Amidst the turkey comas and holiday hangovers, Thanksgiving weekend was good to us Boston sports fans. Let’s recap: Despite losing a tough one via shootout, the Bruins are 11-1 in their last 12 games, one point back of the lead in the Northeast Division. The Pats walked into Philadelphia and crushed the playoff hopes of the alleged “Dream Team” as they continue to find themselves seated atop the AFC East. It may not have been from the Celts directly, but the NBA made all fans happy as it looks like the Celtics will have a season, meaning I can finally stop writing up mock game day posts. Unfortunately, nothing groundbreaking from the Sox, but I guess with the way things have been going for them lately, no news is good news. Happy Monday!
Kemba who?? UConn extended their win streak to 16 games which dates back to their championship run last season with 23 points from each of their sophomore guards.
“Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb held off pesky UNC Asheville — and showed again that Connecticut might have the best backcourt tandem in the country.” –ESPN
The Texas Longhorn football team also came back with a late field goal to win their rivalry game against A&M on turkey day 27-25. Even though Colt McCoy’s brother did next to nothing to help (just over 100 yards in the air), they still prevailed. Their lone TD in the air came from a 41 yard bomb from their wide receiver.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is currently enjoying a nice food coma!
Pretty hard to believe it is already week 12 and the Thanksgiving games are upon us, but here are my predictions and analysis of the three excellent games tomorrow.
Thursday November 24, 2011
Packers @ Lions 12:30 PM
This game is the first one of Thanksgiving day, and probably going to be the most exciting. A battle of two stellar offenses and two mediocre defenses. I’m not completely on the Packers bandwagon yet. Yes, they are 10-0 but that does not make them a lock to win every week, and I’m certainly not handing them the Lombardi trophy just yet. Last weeks game showed that their defense has its holes. The Packers are the Packers, they are not the 2007 Patriots. They both have very similar offenses as the patriots averaged 36.8 points per game, and the Packers are at 35.5. The main difference is this; the Patriots of 07′ outscored their opponents by 19.7 points per game, this years Packers are outscoring their opponents at a rate of 14.3. The main difference: Defense. Also the same reason of why the Lions have a prayer in hell this week. With Stafford tossing the ball up to Megatron, anything is possible. The Lions bounced back after a miserable first half last week and were able to get the victory against a weak Carolina team, but their defense didn’t look superior to the Packers D.
Analysis: The Packers offense is better than that of the Lions. Both defenses are similar. I’m going with the packers in a shootout, and a fake Ford Field Leap by Jordy Nelson.
Prediction: Packers 34 Lions 27
Dolphins @ Cowboys 4:15 PM
The Fin’s have outscored their opponents 86-20 the previous three weeks, although they have faced Buffalo, Washington, and Kansas City, which in all honesty doesn’t say much. After an 0-7 start to the season it looks like Tony Sparano might be trying to save his job, the season on the other hand was lost back in the early weeks of the season. I still have a bold prediction that Miami will finish tied, or above the fake Buffalo Bills by the end of the season. They showed who was the better team when they stomped all over them 35-8 last week. Reggie Bush is looking to revive his career after a rather disappointed professional career so far. Matt Moore is looking to be more comfortable with his receivers, and definitely looks in a groove with TE Anthony Fasano.
The Cowboys I still believe have the potential to be one of the elite teams in the NFC. They are the best in their division and after the Bears’ Jay Cutler went down last week, they may be the number two team in the whole conference. Their offense is explosive, and they have Demarcus Ware on the defensive side, teaming up with defensive mastermind Rob Ryan. They have shown they can stop a prolific offense when they almost beat New England at Gillette earlier this season.
Analysis: The Cowboys are still too powerful for a Miami team that has won three in a row, but against opponents that are on a season downfall. Dallas won’t lose to a team like Miami at home on Thanksgiving. Dallas improves to 7-4.
Prediction: Dallas 31 Miami 16
49ers @ Ravens 8:20PM
This game is everything the first game of the day is not. A battle of defenses. In the first meeting between head-coaching siblings ever in NFL history this one should certainly be an exciting game to watch.
The key of the game for the Ravens is to not turn the ball over, which hasn’t exactly been easy for 49ers opponents so far this season. The 49ers defense has 15 interceptions this year, which isn’t exactly good news for Joe Flacco. Flacco has been average this year with only throwing 8 interceptions, but he might be able to consider himself lucky if he covers a spread of 1 1/2 ints. tomorrow.
The 49ers need to stick with the run game and allow Alex Smith to continue to put them in situations to win games, or better yet, not to lose them. He’s clearly done his job this year as the niners are 9-1 and haven’t had any speculation of any type of QB controversy this season, considering going into the season no one knew who would be under center for the niners.
Analysis: Jim wins this one. I just think the 49ers defense with Patrick Willis sticks it out and gets the victory. Don’t expect a blowout of any sort, and I wouldn’t exactly bet the over on this one. I’m just as excited for the post-game handshake as I am for the real game.
Duke looks to take home the Maui Invitational trophy this year following UConn’s win in 2010 that eventually led to a national title. They will take on 14th ranked Kansas Wednesday night at 10. Duke seems pretty unstoppable, making more than 50 percent of their 3 pointers in the last few games… and they usually take at least 20. The only player I will root for is Austin Rivers because of the obvious connection to Doc. Other than that I hope that both teams lose. More importantly, go Bruins, and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Heading into tonight’s matchup against the Sabres, the only thing that the Bruins are concerned about is stretching their win streak to 10 games and claiming first place in the Northeast Division. The Sabres may have something else in mind. Retaliation. At least that’s what the media is building it up to be, and it could end up helping the B’s. The hit that Lucic put on Miller only eleven days ago is still fresh in everyone’s mind. A controversial hit like that always leads to this sort of hype before the next time the teams meet, but the Bruins are focused on the greater goal at hand. “It’s not like you can just go out there and be stupid,” Ference said Monday. “We were in a similar situation obviously with the Cooke thing. If they want to get goofy then that’s fine. Our team is well equipped for different kinds of games.” The Bruins are ready to play hockey, whether that means reacting to Buffalo vengeance or not. If the Sabres go head hunting tonight, you can bet the house that the B’s will be ready.
It’s been quite the week so far for the Boston Sports Blog. If the Celts aren’t going to be playing, someone has to make moves. With two new acquisitions, the Boston Sports Blog now has it’s own Big Three. Chris came on to write yesterday, and today I want to introduce Nolan Kartholl (@NolanKartholl), self-proclaimed alias: Big Nons. Nolan has a ton of insight on the different aspects of sports and business that will add a unique outlook to the site. He’s also a diehard Orioles fan, so feel free to express your most sincere apologies to him.
Introducing Chris Anderson (@Christoph131), the newest author to the Boston Sports Blog. He took a look at the site, liked it, and wanted to help out. So in about a 5 minute span, here he is. Chris has been my boy for as long as I can remember, not to mention he knows way more about college sports than I do. With that said, he’ll be focusing on college sports. Check back shortly for his inaugural post.
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