phillips recorded fourth quarter touchdowns on a 58 yard interception return and a fumble in the end zone in a 31-13 victory.
Here are the rest of my Week 9 picks:
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Miami over Indianapolis–The Dolphins defense against the Jets last week was excellent and will win a second straight road game even though Dolphins starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill has a sore ankle.
Houston over Buffalo–The Texans are better on offense and defense. Could be over by noon.
Baltimore over Cleveland–The Ravens might have got spanked by the Texans in their last game, but have had two weeks off since to figure out what went wrong.
Denver over Cincinnati–Peyton Manning is looking great. He is now third in passing yards (behind Brady and Brees) with 2301 (more…)
The most dominant football team in Alberta is not in the Canadian Football League, but in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. On Saturday night at McMahon Stadium, the University of Calgary Dinos (7-1) will host the University of Manitoba in the Hardy Cup semi-final (Saturday, SHAW TV, 5pm).
Quarterback Eric Dzwilewski of Boise, Idaho set a Canada West Conference record with a 70.6 completion percentage, and helped set team records for most points, touchdowns, first downs, passing yards, completions and total yards of offense in 2012.
In the fourth largest comeback in NFL history, the Denver Broncos, who at one time trailed the San Diego Chargers 24-0 at halftime, marched back with a 35-24 victory Monday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
With the win the Broncos move into first place in the AFC West, tied with the San Diego Chargers at 3-3. They are two win better than the pitiful 1-4 Oakland Raiders and 1-5 Kansas City Chiefs.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are on of the biggest surprises to begin the 2012 season. They are only 2-3 after early season losses to Oakland and Tennessee on Thursday.
I got that one wrong Thursday and am 46-32 on the season.
Here are the rest of my week six picks.
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Atlanta over Oakland–The Falcons are finding ways to win every week.
Cincinnati over Cleveland–The Bengals at 3-2 look more organized at the moment than the 0-5 Browns.
St. Louis over Miami–The Rams defense is great, and received recognition with their win last week against Arizona.
Indianapolis over NY Jets–Not impressed with the Jets in recent weeks at all.
This is currently one of the most exciting times in Canadian tennis. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario achieved greatness again Friday night when he defeated U.S. Open and Olympic champion Andy Murray of Great Britain in three sets, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 at the Japan Open in Tokyo.
Raonic saved off two match points in the third set and was able to break Murray back after being down 4-1 in the final set.
Raonic also performed admirably while not serving in the third set, something he has struggled with in his career. He will now face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in tonight’s final (11pm, Sportsnet One). Raonic is also seeking his third title of the season, having won in Chennai and San Jose earlier in the year.
Ok. I admit. I was horrible in my picks last week. My apologies to the Oakland Raiders for not having faith in them against the Steelers.
I was 5-11 and am 26-22 on the year. But I do have a solid excuse. I’m blaming everything on the replacement referees who were God awful a week ago. Thank-you to the fact we don’t have to see them again as the league came to an agreement with the regulars on Wednesday. With the regulars back, I am guaranteeing a 10 win week, or I will buy Terry Nistor, the founder of www.anysportanytime.ca and Prospect Magazine a bowl of soup the next time I see him!
I am already 1-0 for the week as the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cleveland Browns 23-16 on 131 receiving yards by Anquan Boldin.
This week on the show we look at the latest Edmonton Eskimos news, check out what’s happening between the NHL & the NHLPA, plus some notes from around the league and the latest on the NFL bounty scandal.
In the GABBYs: Gabriel Landeskog, Sarah Crilly, Manchester United, the Maple Leafs, Paul Ryan and the MLB. The Punchline this week is a school district in Colorado.
Here are my week 1 picks. I did pick Dallas over the NY Giants because I felt Tony Romo was able to exploit a weak Giants secondary at the moment, and was correct. I’ll try to get my picks out each Thursday from now on.
Here are the rest of my picks:
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Philadelphia over Cleveland– Self explanatory.
Atlanta over Kansas City–Falcons have more depth in receiving game than Chiefs.
NY Jets over Buffalo–Jets have stronger defense and are at home.
Chicago over Indianapolis–It will take some time for Luck to get luck.
Serena Williams (Sascha Wenninger, Wikimedia Commons)
Serena Wiliams just might be playing the very best tennis of her entire career. Tonight she will be facing top seed Victoria Azarenka in the women’s final of the United States Open.
In yesterday’s semi-final, Williams, the Olympic Gold medallist, pounded Sara Errani of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour. Azarenka meanwhile defeated the tougher opponent in Maria Sharapova in three tough sets to set up tonight’s match.
The power in Williams’ game right now is so huge, she could be considered the most powerful female athlete in sport today. The match can be seen on CBS at 6pm tonight.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–U.S. Open men’s semi-final–(3) Andy Murray–Great Britain vs. (6) Tomas Berdych–Czech Republic–CBS–9am–Murray, the men’s Olympic gold medallist is playing what could be considered the best tennis of his career at the moment. His victory over Milos Raonic was sensational. He will be in tough on Saturday however against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who has a ton of momentum after his four set win over Roger Federer on Thursday. Berdych is 4-2 all-time against Murray.
This week on the show we’re discussing the latest big suspension from the NHL and some of the major playoff races – who’s in and who’s out? Meanwhile, in the NFL, the league comes down hard on the New Orleans Saints over the team’s bounty program and the Denver Broncos win the Peyton Manning sweepstakes!
In the GABBYs: Kevin Love, Leo Messi, Fernando Torres, Ben Eager, Wayne Rooney and Joba Chamberlain. The Punchline this week is a Tim Tebow inspired drink!
A pair of top National Football League wide receivers will be in a new uniform next season.
On Tuesday, the Miami Dolphins traded wide receiver Brandon Marshall to the Chicago Bears for two undisclosed draft picks.
Marshall, a three-time Pro Bowler caught 81 passes for 1214 yards and 16 touchdowns last season. His best year came in 2007 when he had 1325 yards receiving as a member of the Denver Broncos. When Marshall was traded for two draft picks in 2010, it was one of the very first articles I wrote for www.anysportanytime.ca.
With Marshall leaving Miami for Chicago, I’m not sure if Peyton Manning will find south Florida as an enticing destination anymore. I think it looks more and more like Manning will play for the Tennessee Titans next season. Manning played for the University of Tennessee, has been highly touted by owner Bud Adams and the franchise has a good offensive line as shown by the amount of holes running back Chris Johnson has been able to find in recent years.
In San Francisco meanwhile, the 49ers have acquired wide receiver Randy Moss to a one year deal. Moss spent time with three different teams last season–in Minnesota, New England and Tennessee. His best season came in 2003 in Minnesota when he caught 111 passes for 1632 yards and 17 touchdowns. Unlike Marshall, Moss seems to be on the downswing of his career however. But he does go to a team needing a wide receiver as tight end Vernon Davis got most of the looks from quarterback Alex Smith last season.
The Canada Cup of Curling will be having its playoffs this weekend from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Two Alberta teams are still in the mix–Calgary’s Kevin Koe and Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin.
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