Mid-Season – can the Pats complete the perfect season? November 8, 2007
Posted by relantel in Football, NFL, Sports, new england patriots.add a comment
The New England Patriots have seared through the competition, finding themselves with a 9-0 record at their bye week, with 7 games left: at Buffalo (4-4), vs. Philadelphia (3-5), at Baltimore (4-4), vs Pittsburgh (6-2), vs. Jets (1-8), vs Miami (0-8), and at Giants (6-2).
How likely is it they can run the table?
Exasperating to lose in "extra 0:52" September 26, 2005
Posted by relantel in Football, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers, Sports.add a comment
THIS JUST IN: NFL admits 60:52 was played, and instead of scoring with 0:01 left, NE actually scored 0:51 after regulation should have ended. The NFL won’t change the outcome, of course, but NE could not (and did not) drive down into field goal range in only the 0:29 they should have had left.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2173143
An NFL press release is admits as such this evening, and cane be viewed at this link: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8895637
original draft below
Off the heels of Penn State’s exasperating win yesterday, New England’s place-kicker Adam Vinatieri did it again, kicking a field goal with 0:01 left to go up 23-20 over the host Steelers. While the Patriots’ #4 won it, the game was a back and forth defensive battle. Either team had the opportunity to take a 10 or 14 point lead early on, but both defenses arose to the challenge.
The loss snapped the Steelers’ 16 game regular season winning streak, and QB Ben Roethlisberger’s personal 15-0 start as a starter. Ben threw no picks, and drove down to tie the game with less than 2 minutes remaining, but the Steelers scored too soon, leaving New England with 1;31 to go.
NE got a good kickoff return, to start on their own 37. NE had burned all of their timeouts previously, so they turned to Tom Brady, who completed 3 big passes on the drive, and on two of them, his receivers were able to get open fast (the rush was coming, knocking Brady down on two of the plays), catch the ball, avoid a tackle or two, gain the first down, and get out of bounds. (SEE ABOVE ABOUT THE EXTRA 0:52)
When both teams deserve to lose… September 22, 2005
Posted by relantel in NFL.add a comment
Monday night’s late card on the Monday Night Football lineup was the Washington Redskins at the Dallas Cowboys. Throughout most of the game, the Skins could not get a thing going offensively, while Dallas was stifling on defense. With 56 minutes down of 60, things changed on a dime. Dallas was up 13-0, and had the Skins down to a 4th and 13 do or die situation, with 3:46 to go in the game.
All of a sudden, the Washington Quarterback, Mark Brunell (formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars) bought enough time to heave a long pass that was caught by Santana Moss. Moss broke a tackle and was quickly in the end-zone, score 13-7. Skins kick off to Dallas, trusting their defense to get it done. All Dallas needed was a first down or two, again, to seal the game. They could not.
The way Washington played for the first 56 minutes, they deserved to have lost. The way Dallas played in the last four minutes, when they could have clinched the game on several occaisions, they also deserved to have lost.
So given that both teams then deserved to have lost, and a tie was not possible due to Dallas’s previous scoring combination, the equities then weigh against Dallas in my mind, mostly due to being a Steeler fan (Dallas, Pittsburgh & Washington were in the same division in the 60s prior to the NFL-AFL merger), and that Washington was due. I still think Joe Gibbs should have stayed in NASCAR, but nice to see a nice guy win.
When both teams deserve to lose… September 22, 2005
Posted by relantel in Football, NFL, Sports.add a comment
Monday night’s late card on the Monday Night Football lineup was the Washington Redskins at the Dallas Cowboys. Throughout most of the game, the Skins could not get a thing going offensively, while Dallas was stifling on defense. With 56 minutes down of 60, things changed on a dime. Dallas was up 13-0, and had the Skins down to a 4th and 13 do or die situation, with 3:46 to go in the game.
All of a sudden, the Washington Quarterback, Mark Brunell (formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars) bought enough time to heave a long pass that was caught by Santana Moss. Moss broke a tackle and was quickly in the end-zone, score 13-7. Skins kick off to Dallas, trusting their defense to get it done. All Dallas needed was a first down or two, again, to seal the game. They could not.
The way Washington played for the first 56 minutes, they deserved to have lost. The way Dallas played in the last four minutes, when they could have clinched the game on several occaisions, they also deserved to have lost.
So given that both teams then deserved to have lost, and a tie was not possible due to Dallas’s previous scoring combination, the equities then weigh against Dallas in my mind, mostly due to being a Steeler fan (Dallas, Pittsburgh & Washington were in the same division in the 60s prior to the NFL-AFL merger), and that Washington was due. I still think Joe Gibbs should have stayed in NASCAR, but nice to see a nice guy win.
