AHHH PLAYOFFS!

Sorry for this post to shammgod (the 11-5 pats should be good enough for playoffs, and matt cassel’s 57 yard punt in the wind was epic) and capitalsports (maybe next year? naaah…probably not for the redskins), but the eagles and the chargers somehow made the playoffs!

IIGGGLEEEES!!!

The eagles needed tampa bay to lose to the awful oakland raiders. Oakland was also traveling  to raymond james stadium, and tampa bay was 13 pt (i think) favorites in this game. TB eveneven pulled ahead of the raiders 24-14. Somehow jamarcus russel (well..it was really michael bush) led the raiders back and they stunned the bucanners.

The eagles then needed either the vikings or the bears to lose. The giants’ backups held things down for a while (although i think tavaris jackson did a pretty good job of that for them) but the vikings eked out a 20-19  win). I think that had some of the worst clock management I’ve ever seen…and naturally, it came from brad childress, a disciple of andy reid. The vikings converted a third down with over a minute. Even though the vikings had 1 timeout remaining, they failed to advance the ball any further, and let their division title, and playoff hopes rest on a 50 yard field goal attempt. Granted, ryan longwell is pretty good, and the vikings play in a dome, but settling for a 50 yard field goal attempt? Weeeeaaaaak.

The bears came through though with a loss to the houston texans. Andre Johnson absolutely beasted with 10 receptions, 148 yards, and 2 touchdowns. Too bad he did nothing for me last week in my fantasy championship game. Garbage.

Capital talked a little bit about the absolute beatdown the eagles laid on the cowboys. Everything was clicking for the eagles, and the crowd was in a frenzy after fans learned that this game was suddenly a playoff play-in game. The eagles d forced 5 turnovers, harrasing tony romo all day. Brian Dawkins, all 35 years of him, had a beastly game, forcing 2 fumbles that were both returned for touchdowns. Mad props for weapon x, who came out ready to play and really iced the game for philly.Thanks to that beatdown, the eagles are somehow in the nfl playoffs, despite sitting at 5-5-1 following a loss to baltimore and mcnabb’s halftime benching. That tie ended up being great for the eagles – a loss to the bengals would have instead given the last playoff spot to tampa bay.

The chargers managed to be in an even worse spot when they were sitting at 4-8. Denver pretty much had the divison locked up. Yet, a timely run by the chargers and some disappointing losses for the broncos resulted in a play-in game on sunday night. The chargers came through with their own blowout win, demolishing the broncos. Phillip Rivers outplayed his new rival Jay Cutler. LT looked like the LT of old and Sproles and Hester chipped in with their own touchdowns. A trendy preseason pick to represent the afc in the superbowl, the chargers sneaked in to the  last spot, and will now host the colts next weekend.

And I gotta close with this video, in case you didn’t see any of the highlights of the eagles’ huge win.

Big D as in Disaster

The infamous fumbled snap

How could this have happened? Another Dallas embarrassment and the  pre-season Super Bowl favorites miss the playoffs. The media has turned this team into one of the most overrated ever, and it comes right down to the key players on the Cowboys roster:

Tony Romo only has 3 turnover-free games in his entire career (39 starts). In his 3 games this season without any picks, he combined for 6 fumbles. For whatever reason, he has never won a game that counts for anything important, and has lost as many (if not more) games for the Cowboys than he has won.

Is it the O-line causing all those turnovers? Well, almost the entire unit went to the Pro Bowl last year… but clearly, they’re overrated too. Constant penalties from Flozell Adams and difficulties consistently being able to run the ball keep this unit from being elite.

But Dallas has great pass-catchers right? TO consistently drops balls and gives up on plays, and has proven to be cancerous this year. The Roy Williams trade has been a monumental bust, and leaves Dallas with a top player from the worst team in NFL history and without their 1st, 3rd, and 6th round picks next year. Jason Witten is great, make no mistake about that, at least.

But Marion Barber went to the ProBowl last year as a backup, he’s amazing! No, not quite. He disappeared down the stretch this year and still doesn’t have a 1000-yard season in his career. He’s clearly not an every-down back, and needed Felix Jones to share carries with this year.

Onto the defense. The best player on the team, by far, is Demarcus Ware. If there’s one player on the team who actually deserves attention it’s him, and he led the defense to the highest sack total in the NFL.

Beyond Ware, it’s rough. Terrance Newman is supposed to be a top-5 corner, but consistently gets burnt by Santana Moss. Can’t explain it, but he usually is very good – not quite elite.

Roy Williams has finally be exposed, although those who understand football have known it for years.

The Adam Jones pickup was another bad decision. Suspended for part of the season and made all sorts of mental mistakes today. Like much of the roster, he created more drama than he was worth.

So why do I have the authority to say the Cowboys are a joke? Because I saw the Redskins implode in 2000 after making big-name free agent acquisitions of Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, and others. The team was expected to advance deep into the playoffs and started 6-2, but injuries and other issues caused the team to fall apart like this year’s Cowboys. This created Dan Snyder’s image as a free-spending joke – a label that should now be applied to Jerry Jones. His meddling with the roster and day-to-day operations of the team only increases the drama surrounding the team. The Cowboys have extended their streak to 13 consecutive seasons without winning a playoff game (1996). In other words, even Arizona has won a playoff game since then, Michael Jordan had only retired once, and Space Jam had just come out. That’s a huge embarrassment for a franchise that is  constantly in the spotlight.

How did eagles miss this?

It’s official, Candace Parker and Sheldon Williams are married. They tied the knot November 13 when they eloped to Tahoe (huge lake in Northern CA) but managed to keep it a secret until now. Apparently, their schedules were too jam-packed for a big wedding to materialize.

We here at talkpractice offer our congratulations to our favorite sports star and express our condolences for all those were hoping that the engagement would fall through (cough, cough eagles…)

P.S. If you don’t get the title, read our About section!

Butterfly ballots, anyone?

Texas fans aren’t likely to forget this play any time soon, because it’s what has denied them a shot at their second national championship in four years. Just in case anyone needed a refresher:

More than any other play, Michael Crabtree’s TD on a beautiful pass from Graham Harrell with just 8 seconds remaining changed the landscape of the 2008 college football season by pushing the Longhorns out of the national title game. The disbelief on Colt McCoy’s face says it all.

This was no isolated incident, either. The Texas Tech duo lit up scoreboards all season, even against Baylor after Harrell had broken a couple fingers. Pundits are quick to laud Crabtree as the best receiver in all of college football and his quarterback threw for over 4,700 yards, which in case you’re wondering, ranks above both Sam Bradford and McCoy. And Harrell did it with a much weaker rushing attack, which gained 90 yards less than Oklahoma’s and 60 yards less than Texas’ running game.

So how did the Heisman voters forget about Harrell and Crabtree when they were inviting the candidates to New York? The award is not the MVP – it’s the best player in college football. And you don’t have to look much further than that one play to know that these two are two of the best players in the country.

I’m not suggesting that Harrell or Crabtree should win the Heisman – my vote would go to McCoy, who will probably be snubbed because he’s not playing on Jan. 8. But the committee is allowed to invite 5 people, and the gap between the three who will be in New York and the two who won’t is pretty slim.

On the subject of awards, how did LB Aaron Curry of Wake Forest win the Butkus Award? He doesn’t have the stats of Boston College’s LB Mark Herzlich, who won the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, or even Duke LB Michael Tauiliili, both of whom reside in HIS OWN conference. Furthermore, compared to players like Ohio State’s James Laurinaitis and USC’s dynamic duo of Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing, it’s an even more ridiculous pick. It’s not like Wake Forest  is some college powerhouse and Curry is being rewarded for being the best linebacker on the country’s best defense. I’d really appreciate if someone could explain this to me.

Something else to consider. Texas’ McCoy won the AP Big 12 offensive player of the year award, but didn’t make the AP Big 12 First Team. That honor went to Bradford. Go figure.

God, I hate the BCS

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed here, so I’d understand if our faithful readership has forgotten what a dear USC fan I am. But make no mistake – love, love, love  Trojan football.

So it should come as no surprise, then, that my chief business today is complaining about the teams (rather, only one team) that made that national title game. But rest assured, I’ve grown tired of trying to convince people that Florida and USC are the two best teams in the country. Although I adamantly think those two programs should be playing Jan. 8 (and btw, since when has the national title game been on a THURSDAY?), I instead presently make a case for another BCS loser – Texas.

The Longhorns may have broken my heart in 2006, but I'm not holding that against them this year.

That sentence was pretty hard for me to get out since for the last three years,Vince Young gliding into the Pasadena end zone has filled my nightmares. But, if we’re going to buy into the argument that the Big 12 and the SEC are the best conferences in college football and as such, their champions should play for the national title (which I don’t agree with, but that’s a debate for another day), then Florida and Texas should be playing for the national title. Oklahoma and Texas each have one loss -but Oklahoma LOST TO TEXAS.

I’m not buying the three-way tiebreaker with Texas Tech. A quick look at any poll will reveal that no one believes the Red Raiders are in the same echelon as Texas and Oklahoma. I’m a firm believer that losing to a bad team reveals less than losing to a good team. (For proof, USC lost to Oregon State and Penn State beat them, but the Trojans are still better than the Nittany Lions. Just wait till Jan. 1.) Sure, Texas lost to Tech -but it was on the road, on a last-second drive punctuated by a brilliant play by the greatest receiver in college football, and it was on the road. Guaranteed, if they played again, Texas would be favored and they would win. Oklahoma beat the Red Raiders in the friendly confines of Norman, OK after having two weeks to prepare, whereas Texas was closing up perhaps the most brutal stretch in the history of college football. The Longhorns beat the Sooners on a neutral site and came back from double-digit deficits TWICE. They are better than Oklahoma, and should be the Big 12 champions. Who cares if Oklahoma beat Missouri in the conference championship, Texas beat them too. Plus, Colt McCoy is better than Sam Bradford. I’m going to be so mad if Bradford wins the Heisman.

The one thing I will give Oklahoma credit for is scheduling decent non-conference games. They not only routed Big East champion Cincinatti, they also easily defeated a pretty good TCU team. We’ll ignore the fact that they also played Chattanooga and 0-12 Washington because Texas’ out-of-conference slate is a joke. I always deride the SEC and Big 12 for playing cupcakes, but Oklahoma did a decent job. (Seriously, the reason the ACC and the Pac-10 have more losses is because they play solidly good teams outside of their own leagues. Check the Sagarin schedule strengths.)

Ian Johnson and Boise State were successful in their last trip to the Fiesta Bowl, so why is the BCS denying them an encore?

While I’m at it, the BCS screwed up with Boise State. No team should be in a BCS bowl if they already lost to two bowl-bound teams. Yes, Ohio State, I’m talking about you. (And does anyone else realize that this is the third time in the past four years that the Buckeyes have played the Longhorns?) While Boise State-TCU should be a riveting Poinsettia Bowl (jeez, that’s depressing – at least they’re going to San Diego, CA) the Broncos should be playing in the BCS by virtue of their undefeated record. Utah was honored with that distinction, so why make an exception for Boise State. People point to Hawaii’s demolition at the hands of Georgia last year as a sign that out-of-conference teams shouldn’t get a BCS bowl bid, but what about the Broncos’ epic victory in the Fiesta Bowl just two years ago against Oklahoma, who is PLAYING FOR THE FREAKING NATIONAL TITLE! Come on people, let’s remember our history here.

And all of the bowl matchups are generally not compelling this year. Florida will tear up whatever Oklahoma calls “defense”, giving the SEC their third consecutive title and after the Trojans throttle the Granddaddy of them all in the Granddaddy of Them All, people will wonder what could have been.

With that said, go Buckeyes. I don’t want to hear the Longhorns complain when the Sooners lose.

Miracle at the Meadowlands!

So I was getting ready to do a post on the Miracle at the Meadowlands, definitely a unique play in NFL history. But..looks like ESPN totally beat me to it and was able to do research/interview people and stuff. All I had was a youtube clip. Meh.

In honor of the eagles-giants game (and because people are hating on our sportssceneit team’s lack of sports history knowledge), here’s the story behind the miracle at the meadowlands. The Giants are leading the Eagles 17-12 and it looks like they have just wrapped up a win at home following a late Ron Jaworski pick. All the Giants had to do was take a couple of QB knees. Instead, the Giants decided to run a play with a few seconds left (which is standard Madden XBOX protocol, but not so hot for real games). The play is so controversial that some of the players/coaches involved from the giants side still refuse to talk about, more than 20 years after the game. The Eagles (naturally) sent an all-out blitz on the play.

The ball was snapped and the Giants QB, Pisarcik had some trouble handling the ball. He turned to hand the ball off to his running back, but fumbled the exchange. An Eagles DB, none other than the Chiefs’ Herm Edwards, timed his jump perfectly and broke free through the line. The ball hit the turf and Edwards pulled off one of the most clutch scoop and scores in the history of the NFL. Ballin.

Derrick Rose is pretty slick

Derrick Rose had a couple of highlight reel plays yesterday

First check out his move on Andre Miller

Rose with the solid oop on the pass from Ben Gordon

And check out his block of Andre Miller, the top play from yesterday’s game (last highlight)

And that Devin Harris-Jason Kidd trade is looking worse every day. Devin Harris sliced up the suns for a career high 47 points yesterday (and recently macked the Lakers girls)