49ers black out the Steelers, 20-3 on Monday Night Football. Here's all you need to know about this game. The power went out twice - showing just how crappy Candlestick Park is and how desperately the 49ers need a new home. The 49ers defense played extremely well, led by rookie of the year candidate Aldon Smith and his 2 1/2 sacks (and multiple other hurries). Alex Smith managed the 49er offense well enough (given the defense's performance) that his 18/31 for 187 yards (1 pass TD) passing was good enough to win. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger played (head coach Mike Tomlin had the final say and played Ben) with a high ankle sprain and probably shouldn't have. Despite throwing for 330 yards, Big Ben's lack of mobility in the pocket and inability to plant his foot correctly led to most of his passes sailing on him (translation: the passes were often at receivers heads or higher leading to difficult attempts to catch the ball - often ricocheting off of finger tips directly towards defensive players) and ended up resulting in 3 INTs. Roethlisberger's inability to "escape" in the pocket, as usual, also led to a sack/fumble that all add up to 4 turnovers for the 49ers defense and spelled disaster for the Steelers. Going forward if Roethlisberger isn't healthy it doesn't bode well for the Steelers offense as, once again, they were largely ineffective running the ball. The Steelers did play without starting linebacker James Harrison (1 game suspension for tackling too hard), starting center Maurkice Pouncey and one of their receiver weapons, Emmanuel Sanders. Pittsburgh returns to action on Saturday at home against the St. Louis Rams and finishes the season on New Years Day at the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers and 49ers both came into the game with playoff spots already locked up, but were just battling for position and for home games in the playoffs. With the loss the Steelers fall to 10-4 on the season and a tie with the Baltimore Ravens atop the AFC North. Given that the Ravens beat the Steelers twice during the regular season if both teams finish with identical records the Ravens win the division and the Steelers end up as one of the two wild card teams.
Just a personal note: I did predict prior to the season (to many on Facebook) that the Ravens would win the AFC North and the Steelers would wind up with a wild card. Not sure the Ravens will end up in the Super Bowl, but despite the loss to the Chargers (that was ugly) they're still in position to host playoff games and that's the easiest path to the Super Bowl. We'll see what happens come playoff time.
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Clippers beat up on Lakers. In what will inevitably be one of the biggest story-lines of the entire NBA (shortened) season the Clippers took down the Lakers in style, 114-95. Chauncey Billups led the Clippers in scoring with 23 points while Chris Paul chipped in 17 (also 7 rebounds and 9 assists) and Blake Griffin added 12. It's been quite the two weeks for the two franchises as the Lakers thought they had a deal in place to land Chris Paul only to have the league step in and stop the trade for "basketball reasons." Then to have the Hornets turn around and deal Chris Paul to their (same building) "little brother" giving the Clippers quite the one-two punch of Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. After the trade was made many analysts believed that it could significantly shift the balance of power in the LA market, at least as far as who has the better team. There's no doubt it's a "Laker town" but given the star power the Clippers now have maybe more celebrities (outside of Penny Marshall and Jim Belushi) will show up to watch the action. As for the pre-season game itself, it is the first of two pre-season games vs the Lakers (there are only 2 pre-season games, by the way). The next pre-season match-up will be Wednesday night as they'll flip the court and the Clippers will host this time at Staples Center.
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Texas Rangers buy rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. Confused? Basically to get these players from Japanese leagues MLB teams have to first post the highest bid (among whichever MLB teams decide they want to pursue a deal) just to negotiate a deal with the player (and that posting bid money goes to the team the guy played for in Japan). The posting bid for Yu Darvish is said to be close to what the Red Sox posted for Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007 which would mean it's around $51 million just for the bid to gain the right to negotiate with him! On top of that you then have to sign said player for whatever amount which means the total investment in the 25-year-old will end up being around $100 million dollars. So much for the Texas Rangers not being a "big-market club" huh? Either way if this Darvish is as good as advertised he's well worth the money the Rangers will end up spending so we'll see how he adjusts to MLB and playing (and living) in Texas.
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Peja Stojakovic retires after 13 NBA seasons. You may say "who?" but if you've even watched a little NBA basketball, an All-Star game here or there, or the NBA Finals last year you've probably seen Peja Stojakovic, at some point. The amazing thing about Peja is he'll go down as one of the finest shooters in NBA history (ranks 4th all-time in 3-pointers made - granted three's haven't always been around) and I'll bet you I could survey 1000 US sports fans and 50% of them wouldn't know who he is. Stojakovic retires at the age of 34.
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New York Knicks sign Baron Davis. A player many thought the LA Lakers may try to pursue, Baron Davis was waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers last week and also has an injury (herniated disk in his back) that will keep him out at least 4-6 (and possibly as many as 8-10) weeks.
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Arizona Diamondbacks agree with Jason Kubel. Two years, $15 million for the now ex-Twins outfielder. Mutual option for a third year.
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Double Secret Probation
Craig James leaves ESPN to run for US Senate in Texas. If you know anything about who Craig James is you'll be thrilled he's leaving ESPN. For those that don't know he was the one who's son played for Mike Leach at Texas Tech and claimed his son was locked in an equipment locker (good recap here). ESPN, surprisingly, stuck with James through all this time, despite the fact that many of his (and his son's) claims about Leach have been debunked. Interestingly, ESPN stuck by James throughout all of that and instead of backing off of James and his allegations (that he was oddly aloud to articulate on air for ESPN) put then-writer Bruce Feldman on some sort of "double secret probation" and didn't allow him to post any information on the website after he published a book with the then-fired former Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach. Feldman later revealed that he was told he would not received the raise (and 3 year contract extension) he was promised from ESPN and instead they had changed it to one year and no raise (something unheard of at the "worldwide leader" or as Dan Patrick calls it "the mothership."). The ridiculousness of ESPN supporting James throughout all the years, especially over an extremely well-respected writer like Feldman, led to quite the Twitter uprising of #FireCraigJames and #FreeBruce - to no avail. Apparently the only thing that could keep Criag James off the air on ESPN was a shot at being an even bigger doucher than he already is...by running for political office. [Also check out sportsbybrooks.com since he ran big time with this story]
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New York Giants use play from Little Giants. Fun story.
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Arron Afflalo remains with the Denver Nuggets.
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Adrian Peterson claims the Saints are dirty. Maybe the Vikings just suck...just a thought.
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Canadien's new coach doesn't speak French...and apparently that's a problem, eh? The Quebec government isn't pleased that the new INTERIM coach of the Canadiens does not speak French. What are you all talkin' aboot? And once again, Canada shows it has no clue. Why would any player ever want to play for the Canadiens, that isn't French Canadian? I don't see US sports teams forcing players to learn English. So what they're essentially saying is that they believe speaking French is the most important thing, not winning hockey games or having the best players/coaches they can find. Makes sense to me.
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#10 Marquette loses at LSU...in basketball, yes. And Buzz Williams is still goofy looking.
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Davidson upsets #11 Kansas...at Kansas.
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Indiana wins, moves to 11-0. First time at 11-0 for Indiana since the national championship season of 1975-76. Cool story to see Indiana basketball back. In this game they crushed Howard...no surprise there.
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New Top 25 poll. Syracuse remains #1. Big East has four top ten teams.
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Joe Paterno out of the hospital.
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Zach Collaros looking good in Cincinnati bowl preparations.
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Chicago Bears WR Knox has back surgery.
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New England Patriots DE Carter out for season.
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Frank Francisco signs with New York Mets. 2 years $12 million.
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Jimmy Rollins finalizes deal with Philadelphia Phillies. 3 years $33 million.
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Mike Cameron agrees to minor league deal with Washington Nationals.
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Milwaukee Brewers win rights to sign Norichika Aoki. See the Darvish story above but basically the Brewers had to be the highest bidder to the player's Japanese club to gain the negotiating rights and then has to sign the player after winning the bid.
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Cincinnati Reds acquire Mat Latos. The Reds pick up Latos from the San Diego Pardes for Edinson Volquez and 3 others.
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Indiana Pacers ship Brandon Rush to Golden State Warriors. Louis Amundson heads back to the Pacers.
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Washington Wizards re-sign Nick Young to 1-year deal.
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Kemba Walker scores 18 in debut as Charlotte Bobcats beat Atlanta Hawks, 79-77.
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Couple of recent NBA transactions I missed as I didn't post yesterday:
Troy Murphy signs with LA Lakers. One-year at veteran's minimum (which is $1.3 million).
Sacramento Kings claim Travis Outlaw. Claimed off waivers under the new amnesty provision.
Detroit Pistons re-sign Rodney Stuckey. 3-year deal worth $25 million.
Charlotte Bobcats acquire BJ Mullens from Oklahoma City Thunder. For a 2013 second-round draft pick.
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2012 NHL Winter Classic preparations coming along in Philadelphia.
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ESPN's MLB Free Agent Tracker here.
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Marshall plays in the Who Gives a Crap Bowl...actually called the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl. Actually my version may be better. I'll still watch though...if I'm really bored.
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WVU news:
WVU men's basketball beats Tennessee Tech, 72-53. WVU won their 4th straight game and Bob Huggins won his 699th career game. Kevin Jones again led the Mountaineers in scoring with 25 points (14 rebounds). Truck Bryant added 15 and Deniz Kilicli also added 12. Walk-on Paul Williamson continued his strong shooting making the two shots he took in the game (of course three-pointers) and finished with 6 points. The Mountaineers return to action Thursday (Dec. 22nd) in Las Vegas against Missouri State (8:00 pm EST) and follow that up the next day (Fri, Dec. 23rd) in Vegas against top ten ranked Baylor (9:00 pm EST). WVU sits at 8-2 on the season. MetroNews recap here.
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WVU's basketball practice facility tour here.
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Big East's dismissal request of WVU's lawsuit denied.
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Tickets for troops. Want to send some troops to the Orange Bowl? Here's an article about it. If you're interested you can go to WVUGame.com or VetTix.org
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In WVU football recruiting news:
Tavon Rooks visited Morgantown over the weekend and apparently enjoyed his visit. According to this article he will decide Wednesday between WVU and Kansas State.
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Ryan Brodie eliminates WVU from his list. Brodie is one of the offensive linemen that WVU has had in for a visit (Dec. 9th) but apparently it wasn't the place for him. The New Jersey product will choose between UConn, Miami (FL) and Rutgers.
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Eerinsider.com's recruiting info from Saturday. Click here to read. Most of this I've already told you, but if you missed something have at it.
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Let's Go Mountaineers!!
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