Larry Brown Sports

For the second year in a row, the Detroit Lions beat the Washington Redskins. If you didn’t watch the game but saw the 37-25 final, it was much closer than that score suggests. The Skins had taken the lead 25-20 midway through the 4th quarter on a kickoff return for a touchdown by rookie Brandon Banks. They missed the two-point conversion but the defense forced a Detroit punt. Washington had the ball up 25-20 with 5:21 left and a chance to run off some time or add to their lead. Instead, Donovan McNabb threw an interception on 2nd and 10 giving Detroit the ball at the 37.

The Lions capitalized on the interception with Matt Stafford hitting Calvin Johnson for the pair’s third touchdown of the game giving them a 28-25 lead (they converted the two-pointer). With 3:18 left, Washington had the ball and couldn’t manage a first down. McNabb was sacked on 4th and 10 at his 20 giving the Lions great field position to go up 31-25.

The Redskins had 1:45 to try and drive for the game-tying score. Much to the surprise of everyone not named Mike Shanahan, the Redskins sent backup quarterback Rex Grossman out for the final drive. Grossman, who hadn’t thrown a pass all season, succumbed to the same pressure that got after McNabb. He was sacked on his first play, lost the ball, and Ndamukong Suh picked it up and returned it for a touchdown sealing the win.

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With the way the Jets have played defense under Rex Ryan, you have to assume New York has the edge in that phase of the game regardless of whom they play.  That was far from the case on Sunday when Mark Sanchez and company lost to the Green Bay Packers, 9-0.

Green Bay’s defense was dominant at the New Meadowlands on Sunday.  The Packers’ D was able to force three turnovers on a day when their offense scored no touchdowns, but protected the football.  Green Bay also benefited from a Jets offense that couldn’t do anything from the opening kickoff through the final whistle.

When New York tried throw it, the Packers defensive backs were there to make a play on the ball.  Mark Sanchez threw two interceptions and looked flustered for the better part of the game.  When Rex Ryan decided to go away from Sanchez and into the wildcat, Brad Smith lost a fumble.  Ryan even opted to try a fake punt early in the game deep in his own territory and came up short.  The Jets defense bailed the offense out by holding the Packers to a field goal, but it didn’t matter on a day when New York couldn’t put a point in the board.

Sunday’s game in New Jersey was a perfect example of how a defense can only take a team so far.  Nine points should never be enough to win a game, but New York’s offense allowed it to be.

The more Cincinnati Bengals games I watch, the more I realize Carson Palmer just isn’t what he used to be.  A former Pro Bowler and top-5 quarterback in the NFL, Palmer has had a lot of trouble protecting the football over the past few seasons.  More specifically, he has never appeared to be the same Carson since he tore his ACL during the playoffs back in 2006.

Palmer’s seventh interception of the 2010 season was a costly one.  The Bengals found themselves trailing the Dolphins 22-14 late in the game Sunday afternoon, but still had a chance to send the game to overtime.  They even got some help from Miami when a roughing the passer call put Cincinnati into Dolphins territory.  Just when it appeared the Bengals had a shot to drive the field and at least give themselves a chance to tie with a touchdown and a two-point conversion, Palmer threw the ball right into the hands of Miami defensive back Sean Smith.  It was the first pick of Smith’s career.

If you add in Terrell Owens’ lucky touchdown catch that should have been an interception, you get a tough day from the Bengals’ leader.  With Chad Ochocinco and T.O., Palmer has plenty of talent to throw to and just hasn’t been able to get it done.  The Bengals now find themselves in a hole with a 2-5 record, and for once we can say a lot of the blame rests on their quarterback’s shoulders.

The word “disappointment” pretty much sums up the Dallas Cowboys‘ 2010 season to this point, so I guess you could say Jon Kitna is just trying to fit in with his teammates.  As we all know, Tony Romo suffered a broken collarbone last weekend and is going to miss significant time, if not the remainder of the season.  That leaves the Cowboys’ starting quarterback duties to Kitna, who started his first game for Dallas Sunday against the Jaguars.

Barring a miraculous comeback in Texas, it’s safe to say Kitna failed his first test of the season.  On paper, it appeared Kitna was drawing a good opponent for his first start of the year in the Jaguars.  As I’m writing this, the Jaguars are dominating the Cowboys in the fourth quarter, 28-3.  Kitna has thrown three interceptions and (obviously) no touchdowns.

However, it’s important to point out that two of the passes were deflected by his own players — one through the hands of Miles Austin and the other tipped by Felix Jones.  The tipped balls prove that Kitna hasn’t really been given much to work with.  Dallas is a team that came into the year with high expectations and is staring a 1-6 record directly in the face.  They’ve clearly called it a season and are done concentrating.  Kitna might as well join the club.

Terrell Owens has been one of the fantasy surprises of 2010.  After getting off to a slow start, T.O. has caught 26 passes for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in his last three games.  Most of us expected Chad Ochocinco to be the top option at receiver for the Bengals, but T.O. has been a monster and clearly Carson Palmer’s favorite option.

When things are going well, they’re going well.  T.O. already has two touchdown catches against the Dolphins today, but one of them was as lucky a catch as you can have.  His second touchdown catch was a 37-yarder that should have been easily picked off by Miami defensive back Chris Clemons.  Instead, Clemons bobbled the ball and flipped it right into the hands of Owens as he was going to the ground trying to corral it.  T.O. calmly trotted into the end zone.  You can see video of T.O.’s lucky touchdown catch here.

Better to be lucky than good, right?

Through only three games, we can already see the Miami Heat are going to take some time to before they gel.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being one of those writers who panics because they lost a game already.  All I’m saying is we can see there are going to be some growing pains along the way, as most of us expected.

According to Pro Basketball Talk, Pat Riley may be interested in acquiring a point guard to add to his All-Star roster.  Riley is looking to send about $3 million and backup point guard Mario Chalmers to a team that is rebuilding and looking to shed a long-term contract.  More specifically, Riley wants to bring an outside shooter to Miami in an attempt to stretch the floor a bit more and create space for his playmakers.

Neither LeBron James nor Dwyane Wade is a point guard.  Both are capable of bringing the ball up the floor, but the thought is that the Heat would benefit from having somebody who can get Wade, LeBron, and Chris Bosh the ball and also spot up and hit shots from the perimeter.  Makes sense, but is it really the best idea?

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Towards the end of the USC-Oregon game on ABC Saturday night, Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit were breaking down a graphic that projected the BCS bowl games. With the way they looked against USC, Oregon would be in the title game against Auburn who beat Ole Miss 51-31. The national championship game will be played in Glendale, Arizona, nearby the Fiesta Bowl.

Here are the rest of the BCS bowl game projections:

Rose Bowl: Ohio State against Boise State
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma against Pitt
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech against Nebraska
Sugar Bowl: Alabama against Wisconsin

The two teams noticeably missing from the list are TCU and Utah. Those teams meet next weekend at Utah, and the winner has a good chance of going undefeated. Both teams have San Diego State left on its schedule which will be a challenge, but if either team wins out, they have to make it into a BCS bowl game over one of the teams listed above. The winner of that game can easily compete with and beat Pitt and Virginia Tech and it wouldn’t be right if that team were left out.

For the first time since Urban Meyer took over the Florida Gators football program, they lost more than consecutive games in a season. The Gators got stomped by Alabama 31-6, and then lost tight games to LSU 33-29 and Mississippi State 10-7. The team had a week off to prepare for The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party against Georgia in Jacksonville and pulled off the win 34-31 in overtime to end their 3-game losing streak.

Florida went up 21-7 over Georgia going into halftime thanks to three second quarter touchdowns. Trey Burton gave the Gators a 31-24 lead with a 51-yard touchdown run, his second TD of the game. Georgia scored to tie the game at 31 and they headed to overtime. Florida got an interception on Georgia’s first possession of OT and then Chas Henry kicked the game-winning field goal to give Florida the big victory.

The Gators were emotional after the win, but nobody could have predicted the hyperbole coming out of their coach’s mouth. “This is the biggest win we’ve had, and we’ve had some big ones around here,” Meyer said. “People might say we’ve had some bigger ones, but I’d argue with that. This was the biggest win we’ve coached in a long time.”

Alright, I give it to Urban that that was an emotional victory and one of the biggest wins they’ve had in a while, but Urb’s coached in (and won) two national title games. There’s no way this game against Georgia was bigger than either of those. Yes, it would have been a disaster in Gainesville had they lost this game, but Meyer became a legend by winning those national titles. We all get caught up in the moments, but his remarks were incorrect.

Oh, and if you didn’t already know how awesome Urb is as a coach, he’s now 14-1 following a bye week. He’s also undefeated when it comes to making hyperbolic statements.

Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

If there’s any advice I can give the San Francisco Giants as they look to close out the World Series against the Rangers, it’s hire Mark Grace and have him find Pat Burrell a slump buster. The Giants outfielder went 0-for-4 in Game 3 of the World Series with four strikeouts. The spectacular performance allows Burrell membership into the extremely exclusive LBS Golden Sombrero club, though B-Peso earns special recognition for accomplishing the feat in the World Series.

In case you weren’t keeping track, Peso is now hitless in nine World Series at-bats with eight strikeouts. He has walked twice and scored a run, but he’s the only regular on either team who still has the same batting average as when he started the series. Burrell left two men on with his strikeout in the first, another man on in the 4th, and then he struck out to lead off the 7th and 9th.

At the rate he’s going, it wouldn’t be surprising to see manager Bruce Bochy put Burrell on the bench for Game 4. I probably wouldn’t make that move; Nate Schierholtz is your replacement and isn’t exactly an offensive threat. Burrell at least can get on base and score runs by walking, and he always has the potential to deliver a big-time home run. I would ride him out and hope he comes up with a big hit. Maybe Philly fans are still in his head.

Over the summer, Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver made a hilarious video spoofing LeBron’s “The Decision” show (must-see if you haven’t). In the video, Tolliver mocks LeBron and announces his own decision to sign with Minnesota as a free agent. Nobody gave a crap about Tolliver’s decision to take his services to the T’Wolves, but everyone cared about LeBron’s decision, yet Tolliver’s video got over a quarter million hits on YouTube.

LeBron’s Heat plays Tolliver’s Timberwolves on Tuesday, so some Minnesota reporters asked James whether he had seen Tolliver’s spoof. According to the Star Tribune, James turned icy and said: “I didn’t see it, but I heard about it. We play Minnesota twice.”

If this were college football, I’d fully expect the Heat to run up the score and try and earn some style points. Heck, if LeBron was as serious about keeping his “mental notes” on people knocking him this summer as he says he was, the Heat will keep their starters in until the final buzzer.

Miami was already an entertaining team, and now I want to watch to see how badly LeBron will make Tolliver pay for the show. Are you really surprised that LeBron can’t just let it go?