Seven touchdown passes should be enough to win a game, yet Drew Brees needed help. He needed the opposing coach to have a brain cramp, and he needed a kicker to deliver. He got it all, because it was one of those days for Brees.
Matt Youmans
It has been more than a month since the Dallas Cowboys won a game. In the meantime, there has been no shortage of drama and discontent, and no sign of injured quarterback Tony Romo returning.
No longer is it hip to praise Peyton Manning. He looks much older now, even elderly at times, trotting onto the field as if limping with a broken hip.
If a slow start trips up the Cleveland Cavaliers, overreactions will be sure to follow. But the NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint, and LeBron James might not be fit to run either right now.
Quality quarterbacks are in short supply in the NFL these days, which is why the good ones make around $20 million a year. The Dallas Cowboys got what they paid for when they picked up Matt Cassel by the cheap at a garage sale.
Even before the trick-play debacle, Chuck Pagano’s job was in jeopardy. Under his leadership, which now appears clumsy at best, the Indianapolis Colts are getting as stale as month-old bread.
Whether gambling or coaching football, never apologize for getting lucky. Luck turns two ways, and what goes around usually comes around. Without a doubt, Mark Dantonio is the luckiest coach in the world this week.
Every bookmaker in Las Vegas showed up for work Sunday morning praying for underdogs and rooting against Tom Brady. That’s basically the case every week, but it was especially true this time.
A so-called perfect world does not exist in the NFL. If everything is going right, you can bet something is about to go wrong. And everything is going right for Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Patience might be a virtue in some aspects of life, but there’s no place for it in the sports world anymore. Jim Harbaugh is a Type A personality, meaning he’s aggressive, ambitious and impatient.
If something seems like a bad idea at the time, don’t gamble and do it anyway. Spitting into the wind, swimming with piranhas, betting against an angry Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. All bad ideas, obviously.
It had the potential to be one of the great games of the NFL season. Tom Brady and the undefeated New England Patriots, renegades on a mission, riding into Dallas to trade shots with Tony Romo.
When hired as manager, Joe Maddon was considered the ideal kindergarten cop for the Chicago Cubs. Expectations were realistic for his first year. The postseason was only a possibility. But it’s October, and already those kids are all grown up.
So far, the postseason has been all about pitching. The aces are dealing. The Los Angeles Dodgers are lucky enough to throw two of baseball’s best, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, back to back.
In a complex game, the answer is sometimes simple. Four weeks in a row, Aaron Rodgers has rewarded bettors for backing the Green Bay Packers. An obvious play can pay off. Not every question is a trick.