Weekend Recap

Posted on January 16, 2012 by jtulz07

With the Pat’s bringing an abrupt end to Tebowmania, it’s hard to say we had a tough weekend in Boston sports, despite watching the Celts and Bruins fall to their respective opponents. Nobody’s worrying about the Bruins. They’ve established their dominance and continue to hold sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division, one point ahead of a red hot Ottawa team. The Celtics, on the other hand, are a bit more concerning. It’s hard to watch, because at times they show signs of brilliance. It’s there, somewhere, but not nearly as much as it needs to be. Many say that’s the aging factor coming through. Regardless, their defense hasn’t even been that bad. There’s just no way a team can win games in the NBA when you’re averaging under 90 points a game. On the bright side, the final stop on the road to the Super Bowl will go through Foxboro this Sunday as the Pats are set to face the Baltimore Ravens. The Pats will roll into Sunday’s game with plenty of momentum from this weekend’s victory against the Broncos. It’s been better but then again it’s also been worse for us in Boston. Hard to complain when your football team continues to build onto its second decade of dominance.

Raiders Fire Hue Jackson After Just One Season

Posted on January 10, 2012 by davecouture

With new management coming in, the Raiders have decided to part ways with Head Coach Hue Jackson after just one season.

To me this makes absolutely zero sense. Jackson had looked to have the franchise headed in the right direction until a couple of key injuries really hurt their playoff chances. After showing he was one of the top running backs in the NFL through the first half of the season Darren McFadden went down with an injury that plagued him for the remainder of the season, as well as starting quarterback Jason Campbell going down with a broken collarbone. Jackson was forced to take what he was given.

How many first round busts can a team draft before they realize it isn’t the coaches’ fault? For a team that seems to always pick in the top 10 they don’t exactly have the best recent draft history. Since 2005 here are their top draft picks in order: Fabian Washington (2005) Michael Huff (2006) Jamarcus Russell (2007) Darren McFadden (2008) Darrius Heyward-Bey (2009) Rolando McClain (2010). So throughout their past six draft picks they end up with one franchise player, a few average players, the biggest bust in NFL history (Russell) and a guy that believes its okay to run others over with his cars (McClain).

To add to their terrible draft picks, they seem to always make absolutely terrible trades. Randy Moss for a 4^th rounds picks? Giving a team two first round picks for a 32-year-old Carson Palmer? I guess the only defense they have for making the Palmer trade could be… Well we don’t really draft that great anyways right?

Every time the Raiders make a coaching change, (which I swear happens like every year or so) I think to myself; how can they not see that the coach isn’t the issue? The real issue is the front office and their absolutely unintelligent moves. Hopefully for the sake of those insane Raiders fans new management will also mean new results.

BSB Pick of the Day

Posted on January 10, 2012 by davecouture

Mavericks –6.5 @ Pistons

So far this year if you have bet against the Pistons chances are you are up money. They are absolutely terrible. The Mavs haven’t been a dominant force like they looked last year in the playoffs but I certainly see them being able to cover this spread against Detroit. Go with the Mavs.

Total Record (1-2)

Sox sign Cook, Larkin Gets Hall Pass

Posted on January 10, 2012 by TOB$

Late last night, the Red Sox inked a minor league deal with Aaron Cook. Most readers are probably saying, “Who the F**k?”, which I can definately understand. Aaron Cook has been a member of the Colorado Rockies rotation for the last 9 years. Yeah, Cook played pretty solid in 2008 (3.98 ERA, 16-9 record), but the guy has battled injuries ever since and it seems as if his time is up.

Signings like this are what gets me most mad about the Red Sox. It seems every year we decide to buy 3 to 4 shit-bum, washed up pitchers to minor league deals and hope that one will pan out and help the major league roster (Rich Hill, Erik Bedard, Kevin Millwood, Boof Bonser, etc.). I don’t understand why we can’t just commit to our farm system with the end of the rotation pitchers, instead of signing these has-been veterans as a temporary fix.

In other MLB news, 1995 NL MVP Barry Larkin was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame today. First off, I’d like to state that Barry Larkin was a clear cut choice for every one of my Backyard Baseball 2001 squads. Guy could play second, shortstop, or third in the game and was fast, a good fielder, and was a solid batter. Even though Derek Jeter might have been a better choice, I could never bring myself to putting him on my virtual squad back in the day. The only other thing worth talking about in regards to the Hall election is that it again looks like the voters are very against the steroids era. Larkin was the only one elected and Mark McGwire and former Viagra spokesman Rafael

Palmerio each received less than 20% of the vote (you need 75% in order to be elected). Should be very interesting to see how the voters treat Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds next year in their first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame.

Canucks are a JOKE

Posted on January 9, 2012 by jtulz07

I know the Canucks won, but honestly, you have to feel bad for them. Vancouver is just so pathetic. Looking back to last year, I don’t think there was one team in the NHL that wanted the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup. The only city that did, Vancouver, showed how well they could hold it together after losing as they tore their own city to shreds.

You would think after that the team would want to show they’ve grown as they come back into Boston to face the team that stole the Cup from them, but nope. First, Luongo “handed over” the game to Schneider for sentimental reasons. Yeah right, because when it comes to intense and bitter rivalries, hockey players are always sentimental. I’m calling the bluff, along with everyone else. Robby was scared and wimped out of playing in Boston. Moving along to the game, how did the fact that Thornton got jumped by six Canucks not get discussed more? Granted he egged one of them on, all six proceeded to clobber him. Then after jumping to his defense, we end up on the bad end of a 5 on 3 power play. Ridiculous, but expected out of a team like Vancouver. Then to top it off, Thornton called out Weise after the two exchanged words in the box, and Weise completely backed down like a coward, without hesitation. Speaking to a Canadian reporter he stated, “But at the end of the day, that’s not really the type of guy I want to fight.” That’s the only thing I’ll give Weise credit for, knowing Thornton would have pounded his face in, deservingly so. But to sum it all up, the Canucks just proved how much of a joke they are and how clearly the better, more deserving team won the game that mattered in June, not in January.

Weekend Recap

Posted on January 9, 2012 by jtulz07

Not the kind of weekend we’d hope for in Boston, but exciting nonetheless. And by exciting, I mean just the Bruins. Let’s just say the Celtics game was slightly less than exhilarating Friday night. It’s kind of hard to win when you only score 25 points in the first half. You just can’t put up those kinds of numbers expect to win, even when it’s the Pacers, regardless of their decent start to the season. This time we can’t even put the blame on the defense. The Pacers put up 87 points and still managed to win by 15 points. Pretty pathetic on the Celts part. Hopefully they can get back on their feet against a struggling Dallas team before they head into a pretty tough run to close out January. As far as the Bruins are concerned, what a game. I mean if you’re looking for intensity, Saturday’s Stanly Cup rematch against the Canucks was just about as intense as it gets. It felt like playoff hockey came 5 months early. Again, I’m not concerned about the loss at all. It sucks we couldn’t beat them, but in the end the game was not all that important in the long run. We’re the ones with the Cup. Not to mention we played pretty much the whole game without Lucic and ended up losing Marchand down the stretch, both to game misconducts. What concerns me is the pending suspensions both, especially Marchand, may be facing. I have a feeling Lucic’s won’t be terrible, if anything, but Marchand’s may be a while. Canuck’s head coach Alain Vigneault said, “Marchand — this is just my feeling on this — some day he’s going to get it.” At the time it turned the garden electric, but looking back it was a foolish move and arguably cost the B’s the game. The Canucks scored twice in the 5 minute major that followed Marchand’s hit. Either way, what do you guys think? With the intensity of the game was the hit just or did Marchand let emotions get the best of him?

AFC Wild Card Playoff Predictions

Posted on January 5, 2012 by davecouture

So the with the end of the Regular Season coming to a close, and the playoffs about to begin I will start to analyze the upcoming AFC playoff games for this weekend. If you had told me in August that the Tim Tebow led Broncos, along with the Texans and Bengals would be continuing their season into January I would have been willing to bet everything I own on it. Fortunately for me I didn’t…

Bengals @ Texans

The Bengals come in losing five of their last eight. All of those loses came to AFC playoff teams, one of them being the Texans. Even with Schaub sidelined the Texans can still offer one of the AFC’s best offenses simply because of the run game they have. Their defense is solid and was what got them where they are today. The young Bengals offense has really shined this year led by the rookie combination of Andy Dalton and A.J. Green. I expect this one to be a low scoring game based on the strength of both defenses. The Texans are favored in this one but I see otherwise, I’m going with the Bengals.

Prediction: Bengals 17 Texans 14

Steelers @ Broncos

I for one am certainly glad that all the Tebow hype is over. He finally came down to earth and is playing more like the QB he really is. I cannot take away the fact that the guy is a proven winner, which is literally the only reason the Broncos even have a shot here. The Steelers are injury depleted and I feel like it is definitely going to hurt their playoff chances. Big Ben is still shaken up; Mendenhall is done for the playoffs, and Ryan Clark being kept out of this one. Luckily for the Steelers they are facing a team that went 8-8 in the regular season, but have the talent of a 5-11 team. Like the other AFC Wildcard game I expect this one to be low scoring. Tebow better do some extra praying this week. His savior doesn’t save him here; Steelers win.

Steelers 20 Broncos 13

BSB Pick of the Day

Posted on January 4, 2012 by davecouture

Okay so it hasn’t been a great start to this whole new pick of the day thing, but I’m confident I’ll get back on track and hopefully it starts right here. The Orange Bowl between West Virginia and Clemson looks to be one of the more exciting games of the bowl season. With the spread at 3 so far this game is definitely a toss-up for me, so I’m gonna go with the over of 63 on this one. The teams combined average over 68 points per game this season and I see it continuing as neither team has a top-tier defense. I’m going with the over of 63 as my pick of the day.

BSB Pick of the Day

Posted on January 3, 2012 by davecouture

Bobcats +4 @ Cavs

For those of you thinking about betting on basketball tonight, I’m taking the Bobcats over the Cavs for the BSB Pick of the Day. Make it quick, 7 PM start.

Aging Celtics Live On

Posted on January 3, 2012 by jtulz07

Well it looks like Pierce was the missing link. First three games without the captain, 0-3. Last three games with him, 3-0. You do the math. I’m not saying he single handedly won these games, but how can you argue that he wasn’t the deciding factor. If not performing on the court, his mere presence uplifted the team to where it needed to be. After a rocky start, and especially after the loss to the Hornets, thoughts of concern started to set in. Could it be a repeat of 06-07? No. Now, back to .500, these thoughts have been erased. We’ve seen how the C’s can play. Even last night, the second game in a set of back to backs, the boys proved they could win. Granted it was the Wizards, my point stands. During the first quarter it looked like they were going to pull away, with stretches of brilliant transition basketball. If the Celts can mock this kind of play, not even each game, but steadily throughout the shortened season, they should be just fine come playoff time. The big names are continuing to show how great they are and the others, including younger guys are beginning to step up. And on a side note, I’ll continue to comment on how much of a steal Brandon Bass was. Each night he continues to let it be known too. Ridiculous. The team may be rough around the edges at first, but the Celtics will pull it all together. Doc wouldn’t allow anything less. It’s no secret to anyone that this could very well be the last year the core of this team is together. And by no means would any of them let it go to waste.