Boston Red Sox: World Series Champions

For the fist time in 95 years, the Boston Red Sox got to celebrate a World Series title on their home field. Sure, we know about the other two titles this franchise has won in the past decade, but this one was different.  Those titles were clinched on the road, in St. Louis (2004) and Denver (2007).  This time it was done in the shadow of the Green Monster, in front of a packed Fenway Park, with a crowd so electric that it shook the century old ball park.

What a remarkable turn around it has been.  Boston's worst to first path has been nearly unprecedented, as they are now only the second team in league history to win a World Series following a season where they finished last in their division.  Nobody could have predicted this result, not after the infamous September collapse of 2011 and the Chicken and Beer scandal.  Not after the Bobby Valentine fiasco and a dismal 69 win season last year.  Not after a massive salary dump that saw the team send a quarter of a billion dollars worth of salary to the Dodgers.  Needless to say, expectations entering the season were understandably low.

Remember back in the spring, when the Red Sox were widely criticized for overpaying mediocre talent coming off down seasons?  Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes.  Even under the radar signings like David Ross and Koji Uehara.  All of them were indispensable to this historic run.  How foolish we all look now for questioning how GM Ben Cherington constructed this team.

Things I Noticed: Week 8

We're halfway through the season, as teams that haven't had a bye week yet have now completed their eighth game already.  Can you believe the season is flying by this fast?  Seems like summer just ended a couple weeks ago.  Maybe that's because the Red Sox are still playing.  Living in New England, I'm sure the bitter cold that is sure to come will remind me of what season we're actually in soon enough.

With the NFL trade deadline looming at 4:00 PM EST on Tuesday, will any teams make a splash?

Bye weeks: Chicago, Tennessee, Indianapolis, San Diego, Baltimore, Houston

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Cam Newton tossed a pair of TD passes and ran one in on his own to lead the Panthers to their fourth
  
  victory in their past five games.  Carolina (4-3) is above .500 for the first time in 5 years and the first time in Newton's career, as he works to silence critics that have said that he's yet to show he can be a winner in the NFL.
• Tampa sinks to 0-7, which will only make those calling for Greg Schiano to be the first coach of the season to get canned.  
• After an ugly first half, New England rallied from a two touchdown deficit with 24 unanswered second half points to beat Miami.  With a 6-2 record, the Patriots are in the drivers seat for the division, but that's not saying much, considering how weak the rest of the AFC East is.  There have been few signs from this team so far to indicate they are good enough for a deep postseason run and the roster continues to lose key personnel.  RT Sebastian Vollmer was carted off the field this week with an agonizing leg injury.  No update from the team yet on the severity of the injury, but his bone chilling screams following the play said it all.  With season ending injuries to Vince Wilfork and Jarod Mayo derailing the defense, the Pats can ill afford to lose someone so vital to keeping Brady upright.  Speaking of TB12, his throwing hand was noticeably swollen.  He claims it's not effecting him, but given that he's having the worst season of his career, it bears keeping an eye on.
• With the Patriots looking to extend their narrow lead, Tom Brady was sacked and fumbled at the Miami 30 yard line.  Nate Solder pounced on the recovery, but not before Dolphins DE Olivier Vernon illegal batted the ball backward to the 45 yard line.  Instead of an improbable 3rd and 29 from outside of field goal range, the penalty gave the Patriots first and goal from the 13!  The drive would end a few plays later with Stevan Ridley bursting into the end zone to make it a two score game halfway through the 4th quarter.

2013 World Series Preview

For the third time in my lifetime, I'll have the privilege of seeing my Boston Red Sox play in the World Series. Ok, technically it's the fourth time, but i'm not counting '86 because I was three years old at the time and likely had no clue we were even playing.  My enthusiasm (obsession?) for sports has really hit it's peak over the past decade, in which I've already witnessed two championship seasons for my hometown team.  Now I'm four wins away from watching another parade through the streets of Boston.

The first time I watched the Red Sox win a title was in 2004, when a fun loving bunch of "idiots" made an improbable comeback in the ALCS and went on the sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. This time they will face the Cardinals once again with a new group of guys who have a similar theme that ties them together as a group, but instead of being idiots, this team is all about the blood, sweat and beards.

Don't overlook the importance of team chemistry.  The 2012 Red Sox sunk into a toxic pit of despair as their clubhouse unraveled under the watch of Bobby Valentine, finishing last in the AL East with a 69-93 season that was the worst this franchise had seen in decades.  The drastic turnaround just one year later has been nothing short of spectacular.  A blockbuster mega-deal last summer shipped out a quarter of a billion dollars in salary (along with a couple bad apples - looking at you Josh Beckett), freeing up resources and roster spots to bring in high character guys like Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes.  John Farrell took over as manager and helped put the finishing touches on righting the ship.  Last year's team may have looked better on paper, but this 2013 squad proved the importance of those types of intangibles that don't show up in the box scores by shattering expectations.  Few people thought this team would even battle for a playoff spot.  Now they are headed to the World Series.

Awaiting them in the Fall Classic are a Cardinals team that comes as close to any in matching up with them in every way.  Both teams finished with 97 wins, giving each a one game lead for the best record in their respective leagues.  Both teams led their league in runs scored and run differential.  Since they met in 2004, the teams have now combined for 7 World Series appearances in the last 9 years.  Neither of them have lost on this stage, aside from when they went against each other.

Let's take a closer look at how these teams match up to see who might have the edge in this series.

Things I Noticed: Week 7

And then there was one.  Only one undefeated team remains in the NFL - and it's not the one most of us expected it to be.  At least every division has a team with a winning record, so that's an upgrade from previous weeks!  There are also no ties at the top of any division, yet no division leader has more than a two game lead.

Bye Weeks: Oakland, New Orleans.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• The Seattle defense abused Carson Palmer all night, sacking him 7 times and picking off two of his passes.  One of those interceptions was returned all the way to the 2 yard line, setting up a short TD run for Marshawn Lynch.  Imagine the wave of emotions between fantasy football opponents if one had the Seattle defense and the other had Lynch!
• Hamstring issues continue to limit Larry Fitzgerald, holding him to 2 catches for 17 yards.   Ok, so maybe the Seattle defense had something to do with that too.  I'd add a joke about Carson Palmer being his QB being another cause, but as poorly as Palmer has played, he's still better than anyone Fitzgerald has played with since Kurt Warner retired.
• Gronk is back!  The Patriots star tight end finally made his season debut, about a month later than
  
  most of us anticipated.  Tom Brady wasted little time in showing how much he missed him by targeting him 17 times.  Gronkowski did manage to catch 8 of them for 114 yards, but did look a bit rusty on several of those missed targets.  A couple times he tried to make a spectacular one handed catch instead of using his once injured arm to help reel it in.  He also got turned around on a lob from Brady and missed what would have been an easy TD on a play he appeared to have lost sight of the ball in the sun.
• The Jets shocked the Patriots with a game winning field goal in overtime.  Nick Folk initially missed the 56-yard attempt, but a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct gave the Jets a first down, well within range for the winning kick.
• What a bogus penalty!  New England was essentially penalized for pushing into one of their own teammates.  The controversial call was made due to a new rule this season, which was intended for player safety.  This was the first time a team has ever been penalized for this, despite that it happens all the time.  The Jets were guilty of doing the same thing earlier in the same game, but weren't flagged for it.  To make matters worse, the NFL essentially admitted after the game how confusing the new rule is by altering the wording on NFL.com to clarify it. The way it was originally written stated "players not on the line of scrimmage at the snap cannot push players on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation."  Except Chris Jones, the player guilty of the penalty, was lined up at the line of scrimmage!  After the snap, he looped around behind his teammate and pushed him into the pile.  Based on how the rule was originally written, this should not have been a penalty.  Misinterpretation of a new rule that nobody has ever seen before cost the Patriots a game against a division rival.

Things I Noticed: Week 6

Only two undefeated teams remain after six weeks.  Given that they both play in the same division, we can expect that trend won't last too much longer.  The list of contenders in each conference is starting to form, but no division leader has more than a two game lead at this point, so the division races are far from over.

Bye weeks: Atlanta, Miami

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Alshon Jeffrey may have been Jay Cutler's top target last week, when he set a franchise record for receiving yards, but this time it was Brandon Marshall's turn.  The star receiver caught 9 passes for 87 yards and two scores.
• The Bears defense picked off Eli Manning three times, including one that was returned by Tim Jennings for the opening score in the first quarter.  The opportunistic Bears are tied for the most takeaways in the NFC after dominating the category last season.  Meanwhile, Manning leads the league by a wide margin with 15 INTs.
• While his older brother is on his way to shattering all kinds of offensive records, Eli is in danger
  
  of setting one of his own that he'd rather have no part in.  The league record for most INTs thrown in a season since the merger in 1970 is 35 by Vinny Testaverde.  Through six games, Eli is on pace for 40!
• One silver lining for the Giants is that they may finally have found some semblance of a running game.  After David Wilson struggled to hold on to the football, then was sidelined with an injury, the Giants went out and brought Brandon Jacobs back to the team.  He may have earned a permanent spot on the roster with a 106 yard, 2 TD performance.

Things I Noticed: Week 5

This list of undefeated teams continues to dwindle, but three still remain.  90% of teams that start the season 5-0 go on to make playoffs.  That's good news for the Broncos, Chiefs and Saints.

Four teams were off on a bye this week, but not all of them were quiet.  Tampa Bay parted ways with Josh Freeman, figuring they were better off paying him $5.9 million (in addition to the $2.5 million he earned in the first four weeks) not to be around the team.

The Minnesota Vikings swooped in and picked up Freeman for a cool $3 million.  Apparently their goal is to assemble a stable of the league's worst QBs.  Mark Sanchez and Blaine Gabbert must be next in their sights. Between the paychecks he'll collect from both teams this season, Freeman is being paid $11.4 million (the same amount Tom Brady makes!) to be one of the league's worst QBs.

Bye Weeks: Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Washington.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• The Thursday night games tend to be ugly to begin with, considering teams don't have ample time to prepare for it and the schedule rarely provides a marquee matchup for the game.  Things go from bad to worse when both teams lose their starting QB in the game.  Bills rookie EJ Manuel sprained his knee and will likely be considered questionable for next week.  The Browns suffered a bigger loss, with Brian Hoyer tearing an ACL that ends his season.
• Ok, this is getting out of hand.  Three straight wins for Cleveland?!  The Browns now sit tied atop the AFC North.  Weren't they supposed to be tanking?  
• The Bengals handed New England their first loss of the season in a battle of offensive ineptitude. The game was as ugly as the weather, which turned to torrential downpour late in the 4th quarter when the Patriots attempted their final rally.  Fourth quarter comeback attempts are hard enough, but during the middle of a monsoon, it's just unfair.  
• Conveniently, the rain stopped and the sun began to shine over Cincinnati almost immediately after the Patriots last drive was stopped.  Mother Nature had it in for us!
• Brady's streak of games with at least 1 TD pass came to an end at 52, so he'll be deprived of the
  
  chance to tie the record Drew Brees set last season when the Saints come to visit.  Brady's streak started in 2010 against Bengals, so perhaps it's fitting that it ended in Cincinnati.  
• This was the first time in 4 years the Patriots failed to score a TD.  The last time it happened was week 2 of the 2009 season, which was only Brady's second game back after missing nearly the entire previous year.
• Brady's streak may be over, but the Patriots still have at least one impressive streak going.  They now have 32 straight games forcing at least 1 turnover, which is the longest active streak in the league.
• The tough Bengals defense held Brady to a miserable 18 for 38 passing performance with only 197 yards.  It's the 19th straight game the Bengals have not allowed a 300 yard passer.

Things I Noticed: Week 4

Week 4 is the start of bye weeks, with the Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers getting the week off. Anyone else have a fantasy football team with the bye week blues?  If you own Aaron Rodgers or Cam Newton then you may have spent your Sunday morning frantically scouring the waiver wire.

Meanwhile, four team across the league are still frantically searching for their first win.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• For the second straight week the Rams defense was steamrolled by a power running game, as Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter combined for 202 rushing yards and each scored a TD.  Between the two of them they averaged an impressive 6.5 yards per carry.  
• The Rams hadn't put points on the board in the first quarter of a game all season until Greg Zuerlein's 40 yard field goal hit the inside of the post and bounced through for three points.  Dating back to last season, the first quarter drought had reached 9 games.  Despite getting an early lead for once, the Rams offense did little else, as the Niners defense shut them out the rest of the way.
• Breaking Bradford.  The popular AMC show came to an end Sunday night, but is Sam Bradford's
  
  career about to go the way of Walter White?  The former #1 overall pick was exceedingly mediocre in his first three seasons with the Rams and has gotten off to a terrible start this season.  Through 4 games, Bradford is completing only 58.8% of his passes, which looks even worse in the context that he has averaged only 6.01 yards per attempt (32nd worst in the league).
• The Rams have almost no choice but to stick with Bradford for now given how much money they have invested in him. That's the downfall of being the last team to select a top overall pick under the old CBA before rookies salaries were restrained.  If the Rams (1-3) end up with another losing season, it could lead to St. Louis look to draft Bradford's replacement for next year.