By NoontimeSports.com
According to a recent blog post via ESPNBoston.com — the New England Patriots will kick-off their 2012 campaign on the road.
Mike Reiss mentioned in his blog post that it’s likely the Pats will face one of the following teams in week one — Baltimore, Buffalo, New York, Miami, Seattle, Tennessee or Jacksonville.
Of the seven teams listed above, which team would you want to see in the first week? Post your comments below or send us a tweet @NoontimeSports.
Marshawn Lynch rushed for 100 yards and a TD on Monday, as Seattle defeated St. Louis on Monday! (Photo Credit: Zimbio)
Headlines:
* Marshawn Lynch not only rushed for 100 yards on Monday against the St. Louis Rams, but also, he kept his consecutive touchdown streak intact, as the Seattle Seahawks won, 30-13.
* The Miami Dolphins officially fired head coach Tony Sparano on Monday, and also announced that the organization is looking for a young Don Shula.
* Despite being shown the door on Monday, former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley is certain that he’ll return to the sidelines soon.
* On Monday, the former Boston Celtics guard Delonte West inked his name on a Dallas Mavericks contract that’s worth $1.8 million.
* Chauncey Billups found himself a new team for the upcoming season on Monday, as he officially joined the Los Angles Clippers.
* According to various reports, former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky waived his preliminary hearing.
Games to Watch:
* Los Angles at Boston (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
* Detroit at Pittsburgh (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
* Philadelphia at Washington (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
Video of the Day:
Here’s the great Bill Cosby talking about the one and only Tim Tebow, enjoy!
Vince Young tossed 4 INTs on Thursday, as the Eagles lost to the Seahawks, 31-14! (Photo Credit: Bleeding Green Nation)
Headlines:
* Against the Seattle on Thursday, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Vince Young tossed four interceptions, as the Seahawks won, 31-14.
* According to a ProFootballTalk.com report — DeSean Jackson is unhappy with reporters asking him if he’s “unhappy.”
* On Thursday, the Boston Red Sox announced that Bobby Valentine will be their manager for the upcoming season.
* Valentine was asked on Thursday by the Boston media if it’s possible that the Red Sox could possibly consider inviting Bill Buckner to be a coach on his staff, and the answer… it’s possible.
* After a disappointing [6-6] season, Texas A&M fired head coach Mike Sherman.
* President Obama’s fundraising basketball game was postponed due to the NBA lockout coming to an end.
Games to Watch:
* Detroit at Buffalo (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
* No. 9 Florida at No. 3 Syracuse (NCAA Basketball) – 7:00pm eastern
* UCLA at No. 9 Oregon (NCAA Football) – 8:00pm eastern
* Philadelphia at Anaheim (NHL) – 10:00pm eastern
Video of the Day:
Anyone else have the moves like Wes Welker?
The Oakland Raiders earned an emotional win on Sunday against Houston, which certainly was dedicated to Al Davis!
By Brian Willwerth
RAIDERS 25, TEXANS 20: This is my “Game of the Day.” One day after the passing of longtime owner Al Davis, Oakland picked up a last-minute, emotional win in Houston. Jason Campbell threw two touchdown passes, while Matt Schaub led a last-minute drive for the Texans, but was picked off in the end zone by Michael Huff with no time left on the clock. Oakland coach Hue Jackson broke down in tears on the sidelines, overcome by the emotion. Both teams are now [3-2].
BILLS 31 – EAGLES 24: Look who’s [4-1], and look who’s [1-4]. Buffalo forced five Philadelphia turnovers – including four interceptions by Michael Vick. One of those picks was run back for a touchdown. Also, Bills’ running back Fred Jackson accounted for 196 total yards.
CHIEFS 28 – COLTS 24: Kansas City came back from a 17-point deficit on the road. Matt Cassel threw four touchdown passes as the Chiefs won their second in a row after a [0-3] start. The Colts remain winless.
VIKINGS 34 – CARDINALS 10: Minnesota finally broke into the win column at home, as Adrian Peterson rushed for three touchdowns in the first quarter alone. He finished the game with 122 yards on 29 carries.
SEAHAWKS 36 – GIANTS 25: Seattle came from behind at the Meadowlands, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter. Backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin with 2:37 left. The Seahawks sealed the deal with their third interception of game – a 94-yard TD return by Brandon Browner.
STEELERS 38 – TITANS 17: What’s wrong with Ben Roethlisberger’s left foot? Ask the Titans defense. All the Pittsburgh quarterback did was tie a team record with five-touchdown passes at Heinz Field.
SAINTS 30 – PANTHERS 27: This was a great game between two NFC South rivals in Charlotte. In the end, Drew Brees threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Thomas with 50 seconds left to win it for New Orleans. Brees threw for 359 yards on the day.
BENGALS 30 – JAGUARS 20: Cincinnati is above [.500]. Anyone else surprised by that? In Jacksonville, Bernard Scott scored with just under two minutes remaining, while Andy Dalton finished the day with a pair of touchdown passes.
49ERS 48, BUCCANEERS 3 — This was blowout city. San Francisco rushed for 211 yards at Candlestick Park, 125 of them by Frank Gore. The 49ers are [4-1] and alone in first place in the NFC west.
PATRIOTS 30 – JETS 21: Both teams had this game circled on the schedule when it first game out. In the first of two grudge matches between these teams, Tom Brady threw for 321 yards and BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns in the win in Foxboro. The Patriots are tied with the Bills atop the AFC East.
CHARGERS 29 – BRONCOS 24: At Mile High, San Diego survived a late charged by the Tim Tebow-led Broncos. Tebow took over in the second half for Kyle Orton and brought the home team within two points, but never did get over the hump. Philip Rivers threw for 250 yards, a touchdown pass and ran for a score too. Tebow’s hail-mary pass in the end zone fell incomplete.
Will Sam Bradford take the next step this season? We'll wait and see!
By Brian Willwerth
1.) St. Louis Rams [9-7] – Is this the year the Rams return to the playoffs? Quarterback Sam Bradford showed tremendous progress last year, coming up just short of a division title. He appears to be the best quarterback in what’s shaping up to be yet another weak division. Defensive end Robert Quinn, the team’s first-round draft pick, should help bolster the pass rush.
2.) Arizona Cardinals [8-8] – This is Kevin Kolb’s team now. And the Cards will take anything as an improvement over last year, when they were near the bottom in passing yards and rushing yards. Larry Fitzgeraldmade waves during the offseason when he signed an 8-year, $120 million contract. But Arizona needs a lot more help on both sides of the ball to be a contender.
3.) Seattle Seahawks [6-10] – A lot of people are still wondering how the Seahawks not only won the division last year, but also won a playoff game. But this year will be different. Matt Hasselbeck is gone. Tavaris Jackson is the starter. Just how effective will he be? Does he have enough help around him to carry the load? They used their first-round pick on offensive tackle James Carpenter. There are just too many holes that this team needs to fill, and Seattle did not do a good job of filling them during the offseason.
4.) San Francisco 49ers [5-11] – A lot has changed in San Francisco. Jim Harbaugh is the coach. There are new offensive and defensive coordinators. Alex Smith gets another shot to be the starter at quarterback. He hasn’t done much in the pros, and there’s no reason to believe that will change in 2011. Fortunately they have Frank Gore at running back. Expect to see a lot more carries from him.
It was one crazy weekend in College Hockey. Did anyone see AIC winning? How about Brown getting shut out?
Noontime Sports columnist, Dan Rubin attempted to make a few suggestions in regards to this past weekends college hockey scores. However, things didn’t totally end the way he had hoped, right?
By Dan Rubin
When I picked the Seattle Seahawks to beat the New Orleans Saints in the NFL playoffs, everyone that I knew at the time looked at me like I was insane or crazy.
When I picked 15th-seeded Hampton to beat 2nd-seeded Iowa State in the 2001 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, I got looked at like I wasn’t speaking English.
And when I picked Cornell last year to make the sweet sixteen, people really thought something was incredibly wrong with me.
Needless to say, I picked all three. The problem is – I didn’t pick anything else correctly. I finished dead last in my pick ‘ems for every single year even though I picked the best upsets and runs. My ability to picking games is so horrendously bad sometimes that when I make an insane selection, it pans out…and nothing else does.
So far, the 2011 NCAA men’s hockey postseason is shaping up to do the same thing to me.
To recap, this past week I picked the following teams to win their hockey playoff matchups. I had Niagara, Bentley, Army, and Mercyhurst all moving on in Atlantic Hockey. I picked Brown to extend Quinnipiac to three games in ECAC, and I picked my upset special of Harvard over Clarkson in three games (also in ECAC).
Final results:
AIC 6-Army 3
Canisius 6-Niagara 3
Mercyhurst 5-Robert Morris 1
Sacred Heart 6-Bentley 3
Harvard sweeps Clarkson, 2 games to none
Quinnipiac sweeps Brown, 2 games to none – while shutting out Brown 4-0 and 4-0
The lesson? Dan Rubin knows nothing.
So what did this weekend teach us?
Sacred Heart finished 11th in Atlantic Hockey yet isn’t the worst team to advance. The Pioneers trailed Bentley 3-1 in the second period before scoring five third-period goals. Sacred Heart’s forwards were a lot better than I gave them credit for. Matt Gingera had a hat trick with all three goals coming during the Pioneer comeback. He scored the game-tying goal at 10:41, the insurance goal at 12:24, and the empty-netter with under a minute to go. I also was completely wrong about Olivier St. Onge, who stopped 42 shots, including 17 in the 2nd and 15 in the 3rd. Bentley outshot Sacred Heart, 45-28, but they went 0-7 on the power play. But they’ll go to second-seeded Air Force because AIC did what everyone knows they can do – play a team hard. AIC might not have the most talent, and they might not have the most storied program, but they play EVERYONE tough and can steal one or two games. They beat Army pretty handily, but now they’re forced to go to RIT for the quarterfinals.
Everything I worried about Brown came true. All the problems for Brown came to a head in this weekend’s games. They needed freshmen defensemen to play over and above what they were, and it didn’t happen. They needed Mike Clemente to play like he did against Yale in last year’s playoffs, and lightning didn’t strike twice. And the middle lines couldn’t help Brown, since the offense didn’t garner a single goal. They’ll be a lot stronger in the coming years, and they’ll be a force to be reckoned with, but this weekend just wasn’t their time.
Harvard saved my weekend picks. Harvard didn’t overpower Clarkson, but they did what they needed to do to win. Danny Biega (my X-factor) had a goal and two assists on the weekend, while his brother Michael had a goal in each game to go with an assist in Game 2. Michael Biega also scored the game-winner in both contests. So while the Biega clan isn’t winning any Hobey Baker trophies, they’re still worthy of some mention of their talent.
“You are still dangerous.” – Iceman (Top Gun). Mercyhurst in the playoffs is a pretty good team. Of all second round matchups, theirs is the most favorable because they draw Connecticut. They beat a solid Robert Morris team and now travel to play a UConn team that benefitted from playing in the eastern scheduling pod. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Lakers make it back to Rochester for the conference final four.
I’m using Magic 8 Ball for this week’s picks. For a guy who watched a ton of college hockey this year, I did pretty horrendous at 2-4. But it’s pretty true to what I usually do. I called a couple of upsets but dropped the ball everywhere else. And that’s heading into a Hockey East playoff that’s anybody’s hockey tournament. So I’m breaking out my trusty Magic 8 Ball to help me out this week.
Stay tuned for all the hockey previews as we gear up for the weekend of the quarterfinals.
Headlines:
* It is still early, but University of Auburn quarterback Cam Newton will take his time to decide if he wants to enter the NFL Draft this April.
* More information is being revealed about the NFL and a possible lockout, which looms over the league, even as of now in January.
* Could the Seattle Seahawks leave Chicago this weekend with a victory? Stranger things have happened!
* Miami Heat forward/guard LeBron James apparently has an explanation for all of his nasty tweets against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
* The Duke Blue Devils 25-game winning streak was snapped on Wednesday by the unranked Florida State Seminoles.
* Could the former New York Yankees and Los Angles Dodgers manager, Joe Torre, be on his way to his next MLB position?
* Has the MLB even realized that their poor playoff ratings could translate into a terrible numbers in 2011 for watching baseball on television?
* Things may actually be starting to look up for the New York Rangers who apparently have a team of young hungry players that want to win.
Games to Watch:
* Philadelphia at Boston (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
* Vancouver at New York Rangers (NHL) – 7:00pm eastern
* Orlando at Oklahoma City (NBA) – 8:00pm eastern
* Miami at Denver (NBA) – 10:30pm eastern
Video of the Day:
Antonio Cromartie is the New York Jet who is responsible for calling Tom Brady names, but why doesn’t he just focus on figuring out how many kids he has first!
Make sure to follow Bedard on Twitter at (Greg_A_Bedard).
