Month: January 2018

That year, Gutekunst got his first taste of the pros after assisting in New Orleans Saints training camp in 1995. He was a summer scouting intern for Green Bay in 1997 and a scouting assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs the next year before returning to the Packers full time as a scout late in 1998.

X factor: The pass protection. One of the key elements to Keenum’s season has been the Vikings’ ability to keep him protected. Entering Sunday, he’d been sacked just 20 times — fewer than any other quarterback in the NFC field besides Drew Brees. (And of course Nick Foles, who has started only three games.) Can the Vikings’ improved offensive line keep Keenum clean against the type of pass rushes he’ll see on the road to Super Bowl LII?

Yes, there it is. That’s a shooter with all the confidence in the world right now.

DeRozan stepped into that three-pointer late in the first quarter, and he finished that game with five total triples — plus a career-high and franchise-record 52 points. This is DeRozan’s best shooting season of his career, and that’s lifting the Raptors into a new stratosphere.

Specifically, DeRozan is averaging career highs in three-point makes, attempts, and percentage. Much of that comes from his recent hot streak over the past seven games, where DeRozan has hit 20 of 38 (52.6 percent) from behind the arc.

Path to Super Bowl LII: The Saints will host the division-rival Panthers, against whom they went 2-0 this season, in their playoff opener. If they win that, they’ll travel to either Philadelphia or Minnesota for the divisional round. (If the Falcons beat the Rams, a victorious Saints team would go to Minnesota. If the Rams beat the Falcons, the Saints would go to Philadelphia). Win that game, and the Saints would find themselves in an NFC Championship Game against either the Falcons, Eagles or Vikings. The only way the Saints can play the NBA Jerseys Wholesale NFC Championship Game at home is if their opponent is the Falcons.

Reason for hope: They have the best quarterback in the NFC field. Drew Brees NFL Jerseys Outlet might not have had his usual, eye-popping statistical season, but his efficiency was off the charts. And just because the Saints were able to win by running the ball and making a few big plays on defense doesn’t mean they can’t count on Brees to put them on his back and win them a game when they need him to. He’s the only quarterback in the field who has won a Super Bowl.

The Jaguars are locked in as the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs, but coach Doug Marrone said his team will not rest its starters for its Week 17 game at the Titans.

I guess we’ll see something on the ticker that says referees missed that one, Carmelo Anthony said. We can’t do nothing about that at this point, so we might as well forget about it and move on and get ready for — who we play Sunday? Dallas? Get ready for Dallas.

After a full-court heave from Russell Westbrook fell just short in hitting the net, Anthony and Steven Adams spent a few moments following the final buzzer talking with the officiating crew. Crew chief Derrick Stafford said after the game via a pool reporter that the play with Antetokounmpo was not reviewable.

We have suspended Eli for a pattern of behavior that is conduct detrimental to the team, interim general manager Kevin Abrams said in a statement.

New York selected Apple with the 10th overall pick in 2016, but after a promising rookie year, his 2017 season has been full of drama.

Most recently, fellow defensive back Landon Collins called Apple a cancer after he missed several practices earlier this year and showed poor effort on several plays in games.

Collins would later apologize to the 22-year-old during a team meeting.

Apple played in 11 games this season while making seven starts. He finished the year with 49 tackles and eight passes defensed for the two-win Giants. His status with the team moving forward is still up in the air.

Even though the new #Giants GM & head coach are not in place– thus nothing is certain yet–one team source remains very adamant on their feelings about CB Eli Apple: He will not be in an NYG uniform next year. Dude is done with NYG. Done.

In his two seasons on the staff, Altman connected with Sean Ford, the men’s national team director for USA Basketball, who was a graduate of the UMass Sports Management program.

Ford got him involved as a manager on USAB’s U-19 2009 World Championship team, where his duties included, among other things, washing the laundry of a pair of future NBA All-Stars — Klay Thompson and Gordon Hayward.

Lance can get this type of shot whenever he wants, so stalling the offense early should probably be avoided — especially given that he’s only connected on 20 percent of his pull-up twos over the last three games.

(As an aside, more of the prodigal point wing’s touches as a starter need to be purposed with the simple intention to move or advance the ball rather than to assist or score. Since he started filling-in for Oladipo, the first unit has averaged an anemic 91.9 points per 100 possessions in 41 minutes of action. By comparison, they’ve put up 111.1 in considerably smaller sample size with Cory Joseph playing alongside Darren Collison, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, and Myles Turner.)

While the Browns can now officially start preparing for April’s draft, other teams are looking forward to January.

All four AFC divisions have been clinched while the NFC South is the only division up for grabs entering the final week of the regular season.

The Jaguars had the AFC South clinched before their game in San Francisco began. Jacksonville’s first division title since 1999 was sealed thanks to Tennessee’s 27-23 loss to the Rams (11-4), who won the NFC West for the first time since 2003. The Jaguars (10-5) needed the Titans loss because they laid an egg at Levi’s Stadium with a 44-33 defeat to the 49ers. The Titans (8-7) will try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive next week against the Jaguars.

It’s been a blast, man. It’s been incredible. I’m sure one MLB Authentic Jerseys of these days I’ll be able to look back and really appreciate it, but there’s so much to enjoy right now, Keenum said. Not Baseball Jerseys really putting too much into perspective. Not really looking too much at the big picture. I’m keeping my blinders on.

Of course, not only will it be an all-SEC final in Atlanta, but Saban’s fingerprints will also be all over it. Georgia coach Kirby Smart coached under Saban for nine seasons at Alabama, the last seven as defensive coordinator.

We feel like this is just like the battle of who’s the best in the SEC, Alabama safety Ronnie Harrison said.

Georgia beat Oklahoma in its semifinal game to get to the championship game. The Dawgs won a wild game that featured more than 1,000 yards of total offense. Alabama, meanwhile, looked like the same Alabama that Saban has guided to four national championships in the past eight years. The Crimson Tide made life miserable for Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant and not only beat the Tigers but also beat them up physically.

We just wanted to let everybody know that we’ve been through a lot of things this whole season with all the injuries and everything, and the fact we were able to get back some of our guys, I feel like we’re back to the defense we really wanted to be, Alabama linebacker Rashaan Evans said.

The fact that it was Clemson made it personal for the Alabama players, especially those who were around for last season’s last-second loss to the Tigers in the national championship game. What’s more, the Tide players were even more ornery after hearing for the past several weeks that maybe they didn’t belong in the playoff after they lost their final regular-season game to Auburn and didn’t win their conference championship.