Atlanta Falcons Vs. Philadelphia Eagles 9/18/11: Mitch’s Free NFL Pick Against the Spread Free Football Picks

Posted on September 14, 2011 by tom jonson

Michael Vick makes his first return to Atlanta as the Atlanta Falcons host the Philadelphia Eagles on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

The Atlanta Falcons had the best record in the NFC last season but when the season kicked off for them this year last weekend in Chicago, the Falcons looked like their head were still in the locker room as they were trounced by the Bears. QB Matt Ryan went to the air in Chicago and while he threw for 319 yards he didn’t have a touchdown pass and he threw an interception that was returned the other way for six points. On the receiving end of Ryan’s tosses was Roddy White who caught eight passes for 61 yards, Tony Gonzalez with five catches for 72 yards, and Julio Jones who caught five passes for 71 yards. Michael Turner took care of the ground game going for 100 yards on 10 carries with 53 of the yards coming on one run. Unfortunately for the Falcons’ offense the lone touchdown was scored by the defense but at that point the game was well out of reach. John Abraham had two sacks and Kroy Biermann and Lawrence Sidbury had one each while Sean Witherspoon had nine tackles, Curtis Lofton had eight tackles, and Thomas DeCoud had seven tackles. The question in this game is will we see the Falcons we saw last week or the Falcons we saw last year.

The expectations are sky high for the Philadelphia Eagles this year but Andy Reid always has a way of keeping things in perspective and keeping his team on the winning side of most of his football games. The big story line for this primetime game will be QB Michael Vick who has been nothing short of outstanding since returning to the game. Last week in St. Louis Vick completed less than 50 percent of his passes for 187 yards but had two touchdowns without an interception and even more importantly he ran for 98 yards on 10 carries and it’s that dual threat that keeps defenses guessing. There was plenty of action for the Eagles this off season picking up running backs but it’s clear LeSean McCoy isn’t going anywhere as he ran for 122 yards and a touchdown in week one. DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are both home run threats at receiver and Jackson had 102 yards and a touchdown in week one. The Eagles defense did a nice job shutting down the Rams passing game but they were less effective against the run letting the Rams run for 154 yards. Jason Babin had two sacks while Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins, and Darryl Tapp each had one while Jarrad Page and Jamar Chaney each had six tackles.

Atlanta is 4-1 against the spread in their last five games as a home underdog, 16-5 against the spread following a straight up loss, and 7-3 against the spread in their last 10 games overall. Philadelphia is 7-3 against the spread in their last 10 games as a road favorite, 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games against NFC teams, and 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games against NFC teams. Philadelphia is 9-2-1 against the spread in the last 12 meetings of these two and the favorite has covered in seven of the last nine meetings.

I have two plays on this game, one on the total which has been set at 50 and the other is on who will cover the spread. For my free pick I will address the total and put the pick on who will cover the spread in our Premium Area for our premium members. With two offenses who can get it done and plenty of speed at the skill positions we should see plenty of points and I look for this one to go over the total as it has in 10 of the last 14 of the Eagles games and 9 of the last 14 Falcons games.

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Miller gets shutout, lifts Sabres past Flyers

Posted on April 15, 2011 by tom jonson
Not when the Flyers rushed the net and pounded him with pucks. Not even when Philadelphia had a two-man edge, a rowdy home-ice crowd begging for a score, and momentum on its side.
Miller held them all off and the Buffalo Sabres took quick control of the series.
Miller stopped 35 shots for his second career postseason shutout and Patrick Kaleta scored to lift the Sabres to a 1-0 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoff series Thursday night.
“I told myself no matter what happened out there, I was going to stay contained, stay cool,” Miller said.
He was the coolest player on skates in the opener.
Miller stopped every shot under all types of pressure and carried the Sabres to the clutch opening win. The teams have met eight times in the postseason and the Game 1 winner won the series each time.
Kaleta snapped the scoreless tie early in the third period when he powered a rebound past rookie Sergei Bobrovsky.
No team was more resilient in last year’s playoffs than the Flyers. They trailed Boston 3-0 in the East semifinals before taking the series and playing until a Game 6 loss to Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals.
Game 2 is Saturday in Philadelphia.
The Sabres – 10 points out of a playoff spot on Jan. 17 – cracked the scoreless tie 5:56 into the third period on Kaleta’s second career postseason goal.
Buffalo won a fight for the puck along the boards and dumped it across the zone to Marc-Andre Gragnani. He fired a slapper from the top of the circle and Kaleta knocked in the rebound from the low slot for the 1-0 lead.
Kaleta, denied earlier in the game on a rebound, was healthy enough to play at a perfect time after missing most of the last month of the season with a bruised knee.
He almost didn’t play.
“I didn’t really make my decision until today whether I was going to play him. It was a tough decision, but I thought he played very well,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought he ran over a few people, but kept his game in control.”
Miller was flawless from there and the Sabres – the hottest team in the Eastern Conference since Jan. 1 – kept rolling in the postseason.
Once a rowdy and devastating home-ice advantage, Philadelphia continues to struggle at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers dropped six straight games at home before snapping that streak in the regular-season finale. They now have a Game 1 loss after dropping Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals here last season.
Miller was the reason for their latest loss.
“We did a good job of stepping up and getting a hold of some pucks and some blocks,” Miller said.
The Flyers attacked the net with a barrage of shots that went nowhere except straight into Miller. The former MVP of the Olympics stopped Kimmo Timonen on a slapper midway through the second period when the Flyers held a 5-on-3 edge
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called timeout when the Flyers had 34 seconds of a two-man power play.
They came up empty on a power play that has failed them down the stretch.
“It’s a momentum killer,” Flyers defenseman Matt Carle said. “I think it was the turning point.”
It wasn’t the only wasted opportunity. The Flyers went 0 for 5 on the power play and missed 11 shots.
The Sabres stuffed the crease and the puck had no chance of finding the back of the net. With the aid of the stout defense, Miller stopped 16 shots in the second period.
“Bob was good. Ryan was even better,” Flyers center Danny Briere said. “There will be nights like that. If we keep playing like we did tonight, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Sabres got rough to protect their net, with defenseman Chris Butler shoving James van Riemsdyk flat on his back.
“Toughness is being hard on the puck, and getting in front of shots, and that’s what we do as a team,” Kaleta said.
The Flyers could have used some extra protection on the blue line, but they played without Chris Pronger.
Pronger, a former NHL MVP, has been sidelined since having hand surgery in March. He also missed time with a foot injury and was limited to just 50 games this season.
He skated and held a stick during practice this week, but wasn’t ready for Game 1. He remains day to day. Pronger has said he’s very confident he’ll play against the Sabres.
“If Pronger were available, he could be a difference-maker,” Laviolette said. “That speaks for itself. But he’s not.”
Bobrovsky made the routine saves and covered some tough ones that had to help calm some playoff debut jitters for the Russian rookie. He had 24 saves.
The Flyers came oh-so-close 6 minutes into the game when van Riemsdyk pounded the puck off the post. Miller later stuffed Flyers captain Mike Richards on a backhand attempt and it was already clear that Game 1 would belong to the goalies. Richards played 18:20 a day after missing practice with what he called a head cold.
Both teams had playoff energy to burn. There were a series of scrums and punishing hits that signal playoff hockey – especially in Philadelphia.
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Cubs to invite Final Four coaches Stevens, Smart to sing at Wrigley

Posted on March 29, 2011 by tom jonson
The Chicago Cubs are planning on reaching out to VCU coach Shaka Smart and Butler coach Brad Stevens after the NCAA Tournament to offer them the opportunity to sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” at Wrigley Field during the seventh-inning stretch, according to an ESPNChicago.com report.
Smart went to games at Wrigley as a child with his grandfather, he told ESPN Radio 1000. “Some of my fondest memories with him are going to Wrigley Field, sitting on the first base side trying to catch some foul balls,” said Smart, who grew up in Madison, Wis.
Cubs spokesman Peter Chase told ESPNChicago.com that Smart already earned the invitation. Stevens, who is a Cubs fan as well, appeared at Wrigley last year for the stretch-time honors, so this would be his second appearance.
In Smart’s case, the Cubs shouldn’t have to wait long for an answer once he gets an invite.
“I will be there if I get the invite. You can book that,” Smart said.
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Proposed rules to aid defenseless players might hinder Big Ben

Posted on March 21, 2011 by tom jonson
NEW ORLEANS — The new safety rules the NFL likely will pass this week could hurt the Steelers and not because they seem aimed at linebacker James Harrison.
The more stringent rules designed to protect defenseless players could hurt the Steelers best offensive player, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Rules proposed to keep quarterbacks healthy might curtail the performance of those quarterbacks who wiggle out of the grasp of defenders to keep a play going long enough to make something good happen. Under new proposed rules, many of those Roethlisberger escapes could be blown dead by an official. The old “in the grasp” whistle that became so unpopular in the NFL is making its way back, and that’s not conducive to the way Roethlisberger plays the game.
Kevin Colbert, the Steelers’ director of football operations, says that while it could negatively impact Roethlisberger’s play, the safety of the player is more important.
“The play ends at some point,” Colbert said shortly after he arrived in New Orleans for the start of the annual NFL spring meetings. “For the safety of the player as opposed to lengthening of a play, at what point is a play unsafe or what point is a play over? I think the referees have to decide that.
“Teams have to understand that once they blow [the play dead], you can’t gripe about a quarterback being called in the grasp if you have an elusive, strong quarterback like we do. If he’s called down, he’s called down. It’s for his own good, it’s for every team’s own good.”
Many second-effort plays could be restrained by the new rules.
“Same thing for the ballcarriers,” Colbert noted. “We all have running backs and you want to protect them. But if a play’s over, it should be blown dead.”
Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, explained the new rule is designed to protect players in eight different categories. One is a “runner who’s already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped.”
Such a quick whistle might have negated some of Roethlisberger’s more memorable plays after he was seemingly stopped in the backfield but scrambled away. One occurred in 2008 in Jacksonville in which he threw a touchdown pass to Hines Ward. Another happened in Baltimore last season after he escaped the grasp of linebacker Terrell Suggs then flipped an incomplete pass that helped save the winning touchdown drive. That drive ultimately brought the Steelers the AFC North Division championship and the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
Without either of those two plays, the Steelers might not have reached the Super Bowl in the 2008 and ’10 seasons. There have been many others like them through the years but the new rules could curtail that part of Roethlisberger’s game.
“Of course it would, but we’re also out for protecting not only him but every team has a quarterback, so you want to protect those guys because they are so valuable,” Colbert said. “So, sure it would take away from his ability to make big plays but it would also add him more protection.
“It’s like any other rule. You have to still weigh the competitiveness and what our game’s based on but you have to do it in a safe manner.”
Colbert denied that the NFL rules-makers are specifically targeting Harrison, who was fined $100,000 for three separate hits last season. The league proposes to crack down more on players who are repeat offenders and say they will begin suspending them next season.
“Discipline — and aggressive discipline for these safety rules and violations, particularly the ones that we all know can be devastating — will be an emphasis in 2011,” said Ray Anderson, the NFL’s vice president of football operations.
“It’s nothing to do with the Steelers or any particular player,” Colbert insisted. “I mean, safety is the ultimate goal. But it’s a fast, hard-hitting game and you have to keep that element in there or you’re not going to have a game. How do you keep that in there without endangering the players?”
Over lunch Sunday, Colbert watched the Penguins lose to the New York Rangers and with it another blow to an opponent’s head by Matt Cooke. He said football isn’t the only sport these days trying to implement rules to protect the health of its players, especially injuries to the head.
“In terms of the defenseless players, I can say that all sports now are aware of the severity of head and neck injuries. We have to make sure we do everything we can to protect the players without taking away from the game. Somewhere there’s a compromise that will make the game safer, but also keep it competitive and entertaining.”
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Jim Tressel and Ohio State football prove that winning is what matters, not playing by the rules

Posted on March 14, 2011 by tom jonson

Maybe something good will actually come out of the Jim Tressel case at Ohio State. Maybe the Inspector Clouseaus at the NCAA can finally explain to even bigtime championship-winning coaches that being a little compliant is the same as being a little pregnant.

We find out now that Tressel knew for months that some of his best players were selling memorabilia to a guy who owned a Columbus tattoo parlor, but that Tressel didn’t tell his school president or his athletic director. When the world did find out what the players had done, they get suspended for five games next season. The good news, don’t you know, was that the scholar-athletes got to play in the Sugar Bowlgame the Buckeyes won against Arkansas.

Now Ohio State suspends Tressel for two games next season  against powerhouses from Akron and Toledo  and fines him $250,000. They think it makes them look tough and virtuous at the same time. It is a joke penalty, the way all of these brief, in-season suspensions for coaches, in either football or basketball, are jokes.

If the NCAA doesn’t hit Tressel harder, and that means taking Big Ten games from him, then the people in charge look as if they’re rolling over for Tressel the way his president and athletic director do.

And “compliance” at Ohio State takes on a whole new meaning.

The guy who runs the Big Ten, Jim Delany, somebody who constantly acts as if his conference is church, says that Tressel has suffered enough. No kidding, I laughed out loud when I read Delany telling the New York Times that when you added “reputational damage” to the two-game suspension against Akron and Toledo and the fine, leave the poor guy alone.

Absolutely. You saw how the “reputational damage” for big baseball stars was such a deterrent for other stars using steroids.

If Tressel gets off with missing a couple of games against Akron and Toledo and writing a check to get himself out of jail, then it is clear, now more than ever, that there is a different sort of justice for national championship-winning coaches who beat Michigan every year.

Look at it another way: Say Rich Rodriguez, who was such a mediocrity at Michigan, had survived this season, hadn’t gotten fired when it was over. But say it comes out after the season that Rodriguez knew that his players were selling goodies to shady characters, didn’t tell his school until he got found out. You know what happens to Rodriguez? He is fired.

Then the president of the school and his athletic director wait a couple of hours and then fire him again.

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U-M’s Carr, MSU’s Washington and White on college Hall of Fame ballot

Posted on March 8, 2011 by tom jonson
Lloyd Carr, who coached Michigan to the 1997 national championship, and former Michigan State players Gene Washington and Lorenzo White are on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.
The National Football Foundation on Monday announced the 79 players and nine coaches on this year’s ballot. The ballot will be sent to the more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers. The next Hall of Fame class will be announced May 11 and the induction ceremony will be Dec. 6.Carr, who recently was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, coached the Wolverines from 1995-2007 with a 122-40 record (.753).
Washington was a receiver at MSU from 1964-66 and White was a running back from 1984-87. White led the nation in rushing in 1985 with 2,066 yards.
Returning to the ballot are defensive back Don Dufek, defensive tackle Curtis Greer and running back Rob Lytle of Michigan, and receiver Kirk Gibson of Michigan State.
Michigan receiver and return specialist Desmond Howard was a member of the 2010 Hall of Fame class

Lloyd Carr, who coached Michigan to the 1997 national championship, and former Michigan State players Gene Washington and Lorenzo White are on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.The National Football Foundation on Monday announced the 79 players and nine coaches on this year’s ballot. The ballot will be sent to the more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers. The next Hall of Fame class will be announced May 11 and the induction ceremony will be Dec. 6.Carr, who recently was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, coached the Wolverines from 1995-2007 with a 122-40 record (.753).Washington was a receiver at MSU from 1964-66 and White was a running back from 1984-87. White led the nation in rushing in 1985 with 2,066 yards.Returning to the ballot are defensive back Don Dufek, defensive tackle Curtis Greer and running back Rob Lytle of Michigan, and receiver Kirk Gibson of Michigan State.Michigan receiver and return specialist Desmond Howard was a member of the 2010 Hall of Fame class

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Lingerie Football League Could Move Games to Sunday in NFL Lockout!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by tom jonson
Updated: Thursday, 03 Mar 2011, 11:21 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 03 Mar 2011, 7:33 AM EST
CLEVELAND – The Lingerie Football League (LFL) is eager to cash in on a possible NFL lockout, with officials announcing Wednesday it is considering moving its games from Friday nights to Sunday afternoons if the national league’s season is delayed or suspended, WKYC-TV reported.
NFL owners emerged from a day-long session of mediated labor talks with the NFL Players Association on Wednesday and said no definitive decision had been made on whether to lock out the players, FOX Sports reported.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the two sides expires at midnight ET on Thursday.
The LFL, a seven-on-seven league played by scantily-clad women, has expanded with three more franchises for its third season — the Las Vegas Sin, Cleveland Crush and Green Bay Chill.
Three-time Pro Bowler Bob Golic, the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Crush, said the league had “truly gained a lot of credibility both on and off-the-field over the past couple of seasons.”
In November, it was announced that Oklahoma City would also be receiving an expansion franchise for the upcoming season, only for the city’s mayor, Mick Cornett, to publicly reject it, saying it would cause unnecessary issues for the area.
“There are too many problems to list,” Cornett said. “There are so many that I don’t want to gravitate to just one.”
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Hello world!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by tom jonson

Welcome to Blog.com.

This is your first post, produced automatically by Blog.com. You should edit or delete it, and then start blogging!

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