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| add to favorites | Case Keenum is having the ultimate breakout, but we shouldn't be surprised | Hardware - Hard disks |
EDEN PRAIRIE, http://www.authenticspanthersshop.com/-20-reto-berra-jersey_c-463.html Minn. -- The man in the ski cap and hoodie was staring through a window at the new purple banner announcing the Minnesota Vikings' division crown. From behind, as he stood in a cafeteria, this average-size Joe could have passed for a food-service worker or a fan who had won a contest for a tour of the team facility. Case Keenum does not look like a quarterback drafted by an NFL team for a damn good reason: He wasn't.
It was a Tuesday, the players' off day following their division-clinching beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals in mid-December, and an operations crew had just hung the banner in the John Stockton Youth jersey rafters two minutes earlier. Keenum doesn't believe in off days, so he was the first to see this tribute to the 2017 NFC North champs -- the last of its kind to hang over the indoor practice field in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, ID'd on the street corner by a tattered Viking ship encased in snow and ice. The team will pack everything later this winter and move to upgraded digs in Eagan, about 20 miles to the east. Nobody is sure whether Keenum will be along for the ride.
And that's fine and dandy for now. Keenum is not thinking about free agency -- whether he might head to another franchise in a package deal with offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, or if Minnesota could still prefer the returning Sam Bradford and/or the returned Teddy Bridgewater as its 2018 starter. Short term? Keenum is thinking about beating the New Orleans Saints in Sunday's divisional round matchup at U.S. Bank Stadium. Not-so-short term? Keenum is thinking about becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to lead a team onto its own field with a chance to win the Reggie Wayne Womens Jersey Super Bowl.
"I don't think anybody wants to be sitting here in February and watch somebody else play in it," Keenum said. He retreated a bit from that statement, swearing that the team wasn't looking ahead at a magical shot to earn the franchise's first Super Bowl championship, in its own building, after four losses in the big game and no appearances since the 1976 season. Keenum apologized for the cliché, but said the Vikings were taking it day by day. If there's anyone who knows that NFL life is a day-to-day proposition, it's the quarterback of the NFC's No. 2 seed.
Keenum's striped gray ski cap was pulled tight over his hair and ears and down to his eyebrows, making him appropriately hard to recognize. He's the improbable leader of a faceless contender, and maybe he represents the look and the formula that will finally deliver these earnest Minnesotans their long, lost ring. The Vikings have had Hall of Fame quarterbacks, quarterbacks who won Super Bowls for other franchises and former top overall draft picks.
But the Vikings have never had a quarterback quite like Casey Austin Keenum -- undrafted, unwanted, un-everything -- who led them to a 13-3 record as the second-most-accurate passer in the league (67.6 percent). Of the quarterbacks starting playoff games this season, Keenum had the best regular-season Total QBR at 69.6 -- second only to the now-injured Carson Wentz's 75.7, and better than Tom Brady's 67.2. Football Outsiders ranked Keenum ahead of Brady as the NFL's top quarterback in 2017 in DVOA, a metric that measures a player's value per snap over an average player at his position.
Not bad for a former Houston Texans practice-squad arm and deposed Los Angeles Rams starter who arrived in March with a 9-15 career record and an upside the Vikings thought was worth a mere one-year deal for a lousy $2 million plus incentives. But this staggering run comes as no surprise to Keenum or to his http://www.authenticwildstore.com/-92-evgeny-kuznetsov-jersey_c-446.html supporters, who were just as confused when he had just one Division I offer out of high school as they were when he went undrafted in 2012. Keenum is not driven to prove the doubters wrong half as much as he's driven to prove those true believers right.
The believers are multiplying by the week. Keenum has already made himself a lot of money this season, no matter what happens against the Saints on Sunday -- people up and down the Vikings' organization would concede that much, even if some would rather not pay up. An executive from another team who has watched six recent game films of Keenum predicted some franchise will offer him $20 million a year, and that the quarterback would likely leave the Vikings if they offer him $15 million a pop.
Keenum's striped gray ski cap was pulled tight over his hair and ears and down to his eyebrows, making him appropriately hard to recognize. He's the improbable leader of a faceless contender, and Demaryius Thomas Womens Jersey maybe he represents the look and the formula that will finally deliver these earnest Minnesotans their long, lost ring. The Vikings have had Hall of Fame quarterbacks, quarterbacks who won Super Bowls for other franchises and former top overall draft picks.
But the Vikings have never had a quarterback quite like Casey Austin Keenum -- undrafted, unwanted, un-everything -- who led them to a 13-3 record as the second-most-accurate passer in the league (67.6 percent). Of the quarterbacks starting playoff games this season, Keenum had the best regular-season Total QBR at 69.6 -- second only to the now-injured Carson Wentz's 75.7, and better http://www.authenticbluejaysstore.com/Authentic-Michael-Saunders-Jersey than Tom Brady's 67.2. Football Outsiders ranked Keenum ahead of Brady as the NFL's top quarterback in 2017 in DVOA, a metric Brandon LaFell Authentic Jersey that measures a player's value per snap over an average player at his position.
Not bad for a former Houston Texans practice-squad arm and deposed Los Angeles Rams starter who arrived in March with a 9-15 career record and an upside the Vikings thought was worth a mere one-year deal for a lousy $2 million plus incentives. But this staggering run comes as no surprise to Keenum or to his supporters, who were just as confused when he had just one Division I offer out of high school as they were when he went undrafted in 2012. Keenum is not driven to prove the doubters wrong half as much as he's driven to prove those true believers right.
The believers are multiplying by the week. Keenum has already made himself a lot of money this season, no matter what happens against the Saints on Sunday -- people up and down the Vikings' organization would concede that much, even if some would rather not pay up. An executive from another team who has watched six recent game films of Keenum predicted some franchise will offer him $20 million a year, and that the quarterback would likely leave the Vikings if they offer him $15 million a pop.
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| add to favorites | The thing is, we’ve been so conditioned to be this close | Hardware - Hard disks |
It was so non-Billsy to have that thing happen. So yeah, it’s been pretty remarkable to have this happen. But what keeps you going is just having the memory of knowing that it will eventually come.” When that moment happened, Bills fans across the country went nuts. They made plans to either go to Jacksonville or come to Buffalo for this once-in-two-decades experience.
Ryan Lampman and his friends drove nine hours from Louisville, Kentucky to Buffalo. As soon as Buffalo clinched, Lampman made the “no-brainer” decision to make the trip. One of his friends left his daughter’s birthday party early to make sure they reached Buffalo on time. “This is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Lampman said, as a Buffalo-themed chorus of “Shout” played over the loudspeaker. “Other than my children, this is the best moment of my life. No doubt.”
This was the answer for all the lean years. Ryan Spies wasn’t even a teenager the last time the Bills made the http://www.officialdallasstars.com/Adidas-Esa-Lindell-Jersey playoffs. He would root, cheer, “hope and pray.” He thought a day such as Sunday would never happen. “Over time, it just became more and more sad,” Spies said. “Like, are we going to get it? Do we have to give up? Am I going to have to change teams? I could never change teams, so I would just stop watching football, in all honesty. It wasn’t a good feeling.”
It’s a feeling well-known in Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit, where finding something else to do on Sundays becomes more appealing, especially when change continually comes. Since 2000, the Browns, Bills and Lions have had 22 head coaches combined. Soon, it’ll be 23.
It’s lunch time on Friday afternoon at Nemo’s in Detroit, an iconic pub once considered one of the best sports bars in the country by Sports Illustrated. There’s a picture of the Stanley Cup visiting the bar after the Red Wings won hanging on the wall. Across the walls are newspapers celebrating the success of the Tigers, Red Wings, Robin Yount Authentic Jersey Pistons and Michigan and Michigan State football and basketball.The Lions? Based on a quick sweep, there are two papers: one marking the firing of Matt Millen as general manager and one denoting the 0-16 Lions season in http://www.authentictorontobluejaysshop.com/Justin-Smoak-Jersey 2008. There might be more, but they weren’t noticeable. “I get asked, how come no Lions?” said Tim Springstead, one of the co-owners of the bar. “I say, ‘Trust me, I’ve been waiting for 50 years to get a newspaper. They have one playoff win in my lifetime.’ That’s hard.”
Yet in Detroit, there’s hope amid another changing offseason. The Lions fired coach Jim Caldwell following a winning season, a marked change for a franchise known for being too loyal. It’s something Edinson Volquez Youth jersey that has been percolating since 2015, when owner Martha Ford fired general manager Martin Mayhew and team president Tom Lewand midseason. “This year, it shows me that somebody’s being held accountable,” Springstead said. “Think five years ago, would they fire a 9-7 coach? Are you kidding me? Never would have happened here.”
Springstead is willing to have a bit of patience as general manager Bob Quinn makes his hire, potentially Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. He understands the building of a business: Nemo’s has been open 51 years. In the history of the place, there has been only one Lions playoff win. But Springstead likes what Detroit has with its quarterback, front office and other players. If the right coach is hired, there is reason to believe. But he needs them to prove it.
Yet as a bar owner, he has seen what the Lions have, what businesses kill for: “loyalty.” He jokes that there should be an award given to Lions fans who have endured the rough decades and kept going. But why have they? One of his bartenders, 63-year-old Dave Stronski, shrugged and said, “hope.” Right now, Stronski said, is the most hope he has had in the Lions. “I think the new GM is going to turn them around,” Stronski said. “He’s from one of the best programs ever, New England, and I hope they get that defensive coordinator from New England as the coach.”
Until then -- and if Detroit wants to hire Patricia, it can’t do so until New England is out of the playoffs -- Lions fans have to do what they’ve done for so long: wait and hope this change brings the Lions their http://www.officialredsoxauthentic.com/Dustin_Pedroia_Jersey first division title and home playoff game since the 1993 season, a game that bar manager Pat Osman said would be “huge.” While Detroit might be closer than it has been in a while to true success, there are reminders of the past. They are on the walls at Nemo’s. When Springstead heard about what was happening in Cleveland the next day, he shook his head.
It happened twice Saturday afternoon. As the group of fans protesting Womens Jersey the Cleveland Browns mismanagement over the past two seasons drove and walked in a loop around First Energy Stadium, at least two carried signs saying essentially this: “Welcome to the club.”
The club of 0-16 teams is an exclusive one: the '08 Lions and '17 Browns. Lions fans understand the pain of Browns fans. On this day, with wind chills making the temperature feel like minus-12, that pain and frustration yielded to another emotion: hope, for a change. It’s what this parade-slash-protest begged for. Almost 3,000 people showed up to send the message that they were tired of what they’d seen the past few seasons: 1-15 in 2016 and 0-16 in 2017. Poor ownership from Jimmy Haslam and a coach, Hue Jackson, still employed despite a 1-31 record.
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| add to favorites | So Carroll did something he doesn’t normally do | Hardware - Hard disks |
“I sat down at Russell's locker at halftime with him and said, ‘We've got to turn this thing,’ and in a way that he hasn't heard me talk to him, just because I knew that he was the one that was going to lead the turnaround if it was going to happen," Carroll said. "We needed to change things. We were getting chased, and we were running all over the place, and it was hard, and he missed some choices and some decisions too because he was under duress. I said, ‘I know you can fix this. Fix it.’ And we did, and he did. And he turned it, and he did what he's been able to do in remarkable fashion.”
In Dana Bible, Wilson had that type of voice in a coach at North Carolina State. He hasn’t had that in the NFL. It isn't in Bevell’s nature to challenge a player in the way that, say, Josh McDaniels will challenge Tom Brady on the sideline after a http://www.authenticrocketsshop.com/authentic-3-steve-francis-jersey.html missed throw. That type of exchange didn’t happen with Bevell and Wilson.
There’s a tricky balance in all of this. One-time Seattle offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates is a good example. Bates was Bevell’s predecessor with the Seahawks, having followed Carroll from USC to Seattle. He was fired after one season, and it is believed that it wasn’t because of underperformance from the Randy Gregory Jersey offense but rather because of how his negative attitude didn’t at all align with the culture Carroll was trying to build. The challenge for Seattle will be finding something in between, a coach whose personality fits but also one who can push Wilson’s buttons in a way that will get the most out of him.
It was quiet. It was a half-hour before the NFL playoffs started, and out-of-town college basketball filled three of the televisions at The Clevelander Bar & Grill. Just one screen focused on the NFL pregame. No one inside the bar seemed to care much anyway.
The stools around the bar were full in this downtown Cleveland establishment, but otherwise, it was empty. The bartender, Maria Perkio, had time to chat with anyone. Some customers had been at the Browns "perfect season" parade/protest earlier in the day. Others were there just because it was a Saturday afternoon in frigid Cleveland. As for the NFL playoffs, it was almost like it didn’t matter that the game was on. The thought of the Browns in the playoffs was met with stifled laughter.
This is current playoff football in Cleveland. This season, they watched for 16 weekends. They saw 16 losses. And on a day when the postseason was starting, there was a protest instead. Two of the four televisions remained on college basketball at kickoff.
“After every Sunday of disappointment, to come down to going 0-16, I feel like it’s almost comical, you almost have to come down and celebrate it,” said Trey Hanes, 21, from Findlay, Ohio. “We all watch the games together, and it makes it seem like they are going to win, and they end up losing. We need some change.”
At Borje Salming Jersey least they hope it’ll happen. Adam Endicott, who drove from Findlay with Hanes, said he has a specific savings account that he has been putting money into to go to the Super Bowl when the Browns make it. He has been saving for about a year, setting aside $20 every now and then so he can pay for himself and his dad to go if it ever happens. ne of their friends, Jake Schmidt, joked: “He has plenty of time to save.”
Browns fans http://www.montrealcanadiensofficialonline.com/Adidas-Ken-Dryden-Jersey have lived decades of what-ifs and agony, similar to their counterparts in rust-belt cities Detroit and Buffalo. Yet year after year, they http://www.saintsshopfootballofficial.com/saints+tommylee+lewis+jersey come back. They hope. They stick through the anguish of rooting for a perennial loser. But on this day in Cleveland, it’s worth wondering what the empty Clevelander would look like for a Browns playoff game.“Ass to elbows right now,” one Clevelander employee said. “Wouldn’t be able to see the floor.”
The trio from Findlay lamented life as Browns fans -- story after story of screaming at the TV on Sundays, of anxiously wanting wins but knowing what would come, of jokingly blaming their dads for getting them into this. But still, they hope. Perkio said that if the Browns ever make the playoffs, lines to get in the Clevelander would be out the door. “It’s one of http://www.officialshoppanthersjerseys.com/Graham_Gano_Jersey_Cheap those where once it pays off, it’s going to really pay off,” Schmidt said. “Like one of these days.”
One of these days was Sunday morning in Buffalo. It was a little after 10 a.m. outside 716 Food and Sport in downtown Buffalo, and the line only imagined in Cleveland was indeed out the door. More than 18 stories above the bar in the Marriott hotel, chants of “Let’s Go Buffalo” and “Let’s Go Bills” were audible.
The Bills’ wild-card game wasn't starting for almost three hours. The euphoria of an unexpected playoff berth led fans to be outside in single-digit temperatures in order to get in, waiting to party like it was 1999 and Y2K.
They have lived through the close calls, and last weekend, they saw one work out for them. This was excitement shown nationwide over the past week, with donations to Andy Dalton’s charitable foundation after the Bengals quarterback passed the Bills into the playoffs by beating Baltimore. Dalton later thanked Bills fans with a billboard along a Buffalo highway.
When Dalton’s touchdown was shown on the big screen in Jimmy Vesey Womens Jersey pregame, the whole bar cheered. Balloons in Bills colors and Bills helmets were everywhere. Womens Troy Stecher Jersey Reservations for tables in the two-floor establishment were booked an hour after the Bills clinched. Signs reading “The Drought is Over! 1999-2017 Let’s Go Buffalo!” adorned almost every table, creating a human sea of red, white and blue, of Jim Kelly, LeSean McCoy, Tyrod Taylor and Bruce Smith jerseys.Seventeen years of frustration culminated in this. Most millennials in the bar -- and there were a lot -- weren’t of legal drinking age the last time Buffalo made the postseason.
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| add to favorites | Historical playoff comps for all eight playoff teams: These Patriots resemble | Hardware - Hard disks |
There are few NFL teams that are truly unique. Most teams follow a certain template and fit a historical archetype. The ground-and-pound teams. The all-offense, no-defense teams. The teams that ride a hot run into the playoffs in December. The good-not-great teams that sneak into the postseason thanks to an easy schedule.
We went looking for which archetypes fit the eight remaining playoff teams, and identified a team going back to 1990 that was heavily similar. Of course, no two teams are exactly the same, and similarities in the past don't guarantee future results. So we're not going to tell you the Patriots are going to follow in their own 2011 footsteps by losing the Super Bowl just because they have a similar defense, and we're not going to tell you the Patriots are in trouble this weekend because the Titans are similar to the 1996 Jaguars. However, we can learn something here about each team's strengths and weaknesses and how those may come into play in the postseason.
I started out by comparing this season's playoff teams to past playoff teams http://seahawksofficialnflauthentics.com/cortez-kennedy-jersey_c-422.html based on their ranks in various splits of Football Outsiders' DVOA ratings. Then I sorted through the most comparable teams to find one that was particularly similar when it came to player experience and season narrative. Teams are listed in order based on their chances of winning the Super Bowl (as detailed here). At the end, just for fun, Darren Collison Authentic Jersey we also tossed on some similarities for the four teams that were eliminated on wild-card weekend.
Our first comparison is an absurdly obvious one. Both the 2011 Patriots and 2017 Patriots went 13-3. Both teams ranked in the top three of offensive DVOA and the top five of special teams DVOA. Both teams were near the bottom of Football Outsiders' defensive ratings -- the 2011 Patriots have the worst defensive DVOA of any team to ever make the Super Bowl -- but ranked much higher in conventional stats. The reasons, however, were different.
Seven quarterbacks established themselves as NFL starters in 2017. No, I'm not talking about Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott. I'm talking about rookie QBs who started a bunch of games (Deshaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky and DeShone Kizer). I'm talking about veterans who took hold of their chance to start (Case Keenum and Jimmy Garoppolo). And I'm talking about young guys with high ceilings who showed they can win in this league (Jared Goff and Jacoby Brissett).
So how would I rank them in terms of whom I'd start my team with? I'm talking about projecting their future upside and putting them in order from 1 to 7. It starts in Houston, in my opinion, with the rookie whose spectacular season was cut short:
Or maybe it was at least one of the Seahawks’ primary motivations for firing Bevell after seven seasons with the team. The Seahawks announced that move Wednesday while also firing offensive-line coach/assistant head coach Tom Cable. Moving on from Bevell wasn’t Womens Nick Van Exel Jersey shocking nor was it necessarily a foregone conclusion, and in trying to make sense of the decision, a recent comment from coach Pete Carroll came to mind.
Carroll, speaking with KIRO-AM 710 ESPN Seattle, was asked at season’s end to evaluate how Wilson played in 2017. “He had a fantastic year, really. He really did have a fantastic year in a lot of ways, and he can be better. Russ can be better,” Carroll said. “I know you guys got on me a little bit [earlier in the season], ‘Boy, he’s criticizing Russ.’ Russ wants to be criticized. Russ needs to be criticized. Dak Prescott Authentic Jersey He wants to be great.” Perhaps Wilson wasn’t getting enough http://www.officiallachargersshop.com/Desmond_King_Jersey_Cheap of that tough love from the mild-mannered Bevell, the only coordinator he has had in his six seasons with the Seahawks.
To be sure, Seattle's offense badly hit the skids this past December and struggled all season with inexplicably poor starts, but Bevell was much better than his harshest critics suggest. The Seahawks won one Super Bowl and nearly another during his run in Seattle, and though the goal-line interception that decided Super Bowl XLIX will forever be a black mark on Bevell’s résumé, the truth is that it wasn’t solely his decision to throw the ball instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch.
The Seahawks finished between first and seventh in offensive DVOA from Wilson’s rookie season in 2012 to 2015. They did that despite often being hamstrung by a poor offensive line that couldn't protect Wilson and, more recently, couldn't open holes in the running game. Bevell had to navigate those issues while having to strike a delicate balance between being aggressive and playing the type of mistake-free football Carroll mandates. He did well under the circumstances.
Bevell deserves his due for that and also for his role in developing Wilson into one of the game’s top quarterbacks.Make no mistake: Wilson had no issue with Bevell. He respects him as a person and as a coach, and he enjoyed playing for him. But this isn’t about what Wilson wants so much as it seems to be about what Carroll believes Wilson needs, which is a coach willing to hold the quarterback more accountable and be more demanding of him.
During his 710 ESPN Seattle interview, Carroll said he was tougher on Wilson than usual during halftime of the team’s season finale against the Arizona Cardinals. The Seahawks had finished the first quarter with zero net yards and had all of 24 by halftime, laying an offensive egg in a game they needed to win in order to have any shot of reaching the playoffs. nfl jerseys wholesale nhl jerseys china wholesale jerseys usa nike nfl jerseys from china cheap nfl jerseys usa |
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| add to favorites | Nine offense, seven defense, two special teams | Hardware - Hard disks |
Key losses: OT Aaron Evans, G Chavis Dickey, DE Jamiyus Pittman, DE Tony Guerad, LB Shaquem Griffin, LB Chequan Burkett Outlook: The Knights declared themselves national champions after they were the only FBS team to finish unbeaten following their 34-27 win over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Former Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Heupel takes over for Scott Frost, who left to become Nebraska's new coach. Heupel and his staff will have to replace a couple of key players on defense, including Griffin, but almost everyone else is expected back on offense.
Quarterback McKenzie Milton is coming back after throwing for 4,037 yards with 37 touchdowns, along with the top five rushers http://www.officialtampabaylightning.com/Adidas-Martin-St--Louis-Jersey and five of the top six pass-catchers. UCF's schedule includes nonconference games against Florida Atlantic, Pittsburgh and North Carolina, and it will be an overwhelming favorite to repeat as AAC champion. For more on how the Knights will look in 2018, check out UCF's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN RecruitingNation's class rankings.
Key losses: OT Rick Leonard, NG Derrick Nnadi, WR Auden Tate, DE Josh Sweat, CB Tarvarus McFadden, LB Ro'Derrick Hoskins, LB Jacob Pugh, FS Nate Andrews, SS Trey Marshall, FS Derwin James, TE Ryan Izzo Outlook: The Seminoles collapsed after losing quarterback Deondre Francois in their season-opening loss to Alabama, and then things worsened after former coach Jimbo Fisher decided to depart for Texas A&M. Former Oregon coach Willie Taggart takes over, and he'll have a better chance to succeed in Year One if Francois bounces back from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee.
Cam Akers ran for 1,024 yards as a freshman, and four of five starting offensive linemen and leading receiver Nyqwan Murray should be back. The FSU defense will need a makeover, especially in the secondary, where James and McFadden have already decided to turn pro. FSU's road schedule in 2018 is going to be very difficult, with trips to Notre Dame, Louisville, NC State and Miami. Ouch. For more on how the Seminoles will look in 2018, check out Florida State's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
WR D.J. Chark, OT K.J. Malone, QB Danny Etling, WR Russell Gage, LB Arden Key, DE Christian LaCouture, NT Greg Gilmore, Outlook: The Tigers were up and down in coach Ed Orgeron's first season, beating Auburn and falling to Mississippi State (by 30 points), Troy (at home) and Notre Dame (in the Citrus Bowl). LSU's issues in 2017 were the same as they were under former coach Les Miles: The Tigers struggled to pass the ball and score. It won't be any easier in 2018, with Etling departing and junior tailback Derrius Guice probably turning pro.
Orgeron made a change at offensive coordinator, parting ways with Matt Canada after one season, and Orgeron might turn to tight ends coach Steve Ensminger to be his OC in 2018. At least LSU secured defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, who received a four-year, $10 million contract, the highest ever for an FBS assistant, after Texas A&M tried to hire him away. The Tigers will play a nonconference game against Miami in Arlington, Texas, next season, along with road games at Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M. For more on how the Tigers will look in 2018, check out LSU's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
Key losses: LB Malik Jefferson, OT Connor Williams, S DeShon Elliott, P Michael Dickson, CB Holton Hill, WR Lorenzo Joe, OT Tristan Nickelson, TE Kendall Moore, NT Poona Ford, LB Naashon Hughes, SS Jason Hall Outlook: The Longhorns lost six games in coach Tom Herman's first Daryl Johnston Womens Jersey season, which was disappointing. But four of them were games decided by five points or fewer, including losses to USC, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Can the Longhorns learn to win close games in year two? If they do, they might enjoy a second-year bounce like Georgia J.J. Jansen Youth jersey and Miami had this past season.
Herman is going to have to figure out whether Shane Buechele or Sam Ehlinger is going to be the quarterback moving forward. The offensive line is going to have to do a better job protecting the quarterback, too, after allowing a whopping 34 sacks in 2017. Defensive coordinator http://www.officialnflstoreco.com/josh-mauro-jersey-c-1_2_2207.html Todd Orlando upgraded the unit this past season, but he'll miss Jefferson, Elliott and Hill, three of his better players. UT plays USC, TCU and West Virginia at home, along with the annual contest against Oklahoma in Dallas. For more on how the Longhorns will look in 2018, check out Texas' recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
Co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach Bryan McClendon will take over the job full-time after calling plays in the bowl game. Quarterback Jake Bentley gets back top target Deebo Samuel, who missed the final 10 games with leg and foot injuries (he scored six total touchdowns in the first three games).The Gamecocks will have to replace two starters on the defensive line, Moore and three starters in the secondary. Linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams also returns after missing most of 2017 with a shoulder injury.For more on how the Gamecocks will look in 2018, check out South Carolina's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
Because of the unbalanced schedule last week, with several teams playing just two games, there were more instances than usual of players with lower average game scores getting bumped up a few spots thanks to playing more games. Apologies to James Harden (who finished with the highest average), Devin Benson Mayowa Youth jersey Booker, Chris Paul and Damian Lillard, plus Lou Williams, who still cracked our top 10, albeit a few spots below where he would have been http://www.officialmarlinstore.com/Edinson_Volquez_Jersey with another game or two. cheap jerseys china nba jerseys for sale nfl jerseys wholesale nhl jerseys wholesale wholesale nba jerseys nfl jerseys free shipping |
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| add to favorites | Seven offense, nine defense, one special teams | Hardware - Hard disks |
Key losses: DT Vita Vea, WR Dante Pettis, G Andrew Kirkland, C Coleman Shelton, TE Will Dissly, LB Keishawn Bierria Outlook: The Huskies look like the class of the Pac-12 in 2018, and they might even be CFP contenders if tailback Myles Gaskin decides to return to school. Even without him, Washington is expected to bring back all but four starters on offense and two on defense.
Jake Browning will become the league's best quarterback with USC's Sam Darnold, UCLA's Josh Rosen and Washington State's Luke Falk departing. The offense returns some key contributors who were lost to season-ending injuries, including left tackle Trey Adams, tight end Hunter Bryant and receiver Chico McClatcher. The Huskies will miss Vea, the Pac-12 Defensive Authentic Micah Hyde Jersey Player of the Year, and Bierria, their emotional leader on defense. Washington opens the season against Auburn in Atlanta and plays Pac-12 road games at Utah, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington State. For more on how the Huskies will look in 2018, check out Washington's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
RB Justin Crawford, WR Ka'Raun White, G Kyle Bosch, LB Al-Rasheed Benton, LB Elijah Battle, S Kyzir White, CB Mike Daniels Jr. Outlook: As soon as quarterback Will Grier and All-American receiver David Sills V announced they were returning for their senior seasons, West Virginia became Oklahoma's biggest threat in the Big 12. There's no doubt that the Mountaineers are going to score a lot of points this coming season. With Sills, Gary Jennings and Alabama transfer T.J. Simmons, the Mountaineers might have the best receiving corps in the country in 2018.
But West Virginia has to continue to improve on defense to become a legitimate Big 12 title contender. The Mountaineers open the season against Tennessee in Charlotte, and they play Kansas State, TCU and Oklahoma at home in Big 12 play. For more on how the Mountaineers JuJu Smith-Schuster Youth jersey will look in 2018, check out West Virginia's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
RB Saquon Barkley, WR DaeSean Hamilton, G Brendan Mahon, TE Mike Gesicki, DT Curtis Cothran, LB Brandon Smith, LB Jason Cabinda, CB Christian Campbell, FS Marcus Allen, SS Troy Apke Outlook: After struggling in his first two seasons as Penn State's coach, James Franklin has guided the Nittany Lions to 11-win seasons and New Year's Six bowl appearances in back-to-back seasons. Now the real work begins, as Penn State will have to replace Barkley, offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead (now Mississippi State's head coach) and eight defensive starters.
Passing game coordinator Ricky Rahne took over playcalling duties and had an impressive debut in a 35-28 win over Washington in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. The Nittany Lions might rely on quarterback Trace McSorley even more next season, and he'll be one of the top Heisman Trophy candidates if he delivers. Penn State's schedule gets a little more difficult with games against Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin, but it will play all but the Wolverines in Happy Valley. For more on how the Nittany Lions will look in 2018, check out Penn State's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
RB Kerryon Johnson, RB Kamryn Pettway, CB Carlton Davis, LB Jeff Holland, OT Austin Golson, C Casey Dunn, G Braden Smith, OT Darius James, LB Tre' Williams, SS Stephen Roberts, FS Tray Matthews Outlook: What an aggravating season for the Tigers, who twice beat the No. 1-ranked team in the country and then watched those teams (Alabama and Georgia) play for the CFP National Championship on Monday night. Auburn's resurgence was enough to land coach Gus Malzahn a seven-year contract extension after Arkansas tried to hire him as its new coach.
The Tigers will miss Johnson, who ran for 1,391 yards and 18 touchdowns this past season, and Pettway, who also is turning pro. They'll also have to replace four of five starters on the offensive line. With quarterback Jarrett Stidham returning, along with most of his top wideouts, the Tigers should have a potent passing game. On the other side of the ball, defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has built one of the better units in the SEC, but they'll miss Holland's pass-rushing skills and Davis' coverage skills. For more on how the Tigers will look in 2018, check out Auburn's http://www.officialauthenticsaintstore.com/womens_manti_teo_jersey recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
When Michigan brought Jim Harbaugh back to his alma mater in 2014, he was supposed to be the coach who could catch Ohio State. Now, after the Wolverines have dropped eight of their past 17 games, U-M fans might be wondering whether he can stay ahead of Michigan State.The Wolverines were supposed to take a step back this season, but no one expected their offense to be so bad. Michigan threw nine touchdown passes, its fewest since 1975, when it attempted only 125 passes while running the triple option under Bo Schembechler.
Michigan's newest savior is former Ole Miss quarterback Shea Patterson, who has http://www.officialtitansfootballshop.com/titans+jack+conklin+jersey already enrolled in classes but hasn't yet been ruled eligible by the NCAA. If Patterson can play in games this coming season, the Wolverines should be much better on offense. If he isn't eligible, Brandon Peters and Dylan McCaffrey will battle for the job. One of them will have to bring life to Michigan's offense, with road games looming at Notre Dame, Northwestern, Michigan State and Ohio State in 2018. nike nfl jerseys cheap mlb jerseys wholesale mlb authentic jerseys discount jerseys |
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| add to favorites | C Bradley Bozeman, WR Robert Foster, DE Da'Shawn Hand | Hardware - Hard disks |
LB Rashaan Evans, CB Levi Wallace, CB Anthony Averett, S Tony Brown, P JK Scott Outlook: The 2017 version of the Alabama dynasty probably wasn't as talented and might not have as many future NFL stars as the previous ones. But the Crimson Tide Babe Ruth Jersey reached http://www.authenticflamesjerseys.com/jonas-hiller-jersey_c-422.html the CFP National Championship for the third straight season, and they'll be equally good next season as Nick Saban's "Process" continues.
The biggest question mark for the Tide heading into the offseason is who will start at quarterback. Jalen Hurts was benched at halftime and rising sophomore Tua Tagovailoa should be the favorite after his second-half performance against Georgia. Whoever starts at quarterback might have to find new offensive weapons if leading rusher Damien Harris and leading receiver Calvin Ridley turn pro.
The Tide will lose some key players on defense, including Evans and the entire http://www.sharksofficialauthenticshop.com/Barclay_Goodrow_Jersey_Adidas starting secondary if juniors Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison leave early, but there are capable replacements waiting in the wings. Look for players such as running back Najee Harris, receiver Jerry Jeudy and linebackers Dylan Moses and Mack Wilson to emerge as key contributors this spring. The Crimson Tide will also have a new defensive coordinator after Jeremy Pruitt was named Tennessee's new coach. For more on how the Tide will look in 2018, check out Alabama's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
G Tyrone Crowder, G Taylor Hearn, WR Ray-Ray McCloud, LB Dorian O'Daniel, CB Ryan Carter Outlook: The Tigers lost their rubber match to Alabama, falling 24-6 in a CFP semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl, which spoiled their chances of winning back-to-back national championships. But if we've learned anything the past three seasons, it's that Dabo Swinney's program is here to stay. Much of the Tigers' offense returns in 2018. One burning question: Can quarterback Kelly Bryant Chuck Foreman Authentic Jersey hold off incoming freshman Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 pocket passer and No. 2 player overall in the ESPN 300?
The Tigers might have to rebuild their defensive front if Clelin Ferrell, Christian Wilkins and Austin Bryant turn pro, but they've signed two of the top five defensive linemen prospects in the 2018 class in Xavier Thomas and K.J. Henry. Clemson plays road games at Texas A&M and Florida State next season. For more on how the Tigers will look in 2018, check out Clemson's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankin
RB Nick Chubb, RB Sony Michel, OT Isaiah Wynn, LB Lorenzo Carter, LB Davin Bellamy, NT John Atkins, CB Malkom Parrish, S Dominick Sanders, CB Aaron Davis Outlook: The Bulldogs will have to replace a lot of star power in their backfield and defense, but there are enough key pieces in place for them to make another run at a second straight SEC championship. Replacing Chubb and Michel won't be easy, but freshman D'Andre Swift and sophomore Elijah Holyfield were productive in limited roles this past season. Quarterback Jake Fromm is the undisputed starter after leading the Bulldogs to the CFP title game as a freshman. Where will incoming freshman Justin Fields, the No. 1 player overall in the ESPN 300, fit in the mix?
The Bulldogs' most pressing needs will be potentially replacing each of their starting linebackers (if star Roquan Smith turns pro, as expected) and two starters in the secondary. The good news: There's help coming in the No. 1-ranked recruiting class. For more on how the Dawgs will look in 2018, check out Georgia's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings. The Badgers won a school-record 13 games this past season, and they're bringing back a record-setting tailback and each of their five starting offensive linemen, which is usually a recipe for success.
Running back Jonathan Taylor set the FBS freshman record with 1,977 rushing yards and will be a leading Heisman Trophy contender in 2018. Quarterback Alex Hornibrook will also be back, along with most of his top targets besides Fumagalli. The Badgers will have more holes to fill on defense, especially in the secondary, where three of four starters are departing. Both starting defensive ends and outside linebackers are also leaving, but inside linebacker T.J. Edwards announced that he is coming back. Wisconsin's schedule will be more difficult this coming season, with road games at Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State. For more on how the Badgers will look in 2018, check out Wisconsin's recruiting profileInsider and ESPN's class rankings.
In Mark Richt's second season back at his alma mater, the Hurricanes returned to national relevance with their first 10-win season since 2003, introduced us to the Turnover Chain and played in the ACC championship game for the first time. However, their three-game losing streak to Womens Ryan Dzingel Jersey close the season showed that the "U" isn't yet all the way back.If Miami is going to be better in 2018, quarterback Malik Rosier will have to avoid the mistakes http://www.broncosofficialfootball.com/Andy_Janovich_Jersey_Broncos and turnovers that plagued him in his first season as a starter. Wide receiver Berrios and two starting offensive linemen will be missed. Sophomore Ahmmon Richards might be Miami's next star if he recovers from a knee injury.
Richt and his staff will have to continue to build depth through recruiting to catch Clemson in the ACC. They're off to a great start in doing DeMarcus Cousins Jersey so.
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| add to favorites | Are Lindor and Correa MLB's Magic and Bird? | Hardware - Hard disks |
For the rest of their lives, Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor are http://www.authenticramsofficialshop.com/Nike-Zach-Laskey-Jersey.html destined to be compared with each other. They are superlative ballplayers born within a year of each other (Lindor is 24, Correa 23), they http://www.bearsofficialauthenticstore.com/Markus_Wheaton_Jersey_Cheap are both from Puerto Rico, and of course, they are both shortstops.
But they are very different in style and substance. Lindor is under 6 feet, a switch-hitter Authentic Keith Magnuson Jersey who runs well and is regarded by evaluators as the better defender. Correa is bigger, with an A-Rod frame, and stronger; he will probably hit a lot more homers in his career, and because of that, some executives believe his performance ceiling could be higher. They are friends, but just as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird measured their own progress according to the standard set by the other during their careers, Correa and Lindor will always naturally push each other -- with respect.
In the months leading up to the World Baseball Classic, Puerto Rico GM Alex Cora and manager Edwin Rodriguez faced a potentially difficult situation because of the middle infield riches on their roster, with three incredibly talented shortstops -- Correa, Lindor and Javier Baez. That was resolved, Phil Esposito Jersey Cora later explained, through magnanimity: Correa asked A.J. Hinch and Cora at the outset of spring training if he could prepare to play third base for Puerto Rico. Baez played second, Lindor shortstop, and Puerto Rico reached the championship game.
Two years ago, Lindor served as an anchor to a league champion that played to the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series before falling. Two months ago, Correa was the anchor to a team that won Game 7 of the World Series -- and then he topped it off with a marriage proposal on the field.
Like Bird and Magic, they will probably continue http://www.authenticcapitalstore.com/alex-ovechkin-jersey_c-450.html to take turns in the achievement spotlight in the years ahead, and Correa and Lindor top our Top 10 list of shortstops, a ranking based on the input of MLB evaluators, with the help of researchers Mark Simon, Paul Hembekides and Sarah Langs.
Boras is notorious for having his clients wait as long as possible to sign. In the past, Max Scherzer and Prince Fielder didn’t sign until late January. Obviously, both sides are playing a little poker, and Boras has certainly proved to be a master in getting his players maximum dollar. In Fielder’s case, there didn’t even appear to be a strong second bidder and he got a one-dimensional player paid $214 million. Boras often plays to the owner and bypasses the front office, or waits for the anxiety level of an interested team to increase.
Indeed, five of Keith’s top 13 free agents are Boras clients -- Jake Arrieta, J.D. Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Carlos Gomez and Mike Moustakas. None have signed. In Arrieta’s case, for example, Boras may wait for Yu Darvish to sign, or even Alex Cobb or Lance Lynn. Once there are fewer starting pitchers available, maybe a team looking for a pitcher -- like the Cubs or Rangers -- will have more interest in his guy.
club that exceeds the threshold pays a 20 percent tax on all overages. The penalties become more severe each consecutive season a Patrick Beverley Jersey team goes over. For a third-time overage, the penalty goes up to a 50 percent tax (with further penalties of 12 percent if the threshold is exceeded by $20 to $40 million, and a 42.5 percent tax if the payroll is more than $40 million above the threshold). Teams that are $40 million over also see their highest draft pick moved back 10 spots. Here’s the important thing to know: If a team goes under the threshold, your tax resets to 20 percent. So front offices -- well, they get their budgets from ownership -- are using that threshold as a de facto salary cap.
By "usual big spenders," we mean the Dodgers and Yankees. Both clubs are Jon Gray Womens Jersey set on remaining below the threshold for 2018. The Dodgers spent $244 million in player salaries in 2017 and were hit with a luxury tax for the fifth straight season. After they paid a $31.8 million penalty in 2016, USA Today reported that their 2017 bill came in at $36.2 million. Could they afford Darvish or Martinez to make the best team in the National League even better? Sure, but their current estimated payroll is $188 million and they’re going to keep it there.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have paid a tax in 15 consecutive seasons, including $15.7 million for 2017. By remaining under the $197 million threshold, the Yankees reset their tax base, giving them more flexibility next offseason. Because ...
Front offices are all analytical now, which I suggest also makes them more conservative. They want to make the smart move and not just throw gobs of money to solve a problem -- especially when history says a lot of those free-agent contracts don’t pan out. They’ve seen too many deals given to the likes of Ryan Howard and Carl Crawford and Albert Pujols and Matt Kemp and Josh Hamilton and Alex Gordon and Chris Davis and so on times a thousand. Besides a better understanding of player value, front offices are better at projecting future performance and understanding aging curves. Nobody wants to be the general manager who burdens the team payroll with a bad contract. nfl jerseys paypal cheap nfl jerseys from china wholesale jerseys free shipping nfl jerseys wholesale nba basketball jerseys jerseys for cheap wholesale jerseys from china |
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| add to favorites | The differences were minute. Tyrod Taylor had a contested | Hardware - Hard disks |
pass tipped in the air and intercepted, while Blake Bortles had a pair of interceptions dropped by Buffalo's defense, in part because playmaking safety Micah Hyde was out of the lineup. When the http://www.officialdallasstars.com/Adidas-Ales-Hemsky-Jersey Bills made it to the 1-yard line, an offensive pass interference call on Kelvin Benjamin pushed Buffalo back to the 11-yard line and kept it from running the football any further. Jacksonville's trip to the Authentic New York Rangers Jersey 1 ended with a shocking fourth-and-goal play-action call, as Bortles nearly slipped in his dropback before hitting backup tight end Ben Koyack for the game's only touchdown.
The Jags fear no team, and they're not about to start with the Steelers, given that Jalen Ramsey & Co. beat down Pittsburgh in a 30-9 shellacking earlier this season. At the same time, though, that score overstates the difference between the two teams. The Jaguars scored on a pair of interception returns, which marks the only game in which the Steelers have allowed a defensive touchdown on a fumble or interception return since Week 3 of the 2013 season. (For context, the last defender to score against the Steelers was Julius Peppers, who was still on the Bears.) A 90-yard touchdown from Leonard Fournette in garbage time -- the Steelers had an 0.1 percent chance of winning before the run -- added to the scoreline and yardage totals but didn't really impact the game.
Split 1 is Bortles for Weeks 13-15, and as you might suspect, Split 2 is Bortles during the three ensuing weeks. It was clear that Jaguars offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett had no confidence in Bortles as the game went along Sunday -- the Bills sold out against the run, and Bortles and Hackett had little response. Bortles could have thrown at least two interceptions and showed little touch with his throws, often placing passes to open receivers in places where they were near-impossible receptions.
Bortles eventually found some success as a scrambler and with the read-option, racking up a career-high 88 rushing Dalton Pompey Jersey yards and picking up six of Jacksonville's nine rushing first downs along the way, but the Steelers will be ready. They'll have a week to prepare for Bortles as a runner, while the Bills had to adapt on the fly (and didn't). Pittsburgh also allowed only one quarterback to top 20 rushing yards in a game this season, and that was DeShone Kizer in a meaningless Week 17 game against the Browns.
Chances are that the Jaguars will have to navigate the one-two punch of winning at Pittsburgh and New England, which might very well be http://www.wildofficialauthentic.com/Alex_Stalock_Jersey_Adidas the two best teams in football. They could still host the AFC Championship Game with a Titans upset, but even that would pit them against a Tennessee team that won both of its games against Jacksonville in 2017. Jacksonville has a defense capable of shutting down any team on its day, but with Bortles barely keeping his head above water, it seems like a matter of time before the quarterback sinks the Jaguars.
What would help: Tennessee upsetting New England. A home game against the Titans is a totally different proposition from a trip to Foxborough with the AFC title on the line. Lesser quarterbacks than Bortles have won there -- Mark Sanchez comes to mind -- but I shouldn't need to explain this one. It's fair to say that the Football Power Index is overestimating Philly's chances with Wentz on injured reserve, but remember that home-field advantage is very valuable. The initial difference between Foles and Wentz on the Vegas line amounted to four points, although I suspect it has gone up to six or even seven given how Foles has played over the past month. Consider that the shorthand for home-field advantage in Vegas (borne out by my research) amounts to 2.5 to three points, making the value of playing a game at home as opposed to on the road between five and six points.
Foles isn't going to be Wentz, but the comparison is irrelevant at this point. If he can just be the guy from Week 15, when he threw for 237 yards and four touchdowns against the Giants, the Eagles should be OK. It's hardly out of the question that Foles shows up and looks better with a week of extra practice time against the Falcons, who ranked 19th in pass defense DVOA this season. The Giants were 20th. The Eagles still have a great defense, and there's a decent chance they'll be at home facing Case Keenum in the NFC Championship Game.
And yet, unlike the five teams ahead of them on this list, I can't put the Eagles any higher because they aren't going to be favored in a game the rest of the way. Foles & Co. will be underdogs against any non-Titans team in the Super Bowl and would likely be a double-digit underdog against the Patriots or Steelers. Teams have managed to pull this off before -- the 1990 Giants won a Super Bowl with Jeff Hostetler entering the lineup in December -- but the odds are against the Eagles.
What would help: The Titans beating the Patriots. This will be a popular request from our playoff teams, but given that the Eagles are likely to be modest underdogs throughout the NFC playoffs, eliminating a top seed from the AFC takes away one of the power teams that would represent a possible Super Bowl blowout scenario.
After we spent all season reveling in how the Saints turned into a team that won with its running game and defense overnight, the Saints won in the wild-card round by throwing the ball all over the field. On a day in which the Panthers generated 413 yards of offense and held the Saints' rushing attack to 41 yards on 22 carries, it took a vintage 376-yard, two-touchdown performance from Drew Brees to get New Orleans the 31 points they needed to advance past Carolina on Sunday night. wholesale nfl jerseys china cheap mlb jerseys jerseys from china cheap nfl jerseys from china |
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| add to favorites | Home cooking for Vikings? Ranking clearest paths to Super Bowl LII | Hardware - Hard disks |
Getting to the Super Bowl can be as much about which teams you avoid as it is how you play. This weekend's wild-card winners are unquestionably happy to move on to the divisional round, but the respective roads facing each of them aren't equal. The Saints, who won the NFC South over the http://www.washingtoncapitalsofficialonline.com/Adidas-Jonas-Siegenthaler-Jersey Falcons during the regular season, will travel to Minnesota as underdogs. Atlanta, meanwhile, is the first 6-seed in history to be favored against a 1-seed when it faces a Carson Wentz-less Philadelphia on Saturday.
After a wild-card round with two upsets, a back-and-forth shootout in New Orleans and a playoff game straight out of 1977 in Jacksonville, let's plot out each team's path to the Super Bowl and figure out who has the most generous route to Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII.
I'll include Kyle Anderson Youth jersey each team's chances of winning the Super Bowl, according to ESPN's Football Power Index, as well as one result that would make their lives much easier. Over the past two seasons, our top-ranked teams in 2015 (Denver) and 2016 (New England) were able to make it to the big game. Our No. 1 pick will need to do something no team has ever done before to keep that up for the 2017 postseason.
The Titans are the worst team left in the bracket, although their 18th-place finish in DVOA gives them a much better playoff floor than the Texans (29th) and Lions (27th) had a year ago. You can't help but http://www.authenticnikegiantshop.com/John-Jerry-Jersey wonder if they would have beaten the Chiefs on Saturday night if a strip-sack of Marcus Mariota hadn't been Dan Hampton Authentic Jersey bizarrely stopped by what Jeff Triplette referred to as forward progress, but in a game with at least half a dozen mistakes from the officiating crew, Triplette's bumbling invoked Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice what could more easily be explained by incompetence.
There is a reason to think that the Titans, as currently constructed, could be Authentic Mark Fayne Jersey better than the inconsistent unit we saw tiptoe through the regular season because of one player: Derrick Henry. With DeMarco Murray sidelined, Mike Mularkey has been forced to turn to the former Heisman Trophy winner as his feature back, and Henry delivered. He gashed the Chiefs for 191 yards from scrimmage on 25 touches and put the game away with runs of 10 and 22 yards on Tennessee's final possession.
Fans have been clamoring for the second-year back to get a bigger role, and with good reason. The Titans are a fundamentally better offense with Henry as a feature back, with Henry offering both more consistency and big-play ability. Football Outsiders tracks a statistic for running backs called success rate, which measures how frequently a running back keeps his team on schedule by gaining a prescribed amount of yardage on each down. Henry's 48 percent success rate is 15th in the league. Murray, at 39 percent, was 43rd among 47 backs.
The passing game also has been more productive with Henry around. With the former Alabama star on the field this season, Mariota & Co. have posted a 105.3 passer rating and averaged 8.1 yards per throw. With Murray in the backfield, though, the passing game has been brutal, averaging 6.3 yards per attempt with a passer rating of just 65.1. Mariota's sack rate has been slightly higher with Henry on the field, but he has thrown one interception on 128 pass attempts with Henry and 16 on 323 throws with Murray.
Henry gashed a Chiefs run defense that ranked dead last in DVOA on Saturday. If that seems like a one-off, consider that he'll be facing a Patriots run defense that wasn't much better in the regular season; Matt Patricia's unit was 30th in rushing defense DVOA, just four-tenths of a percentage point ahead of Kansas City. If the Titans can somehow carry a lead or keep the Pats game close into the fourth quarter, it would hardly be a surprise to see Henry breaking off steady chunks of yardage.
Of course, as 13-point underdogs, the Titans are unlikely to be all that close deep into the second half against the top seed in the AFC. Even if they somehow pull off an upset and beat New England, Tennessee would still be on the road, facing either the Steelers or Jaguars. Tennessee has beaten Jacksonville twice this season, but when the best-case scenario is a trip to play the best defense in football, the Titans aren't going to be thrilled about their chances. Tennessee also would be a comfortable underdog against any of the remaining NFC teams in the Super Bowl, barring an Eagles win combined with a season-ending injury to Nick Foles. The Titans are in with a fighting chance, but they have the toughest slate of any remaining team.
What would help: Jacksonville upsetting Pittsburgh. There's no truth to the old adage about teams struggling to beat their opponents three times in one season, as the Saints http://www.authenticcoyotestore.com/-50-antoine-vermette-jersey_c-449.html proved on Sunday by beating the Panthers and taking teams with a 2-0 record over one opponent to a 12-5 mark since 1990 when they play those same foes a third time in the postseason. The Titans match up well with a Jaguars team whose primary weakness is stopping the run.
The Jags won their first playoff game since 2007 by overcoming the Bills in what might be charitably defined as a defensive struggle. Both defenses played well, but neither team's quarterback or offensive coordinator came to play, producing the lowest-scoring wild-card game in league history.
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| add to favorites | Missouri upends South Carolina in emotional SEC clash | Hardware - Hard disks |
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In the final minutes of Sunday's game, South Carolina's Dawn Staley was back in the locker room and star A'ja Wilson was fouled out on the bench. That gives you a good idea how the No. 4 Gamecocks' trip to Missouri went.
For the second year in a row, the Tigers upset South Carolina on their home court of Mizzou Arena. Last season, that game was Feb. 19, and the Gamecocks didn't lose again on their way to the 2017 national championship. "Maybe this is the prelude to that [again]," Staley said after the Tigers' 83-74 victory. "They've got a really good basketball team. They've done well against us."
It was an emotional game on both sides; No. 15 Missouri had standout Sophie Cunningham back after a one-game absence with a strained knee suffered at Alabama on Dec. 31. Thursday, http://www.officialsunstore.com/Dragan_Bender_Jersey LSU upset the Tigers without Cunningham, who said she wanted to play then but wasn't cleared by the doctor. That night, though, she felt certain she'd be http://www.authenticrangershop.com/authentic-77-anthony-deangelo-jersey.html on the court Sunday against the Gamecocks. And what a game she had: 27 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the floor and 9-of-11 from the foul line. She also had seven assists and six rebounds -- and one little "How about that shot?" dance near the Mizzou bench in the second half. "I'm just trying to enjoy every moment," said Cunningham, the hometown kid born and raised here in Columbia. "Our fans love seeing us have fun."
Much fun was had by the Tigers and the 4,652 fans who braved freezing rain to make the game, but that was not the case for the Gamecocks. Wilson was in foul trouble throughout the afternoon, and ended up playing just 19 minutes. Her fifth foul came with 2 minutes, 55 seconds left when she tried to get through a screen. By that point, Staley had already seen enough, and then some. She didn't put in a substitute for Wilson in the allotted time, resulting in the second technical of the game on the Gamecocks' bench. Staley was ejected and walked off the court, later expressing her displeasure while trying not to go too far into that.
Staley thinks that her players are in Jonathan Stewart Womens Jersey the position of having to put up with extra-physical play and not retaliate. "I have to protect my players," Staley said. "I'm going to do that every day of the week. Every day. So whoever wants to call our games or talk about our kids, I'm going to protect them. I protected them today. And I'm going to continue to do that." Wilson came in averaging 24.6 points and 11.4 rebounds. She finished with a season-low eight points, on 4-of-7 shooting, and six rebounds. Her previous scoring low in what has been a fantastic senior season was 16 (twice). Wilson was coming off a 25-point, 15-rebound performance Thursday against Mississippi.
Staley felt that Wilson wasn't given the respect she deserves as a two-time SEC player of the year and a strong candidate this season for national player of the year. "I don't know what it is, but we're going to figure it out," Staley said. In last season's Tigers-Gamecocks game, Wilson had 23 points and nine rebounds. But then-senior Alaina Coates was limited to two points and fouled out, having played 20 minutes. Missouri was called for 23 fouls in that game versus 19 for South Carolina. But Staley was upset enough about that contest that she contacted Sally Bell, the SEC coordinator of women's basketball officials, before Sunday's game. Staley was concerned about having two of the same officials Sunday that also worked last year's game.
"I don't know if that's just coincidental; maybe it was, because that's what she said," Staley said. "I'm not saying they're the reason why [South Carolina lost], but when you're coordinating officials in games, you gotta do better. There's implications not just in our conference -- maybe people have a little South Carolina fatigue -- but it has NCAA implications. I don't like to put our team through that.
"We play a tough schedule; we've got a tough league. When we're able to play the way we need to play, and play our players, we can give you a good game. You can see a great game. When we have to play people who [normally] don't play for 20 or 30 minutes? That's really hard." But all this makes you wonder: Was the officiating in the Gamecocks' heads even before Sunday's game began?
Still, there might be a silver lining to the loss: Other players had to Kellen Winslow Youth jersey step forward with Wilson and fellow post starter Alexis Jennings (21 minutes) limited by foul trouble. Point guard Tyasha Harris led the way with a double-double, 14 points and 10 assists. The Gamecocks (13-2 overall, 2-1 SEC) play their next two games at home, against Auburn on Thursday and No. 7 Tennessee on Sunday (ESPN2, 1 p.m. ET).
For her part, Missouri coach Robin http://www.officialauthenticravenstore.com/womens_patrick_onwuasor_jersey Pingeton -- who had starting forward Jordan Frericks play just 18 minutes before fouling out in the fourth quarter -- stayed away from the fray in regard to officiating."We've got a lot of respect for South Carolina," Womens Tony Perez Jersey Pingeton said. "No doubt, A'ja Wilson is one of the best players in the country, and she's every bit as good as advertised. I thought our kids did a really good job following our game plan. We bent a couple of times, but we didn't break."
The win was important for the Tigers (14-2 and 2-1), especially with four of their next five games on the road -- including a Jan. 28 rematch with the Gamecocks at South Carolina. cheap nfl jerseys usa mlb authentic jerseys hockey jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale nike nfl jerseys wholesale nhl jerseys china |
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| add to favorites | Peterman for now -- but let's keep an eye on the | Hardware - Hard disks |
draft and free agency. With two picks in the first round (Nos. 21 and 22), the Bills might be in a position to draft Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield or they could test free agency with veteran Case Keenum if he hits the market.
Mike Clay, NFL writer: Sam Bradford. Sean McDermott made it pretty clear during the regular season that he’s looking for a change from Taylor, so look for the team http://www.49ersofficialonlineshop.com/35-eric-reid-super-bowl-jersey.html to add a veteran to compete with Nate Peterman for the 2018 job. Bradford makes a ton of sense as a solid veteran who plays efficient Womens Yordano Ventura Jersey ball -- a logical fit for Dustin Brown Authentic Jersey a run-first team that wants to lean on its defense. Considering his durability concerns, a relatively inexpensive one- or two-year deal makes sense for both sides.
Dan Graziano, NFL writer: Alex Smith. I say Buffalo drafts another quarterback and signs a veteran. Could be tough for Smith to swallow another situation in which he's holding a spot for a draft pick and might be there only a year or two, but Buffalo has a lot to offer as a playoff team with a run game and a good defense. Peterman is of course in the picture, but I doubt the Bills feel great about anointing him the starter this offseason.
Mike Rodak, ESPN NFL Nation Bills writer: Smith. A lot depends on whether the Bills decide to keep offensive coordinator Rick Dennison or, if not, what sort of quarterback they see fitting their scheme. But the strategy from Buffalo could mirror what the Chiefs had this season: a game-managing veteran keeping the seat warm for a high draft pick at the position. If the asking price is reasonable for Smith in a trade, I could see Bills coach Sean McDermott doing a deal with his mentor, Andy Reid. Whomever the Bills sign, the expectation is they will draft a quarterback in the first round, potentially by trading up with their No. 21 and No. 22 (from Kansas City) picks they own.
Mike Sando, senior NFL writer: Peterman is the leader in the clubhouse, but when I projected starters to various teams during a project last month, Smith came to mind as a good fit. Of course, Smith would be a good fit lots of places. Some Bills fans groaned when I suggested Mayfield could be a quarterback available to Buffalo when the Bills are drafting. Truth is it's just too early to know how the http://www.officialbluejacketsshop.com/authentic-30-curtis-mcelhinney-jersey.html team will proceed at the position.
Field Yates, NFL Insider: Peterman, but I don't think that means he's the long-term answer. The Bills are a unique team in that they made the postseason while also acquiring draft capital in the offseason in the form of extra first-, second- and third-round picks. That puts Buffalo in a spot to draft a young quarterback early in Filip Forsberg Womens Jersey 2018 while also leaning on Peterman early in the season if the drafted quarterback is not an immediate plug-and-play starter.
Bowen: Denver Broncos. They have a win-now defense with pass-rushers and aggressive coverage corners. But they need a QB who can establish some offensive consistency and protect the ball. Given Taylor's ability to create outside of the pocket, and his low turnover rate, he could be a fit as the starter in '18 if the Broncos cater to his talent with scheme and game plan.
Clay: Broncos. Alex Smith to the Cardinals makes too much sense, and I believe the Jaguars will add a rookie to compete with Bortles, which opens the door for a Taylor/first-round rookie competition in Denver. The window is closing on the Demaryius Thomas/Emmanuel Sanders duo, and the Broncos’ defense is still one of the league’s best. This is a team that can make a playoff run with a few savvy offseason moves and by adding a quarterback who will protect the ball. Taylor, who sports the best interception rate in NFL history at 1.4 percent, fits the bill and adds value with his legs.
Graziano: Broncos. They still need to address the position long-term, and they could draft a QB, as well. But Taylor isn't a guy you'd worry about standing in the way of a prospect who came more quickly than you expected. Denver seems to be determined to prove it can win with adequate QB play, and Taylor can certainly give them that.
Rodak: Jacksonville Jaguars. Could Taylor's NFL career continue where his Bills career might have ended Sunday? The Jaguars were 9-0 when Blake Bortles did not throw interceptions this season, including their playoff win over Buffalo. When Bortles was intercepted at least once, they were 2-6. Swapping Bortles for Taylor would still leave the Jaguars' passing game with limitations, but it would give them a more turnover-averse quarterback who would leave it to Leonard Fournette and an elite defense to win games.
Sando: Jaguars. They would be a good fit because Taylor would bring the scrambling ability Bortles possesses without all the turnovers. The Jaguars have the running game to support Taylor, who has been efficient in a low-volume pass offense.
Yates: Arizona Cardinals. Few teams have had the recent success of the Cardinals in acquiring veteran players and helping them to breathe second life into a career. Carson Palmer, Dwight Freeney and Tramon Williams are notable examples. There are many question marks this offseason in Arizona -- starting with who will replace Bruce Arians -- but Taylor would be a reasonable addition given that Arizona is far enough down the draft order (No. 15) that finding a top quarterback prospect is no sure thing.
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| add to favorites | Tennessee has already advanced further than most | Hardware - Hard disks |
thought after upsetting the Chiefs in the wild-card round. The Titans did, however, demonstrate a winning playoff formula: A reliance on the power running of tailback Derrick Henry and the improvisation of quarterback Marcus Mariota. Henry averaged 3.8 yards after first contact against Kansas City, which is precisely the kind of playmaking an underdog team would need to pull off a road Anze Kopitar Youth jersey playoff victory. Read more on the Titans from Cameron Wolfe.
Patriots lowdown: Some observers were rattled by a round of sub-Hall of Fame play from quarterback Tom Brady, who threw interceptions in five consecutive late-season games. But remember the big picture: In a league with no perfect teams, the Patriots have lost only once since Oct. 1. Brady has had an extra week to nurse shoulder and Achilles injuries, and tight end Rob Gronkowski is as healthy as he has ever been in January.
It seems likely that the franchise is headed toward an offseason reset to some degree -- coordinators Josh McDaniel and Matt Patricia are receiving heavy interest as potential head coaches. But for now, the relatively weak state of the AFC bracket puts the Patriots in excellent http://www.officialnewyorkrangers.com/Adidas-Mike-Richter-Jersey position for a run at their eighth Super Bowl appearance in the Brady-Bill Belichick http://www.officialmagicstoreonline.com/Tracy_Mcgrady_Jersey era. Read more on the Patriots from Mike Reiss.
Jaguars lowdown: After outlasting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the Jaguars drew an interesting divisional-round matchup. They more than handled the Steelers in Week 5, intercepting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger five times in a 30-9 victory at Heinz Field. It was one of nine games in which the Jaguars’ entirely legitimate defense held an opponent to 10 or fewer points. Quarterback Blake Bortles, however, has regressed since an early- and midseason surge, and his play poses a massive obstacle to advancing further. Read more on the Jaguars from Michael DiRocco.
Steelers lowdown: Promising playoff paths have crashed for the Steelers because of injuries to one or more of their Big 3: Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell. So all eyes will be on Brown, whom the Steelers are hoping can return after missing the final three regular-season games with a calf injury. Like the Patriots, the Steelers were nearly unbeatable during the final three months of the season. They lost once -- to the Patriots -- after Oct. 8, but their worst day of the season was undoubtedly that Week 5 loss to the Jaguars. Read more on the Steelers from Jeremy Fowler.
Falcons lowdown: After some early-season struggles, the Falcons now have the look of a low-seed http://www.packersfootballofficialshop.com/authentic-mason-crosby-jersey.html that no team wants to play. They've won seven of their past nine games, and Saturday night's choke-out of the high-scoring Los Angeles Rams demonstrated how Atlanta can win a defensive/ball-possession game. It was amazing to see the Falcons pull out the 26-13 win, even as quarterback Matt Ryan threw shorter (3.8 air yards per pass) than in any game of his career. Their ability to navigate a cross-country trip, and a slippery track at the Los Angeles Coliseum, bodes well for a long playoff run. Read more on the Falcons from Vaughn McClure.
Eagles lowdown: These are teeth-grinding times in Philadelphia, where the season-ending knee injury of quarterback Carson Wentz has stunted anticipation about a Super Bowl run. The Eagles' offensive scoring output dropped by almost half in the Robert Quinn Youth jersey three games backup Nick Foles has started -- from 28.3 points to 15.7 points per game -- and it's fair to question whether they can navigate the playoffs without Wentz. And in a trend that has gained attention recently, the Eagles' defense allowed seven touchdown passes over their final four games, tied for third most in the NFL. Could they have discovered a solution during their first-round bye? Read more on the Eagles from Tim McManus.
Bottom line: It's pretty wild but really not debatable that a No. 6 seed opened as a 2.5-point favorite in a playoff game at the No. 1 seed. (A top seed has never been an Logan Couture Youth jersey underdog in its first playoff game, per ESPN Stats & Information.) But it's an appropriate recognition of the Falcons' winning formula and concern about the Eagles' post-Wentz drop-off.Saints
lowdown: After an 0-2 start, the Saints have put together their best team since winning Super Bowl XLIV in 2009. That was also the year they defeated the Vikings in the NFC Championship -- the game that prompted the NFL’s Bountygate investigation. We’ll see just how much the Saints have changed since their Week 1 loss to the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, and whether they can establish a ball-control running attack against Minnesota's top-rated defense. Read more on the Saints from Mike Triplett.
Vikings lowdown: Minnesota had the NFL’s best defense this season, whether you measure by points allowed per game (15.8), yards (275.9) or third-down percentage (25.2). Fourteen of the Vikings' 16 opponents managed less than 20 points. Well-rounded and healthy, the unit is poised to control the NFC playoffs. From a team perspective, perhaps the biggest question is whether quarterback Case Keenum can continue his charmed play. He finished the season ranked second in Total QBR (69.7) after five seasons as a backup. Sunday will mark his first playoff appearance. Read more on the Vikings from Courtney Cronin.
Bottom line: All you need to know about the teams' Week 1 matchup is that Sam Bradford threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the Vikings' 29-19 victory. Both teams have undergone significant changes since then, and this matchup could be the best game of the 2017 playoffs.
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| add to favorites | And so after several such incidents, Belichick | Hardware - Hard disks |
explained to Brady in early September that many younger players felt pressured to train at TB12 rather than with the team, and asked the quarterback what was going on. Brady said he didn't know anything about any such pressure, according to people briefed on the exchange, and the two men left the meeting without any resolution.
Belichick felt the need to permanently clarify Guerrero's role, drawing sharp boundaries. After the brief discussion with Brady, Belichick emailed Guerrero to let him know that while he was welcome to work with any players who sought out TB12, he was no longer permitted access to the sideline or all of the team headquarters because he wasn't an employee of the Patriots (a point that Belichick would resoundingly make clear when reporters asked about Guerrero).
An email designed to solve problems only created more of them. Guerrero texted some of the Patriots players who were clients and specified, he says now, "that I would need to treat them at the TB12 Sports Therapy Center." But several players told staffers and coaches that Guerrero gave them the impression that Belichick would no longer allow them to work with him. Davis Webb Authentic Jersey In the view of many Patriots,
it was an example of Guerrero trying to split the organization by turning players against Belichick. All of this happened as Brady, serving as TB12's test case, continued to reiterate publicly and privately his goal of playing into his mid-40s. In October, he again explained to Kraft and Belichick his plans to play a few more years. The question was whether Brady had earned long-term security from the Patriots, or if he would finish his career somewhere else.
Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014 as a future successor to Brady but traded him to San Francisco this season under orders from Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswir BELICHICK HAS FAMOUSLY staked his entire http://www.edmontonoilersofficialonline.com/Adidas-Oscar-Klefbom-Jersey career on the idea that long-term security doesn't exist Womens Rod Carew Jersey in the NFL. Fear, paranoia, the irrelevance of yesterday and tomorrow, and acceptance of Belichick as the ultimate authority are as much a part of the Patriot Way as selflessness and sacrifice. For years, Brady stood as the perfect model for Belichick's system,
a future Hall of Famer who could withstand tough and biting coaching. Brady always knew the hits were coming during Monday morning film sessions -- "The quarterback at Foxborough High could make that throw," Belichick often would say after replaying a Brady misfire -- but he could take it, secure not only in the knowledge of his singular impact on Belichick's career but also in the theater of it http://www.hockeyofficialonline.com/T-Shirts/San_Jose_Sharks.html all, that the coach was doing it in part to send a message that nobody was above criticism. "Tommy is fine with it," his father, Tom Brady Sr., said years ago over dinner in San Mateo, California. "He's the perfect foil for it."
Brady is less fine with it this year. People close to him believe that it started after last year's playoff win over the Houston Texans, in which Brady completed only 18 of 38 passes and threw two interceptions. Belichick lit into him in front of the entire team in a way nobody had ever seen, ripping Brady for carelessness with the ball. "This will get us beat," he told the team after replaying a Brady http://www.officialdodgersteamshop.com/Sandy_Koufax_Jersey interception. "We were lucky to get away with a win."
The criticism has continued this year, as Brady has been hit a lot and battled various injuries. Atypically, he has missed a lot of practices and, in the team's private evaluations, is showing the slippage of a 40-year-old quarterback even as he is contending for MVP and is as deadly as ever with the game on the line. Injuries to his shoulder and Achilles have done more than undermine claims
that the TB12 Method can help you play football virtually pain-free. Subtle changes have at times hampered the offense and affected the depth chart. On a fourth-quarter play against the Los Angeles Chargers, for instance, Brady had a clean pocket and a first read open deep, possibly for a touchdown. But Brady got rid of the ball quickly over the middle to receiver Chris Hogan, who had nowhere to run and was hit hard, injuring his shoulder. He missed all but one game of the rest of the season. "Tom was trying to get it out quick," a Patriots staffer says. "As fragility has increased, nervousness has Robert Ayers Jersey also Clay Matthews Authentic Jersey increased."
At the same time, as his age has increased, Brady has become an advocate of positive thinking. Belichick's negativity and cynicism have gotten old, Brady has told other Patriots players and staff. He feels he has accomplished enough that he shouldn't have to endure so much grief. Patriots staffers have noticed that, this year more than ever, he seems to volley between unwavering confidence and driving insecurity. Brady has noted to staff a few times this year that, no matter how many game-changing throws he makes, Belichick hasn't awarded him Patriot of the Week all year. mlb jerseys wholesale cheap basketball jerseys cheap jerseys nfl cheap nfl jerseys free shipping baseball jerseys wholesale nba basketball jerseys jerseys supply |
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| add to favorites | Few in the building had a problem with Brady's method | Hardware - Hard disks |
-- mostly based on stretching with bands, eating lots of vegetables, drinking lots of water, getting lots of sleep and, most of all, achieving peak "pliability." They did have a problem with what Brady and Guerrero promised the TB12 Method could do. They claimed it could absolve football of responsibility for injury: "When athletes get injured, they shouldn't blame their sport," Brady wrote. The method also was so consuming and unwavering in its rules and convictions that, while it helped some players, it felt "like a cult" to others, one Patriots staffer says. The way TB12 began to creep into Brady's life worried people close to the QB, many of whom were suspicious of Guerrero. "Tom changed," says a friend of Brady's. "That's where a lot of these problems started."
Brady and Guerrero's training http://www.mavericksteamonline.com/Devin_Harris_Jersey beliefs introduced an unspoken pressure in the building, with players wondering where they should work out. In August, receiver Julian Edelman blew out his knee, costing him the season, and there was "hypersensitivity" among players, in the words of a Patriots coach, over who would take his place. New players felt the surest way to earn Brady's trust was to join Rob
Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and others by seeking advice from Guerrero at his TB12 clinic -- and not team doctors, which Belichick preferred. Guerrero says he wasn't pressuring players to adopt his approach. "Players have always decided to come or not come on their own," Eric Tomlinson Jersey he says now. But according to multiple sources, players openly discussed with Patriots coaches, staff and trusted advisers whether to follow Brady or the team, Authentic Gary Zimmerman Jersey leaving them trapped: Do we risk alienating the NFL's most powerful coach or risk alienating the NFL's most powerful quarterback?
EARLY THIS SEASON, Belichick wanted to discuss all these issues with Brady.Guerrero had been around the team for years, mostly as an unthreatening outsider who worked with former linebacker Willie McGinest and, starting in 2004, Brady. On the author page in his 2004 book, "In Balance for Life," Guerrero says he received a degree in traditional Chinese medicine from the now-closed Samra University of Oriental Medicine in Los Angeles, and later opened a sports injury,
rehabilitation and performance-enhancement center, also in Los Angeles. In 2013, Belichick had welcomed Guerrero into the New England fold, giving him free rein in the building and, sources with direct knowledge of the situation say, access to meetings in which medical records for Patriots players were discussed (Guerrero denies ever having seen any records). The coach figured that, because Guerrero had Brady's best interests in mind, he probably had the Patriots' best interests in mind too, and could be trusted. But http://www.officialmarinershop.com/Drew_Smyly_Jersey Guerrero often would blame Patriots trainers for
injuries, while offering few insightful opinions of his own, and Belichick quickly realized inviting him had been a mistake. And so in 2014, he eliminated Guerrero's access to those meetings while keeping him on as a team consultant. That was the same year Brady and Guerrero decided to market their business as revolutionary; the same year that Brady began to speak unwaveringly about playing into his mid-40s; and the same year that Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppolo out of Eastern Illinois -- the first sign that Belichick was invested in a future that did not include the quarterback who had changed his life and legacy.
It was also the same year that the Patriots would go on a run toward their fourth Super Bowl win, altering the team dynamic in fundamental ways that would come to a head this fall. During their 10-year championship drought, Brady and Belichick had come up just short together and could only dive back into the redemptive power of work, trying to slim the margins between defeat and victory. In beating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, the two men drew strength from different touchstones. Belichick found virtue in his idea of the Patriot Way -- the demanding, football-first
culture with an emotionless pursuit of victory -- and Brady found virtue in his Method, which he believed helped him thwart the inevitability of time, reinforcing his belief that he was still not on the downside of his career and deserving of a new contract. In 2016, Kraft and Brady's agent, Don Yee, began negotiating a new deal; Belichick and other Patriots staff had to abruptly leave the NFL combine in Indianapolis to be part of the process. Brady's two-year contract, with a $28 million signing bonus, was designed to set up 2018 as a key year, when the team could, in theory, look at a 41-year-old Brady and his $22 million cap hit and decide if it made sense to transition to Garoppolo.
A year later, after another Super Bowl win -- the Brady-led, historic comeback from 28-3 to defeat the Atlanta Falcons -- Brady's stature in the organization had grown to the point that he was considered management. New players often address him as "sir." As Brady gained power, so did Guerrero, who became an even more divisive force in the building. One player visited TB12 under what he perceived as pressure, and declined to allow Guerrero to massage his injured legs. Instead he asked to keep treatment limited to only his arm, out of fear that one of Guerrero's famous
deep-force muscle treatments would set back his recovery. The Boston Sports Journal would report on another player who was told by Patriots trainers to do squats but later instructed by Guerrero to not do them. Brady would tell teammates, "Bill's answer to everything is to lift more weights" -- a claim that many staffers and players felt was unfair, given the team's dedication to soft-tissue science and a healthy diet. cheap nfl jerseys from china mlb jerseys wholesale wholesale nfl jerseys china cheap nfl jerseys paypal |
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| add to favorites | For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, is this the beginning of the end | Hardware - Hard disks |
THE PROBLEM WITH living your life under the spotlight is that the camera captures only the public eruption, not the months of silent anger. On Dec. 3, when the New England Patriots played the Buffalo Bills, Tom Brady walked to the sideline after throwing late and behind receiver Brandin Cooks on third down, ending a first-quarter drive. Brady was angrier and more irritable than usual, as has often been the case this season in the eyes of some Patriots players and staff. As he unsnapped his chinstrap, Brady passed offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on the sideline.
Brady kept walking, and glaring at McDaniels, so the coach repeated: "We had him open." Brady snapped, pivoting to McDaniels and yelling at him, "I Harrison Barnes Authentic Jersey got it!" Everyone within earshot, including head coach Bill Belichick, turned to watch as Brady screamed. He removed his helmet, and as a Patriots staffer held him back -- and with McDaniels' father and legendary high school coach in Ohio, Thom, in the stands behind the bench -- capped off the exchange by yelling, "F--- you!"
Video of the scene went viral, with many rationalizing it as a symptom of Brady's legendary competitiveness. Brady would later apologize to McDaniels, who dismissed the incident to reporters as "part of what makes him great." After all, many in the Patriots' building knew that Brady's explosion wasn't really about McDaniels. It wasn't about Cooks. And it wasn't about the Bills game. It was about the culmination of months of significant behind-the-scenes frustrations. For almost two decades, Belichick has managed to subvert the egos of his best player, his boss and himself for the good of the team, yielding historic results. This year, though, the dynamics have been different.
THE PATRIOTS ARE in uncharted territory. They haven't just won games and titles. They've won at an unprecedented rate and over an unprecedented span, which makes the feelings of entitlement creeping inside Gillette Stadium unprecedented as well. The Patriots, in the only statement anyone associated with the team would make on the record for this story, responded to specific questions by saying that there are
"several inaccuracies and multiple examples given that absolutely did not occur," though they declined to go into detail. But according to interviews with more than a dozen New England staffers, executives, players and league sources with knowledge of the team's inner workings, the three most powerful people in the franchise -- Belichick, Brady and owner Robert Kraft -- have had serious disagreements.
They differ on Brady's trainer, body coach and business partner Alex Guerrero; over the team's long-term plans at quarterback; over Belichick's bracing coaching style; and most of all, over who will be the last man standing. Those interviewed describe a palpable sense in the building that this might be the last year together for this group.
Brady, Belichick and Kraft have raised expectations and possibilities so high that virtually no other team in the Super Bowl era could truly comprehend what it's like to be them. Brady and Belichick weren't only pushing the boundaries of what a team could accomplish. They also were challenging basic understandings of how a group of high achievers escape the usual pulls of ego and pride. For 17 years, the Patriots have withstood everything the NFL and opponents could throw their way, knowing that if they were united, nobody could touch them. Now they're threatening to come undone the only way possible: from within.
THE CRACKS FIRST revealed themselves in early September. The season had just started, and Guerrero was once again becoming an issue in the Patriots' building, just weeks before the release of Brady's first real book, "The TB12 Method." It was more than a fitness and diet guide. For Brady, a self-described "loner" who always seemed most comfortable surrounded by family or on a football field, the book represented a move to extend his brand beyond the game -- and beyond the Patriots. Until a few years ago, he seemed uninterested in ever doing so, content to be a father and husband and son and http://www.officialfootballauthentics.com/indianapolis_colts-c-34_433.html brother and transcendent quarterback, knowing there wasn't time for much else.
Guerrero persuaded Brady to find time. The two http://www.cardinalsofficialnflauthenticonline.com/cardinals+andre+ellington+jersey men had worked together for years, with Guerrero having found a spot in Brady's famously small group of advisers, eventually becoming a godfather to one of his sons.
Guerrero has a history of controversial methods -- in 2005, he paid a judgment to the Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations that he had claimed dietary supplements could help cure cancer -- and he believed he had discovered a way to revolutionize how athletes train. In his book and in the Archie Bradley Jersey building, Brady was offering opinions not only on training but also on lifestyle, writing that he envisioned a world populated with TB12 Sports Therapy Center franchises.
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| add to favorites | The Titans' route to beating the Chiefs | Hardware - Hard disks |
lies with the playmaking ability of Marcus Mariota and Derrick Henry. Mariota's legs are the wild card in this matchup for a Titans offense that took a big step backward in 2017, finishing 23rd overall. Tennessee beat Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium in December 2016 and they're confident they can do it again. I'll believe it when I see it. Chiefs 25, Titans 20 -- Cameron Wolfe
All teams are better when they win the turnover battle, but few depend on winning that part of the game like the Chiefs. They were 9-1 this season when they were ahead in turnover differential and 1-5 when they were http://www.officialcoyotesonline.com/Niklas_Hjalmarsson_Jersey even or negative. They also were 6-1 in games against teams that finished in the bottom 10 in turnovers. The Titans, with Mariota among the league leaders in interceptions, finished in that bottom 10. It’s not hard to picture a Marcus Peters interception making the difference in this game. Chiefs 23, Titans 17 -- Adam Teicher
The Falcons are a lot healthier than anticipated, according to coach Dan Quinn, with running back Devonta Freeman recovering quickly from a knee injury, Cody Whitehair Youth jersey wide receiver Julio Jones much better off ankle and rib injuries, and return man Andre Roberts running well off ankle/knee injuries. All of that is Donnel Pumphrey Authentic Jersey good news for the offense, with Jones being that big-play threat, Freeman serving as another outlet in the
passing game when Matt Ryan gets rushed, and Roberts setting up good field position with big returns. The Falcons haven't put their best game together yet this season, but one would figure the offense will fare better than the combined 2-for-9 in red zone opportunities over the past two games. Last year's Super Bowl implosion should be motivation going into this postseason. And this offense is capable of exploding anytime, even on the road against an Aaron Donald-led defense. It comes down to Matt Bryant's foot, though. Falcons 31, Rams 28 -- Vaughn McClure
For those wondering whether the Rams will be rusty after resting most of their starters Sunday, look no further than what they did after their bye week, when they beat the New York Giants 51-17 on the road. Granted, the Falcons are a much better team. But the Rams' front seven should have its way against the Falcons' beat-up offensive line and make life difficult on an immobile Matt Ryan.
I worry about how the Rams match up with two big, physical receivers in Julio Jones and http://www.goldenstatewarriorsauthentic.com/Womens-Stephen-Curry-Jersey Mohamed http://www.texansfootballsprostore.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_DJ_READER_JERSEY.html Sanu. And I worry about the Rams' kicker, Sam Ficken, an undrafted free agent from 2015 who hadn't kicked in a regular-season game until two weeks ago. Greg Zuerlein's season-ending injury may eventually catch up to the Rams, but not in this round. They're rested, they're at home, and frankly, they're better. Rams 31, Falcons 24 -- Alden Gonzalez
The Bills have been able to cover up their 29th-ranked run defense this season when they have been able to force turnovers, and Blake Bortles presents the best opportunity for Buffalo to pull off an upset. Bortles is 8-0 this season when he does not throw an interception but 2-6 when he Aaron Colvin Jersey does. The Bills are 8-3 when they force at least one interception and 5-1 when they force at least two. The Bills have three defenders -- safeties Jordan Poyer (5) and Micah Hyde (5), as well as cornerback Tre'Davious White (4) -- in the top 12 in interceptions this season, and if those players come up big, the Bills can steal a possession and win a low-scoring game. Bills 16, Jaguars 13 -- Mike Rodak
This is the time of year the Jaguars drafted Leonard Fournette for, and they're going to ride the rookie running back pretty hard against the Bills, which makes sense because the Bills' rushing defense ranks Authentic Phil Simms Jersey 29th in the NFL (124.6 yards per game). Fournette, who is just the second rookie in franchise history to rush for more than 1,000 yards, said he's ready for a heavy workload. His career high in carries is 28, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he approached that number Sunday. The Jaguars' defense has been much better against the run since the addition of Marcell Dareus, and with the iffy status of LeSean McCoy, the Jaguars are going to make the Bills put the game on Tyrod Taylor's shoulders. Jaguars 24, Bills 14 -- Michael DiRocco
The two regular-season meetings between these two, both Saints wins, came down to a few big plays that turned things in the favor of New Orleans. Cam Newton didn't play particularly well, either. The Panthers will eliminate many of those errors, but the Saints and Drew Brees are still too good at home. Brees' ability to get rid of the ball before the Carolina pass rush can have an impact is the key. The Panthers have gotten to him only three times in two games. Not much for a team that averaged 3.3 sacks in its other 14 games. Saints 24, Panthers 21 -- David Newton
The Saints know the formula for beating the Panthers after winning by double digits in each of their first two meetings: containing Cam Newton and running for nearly 150 yards both times. But both of those things are a lot easier said than done. No other team rushed for more than 120 yards against Carolina’s loaded front seven this year. And now Newton has tight end Greg Olsen back, while the Saints have lost linebacker A.J. Klein and safety http://www.authenticthunderstores.com/authentic-54-patrick-patterson-jersey.html Kenny Vaccaro to injured reserve. (On the flip side: They’ll have breakout star CB Marshon Lattimore back after he missed the first two games against Carolina.) Ultimately, the Saints’ loaded offense is still the biggest game-changer, and the Panthers haven’t shown that they can stop Mark Ingram, Alvin Kamara, Brees and Michael Thomas. Saints 29, Panthers 23 -- Mike Triplett
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, playing against http://www.buccaneersshopnfljersey.com/Vernon-Hargreaves-Iii-Jersey a 73-win Warriors team that had dispatched the Cavaliers one year earlier. He shot poorly early in the series, absorbing criticism that he was shrinking in the moment.
But not on June 19, 2016. It was Game 7 and a tie score with 53 seconds remaining. After an inbounds pass from LeBron, Kyrie held the ball, dribbling six times toward the right wing, where JR Smith set a screen on Klay Thompson, a stout defensive player, and that forced the smaller Steph Curry to switch onto Irving.
Irving hesitated for a second, then stepped back and lofted a 3-pointer over the outstretched arms of the league's reigning MVP, a shot Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert later declared "the most important possession of our lives." It swished, and Cleveland's long, painful championship drought was history.
Irving finished with 26 points and six rebounds. LeBron submitted a Keith Hernandez Womens Jersey triple-double and was named Finals MVP. The two embraced at midcourt, the cornerstones of Cleveland's future. Nineteen months later, Irving is in Boston and rumors are swirling that James could soon leave Cleveland too. LeBron cornered the NBA notion that athletes should dictate their own destinies; Irving ripped that page out of James' book and implemented it accordingly.
Together, over three years, the duo played in two All-Star Games and three Finals. They weren't particularly close, nor were they openly at odds. Teammates say LeBron's habit of referring to Irving as "the kid" and his "little brother" was eventually viewed by Irving as a subtle lack of respect. Another player, advised by the Cavaliers not to discuss Irving publicly, noted that LeBron also predicted Irving would be an MVP one day.
Today, when http://www.officialpittsburghpenguins.com/Adidas-Sidney-Crosby-Jersey asked if he feels that James viewed him as a basketball equal, Irving answers, "I don't know if he did or not, but I don't really care. I didn't lose any sleep over it." Those close to Irving insist his leaving wasn't all about LeBron, and not one of them was surprised that Irving asked to move on from Cleveland.
In 2015, Irving was named third-team All-NBA and had a right to believe it could be a recurring http://www.officialbluesauthentic.com/authentic-29-vince-dunn-jersey.html phenomenon. Instead, Damian Lillard, Thompson and Kyle Lowry were chosen ahead of him in 2016. Last season, it was Isaiah Thomas, John Wall and DeMar DeRozan."[Playing with LeBron] has its positives,'' Irving says, "and it also comes with responsibilities. It was clear to me that we needed each other."
Irving was the point guard in name, but LeBron often assumed his role as a ball-dominant point-forward in crucial situations. It produced results. The team averaged 54 wins and went to three straight Finals in their three seasons together. But Irving's teammates say there were times Kyrie felt marginalized -- despite the fact that over the three years, he averaged nearly the same usage rate without LeBron (29 percent) as he did with him (28.6).
"Ky wasn't as happy last year," says one of his former teammates who talks with Irving regularly. "He wasn't disruptive -- just a little disconnected." "Happiness comes and goes in the NBA," Cavs veteran Channing Frye says. "Kyrie had every right to do what he wanted." "I saw Kyrie high, I saw him low," Iman Shumpert says. "He's seen me tear up a locker room. We're friends. You help each other through it.'' During a rare practice in the middle of last season, coach Tyronn Lue, who was standing next to assistant coach and Irving confidant Phil Handy, called out to his young point guard.
"Ky," Lue said, "I want you to play a little faster." "Why?" Irving asked. "Because if we play faster, we Authentic Red Schoendienst Jersey get shots off easier." "I don't need to play faster to get my shot off," Irving replied. "I can do that anytime." "I'm not talking about your shot. I'm talking about RJ and JR," Lue said, citing teammates Richard Jefferson and Smith. "Well, that's No. 23's job," Irving replied, referring to James.
According to members of the Cavs organization who witnessed the exchange, Lue ended the conversation by walking away, shaking his head. Both Lue and Handy, whom Irving affectionately calls his "OG," Cliff Avril Authentic Jersey confirmed the incident but declined to elaborate. "Kyrie is a great player," Lue says. "Please tell him I wish him the best."Irving, for his part, laments the fact that his conversation with Lue ended without a resolution. "At that time, we had probably lost Authentic Kevin Pamphile Jersey a few [games]," Irving says now. "[Lue] is coming up to me and saying, 'We've got to play faster,' and I probably wasn't willing to accept it at the time. So maybe I'd like a do-over on that.
"But those conversations go on every day in the NBA. In this case, instead of those things being addressed so you can move forward, it gets held on to, and it becomes a big thing. I was trying to figure out where I fit in and at the same time asking myself, 'What's best for the team?' Sometimes, I didn't know the answer. I had to figure it out on my own. It wasn't like I was getting answers from everyone else."
When the 2016-17 season ended, Irving was making millions. He had his own shoe campaign. He'd been to the Finals again. Yet something, he says now, was missing. "Sometimes, in the search for 'the moment,' you can get lost," Irving says. "I want to be an All-Star. OK. I want to be MVP. OK. I want to win a championship. I want to average this much. I want to be better than this person. I want the media to accept me this way. "You start formulating all these false realities, and you realize that's not it at all. Once I separated myself from that, I started looking at things I wanted to do with my life http://www.officialauthenticredsox.com/authentic-26-wade-boggs-jersey.html that would make me happy." cheap jerseys paypal cheap nfl jerseys usa wholesale jerseys paypal cheap nfl jerseys from china nike nfl jerseys from china nike nfl jerseys wholesale nike nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys china |
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IT'S THE FIRST day of school, September 2008, and a teenager navigates the hallways of St. Patrick High School, alone, fending off a twinge of panic. He senses the sideways glances. He hears the whispers. He notes the blatant http://www.officialcoltsfootballshop.com/Nike-Henry-Anderson-Jersey.html stares. For a fleeting moment, the 16-year-old considers, Why did I do this? Why didn't I just leave well enough alone? He'd been content at Montclair Kimberley Academy, the tony private school where he'd racked up 1,000 points over his freshman and sophomore years, leading the team to a New Jersey Prep B state title. Everybody knew the precocious point guard, the one so innovative with the ball that the faculty flocked to games to see what he would do next.
The comfortable choice would have http://www.officialcalgaryflames.com/Adidas-Dennis-Wideman-Jersey been to stay alongside his childhood friends from West Orange, the ones who'd been balling with him since fourth grade, who engaged in epic games of 21 in each other's driveways -- the ones who knew that their friend was different when a piece of his backboard ripped off, and, after hundreds of attempts, he mastered a new shot Gerald Everett Authentic Jersey that accounted for the trajectory of the ball off the damaged corner. But during countless AAU tournaments when he spent his free moments studying elite players, he wondered how he measured up. There was only one way for Kyrie Irving to find out.
So he transferred to St. Patrick, located in Elizabeth, about a half-hour drive south of Montclair. It was a national powerhouse program coached by Kevin Boyle, who'd mentored NBA pros Al Harrington and Samuel Dalembert. Now, as Irving wanders through a blur of faces in a maze of unfamiliar hallways, a boy in high-tops and jeans struts toward him.
"Who are you?" the boy asks. "I don't know who you are." Irving doesn't respond. He knows exactly who this freshman is -- it's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, one of the top high school prospects in the country. Irving is all-but-unknown outside his prep-school bubble. Still, Kidd-Gilchrist has been notified by Coach Boyle that this scrawny kid is hoping to join their team, and Kidd-Gilchrist feels compelled to size him up.
A few weeks into the school year, Kidd-Gilchrist begins hearing stories that Irving is blowing past everyone in preseason pickup games and converting crazy finishes. "I'm thinking," Kidd-Gilchrist says, "Well, that's fine, but he can't score on me." The first day of practice, Kidd-Gilchrist heaves the ball at the bashful, taciturn newcomer and chortles with a half-smile, "You and me. Let's go."
Over the course of the next 10 minutes, Kidd-Gilchrist comes to understand. Irving lifts his head to snatch the ball, then reveals his ballhandling wizardry. He dribbles left, then right, then left again with so much deftness, it's as if the ball is on a string. He explodes forward, then glides back before launching a textbook jumper. Kidd-Gilchrist inches closer, but as he does, Irving zooms past him to the basket, lofting one-handed floaters and twisting layups. His new teammates are watching now, congregating in a semicircle as Kyrie blitzes the best player on one of the top high school teams in the country.
Kidd-Gilchrist is stunned by the ferocity with which this seemingly reticent kid attacks not just the rim but also him. "He wasn't afraid," Kidd-Gilchrist says, "of anybody.'' Irving and Kidd-Gilchrist went on to lead St. Patrick to a championship that season. A year later, Kyrie committed to Duke as one of the top point guards in the nation. His decision to switch high schools was the first time in his life that he revealed an insatiable thirst for new challenges, no matter how daunting -- or inexplicable. "I had to show them I could play with them," Irving says. "And, after a while, I had to show them I could dominate them."
For many, the swap from the Cavaliers to the Celtics last August was vexing. Irving was a champion on a contending franchise with a transcendent star, LeBron James. Who walks away from that?
What they didn't know was Cleveland had explored trading Kyrie in June, long before he asked out, a fact conveniently omitted when word of his demand leaked. Irving made the decision to remain silent while the details of his request were, in his word, "distorted." I didn't feel the need to say anything because I knew the truth, and so did they," he says. "So it didn't matter what others said." Still, for a split second, Irving winces, as though someone has pricked him with a pin.
"They didn't want me there," he says.Seven days later in Cleveland, James has just put the finishing touches on a win over Atlanta, the Cavaliers' 15th victory in their past 16 games. He conveys through the Cleveland public relations Womens Matt Holliday Jersey staff that he has already addressed Irving's departure and will decline to answer questions regarding their relationship. Now, as he stands near his locker at Quicken Loans Arena, he's asked about Irving's contention that the Cavs didn't want him.
"That makes absolutely no sense," James declares.Asked to elaborate, James smiles politely, slings his bag over his shoulder and exits the arena. nhl jerseys wholesale cheap nba jerseys cheap nfl jerseys basketball jerseys cheap |
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Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has a history of Womens Willie Snead Jersey slipping into bunker mode from time to time at the start of a season. It might be wise for Wolverine fans to follow suit as the program embarks on what could be a long, uncomfortable offseason.
On the heels of a disappointing finish to an 8-5 season, patience is evaporating quickly in Ann Arbor. The “wait until next year” crowd is dwindling. Michigan, which collapsed in the fourth quarter of an Outback Bowl loss to South Carolina earlier this week, has slid back to the middle of the pack in a league with an upper tier full of teams that don’t look to be going away anytime Authentic Ryan Johansen Jersey soon. The operative word for the next seven or eight months is a scary one in college football circles: uncertainty. It would be wrong to call 2018 a “do or die” year for Harbaugh and his football team. What would the “die” in that trope really mean here?
A new coaching regime? Absolutely not; Harbaugh remains as good Alan Branch Jersey of a cultural fit as his alma mater could hope for and has a football mind http://www.officialshopravensjerseys.com/Eric_Weddle_Jersey_Cheap coveted at every level of the game. So does that mean it’s time for a reality check about Michigan’s ability to compete for championships? That doesn’t seem right, either. The school has the resources, interest and recruiting prowess to remain among the programs that cycle through national championship contention runs.
The uneasiness ahead of Michigan comes from trying to fill in the blank after that “or.” Do or ... what? Insert a giant Joey Bosa sack celebration shrug here. The Wolverines ought to remember what that looks like. Some of the same issues that existed when the older Bosa helped beat Michigan in Harbaugh’s first season have yet to be solved. None is bigger than the team’s inability to finish.
In the past two years, Michigan has a losing record in games played after Halloween. The Wolverines are 4-6 in November and bowl season during that time, and in all six of those losses they held a second-half lead. The first season of those late-game losses (three of them by a total of five points) may have seemed like a reason to believe that Harbaugh and the Wolverines were ever so close to breaking through. A repeat this year had the opposite effect. So, what’s the problem?
“Yeah, one thing, it's being able to just kind of sustain the momentum,” Harbaugh told reporters immediately after Monday’s loss to South Carolina. “Keep the momentum and then get the knockout punch. That would be what my thought would be right now.”
The problem may be simple. The solution is not. Losing late -- in seasons and in games -- usually causes the arrow of blame to land on a team’s strength and conditioning. The Wolverines hired a new strength coach last month, but that’s much too simplistic to be heralded as a fix for their issues. Other changes may be on the way.
Michigan’s offense this season bumbled and fumbled away victories (outscored 37-0 in the fourth quarters of their five losses) for a myriad of reasons that could fall on a myriad of shoulders. Playcalling, quarterbacks, insufficient blocking, youth and more have taken their share of criticism. One new player -- like http://www.texansfootballsprostore.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_JJ_WATT_JERSEY.html quarterback Shea Patterson, who provides his own layer of uncertainty while waiting for an NCAA wavier to play in 2018 -- or one new coach won't solve all those woes.
What’s that mean moving forward? More uncertainty, which may be the least favorite word for a sports fan. The good team with an optimistic future gives its fan a chance to beat his chest while waiting for a new season. The fan of a decidedly bad team at least gets to commiserate and complain about the need for wholesale change. Michigan this year appears to be stuck in an awkward in between.
Any bold proclamations about the future of Michigan football -- good or bad -- in the coming offseason are worthy of skepticism. And anyone claiming to know what 2018 means for the capital-B Big Picture for the Wolverines is selling a bill of goods.
Of course, that won’t stop the opinions from coming, which brings us back to that bunker, Michigan fans. It’s going to be an uncomfortable, uncertain offseason for you. Best to hunker down now.
It was a great year for rookies in the NFL -- at some positions. There were legitimate stars at running back, cornerback and quarterback, if we include Deshaun Watson's shortened season. It was tough to pick standouts at positions like wide receiver and guard, where the highest-ranked players headed into the 2017 draft didn't produce.
So my 2017 All-Rookie team has some first-round picks and others littered throughout from Rounds 2 through 7. Teams got a lot of value on Day 2.
I did a team in the preseason and at midseason, and there are several changes. I'm including again where each player landed on my final top 300 prospects list before the 2017 draft.
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