Armchair Weekend in Review (November 16-18, 2007)

by JB82

Some football to wet your appetite for the (hopefully) bountiful feast later this week and into next weekend. Onward we go!

NFL Week 11

• After last week's debacle against the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants were looking to make darn sure that last season's second-half collapse was a fluke. Well, Life With the Lions (Detroit Lions, that is) proved to be all right as Brandon Jacobs powered his way to 103 yards total offense and a touchdown in the Giants' 16-10 win over the Lions. However, it wasn't all good news: defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka suffered a broken fibula very early in the game and is likely done for the season, while Jacobs suffered a hamstring pull. No word on Jacobs, though, as we go to press...

• Matt Hasselbeck threw for 337 yards and got two touchdowns as the Seattle Seahawks edged out the Chicago Bears, 30-23, holding on to their lead in the NFC West.

• Tom Brady is STILL not human! How else can you explain five touchdowns from his arm in the Pats' 56-10 beatdown of the Buffalo Bills?

• Brady's old teammate, Adam Vinatieri, continued his poor field goal performance from last Sunday night, only making one out of three on the day. However, the one came when it mattered most, as it ended the Indianapolis Colts' two-game skid with a 13-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. In this same game, Peyton Manning became the second-quickest quarterback in NFL history to amass 40,000 yards passing in his career.

• How's this for a wack ending? Well, it happened at the end of regulation in the Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens tilt in Balmer. Browns kicker Phil Dawson lined up for what was to be a game-tying 51-yard field goal. Well, the kick looked as though it would carem off the goalpost, but it ricocheted off the left crossbar, then went off the support and out. The referees below signaled it "no good" and the Browns went off the field dejected, losing the game 30-27. However, after some confusion, a null attempt to look at it via the replay booth and a back judge's opinion, referee Phil Martelli soon reversed the call. Thus, the game went to overtime, and Dawson nailed a 33-yard chip shot to win the game (for real), 33-30.

CFB Rivalry Weeks

• Ohio State clinched the Big Ten championship (and a Rose Bowl bid) with a 14-3 win over archrival Michigan at the Big House in Ann Arbor. Buckeyes running back Chris Wells got 222 yards rushing and two scores to help send Lloyd Carr into retirement and OSU into number 5 in the latest BCS rankings.

• Other CFB rivalry fun:

• • Twentieth-ranked Illinois reclaimed the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk with a 41-22 win over Northwestern
  • Indiana retained posession of the Old Oaken Bucket, 27-24, over Purdue
  • Michigan State finally won for a change, and as a bonus, took the Land Grant Trophy back to East Lansing, 35-31 over Penn State.
  • Wisconsin will keep Paul Bunyan's Axe in Madison for another year by chopping down Minnesota's tree, 41-34. All this and Babe the Blue Ox, too...
  • Harvard and Yale, the Ivy League's answer to the Patriots-Colts rivalry, saw the two teams go in undefeated, and only one come out the same way. In other words, "two men enter, one man leave" for all you Mad Max fans out there. The Crimson outclassed the Elis, 37-6, to clinch the regular season title.

In other non-rivalry news...

• Colt Brennan didn't get to make history on Friday night, as he only played for two snaps, completing both passes for 21 yards in Hawaii's 28-26 win over Nevada

• Boston College, bouyed by Matt Ryan's late touchdown to Rich Gunell, clinched the ACC Atlantic Division title with a 20-17 win over #15 Clemson. The 18th-ranked Eagles will face the winner of next week's Virginia-Virginia Tech matchup in the ACC title game December 1.

• Tim Tebow became the first-ever member of the 20-20 club (i.e., 20 passing touchdowns and 20 rushing touchdowns in the same season) in Florida's 59-20 win over in-state rival Florida Atlantic. Tebow got three scores in the air and one on the ground, BTW.

• Kansas' 45-7 trouncing of Iowa State puts the undefeated Jayhawks at number two in the BCS ranking, while LSU retained the top spot with a 41-24 win over Mississippi.

• Missouri took the fourth spot thanks to a 49-32 beatdown of Kansas State, and Pat White led West Virginia to a 28-23 win over Cincinnati and the number three berth.

CFL Division Finals

• The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, behind Kevin Glenns 201 yards passing, will make their first Grey Cup appearance since 2001 with a 19-9 upset of the Toronto Argonauts.

• Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Roughriders will make next Sunday's tilt in T.O. a Prairie party thanks to a 26-17 win over the defending champion BC Lions. The Riders got 209 yards passing and two touchdowns out of Kerry Joseph's arm, assuring that many a banjo will be strummed in the Rogers Centre on the 25th.

The AWIR presents the B-ball Throwdown

• It had to end sometime, but the Boston Celtics' undefeated season-opening streak ended on Sunday thanks to a 104-102 loss to the Orlando Magic. The C's had a number of chances to keep the streak alive, but it was no avail.

• Memphis won the 2K Sports Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic on Friday night with a 81-70 win over Connecticut at Madison Square Garden in New York. The next day upstate, Siena repeated its 1989 NCAA tournament feat with an upset at home to #20 Stanford, 70-67.

Kudos (haven't seen this in a while)

• ...to Jimmie Johnson, who became the first driver to clinch the Nextel Cup back-to-back (and belly-to-belly) since his part owner Jeff Gordon in 1997-98. Johnson finished seventh in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag.

• ...to the Houston Dynamo, who also went B2B with the MLS Cup with a 2-1 win over the New England Revolution. Dynamo striker Dwayne DeRosario headed in the game-winner in the 74th minute to seal the deal. Compared to last year, sorta anticlimactic, IMO.

• ...to Rashad Evans and Karo Parisyan, who won their respective matches at UFC 78 in the new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Saturday

• ...to Lorena Ochoa, who clinched her eighth tournament win over the year with a victory in the ADT Championship and cemented her second LPGA Tour title in a row.

• ...to New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who got his 500th career win in a 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

The Ultimate Kudos

Dude of the Weekend

• Dallas Cowboys wideout Terrell Owens: T.O. caught all four of Tony Romo's touchdown passes in a 28-23 win over the Washington Redskins.

Dope of the Weekend

• Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr: How's this for a nice retirement present?

Happy Thanksgiving to all

And until next week, as always, let's all be good sports...

CRS-ONEVarsity Captain

328 days ago

Score 0

Aside form giving the Celtics their first loss, I think the Magic are going to suprise a few people this year. They have a good young team that will get into at least the first round of the playoffs.

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