BALTIMORE, Maryland February 1, 20!5 - Here are a few musings about sports:
The Real Story about the use of An Altered Football was in the game between the Patriots and the Ravens, which the Patriots won on a last quarter scoreWith the SuperBowl kicking off in an hour or so, the world of 'Deflate-Gate' has faded into the background. And none too soon. I figured, eventually, somebody in the national press would string together the real story line, but they've missed it completely. Many say that the 'scandal,' if you want to call it that, never was as serious as it could have been or should have been because the game where the dirty dealing took place was a total blow out. The Patriots could have beaten the Colts that day if they only used nine players; that's how lop-sided the game was. But the Patriot-Colt game for the AFC Title was not the first game where the deflated ball was in play. The week prior, the Patriots looked like certain losers as they fell behind the Ravens, 14-0 and 28-!4, before scoring a late TD to pull it out. The Ravens intercepted Brady in that game sssssssddddlate in the first half and, it has been reported, immediately suspected something was up. The report says the Ravens kept the ball in question and alerted the Colts to be on the watch for similar shennanigans. John Harbaugh, the Ravens coach, denied this part of the story on Sunday during the Super Bowl TV Broadcast on NBC.ss The Colts were ready to act when they got their interception. Some hear this tale and wonder why teams have to wait until they intercept a pass to raise objections about the ball being used by the other team. It shouldn't be that way. I believe that both teams should have to use the same ball throughout the game. But the NFL allows both teams to use their own balls, and several league quarterbacks have made statements to the effect that customizing a ball for the quarterback is a regular occurrence. The only way this can work is if the game officials are closely watching the balls being used to ensure they are within the guidelines that the league permits. Anyway, the use of an altered football, a deflated football, is far more poignant in the Raven-Patriot game, because that was one of the closest games of this postseason. Not only that, but if you recall, the Patriots completely abandoned the run against the Ravens, first, because the Ravens shut down running games as a matter of course, and two, because the Patriots fell behind right from the gitgo, and even when their offense started clicking, they weren't catching up. They didn't get the lead until late in the game. They relied solely on Brady and the passing game to win. If he needed an altered ball to engineer that comeback, it is a huge story. Maybe a fully inflated ball allows the Ravens to win. To me, once I heard the report that the issue of the deflated ball arose for the first time in the game against the Ravens, I figured that would be the game that the league would concentrate on because that was the game that was so close and susceptible to having a different outcome once cheating was introduced. But nobody jumped on it. Then again, if Harbaugh says it didn't happen that way, who else is in a better position to know.
Burnley lost Saturday to Sunderland, 2-0, to stay stuck on 20 points. That being said, they remain free of the relegation places on the Premier League Table. The Claret had played four straight matches without a defeat from December 28 to January 10, although one of those matches was a 1-1 draw with Tottenham in the FA Cup. That run of games allowed Burnley to escape the relegation designation. Since January 10, however, the Claret have played and lost three straight matches, although again, one of those losses was in the FA Cup. As things stand now, Burnley is in !7th place in the 20-team league, with 20 points. Trailing Burnley, and standing in the relegation lane, are No. 18 Hull City wih 19 points, No. 19 Queens Park Rangers, also with 19 points, but trailing Hull by five goals in the Goal Differential Column, and No. 20 Leicester City, with 17 points. Just barely ahead of the Claret are No. 16 Aston Villa and No. 15 West Bromwich Albion, each with 22 points, and No. 14 Sunderland and No. 13 Crystal Palance, each with 23 points. Burnley takes on West Brom on Sunday at Turf Moor, and it shapes up as a very important match because after West Brom comes, in succession, matches at Manchester United, at Chelsea, home against Swansea, at Liverpool, home against Manchester City, at Southampton, home against Tottenham, and home against Arsenal. There isn't a club team in the world that would relish a schedule like that. The West Brom match-up has another quality to it; Burnley played just about their worst game of the season against West Brom on September 28. The Claret had just played a remarkable three straight scoreless draws, and then they went to West Brom and got crushed, 4-0.
Now, West Brom comes to Turf Moor.
In a few weeks, the Baltimore Orioles and the rest of Major League Baseball report to Spring Training. It will be nice for those lads to get out of the snow and cold that hold sway over much of these United States in the dead of winter, and into the balmy weather of southern Florida and the Desert Warmth of Arizona. In just two weeks, however, the NCAA baseball season will actually begin, with real games. A good portion of the games will take place in the same warm-weather climates that the major league teams will be enjoying. But not all of them. Just for instance, the University of Maryland - ranked No. 14 in the DI Preseason Poll - will open its season on Friday, February 13 against Western Kentucky, and that game as well as the three that follow, against Old Dominion, Canisius and Coastal Carolina, will all be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as part of the Caravelle Resort Tournament. The following weekend the Terps travel further south for three games in the South Alabama Tournament against South Alabama, UCF and Arkansas. Then on February 24 Maryland plays its first cold weather game, at home, against VCU, followed by a three-game home series against Appalacian State on February 27 and 28, and on March 1. This blog originates in Baltimore, Maryland, which is about 35 miles northeast of College Park. The average high temperature these days is 44 degrees and the average low is 30 degrees. That's bad enough for baseball, but as any observer knows, this has been another winter that has experienced temperatures far below normal (with all due respects to those of you who drink the global warming Kool Aid). Tomorrow, for instance, the expected high is 33 degrees and the expected low is 22 degrees. There is snow on the ground. By comparison, the University of Minnesota doesn't play its first home game until March 24, two days after it finishes its first conference series of the season at Maryland. Nebraska, another Big Ten foe of Maryland, plays 13 straight games away from home to start the season, before opening its home schedule on March 10. But once the Huskers set up shot in Lincoln, on March 10, when they begin a two-game set with Northern Colorado, they will be home for 17 atraight games stretching until March 31, and including a three-game series with Michigan to open the Big Ten Schedule.
It was reported by a Baltimore Radio Station (WBAL) on Monday that Manny Machado, the Orioles All-Star Third Baseman, has recovered almost completely from his second major knee operation in as many seasons, and will be ready to play when he reports to Spring Training later this month. Also anxious to get back to work, according to the report, is Chris Davis, the slugging first baseman who was suspended for 25 games for use of Aderall, a stimulant that Davis formerly took legally. He will again be permitted to take the drug legally this season, the radio station reported. Davis did not seek MLB permission to take the drug, which combats Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, last season, and when it was found in his blood, he was suspended. He served all but one of the 25 games last season, and will be eligible to return to the diamond when the Orioles take the field for their second game of the season.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl. That is not news to anyone unless they live under rock. It is interesting, however, to step back now and identify which of the NFL teams are the best, wbich ones are the powerhouses, the ones nobody wants to play in an important game. I believe there are four at the conclusion of the current season. The Patriots are one, as are the Seahawks. The Packers are a third superior team. As any fan knows, Green Bay would have been in the Super Bowl had they not choked in the final minutes against the Seahawks. On another day they certainly would have beaten the Seahawks and anyone else they chose to play. There is one more of these 'big boys,' and that would be the Ravens. Baltimore needed a win and help in their final game to even make the playoffs, but that obscures a lot of things about this team. First, Joe Flacco is about the best QB in the NFL, especially in the playoffs. No one has a better or more accurate arm, and no one is cooler when the heat is on. The Ravens had the Patriots by two touchdowns on two different occasions in their second round playoff game, and this after blitzing the Steelers in Pittsburgh to open the playoffs. Even with a decimated defensive backfield, the Defense is still a real piece of work, anchored by a group of players that strike fear in every offense in the NFL. Those players - Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, C.J. Mosely and the rapidly emerging Brandon Williams - are absolute wrecking balls. They cannot be run on. In the playoffs, the Patriots didn't even try. And inside the Red Zone they are the best in the NFL. If GM Ozzie Newsome can execute some more of his magic in the offseason on the Defensive Backfield, the Ravens will against threaten to make the Super Bowl.
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