Month: November 2017

Latavius Murray rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns, Adam Thielen turned a short catch into a 65-yard score and the Minnesota Vikings smothered the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in a 24-7 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Because it won an offseason bidding war, Amazon is providing live streaming services for 10 “Thursday Night Football” games in 2017. Seahawks vs. Cardinals is the sixth of such games, which coincide with the CBS and NBC “Thursday Night Football” broadcast schedules. Amazon also provided a live stream for the Week 3 Jaguars-Ravens game in London. Twitter held the rights to live stream “Thursday Night Football” games in 2016.

The Uber driver, identified as Kate, said she picked up Winston in Scottsdale, Arizona around 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 13, 2016. Shortly into the trip she said Winston “behaved poorly” by shouting homophobic slurs at pedestrians before asking to stop by a drive-thru for food.

While waiting in line, Kate said Winston, who was the lone passenger and sitting in the front seat, “reached over and he just grabbed my crotch” for three to five seconds before she removed his hand.

“I wasn’t just creeped out,” Kate said. “I was frozen.”

Jacoby Brissett was an emergency acquisition from New England a week prior to the start of the regular season after the Colts front office realized that Scott Tolzien was not the right person to start until Andrew Luck returned from his shoulder surgery. Brissett replaced Tolzien in the fourth quarter of Week 1 and has been the starter ever since, which he’ll remain for the duration of the season given Luck will not play due to a setback in his recovery from right shoulder surgery. Despite taking most of the season to learn his new team’s offense, Brissett has thrown for 2,172 yards and nine touchdowns. He’s the first Colts player to have four touchdown passes of at least 60 yards in a season since Johnny Unitas did it in 1966. — Mike Wells

Vontae Davis will not be returning this week as expected.

“He understood. He was like, ‘Damn, you stepped on my leg.’ He was fired up, wondering if I did it intentionally,” Whitehead said. “I’m like, ‘Come on, man, I don’t even play the game like that.’ He’s like, ‘All right.’ Turned around, went to the huddle. I did the same.”

Lions coach Jim Caldwell said he was aware of the video but did not believe that Whitehead deliberately stepped on Leno.

“Yeah, I was unaware of it until I guess it just came up this morning,” Caldwell said Tuesday. “And I highly doubt that’s the case, that it was intentional, but I just saw it briefly.”

Whitehead’s wife emphatically defended her husband on Twitter.

Kizer was knocked out of the game with the score tied at 24, but he made his way back and played through obvious pain. Njoku took note of that and apologized for getting his teammate injured.

In addition to that, he is at least winning over one player, which could be a sign of things to come. Njoku had a strong reaction when he saw that his quarterback had been hurt on a play where he missed a block.

“I kind of wanted to fight him (Lions cornerback Quadre Diggs who made the hit) on the field, but that’s emotions,” Njoku said of the play where Kizer suffered the bruised rib. “Seeing him on the ground like that got me mad, and you can’t really fight in the NFL, so I’ve got to make up for it next week.”

Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund each scored two goals to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 5-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.

Reinhart scored late the second period for his 100th NHL point. Nolan scored his second on a wrist shot from the right circle to bring the Sabres within a goal with 6:05 remaining in the game.

Eichel gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead 6:55 into the game. Officials initially ruled that it was not a goal, but the decision was overturned after video review.

Brian Rolston scored a goal in six straight games for the Wild from Jan. 21 to Feb. 5, 2008. … This was the first meeting between the teams since the Wild traded D Marco Scandella and F Jason Pominville to Buffalo in exchange for F Tyler Ennis and F Marcus Foligno on June 30. … Wild F Chris Stewart returned to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch for Monday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils. … Dubnyk is 4-0-0 all-time vs. Buffalo.

Gilbert will not be permitted inside the Steelers’ facilities until after the suspension is served. He will be eligible to return to the team on Dec. 18, a day after the Steelers’ anticipated clash with the New England Patriots at Heinz Field.

Though Chris Hubbard acquitted himself well in relief of Gilbert, the Steelers will be without a player offensive coordinator Todd Haley has called the best right tackle in the game. Many of the Steelers’ designed runs go to the right side behind guard David DeCastro and Gilbert, who’s played a big role in quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s declining sack numbers in recent years.

Still, head coach Mike Tomlin recently used Hubbard as an example of his expectation to see no dropoff when subs play significant snaps.

It’s Halloween, which means it’s Nick Saban’s birthday. What do you get the 66-year-old who has five national championship rings, a seemingly indestructible machine of a program ranked No. 1 and is the sport’s highest-paid coach? Well, we don’t know, either. So rather than try to figure it out, we’re just going to tell some of our favorite stories about the coach, including a bunch you likely haven’t heard before.

New Orleans’ defense is much improved, but it’s still not perfect. The Saints are allowing 4.9 yards per rush, the third-most in the NFL. They also allowed 169 rush yards per game over the past two despite facing inexperienced quarterbacks who relied on the run.

Kirkwood predicted that 2018 will bring better games because “things swing around” in cycles. He also noted that the sellout crowds, which averaged 84,000 at Wembley and 74,000 at the smaller Twickenham Stadium, stayed in their seats through the end of the game.

“Back in the States,” he said, “even if a home team is winning really, really substantially, you’ll find midway through the fourth quarter people will be making their way out. … Maybe our spirit is just making our money’s worth out of these things. But it’s not gone unnoticed.”

Indeed, there is no outward sign that UK fans are growing impatient. The NFL on Regent Street event draws as many as 600,0000 annually. There were no issues with selling tickets when the NFL expanded to four games this season at two stadiums. According to the NFL, in fact, about 40,000 people bought tickets to all four games — the making of a strong fan base. But it’s clear that the transatlantic trip creates competitive trouble for some teams, especially as the NFL tries to spread the assignment around.

Ryan threw touchdown passes to Austin Hooper and Mohamed Sanu to help the Falcons (4-3) end a three-game skid — all to other AFC East teams.

“That was a tough battle for four quarters,” Ryan said. “Nothing is going to go perfect, especially when you play in those types of situations. But nobody flinched the entire game. We continued to play aggressive. It was a good win for our team.”

49ers safety Eric Reid offered some insight on Kaepernick’s attending the second meeting.

“I talked to him [Kaepernick]. I think if they could make it a legitimate meeting, then he’ll go. But right now, we don’t know if anybody is going,” he said Sunday.

Reid went on to say that Kaepernick has struggled to get on the same page as the NFL.

I’ve already picked its linebackers as the best in college football — but Alabama has an edge at quarterback. Freshman Jake Fromm has limited his mistakes, but he’s still green. The Bulldogs have an easier road to the SEC title game than the Crimson Tide, but the game at Auburn in two weeks will be tough.

McShay and I discussed Notre Dame last week, so you know where I stand. And the Fighting Irish crushed a really good NC State team on Saturday. Still, it won’t be easy with games at Miami and Stanford to close out the season. If Notre Dame wins out, it deserves to be in the playoff.

With the injury never really slowing Luck or keeping him out of action, the quick surgery to repair the problem shortly after the end of the 2016 season didn’t raise many red flags. It wasn’t until the beginning of training camp that concern crept in.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard said from the start that the plan wasn’t to have Luck begin the season on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list. He held that promise by pulling the quarterback from the list on Sept. 2 after Luck passed a physical.

The crowd roared as he led his team onto the field and again every time he came to bat and occasionally for what seemed to be no reason at all. The broadcast team showed Cain highlights between innings. When he got into a little trouble—one on, one out—in the fifth inning and manager Bruce Bochy trotted out to the mound, boos rained down. The ovation resumed after Bochy left him in.

The good news for the NFL is that there appears to be a decent European market for streaming games live. It also can carry the momentum of selling some 332,000 tickets to four games that featured only one playoff team from 2016. But it’s far from clear that it can simply conjure more competitive games based the teams involved. The real question, of course, is whether it matters. We shall see.

Simply one of the most frightening masks ever worn in the NHL. Bromley’s nickname was “Bones,” so he fittingly had his mask painted like a skull rather than, say, like David Boreanaz. It was also the perfect marriage between mask and uniform, as the Canucks’ Flying V made him look like an attendant at a gas station of the undead.

Meow. The origin of the “Tiger Mask,” the scariest in hockey history, finds Gratton in a slump for the Rangers and switching masks to find one that would (in theory) produce wins. He was flipping through a copy of National Geographic on the team plane, saw a majestic tiger and asked his artist to create the snarling mask for him. The result: this horror show.

Cal told his locked-up friend about the section he’s arranged at Live Oak, and then once his uncle got ready, we all drove over to the bar. A valet parked our car and when we went inside, the DJ started calling his name. His manager walked in with the new single on a flash drive. Up at the DJ booth, Cal hung around until he knew the music had been handed off.

Jimmy Garoppolo was being groomed by the Patriots to be the answer to life after Tom Brady. Bill Belichick didn’t want to trade Garoppolo, but he also knew the Patriots couldn’t keep him.

It’s definitely not something that we wanted to walk away from and I felt like we rode it out as long as we could, Belichick said Tuesday, via Nora Princiotti of the Boston Globe.

Garoppolo has been on the radar of quarterback-needy teams since he excelled in two starts last season while Brady was serving his Deflategate suspension. There have been trade rumors here and there, but nothing materialized until Monday night. That’s when the Patriots finally gave up hope of keeping Garoppolo.

Belichick’s respect for Garoppolo was evident.

McNair also released a statement on Saturday where he continued to apologize for his comments while providing an explanation behind his remarks.

“As I said yesterday, I was not referring to our players when I made a very regretful comment during the owners meetings last week. I was referring to the relationship between the league office and team owners and how they have been making significant strategic decisions affecting our league without adequate input from ownership over the past few years,” McNair wrote in the statement. “I am truly sorry to the players for how this has impacted them and the perception that it had created of me which could not be further from the truth.”

McClain also reported that all Texans were present for the team’s flight to Seattle for their game Sunday against the Seahawks.

McNair had already issued a public apology Friday for his remark, which he made at the NFL owners meeting last week. In a discussion on national anthem protests in the NFL, McNair used a figure of speech for an analogy saying, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who suffered a concussion on a hard hit last week, could be back on the field for Sunday’s game against the Titans, coach John Harbaugh said.
Alonso hit Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who was sliding, in the head in the second quarter, leaving the 10-year veteran dazed, bloodied and with a concussion. Alonso, who was penalized, texted an apology to Flacco on Friday.

It was the first time Alonso had been penalized this season.

Every Monday throughout the regular season, our panel — ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, Amin Elhassan and Ramona Shelburne, The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears and FiveThirtyEight’s Chris Herring — will rank the league’s 30 teams from top to bottom.

Watson also passed Peyton Manning, Marcus Mariota and Dak Prescott for the most three-passing-touchdown games in a season (four) by a rookie quarterback since the 1970 merger.

Although Deshaun Watson couldn’t make up for a defense that struggled down the stretch, he showed he and the Texans’ offense are a legitimate threat.
Watson’s first touchdown came on the first series of the game and was a 59-yard pass to wide-open Will Fuller. Watson later found Fuller for a 20-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The record-tying touchdown pass was a 2-yard pass to running back Lamar Miller. His fourth was a 72-yard pass to DeAndre Hopkins, who had eight catches for 224 yards.

Axis stated in its court filing that its Participant Legal Liability – Motorsports section contained the following exclusion: “This insurance does not apply to claims or actions brought by one racing vehicle driver against another racing vehicle driver.”

Duane Brown is out of Houston.

The Texans have traded the disgruntled offensive tackle to the Seahawks.

Brown, a first-round pick of the Texans in the 2008 NFL Draft, held out this season before finally reporting on Oct. 23. He made his season debut on Sunday against the Seahawks, who have a glaring need at left tackle.

The Seahawks traded veteran corner Jeremy Lane, a 2018 fifth-round pick, and a 2019 second-round pick initially for Brown, who is expected to re-work his $9.75 million contract for next season.

For what it’s worth, Jets quarterback Josh McCown completed 26 of 33 throws for 257 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Next up for the Jets is home game against the division rival Bills on Thursday night.

“smh, this guy got y’all fooled man,” he wrote. “after the play i go back to the huddle, don’t even look or say a word to him. once he gets up I’m waiting for the play call and hear someone shouting all kinds of profanities. i look over and it’s y’all mans calling me all kinds of names, F you this and F you that as he’s walking off the field, so naturally I responded.”

Barr may have knocked Rodgers out for the season on the play. The Packers put their star QB on injured reserve and will bring him back only if the team is in contention during the final weeks of the season.

Rodgers then accused Barr of giving him the finger and the “suck it” sign this week. Barr didn’t deny it, but according to his tweets he was simply reacting to actions by the Packers QB.

“i don’t care if you Aaron Rodgers or Mr. Rodgers, if you say something like that you’re gonna get a response from me,” he continued. “i could go on a talk show every weekend and complain about the ‘disrespectful’ things players say or do. If he takes the lick and keeps it pushing we aren’t STILL talking about this. get over it. #13dayslater.”

Ultimately, Beathard looked fine. He didn’t look like a franchise quarterback and he wasn’t enough to solve the many problems of a now 0-6 team.

The 49ers’ offensive line isn’t great in pass protection and the team still has a long way to go in rebuilding its wide receiving corps. If Beathard plays well, it’d be an impressive feat on a team that isn’t set up to find much offensive success. The likelier scenario is that the rookie struggles as a starter.

His first test will come in Week 7 when the 49ers host the Dallas Cowboys.

If the 49ers continue to lose, it’s hard to imagine San Francisco being so impressed with Beathard that the team passes on the opportunity to upgrade the position in a big way during the 2018 offseason. But he’s going to get his shot and so far he’s already exceeding the expectations of many.

The Bears are likely to be without linebacker John Timu (knee/ankle), cornerback Sherrick McManis (hamstring) and wide receiver Markus Wheaton (groin) when they host the Panthers on Sunday, but they remain hopeful that linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski (chest) will return in the near future. Kwiatkoski was limited again at practice Wednesday after missing the past four games with a pectoral injury. Kwiatkoski would give the Bears extra depth at inside linebacker and on special teams, where the Bears figure to lose McManis — the Bears’ special-teams ace — for at least the next couple games. — Jeff Dickerson

The Lions’ bye came at a much needed time. Even Jim Caldwell said that if Detroit had to play Thursday after the loss to the Saints, “it’d be really tough.” Even playing Sunday would’ve potentially been difficult. Receiver Golden Tate (shoulder), safety Glover Quin (concussion) and left tackle Greg Robinson (ankle) are among the players who were hurt against New Orleans last week.