Best & Worst NFL Week Twelve

Week Twelve has come and gone in the NFL and what a week it was around the league. We had a couple of whippings take place on Thanksgiving night, while Sunday night saw its fair share of drama. We got offenses that are starting to find a groove again, while others are hitting the wrong time to sputter. So lets not waste any more time. Here's some of the best and worst from week twelve in the NFL.

Best: Pittsburgh Steelers Offense
There had been some complaints about the Pittsburgh offense this season. Well this past Sunday, in a 16-10 win over the Bengals, the offense showed up. And in a big way. As a team, the Steelers had 33 carries for 133 yards, lead by 99 of those yards from Najee Harris. Kenny Picket threw for 278 yards, 120 of which went to tight end Pat Freiermuth. By the time the day was all said and done, the Steelers racked up 412 yards of offense. That kind of offensive output from the Steelers hasn't happened since week two of the 2020 season in a win over the Denver Broncos. That covers 54 total games and was a long time coning for Steelers fans to witness that offensive outburst.

Worst: Jake Browning Quarterback Cincinnati Bengals
Going from Joe Burrow to Jake Browning isn't an easy transition. And its hurting whatever playoff hopes the Bengals had left. When Burrow went down with the wrist injury, they had to go with Browning under center. He couldn't do much of anything in the Bengals 16-10 loss, which we just touched on. The Bengals mustered just 222 total yards of offense. As we just talked about the Steelers offense exploded and the Bengals fell apart. Browning looked like a backup QB and not a QB 1. He did throw for 227, but was sacked four times and picked off once. That pick lead to the Steelers scoring the go ahead touchdown. The next Cincy possession lead to a punt after Browning ran right into a sack. Ouch.

Best: Shane Steichen Head Coach Indianapolis Colts
With the things going on off the field for the Colts, hat tip to head coach Shane Steichen. He was able to pull his team together. With the release of Shaq Leonard it made for quite the story in Indy ahead of their game with the Bucs. But the coach got the club together and Indy walked away with a hard fought 27-20 win over Tampa. Tampa got the jump early but thanks to the steady play from Gardner Minshew, the Colts overcame it and were able to hold off the Bucs at the end of the ballgame. Oh and the win got them back over .500 on the year. If Shane is hoping to keep winning and making a push for the playoffs, keep feeding the run game of Jonathan Taylor and Zach Moss.

Worst: Dennis Allen, Head Coach New Orleans Saints

He had one goal in mind this week. Come out of the bye week and beat an inept Falcons team. On paper, that seems like a simple task. Well things didn't exactly go as planned for the Saints, who fell 24-15 to Atlanta. Granted, having Chris Olave exit early due to injury didn't help the cause for the Saints. And New Orleans gave Atlanta a short game and the Falcons took advantage of it. New Orleans defense made Desmond Ridder and Bijan Robinson look like one of the game's most electrifying duos when it counted. Allen did not in any way, shape or form, have his boys ready and it showed against a bad team.

Best: Tommy DeVito Quarterback New York Giants
It wasn't a pretty win, but a win is a win never the less. For the second week in a row the New York Giants have won a football game, this time a 10-7 victory over the New England Patriots. Enter Tommy DeVito, who was getting his first start in front of his hometown. He got his first career win last week, and he delivered again in the building he lives just twelve miles from. He went 17 of 25 for 191 yards and a touchdown toss to Isaiah Hodgins. He was sacked six times by that New England defense, which is something that his line is going to have to work on. Still DeVito performance has been good enough to get the Giants wins the last two weeks.

Worst: Matt Ammendola Kicker Houston Texans
There's times I feel bad for putting Kickers on this list, but this isn't one of them. Houston came up just short, falling 24-21 to Jacksonville. C.J. Stroud almost pulled off the impossible. He was down by ten points and had the Texans within striking distance in this ballgame. But Ammendola had trouble on this day, missing twice from distance. First he missed from 50 yards out early in the game. Then, with 30 seconds left, Houston tried for a 58 yard kick. It would have tied the game, and at a tough distance no less. What does he do? Doink! Right off the crossbar. Yes I know hitting kicks from those distances are very tough to do for any kicker. But it ended up being the difference.

Milestone Night For Clutterbuck

When Cal Clutterbuck was drafted by the Minnesota Wild, 72nd overall in 2006, there wasn't much expectations around the 3rd round draft pick. he was going to have an impact, sure on the Wild and whoever else he ended up playing for. But nobody expected him to have the career he's had. Tonight, in the Islanders home game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the team will honor Cal for playing in his 1,000th career game.

Cal joined the Wild full time in 2008. After spending five seasons and 346 games in Minnesota, he went to play on Long Island, where's he's spent the last eleven years and 655 games. During that time, nobody has thrown more hits in the NHL then Cal. He's thrown 3,802 of them in his career, and still counting. He's the 11th player in history to play their 1,000th career game in an Islanders uniform.

Everybody knows Cal for his physical presence, which is a huge factor as to why he's been able to stay in the NHL for over a thousand games. He can score. He's registered 138 goals and 280 points. HE can provide a spark in that regards too. He's also one of the more well rounded players in the league. He's a great penalty killer and a solid lock down defender. Cal's talents allow the coach to have faith in him to be used to hold a lea late in games.

He's also proven to be a leader in the room. During ten of his eleven seasons on Long Island, Cal has had a letter on his sweater. He's been a mentor to a lot of the younger guys on the hockey club and had a positive impact on a lot of the guys he's called teammates over the course of his career.

Congratulations Cal on hitting the milestone thousand game mark!

Big Cat Is Back

There are few goalies that come around in the NHL that seem to be once in a generation talent. The Tampa Bay Lightning have that in the form of Andrei Vasilevskiy. Around Tampa he's known to one and all as The Big Cat! He missed the first two months of this season after having back surgery but made his return to the nets last night against the Carolina Hurricanes. Vasey helped power the Bolts to an 8-2 win!

The big story of the night, besides the offensive explosion, was the return of the star netminder. And it didn't looked like he missed a beat. he looked sound positionally making his saves. Sure, he had some slow moments, like he was just getting his footing back, and that is understandable. This was his first game in the Lightning net since last April when the Bolts were bounced from the playoffs. But that will come back in time. Once he gets his game back, its going to be tough to play against Tampa this year.

What stuck out for me was the Lightning offense in this game as well. At the start the Bolts had only one shot on goal against Carolina, which seems almost typical. What I mean is, there were times during his career where Vasey would have to stand on his head and get no or very little offensive support. That in terms of shots on goal, let alone actual goal scoring. Eventually, as last night wore on, Tampa's offense did find its stride. If this team is to really go anywhere on a deep playoff run, Vasey is going to need the offensive support he got last night. Doesn't have to be that high every night, but it does need to show up to where he doesn't have to keep standing on his head on most nights.

This stretch the Lightning had without the Big Cat in net proved invaluable for the team as well. Jonas Johansson got the bulk of the starts with Vasilevskiy being out hurt. Johansson did a very respectable job holding down the nets and showed he's going to be a fine backup. It also, I would like to think, give head coach Jon Cooper a little more confidence in playing Johansson a few more starts during the regular season and giving Vasilevskiy a few more nights off during the season so that way he can be better rested and more focused by the time the playoffs roll around in the spring.

Welcome back Big Cat!

MLB Hands Out Hardware

Its award season. In a great team game, this is the time of year to honor the best of the best from the 2023 Major League Baseball season. We will get into the major individual awards in a little bit. First things first, here are the winners of the silver slugger and gold glove awards from around the league.

Gold Glove
American League: Catcher: Jonah Heim (Rangers)
1st Base: Nathaniel Lowe (Rangers)
2nd Base: Andrés Giménez (Guardians)
3rd Base: Matt Chapman (Blue Jays)
Shortstop: Anthony Volpe (Yankees)
Left Field: Steven Kwan (Guardians)
Center Field: Kevin Kiermaier (Blue Jays)
Right Field: Adolis García (Rangers)
Pitcher: José Berríos (Blue Jays)
Utility: Mauricio Dubón (Astros)

National League:
Catcher: Gabriel Moreno (Diamondbacks)
1st Base: Christian Walker (Diamondbacks)
2nd Base: Nico Hoerner (Cubs)
3rd Base: Ke'Bryan Hayes (Pirates)
Shortstop: Dansby Swanson (Cubs)
Left Field: Ian Happ (Cubs)
Center Field: Brenton Doyle (Rockies)
Right Field: Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres)
Pitcher: Zack Wheeler (Phillies)
Utility: Ha-Seong Kim (Padres)

Silver Sluggers:
American League:
Catcher: Adley Rutschman (Orioles)
1st Base: Yandy Díaz (Rays)
2nd Base: Marcus Semien (Rangers)
3rd Base: Rafael Devers (Red Sox)
Shortstop: Corey Seager (Rangers)
Outfielders: Luis Robert Jr. (White Sox), Julio Rodríguez (Mariners), Kyle Tucker (Astros)
Designated Hitter: Shohei Ohtani (Angels)
Utility: Gunnar Henderson (Orioles)
Team: Texas Rangers

National League:
Catcher: William Contreras (Brewers)
1st Base: Matt Olson (Braves)
2nd Base: Luis Arraez (Marlins)
3rd Base: Austin Riley (Braves)
Shortstop: Francisco Lindor (Mets)
Outfield: Ronald Acuña Jr. (Braves), Mookie Betts (Dodgers), Juan Soto (Padres)
Designated Hitter: Bryce Harper (Phillies)
Utility: Cody Bellinger (Cubs)
Team: Atlanta Braves

Manager of The Year
AL: Brandon Hyde, Baltimore Orioles
NL: Skip Schumaker, Miami Marlins

Pretty impressive that Hyde was able to beat out Kevin Cash of the Rays and Bruce Bochy of the Rangers to win the award, but there's good reason for that. What Hyde was able to do with this Baltimore club is remarkable. He took a team that lost 115 games last year, and turn them into a 101 win team this year. It was also the O's first division title since 2014. Those 101 wins were the most by Baltimore since 1979 and they lead the league in comeback victories on the season with 48.

As for the NL, Skip beat out Brian Snitker of the Braves and Craig Counsell of the Brewers. Both of those teams, the Brewers and Braves were expected to be in the division races and in the playoffs all season long. Miami came in as surprise team making the playoffs. This was the first time that the Marlins have had a winning season, in a non shortened season, since 2009. This was also the first time that the Marlins had made the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2003. So ending a twenty year playoff drought for a full season had to feel really good in Miami.

Rookie of The Year:
AL: Gunner Henderson, Baltimore Orioles
NL: Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks

When you beat out Triston Casas of the Red Sox and Tannor Bibee of Cleveland, you doing something right. That's what Gunner Henderson did. The number one prospect in baseball lived up to the hype and then some for the O's with 28 homers and 66 extra base hits.

What Corbin Caroll managed to do to take ROY in the NL was hit 25 homers and steal 53 bases. It made him the first 20-50 rookie in league history. Oh and he was the first player in history to hit those numbers while also hitting double digits in triples.

Cy Young Award:
AL: Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
NL: Blake Snell, San Diego Padres

In the AL, Cole beat out Sonny Gray of the Twins and Kevin Gussman of the Jays. Both those guys put up solid seasons, but Cole was just better than anybody else. Why? Because Cole lead the AL in ERA, innings pitched and opponents batting average. Oh and over the final month of the season, which spanned five starts for Cole, he allowed just four runs over 35 innings. That was a level of dominance that couldn't be touched.

Same thing, over the second half of the year, allowed Blake Snell to walk away with the award in the NL. He edged out Logan Webb of the Giants and Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks to take home the honor. Sure, Snell walked more than anybody else, finishing the year with 99. but at the same time he was almost impossible to hit this year as well. His 2.25 ERA was the best in baseball. His 12 scoreless starts tied for the most by a qualifying pitcher since divisional play began back in 1969. Oh and he won pitcher of the month twice as well, in both June and September.

MVP
AL: Shohei Otani, Los Angeles Angels
NL: Ronald Acuna Jr, Atlanta Braves.

Both guys walked away with unanimous wins for MVP this year. Nothing against what Semien and Seager did for Texas, but this is Otani we talking about here. He played in 135 games this year and lead the AL with 44 homers. He also had a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts over 132 innings before being shut down on the mound due to a right elbow injury.

Then over in the NL Acuna won beating out Freddy Freeman and Mookie Bets of the Dodgers. It was a year in which Acuna had a 40-70 season with 41 homers and 73 steals, topping the 40-50 season he had last year. He also lead the league with 149 runs, 217 hits a .416 on base percentage and 383 total bases. He was also named NL player of the month three times. That's impressive.

Special Night North Of The Boarder

Getting drafted into the NHL, or any pro sports league for that matter, is a big deal. Being a late round draft pick won't get you much of a spotlight, but it means that a team is willing to take a chance on you. That's what happened to goalie Matt Tomkins. He was taken 199th overall in 2012 by the Chicago Blackhawks. He had left North American hockey to go play in Europe, because he wasn't getting any bites at the big time. This year, eleven years after getting drafted, he got his chance.,. He then got his first win.

When the season started, he was signed to a two year deal with the Lighting. There wasn't much light as to how much playing time he was going to get at the NHL level. That all changed at the start of training camp when Bolts starter Andrei Vasilevskiy went down with injury. Jonas Johansson, slated to be the backup, became the number one man. Which means that Tomkins was getting his shot to be the backup. He finally got his first taste of NHL action on October 15th, a loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Now, eleven years after he was drafted, Tomkins finally picked up his first career win, a 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on November 7th.

For a guy like this, who has had to fight for every minute of playing time he's gotten, this win has to feel good. Like really good. Its a validation that that 199th overall pick eleven years ago wasn't a total waste. Tomkins stuck with it and finally had a wish come true in winning a game at the highest level of professional hockey. You never forget your first win and I don't think Tomkins will either!

Best & Worst NFL Week Nine

We just crossed a little over two months into the NFL season and we got plenty to talk about. We had a couple of quarterbacks come away with massive days. Same thing can be said for the new coach heading things up for the Raiders. Playing football in New York right now might not be the most fun thing to do. All that and more coming. Here's the best and worst from week nine in the NFL.

Best: C.J Stroud Quarterback Houston Texans
You, son, had yourself a day. Stroud is making a claim for Offensive Rookie of The Year. After getting off to a slow start, Stroud has found his game and in a big way the last few week. last weekend, Houston beat Tampa Bay 39-37 on a massive day from the rookie QB. Stroud went off, going 30 of 42 for 470 yards and five touchdowns. A lot of those yards came in the big moment situations against a decent Bucs defense. And Stroud has looked more comfortable in his game, throwing 14 TDs to just one pick in his last eight games. Yeah its safe to say that Houston may have found their guy.

Worst: New York Football
You know its bad for the teams playing at Melife Stadium when they are the two lowest scoring teams in the NFL. The Giants are last in the NFL in offensive TD's and the Jets are just ahead of them. Both teams got spanked last week. The Jets got whipped on Monday Night Football 27-6 by the Chargers, while the Giants fell to the Raiders 30-6 (more on that game in a second). The Giants are stuck with a third stringer under center and are 2-6, going nowhere fast. The Jets are still in the hunt for a playoff spot in the AFC, but if they don't get the offense figured out, and fast, they too will be on the outside looking in.

Best: Antonio Pierce Head Coach Las Vegas Raiders
We just touched on this game with the Raiders smacking the Giants around, to the tune of a 30-6 Vegas win. For Antonio Pierce this was a huge moment. he had just got promoted to interim Head Coach, and just in time to face his former team. Pierce played for the Giants from 2005 to 2009 winning a Super Bow with them in 2006. The Raiders played mistake free football and went to the ground and pound game with Josh Jacobs to great effectiveness. Oh and the defense forced the Giants into three turnovers. Well laid out gameplan for a first time head coach.

Worst: Bill Belichick Head Coach New England Patriots
It seems like each week, the bar keeps getting lower and lower for coach Bilichick. This time it comes after a 20-17 loss to the Washington Commanders. This time it was bad penalties at the worst time, and the timing seemed off all day for New England. This has been a very underwelming season by the standards that the Patriots had set for themselves over the years. For Coach Belichick, this his 24th season as the head man in New England, it has been one of his roughest. A lot of it falls on the players for not doing thier jobs. But some of it also falls on the coaches for not getting them prepaired as they should be.

Best: Josh Dobbs Quarterback Minnesota Vikings
Talk about stepping right in. First Kirk Cousins goes down with an Achillies injury for the season. Dobbs gets aquired five days ago in a trade with the Cardinals. Then Jaren Hall, who was starting on Sunday, goes down with a concussion early on. Dobbs steps in and does the thing. In a 31-28 Vikings win over the Falcons, Dobbs goes 20 of 30 for 158 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He did the same thing last year too when the Titans picked him up. Now that he had to take over, and got a win, here hoping he can keep it going under center against the Saints this weekend.

Worst: Seattle Seahawks
There had been some glimmer of hope out in Seattle. Some. But the way this season is going that is starting to fade for the Seahawks. Seattle got the tar beaten out of them to the tune of a 37-3 loss to the Ravens. It looked like the Seahawks could have gained some ground in the West cause the 49ers, Cardinals and Rams have all been playing below average football as of late. But what looked like a braekout year last year for Geno Smith has seen the rubber band snap back into his face this year. He threw another pick, giving him 13 in his last 15 games. He couldn't even get his QBR this week over 20. That's bad

Coaching Legend Passes

When it comes to college basketball, there are a lot of big names that have floated around the sport. Most of them come from the coaching ranks. Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun, John Wooden usually the names that come to mind right away. So too did Bobby Knight. Knight, who was known as The General, has gone down in the books as one of the greatest to ever coach, has passed away at the age of 83.

Knight started his coaching career during the 1965-66 season coaching at Army. He stayed there till 1971. From Army , it was on to Indiana, where he coached from 1971 until 2000. From there he coached at Texas Tech until his retirement in 2008. When he was finished, he ended with 902 career wins, which was the record at that time. now that win total sits 6th on the all time list, behind Roy Williams,  Jim Calhoun, Bob Huggins, Jim Boehim and Coach K (who played under Knight at Army). Knight won twenty or more games in a season 29 times in his coaching career, and won three national titles at Indiana along with an Olympic gold in 1984. A number of Knight's assistant coaches, players, and managers have gone on to be coaches. In the college ranks, this includes Hall of Fame Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Steve Alford, Murry Bartow, Dan Dakich, Bob Donewald, Marty Simmons, Jim Crews, and Chris Beard. NBA coaches that came from under Bobby Knight include Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, Keith Smart, Isiah Thomas, and Lawrence Frank.

His coaching style was legendary, as were his outbursts. Everybody remembers the chair toss against Perdue. Same goes with what got him outed at Indiana in 2000 by grabbing the arm of a freshman player. Then their was the choking of Neil Reed at a practice in 1997. That fiery temperament that made him so successful also got him into some hot water as well, some of which we just touched on.

Sure there were moments where Bobby temper got the better of him, but he knew how to get the best out of the players he had. That's what made him so good is that he was brash but he was also able to get the best out of his players and lead them to victory.

One of the greatest to ever step foot on a bench, Bobby Knight!

Best & Worst NFL Week Eight

Week Eight has come and gone in the NFL and what a week it was. We saw almost half the quarterbacks in the league replaced due to either poor performance or injury. We had running backs hit high water marks and some receivers having a huge day. Here's some of the best and worst of week eight around the NFL.

Best: Kayvon Thibodeaux Defensive End New York Giants
Sure the Giants lost 13-10 in Overtime to the Jets (more on this game in a second), but Thibodeaux was one of the bright spots in this game. He was a monster on the Giants defensive line. He finished with nine total tackles, three of which were for a sack. He also forced one fumble on the day as well. It was one of those really make a name for yourself kind of day.

Worst: New York Football Fans
Having written what I just wrote was really the only positive to come out of Sundays 13-10 overtime win by the Jets over the Giants. Neither team was good on Sunday. At all. The only thing that was really exciting about that game was the end of regulation and most of overtime. That's about it. it was just a day of bad football at Metlife Stadium in a bad football game. The Giants threw for -9 yards on the day and the two punters combined for 24 punts on the day. Yikes!

Best: Will Levis Quarterback Tennessee Titans
Aside from the fact that the Titans walked away with a 28-23 win over Atlanta, the quarterback play is a pretty big story here. Will Levis got his first career start for the Titans, and did he make the most of it. As a team, the Titans had thrown for just two touchdown passes all season. Levis hit that total in the first half alone. He finished the day with four touchdowns, going 19 of 29 for 238 yards. Three of those tosses went to DeAndre Hopkins, who finished with 128 receiving yards. He had been quite most of the year too, but it now seems there's something cooking with Levis under center and it seems to be working.

Worst: Cleveland Browns
Cleveland had a chance late to hold a lead and draw closer to the Ravens. They weren't able to hang onto it against the Seahawks, falling to Seattle 24-20. All it took was one bad pass to turn the tide around. PJ Walker saw a pass get tipped near the line that was picked off by Jamal Adams. A few minutes later Seattle Wide Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught the go ahead score to give the Seahawks the lead for good. For as well as the Browns have played at times this season, it still seams like they can't really buy a break.

Best: Rashid Shaheed Wide Receiver New Orleans Saints
New Orleans walked away with a 38-27 win over the Colts and this guy was a big reason for it. He had three catches the entire day. No that isn't a typo, he actually had three catches the entire afternoon. But what stuck out was that those three catches went for 153 yards and a touchdown. The second year wide out just had to have the ball chucked in his general direction by Derek Carr and he was gonna grab it. He's averaging 16 yards a catch so far in his career. This performance against the Colts looked a lot like what Randy Moss did against Dallas on Thanksgiving in 1998.

Worst: Brock Purdy Quarterback San Francisco 49ers
Yes Brock Purdy threw for 365 yards and a touchdown on Sunday. but he also got picked off twice, got  sacked twice and fumbled one in the Niners 31-17 loss to the Bengals. In the first five games of the season, all wins, Purdy was good at ball control. The last three games, all losses, not so much. Sure there's no Debo Samuel or Trent Williams in the lineup for the 49ers due to injury, but that's not an excuse. Purdy hasn't been able to really protect the ball the last three games for the 49ers and its biting them in the butt. If he doesn't get it together, and fast, the playoff window for San Francisco this season is going to fade to almost nothing.