Daily Sports Roundup 12/31/07

Happy New Years Eve to all of my readers. This New Years Eve has also seen a fair amount of sports news, so let’s get to it:

Ravens Fire Billick:The Baltimore Ravens fired head coach Brian Billick today, after the Ravens finished the year at 5-11. After a 13-3 season last year, the Ravens underachieved this year and Billick has taken a lot of the blame. The team even lost nine consecutive games before finishing with a 27-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. Since the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2000, they have won only one playoff game. Less than a year ago, Billick received a contract extension through the 2010 season and stated a couple weeks ago that he would be back for 2008. Owner Steve Bisciotti had other ideas. “I just changed my mind. I can’t explain it to you. It’s the toughest decision I’ve had to make” the owner said Monday. The Ravens were a disappointment this year and someone had to take the fall. Unfortunately, it was Billick’s turn.

McGrady Out For A Few Weeks:Though it looked like the injury would only need a couple days to heal, Tracy McGrady’s left knee has not gotten any better. The Houston Rockets are coming to a tough stretch in their schedule playing at both Boston and Orlando this week. It looks like McGrady will miss those games and more as he could be out as many as three weeks. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/31/07”

Daily Sports Roundup 12/30/07

A light day in sports so far, but it is still early. Then again, it is Sunday and besides football, there isn’t much else.

Week 17 of NFL Season: Today is the final week of the NFL season and there are still a playoff spot in each league up for grabs. The Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans both control their own destiny and only need a victory to clinch a playoff spot. The Redskins face the Cowboys at 4:15 and the Titans face the Colts at 8:15. The Cowboys and Colts will likely rest their players as they both have to look ahead to the playoffs. If the Titans or Redskins lose though, it opens up the door for the Browns and Vikings respectively. If the Redskins and Vikings both lose, then the New Orleans Saints have an opportunity to steal he last playoff spot.

Patriots Are Perfect:The Patriots wrapped up their perfect season last night, barely. The Giants played a strong game, but fell apart down the stretch. Down by 12 in the 3rd quarter, Maroney ran for a 6 yard touchdown run to make the score 28-23, Giants still leading. 8 minutes later in the 4th quarter, Brady threw a 65 yard touchdown pass to Moss to give the Pats the lead for good. That pass gave Brady his 50th touchdown pass of the year and the reception by Moss was his 23rd touchdown catch of the year. Brady broke Peyton Manning’s record of 49 touchdown passes in a season while Moss broke Jerry Rice’s record of 23 touchdown receptions in a season. They waited until 11 minutes left in the 4th quarter to break the records, but nevertheless came through. The touchdown put the Pats up 31-28 and they never looked back. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/30/07”

Daily Sports Roundup 12/29/07

A big day in sports today so here we go:

College Basketball:With school finals and winter break over, college basketball is back in full swing with 20 ranked teams playing today. There have been a lot of great games, but the best game of the night has yet to come with 18 Arizona travelling to 2 Memphis. A 3-pointer with 2 seconds by Michael Flowers of Wisconsin gave the Badgers a one point victory over 9 Texas. 19 Miami (FL) suffered its first loss of the season as Winthrop beat the Hurricanes 76-70. Just finished, Oklahoma defeated 23 West Virginia in double overtime. Those games and more are discussed in today’s earlier blog post.

UCLA Hires Neuheisel As Head Coach: The UCLA Bruins have hired their former QB Rick Neuheisel as their new head coach. The Bruins fired Karl Dorrell on December 3rd after five years as head coach. Neuheisel takes over a football program that went 6-6 and lost to BYU in their bowl game. The loss in the Las Vegas Bowl was tough as the Bruins had a field blocked as the time expired and lost the game by one point. UCLA was looking at their defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker for their coaching job and other schools will definately look at him to fill their coaching vacancy. Neuheisel has already stated that he hopes to keep Walker on the staff. UCLA had a mediocre season this year, ending in a tough loss, and they are hoping that Neuheisel will be able to take the program to the next level. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/29/07”