The five day weekend began a sports orgy on Wednesday. Thanksgiving brought the full complement of
NFL Football, with six games time to allow parade to bedtime sports. Thanksgiving dinner also fit in there
someplace, right? As in Thanksgiving
dinner, so in NFL football it would seem, as in each game, as at each dinner,
the visitors won. The players had to put
in quite a bit of work, though, unlike visitors who stop by for Ma's for turkey
and pumpkin pie.
The Detroit Lions continued their very longstanding tradition
of Thanksgiving football, as they hosted their NFC North rivals, the Chicago
Bears. The now 6-6 Bears certainly were
a bit cowed at facing the 3-8-1 Lions at home, on Thanksgiving. The Lions, no matter how lackluster their
year, fight hard on Thanksgiving, and more often than not, finish with a
victory. Yesterday they didn't, as the
Bears finished the game ahead, and won 24-20.
The Lions were ahead 17-10 at the half, but with two Chicago touchdowns,
unanswered except for a fourth quarter field goal, the Bears left with another
win. This tightens up the NFC Central
race a bit, and gives Chicago some hope of making the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the NFL's erstwhile whipping boys, the Buffalo
Bills, visited the mouth of the beast, The Dallas Cowboys. Over the years the Bills fan base has been
fluid, both in Buffalo and neighboring Canada, while the Cowboys fan base is
rock solid. The Buffalo Bills said
during this short work week that they weren’t interested in making a statement
in front of what was probably the biggest national TV audience they’ve played
in front of in decades. All they cared
about, as wide receiver Cole Beasley said, was getting win number nine, a
number which has been considered unreachable in recent decades.
Thursday afternoon, the Bills did indeed get their ninth
victory of the season, and in doing so, they made a statement, a statement they
have been waiting to make for so many years:
a Thanksgiving win, a 26-15 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T
Stadium. “We’re not worried about that,”
Beasley said after he put forth his best game since leaving the Cowboys to join
the Bills this season, six catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. “They (the
world) don’t need to know. We can lurk from the depths as much as we want.
People can sleep on us all they want, and we prefer it that way.” Welcome to the light, Buffalo.
Meanwhile, the 10-2 New Orleans Saints travelled east to
Georgia, where they took on the 3-9 Atlanta Falcons at the Mercedes Benz
Stadium. The Saints were leading by the
unusual score of 17-9 at the half, and finished the game ahead, finishing the
game ahead of the hosts Falcons by the likewise unusual score of 26-18. In doing so, they clinched the NFC South
title and were the first team to clinch a playoff spot. The Falcons' quarterback Matt Ryan was sacked
9 times during the game, the second highest number of sacks in one game in Falcons'
history.
Thanksgiving mean traditions.
On the day of national harmony, the
nation’s oldest public high school football rivalry continued, with the 132nd
game between the Wellesley and Needham High Schools. The game ended with a bench-clearing brawl on
Thanksgiving. Massachusetts' finest Wellesley and Needham High School players
went after each other with just two minutes left in the game. The home team, Wellesley, was up 27 to
nothing. Officials called the game once punches were thrown. Needham’s head coach said he had no comment
on the fight. It is unclear what kind of
punishments could be handed down.
The New England Patriots are down with the flu. The Patriots, who fly to Houston Saturday to
play on Sunday, had eight players out to the flu at practice on Wednesday. Not only that, they continue to have kicker
problems. Nick Folk, who has been performing
well as the Patriots' substitute kicker, was struck with appendicitis on
Wednesday night, and to celebrate Thanksgiving, had his appendix removed. He is thus out for the weekend, at least, and
hopes continue they might find someone to kick this weekend.
On a brighter note, today kicks off a weekend of NCAA College
football! This is the last weekend of
the regular season, and if we have time, this space will give a full rundown of
tomorrow's games. Tomorrow.
The Iowa Hawkeyes travel to Nebraska, where they will take on
the Cornhuskers in the competition for the Heroes Trophy. The Hawkeyes are on a roll, having won their
last several games, and they also have won this annual competition with their
rivals from across the Missouri River the last four years. Iowa’s run of success against Nebraska has
been predicated on its ground game. Recently, it hasn’t been working so well. 
The 19th-ranked Hawkeyes have rolled up more
than 260 yards rushing in each of the last three meetings with. Iowa (8-3, 5-3 in the Big Ten) comes to
Lincoln on Friday having averaged just 2.6 yards per carry over its last seven
games and just one individual 100-yard rusher in 11 games. The Hawks ran for 79
on 32 carries against Illinois last week.
Nebraska (5-6, 3-5) has allowed 223 rushing yards per game against Big
Ten opponents. Ohio State, Minnesota and Wisconsin all ran for more than 300
against the Cornhuskers.
The Hawks should see a motivated opponent on what is forecast
to be a rainy afternoon with temperatures in the upper 30s (3C). The Huskers
need a win to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. Nebraska Stadium, filled as it is for games
such as this, becomes the largest city in Nebraska, for the day. “We
know what’s at stake,” Huskers linebacker Collin Miller said. “Senior day, bowl
game eligibility, rival game. So we just want to go out there and play how we
play and end up with a victory.”
“All I know is it took us every play in the game to win the
game,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It was really tough, hard-fought, and my
guess is that that’s what it’s going to be. So that’s where our focus is. I
expect them to be fully ready. It’s their senior day, too, and they’ll have
89,000 people there screaming, so I think we know what we’re walking into.”
This afternoon's game between 17 Memphis Tigers and 18
Cincinnati Bearcats should also be full of hard fought action. Both teams currently have 10-1 records, but
the Tigers will have the home advantage. Three other ranked teams also play today.
