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Showing posts with label Chicago Bears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Bears. Show all posts

November 29, 2019

Sports Weekend: Thanksgiving Edition




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.  

October 6, 2019

Sunday Sport: NFL in the Old Country


A few times a year, American Football goes abroad.  Sometimes those games are in Mexico, or elsewhere in the Americas.  More often than not lately, the games have been played in Europe, mostly in London.   Most American fans tend to see these games a quirky, odd, additions to the schedule, sort of like exhibition games ("friendlies") which actually means something.  

Markus Ricci


To NFL fans in Europe, however, these games are celebrations of their favorite sport, a bit of home on foreign soil.  Fans attending games in the US will wear their teams colors and jerseys.   Fans attend the games in England primarily because they are football games, not just because their team is playing, if it is.  So, fans of all NFL teams wear their own colors. The London Games are for European fans, Americans and Europeans,  a celebration of Football, American that is.





The autumn wind is blustering in from the United States this festival, which  plays itself out again today, in the new Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium.  The Oakland Raiders, of California, take on the Chicago Bears, of Illinois.  

Both had big, if unexpected wins last Sunday.  The Bears' defense again carried this team to a victory in Week 4, as Khalil Mack and Co. held the Minnesota Vikings to just 222 yards of total offense. Mitch Trubisky went down early with a shoulder injury, but backup Chase Daniel did enough to secure the Bears' third straight win.

Last Sunday, the Raiders snapped the Indianapolis Colts' two-game win streak by defeating them 31-24 in Indianapolis. While Oakland lost Vontaze Burfict due to an illegal hit, this defense put together an impressive performance and withstood Jacoby Brissett's three touchdown passes.
 
The all-time series between these two teams is tied at seven apiece. 

What takes place in London this Sunday should be 

interesting, as well as a European celebration of American 

Football

October 14, 2018

Farmboy Football Jockstraps (Happy Jocktober)

Give me the look of a hot football stud in a jock anytime.  I know the comp short has taken over mostly, or the combo of both, but I still love to get a glimpse of the jockstrap bands under white pants.  

January 4, 2018