NFL Quiz: Just a few more of these. Name the 11 Redskins to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Answer below.
—Pittsburgh-St. Louis…Game 5 tonight…oh baby…who will forever be known as a hero, and who will be known for all time as the goat? For the Pirates, A.J. Burnett was passed over for Gerrit Cole.
And so those winners play Los Angeles and Boston, who prevailed in four against Atlanta and Tampa Bay. The underperforming Braves…make that historically underperforming Braves…fail to advance once again.
As for the Red Sox, their remarkable turnaround story continues…69-93 last year to 97-65. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all.
Just a note on the Tigers’ 8-6 win Tuesday to force the Game 5. Gotta admire Max Scherzer coming out of the pen and escaping a major jam in the eighth to get the win; this after he was scheduled to start Game 5, which now goes to Verlander.
The A’s are just 1-10 in games where they had a chance to clinch in the postseason since 2000.
–Boy, the Dodgers’ Don Mattingly took a major risk in starting Clayton Kershaw on three days’ rest for the first time in his career for Game 4, which L.A. won 4-3 as Kershaw went six innings and allowed just 2 unearned runs.
Yes, Kershaw-Greinke are comparable to Koufax-Drysdale…though Greinke needs to put together another season or two of comparable quality to cement this comparison.
–The Cardinals are 7-1 in elimination games. Uh oh, Pirates fans.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay, in praise of baseball’s best-of-five playoffs for the first round, while basketball and hockey, “starving for more games and more cash, abandoned it in favor of a string of best-of-seven series that go on and on like graduate school.)….
“I’m not saying we should replace best-of-seven in a World Series or Finals-type situation. But no first-round series should ever be a best-of-seven. Period. It’s ridiculously overwrought. It’s like playing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as the first song at your wedding.”
Mr. Gay goes on to add, “Best-of-five is fast. I don’t need a playoff series to last longer than a season of ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ Best-of-five series are quick, sharp, edgy. Not a lot of days off….
“Unpredictability should be encouraged in life. You don’t want your cab to the airport to be unpredictable. Everything else is fine. Live a little.”
Jason Gay further adds: “You may be wondering why I am writing about a best-of-five baseball playoff in the Journal’s Greater New York section when neither the Yankees or the Mets are in the baseball playoffs. My answer is: You want a column about the 0-5 Giants? Right. I didn’t think so.”
Lastly, Gay reminds us, “five is the new seven. Small can deliver all. Now pass me one of those 100-calorie cookie packs.”
–Detroit’s Jhonny Peralta, who hit a three-run homer in Tuesday’s win, is the only one of the 13 Biogenesis culprits on a postseason roster. After serving a 50-game suspension, the 31-year-old will be a free agent this offseason. A lot of teams are in need of a shortstop, namely the New York Mets. Do they go after the guy?
Last year’s steroids poster boy, Melky Cabrera, signed a two-year, $16 million contract with Toronto and was a bust. There’s your caution flag.
–Ken P. first reminded me that the Cardinals got 22-year-old Michael Wacha with the draft pick they received when Albert Pujols signed with the Angels, “the best non-signing of all time,” according to Ken. Certainly seems to be.
And not for nothing, as the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner writes on Wednesday, the Cardinals are amazingly loaded with young pitching talent.
An example, Wacha has given up two hits his last 16 innings.
–Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp will undergo shoulder surgery, but is expected to be ready for spring training. It’s the same shoulder he had major surgery on last season.
—A-Roid’s arbitration hearing resumes next Wednesday. Oh joy.
New York Giants 0-5
New York Jets 3-2
Atlanta Falcons 1-4
Pittsburgh Steelers 0-4
Kansas City Chiefs 5-0
Cleveland Browns 3-2
Regarding the three 5-0 teams (including Denver), Pat Kirwan of CBSSports.com notes:
“Since 1990, 90 percent of the teams to achieve this record have made the playoffs.
“But here’s a look at 5-0 teams over the past five seasons for a reality check:
2012: Texans and Falcons; made playoffs, didn’t reach Super Bowl
2011: Packers and Lions; made playoffs, didn’t reach Super Bowl
2010: No team was 5-0
2009: Colts, Broncos, Giants, Vikings and Saints; Giants and Broncos didn’t make the playoffs…Saints beat Colts in Super Bowl
2008: Titans; made playoffs, didn’t reach Super Bowl
–By the way, Denver and Kansas City don’t meet for a first time until Nov. 17, at Denver, Game 10, but then meet two weeks later in Kansas City, which is kind of stupid scheduling.
Dallas 2-3
Philadelphia 2-3
Washington 1-3
New York 0-5
—Jets fans are still in a state of shock over Monday’s dramatic 30-28, last-second win over the Falcons in Atlanta. At least I wrote of quarterback Geno Smith a week ago that I “like what I’ve seen thus far.”
Smith was virtually perfect, 16/20, 199, 3 touchdowns, and zero turnovers after committing 11 the first four contests. [More on his QB rating in a bit.]
“The Jets have only played five games, but still: You have to like the coach at least a little better than you did before the season….
“This doesn’t mean Rex Ryan or the Jets are in the clear now, doesn’t mean they’ve won anything except a game against the wounded Falcons. Doesn’t mean Geno Smith has put himself into the conversation with the quarterback rookies we had last year in pro football just because he gave Jets fans a night like Monday night.
“Are you kidding? Everybody sees how fast the bottom can fall out in sports. If you don’t believe that, go back and try to remember what you were thinking about the Giants on the first Sunday night of the season and what you think now.
“But here is what we know: The Jets don’t have a quarterback who has thrown 12 interceptions, the Jets aren’t giving up more points than anybody in the league, more than 30 every week. The Jets aren’t making the kinds of mistakes that Tom Coughlin’s Giants are making, don’t look as old as the Giants, or as beat up. Or as dreary.
“And, boy, that is a good thing for Rex Ryan, because if that were happening, people would have already sent him so far into outer space he would have bumped into George Clooney and Sandra Bullock….
“He is still only 3-2. The Steelers could light up Geno on Sunday….
“But come on: Just off what you’ve seen from him and his team so far – and from the other team in town – how do you like the big guy so far this season?”
“It could be worse – the Giants could be so bad that they might be packed up and relocated to another continent.
“It could be worse – the Giants could be so bad that they are listed as a record 28-point underdog to their next opponent.
“It could be worse – the Giants could be so bad that their fans (okay, about 10 of them) hold a rally outside the stadium to sign Tim Tebow.
“The Giants are only one of two 0-5 teams in the NFL, and there is no debate about this: The Jacksonville Jaguars are worse. This is a team that has been outscored by an average of 33-10, a team with historically poor quarterback play, a team whose local CBS affiliate had to explain why it still had to air its games.”
But as Politi goes on to observe, at least Jacksonville is committed to the rebuilding process, while the Giants have a rapidly aging core that had convinced itself it had enough for one last run.
[Since 1990, 48 teams have started 0-5. None have made the playoffs.]
–The Denver Broncos opened as 28-point favorites over Jacksonville for this Sunday’s matchup, believed to be the highest in NFL history.
–Back to the Jets, quarterback Mark Sanchez is having right shoulder surgery, ending not only his season but his Jets career. He was guaranteed $8.25 million for this year.
So in his four seasons, Sanchez had a record of 33-29, with 68 touchdowns and 69 interceptions…but 52 turnovers in 2011 and 2012.
—Geno Smith’s 147.7 passer rating on Monday night was the second-best for a rookie since 1960, according to Pro-Football-Reference. [Back in 2004, Ben Roethlisberger had a 158 rating in a game against Jacksonville.]
–Not for nothing, but Jets kicker Nick Folk is not only 11 of 11 in field goals thus far, but six are from 40+, including two game-winners.
–Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal points out that with all the talk of Dallas quarterback Tony Romo being a choker, his fourth-quarter passer rating (102.0) is the best in the NFL and a full 10 points higher than Tom Brady’s.
And since the start of 2007, when Romo became a full-time starter, he’s thrown 19 fourth-quarter picks. Drew Brees and Eli Manning have 32 apiece.
Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that, especially in the case of Brees.
–It was two years ago, the final game of the 2011 season, that Green Bay, not needing to play Aaron Rodgers, started Matt Flynn at quarterback and he proceeded to pass for 480 yards and six touchdowns in a meaningless victory for the Packers.
Flynn then parlayed that lone start into a big contract with Seattle in 2012, who signed him for $8 million, even though he was then beat out by Russell Wilson.
Oakland then reworked Flynn’s contract for this year, guaranteeing him $6.5 million this season, but he was beaten out by Terrelle Pryor and fell to third string behind undrafted free agent Matt McGloin.
So the past two seasons, Matt Flynn made $14.5 million and threw 43 passes.
–The NFL said it was prepared to meet with the Oneida Indian tribe over their appeal to have the Washington Redskins drop the team’s nickname, though not right away. Redskins owner Dan Snyder has vowed to keep it.
The Oneida’s representative, Ray Halbritter, playing off President Obama’s weekend statement that if he were the owner, he would “think about changing” the team’s name, said Redskins is “a divisive epithet…and an outdated sign of division and hate.”
The Oneida, makers of fine flatware and silverware since 1880….oops, wrong Oneida. Never mind….
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said the league and team are “promoting a racial slur” and “this issue is not going away.”
Actually, when asked about the other professional sports nicknames: Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, Halbritter says:
“The name of Washington’s team is a dictionary-defined, offensive racial epithet. Those other names aren’t.”
“In a half-century of watching NFL games, I have seen literally thousands of them – on TV. I have gone to, maybe, five NFL games in person.
“The NFL is remarkable in that it has a hold on so many fans, including millions who never will see a single game live, in-stadium. And, with changing dynamics and better technology. Couch Slouch now poses a simple question:
“Home is better.
“I was ahead of the curve on this baby since I was in fourth grade, folks. My buddies would go out to play kick the can or stickball after school and come back all worn out and scraped up; I stayed in watching ‘Bowling for Dollars’ and guilted my mother into making me two grilled cheese sandwiches 45 minutes before dinner.
“ 5. If you run out of Dr. Brown’s Diet Black Cherry, your stepson with the newly minted driver’s license can run out and get you another six-pack.”
College Football
Thursday, you have Rutgers at No. 8 Louisville…the Cardinals must destroy the Scarlet Knights…like 45-3…to have a shot at moving up to No. 7.
No. 2 Oregon is at No. 16 Washington, Saturday…mildly interesting…
No. 25 Missouri, 5-0, is at No. 7 Georgia, noon ET, which is when I like to take a nap after my long run Saturday mornings….
No. 17 Florida (4-1) is at No. 10 LSU (5-1)…loser’s season is over. Winner is still in BCS hunt.
–Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal correctly noted that despite the Buckeyes’ big 40-30 win over Northwestern last Saturday, with the Wildcats fumbling away the spread on the final play (my take, not Cohen’s), Ohio State faces the very real possibility that it will once again finish undefeated – and not play for the national championship.
Last year it was self-inflicted, but this year, Ohio State could easily be the victim of a lousy schedule and a lousy Big Ten.
No team from the Big Ten has played for the BCS championship since Ohio State in 2007.
But you have three huge games on the overall college football schedule that will doom the Buckeyes, who are currently No. 4.
No. 3 Clemson and No. 6 Florida State (AP rankings), Oct. 19.
[I can’t believe Oregon-Stanford is a Thursday night game beginning at 9:00 PM ET. This truly blows. I won’t make it beyond the first minute of the second half, college football games taking forever.]
–As for South Carolina “superstar” defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who before the first snap of this season was being touted as the No. 1 pick in next spring’s NFL draft, he went before the coaches prior to Saturday’s game against Kentucky and said he was too sore to play…bruised ribs.
Coach Steve Spurrier, none too pleased, said after the 35-28 win, If Clowney “wants to play, we will welcome him to come play for the team if he wants. But if he doesn’t want to play, he doesn’t have to play. Simple as that.”
–For all the grief Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe has been facing the past few seasons, it is pretty remarkable that with the Deacs’ win over North Carolina State last weekend, Grobe is 32-10 against North Carolina schools, 21-3 at home.
–USA TODAY picked the best venues to watch college football and No. 1 was Oregon’s Autzen Stadium (Eugene). Love it! Proud to say I was there in 2009 to see the Ducks play USC.
“No place gets louder, according to those who have visited the unfriendly confines, and this despite the stadium’s lower capacity: Autzen allegedly seats less than 55,000, though attendance often creeps above that number on Saturdays. Autzen is sleek, new, fresh, loud, noisy and home to one of the best programs in the country. It hits the high notes.”
Well, hell, unlike the writer, I can say, yes, from personal experience, it was absolutely crazy.
So here is my own recap from Bar Chat, 11/2/09, after attending the game there.
“What a great game I saw on Saturday night here in Eugene, No. 10 Oregon vs. No. 4 USC. Yes, the final score wasn’t close, 47-20, Ducks, but in reading a Los Angeles Times story on the game the reporter used the correct term to describe the 59,500 screaming UO fans… “delirious.” I know I screamed when Oregon was on defense every single play all night. I’m assuming the noise transferred onto the tube and I’ve never heard it louder at a college game….
“I loved the fans sitting around me, including four Trojans supporters who I had fun with, and the little rain we had was not an issue because your editor, in a moment of sheer brilliance, remembered to pack his golf rain suit so I was better prepared than I’ve ever been.
“By now you’ve seen the stats on the contest but for the archives, Oregon outgained USC 613-327 in what was the worst defeat for the Trojans since 1997 and the worst of the Pete Carroll era. That freshman running back LaMichael James is something else, all 5’7” of him. And quarterback Jeremiah Masoli may not ever play in the NFL, but he is the classic great college QB.
“[Speaking of NFL QBs, following are some who played at UO… Kellen Clemens, Dan Fouts, A.J. Feeley, Joey Harrington, Chris Miller, and Norm Van Brocklin.]
“Just a note on the students. They are a different bunch, certainly compared to the southern student bodies I grew up with when I was in school. It’s in keeping with the town of Eugene, which is quirky, to say the least, and hard to describe. The girls, however, are drop-dead gorgeous; a fact I learned when I came to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials here. Just have to state facts.”
Well, No. 2 on USA TODAY’s list is Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.) and I also made a special trip there to see Wake Forest take on Nebraska in 2005. I loved Lincoln. The perfect college town. [That trip I combined a pilgrimage to Johnny Carson’s home town of Norfolk, Neb. Ironically, he was in the news this week….see below.]
No. 3 I have not been to….Kyle Field (College Station, Texas)…which with A&M’s leap to the SEC has been expanded.
“Kyle Field is huge, it’s loud, it holds a century-plus of history and features some of the most memorable – alright, maybe the weirdest – traditions in the country.”
Stuff
–The NHL season is underway and after an 0-3 start, the Philadelphia Flyers fired their coach, Peter Laviolette.
Three games! Geezuz, this isn’t Division-I college football, which has seen three firings of its coaches before each team had played its sixth game. This is the NHL, whose season ends like in August, or so it seems. Laviolette was 149-98-29 over parts of five seasons as coach. It’s been a long time since I was doing math in grade school, but that looks like an OK record.
–Good lord! The Rangers lost to the San Jose Sharks 9-2 on Tuesday! San Jose has outscored their opponents 17-4 in their first three games.
–As a huge fan of Johnny Carson, I don’t like to see some of the bad stuff that went along with a man who was obviously a complex individual. My bottom line was he was an entertainer and the greatest there ever was…at least for his era and what he did.
So long-time attorney Henry Bushkin, “Bombastic Bushkin,” as Johnny called him in his monologues, has written a new tell-all and one story is pretty funny.
Bushkin, who was hired by Carson in 1962 and worked for him for 20 years, said that one of his first jobs was to accompany Carson and a private eye to break into a pad that his second wife, Joanne, was renting on the sly.
“I have reason to believe my wife is cheating on me,” Carson told Bushkin. “I also have an idea who the son of a bitch is that she’s shacking up with.”
As reported by the New York Post’s Sean Piccoli, Carson was talking about Giants football legend Frank Gifford.
“On seeing the ‘S.O.B.’s’ framed photographs all over Joanne’s pied-a-terre, ‘Carson leaned against the living room wall and began to weep,’ Bushkin writes….
“Lucky for Joanne, she wasn’t home.” Turns out Johnny was carrying a .38 revolver in a holster on his hip, which Bushkin only saw when Carson’s raincoat fell open.
Joanne Carson, now 81, denied to The Post Monday that she ever had an affair with Gifford. She also denied Johnny ever would have carried a gun because he was terrified of them.
But this is the (kind of) funny part, and the only reason why I’m writing this up.
“Bushkin writes that after his alleged discovery, Carson fled to a bar to drown his sorrows with on-air sidekick Ed McMahon. When Bushkin arrived, he found the liquored-up host turning his humiliation into comic material.
“ ‘Why Frank Gifford? What’s that a—hole got that I don’t have? That guy plays three positions on the field. I could never get Joanne to go for more than two.
“ ‘I think I’ll use that in tomorrow’s monologue,’ he said.
“ ‘Joanne has broken my heart,’ he told Bushkin, ‘to the extent I ever had one.’”
“Greg Pickering, 55, was diving for sea snails off an area called Poison Creek near the Western Australia city of Esperance when he was attacked by what officials suspect was a great white.
“He underwent surgery and was in stable condition….
“In 2004, Mr. Pickering was bitten on the leg while spearfishing near Cervantes, north of the Western Australia capital, Perth.” [Irish Independent]
–My brother passed on the sad news that Swino, the feral pig known in Australia for stealing beer from campers, was found dead. Hit by a truck.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/13/62: #1 “Sherry” (The 4 Seasons) #2 “Monster Mash” (Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers) #3 “Ramblin’ Rose” (Nat King Cole…the one and only…)…and…#4 “Let’s Dance” (Chris Montez) #5 “I Remember You” (Frank Ifield…cool tune…) #6 “Green Onions” (Booker T. & The MGs) #7 “Do You Love Me” (The Contours) #8 “Patches” (Dicky Lee…weird one…) #9 “Alley Cat” (Bent Fabric and his piano…not aging well…played only at dreadful weddings…) #10 “If I Had A Hammer” (Peter, Paul & Mary)
NFL Quiz Answer: 11 Redskins to rush for 1,000 yards in a season….
John Riggins
Stephen Davis
Clinton Portis
Terry Allen
Alfred Morris (leader with 1,613 yards in 2012)
George Rogers
Earnest Byner
Larry Brown
Mike Thomas (1976)
Ladell Betts (2006)
Reggie Brooks (1993)
