The NFL just wrapped up Week 14; so let’s take a look and see how our picks did. Schaumburg Stu won the week with a record of 13-3. Dan the Man was 2nd at 11-5 with Mr. Fantasy 3rd at 10-6. That of course means I ended up at the bottom with a 9-7 record. Schaumburg Stu has the overall lead with a record of 136-72. We’re running out of weeks to catch Schaumburg Stu, but Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy now tied for 2nd with an overall record of 128-80. Again I am in the cellar with a record of 119-87. My picks where so bad that my cat went to the bathroom on the notebook page I wrote them down on. With 3 weeks left is there any chance I can get out of last place?
Now last Monday night the NFL match up featured the Baltimore Ravens at the New England Patriots. Now there was a lot of talk about how the #1 rated Baltimore defense would go into New England and shutdown Tom Brady. As we know that didn’t happen. The patriots got out to a 16-0 lead before the Ravens managed a field goal. New England stretched the lead to 23-3 before Baltimore started to make a comeback. Baltimore scored the next 17 points to cut the New England lead to just 23-20. It took Brady and the Patriots just play to make the lead 10 points again as he connected with Chris Hogan on a 79 yard touchdown pass to make it a 30-20 game. Baltimore was able to hit a field goal to make it 30-23, but after Justin Tucker’s onside kick attempt failed the Patriots where able to run out the clock and get the win.
Against the #1 defense Brady was 25 of 38 for 406 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brady was sacked 1 time for -5 yards and also threw an interception. Brady had a quarterback rating of 85.6 in the game and averaged 10.7 yards a pass attempt. The final touchdown pass of the night Brady threw was the 450th of his career. The win was also the 202nd of Brady’s career.
The Patriots improved to 11-2 with the win and are currently on a 4 game winning streak. They have a 3 game lead in the AFC East over the Miami Dolphins. The loss puts the Ravens at 7-6 and knocks then into 2nd place in the AFC North. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the AFC North leaders at 8-5. Baltimore won the first meeting between the two teams on November 6th; so they currently have the tiebreaker. Baltimore travels to Pittsburgh in Week 16 for the second game between these two teams that will probably decide who wins the division.
After losing to the Patriots on Monday night the Ravens decided on Tuesday to release kick returner Devin Hester. Hester’s indecision on a punt early in Monday’s game led to the Ravens giving up a safety. Hester was having a good year returning kickoffs averaging 24.5 yards a return, but has struggled on punt returns where he’s averaging just 7.2 yards a return. Hester is 34 years old and if this is his last game in the NFL you have to ask; is he a Hall of Fame player? Hester is one of if the best return man in the history of the NFL. In his career Hester has 295 kickoff returns averaging 24.9 yards per return and he returned 5 kickoffs for touchdowns. Hester has returned 315 punts in his career averaging 11.7 yards per return and a NFL record 14 punts returned for touchdowns. In 2006 Hester returned the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl for a touchdown. Hester made 4 pro Bowls and was voted First-Team All Pro 3 times in his 11 year career. Hester never really blossomed as a receiver, but he does have 255 career receptions and 16 touchdowns. Hester also has 1 career rushing touchdown. There isn’t a full time returner in the Hall of Fame, but has there ever been a return man who was the type of weapon Hester was? If you had a Hall of Fame vote would you vote for Devin Hester?
On Monday the Los Angeles Dodgers where able to bring there closer Kenley Jansen back with a 5 year $80 million dollar deal. Now it’s being reported that the Dodgers other big free agent 3rd baseman Justin Turner will also be returning to Los Angeles on a 4 year $64 million dollar deal.
It’s being reported that Jansen was offered more money by the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins, but took less money to stay with the Dodgers. Jansen has spent his entire 7 year career with the Dodgers and last season became their all time leader in saves. Jansen currently has 189 career saves.
Turner was considered a utility guy until he took over at 3rd base for the Dodgers in 2015. Before locking down the 3rd base job Turner had spent time at 1st base, 2nd base, shortstop and even played some leftfield. Turner had career highs in home runs with 27 and also in RBI’s with 90 last season. Turner also finished 9th in MVP voting last season.
The NBA is going to use the D-League to test four and five person refereeing crews instead of the customary three in an effort to collect data and see if having additional officials involved affects the game. The first game with the extra referees will be December 26th and that will be the first of 9 games to feature extra officials. This isn’t the first time the D-League has been a laboratory of sorts for the NBA. The D-League has been a testing ground in the past for possible rules changes, along with changes in technology and equipment. This season, some of the innovations being brought to the D-League include a coach’s challenge, a reset timeout and a 3-minute overtime period. The experimental crews will have three different configurations. There’s a four-person crew with two officials in lead spots, and two others split between slot and trail positions. Another four-person test will have two officials in the slot, with the others in the trail and lead. And the five-person crew will feature the existing three person system, but with two other officials in stationary lead positions on opposite ends of the court. The NBA went from two-person crews to three-person crews for the 1988-89 season. There’s been talk of larger crews for years, and a four person crew was studied during summer league play at Salt Lake City back in July.
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