More baseball playoffs and a slew of close NFL games made this weekend an interesting one even for the casual sports fan. All the while NBA begins to gear up and the usual controversy about the college football standings keep any down time between games interesting.
World Series:
Forget those other playoff games. The Yankees were swept by the Detroit Tigers, with all the focus of A-Rod staying in New York or staying the superstar he has always been, it's easy to forget that the Tigers have been the choice all year to make it to the World Series. The Giants game back down 3 games to their 1 and breaking a win less streak in game 7s to return back to the series they won only two years ago.
So the stage is set for a best of seven series against two really good teams who both exemplify their own leagues. The Tigers have spectacular pitchers but really rely on their big bats to win games. The Giants balance speed, power, and pitching really well and it has served them well throughout the season. But is power hitting enough? Or will power pitching dominate? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
NFL:
Every professional league does their best to make every team as equal as possible and have a reasonable chance to win the championship every year. And this weekend reflected just how close some of these teams (despite records) really are. But then you have teams like the Eagles with longtime quarterback Michael Vick fumbling 13 times this season and in case you're wondering, that's way high. Or you have teams like the New York Giants who have Eli Manning, who is making last minute 4th quarter comebacks look too simple this year.
This week we saw the underdog favorites (if there is such a thing) the Arizona Cardinals lose to the surprising Minnesota Vikings who improved their record 5-2 and are in position to battle for division dominance with the equally as good Chicago Bears. Up in New York, as aforementioned, the Giants' Eli Manning took on newcomer Robert Griffin III in a shootout and it came down to the final quarter of play. But despite his efforts the rookie RG3 was taught a lesson by Manning who just finds ways to win when losing at the last minute. Meanwhile, the Texans continued winning, improving to 6-1 and appear to be a dominate team ready for the playoffs and the Patriots beat in division rivals the New York Jets in overtime by a field goal to keep atop their own division.
Some games to watch this weekend include the Falcons on the road in Philly putting their still unbeaten record to the test against a wily Eagles team. The Giants go down to Texas against the Dallas Cowboys, always a bitter rivalry and usually a good game. The Saint's Drew Brees visits future hall of fame candidate Peyton Manning in Denver which should see at least a competitive shootout. And finally the Cardinals will be put to the test again against the tough 49ers.
MMA:
by user MrMazz:
The Bellator season 7 lightweight tournament got underway at Bellator 77 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Rich Climenti, Marcin Held, Ricardo Triloni, and Dave Jensen advanced to the semi-final round. The semi-final match ups have been set for Bellator 81 (Nov 16 Kingston , Rhode Island) with Rich Climenti vs. Marcin Held and Ricardo Tirloni vs Dave Jansen. The winner of the Climenti vs Held fight should be the favorite to win the whole thing and eventually face Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler.
Two of the more interesting prospects featured in the tournament, Alexander Sarnavskiy and Magomed Saadulaev both lost in the first round. Bringing in eastern european fighters with glossy records has become a staple of Bellator's fighter acquisitions, hoping to find the next Fedor Emelianenko. Alexander Sarnavskiy appears to be the better long term prospect for Bellator. Training out of RusFighters Sport Club with Bellator middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko and only 23 brings a high likelihood he at least will be in entertaining fights the majority of his career.
This weekend the best option is Bellator 78 on MTV2 and Spike.com/Bellator.com. Bellator 78 features the semi-final round of the welterweight season 7 tournament. Former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good faces Michail Tsarev and former DREAM welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis meets Andrey Koreshkov. Expect Lyman Good and Marius Zaromskis to make it through this round and meet in the finals. Lyman Good is a good enough wrestle boxer to get a decision against Michail Tsarev, who has good submission skills but lacks the wrestling prowess to make his grappling truly great. Andrey Koreshkov stands a better chance at beating Marius Zaromskis given the pairs kickboxing backgrounds and Zaromskis lacking in both size and stamina. Also on the main card, a pair of Bellator staples, middleweight Brian Rogers and featherweight Daniel Strauss, both in “feature fights”. Both fighters should handle their opponents easily. This keeps Daniel Strauss busy as he waits for his mandatory featherweight title shot and gets Rogers a win and a spot in the next middleweight tournament, most likely. The current Bellator womens 115lbs champion Zoila Gurgel will be fighting on the undercard and should easily dominate Casey Noland (4-2).
NCAA Football:
In college football every team is ranked by a few different sources. Once by the media, sports reporters and writers, once by the coaches themselves, and a combination of several sources that are fed into a computer program somewhere deep underground where only mole men operate the software. Those special computer standings are called the BSC rankings and on paper sound like the fairest way to judge so many different teams playing in different leagues, all across the country, against all levels of competition. And indeed it is fair, until you get results like last week.
The Oregon Ducks were sitting pretty at #3 waiting for the inevitable, for #1 Alabama and #2 Florida to play one another (since they're in the same division technically) and the winner to face the Ducks in the championship. But somehow, winning this past weekend just wasn't enough. After beating an unranked Arizona State the Ducks dropped one spot to #4 and saw Kansas State, who soundly beat a ranked West Virginia team, take their spot. So just like that a perched vulture waiting to strike has a bit of competition and the set state of college football is now a free for all for #3.
That Kansas State team has another test against #14 Texas Tech on Saturday which should either cement their spot or send them dropping. Florida faces off against heated rival #10 Georgia which should some good television at the same time as the Kansas State game, so you may want to flip back and forth. Alabama also has a big test against #11 Mississippi State late Saturday night setting itself up to be a marque game. So this weekend could find itself a few upsets real easy, or cement those top standings even further.
Every now and again I think someone should make some sort of BCS equidistant for fighter rankings. Than I laugh realizing I rather argue with people on the internet and not a computer run by mole people.
Is the NHL still in the midst of a lockout?
Go Bears!
Go Giants!
That is all.
I still believe!
@MrMazz: I wanna say I heard about a cancelled few games. So for now the season is shortened and who knows from there.