Sports Chowdah Update for October 30, 2011- 11th Title in the Cards for St. Louis; If You Sell It, They Will Come? Pats Get Steel Toed Boot

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

WORLD SERIES: It seemed to have that air of inevitability around it almost as soon as David Freese's bat made contact with the ball in the bottom of the 9th of Game 6 with 2 outs and a 1-2 count.

Despite Texas getting out to the early 2-0 lead in the top of the first, the Cardinals- unsurprisingly and inevitably- came back to tie the game up in the bottom half of the 1st frame on a 2 out, 2 RBI double from none other than David Freese.

Cards outfielder Allen Craig put St Louis up for good with a solo homer in the bottom of the 3rd. In the 5th, the Cardinals would get some insurance when catcher Yadier Molina drew a 2 out bases-loaded walk, followed up by Rafael Furcal getting hit by a pitch with the bags STILL loaded to make it a 5-2 game.

Although Texas would get the occasional leadoff runner on, the 2 runs they got in the first inning would be it, and Molina would get another RBI- this time in the form of a single that plated Berkman- to put St Louis up by 6-2. Jason Motte, who put the 2 Rangers baserunners on in Game 2 that ultimately cost St Louis the game, came on for a one two three top of the 9th to seal the Cards 6-2 win and the World Series.

Chris Carpenter went 6 complete innings for the win for St Louis while Matt Harrison was hung with the loss for the Rangers. Molina went 2-3 with 2 RBIs for the Cards while local hero David Freese went 1-2 wirh 2 RBIs and 2 walks. Thanks in large part to his role in both Game 6 and Game 7, Freese was named the 2011 World Series MVP.

Game 6 was such a difficult act to follow- even though I knew better, I was a little disappointed that Game 7 didn't end in a similar manner. I remember the last time the Cards were in the World Series (2006), all the East Coast sports figures and yammering heads on ESPN were bemoaning that it would be an all-Midwest World Series, thus boring.

Unfortunately Detroit proved them correct by basically air-mailing a bunch of pivotal innings away. I haven't been watching or listening to alot of the 'personalities' on ESPN, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were saying the exact same things five years later.

As a Red Sox fan, I'm not particularly passionate about either one of the teams in the 2011 World Series [lest anybody forget, Red Sox Nation had their day against St. Louis 7 years ago- NANESB!] but the quality of the games was something to behold- well, most of the games at least.

It seemed as though I found myself asking 'What can they do to one-up this?' every time I was watching or listening. Even in the one true blowout, viewers got to see Albert Pujols put himself in some very distinct company. Texas kept themselves in it with some small ball in Game 2 and a heroic outing by Derek Holland in Game 4 as well as Napoli's bat in Game 5.

But all that was left in the dust once Game 6 wrapped up.

Congratulations to the 2011 World Series Champion St Louis Cardinals and congratulations to both teams for treating us to some very exciting October baseball.

OTHER BASEBALL NEWS: The family farm complete with a baseball diamond hewn from a cornfield in Dyersville, IA that was used for filming the 1989 film Field of Dreams will be sold.

The land, which has been in the Lansing family since 1906, had been on the market since May 2010 with an asking price of $5.4 million. The parcel includes the baseball diamond, a two bedroom farmhouse, a half dozen other buildings and 193 acres- primarily cornfields.

The Lansing family said they were committed to finding a purchaser that would maintain the legacy of the site. Although the exact amount wasn't disclosed, the northeastern Iowa farm and baseball diamond will be sold to Go the Distance Baseball LLC, operated by Mike and Denise Stillman.

The property is about 20 miles west of Dubuque, IA and has been open to visitors during the summer months for the past 20 years.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

NFL: Damn- is it too late for me to blame the porn starlet that Gronkowski (allegedly) hooked up with?

I can't even say New England came out of the bye week looking rusty, because it was hard to make an informed statement on how the looked with Pittsburgh dominating time of possession. The Steeler had the ball for just under 40 minutes while New England had possession for just over 20- not really a winning formula.

Even with that disparity in time of possession, the Patriots headed to the locker room at halftime trailing by 17-10 thanks to a 46 yard Gostowski FG with 29 seconds remaining in the half.

While the Pats would keep Pittsburgh out of the end zone for the 2nd half, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger would manage to move the ball fairly effectively while eating up the clock and the Steelers were still able to come away with FGs on two trips inside the red zone.

After being stymied for much of the game, Brady would drive New England down to the Pittsburgh red zone where he would connect with Rob Gronkowski, where no doubt driven to distraction thanks to his tryst with Bibi Jones [just kidding...jeez], he was stopped just shy of the goal line. Now while he had possession of the ball and both feet appeared to be in the end zone, Gronkowski was ruled down inside the 1 yard line with 4:15 to go in regulation.

With all three time outs remaining, instead of throwing out the challenge flag, Belichick decided to punch it in from there on 3rd and 1. Kevin Faulk was knocked back for no gain, and while New England got a fresh set of downs on 4th and 1 after a Pittsburgh holding penalty, precious time was burning off the clock. Although Brady would complete a pass to Aaron Hernandez in the end zone, there was all of 2:38 remaining on the clock.

Even if The Patriots had demonstrated an ability to hold Roethlisberger and the Steeler offense to a 3 & out, that rosy scenario STILL would've left the Patriots with precious little time. Also worth noting that the last time the Patriots had a successful onside kick was 1994- and after today, the last time the Patriots had a successful onside kick was....1994.

As it turns out, the Steelers got a first down, bleeding off precious seconds from the clock and forcing New England to use up their time outs. New England did manage to sack Roethlisberger twice before the Steelers had to punt from mid-field, but that was a day late and a dollar short.

The Patriots got the ball back on their own 22 with all of 8 seconds left in regulation, only to have Steelers DE Brett Keisel strip the ball from Tom Brady and batted into the end zone by shaggy Safety Troy Polamalu for the safety.

Pittsburgh wins this one by a 25-17 final. Brady went 24-35 with 198 yards and two TDs while Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger would go 36-50 with 365 yards with 2 TDs and an interception. New England's offense was held to just 213 yards altogether on the day.

This sets up a showdown with the NFC east leading New York Giants next week at Foxborough. The Giants are coming off come-from-behind victory against the winless Miami Dolphins at the Meadowlands on Sunday.

NBA: With no deal in sight between the player's association and the owners, the league has cancelled two more weeks worth of regular season games, leaving most of November with no scheduled regular season NBA contests.

NHL: OK....so a couple of weeks in and its becoming apparent that the Bruins need to come up with something else aside from pointing out that they won the Stanley Cup and hoping their opponents are sufficiently dazzled.

So far, the Canadiens have shown themselves to be underwhelmed. Saturday night was the away half of a home-and-away series against Montreal. Les Habs got off the the quick start in the 1st with goals from Brian Gionta and Lars Eller for the early 2-0 lead. Dave Desharnais would make it a 3-0 lead in the 2nd period on a power play goal before the Bruins got on the board thanks to a Milan Lucic tally.

About 55 seconds into the 3rd period, Boston would make it a 1-goa game thanks to an even strength Tyler Seguin goal, but late in the 3rd, when the Bruins pulled Rask for the extra attacker, Tomas Plekanec managed to get the empty-netter for the 4-2 win.

The Bruins will head back to the TD Banknorth Garden on Tuesday to take on the scalding-hot Ottawa Senators, who have won their last 6 consecutive games. Puck drops at 7PM ET.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Understandably lost in a couple of great games Saturday night was the fact that the struggling BC Eagles had managed to notch their first win against a non FCS team this season- not only that, but an ACC opponent!

The Eagles came into a snowy College Park, MD to take on a marginally better Maryland Terrapins. Eagles RB Rolandan Finch drew first blood as Boston College managed to score on their opening drive to take the early 7-0 lead.

The Terps would reply with a FG to get on the board just inside the 10 minute mark. Boston College would take a 21-3 lead to halftime, and although the Terps would get on the board once again in the second half, it would turn out to be not nearly enough.

Boston College goes on to win by a 28-17 final and Finch gets 39 carries for 243 yards and 2 TDs in his productive afternoon. The Eagles are getting ready to host the Florida State Seminoles on Thursday night at 8 PM.

BIG EAST: Earlier this week, in leiu of being treated to World Series Game in St Louis, those of you inclinced to watch some college football were treated to the UConn Huskies getting stomped by Pitt by a 35-20 final after getting picked apart by Junior QB Tino Sunseri. UConn was held to a field goal for the first half, trailing 21-3 at halftime. The Huskies did manage a couple of big plays in the 2nd half, but it wasn't nearly enough.

OTHER BIG EAST NEWS: West Virginia made it official this weekend that they would be leaving the Big East conference for the Big 12, likely replacing the Missouri Tigers who are finalizing plans to join the SEC.

Like Syracuse and Pittsburgh (who announced their plans to join the ACC), Big East plans on retaining the Mountaineers until 2014.

Joe Mahoney/ Richmond Times-Dispatch

COLONIAL: UMass rebounded from their loss at Foxbourough's Colonial Clash versus New Hampshire last week with a very convincing win over the Richmond Spiders in the Old Dominion State by a 28-7 final. Three of those TDs against Richmond came in the 1st quarter and three out of the 4 were from RB Jonathan Hernandez, who had 3 of the UMass TD's on the day and 103 rushing yards.

The Minutemen will next play host to Villanova this coming Saturday.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: In case you missed it, some of the late games Saturday night actually lived up to the hype.

Granted it wasn't as time expired like last week against Michigan State, but the Wisconsin Badgers had their hearts ripped out for the second week in a row with less than a minute left on the clock. Trailing 14-26 late in the 4th quarter, the Badgers came back to score two TD's and take a 26-29 lead on a successful two point conversion.

The Buckeyes had gotten the ball as far as mid-field when Ohio State QB Braxton miller heaved a 40 yard pass with 43 seconds left in regulation. The pass looked a little wobbly, but somehow managed to find freshman Ohio State WR Devin Smith in the end zone for the TD and the 32-29 lead with less than 45 seconds to go.

That would be the final, as the Badgers couldn't score with their final possession.

Meanwhile, out west, the Stanford Cardinals needed triple OT to get past the USC Trojans. Stanford had already scored and successfully pulled off the 2 point conversion in their half the the third OT when USC got the ball back. However, on the Trojan's first possession, RB Curtis MacNeal fumbled and Stanford recovered, giving them the 56-48 win.

Weekend Sports Chowdah Updat- 8 is Enough? Celtics Buck Trend; BC, UConn Football 2011 Schedule Released

NHL: Like it or not, all good things must come to an end. And although they wouldn't come away from Saturday night's game empty-handed, the Bruins 7-game win streak has come to a close against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After a scoreless 1st period, Zdeno Chara would get the scoring underway 7 and a half minutes into the 2nd period, beating Marc-Andre Fleury to put Boston up 1-0. However, the Penguins would come right back with a pair of goals a minute and ten seconds apart to put Pittsburgh up 2-1. David Krejci would get the equalizer with 33 seconds remaining in regulation after the Bruins pulled Thomas for an extra attacker.

However, the Pens would capitalize on a Dennis Seidenberg turnover and C Dustin Jeffery got the game winning tally 1:52 into OT for the win. Boston gets the one point for forcing OT, so their point streak continues through at least 8 games, but that's the end of their impressive 7 game win streak.

Tim Thomas stopped 36 of 39 shots while Pittsbugh's Marc Andre Fleury turned aside 29 of 31 shots faced on the night.

Boston's next game will be a rematch of last month's feisty, high scoring affair versus Montreal. This will take place at Montreal on Tuesday night, 7:30 PM ET on NESN. The Canadiens are riding a 4-game win streak coming into the Tuesday night game, having downed Tampa Bay by a 4-2 final on Saturday.
NBA: After a 107-103 win against the Golden State Warriors at the Garden on Friday night, the C's embarked on a quick 1-game road trip to Milwaukee for a Sunday night game televised on ESPN.

Although trailing at the half 43-49 (including being held to only 16 points in the 2nd quarter), the C's would come back and outscore the Bucks 46-34 in the second half to win by the final of 89-83. Paul Pierce led the scoring with 23 points as well as 5 rebounds while Kevin Garnett had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

The C's next game will be at home against the LA Clippers on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM ET on Comcast New England.

OTHER CELTICS NEWS: Interestingly, only 9 players were in uniform for Boston on Sunday night [same w/Milwaukee, but this isn't Not Another Milwaukee Sports Blog- NANESB!]. According to head coach Doc Rivers, Delonte West is likely to return in time for Wednesday's game against the Clippers, but Shaquille O'Neal's return is unlikely.

MLB: While the Red Sox were vicorious in their Friday night spring training game against the NY Yankees, the Red Sox haven't won a game since, falling to the Florida Marlings by an 11-2 margin and reaching a 4-4 deadlock with the Orioles in split squad action on Saturday and losing to the Mets 5-6 on Sunday.

John Lackey will get the start at City of Palms park against Baltimore (or should I say half the Orioles, since they will be doing the split-squad thing) on Monday afternoon at 1:05 PM ET.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The 2011 football schedules for both Boston College and UConn were released towards the end of February. While the dates have pretty much been settled, the game times for the overwhelming majority remain up in the air.

The Boston College football schedule is as follows:

09/03/11 vs. Northwestern Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
09/10/11 at UCF Orlando, Fla. TBA
09/17/11 vs. Duke Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
09/24/11 vs. Massachusetts Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
10/01/11 vs. Wake Forest Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
10/08/11 at Clemson Clemson, S.C. TBA
10/22/11 at Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Va. TBA
10/29/11 at Maryland College Park, Md. TBA
11/03/11 vs. Florida State Chestnut Hill, Mass. 8:00 p.m. ET
11/12/11 vs. North Carolina State Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
11/19/11 at Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind. TBA
11/26/11 at Miami Miami Gardens, Fla. TBA

The UConn football schedule is as follows:

09/01/11 vs. Fordham Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
09/10/11 at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville, Tenn. TBA
09/16/11 vs. Iowa State Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. 8:00 p.m. ET
09/24/11 at Buffalo UB Stadium, Buffalo, N.Y. TBA
10/01/11 vs. Western Michigan Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
10/08/11 at West Virginia Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, WVa. TBA
10/15/11 vs. USF Rentscler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
10/26/11 at Pittsburgh Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Pa. 8:00 p.m. ET
11/05/11 vs. Syracuse Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
11/19/11 vs. Louisville Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
11/26/11 vs. Rutgers Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
12/03/11 at Cincinnati Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio TBA

Most Fowl Sports Chowdah Update- Ducks Covered; Seahawks Win in Seismic Upset; Eagles Lay an Egg; Penguins Sink Late

AP Photo

NCAA FOOTBALL: The BCS Championship game got underway at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ on Monday night with two undefeateds- #1 Auburn and #2 Oregon- going head to head. The Oregon Ducks had a 12-0 record for the regular season while the Tigers went 13-0 (they played South Carolina in the SEC Championship game last month whereas the Pac 10 has no Championship game)

After opening the game with offensive drives for each side ending in a turnover or simply sputtering out mid-filed, the first quarter went by with neither team scoring- although Oregon was inside the red zone and would have to settle for a FG to start off the 2nd period.

Auburn would take the lead on their next drive, when Heisman winner Cam Newton connected with WR Kodi Burns for a 35 yard TD play to make it a 7-3 game.

Oregon came right back when Ducks QB Darron Thomas connected with WR Jeff Maehl for an 81 yard yard gain to set Oregon up at the Auburn 12. Thomas then connected with RB LaMicheal James for an 8 yard TD run on 3rd and 6 and successfully completed a 2 point conversion to take an 11-7 lead.

Later on in the 2nd, Auburn would manage to pin the Ducks deep in their own territory after a kickoff, which led to LaMicheal James being tackled in his own end zone for a safety, cutting the Auburn deficit to 11-9. With less than two minutes to go until halftime, the Tigers would then go on to take the lead on a 30 yard completion to WR Emory Blake to make it a 16-11 Auburn lead.

Surprisingly, the only scoring in the 3rd quarter was a 28 yard Wes Byrum FG to extend Auburn's lead to 19-11. While Auburn seemingly dominated time of possession in the 2nd half, Oregon was able to put together a quick drive of just over 2 minutes (after getting good field position recovering an Auburn fumble) and score a TD on 2 yard play LaMichael James while Maehl managed to bring in the pass on the 2 point attempt to tie the game up at 19-19.

The game looked like it was heading for OT when Auburn got the ball back, but freshman Micheal Dyer turned what looked like a short pickup into a 37 yard gain after being tackled by an Oregon defender- but without his knees or elbows hitting the ground. The play happened right in front of the Tiger's bench and his teammates exhorted him to keep running. The play wasn't blown dead until after Dyer's scramble and a video review showed that he was not down by contact after the first hit. From the Oregon 17, Dyer got the ball again and rumbled down to the Oregon 1 yard line (the play was initially ruled a TD before a review showed him down at the 1) with 16 seconds left.

After an attempted rush by Cam Newton, the Tigers decided to play it safe and brought in Wes Byrum for a FG attempt from the 19 yard line with only 2 seconds left in regulation. Byrum's kick was good and the Auburn Tigers win the BCS championship on the final play of the game for a 22-19 final. This was a surprisingly low-scoring game given how potent both offenses were in the regular season.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: 'Now Fenway' I'm sure you're saying 'Enough about this silly BCS Championship game- what about the REAL important Bowl games? Like the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl?'

Actually, the Sunday Night Bowl game at San Francisco's AT&T Park would mark the first time the BC Eagles played a ranked opponent since week 6 when they went up against #16 Florida State......and lost by a 24-19 final.

Things got off to a pretty good start for the Eagles after they managed to stop the Wolfpack drive mid-field. Although they went 3 and out for their first offensive possession, they managed to force a fumble from Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick, which Eagle's RB Andre Williams ran back 30 yards for a TD to give the Eagles the early 7-0 lead.

However, Nevada would get the equalizer on the next posession and take a 14-7 lead on a 72 yard punt return with three minutes to go in the first. The only scoring in the 2nd quarter was a 32 yard Andy Martinez FG to put Nevada up 17-7 heading into halftime.

The second half would turn out to be nothing but duelling FG's, with BC's defense successfully keeping the Wolfpack out of the end zone, but their own offense really unable to get it going. This included another Wolfpack interception- this time BC Linebacker Luke Kuechly returned 31 yards to the Nevada 6 yard line. However, Boston College was unable to find the end zone from there and had to settle for a FG to make it 17-10.

Nevada would get another FG from Martinez to extended their lead to 20-10. With 5 minutes left in regulation, BC would get the ball back on their own 34 yard line and march down the Nevada 18 before attempting another FG to make it a 13-20. After forcing the Wolfpack to go 3 and out on the next possession, Eagles QB Chase Rettig would be picked off at mid-field to put the game away for Nevada.

The Wolfpack win by the final of 20-13, and Boston College's defense did well just to keep it a one-score game for most of the second half. In all honesty, the only time I was optimistic about BC getting points on the board was when Nevada had the ball.

The loss marks Boston College's 3rd straight bowl loss (and 2nd straight in San Francisco).

OTHER NCAA FINALS:
Jan 6th- GoDaddy.com Bowl:
Middle Tennessee 21- Miami (Ohio) 35

Jan 7th- Cotton Bowl:
LSU 41- Texas A&M 24

Jan 8th- BBVA Compass Bowl:
Pittsburgh 27- Kentucky 10

NFL: Boy- that Micheal Vick really screwed the pooch, huh? I bet that last pass will dog him all offseason!

Wild card weekend was marked by a slate of games that actually turned out to be pretty good, the last of which featured the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Green Bay Packers.

Remember how well the Packers played New England without Aaron Rodgers? It should probably come as no surprise that they got out to the early lead at Lincoln Financial Field and held on to that for most of the game- taking a 21-20 lead into the 4th quarter. However, Micheal Vick was able to rally the Eagles offense and made it a 16-21 game with just over 4 minutes to go in the game. Aaron Rodgers was sacked on 3rd down during the next Green Bay possession, forcing the Pack to punt.

Eagles QB Micheal Vick then marched the Eagles down as far as the Packers 27 yard line before he threw the game and season-ending interception to seal the game by a final of 21-16.



ELSEWHERE ON WILD CARD WEEKEND: As surprising as the Philly's early exit from the postseason may be, the biggest stunner of the weekend came early.

In a literally seismic upset, the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks defeated the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints on Saturday afternoon at the Emerald City's notoriously loud Qwest Field. The Seahawks headed into the 4th quarter with a 14 point lead, but the Saints almost immediately started eating into it with a Juluis Jones TD pass to make it a 27-34 game. New Orleans' Garrett Hartley would then boot a FG on the Saints next possession to narrow the deficit to 34-30 with the Seahawks still clinging to the lead.

With 4 minutes 20 seconds to go in regulation and both offenses seemingly running out of momentum, the Seahawks would've been satisfied just to keep the drive going long enough to bleed out the clock. Of course, Buffalo Bills cast-aside Marshawn Lynch finding a hole and rushing 67 yards for a Seahawks TD doesn't hurt, either. That made it a 41-30 game, giving the Seahawks insurance for when the Saints came right back and scored a TD 36-41 (the 2 point attempt failed). However, the Seahawks would recover the onside kick and the Hawks took a knee, ending the defending Super Bowl champions bid to repeat one game in.

Many observers also noted that Saturday's game at Qwest field was likely Matt Hasselbeck's last home game as the Seahawks QB. Hasselbeck went 22-35, with 272 yards, 4 TDs and a lone interception on Saturday.

AFC: Well now....looks like it's going to be a pair of divisional rematches on the AFC side.

On Saturday night, the defending AFC champions were bounced out of the playoffs early at their home field by the New York Jets. Trailing the Colts 10-7 heading into the 4th, the Jets took the lead on a short LaDanian Thomlinson TD run to go on top 14-10. Indy would take a one point lead thanks to two Adam Vinatieri FG's (one from the 32 and 50 yard line), making it a 16-14 game.

However, the Jets had a kicking game left that compensated for what it lacked in distance with timing. Impeccable timing at that. Jets kicker Nick Folk nailed a 32 point FG as time expired for a 17-14 Jets win, meaning the Jets will travel to Foxboro to take on a well-rested Patriots next weekend.

The Baltimore/Kansas City game was kind of a one-sided beatdown, with the Ravens coming away from that one with a 30-7 win over the Chiefs.

So this upcoming slate of NFL games will look something like this:

Saturday- 1/15:
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh, 4:30 PM ET/1:30PT
Green Bay @ Atlanta, 8PM ET/5PT

Sunday- 1/16:
Seattle @ Chicago, 1PM ET/ 10 AM PT
Ny Jets @ New England, 4:30 PM ET/ 1:30 PT

NHL: Ever get that feeling of Deja Vu? Like when the Pittsburgh Penguins take a seemingly insurmountable lead against Boston into the 3rd period and manage to choke that away? I've been known to get that feeling once in awhile myself.

Last night was no different when the B's fell into the 2-0 hole in the 2nd after Tukka Rask gave up goals from Micheal Rupp and Kris Letang.

But while others were watching the BCS game on Monday night (namely me) the Bruins mounted a furious comeback in which they scored 4 unanswered goals in the 3rd period- a power play goal from Zdeno Chara, followe 12 seconds later by the game-tying goal from Brad Marchand. The tie-breaker came with just over a minute left in regulation- a power play goal off the stick of Mark Recchi and Greg Campbell added some insurance with an empty netter as the final 10 seconds of regulation were ticking away.

Monday night's win snaps a 2-game losing streak in which the B's lost to Minnesota on Thrusday and at Montreal in OT over the weekend.

The Bruins will next take on the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at the Garden and will face the Flyers on Thursday evening.

NBA: No come from behind win for the C's on Monday night as they lost to the Houston Rockets by a 108-102 final on Monday Night. This is their 2nd loss in a row after a weekend 79-90 loss to the Chicago Bulls. The C's next game will be on Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings and will head into the weekend with a home game against the Charlotte Bobcats.

MLB: The Red Sox and Hideki Okajima have agreed to a one year $1.75 contract, returning to Boston for a fifth straight season. Although he struggled for much of the 2010 season, Oki had a 1.30 ERA in 13 innings of work in his final 15 appearences.

Turkey Sports Chowdah Recap- BC End Regular Season w/Orange Crush; Huskies BCS Bound? Pats Lion Down on the Job; B's Thrashed; Land that Shaq Forgot

NCAA FOOTBALL: Holy crap, where to start?

Boston College finished up its regular season with a road trip to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY to renew their rivalry with the Syracuse Orangemen. This would be the first meeting between the Orangemen and Eagles football since Boston College left the Big East in 2004. And BC would have to get it done without RB Montel Harris, who underwent surgery on his left knee after last week's game against Virginia.

Stepping in to fill the void was freshman tailback Andre Williams, who's increased playing time saw him net 185 yards on 42 carries and BC's only TD on the day. The Eagles carried a 6-0 shutout into halftime thanks to two Nate Freese FG's from inside the 30 yard line before Syracuse briefly took a 7-6 lead in the 3rd quarter.

BC would go on to take the lead for good on the following possession which started from their own 22 and culminated with Williams TD run from inside the Syracuse red zone after shaving 4 and a half minutes off the game clock. Freese would add a FG to round out the Eagles scoring and LB Matt Herzlich intercepted Ryan Nassib's pass on the following Syracuse possession with 1:28 remaining to ice BC's 16-7 win over the Orangemen.

Both Boston College and Syracuse finish the 2010 regular season with identical 7-5 records, with the Eagles winning their last five straight- including four against ACC opponents. Saturday was a fairly quiet day for Eagles QB Chase Rettig, going 11-19 with 110 yards and rushing for 13 more.

It was looking pretty bad with all of BC's losses coming in 5 consecutive weeks, but the Eagles were able to persevere and finish strong, and hopefully this will be rewarded with an invitation to their 11th straight bowl game.

ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC: The University of Miami fired head football coach Randy Shannon after the Hurricane's 23-20 OT loss to the University of South Florida. The Hurricanes had lost two straight and like BC and Syracuse, finished with a record of 7-5.

*The ACC Championship game will kick off at 7:45 PM Saturday night at Charlotte, NC. #21 Ranked Florida State will take on #15 Virginia Tech for the conference title and a BCS berth.

BIG EAST: My my....the plot thickens in the Nutmeg state.

With a 7-4 record after easily handling defending Big East Champions Cincinnati on Saturday night, the UConn Huskies may be heading to a BCS bowl with at least a share of the Big East title.

Although it got as close as 24-17 at one point in the 4th, the Huskies led the whole night in their 38-17 win over the Bearcats. RB Jordan Todman had 31 carries for 175 yards and 3TDs while Huskies QB Zach Frazier went 11-24 with 121 yards, a touchdown and an INT and DT Kendall Reyes ran back a Zach Collaros interception 70+ yards (it was initially run back all the way, but a blocking penalty nullified the TD and gave UConn the ball on the Bearcats 15).

Now here's where it gets a little strange- although #23 West Virginia thrashed the Pitt Panthers by a 35-10 final and have a better record than UConn at the moment, UConn holds the tiebreaker over both Pitt and #23 West Virginia. Whether or not UConn can get at least a share of the Big East's BCS berth will come down to whether or not they can win their remaining regular season game, a road game against the 7-4 South Florida Bulls (keep in mind USF just came off a win against Miami (FL) in OT on Saturday).

Kickoff will be at 8PM ET at Tampa on Saturday night.

OTHER BIG EAST NEWS: The Texas Christian board of directors announced that they have accepted an invitation that will send the Horned Frogs to the Big East conference effective July 1, 2012. TCU had been with the Mountain West conference since the 2005 season.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Huge upset in Reno, NV where the #19 Ranked Nevada Wolfpack bested the #3 ranked Boise State Broncos in overtime on Friday night, handing the Broncos their first loss since the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl. After taking a 24-7 lead into halftime, it appeared as though the Broncos were just toying with Nevada, seemingly able to put the game out of reach at any given moment.

While Nevada was able to come back and tie up the game at 24-24 in the 4th quarter, the Broncos pulled ahead on a Kellen Moore pass to Doug Martin for 79 yards that put Boise State up 31-24 with just over 5 minutes to go.

Nevada would respond with a 4 and a half minute drive from their own 21 and managed to tie the game at 31-31 with 17 seconds left in regulation. Incredibly, with only 9 seconds left in regulation and starting out on their own 38, Broncos QB Kellen Moore made a 53 yard completion to WR Titus Young setting up a go-ahead 26 yard Field Goal attempt by Kyle Brotzman with 2 seconds left in the 4th.

Inexplicably, Brotzman's kick missed, sending the game to OT, where one would assume he'd have the chance to redeem himself. However, with Boise getting the 1st possession of OT, he would end up missing from the 29 yard line as well while Nevada's Anthony Martinez would boot the game winning FG on the Wolfpack's only possession in OT.

The 34-31 OT win puts the Wolfpack at #17 in the BCS standings and drops Boise state to #11.

NFL: For the first time since 2002, the New England Patriots wound up playing on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.

The Patriots actually headed into halftime in this one trailing 17-10 and would actually go on to trail 24-17 in the 3rd before Brady connected with Deion Branch for 79 yards and a TD to tie everything up at 24-24.

The 4th quarter was all New England, though, with Brady connecting with Wes Welker and Branch (again) for a pair of TDs and Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis rushing for one inside the Lions 5 to put the game away and give the Pats a 45-24 win.

Branch had 3 receptions for 119 yards and two TDs while Welker had 8 catches for 90 yards and two TDs of his own. As far as the running game was concerned, the law offices of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 12 carries for 59 yards and 2 TDs and Brady went 21-27 for 341 yards and 4 TD passes.

On the defensive side of the ball, CB Devin McCourty had two INTs and the kicking game was perfect with Shayne Graham making his only field goal attempt to the day,

This is starting to feel a little like a bye week, with the Pats having played 3 days before most of the other teams and having until Monday, December 6 for their next game. The Pats will host the Jets at Foxboro for their final Monday Night football appearance of the 2010 season. Interestingly, the Jets also played on Thanksgiving, easily dispatching the Cincinnati Bengals by a 26-10 margin for the late game on Thanksgiving.

NBA: The Celtics managed to bounce back from a narrow loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, this time manging to down the Raptors 110-101 on a busy night from 'old timers' Kevin Garnett (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Shaquille O'Neal (16 points) for their third win in a row.

Their next game will be against the Cavs at Cleveland on Tuesday night.

OTHER CELITCS NEWS: D'OH!

You may not be the only one thrown off by the C's light schedule over the weekend. None other than Shaquille O'Neal missed a scheduled practice on Monday after forgetting the start time. Glen Davis took his spot among the starting players though.

NHL: The Bruins have managed to lose two in a row and three out of four to Southeast Division opponents. After getting shut out at home 3-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Bruins travelled to Atlanta Sunday where they were downed 4-1 by the home team. Tukka Rask stopped 22 of 26 shots faced and Blake Wheeler had the only goal for Boston (with assists from Ryder and Lucic) midway through the 2nd period.

For their next game, the Bruins will be travelling to Philly to take on the 15-6-4 Flyers on Wednesday night.

MLB: Victor Martinez and the Detroit Tigers have reached a 4 year $50 million deal- pending a physical- while the Red Sox declined salary arbitration with Jason Varitek. The Red Sox are likely interested in retaining Tek's services, hoping he could mentor Jarrod Saltalamacchia who was picked up from the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline in 2010. By not offering salary arbitration to the veteran catcher, the Sox are likely attempting to retain his services under reworked contract.

Pre Holiday Sports Chowdah- Peyton's Misplaced; Recchi-ng Ball Hits NHL Milestone; BC, UConn Can Go Bowling; C's Oversee Net Losses

NFL: Wow....I've been meaning to get caught up on this for awhile now.

So...did any of you see that Colts/Pats game on Sunday? And with less than a minute to go in the 4th, Peyton Manning was all 'I think I'll put us in position for the game tying field goal or even get a game winning TD' and James Sanders was like all 'Nuh-uh!' and 'Yoink!' when he intercepted Manning's 1st and 10 pass attempt at the Pats 6 yard line?

Yeah- that was pretty awesome.

You know what else was awesome? When Danny Woodhead scrambled for that 36 yard TD run to make it a 28-14 New England lead towards the end of the third quarter. Seriously, thank you Jets for giving up on the diminutive RB and cutting him loose at the start of the season.

Anywhoo, granted that this is old news, but I thought worth re-visiting by virtue of the outcome. The Pats led by as much as 21-7 until the closing seconds of the first half and 31-14 early in the 4th quarter. However, New England would watch its once sizable lead evaporate when Peyton Manning put together two TD drives, each clocking in at about two and a half minutes and working on what could very well have been a 3rd touchdown drive were it not for Pat's safety James Sanders timely interception at the New England 6 yard line.

Seriously- even tho' Manning almost managed to dig himself the early hole with those two earlier interceptions, did anybody think that the Colts would jusr roll over like spayed cocker spaniel? Me neither...

New England hangs on to win by the final of 31-28- not pretty or the strongest of finishes, but certainly effective. Brady went 19-25 with 186 passing yards and two TDs. Danny Woodhead had 7 carries for 69 yards and the TD while Brandon Merriweather, Devin McCourty, and of course James Sanders, each had interceptions on the day.

The Pats will travel next to Ford Field to take on the Detroit Tigers on Thanksgiving Day at 12:30 PM ET, 9:30 AM Pacific

Joel Auerbach/Getty

Coming off of a brief 2-game skid in which they lost in overtime at home to the LA Kings over the weekend and were downed by the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 on Monday night, the Boston Bruins would continue their swing through the sunshine state in the hopes of halting their losing streak- or at least having Mark Recchi score his 1500th career point- while visiting the Florida Panthers Wednesday night.

Hmm...How about both?

After falling behind 1-0 late in the 2nd, the Bruins responded by scoring a shorthanded goal from Brad Marchand only 8 seconds into the third period to tie the game up at 1-1. Just under 3 minutes later, Recchi got the go ahead tally on an even strength goal as well as an insurance goal that came on a Bruins power play with 4 minutes remaining in the 3rd. Bruins win by the final of 3-1. Tim Thomas now has an 11-1-1 record after stopping 31 shots faced and Mark Recchi now becomes the 13th player to reach the 1500 point mark.

The Bruins will next take on the Carolina Hurricanes at noon Eastern on Friday, Nov. 26.

NCAA FOOTBALL: After dropping five straight, including four against ACC opponent, who would'vc thought the Boston College Eagles would be bowl-eligible?

But that's exactly what happened after BC's 17-13 win over Virginia on Saturday, although with one game remaining against Syracuse this season, it begs the question of whether or not BC will even get an invite.

Speaking of Syracuse, that's exactly who the UConn Huskies had as their opponent at an away game inside the Carrier Dome on Saturday night. With the 23-6 win, Connecticut is now bowl-eligilbe as well, with a 6-4 record. The Huskies will take on the Cincinnati Bearcats at home on noon Saturday before closing out regular season play on the road against the South Florida Bulls the following weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: Two different ballparks were put to use in the offseason by the NCAA as football venues. Wrigley Field hosted it's first football game in nearly 40 years when the Wrigleyville Classic between Northwestern and Illinois. Less than 36 hours before kickoff, Big 10 officials announced that due to the tight confines of the East end zone up against a brick wall, plays would only be run towards the west end zone (Wrigley's 3rd base dugout). The only time there was any action in the West End zone was when Northwestern safety Brian Peters returned an interception 59 yards to the forbidden end zone in Northwestern's 27-48 loss to Illinois.

Halfway across the country, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat down the US Army Black Knights in the Bronx in a game that was primarily noteworthy for being the first NCAA football game in the new Yankee stadium. The 27-3 win for the Irish means that they are now bowl-eligible after garnering a 6-5 record while Army came into Yankee stadiun already bowl-eligible after their 45-28 win over Kent State on Nov. 13.

NBA: After losing two fairly close games to a Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder and the Toronto Raptors, The C's won back-to-back games starting with a 99-76 blowout of the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Wednesday's mathchup against the Nets was how well Shaq was playing (9-10 with 25 points and 7 of 13 from the free throw line) after losing Rajon Rondo to a hamstring injury while losing Delonte West to a broken right wrist in the 89-83 win over New Jersey.

The C's next game will be at home against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night

Steely Sports Chowdah Update- Pats Steel the Show in Pittsburgh; Sens Oust B's; BC Bests the Blue Devil They Know

NFL: What loss in Cleveland?

You had a feeling that New England would bounce back in some way shape or form from their embarrassing 34-14 loss to the Browns, but to be honest, I didn't think it would be this quickly, this convincingly and against such a quality opponent [That's not to say I wasn't confident they'd win, I just thought the might outlast Pittsburgh and hang on to win by 3 or 4 points- NANESB!].

Tom Brady connected with TE and 2nd round 2010 draft pick Rob Gronkowski not one, not two, but three touchdown passes on Sunday night while the shaggy QB even managed to rush for one of his own. As an added bonus, the Pats D (and Pittsburgh O, now that I think about it) managed to keep the Steelers out of the end zone until the beginning of the 4th quarter.

New England was able to get a TD on their opening possession of the game and followed that up with a FG from freshly-signed kicker Shayne Graham. Aside from a 76-yard, five and a half minute drive that resulted in a FG, the Steelers hardly seemed able to move the ball in the first half. This was compounded by a number of dropped passes inside the end zone that would've brought Pittsburgh within striking distance. The Patriots ended up taking a 10-3 lead into halftime.

To start off the 2nd half, the Pats would march the ball 78 yards down the field for a TD to make it 17-3. After both teams went three-and-out on their subsequent possessions, the Steelers were able to sustain a long drive that started at their own 33 thanks to a pass interference penalty against Pats Safety Brandon Merriweather where the Steelers were able to move inside the New England 10 yard line- but that's as close as they would get after Pittsburgh's receiver's dropped short passes from QB Ben Rothlisberger. To make matters worse, Steelers kicker Jeff Reed would miss a FG from point-blank range and New England would march the ball back down for another TD (where Brady himself ran it in from the Steeler's 3) to make it a 23-3 game (although Graham would miss the point-after attempt).

Pittsburgh would put together a 71-yard drive of their own culminating in a TD to open up the 4th quarter, but on their next possession Rothlisberger would be picked off by Pats safety James Sanders, who would run it back 32 yards ro make it a 29-10 New England lead, and although Pittsburgh wasn't done scoring in the 4th, it was too little, too late. New England wins this one by a final of 39-26- and it wasn't even that close- to give them a 7-2 record.

Brady was outstanding, going 30-43 with 350 passing yards and 3 TD passes as well as a TD run of his own. Rob Gronkowski would have 5 receptions for 72 yards, including his 3 TD receptions. Deion Branch would get 7 receptions for 71 yards and Wes Welker 8 receptions for 89 yards. Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 18 carries for 87 yards on top of another 36 yards receiving on 4 receptions. In other words, firing on all cylinders. On top of that, the New England D was able to sack Rothlisberger 5 times on Sunday night.

Next week, the Patriots will host the Indianapolis Colts in Foxboro at 4:15 ET/1:15 PT.

NHL: Tim Thomas' unbeaten streak ended at 8 consecutive games on Saturday night at the the Garden. Sens goaltender Brian Elliot turned aside all 31 shots faced while Erik Karlsson and Daniel Alfredsson notched the only goals of the night in Ottawa's 2-0 win over Boston.

The loss gives Boston an 8-5-1 record as the Sens move past them for 2nd place in the division. The Bruins will next host the New Jersey Devils at the Garden on Monday night at 7 PM.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Try as they might to give away Saturday's game, the Duke Blue Devils weren't taking up Boston College on their generosity. Not 100%, at least.

Taking a 21-9 lead into the the start of the 4th quarter and looking for more, Boston College was knocking on the door inside Duke's 10 yard line. However, RB Montel Harris would fumble the ball at the Duke 5 and Blue Devils LB August Campbell would run it back 95 yards to make it a 21-16 contest.

With just under 5 minutes to go in the game and starting at their own 37, the Blue Devils were able to march it down as close as the 2 yard line, but BC was able to stop them on 4th and goal with 49 seconds left in the game to hang on and win by the 21-16 final.

Eagles QB Chase Rettig was 12-24 with 230 yards and two TDs while fumble notwithstanding, Montel Harris had a rushing TD of his own while racking up 109 yards on 23 carries.

BC's record is now 5-5 and they'll host the Virginia Cavaliers on Chestnut Hill next Saturday.

NBA: I was only marginally aware that the Celtics were playing on Saturday night, but they seemed to have survived a scare from the Memphis Grizzlies to go on and beat them 116-110 in OT. Kinda surprising Saturday's game was that close, given the way they jumped all over the Heat on Thursday.

The C's are idle until Wednesday night when they host the Washington Wizards at the Garden.

Fall Back Sports Chowdah Update- Pats Dog Pounded; OT Has B's Blue in the Face; C's Doing OK on Road Trip; BC Sees the Wake Forest for the Trees

NFL: Wow.....that sure sucked. A week after beating the Minnesota Vikings at Foxboro, the Pats travelled to Cleveland to take on the 2-5 Browns.

Don't let their record fool you, though. Prior to their bye week on Halloween, the Browns ran roughshod over the defending Superbowl Champion New Orleans Saints by a final of 30-17.

On Sunday, it wasn't even that close. Former Hawaii QB Colt McCoy made the most of his NFL debut, and if McCoy didn't make the dog pound forget about former Cleveland Browns #1 draft pick Brady Quinn, RB Peyton Hillis would.

Hillis and a 6th round draft pick in the 2011 draft were acquired by Cleveland from the Denver Broncos in exchange for Quinn. On Sunday, Hillis had 29 carries, 184 yards and a pair of TD's while Colt McCoy went 14 for 19 and 174 yards while rushing for 20 more and a TD.

On the Pats side of the ball, Tom Brady was 19-36 with 224 yards and two TDs, both of them to TE Aaron Hernandez, for the only Pats scoring on the day.

The Browns win this one handily by a score of 34-14 and leave the Pats scratching their heads wondering what the hell went wrong before facing the Steelers at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field for NBC's Sunday night game. The Steelers held on to win their Monday night contest against the Cincinnati Bengals by a 27-21 final.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: You had to figure it was only a matter of time, but after Sunday night's 45-7 loss to Green Bay at Lambeau Field, the Dallas Cowboys fired head coach Wade Phillips. With a 1-7 record, this marks the first time that a Dallas head coach was dismissed midseason. Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will take over head coaching duties on an interim basis.

NHL: The Bruins caught their first whiff of overtime on Saturday night when they hosted the St. Louis Blues. The Blues led 1-0 on a Vladmir Sobotka goal in the first and that's the way the score would remain until 7 minutes into the 3rd quarter. This was thanks in large part to the play of St. Louis goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who (with a little help from the posts) stopped 33 of 34 shots faced, with the Bruin's only tally coming from Gregory Campbell in the third.

Tuuka Rask, for his part, would not allow another goal in regulation or OT and stopped 34 of 35 shots faced overall. However, the Blues would go on to win the shootout by a 2-1 margin (Tyler Seguin was the only B's tally in the shootout), giving St. Louis the 2-1 win, so Boston at least gets a point from Saturday's game.

The Bruins will travel to Pittsburgh's brand-new Consol Energy Center for Wednesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

For the love of God, He's 83! Don't drop him!

NCAA FOOTBALL: Normally, I'm not that dedicated a follower of Big Ten football, but I couldn't let Saturday's game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and Northwestern Wildcats at State College, PA pass without comment.

The Lions rallied from a 21-7 halftime deficit to score four unanswered TD's in the second half for the come from behind for the 35-21 win. The win is the 3rd in a row for Penn State and gives them a 6-3 record (3-2 in the Big 10) and most importantly, gives Penn State head coach Joe Paterno career win #400- the first ever NCAA football coach to reach that milestone.

[Congrats to JoePa for a milestone that nobody else will ever come close to- NANESB!]

ACC: After snapping their losing streak in a home game against the Clemson Tigers, the Boston College Eagles made it back to back wins in the ACC when they travelled to Winston-Salem, NC to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Eagles QB Chase Rettig went 14-16 for 133 yards, but the MVP Saturday was undoubtedly RB Montel Harris, who had 36 carries for 183 yards and 3 TD's on the day for Boston College's 23-13 win over Wake Forest.

The BC Eagles head back to the Tarheel State for another road game, this time in Durham, NC against the Duke Blue Devils.

NBA: The Celtics winning streak of five games was snapped on Monday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX with the Mavericks getting the go ahead jumper from Dirk Nowitzki with less than 20 seconds left in regulation for the 89-87 win over Boston.

Even with the loss, Boston's 6-2 record is still good enough for 1st place in the Atlantic division. The Celtics will travel next to Miami to take on the Heat Thursday night on a game that will be broadcast on TNT at 8PM Eastern, 5 Pacific.

Sports Pumpkin Chowdah Recap- Huff & Puff and Blow the Rangers House Down; Pats Don Old School Jersey, KO Old School QB; B's Veto Sens; BC Halts Skid

NFL: Brett Favre took it on the chin- literally- in Sunday's game at Foxboro. While engineering a drive inside New England's 10 yard line midway through the 4th quarter, the Vikings QB was levelled by DT Myron Pryor and had to leave the game with a laceration on his chin.

Coming into this week's matchup, there was some doubt whether or not we would even get the Tom Brady/Brett Favre matchup, with the possibility that Brett Favre would miss his 292nd consecutive career start due to multiple fractures in his ankle. Prior to that the sub-plot for Sunday's game was supposed to be Randy Moss' return to Foxboro for the first time since he was traded earlier in the year, but Moss was a conspicuous non-factor with only one reception for 8 yards on the day.

After a scoreless first quarter, Minnesota took the lead to start off the 2nd quarter with a drive that started out on their own 24 and was capped with a one yard TD run from RB Adrian Peterson. The Pats responded by putting together a drive from their own 25 that went into the Viking's red zone thanks to long completions from Brady to Deion Branch and Brandon Tate, culminating when RB Danny Woodhead took a direct snap from the Vikings 3 into the end zone.

Although Minnesota moved the ball around effectively with Favre at QB, twice they made it inside the Pat's red zone and were shut out, the most pivotal stop coming on a 4th and goal with a minute left in the 1st half, when Adrian Peterson was stuffed at the 1-yard line to keep the game tied at 7-7- heading into the half.

The Pat's D also factored into keeping Minnesota Vikings out of the end zone on their first posession on the second half, with the Vikings getting as far as New England's own 5 before settling for a chip shot field goal from the 24 yard line.

New England came right back with a drive that quickly put them up thanks to a completion from Brady to Brandon Tate good for 65 yards to make it a 14-10 contest.

With five minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and Minnesota getting the ball mid-field, Brett Favre was intercepted by Devon McCourty, who ran it back to the Vikings 37 yard line. The ensuing Pats posession was almost literally all Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis. Aside from a 10 yard completion to Danny Woodhead, the ball was handed off to the RB for 3 carries for 27 yards, including his 13 yard TD run to put New England up 21-10.

Starting at their own 20, Favre put together a drive (including a 30 yard pickup by WR Percy Harvin) that got them inside the New England 10 before Pryor's hit knocked him out, with Tavaris Jackson coming in at QB. The next play was a quick pass to Nafahu Tahi for the touchdown, followed by a 2 point conversion to Harvin to close the gap at 18-21.

New England began their following posession at their own 20 yard line and strung together a lengthy, time-consuming drive that included converting in a 3rd & 12 thanks to a 16 yard pickup by Danny Woodhead and yet another Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run to put the Pats up by 28-18 marign inside the 2-minute warning.

That would be the final from Foxboro as the Pats went to 6-1. With the Jets 9-0 loss to Green Bay at the Meadowlands earlier in the day, New England takes sole posession of first place in the AFC east. The cherry on top of that is with Pittsburgh's 20-10 loss to New Orlenas on Sunday night, the Patriots have the best overall record in the NFL.

Next week will have the Pats travel to Cleveland for a 1PM ET/10AM Pt kickoff against the Browns (who lest we forget, absolutely manhandled New Orleans a few weeks back). Then comes a particularly difficult stretch where New England will be going up against the Steelers and Colts.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't last long. On Monday, the Vikings announced that WR Randy Moss would be waived after an odd, one-man postgame press conference after the game.


WORLD SERIES: The series has moved to Arlington, TX and on Saturday night, the Rangers avoided the sweep thanks to Mitch Moreland, who drove in 3 of Texas' 4 runs with a 3-run shot in the bottom of the second inning. Colby Lewis lasted a good 7 and ⅔ innings in a must-win scenario, giving up two earned runs on 5 hits while striking out six. It got a little tense for awhile, but Darren O'Day and Neftali Feliz managed to close out the game for the Ranger's 4-2 win, the first-ever World Series game won in the state of Texas.

For Sunday night, both the Giants and the Rangers had their young starters going- Tommy Hunter versus Madison Bumgardner. Hunter gave up a 2-run shot to Giants DH Aubrey Huff in the top of the third to make it a 2-0 game. Outfielder Andres Torres would drive in another run in the top of the 7th off of Darren Oliver and catcher Buster Posey had a solo shot off of Darren O'Day to make it a 4-0 San Francisco advantage. Bumgardner went 8 scoreless innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks and striking out six while Londonderry, NH's own Brian Wilson had a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to close out 4-0 win, putting San Francisco up 3 games to 1 in the World Series.

Game 5 is set to take place tonight at Arlington, with the game 1 rematch of Cliff Lee and Tim Linecum at 7:57PM ET, 4:57ET.


NHL: The Bruins took their first trip north of the border this season to take on the Ottawa Senators Saturday night. As it turned out, David Krejci would get the only tally (unassisted, no less!) Boston needed with 4 ½ minutes left in the first. Still, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic gave Boston some insurance in the 2nd period with seperate goals and Jordan Caron put Boston up 4-0.

[OK- who was ready to write off Tim Thomas last season? Don't you feel kind of dumb now?- NANESB!]

Tim Thomas stopped all 29 shots faced and now has a 6-0-0 record, in net for all six of Boston's wins. The Bruins 6-2-0 record and will travel next to the HSBC Arena to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.



NCAA FOOTBALL: How about that? The BC Eagles are off the schnide after downing the Clemson Tigers at Chestnut Hill on Saturday! This snaps the Eagle's longest losing streak since 1998. Saturday's game was by no means a track meet, with Clemson taking the early 7-0 lead. The Eagles replied with a Nate Freese field goal, which the Tigers responded to with one of their own to take a 10-3 lead to close out the first quarter. The Eagles got another field goal in the 2nd and then scored their only TD on a 36 yard play to RB Montel Harris with the Eagles holding on to a 16-10 heading into halftime.

There was no scoring in the 2nd half, with the Eagle's defense stifling the Tigers and getting the ball back thanks to missed field goals, interceptions and tunrovers on downs. After some close losses to Maryland and Florida state, BC beats Clemson by a final of 16-10. Montel Harris had 1 reception for 142 yards and BC's only TD.

Next week, the Eagles will travel to Winston-Salem, NC to take on the struggling Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who currently have a record of 2-6.

BIG EAST: Just like on Chestnut Hill, 16 points was all it took for UConn to break their losing streak against a favored opponent on a Friday Night game against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The overtime win heading into the weekend was aided in large part by no less than 7 Mountaineer turnovers- four of them recovered by UConn. The most damning one for West Virginia came in the OT, which by rule gave the Huskies posession on WV's own 25 yard line. After being kept out of the end zone by the Mountaineer defense, UConn kicker Dave Teggart booted the game winning FG from the West Virginia 27 yard line for the 16-13 win.

The win halts the Huskies 2-game losing streak and gives UConna 4-4 record for their upcoming Veteran's Day game against Pitt at E. Hartford, CT.

NBA: Despite his non-compliant headband, Rajon Rondo had a career night against the NY Knicks with a triple double and 24 assists on Friday night. Paul Pierce wasn't too shabby either, with 25 points and 14 rebounds of his own during the C's 105-101 win against New York.

[Should I be Concerned that this was such a close game against what's normally considered an awful team? Has New York improved that much? Or is this something that can be attributed to early season rustiness on the part of both teams?- NANESB!]

The C's will next travel to the Palace at Auburn Hills, MI to take on the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

Hearty San Francisco Sports Chowdah Update- Giant Gains By the Bay; Leafs Shut Out; Celtics Turn Down Heat; Ponder-ous Florida State Loss in Raliegh

I was flipping around between the World Series, the Bruins and the NC State/Florida State games last night, so instead of being able to tune in to all three games, it was more like trying to get caught up on all three games.

WORLD SERIES: And just like that, the San Francisco Giants are out to a 2-0 lead in the 2010 World Series. I'm not really surprised by that as much as I am the margin of San Francisco's victories.

They jumped all over Cliff Lee in Wednesday night's 11-7 win- the Ranger's starter didn't even make it through the 5th inning, getting yanked with two away after giving up an RBI double to Freddy Sanchez and RBI singles to Aubrey Huff and Cody Ross. It got even worse for the Ranger (who did lead 2-0 early in the game) when Darren O'Day came on and gave up a homerun to deep left off the bat of Juan Uribe to make it 8-2 by the time the 5th inning was finished. Despite that, the Rangers were able to cut into the lead on a Bengie Molina RBI double and a David Murphy single to make it an 8-4 game. However, the Texas bullpen would continue to self immolate, giving up three more runs in the bottom of the 8th, and while the Rangers were able to score 3 more runs in the bottom of the 9th, it was too little too late.

For Game 2, Branch Rickey's quote about baseball being a game of inches never seemed more accurate when Ian Kinsler led off the top of the 5th inning with a booming double off of Giants starter Matt Cain that bounced off the top of the wall and teetered back into play. Had it rolled the other way, it would've been a 1-0 Texas game. Instead, Kinsler was stranded at second and Edgar Renteria belted a solo homer that put San Francisco up 1-0. Texas' CJ Wilson went 6 decent innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits. But all of that would be forgotten when the Rangers bullpen once again took over and self-immolated, giving up 7 earned runs on fice hits and four walks to give San Francisco a 9-0 lead. The Giant's Matt Cain threw 7 and 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out two for the Giants' 9-0 win on Thursday night.

For Game 3, the series heads to Arlington, TX with Colby Lewis getting the start against Jonathan Sanchez on Saturday night. Lewis has gone from closing out the Yankees to being the last, best hope for the Rangers in this World Series. First pitch is at 6:57 PM Eastern Time.
NHL: Phil Kessel earned the gratitude of the crowd at TD Banknorth Garden Thursday night when the Bruins played host to the Maple Leafs after 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin tallied an insurance goal. Almost as soon as the red light went off behind Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson, the Bruins faithful broke out into a spontaneous, taunting chant of "Thank you, Kessel!".


Kessel's demands for a new, pricey contract or else be traded from Boston culminated in the September 2009 deal where he wound up in Toronto in exchange for Toronto's first overall draft pick in the 2010 NHL Draft as well as another one in the 2011 draft. Let us not forget that the Maple Leafs are responsible for giving us Tukka Rask as well....

But back to last night's game....Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring with his first goal of the season coming on a Bruins power play with less than a minute left in the first period. Seguin's goal- even strength- came in the second period with assists from Michael Ryder and Dennis Seidenberg and Tim Thomas faced on 20 shots from the Leafs in Boston's 2-0 shutout win. The Bruins head into Saturday night's game at Ottawa with a 5-2-0 record.

The Bruins had the option of sending Seguin down to Providence after nine games, but after the game, Claude Julien announced that they plan on keeping him in Boston for the rest of the year.

NBA: Can you believe the NBA season's here already? After beating Lebron James' new team pretty convincingly, the Celtics stumbled against a LeBron-less Cavs. In the 4th quarter, with the game tied 86-86, Cavs Guard Anthony Parker hit a 3 pointer that was subject to review over whether or not the shot clock had expired and if his toes were on the line. Doc Rivers, not surprisingly, objected- saying it was one of the longest seconds in NBA history.

So after beating the Miami Heat at home Tuesday night by a final of 88-80 (this coming despite a 31 point night by LeBron), the C's fall to Cleveland by a final of 87-95, giving them a .500 record. The C's will next host the Knicks on Friday night.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The North Carolina State Wolfpack managed to come back from a 21-7 halftime deficit against #16 Florida State on Thursday night. Facing a 4th and goal from the 1-foot line with 2:44 left, the Wolfpack decided to go for the go-ahead touchdown instead of the game tying field goal, and it paid dividends, putting NC State up 24-28. But Florida state would march right back down the field from their own 29 yard line on the next possession, and when it looked as though the Seminoles would score the go-ahead TD with less than a minute left. However, 'Noles QB Chris Ponder fumbled the ball inside the NC State 10 yard line, effectively putting away the game for the Wolfpack by the 28-24 final.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA: A 20-year old Notre Dame Student died Wednesday when a tower used to film the football team's practices collapsed. Declan Sullivan was filming the practice from a hydraulic scissors lift for ND's athletic department. Most of the Midwest had been experiencing harsh weather for the past few days and the National Weather Service reported that there was wind gusts of up to 51 MPH in the area at the time of the incident.

NFL: The Minnesota Vikings have listed QB Brett Favre as questionable for starting Sunday's game against the New England Patriots. Two fractures were discovered in Favre's ankle after the Viking's Sunday night game against Green Bay. The latest injury puts Favre's NFL-record of 291 consecutive starts in jeopardy. Head coach Brad Childress announced that it will likely be a gametime decision on his part.