Loading ...Cheers & Boos 12-5-11
Tiger Woods won a golf tournament.
Kentucky nipped North Carolina in college hoops.
Kurt Busch and Penske Racing are done with each other.
Jose Reyes is set to join the Florida Marlins.
Ron Santo was finally elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Those are nice stories, but the calendar turned to December, which means the NFL has entered its final month and NCAA bowl games will soon start. Let’s keep our focus people, there’s time for everything else when we hit 2012. For now, it’s football, football and more football.
CHEERS for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, now 12-0 after booting the Giants, 38-35. After the Giants tied the game with 58 seconds left, Rodgers calmly completed passes of 24, 27 and 18 yards to set up Mason Crosby for the game-winning field goal. With the remaining schedule of Oakland, @ Kansas City, Chicago and Detroit, perfection is within reach if the Packers choose to play for it!
CHEERS for Tim Tebow, who pulled off another comeback as the Denver Broncos edged the Minnesota Vikings, 35-32. Tebow completed 10 of 15 passes for 202 yards and two TDs and led the Broncos on game-tying and game-winning field goal drives in the final three minutes. Tebow is now 6-1 as the starter this season and Denver has rallied from a 1-4 start to 7-5 and the top of the AFC West standings because…
BOOS to the Oakland Raiders, who were MIA in Miami. Riding a three-game win streak, the Raiders were drilled by the Dolphins, 34-14, in game that wasn’t as close as the 20-point margin indicates. The offense was terrible, the defense was abysmal and as usual, Oakland took stupid penalties, including DL Richard Seymour throwing a punch and getting ejected. Of course, the Raiders looked disciplined compared to…
LOUD BOOS to the Detroit Lions, who picked up where Ndamukong Suh left off on Thanksgiving in a 31-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints. WR Titus Young smashed a player in the facemask that turned a likely TD drive into a FG. WR Stefan Logan flipped the football into a defender’s face that backed up what could’ve been a tying TD drive. TE Brandon Pettigrew topped them by shoving an official who tried to break up a skirmish and will no doubt be hanging out with Suh next Sunday.
CHEERS for New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski, who caught two more TD passes and ran for a third as the Pats beat the Colts, 31-24. Gronkowski has 13 TD catches this season, tying Antonio Gates (2004) and Vernon Davis (2009) for the most by a tight end in a single season, and 23 TD grabs in just 28 career games. Considering Tony Gonzalez is the all-time leader for tight ends with 95 in 234 games, Gronkowski’s start is absolutely ridiculous.
BOOS to Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, who turned what should’ve been a last second victory into an overtime defeat to the Arizona Cardinals, 19-13. After reaching the Arizona 31-yard line with 26 seconds left, Dallas didn’t use either of its two timeouts, electing to let the clock run down for a 49-yard field goal attempt. “We have yard lines that we use as guidelines before the game,” Garrett said. “We felt that we were in range at that point. You see so many situations where you have negative plays in those situations.” (Norv Turner, there’s a Mr. Garrett to see you about playing scared at the end of games).
MORE BOOS for Garrett, who called a timeout just before K Dan Bailey powered the ball through the uprights, nullifying the kick. “The play clock was running down. We just wanted to make sure that he had a real clean opportunity at it,” Garrett explained. “It was at about 6 (seconds) and we were still getting settled in, so we banged a timeout to give him the opportunity to get the snap, hold and kick as clean as possible.” Needless to say, Bailey missed the second attempt and the Cardinals scored a TD in the extra session to win it. (Andy Reid, there’s a call on Line 2 from a Mr. Garrett about clock and game mismanagement).
CHEERS for the LSU Tigers, who throttled the Georgia Bulldogs, 42-10, in the SEC title game to clinch their spot in the BCS Championship. Just like the previous week against Arkansas, the Tigers spotted their opponent an early lead, then rolled after CB Tyrann Mathieu returned a punt for a score. As to who they’ll face…
BOOS to the BCS, which set up a rematch of the game between the Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide that LSU won in Tuscaloosa, 9-6, in OT. Alabama might be the second best team in the country, but a system that rewards a team that didn’t win its own division, no less its own conference, with a spot in the title game is a bad system.
CHEERS for my beloved Michigan Wolverines, playing in a BCS Bowl for the first time in five years. They’ll match up against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Sugar Bowl after a 10-2 regular season.
THERE IT IS!
-Jake Stevens
Let’s be clear. The game winning drive was 4 plays 8 yards on the ground but you still got to give him some props for getting the game to the position where Ponder could lose it. I’m still not sure how he’s doing it as some passes look like bad Pop Warner but the kid just seems to be a winner, when facing other bad teams (and the Jets – Ugh). As the Devo said, with similar bewilderment, How Long Can this Go On?
Re BCS should be a rule that you have to be your conference champion to play for the national championship. End of Story!
Garrett reminded me of Mike Martz more than Norv Turner. In a 2003 playoff game against the Panthers Martz and the Rams were down by three w/about 35 seconds left. They had a first down and a timeout so they could have run at least two more plays to try for a TD but instead kicked a short FG and ended up losing in OT.