NOTE TO ALL: NO BLOG ON THANKSGIVING OR ON FRIDAY. Stay safe and enjoy the festivities with your family and your loved ones. Make sure you keep the Alka-Seltzer handy.
Meanwhile, Tuesday is rapidly becoming “Beat a Dead Horse Day”.
What is wrong with the Dolphins???
They still cannot run the football behind that decimated offensive line, and the $60 million wide receiver cannot come up with a difficult catch. I don’t want to just lay it on Mike Wallace, but the elite wide receivers in the NFL make the difficult catches when needed. Rishard Matthews and the other “bargain basement” receivers can make the catches they have to make. Wallace and Brian Hartline are paid like elite wide receivers. They need to start playing like they belong in that category.
Some of the responsibility also has to fall on the shoulders of QB Ryan Tannehill. He has to grab the bull by the horns and start making plays, if not just with his arms, with his running ability. This guy runs the 40 in 4.57 seconds. He is a gifted runner that can make plays when the crappy offensive line shows its wares. It is incredible that the guy has survived the beatings he takes week in and week out.
Some blame also has to land on the desk of the offensive coordinator, Mike Sherman, and the head coach, Joe Philbin. Sherman has to make adjustments in his play calling to take advantage of his team’s strengths and cover some of their glaring weaknesses. When your running backs average just over one yard per rushing attempt, and your QB is going to set a record for number of sacks, it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is a problem. Six straight games in which your offense doesn’t score in the fourth quarter should also raise some concerns, shouldn’t it? Philbin ran a very successful offense at Green Bay. He had a superstar QB in Aaron Rodgers, but never had much of a running game to fall back on. More involvement by him in the offense could help.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is still looking for his first winning season since he took over ownership of the team. More and more, it looks like he isn’t going to get it this season, although they still have a chance, albeit a remote chance. This team cannot afford to go into next season with general manager Jeff Ireland at the controls. Mr. Ross needs to bring in a new GM immediately, and start evaluating everything NOW, including the present coaching staff. With five regular season games left, four of them in your division, you have a chance to look at everything and make an intelligent decision for the future of this franchise. Please get a good football guy in here, preferably one with a hall-of-fame pedigree as a QB. A competitive guy with a fire burning in his belly to show that if John Elway can do it in Denver, he can do it in Miami. Get the message?
Here is the remaining schedule for the Fins:
12/01 @ NY Jets 1:00 pm CBS
12/08 @ Pittsburgh 1:00 pm CBS
12/15 New England 1:00 pm CBS
12/22 @ Buffalo 1:00 pm CBS
12/29 NY Jets 1:00 pm CBS
Here’s more on the Dolphins:
More on the Dolphins from Armando Salguero:
The 49ers trounced the Washington Redskins in the Monday Night Football extravaganza, 27-6. My expectations for a bounce-back game for the Skins and QB Robert Griffin III evaporated quickly. I’m back to .500 for the season against the spread, 40-40-4 against the spread, and 48-36 straight up.
Here is this week’s NFL schedule, along with the opening spreads. Since there will be no blog on Thursday or Friday for Thanksgiving, I will have all my picks tomorrow.
THANKSGIVING
Green Bay @ Detroit -5 12:30 pm FOX
Oakland @ Dallas -10 4:30 pm CBS
Pittsburgh @ Baltimore -3 8:30 pm NBC
SUNDAY
Miami @ NY Jets -2 1:00 pm CBS
Jacksonville @ Cleveland -7 1:00 pm CBS
Tennessee @ Indianapolis -4 1:00 pm CBS
New England @ Houston +10 1:00 pm CBS
Chicago @ Minnesota -1 1:00 pm FOX
Arizona @ Philadelphia -3 1:00 pm FOX
Tampa Bay @ Carolina -8 1:00 pm FOX
Atlanta @ Buffalo -4 4:05 pm FOX
St. Louis @ San Francisco -10 4:05 pm FOX
Denver @ Kansas City +4 4:25 pm CBS
Cincinnati @ San Diego -1 4:25 pm CBS
NY Giants @ Washington +1 8:30 pm NBC
MONDAY NIGHT
New Orleans @ Seattle -6 8:30 pm ESPN
Here’s ESPN’s NFL Nation Blog, with more news from all around the league:
Of course, we can all continue to sleep at night, knowing full well that Aaron Hernandez remains in jail, where he belongs.
In baseball, some free agent chatter:
I talked about the Robinson Cano situation the other day, and mentioned the Rangers as a distinct possibility. Texas could fit Cano right in after trading Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder, and could trade Jurickson Profar or Elvis Andreus and other prospects for an outfielder. The Rangers could also be interested in signing Shin-Soo Choo.
Other possibilities for Cano? The Detroit Tigers, as various sources are reporting that the team and Cano’s representatives met secretly a few days ago, even after the Tigers acquired Ian Kinsler. Maybe even the Washington Nationals could look at Cano as a possibility.
Another interesting item I am hearing comes from Atlanta. The Braves are going to have to replace departed catcher Brian McCann. Could Matt Wieters be in their sights? The Orioles may be interesting in shipping the 27-year-old backstop, and the Braves have enough relief pitching and minor league prospects, including catching prospect Christian Betancourt to ship to the O’s.
I am also hearing that the Braves are looking to unload Dan Uggla. Here are two names to ponder in one-for-one swaps - - - Rickie Weeks and Brandon Phillips.
More rumors:
Some positive news on the Marlins Beat. Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan, one of the loudest critics of the Jeffrey Loria regime, had some praise for the organization yesterday on his Tweeter feed. He praised the Marlins for “poaching” super scout Jeff McAvoy from the Tampa Bay Rays, and the team is apparently close to adding Mike Berger as a VP. Passan added that if Jeffrey Loria is truly giving Dan Jennings the autonomy that Larry Beinfest didn’t have, this team has enough talent in place to make a splash. We can only hope.
The Marlins announced their 31-game Grapefruit League schedule. Pitchers and catchers report February 16th, position players arrive February 20th, and the games begin February 26th, when the Fish play the University of Miami Hurricanes. They will then play the FIU Panthers on the 27th. Both of those games will be in Jupiter. Here is the complete preseason schedule:
In college football, the University of Miami Hurricanes close out their season this Friday, November 29th, in Pittsburgh, against the Pitt Panthers. Kickoff is at 3:30 pm, and the game will be televised nationally by ABC, Channel 10 in South Florida.
Manny Navarro and Susan Miller Degnan have more from Coral Gables:
The FIU Panthers are now 1-10 this season, and will mercifully close out their season in Boca Raton on Friday, the 29th, at 3:00 pm, in their annual crosstown battle against Florida Atlantic. A victory against the Owls would make FIU’s horrific 2013 season A LOT BETTER. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1 on your cable or satellite system.
Here’s all the latest from FIU, courtesy of David J. Neal:
Here’s the latest from Tallahassee and #2-ranked FSU:
From Gainesville and the University of Florida:
Here are the NCAA Football rankings for this week:
Here is the complete schedule in College Football for week 14, including TV listings:
Moving to the hardwood:
The Heat made it seven wins in a row last night, as they took care of the Phoenix Suns 107-92. It was a tag-team effort last night from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. LeBron scored 35 points, while making 11 of 14 shots from the field and was 11-11 from the free-throw line. Wade scored 21 points on 9-13 shooting and distributed 12 assists.
The Heat will be out of town for Thanksgiving, as they take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, and travel to Toronto for a game on Friday. LeBron James will be feeding his teammates Thanksgiving dinner at his home in Akron on Thursday.
TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: LeBron James is one of only five NBA players who have scored in double-figures in at least 509 consecutive games. Who are the others? The answer comes later, alligator.
More Heat coverage:
Here is the Heat’s complete regular season schedule:
On the NHL ice, good night for the Panthers last night, as they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1. The Panthers return to the ice tomorrow night as they host the NY Rangers, and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. Both games will be televised by Fox Sports Florida.
Here is Santos Perez’ weekly boxing spotlight column from the Miami Herald:
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I’m selling three lots totaling a little over five acres in the beautiful North Carolina mountains, overlooking the New River, a quick 35-minute drive from Boone and Blowing Rock. Click here to see some photos and feel free to contact me if you have any questions:
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THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: LeBron James is one of only five NBA players who have scored in double-figures in at least 509 consecutive games. Who are the others?
Michael Jordan (866)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (787)
Karl Malone (575)
Moses Malone (526)
BTW, during his career, if you count playoff games, LeBron has reached double figures in scoring 907 times in 916 games.
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