CLOSED!! ? The Official 2006 Sports Thread ? CLOSED!!

The only updates to the injury report today were from the Dolphins' side. OG Jeno James (knee) was upgraded to probable, and LB Derrick Pope was reported to have missed a portion of team practice today (though the other players on the report were reported to have fully participated in practice today).

In his press conference today, Dolphins head coach Nick Saban pretty much said that QB Daunte Culpepper would be a gametime decision, and that if he couldn't go, backup QB Joey Harrington would be called upon to start.

 

To sum up the game yesterday, Asante Samuel gave the Patriots great field position and Tom Brady took advantage of it, as both of Brady's TD tosses came after a Samuel pick. And they needed the field position, too, because the Patriots' offense wasn't able to do much else against the Dolphins' defense all day. I don't know if it's because of the field or what, but it's been a struggle for the Pats @ home this year, and the only reason the Pats won as handily as they did yesterday was because of Miami mistakes.

BTW, did anyone else hear Brady mention the stuff he and Matt Cassel have been doing to each other in his press conference after the game? If you missed it, Mike Reiss put up a transcript of it on his blog. Funny stuff.

 

Thought you guys might like this quote from Dave Hodge on Canada's TSN network...

"The worst part about the Yankees losing, is we can't watch the Yankees lose anymore."

 

http://www.patriots.com/news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=21681&pcid=47

In a roster move, the Patriots signed free agent WR Jabar Gaffney and released DL Johnathan Sullivan and DB Hank Poteat.

Gaffney spent his first four seasons with the Houston Texans, appearing in 64 games with 50 of those games starts. He has recorded 171 catches for 2,009 yards and 7 TDs in that span.

 

Michael Felger's report card

The good grades on defense were tempered by the mediocre grades on offense. Felger agreed w/ my assessment of the game, saying that "had the Pats been forced to drive long fields all day, they probably would've lost the ball game."

 

The Pats' power rankings this week:

ESPN: #7
CBS SportsLine: #4
Fox Sports: #7
Sports Illustrated: #4
Football Ousiders: #10

Pete Schrager at Fox Sports and Dr. Z at Sports Illustrated used this week's power rankings to take a shot at the Patriots' home field, with Schrager saying, "It's one thing to have a home-field advantage. It's another to play your games in the Thunderdome." Dr. Z felt that the Patriots get away with a lousy field because owner Robert Kraft is revered by the other owners.

 

The Patriots got ahead of their 2007 offseason work by making a major deal with center Dan Koppen. While the team did not disclose terms of the deal, ESPN's Len Pasquarelli reports that the deal is a five-year extension worth between $19M and $20M. Koppen was due to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

 

Just a dominating performance last night @ the Heights by Boston College in a 22-3 win against the #22 Hokies of Virginia Tech. The Eagles had 4 takeaways (2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries) by the defense, and although Matt Ryan wasn't spectacular, he was efficient, going 16/29 for 174 yards and a pair of TDs to Kevin Challenger. The Eagles also changed kickers, replacing senior Ryan Ohliger with sophomore walk-on Steve Aponavicius, whom his teammates nicknamed Sid Vicious, and the move paid immediate dividends, as he was perfect on the night with a pair of field goals (from 36 and 20 yards) and both extra points.

BC travels to Tallahassee next Saturday for a visit with the Seminoles of Florida State.

 

The Red Sox filled the first of their coaching vacancies today by hiring John Farrell as their new pitching coach. Farrell had been Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Indians.

 

In other baseball news: The Chicago Cubs have hired Lou Pinella as their new coach and the A's, after being swept by the Tigers in the ALCS, have fired Ken Macha. As far as the playoffs go, at least the Mets and Cards are keeping things interesting. After 4 games and 2 rainouts the series is tied at 2 games each.

 

According to a NESN report quoted by the Patriot Ledger, Gillette Stadium plans to install a FieldTurf artificial playing surface in time for the Patriots' Nov. 26 home date against the Chicago Bears, which may be moved to prime-time under the NFL's new late-season flexible scheduling. The Patriots have come under fire recently in the national media for the condition of the current natural grass surface, with even Bill Belichick, who was thought to favor a chewed-up field, calling it "terrible". The move to FieldTurf could be good news for quarterback Tom Brady, who is even better on the fake stuff than he is on natural grass (17-1, 33 TD, 15 INT, 95.8 passer rating lifetime on artificial surfaces).

EDIT: Pete Sheppard on WEEI's "Big Show" later said that the installation of the FieldTurf surface could not take place this season due to league rules. However, the field would be resodded between the hashmarks before the Nov. 5 game against the Indianapolis Colts.

 

According to an Associated Press story posted by the Boston Herald, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein has finally signed a contract and is no longer working under just a verbal agreement. Epstein walked away last October after his contract expired with a three-year, $4.5M extension offer on the table, so you can bet the new contract is around those numbers, if not actually better.

 

The Patriots may have had the week off, but most of the rest of the league didn't, so let's see where the Pats stand this week in the power rankings...

ESPN: #6
CBS SportsLine: #4
Fox Sports: #6
Sports Illustrated: #4
Football Outsiders: #11

Not much to pick from for commentary this week, though ESPN.com's panel did say that unless the Pats made a major move at the deadline for a wide receiver (and they didn't), rookie Chad Jackson would have to become more of a contributor. Aaron Schatz' commentary for Football Outsiders @ FoxSports.com: "During bye week, Patriots broke an obscure NFL record: most groundskeeping talk on local sports radio."

 

This week's injury report:

Patriots

Questionable: TE Daniel Graham (ankle), CB Ellis Hobbs (wrist), OL Russ Hochstein (knee), OT Nick Kaczur (shoulder), S Eugene Wilson (hamstring)
Probable: CB Willie Andrews (thigh), QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), CB Antwain Spann (shoulder)

Bills

Out-Injured Reserve: LB Josh Stamer (knee)
Questionable: S Matt Bowen (shin), C Melvin Fowler (thigh), WR Roscoe Parrish (hamstring), G Tutan Reyes (shoulder)

Note: Players in italics were reported to have missed a portion of team practice.

Hochstein, who injured his knee during practice last week, is the new addition to the Patriots' injury report from the last report (from before the Miami Dolphins game). Removed from the Patriots' injury report were S Artrell Hawkins, WR Chad Jackson, and OT Ryan O'Callaghan.

 

Anyone else following this developing Sebastian Telfair story? I'm not going to speculate as all I know is that the new point guard for the Celtics was robbed of a $50K gold chain & medallion at a New York City club owned by Sean "Diddy" Combs, the rapper Fabolous was later shot in the leg outside the same club, and that nobody's cooperating with the police.

 

The Red Sox filled the other coaching vacancy today by officially announcing the hiring of former Padres hitting coach Dave Magadan. Also, manager Terry Francona was named the manager of a team of major leaguers that will be playing exhibition games in Japan next month. Tito replaces Ken Macha, who, as Jedi_Outcast77 mentioned in an earlier post, was fired as manager of the Oakland Athletics earlier in the week.

 

Catching up on the injury report changes...

The Patriots added two players to the injury report today: LB Don Davis (lower leg) and RB Kevin Faulk (ankle). Both players are listed as "questionable", and both players were reported to have missed a portion of team drills.

The Bills reported yesterday that C Melvin Fowler fully participated in practice yesterday, and that all of the players except for LB Josh Stamer (who was placed on injured reserve) fully participated in practice today.

Also, the Herald reported that DL Richard Seymour was seen at practice today wearing a wrap over his right hand and wrist. He is not, however, listed on the injury report.

 

The BC Eagles are starting to look "for real" in the ACC after a 24-19 win at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee over the Florida State Seminoles. BC took a two-touchdown lead in the third quarter, but a huge fumble and recovery by Florida St. set up a drive that halved the lead early in the fourth quarter, and a later Seminole drive stalled at the Eagle 10 after a fumbled snap set up a fourth down, which Florida St. failed to convert. BC ran out the clock as much as they could, took an intentional safety, and the resulting free kick set up the Seminoles with 19 seconds left. Florida State completed one pass to the BC 42, but the final desperation pass was intercepted in the end zone by BC's Larry Anam.

There are now four teams near the top of the ACC's Atlantic Division with one loss in the conference. BC holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against Clemson, and have yet to play Maryland and Wake Forest. Looks like we're in for an interesting November at the Heights, as BC looks to be on their way to the ACC championship game on December 2.

 

The Patriots offense finally looks like it's starting to click, as Tom Brady had a couple of TD tosses in the second half, one on a 35 yard strike to rookie receiver Chad Jackson, and the other on a 5 yard play to Doug Gabriel that Gabriel actually had to make an adjustment on the ball because of an apparent poor throw by Brady. Add to that 2 Corey Dillon TD runs and dominating defense, and you get a good 28-6 road win in Buffalo, giving the Patriots a hammerlock on the AFC East, with a 4-0 record in the division and only a home date against the Jets and a trip to Miami left in division play. Next game will be a Monday night tilt in Minnesota.

On a sad note, Nelson de la Rosa, the diminutive Dominican actor who became a good luck charm for the Red Sox during their 2004 championship run because of his friendship with Pedro Martinez, passed away yesterday in a New York hospital at age 38.

 

Michael Felger's report card

About the only faults Felger could find were with offensive tackles Matt Light and Ryan O'Callaghan, who were both getting beat. This dragged the offensive line's grade down to a B-, but other than that, the rest of the team was great, getting all As and Bs. Special "Head of the Class" mention was given to, among a couple of others, cornerback Asante Samuel, who Felger said has worked to bring his game to the next level.

 

A couple of Red Sox items...

Manager Terry Francona has had to pull out of the trip to Japan due to an infection in his left foot. Tito's doctors say the infection is not really serious, but have still advised him against traveling until it is completely cleared up. Francona had been tabbed to manage the team of major league All-Stars that will be touring the "Land of the Rising Sun" next month.

Right-handed reliever Mike Timlin has decided to give the Red Sox at least one more year, signing a contract worth $2.8M plus incentives.

 

The Patriots in this week's power rankings:

ESPN: #4
CBS SportsLine: #4
Fox Sports: #4
Sports Illustrated: #4
Football Outsiders: #7

The Patriots are now a solid top-five team in the "experts'" eyes, and recent dominating performances have helped bring their DVOA rating back into the top ten. Pete Prisco at CBS SportsLine says, "They're quietly having a heck of a season. Don't you get the feeling they will be there deep into the playoffs?"

 

Testing...wanted to post the injury reports, but that kept timing out, so I'm seeing if a shorter post works (the Patriots have 10 players listed as "questionable")

EDIT: Tried to repeat the error to post in the Jedi Council's Communications thread for technical issues, but the server resets the connection instead of giving me the original error. Going to try to give the Pats' injury report and the Vikings' report in separate posts.

 

This week's injury report (board's script seems to be choking on formatting tags, so I'll make a note about practice status after the list):

Patriots

Questionable: LB Don Davis (lower leg), RB Kevin Faulk (ankle), TE Daniel Graham (ankle), CB Ellis Hobbs (wrist), OL Russ Hochstein (knee), OT Nick Kaczur (shoulder), G Stephen Neal (shoulder), DL Richard Seymour (elbow), DL Ty Warren (shoulder), S Eugene Wilson (hamstring)
Probable: CB Willie Andrews (thigh), QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), CB Antwain Spann (shoulder)

Every player except Brady was reported to have missed portions of team practice.

Vikings

Questionable: WR Marcus Robinson (lower back)
Probable: WR Bethel Johnson (hamstring), WR Travis Taylor (concussion), WR Troy Williamson (concussion)

Only Marcus Robinson was reported to have missed portions of team practice for the Vikings.

Neal, Seymour, and Warren are the players that were added to the Patriots' injury report from the last report of last week.

In other Patriots news, RB Laurence Maroney was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week yesterday.

 

The Minnesota Vikings added four players to the injury report today, all listed as questionable: G Artis Hicks (neck), OT Marcus Johnson (ankle), DE Kenechi Udeze (hip), and DT Pat Williams (foot). I'm not sure about the practice status of those players, as either it wasn't reported, or the Vikings reported that those players participated fully in practice.

The Patriots report no changes to the injury report. However, in what appears to be good news, Richard Seymour spoke to the media in the locker room before practice today and said that he hopes to play Monday night. Also, after not being present at the start of practice yesterday, RB Kevin Faulk and G Stephen Neal were present at the start of today's practice.