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Weekly Miami Dolphins Prediction

Miami(4-6) plays at Detroit(2-8) today, Thanksgiving Day. The Dolphins are coming off three consecutive wins, the last of which was a 24-20 over Minnesota. Dolphin QB Joey Harrington will be playing against the team that traded him away only last spring.

I don’t have much to say on the game other Miami’s winning streak hasn’t impressed me but they are a better team than Detroit. My prediction- Miami 27 Detroit 14.

 

Green Bay’s Chad Clifton: Under the Radar

ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli put Green Bay Packers left tackle Chad Clifton on his “Under the Radar” team. He writes,

A seven-year veteran, Clifton rarely gets a nod when the subject turns to great left tackles, but the Green Bay stalwart has quietly carved out an excellent, if underappreciated, career as Brett Favre’s blindside body guard. Clifton is technically proficient as a pass protector, extends well to ward off rushers and has deceptively quick feet. Green Bay typically ranks in the top 10 in the fewest sacks allowed, and Clifton, who has 89 career starts, is a big reason why.

Let me praise him as a run blocker. Clifton, along with right tackle Mark Tauscher, are holdovers from the dominating offensive line of the Mike Sherman era. In 2004 the line that included Clifton, Tauscher, Dallas Cowboy guard Marco Rivera, Carolina Panther guard Mike Wahle, and Houston Texan center Mike Flanagan helped the Packers rush for 2558 yards, third in the league. In 2004 the team rushed for 1908 yards. It was a drop, but it still ranked 10th in the NFL. Right now, the Packers are only 20th in rushing. However, we’ve seen the promise of head coach Mike McCarthy’s zone blocking scheme. The Packers had a 100+ yard rusher in four straight games, and against Arizona both Ahman Green and Vernand Morency crossed the century mark. Being able to effectively change blocking technique is an indication of Clifton’s talent.

[Cross-posted to The American Mind.]

 

Mike Shula Likely Out at Alabama

Despite having gotten a big raise and contract extension in the off-season, it looks like Mike Shula’s days as head coach of the storied University of Alabama Crimson Tide football program are numbered.

Paul Gattis of the Huntsville Times:

Mike Shula’s job as Alabama’s football coach is uncertain, three days after the Crimson Tide lost its third straight game to wrap up a disappointing 6-6 season.

Athletic director Mal Moore and university president Robert Witt are expected to meet with Shula regarding the future of the program. It wasn’t clear if that meeting took place Monday or is yet to occur. Momentum appears to be growing toward possibly removing Shula but the situation was termed as “fluid” by an athletic department source on Monday.

[...]

He guided the Tide to a 10-2 record in his third season last year, including landmark wins over Florida and Tennessee. Alabama capped the season by defeating Texas Tech 13-10 in the Cotton Bowl. It seemed to be a breakthrough season after the Tide went 10-15 in Shula’s first two seasons as the school endured crushing sanctions for NCAA violations committed before Shula was hired.

He was then rewarded with a new six-year contract worth $1.8 million, which Shula signed on May 4, 2006. If he is fired, the school would owe Shula $3 million, plus $200,000 for each year remaining on the contract. That raises the buyout to $4 million.

Meanwhile, Alabama officials are busy on another front. The Tide has been in contact with officials from the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego and the Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Alabama could be left out of the SEC bowl tie-ins because of its 6-6 record and may need to look elsewhere for a postseason game.

[...]

Alabama could still land in the Independence Bowl if South Carolina loses to Clemson on Saturday or if the SEC gets two teams in the BCS.

The team was awful in Shula’s first two seasons but it’s hard to hold that against him, considering he was the third head coach in a matter of weeks after Dennis Francione reneged on his contract to take the Texas A&M job and Mike Price got himself involved in a scandal involving a skanky stripper and the school was on probation for violations that occurred well before his tenure.

Still, the wheels came off at the end of last season and he is 0-4 against arch rival Auburn. The team has been simply awful this year. Paul Finebaum is blunt but accurate:

The time has come for the University of Alabama to finally man up and act like one of the greatest football powers, one with a storied tradition, instead of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. The time has come for someone high up in the elite and rarefied air of the Alabama administration to discover the missing clue bag that should tell them Mike Shula needs to go now as the school’s head football coach.

Finally, the time has come to sincerely thank Shula for his service. Give him a gold watch. Pay him whatever his contract specifies. But most important, put the program out of its misery and give the loyal fan base an early Christmas present by hiring a legitimate head football coach, not someone who four years ago was absent from everyone’s head coaching list and likely never will be again.

That’s harsh, to be sure. But Shula was certainly not on anyone’s short list to be head coach of a major program. He was the team’s quarterback a couple decades ago and his dad was a coaching legend. On the other hand, neither he nor his brother Dave have been impressive when given a shot at running a team.

The experiment failed. It wasn’t a total disaster. It was worse. It was a slow, painful death, akin to Chinese water torture. Like one nail at a time being slowly ripped away, leaving the skin raw and bleeding.

And it was so predictable if only people could have taken the Crimson blinders off and seen this for what it really was and was always going to be. Letting a teenager drive the family car without driver’s ed will usually garner the same result — a wrecked car, or in this case a severely damaged football program.

That much is unfair. While Shula was a long shot, he had the credentials to be a head coach. And it’s not like there was a long line of outstanding coaches ready to take up the mantle of a declining program with two years left on their probation well after every other team had hired a coach.

Notre Dame and Florida made tough choices two years ago in firing Tyrone Willingham and Ron Zook, both of whom had enjoyed some success. Today, in the latest BCS standings, Florida is No. 4 and Notre Dame No. 5.

What’s the best thing one can say about Shula after four years? He’s a nice guy. Now, is that worth nearly a $2 million contract to ruin one of the crown jewels of college football?

I’ve never heard anyone say Tommy Tuberville is a nice guy. But he’s an exceptional head football coach and his résumé speaks for itself.

Sadly, it does.

I understand Larry Coker is about to hit the market. Or how about Steve Spurrier?

UPDATE (11/27): It’s happened: Alabama Fires Mike Shula

 

Andre Waters, Former NFL Defensive Back, Dead at 44

Longtime Philadelphia Eagle Andre Waters died this morning of unspecified causes. He was only 44.

Andre Waters, a defensive back who spent most of his 12 seasons in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, died early Monday. He was 44.

His death was confirmed by Fort Valley State University, where he worked as an assistant coach. A family member said he died in Tampa, Fla., but the school had no further details, university spokeswoman Cindy Gambill said. The Tampa medical examiner’s office was expected to release details in the afternoon.

Sad news.

 

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Out for Season, Brett Favre Questionable

The Green Bay Packers appear snakebit this season, as Brett Favre was banged up pretty badly in yesterday’s game and his replacement, former 1st round pick Aaron Rodgers, broke his foot and is out for the year.

The Green Bay Packers lost a quarterback for the season on Monday. It wasn’t Brett Favre.

Aaron Rodgers broke his left foot during Sunday’s game against New England and is out for the rest of 2006, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. Rodgers had replaced Favre, who hurt his elbow earlier in the game. Rodgers will need surgery. He broke his foot scrambling in the third quarter, but played the rest of the game, finishing 4-of-12 for 32 yards.

[...]

Favre, starting his 251st game including playoffs, injured a nerve in his elbow after getting sacked just before halftime in the Packers’ 35-0 loss. He couldn’t muster enough strength to adequately grip the football for the rest of the game.

McCarthy said Monday that Favre has most of the strength back in his elbow, but he wasn’t ready to say the three-time MVP would practice this week. “I think his elbow is going to be fine,” the coach said. “He’s been in for treatment for both the elbow and the groin and we’ll re-evaluate him Wednesday, but he doesn’t seem very concerned about it.”

Frankly, Favre’s injury was a good excuse to put Rodgers in during what otherwise would be another lost season for the Pack. Now, they’re down to either a gimpy old man or whoever their 3rd string guy might be.

 

Cowboys End Colts’ Undefeated Season

The Dallas Cowboys, who came into the game 5-4, knocked off Peyton Manning and the 9-0 Indianapolis Colts 21-13, ending Indy’s hopes of a perfect season and giving the ‘Boys a decent shot at making the playoffs.

Dallas Cowboys 21 - Indianapolis Colts 14

They did it despite several turnovers and two missed field goals by former Colt Mike Vanderjagt, who is statistically the most accurate kicker in NFL history but who has been sketchy at best this year.

ESPN‘s quick summary:

Tony Romo managed an efficient game in his first career start at home, Marion Barber III ran for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and the Cowboys handed Peyton Manning and the Colts their first loss of the season 21-14 Sunday.

A week after becoming the first team to start 9-0 in consecutive seasons, Indianapolis fell shy in its bid to match last year’s 13-0 run, much less the perfect season by the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Colts had escaped close calls all season — like two one-point wins over bad teams at home and five other wins by less than a touchdown — but couldn’t overcome four turnovers, their most in a regular season game since Nov. 25, 2001.

For the Cowboys, this easily goes down as their most impressive win in coach Bill Parcells’ four seasons. Dallas (6-4) is two games over .500 for the first time all season. With four of the remaining six games at home and with the rest of the division ailing, the Cowboys are in prime position to make a run at the division title. It’s a stunning turnaround considering how badly they looked in their last home game, a lopsided loss to the New York Giants. But a halftime quarterback change that game, from Drew Bledsoe to Romo, has transformed the club. The Cowboys have won two in a row and three of four.

The underachieving Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to Dallas Thanksgiving day, giving the Cowboys a reasonable chance to go 7-4.

OTB

 

Ohio State and Michigan Remain #1 and #2 After Playing

Despite having lost to #1 Ohio State Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines remain at #2 in the AP poll.

The game of the year didn’t change the top of The Associated Press poll. Ohio State was No. 1 and Michigan was No. 2 in the Top 25 on Sunday. The Big Ten rivals have held the top two spots in the media poll since Oct. 15. After the Buckeyes beat the Wolverines 42-39 in Columbus on Saturday in their regular-season finale, the voters decided to keep them there.

The last 1 vs. 2 regular-season game that didn’t change the top of the poll was the 1966 classic between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State, which ended in a 10-10 tie.

The last time No. 2 lost to No. 1 in the regular season and didn’t drop was 1945, when Army beat No. 2 Navy 32-13.

Quite bizarre, really. It’s virtually unheard of to lose and not drop in the polls. Still, I’m not sure who I’d rank above Michigan right now.

 

Million dollar birthday present

From AP-

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Julieta Granada gave herself the perfect birthday gift, surely not minding that it arrived a bit late. Two days after turning 20, the LPGA Tour rookie from Paraguay got her first victory — and, perhaps more importantly, took home the first $1 million prize in women’s golf.

Granada shot a bogey-free round of 68 Sunday, beating an eight-player final-round field to win the ADT Championship at Trump International and take home most of the event’s $1.55 million purse.

The win pushed her season’s earnings to $1,633,586 — not bad for someone who finished outside the top-10 finishers in 23 of 30 events this year.

Player of the year Lorena Ochoa (70) was second, earning $100,000 and securing the top place on the season-ending money list. Karrie Webb (71) was the only player who could have passed Ochoa in that department, needing a win to do so. But Webb went home with $20,500 — meaning she and Granada were separated, essentially, by $326,500 per shot.

“Obviously, it was in the back of your mind all day,” Webb said of the huge winner’s share. “Because of that, you knew it was in the back of everybody’s mind.”

Only 32 women qualified for the event, where the field was trimmed to 16 after the second round, then down to eight for the final round — when the scores were wiped away and everyone teed off at even-par in an 18-hole shootout for $1 million.

Granada, the youngest of the eight players Sunday, somehow never flinched. And even if the scores hadn’t been wiped out, her four-round total of 276 would have been three shots better than anyone else in the field.

*****

Granada backed away from her second shot on the 18th fairway, distracted by the roar two holes away, where Ochoa had made birdie — giving her two in a row — to get within one of the rookie’s lead.

Granada got her 5-iron approach — her mother, correctly, thought it was one club too much — on the green, but well behind the hole. Her first putt got to about 3 feet, and the par try was perfect, protecting her one-shot lead.

And when Ochoa and Webb — Granada’s two closest pursuers — each found the water with their tee balls at the par-3 17th, the outcome was all but sealed.

It was the veteran players that cracked today. Granada played steady the entire round and was a deserving winner. One million dollars is a nice way to celebrate one’s birthday. Congrats to Julietta. As for a certain Palm Beach Post columnist, Dave George how does that crow taste?

Note- If scores had been carried over from the first 54 holes, Granada would have won in that format also.

 

Weekly Miami Dolphins prediction

Miami(3-6) plays Minnesota(4-5) at home this afternoon. Most of the pre-game talk revolves around Daunte Culpepper who used to be QB for the Vikings and is currently sidelined by the Dolphins because of a bum knee.

I’ve been wrong about the last two Dolphins games. Can I break the streak this week? My guess- Miami 21, Minnesota 17.

 

2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Semi-Finalists

Rick Gosselin lists the 25 semi-finalists for Canton:

    Quarterbacks:
    â–  Ken Stabler, QB, 1970-79 Oakland Raiders, 1980-81 Houston Oilers, 1982-84 New Orleans Saints

    Running backs:
    â–  Terrell Davis, RB, 1995-2001 Denver Broncos
    â–  Thurman Thomas, RB, 1988-99 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Miami Dolphins

    Wide receivers:
    â–  Michael Irvin, WR, 1988-99 Cowboys
    â–  Art Monk, WR, 1980-93 Washington Redskins, 1994 New York Jets, 1995 Philadelphia Eagles
    â–  Andre Reed, WR, 1985-99 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Washington Redskins

    Offensive linemen:
    â–  Dermontti Dawson, C, 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers
    â–  Russ Grimm, G, 1981-91 Washington Redskins
    Bob Kuechenberg, G, 1970-84 Miami Dolphins
    â–  Bruce Matthews, G/T/C, 1983-2001 Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Titans
    â–  Randall McDaniel, G, 1988-99 Minnesota Vikings, 2000-2001 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
    â–  Gary Zimmerman, T, 1986-92 Minnesota Vikings, 1993-97 Denver Broncos

    Defensive linemen:
    â–  Charles Haley, DE/LB, 1986-91, 1999 San Francisco 49ers, 1992-96 Cowboys
    â–  Fred Dean, DE, 1975-81 San Diego Chargers, 1981-85 San Francisco 49ers
    â–  Richard Dent, DE, 1983-93, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles

    Linebackers:
    â–  Randy Gradishar, LB, 1974-83 Denver Broncos
    â–  Kevin Greene, LB/DE, 1985-92 Los Angeles Rams, 1993-95 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1996, 1998-99 Carolina Panthers, 1997 San Francisco 49ers
    â–  Derrick Thomas, LB, 1989-99 Kansas City Chiefs
    â–  Andre Tippett, LB, 1982-88, 1990-93 New England Patriots

    Secondary:
    â–  Lester Hayes, CB, 1977-86 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders
    â–  Roger Wehrli, CB, 1969-82 St. Louis Cardinals

    Special teams:
    â–  Ray Guy, P, 1973-86 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders

    Contributors:
    â–  Paul Tagliabue, commissioner, 1989-2006 NFL
    â–  Art Modell, owner, 1961-95 Cleveland Browns, 1996-2003 Baltimore Ravens
    â–  George Young, GM, 1968-74 Baltimore Colts, 1975-78 Miami Dolphins, 1979-97 New York Giants, 1998-2001 NFL

The list will be narrowed to fifteen in January, then to six, with a minimum of three and a maximum of six making the final cut on the eve of the Super Bowl. Goose says the class is “considered soft because of the scarcity of quarterbacks and running backs.”

Indeed, while I think a dozen or more of these guys deserve to be in the Hall, Tagliabue is the only shoe-in among first-time eligibles. I think Bruce Matthews makes it on the first ballot, too, simply because of his incredible longevity. Then again, I can’t believe Charles Haley (he of the five Super Bowl rings), Michael Irvin (three rings and a dominant player on the Team of the 1990s), Ray Guy (the consensus Best. Punter. Ever.), and Lester Hayes have been passed over so many times.

 
 


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