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”

Daily Sports Roundup 12/28/07

A slow day in sports today so these stories are small, but interesting.

Frasor Out For The Year: North Carolina junior Bobby Frasor will miss the rest of the college basketball season with a torn ligament. He is a versatile player capable of playing many minutes and can play quality time while the Tar Heels rests its stars. He averages over 16 minutes a game and is a player that Roy Williams has valued over the last 2 years. Though it will not have an immediate impact, the loss of Frasor will shrink the Tar Heels bench and require Hansbrough, Lawson, and others to play extra time.

Rod Smith Needs Surgery: Denver Bronco wide receiver Rod Smith may have caught his last pass in the NFL. After undergoing hip surgery in February, three years after his hip began to hurt, Smith wanted to get back into the NFL by the second half of the season. Unfortunately, his hip didn’t agree and Smith has not played a single play this year. Smith revealed today that “It has not healed. It’s not healing at all. Honestly, I don’t even like walking on it. It’s that bad right now to me, and it’s a matter of the hip socket has been bone-on-bone for a while”. He is seeing a specialist in Los Angeles and will likely have a resurfacing of the joint in January. Smith is 37 years old and holds the NFL record for most catches, touchdowns, and yards than any undrafted wide receiver. In his comments today, Smith also spoke about how he wants to spend more time with his family, another remark that sounded as if he was going to retire. Rod Smith has been a great player over his 13 years in the league, and if he does retire, the Broncos and the NFL will lose a talented veteran. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/28/07”