Well, the Giants played a lot better this weekend, so I am not as disgusted with their performance as I was last weekend.
Yes, I know that the final score was 31-7, which suggested that this was a blowout. And yes, the Giants are still winless, off to their worst start since the 1987 season, whey they started their title defense of their '86 season by losing their first five games (although three of those were with the scab replacement players during that strike shortened season).
But the Giants actually fought hard in this one. They did not just simply get pushed around, like last weekend. The final score would indicate a blowout, but the G-Men were actually still in it fairly deep in the fourth quarter, trailing 17-7, and trying to prevent the Chiefs from scoring the clinching score. Kansas City managed, with a bit over five minutes left to play, and the other touchdown was when the game was already decided. Yes, they lost, but the Giants played fairly well, and just lost to a better opponent. They can look to next week's division rival game against Philadelphia as another must win, as they try to climb out of the depths. Ironically, in the week NFC East, New York is still in the race, being one game behind both Philly and Washington, and two behind Dallas. the Cowboys will face Denver next weekend, which will be tough. And then
The Giants are not the only team struggling. Another team that won multiple Super Bowls in recent years is also playing horribly, and went winless in the month of September for their efforts. The Pittsburgh Steelers went to London to play another winless team, the Minnesota Vikings. But at the end of the game, it was Minnesota who walked away with the "W", and Pittsburgh who had the long flight home, still searching for that first victory, like the Giants.
Yet another team that enjoyed success in recent years, but is struggling mightily this season, are none other than the Atlanta Falcons - my pick to go the Super Bowl this season (I had them losing to Denver in my NFL Season prediction from August 5, 2013). I knew it felt weird picking them, and should have figured it would turn out badly. They are never a consistent winner, it seems, and although they have rarely been favorites to go deep into the playoffs, Tonight, they played a tough game against the New England Patriots. This was a game that I thought could go either way, because both teams are tough. That said, I gave the nod to Atlanta, because they are always tough at home, and also because it seemed they were overdue for a win like this.
Wrong. The Patriots proved more resilient than even I gave them credit for (and I always credit them for being resilient under Belichek). Amazingly, considering the disastrous postseason the Patriots had to endure, they are one of the few remaining undefeated teams at 4-0! This has to be considered their most impressive win so far, for that matter! As for the Falcons, well.....they still have a chance to recover. But losing at home in a must win is not a good sign. It does get easier at least for them, though! Next week on Monday Night, they host the Jets! ; )
Speaking of the Jets, a lot of people were expressing skepticism that their sudden surge to competitiveness so far early in the season was actually for real. They did little to quell those fears, losing badly at Tennessee, 38-13. They now trail New England by two, and depending on what Miami does tonight, they might be trailing two teams by two entering next weekend, when they have to go to Atlanta, which is not an easy place to play by any means!
The Ravens had a chance to jump ahead in the AFC North. But the Bills seem a lot tougher this season than in years past, and this is particularly true at home. Buffalo managed to hold the defending champs off - just barely. So now, Baltimore stands at 2-2, their wining streak done. With the Bengals loss to the suddenly hot, resurgent Browns, there is a three-way tie for first in the division, with each team at 2-2, save for the 0-4 Pittsburgh Steelers.
Another division leader had a chance to make a jump on the rest of the teams in their division: the Dallas Cowboys. With both the Giants and Washington winless entering the week at 0-3, and the Eagles at 1-2 in the unenviable position of having to go on the road against Denver, Dallas looked to have a good opportunity to widen theid lead to a solid two games, and be in a comfortable position early on of already enjoying a multiple game lead in the division race. And in the first half, that was exactly what it looked like Dallas was doing, as they took what seemed to be a commanding 21-10 lead. Sure, the Chargers got a field goal to cut it to 21-13 for halftime, but it still seemed Dallas was in a good position. Who knew that this field goal would be the first of 20 unanswered points the rest of the game for the Chargers, who took the game, and also kept within two games of the undefeated Chiefs and Broncos in the AFC West. For the Cowboys, it has to be considered a missed opportunity.
But that is the way things have been going in the NFC East all season. Dallas is in first place with a record of 2-2. The winless Giants, who look closer to being one of the worst teams in the league than one of the best at 0-4, are only two games out of first, and definitely still alive. If they were in the same division as, say, the Seahawks or the Saints, they likely would already be realistically out of the division race. But in the NFC East, which used to be considered the best division not long ago, they are still in it. In fact, the NFC East has shown their inferiority to the AFC West now this season not just one weekend, but two weekends. Yes, it's a young season, but just two weekends ago, there were three match-ups between AFC West teams, and NFC East teams. The AFC West swept those three games. Yesterday, there were four games between AFC West teams and NFC East teams. I already mentioned the Giants losing to the Chiefs, and the Cowboys losing to the Chargers. And of course, nobody was surprised that the Eagles got walloped in Denver. But Washington managed to get their first victory against Oakland, and on the road to boot. So, instead of being winless, the NFC East managed a 1-3 record in head to head match-ups between those divisions this weekend. Pretty meager.
For Denver and Kansas City, this season is obviously going very well. I think they are feeding off of one another's success, as the urgency of keeping face and not falling behind serves as extra motivation. This might be particularly true in the case of Kansas City, who were really not supposed to be this good, this deep into the season. I also mentioned that the New England Patriots remained unbeaten at 4-0 as well, holding off the Falcons in Atlanta.
But in the NFC, the Seahawks pulled off a huge win on the road in Houston, defeating the suddenly reeling Texans, who lost badly at Baltimore in week three, and then followed that up by losing at home against Seattle. The Seahawks already had a tough test against the San Francisco 49ers a few weeks ago, and passed that with flying colors, blowing the "Whiners" out. But yesterday was simply amazing! Seattle was 3-0, and attempting to reach 4-0 for the first time in franchise history. But they would have to do it on the road against a tough Texans team that many expected to be a serious Super Bowl contender this year. It looked hopeless when they fell behind 20-3, with all of those raucous fans. But they kept their composure, chipping away at the sizable lead in the second half with a field goal, and then a Lynch rushing touchdown. Then, with just under three minutes to play, Schaub threw another pick six for a tying score to send the game to overtime. The Seahawks eventually won it with a field goal, deep into overtime. The offense was hardly explosive today, but the defense, after initial lapses during a horrendous second quarter, where they gave up all twenty of the Texans points in that quarter alone, toughened up and showed their true character, and allowed them to stay in the game, and eventually, to win it! They are looking more and more real with each passing week, although they have yet another tough test next week, when they travel to Indy to take on Luck and the surging Colts.
Speaking of Indy, they absolutely had their way with Jacksonville, the team that cements their status as the worst team in the NFL with each passing week. the Jaguars were destroyed before their home fans, 37-3. The Colts look not only very solid on offense, predictably, but have looked rather tough on defense, which is a bit of a surprise. Granted, this weekend's opponents were the lowly Jaguars, but if you combine the last two games the Colts won (they beat up San Francisco last weekend), the Colts have won by a whopping combined score of 64-10. Pretty dominant! But Seattle should prove a tougher test next weekend!
Another intriguing match-up took place in Detroit, where the 2-1 Lions hosted the 3-0 Bears. Early on, it looked like it was going to be a back and forth game, as Chicago held their own. But the Detroit just absolutely exploded in the second quarter, pounding their weaker opponents and scoring 24 straight points, to turn it into a route. The final score of 40-32 is not indicative of how lopsided this game was, as the Bears scored two touchdowns int eh final four minutes, with the two point conversions. But the Lions were comfortably ahead from the second quarter onward, and managed to win a big game, because the Bears were threatening to take a two-game lead over both the Packers and the Lions with a win. Instead, Chicago and Detroit are now tied for first, with Green Bay nipping on their heels.
Tampa remained winless, losing a defensive struggle against the Arizona Cardinals, 13-10.
And, of course, on Thursday night, San Francisco got back on track by absolutely spanking the Rams in St. Louis.
French Soccer Ligue 1 (standings according to yahoo! Sports:
Standings
| Rank | GP | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monaco | 8 | 10 | 18 |
| 2 | PSG | 8 | 8 | 18 |
| 3 | Marseille | 8 | 7 | 17 |
| 4 | Lille | 8 | 4 | 14 |
| 5 | Nice | 8 | 2 | 14 |
| 6 | Nantes | 8 | 3 | 13 |
| 7 | St. Etienne | 8 | 2 | 13 |
| 8 | Rennes | 8 | 1 | 12 |
| 9 | Lyon | 8 | 5 | 11 |
| 10 | Reims | 8 | 1 | 11 |
| 11 | Montpellier | 8 | -2 | 9 |
| 12 | Bastia | 8 | -3 | 9 |
| 13 | Evian | 8 | -4 | 9 |
| 14 | Toulouse | 8 | -4 | 9 |
| 15 | Guingamp | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 16 | AC Ajaccio | 8 | -3 | 7 |
| 17 | Bordeaux | 8 | -4 | 7 |
| 18 | Lorient | 8 | -5 | 7 |
| 19 | Sochaux | 8 | -8 | 5 |
| 20 | Valenciennes | 8 | -10 | 3 |
MLS Standings (according to Yahoo! Sports):
GROUP EAST
| Rank | Played (H | A) | Won (H | A) | Drawn (H | A) | Lost (H | A) | GF | GA | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  New York Red Bulls | 31 (15 | 16) | 15 (10 | 5) | 7 (3 | 4) | 9 (2 | 7) | 48 | 37 | 11 | 52 |
| 2 |  Sporting Kansas City | 30 (16 | 14) | 14 (8 | 6) | 6 (3 | 3) | 10 (5 | 5) | 43 | 29 | 14 | 48 |
| 3 |  Montreal Impact | 29 (15 | 14) | 13 (9 | 4) | 7 (3 | 4) | 9 (3 | 6) | 48 | 44 | 4 | 46 |
| 4 |  Houston Dynamo | 30 (14 | 16) | 12 (8 | 4) | 8 (3 | 5) | 10 (3 | 7) | 38 | 37 | 1 | 44 |
| 5 |  Philadelphia Union | 30 (15 | 15) | 11 (6 | 5) | 9 (5 | 4) | 10 (4 | 6) | 38 | 39 | -1 | 42 |
| 6 |  Columbus Crew | 31 (15 | 16) | 12 (7 | 5) | 5 (3 | 2) | 14 (5 | 9) | 40 | 41 | -1 | 41 |
| 7 |  New England Revolution | 30 (16 | 14) | 11 (7 | 4) | 8 (4 | 4) | 11 (5 | 6) | 42 | 34 | 8 | 41 |
| 8 |  Chicago Fire | 30 (16 | 14) | 11 (9 | 2) | 7 (3 | 4) | 12 (4 | 8) | 38 | 45 | -7 | 40 |
| 9 |  Toronto FC | 31 (16 | 15) | 5 (3 | 2) | 11 (8 | 3) | 15 (5 | 10) | 29 | 45 | -16 | 26 |
| 10 |  D.C. United | 30 (14 | 16) | 3 (3 | 0) | 6 (3 | 3) | 21 (8 | 13) | 20 | 52 | -32 | 15 |
GGROUP WEST
| Rank | Played (H | A) | Won (H | A) | Drawn (H | A) | Lost (H | A) | GF | GA | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Real Salt Lake | 31 (15 | 16) | 15 (9 | 6) | 6 (3 | 3) | 10 (3 | 7) | 54 | 39 | 15 | 51 |
| 2 |  Seattle Sounders FC | 29 (15 | 14) | 15 (10 | 5) | 6 (4 | 2) | 8 (1 | 7) | 39 | 29 | 10 | 51 |
| 3 |  Portland Timbers | 30 (15 | 15) | 12 (10 | 2) | 13 (4 | 9) | 5 (1 | 4) | 46 | 31 | 15 | 49 |
| 4 |  LA Galaxy | 30 (14 | 16) | 13 (9 | 4) | 6 (3 | 3) | 11 (2 | 9) | 46 | 37 | 9 | 45 |
| 5 |  Colorado Rapids | 30 (15 | 15) | 12 (8 | 4) | 9 (4 | 5) | 9 (3 | 6) | 37 | 31 | 6 | 45 |
| 6 |  San Jose Earthquakes | 31 (15 | 16) | 12 (9 | 3) | 8 (5 | 3) | 11 (1 | 10) | 32 | 41 | -9 | 44 |
| 7 |  Vancouver Whitecaps | 30 (15 | 15) | 11 (8 | 3) | 8 (4 | 4) | 11 (3 | 8) | 42 | 39 | 3 | 41 |
| 8 |  FC Dallas | 30 (15 | 15) | 10 (8 | 2) | 10 (5 | 5) | 10 (2 | 8) | 42 | 46 | -4 | 40 |
| 9 |  Chivas USA | 31 (16 | 15) | 6 (5 | 1) | 8 (4 | 4) | 17 (7 | 10) | 29 | 55 | -26 | 26 |
Tennis
Rafal Nadal might have won more Grand Slam titles this calendar year (as well as overall) than Novak Djokovic, but Djoko is vowing that he will fight very hard to retain the number one ranking, which he still currently holds, and which he has held at the end of the last two calendar years prior to this. It should be interesting, and let's see what happens!
MLB
Well, the playoff race is just about over in baseball.
In the American League, the Boston Red Sox have the top seed, while the other division winners are the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland A;s. Cleveland clinched one wild card, while the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will play an extra regular season tie break game to determine who gets the other wild card.
In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the top spot, with the Atlanta Braves and LA Dodgers being the other division winners. The long suffering Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds clinched the wild cards.
No comments:
Post a Comment