QB Job Webb made his first start for the Vikings and he faced Michael Vick and the Eagles. No one thought the Eagles would fall to the 5-9 Vikings, who got beat by the Bears 40-14 last Monday night. The Vikings defeated the Eagles last night and that means the Bears will be the #2 [...]
Bears Backer
When the Amir Khan/Marcos Maidana fight was announced, us in the boxing community were excited to see the latest installment of the “Boxer” vs. the “Puncher”. The good looking next “Star” vs. the down and dirty “Brawler”. Combine that with the sensational Bantamweight tournament on Showtime, and yes, the UFC pay-per-view card, and it was another night of tough decisions for fight fans that lack the luxury of multiple TV’s, or the patience/discipline to watch fights recorded on their DVR.
With the MMA’s explosion into the mainstream in recent years, these same night cards have become more and more frequent. As a boxing journalist, I have no qualms about admitting that I also watch and enjoy Mixed Martial Arts. And I’m not one of these meatheads either, who wear jeans so tight they look painted on and a shirt with the image of a crow, and blood coming out of his mouth… I know my MMA! Ask some insta-UFC fans who Pat Smith or Keith Hackney is, and they’ll look more stumped than me trying to get out of a darce choke.
Growing up in a house full of fight fans, one night we stumbled across a pay-per-view event featuring cage fighting that I want to say cost $ 14.95 to purchase. It was called “The Ultimate Fighting Championship”.
We loved it. Although raw and different than boxing, it was still fighting and fed our appetites. I mean if you enjoy pizza and have enough of a craving, are you really going to turn down Papa John’s because it’s not Domino’s?
Nowadays, if I’m not covering the boxing that’s on and there is a UFC or Strikeforce event the same night, I usually watch with friends or family. Since all my friends prefer MMA, they know to have one TV in the other room on the boxing for my brother, my nephew, and I. It’s a Knox thing.
Credit: Mark Robinson/Golden Boy Promotions
For the first time in recent memory though, I found myself with little to no urge to even know what was going on in the UFC card. I stayed home and watched another fantastic night of action in boxing. And for the third week in a row, there was another contestant for fight of the year. Between Katsidis/Marquez, Soto/Antillon, and now Khan/Maidana, you could argue that this has been the best action in consecutive weeks for “The Sweet Science” in quite some time, dating back to glory periods such as the 1980s.
Diehard fight fans are always going to be built different. When casual fans bash our sports, we take offense to it… and not like a soccer fan. One of my dear friends is an Italian and loves his European futbol. When I dig at him about the sport just to get under his skin, he blows me off in a more regal tone. When he does the same with me about boxing though, the response is not suitable for children.
So often, boxing and MMA are always competing. Always trying to argue which is superior. For me, I like being able to take a step back and know that on a night when one of the most prestigious honors in sports, the Heisman Trophy was awarded to the nation’s top college football player, it took second fiddle to great action inside a couple of rings and a cage scattered throughout North America.
Pekka Rinne, career:
at Home: 42-17-5, 2.21, .924, 29.12 SA/60
on Road: 20-15-4, 2.87, .897, 27.84 SA/60
Those splits certainly make one at least a bit skeptical about whether Rinne’s save percentage is being accurately reported in his home rink in the Music City, and whether we can therefore rely on those numbers to accurately reflect his performance. Nashville has been one of the places suspected of a shot recording bias (for more info see Tom Awad or JLikens), which increases the probability that there may be overcounting going on in Rinne’s favour.
Unfortunately, this case is not entirely clear cut, because former Predators goalie Dan Ellis doesn’t have the same extreme splits. In fact, Ellis actually has a higher career save percentage on the road despite playing all but one game of his career for the same Predators team as Rinne:
Dan Ellis, career:
at Home: 18-16-5, 2.59, .910, 28.82 SA/60
on Road: 32-26-5, 2.68, .913, 30.78 SA/60
Backup goalies can sometimes have skewed numbers because of relief appearances, but even after taking out the 12 games where Ellis came in off the bench, the pattern persists:
at Home: 18-15-4, 2.57, .913, 29.58 SA/60
on Road: 30-22-4, 2.65, .916, 31.62 SA/60
This is a fairly small sample for both Rinne and Ellis, and I expect that some of the effect is simple random variance. It is likely that the .027 difference between Rinne’s home and road performance has been a bit of a statistical quirk, as has his good fortune to face almost 4 fewer shots against per game than Dan Ellis while on the road, but I’m still slightly suspicious of the official scorer in Nashville. It will be interesting to see if similar results continue this season with Ellis in Tampa and Rinne expected to once again be the main man in the crease in Nashville.
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The Kentucky Kernel
Last week NCAA Football 11 went 6-2 in its picks. The game missed on the pick for a Fresno State upset of Boise State and on the selection of a Nebraska victory. Nebraska’s loss was my one blemish in a 9-1 week of picks in the ITB Free Pick’em Pool. The game did correctly predict wins for Notre Dame, Stanford, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Virginia Tech.
It’s rivalry week in college football and there’s so many games of interest that there is a bonus Slate of Eight for Week 13. Let’s now get to the main menu of games that were on the Slate of Eight podcast.
The video game is 41-34 in picking the repeat teams in the Slate of Eight for this week.
Texas A&M – Texas (Lone Star Showdown). NCAA 11: Texas A&M 35, Texas 21. Both quarterbacks played very well but it was the effectiveness of the Aggies rushing attack that made the difference in this game. Ryan Tannehill was accurate while passing for 192 yards but provided no TDs for Texas A&M. Their running game picked up 163 yards and 3 TDs from Cyrus Gray. Garrett Gilbert had 226 yards passing, 3 TDs and 0 INT, but the Longhorns only got 76 yards rushing and no rushing scores. Texas also fumbled away a punt return that should not have been fielded near the endzone and the Aggies scored a TD that way. Texas A&M jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first quarter and saw their 20-7 halftime lead dwindle to six points after the third quarter. A pair of Cyrus Gray rushing TDs early in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for Texas which did not score their third TD until very late in the final quarter of play.
Florida – Florida State (Battle for the Governor’s Cup). NCAA 11: Florida State 41, Florida 13. Not much to say about this game except that Florida got woodshedded and it could have been much worse–Florida won the turnover battle 3-0. The Seminoles were all over the Gators in the first half and took a 24-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Those points came off of a FG, punt return, TD pass and TD run. All three of the TDs were scored in the second quarter. Florida managed just 217 yards of offense and 158 of it was from John Brantley’s passing yards. Brantley threw a TD pass on the first possession of the fourth quarter but completed only 36% of his passes. The Gators had 14 punts to only 9 first downs. Christian Ponder threw for 1 TD and rushed for another for Florida State. Ponder clearly won the QB battle with 316 yards passing on an off day (two of the turnovers were Ponder INTs) and 57 yards rushing.
Georgia Tech – Georgia (Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate). NCAA 11: Georgia 16, Georgia Tech 3. The Yellow Jackets were only able to pick up 126 rushing yards on 40 carries. This lack of production meant that Tevin Washington had to throw the ball more often than Georgia Tech wanted. Washington finished the game 8/20 for 113 yards. The only offense Tech could engineer was a third quarter redzone FG. Georgia had been leading 13-0 and got the three points back in the fourth quarter with a 36 yard FG. A.J. Green was on the receiving end of 104 of Aaron Murray’s 225 passing yards. Green also had the only TD of the day on a physical redzone reception. The Bulldogs outrushed the Yellow Jackets by 62 yards and this helped Georgia bleed the clock in the fourth quarter 4 yards at a time.
So you’ve already read the Rivalry Week picks for the Slate of Eight? Well, here’s the Bonus Edition. Listen to the Week 13 Bonus Slate of Eight podcast here.
NCAA Football 11 is 29-17 in picking the repeat teams appearing in this bonus Slate of Eight.
Notre Dame – Southern Cal (Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh). NCAA 11: Southern Cal 30, Notre Dame 20. The Trojans scored first by returning a Tommy Rees pass for a TD. Southern Cal would score 10 points in each of the first three quarters. The Irish only had 13 points at half and scored their only points of the second half with 1:13 remaining. Notre Dame’s rushing game was absolutely stuffed and gained merely 62 yards on 40 carries. This game was closer than it should have been because of two turnovers and 17 penalties for 159 yards by the Trojans.
Mississippi State – Ole Miss (Egg Bowl). NCAA 11: Ole Miss 20, Mississippi State 16. This was a 13-10 game at half in favor of the Bulldogs. A FG on the first possession after halftime extended the lead to six after three quarters. Mississippi State was marching down the field in the fourth quarter and then Vick Ballard fumbled. Ole Miss scooped up the fumble and went 75 yards for a score. Neither quarterback was effective and they were not aided by running games that were hot and cold. A case in point: Ole Miss ate up clock on a late drive, but had to settle for a redzone FG instead of a TD when the running game couldn’t pick up 3 yards on two plays. Mississippi State had enough time to get a game-winning TD, but fumbled the ball away in the redzone with 40 seconds remaining in the game.
BYU – Utah (Holy War). NCAA 11: BYU 43, Utah 22. Utah scored the only points of the first quarter on a Matt Asiata TD run. The Utes went for two and got it on another Asiata carry–that move seemed to wake up the Cougars. BYU scored 25 points in the second quarter. BYU started the scoring by matching Utah’s 8 points following a Jake Heaps TD throw with a successful two point conversion. BYU was still throwing in the fourth quarter and scored 18 more points for good measure. Utah turned the ball over three times but they weren’t going to stop Heaps who finished the game with 290 yards passing and 4 TDs.
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