Chicago Bears, Free Head Exam

After the Chicago Bears' 13-7 victory over the Detroit Lions, here are three issues that merit further examination:

1. I thought it was interesting to see defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli beef up his blitz packages against the Lions, who for the most part had been stymied this season by four-man pass rushes and maximum coverage. Marinelli blitzed regularly early in the game and finished with blitzes on 28.8 percent of quarterback Matthew Stafford's dropbacks. The Chicago Bears entered the game blitzing on about 20 percent of opposing dropbacks, and Stafford had been facing the blitz on about 12 percent of the time. In the end, the Chicago Bears did most of their damage when they sent four pass-rushers. That's how they got two of their three sacks as well as their fourth-quarter interception. But anecdotally, I thought Marinelli's early blitzing prevented Stafford from getting into a rhythm and forced him to leave the pocket far more often than he likes to. Coach Jim Schwartz agreed. "They threw our timing off," he said.

2. The Chicago Bears did as good of a job on receiver Calvin Johnson as any team in recent memory. Monday night was only the third time Johnson has been held under three receptions in his past 24 games dating back to 2010, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Stafford targeted him on 11 passes, but cornerback Charles Tillman made the connections difficult. Tillman finished with two tipped passes, in some ways proving that the best way to defend big receivers is with big cornerbacks. "It's hard for Detroit to win games without him being productive," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "That’s why you need a guy like Charles Tillman that can match up on him and it made them go and look at other ways to get the ball down the field. That's going to lead us to a win most of the time if we can get that effort out of Charles."

3. After watching the Lions struggle to get the ball to Johnson, Bears fans should have an appreciation for the way offensive coordinator Mike Tice, quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates and quarterback Jay Cutler have found ways to get the ball to Marshall consistently. He caught six of the team's 16 completions Monday, including three when the Chicago Bears got him matched up about new Lions nickel back Alphonso Smith. On the season, Marshall has caught 38.7 percent of the Bears' completions, the highest rate in the NFL, according to ESPN Stats & Information. He is also the only receiver this season who has accounted for at least 40 percent of his team's receiving yards. Opponents aren't dumb. They are gameplanning to stop Marshall as their top priority in the Bears' passing game. But with the exception of the Week 2 loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Bears have been one step ahead.

And here is one issue we still don't get:

Is Marshall speaking for a silent majority in the Bears locker room, or only as fiercely loyal friend, in repeated suggestions that Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh crossed a line with his second-quarter sack of Cutler, which bruised the quarterback's ribs? We've already noted Marshall's late-night tweets on the topic. Tuesday morning, he told ESPN's First Take that the play was "dirty" and "not clean." Publicly, anyway, no one else from the Bears has backed him up. Smith and Cutler both referred to it as an acceptable, if painful, football play. If more players and coaches secretly feel the way Marshall does, we could have a pretty interesting rematch in the season finale at Ford Field.

Source : espn.go.com

More about → Chicago Bears, Free Head Exam

Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles, ban confirmed

2000 file photo shows Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong riding down the Champs Elysees with an American flag after the 21st and final stage of the cycling race in Paris, France, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling's governing body Monday, Oct 22, 2012, following a report from the US Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping programme on his teams

Lance Armstrong was on Monday stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and given a life ban as cycling's world governing body said the US rider should be permanently erased from the sport's history for doping.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling... He deserves to be forgotten in cycling," Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), said, calling the scandal "the biggest crisis" the sport had faced.

In a highly anticipated announcement, seen by some as a key marker of the UCI's determination to battle doping in the sport, McQuaid said the UCI backed the US Anti-Doping Agency's decision to erase Armstrong's entire career since Aug 1, 1998. Cycling federations, race organisers and former riders broadly welcomed the decision as an inevitable step. USADA chief Travis Tygart said cycling must seize this moment to end a code of silence that allowed doping to flourish.

"There are many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors and the omerta has not yet been fully broken," said Mr Tygart, whose agency painstakingly built a damning case against Armstrong based on testimony of witnesses that included some former team-mates who themselves admitted cheating.

source : straitstimes.com

More about → Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles, ban confirmed

NASCAR odds to win the Chase

NASCAR odds to win the Chase: Johnson the favorite despite seven-point deficit

With four races remaining in the Chase, this week at Martinsville will likely be when we pinpoint where the eventual 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion made his move. While we expect Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin to run well because of their historical greatness on the flat half-mile track, the real questions this week surround current points leader Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski has been leading the Chase since winning at Chicago six weeks ago to kick off NASCAR’s version of the playoffs. He’s got a seven-point lead with four races to go, but he’s going against the best-of-the-best at Martinsville, a track where he’s averaged an okay 13.4 finish in five career races. That doesn’t come close to stacking up against what the two drivers chasing him have done there.

Hamlin has four wins over his career at the track that is about three hours away from his Chesterfield, Va. hometown. Johnson is a six-time Martinsville winner, who has taken the checkers there in four of his five Championship seasons. Keselowski? Well, he had a career-best ninth-place finish at Martinsville in the spring race.

Even if Johnson has his typically strong showing at the track, Keselowski, should he at least match his career best at Martinsville, could be neck-and-neck with Johnson with three races to go.

It may sound like we’re just assuming Johnson will run in the top 5, but that’s been about as solid a bet as there has been in NASCAR over the past decade. He has 14 top 5 finishes over his last 18 Martinsville races, and his worst finish over that stretch was 12th this spring.

Hamlin has a lot of ground to make up and almost has to finish third or better this Sunday, while leading some laps, to start erasing his 20-point deficit. We expect him to run well at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, tracks he’s won on over his career, but his 13th-place performance at Kansas last week has to be a little concerning.

Granted, the new surface at Kansas had several teams scrambling to find the right mix. The Fords of Matt Kenseth, the eventual race winner, and Greg Biffle obviously had an edge throughout testing and practices prior to the race. But that race did indicate that Hamlin might not be as ahead of the game on the final two races on 1.5-mile tracks we once thought. And if the Ford's midseason aero-package problems have truly been fixed, it minimizes chances to get maximum points on those two tracks, making 20-points seem like a much larger gulf.

For that very reason, Hamlin’s odds to win the Championship have been raised from the 3-to-2 favorite last week to 5-to-2 this week at the LVH. Johnson is the favorite at 7-to-5, and Keselowski is right behind at 3-to-2.

LVH SUPER BOOK ODDS TO WIN: 2012 SPRINT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

JIMMIE JOHNSON 7-5

BRAD KESELOWSKI 3-2

DENNY HAMLIN 5-2

CLINT BOWYER 20-1

KASEY KAHNE 25-1

JEFF GORDON 100-1

TONY STEWART 100-1

KEVIN HARVICK 200-1

MARTIN TRUEX JR 100-1

MATT KENSETH 200-1

GREG BIFFLE 200-1

DALE EARNHARDT JR xxxx


Micah Roberts has been setting NASCAR odds in Las Vegas since 1995.

Source : linemakers.sportingnews.com

More about → NASCAR odds to win the Chase