Week 5 Katy Perry Report
Hot
Denver & Cincinnati- The Broncos are riding high at 5-0 as head coach Josh McDaniels beat his old boss Bill Belichik and New England 20-17 in OT behind 330 yards passing and two TD’s from Kyle Orton. The Bengals sit atop the AFC North after the NFL’s leading rusher Cedric Benson gashed Baltimore for 120 yards and a TD’s in a huge 17-14 victory at Baltimore to go to 4-1. The two teams are riding high right now, but are they for real?
“I say yes, cautiously,” said Scouts Inc founder Gary Horton. “But the reason they are winning right now has a chance to continue. Denver is doing it with a much better defense than everybody thought, they have a potentially good run game, and a QB that doesn’t make mistakes. This team reminds me of the Ravens in their Super Bowl year, although their defense is not as dominating. In the case of Cincinnati, I like the way that they are playing. Palmer is playing well in the fourth quarter, and the Bengals in general are playing with resilience through all four quarters. You get the feeling that they think they are never out of the game, and they are having fun…I can’t remember the last time I saw that. They’re for real.”
Matt Hasselbeck- The Seattle QB responded from a rib injury better than anyone could have imagined, throwing for 4 TD’s as the Seahawks jolted the Jaguars 41-0 on Sunday to go to 2-3 on the season.
The Hotlanta Falcons- Matt Ryan threw for 329 and two scores and Michael Turner rushed for 97 yards and three scores as Atlanta blitzed the Niners 45-10 to go to 3-1. Roddy White caught eight passes for 210 yards and both scores.
Miles Austin- The Cowboys receiver with the adult film name rescued Dallas from a terrible loss to winless Kansas City, grabbing 10 passes for 250 yards and two scores, including the OT winner to beat the Chiefs 26-20.
Peyton Manning- The Colts QB dominated Tennessee to the tune of 36/44 passing, 309 yards and three TD’s, a pair to rookie Austin Collie in a 31-9 destruction of the Titans to go to 5-0.
Cold
Buffalo & Cleveland- In the Browns’ 6-3 win in Buffalo against the Bills, Cleveland QB Derek Anderson completed a total of two passes for 23 yards and still won the game. Jamal Lewis had 117 yards on the ground and replacement kicker Billy Cundiff banged home the game winner with 23 seconds left for the win after Roscoe Parrish lost a fumbled punt on the Bills 18 yard line. Dave Zastudil was the hero, banging seven of his nine punts inside the 20 yard line, and Parrish was the real goat of the worst played football game ever. Both teams are 1-4.
Washington- The Redskins led the Panthers on the road 17-2 and managed to blow the huge lead against winless Carolina to fall to the most pathetic 2-3 of all time.
Jaguars Offense- Jacksonville managed 199 yards of total offense, including just 34 yards of rushing from Maurice Jones-Drew in a 41-0 loss in Seattle. Top WR Mike Sims-Walker was deactivated from the game for violating the team’s itinerary. They sure could have used him.
Jets On E60 Tonight At 7pm on ESPN
Rachel Nichols told SprungOnSports one thing you may not know about head coach Rex Ryan:
“I don’t think most people know that Rex Ryan has dyslexia. He talks in our piece about the challenges that presents, and the strategies he uses to overcome them as he carries out his day-to-day duties as an NFL coach. Most interesting to me was that Ryan thinks his dyslexia has had a huge impact on the way he coaches. He says having dyslexia forced him to do a lot of things differently as a kid, so he always approached coaching differently than most people as well. It’s why his schemes look different than anyone else’s in the league.”
The Hockeytalk Report
-As seen in Monday night’s Rangers-Maple Leafs game, the difference between the haves and have-nots in the Eastern Conference is quite large. After New York led 3-2 after two periods, head coach John Tortorella really lit a fire under them during intermission, and the Blueshirts responded with four goals for a 7-2 win, two of them by the mercurial Sean Avery. The Rangers are 5-1 with 10 points after six games while Toronto remains the only other winless team besides the New York Islanders, who dropped a home decision to Los Angeles 2-1. The Kings are off to a fast 4-1 start, led by goalie Jonathan Quick and up-and-coming 22-year-old Yugoslavian C Anze Kopitar, who has 10 points in five games.
-Pittsburgh joins the Rangers atop the Atlantic standings at 5-1 after a 4-1 win at Northeast leader Ottawa, who has six points despite trading Dan Heatley to San Jose shortly before the beginning of the season. The Senators have really been surprising thus far, and ESPN’s NHL Analyst Scott Burnside certainly concurs.
“Sprung; Yes, the Sens have looked good especially defensively and in goal.” Burnside said. “If (goalies) Pascal Leclaire and Brian Elliott can keep it up the Sens have a chance in the Northeast, especially with the Bruins struggling out of the gate.”
Boston has started the season 2-3, including a 4-3 loss to another surprise team, Colorado. The 3-1-1 Avalanche are getting good goaltending from former Florida netminder Craig Anderson, and good offensive play from Milan Hejduk and Wojtek Wolski. But the problem with the Senators trading away Heatley is their lack of offense, which will likely be Ottawa’s major problem this season.
“Offense hasn’t really kicked in yet, which may turn out to be a problem.” Burnside said of the Ottawa attack. Buffalo trails the Sens by just a point in the division with two games at hand.
-One struggling team out of the gate is Washington, who is 2-2-2 after a shootout loss to New Jersey. The good thing for the Caps is that only Tampa Bay has as many points as them in the division, and the other teams have also started the season cold. Washington started the game strong, getting goals from offensive D Mike Green (his first of the season) and offseason import Mike Knuble, who they hope will provide the same spark he provided in Philadelphia. But then the offense went ice cold against Martin Brodeur and the Devils rallied for the victory to get to 3-2 on the year.
-In Monday’s Versus game, it was one of the craziest affairs you’ll ever see, it’s a shame this game was on the same night as great baseball and football games. Chicago goalie Christobal Huet allowed three Calgary goals in the first 7:07, with Jarome Iginla’s second tally of the year chasing the Blackhawks netminder. The Flames scored twice more in the period to take a 5-0 lead, but Chicago started their miraculous comeback with John Madden’s second of the year with 2:18 left in the first. Patrick Kane made it 5-2 with his third of the year at 7:37, and then it started to come undone for Miikka Kiprusoff. Chicago scored twice in 44 seconds, both assisted by Citizen Kane, to make it 5-4. 4:32 into the third, Patrick Sharp tied the game at 5, and then a Brent Seabrook goal 26 seconds into OT completed the greatest comeback in league history.
-Meanwhile, Calgary’s archrivals from Edmonton had a great night in Nashville. 24-year-old Zach Stortini scored twice and Andre Cogliano, Gilbert Brule and Dustin Penner each had two points as the Oilers punished the Predators 6-1 to go to 3-1-1 in a very competitive Northwest. Backup goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers had 40 saves in the win.
-Ilya Bryzgalov has been brilliant for Phoenix since coming over from Anaheim, and saved 26 in a 1-0 shootout win over San Jose to go to 3-2 on the season. Lori Korpikoski beat Evgeni Nabokov for the shootout winner.
