The Result

It was far from pretty and it was far from the blow outs we’ve seen all year but in a match up of the NFL’s two best teams the New England Patriots came from ten points down in the fourth quarter to beat the defending Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts, 24-20 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis IN. They are now 9-0, while the Colts are 7-1.

If any Patriots fan says there was never any doubt they’re lying. These games between these two teams are always good and we were treated to a great game today.

Since he took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe in 2001, Tom Brady has now led the Patriots on game winning drives in the 4th quarter or overtime 25 times. That is the most in the NFL in that time period.

As I said in the preview that this is far from the end for the losing team. The Colts are a great team as we all just witnessed and there’s no doubt in my mind that these two teams will play for a trip to Super Bowl XLII.

Enjoy the week off Patriots fans there is a lot more work to be done.

Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

• IND – Vinatieri 21 yard FG – 3-0 Colts

2^nd Quarter

• NE – Brady 4 yard pass to Moss – kick good – 7-3 Patriots
• IND – Vinatieri 25 yard FG – 7-6 Patriots
• IND – Addai 73 yard run – kick good – 13-7 Colts

3^rd Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 34 yard FG – 13-10 Colts

4^th Quarter

• IND – Manning 1 yard run – kick good – 20-10 Colts
• NE – Brady 3 yard pass to Welker – kick good – Colts 20-17
• NE – Brady 13 yard pass to Faulk – kick good – Patriots 24-20

Offensive Players of the Game

Patriots QB Tom Brady was 21 of 32 for 255 yards, 3 TD’s and 2 INT’s

Colts RB Joe Addai had 26 carries for 112 yards, 5 catches for 114 yards and TD

Defensive Player of the Game

Patriots safety Rodney Harrison had 6 tackles and an INT

Turning Point(s) of the Game

Jarvis Green pressures Peyton Manning forcing a fumble recovered by Rosevelt Colvin with 2:30 left to play.

Wes Welker makes a first down catch at the two minute warning to seal the win.

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After missing most of the first half with foul trouble, sophomore Jerome Dyson scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half as the Huskies trounced Bryant 100-65 in front of 8,563 at the Hartford Civic Center. Stanley Robinson decided he would help out as he scored 13 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Jeff Adrien added 9 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies as well.

Bryant is in their first year of transition from Div. II to Div. I and will start play in the Northeast Conference in 2012. It was evident their smaller size would prove to be a huge factor in this exhibition game as they were outrebounded 50-32. UConn pulled down 13 offensive rebounds leading to 23-0 in second chance points.

Bryant had 33 fouls in the game and they sent UConn to the line 46 times. The Huskies converted 31 of those for a shooting percentage of 67% from the free throw line. As I said last year, that is not going to win ball games in the Big East.

It was a good game for the Huskies as they got to see how they would fare against a smaller team, something they will probably encounter during the season. This allowed the Huskies to run some 3 guard sets in which they executed very well. They were also able to work on their defensive trapping and that led to 17 turnovers for Bryant. Lucky for UConn that the 17 turnovers they committed didn’t hurt them. But again, they will need to work on that as the season approaches.

I know it was just an exhibition game but a crowd of just over 8500 is weak. I wonder if they were thinking of maybe putting the curtains up in the upper levels of the Hartford Civic Center.

UConn will now begin their regular season play on Wednesday night when they take on Morgan State in the first round of the 2K Sports Colleges Hoops Classic at 7 PM on ESPNU. Ohio Valley faces Buffalo in the opener at 4 PM. The two winners will meet on Thursday night at 9 PM on ESPNU for the right to go the semifinals at the Mecca of college basketball, Madison Square Garden.

I will have a look at the 2007-08 Huskies on Wednesday before their opener.

Boxscore

Recently I added tailgating info including recipes to the Patriots weekly game previews. With that in mind I thought it would be good to share my favorite recipe. This was passed down to me by a friend who was a firefighter, and if anyone knows how to cook and how to enjoy food believe me it’s firefighters. He got it from a firehouse cookbook he bought about 15 years ago.

Without further adieu I bring you:

Firehouse Ribs

Country style pork ribs (6 lbs.) is what the recipe calls for but you can use any type of pork or chicken even as it’s all in the sauce.

This will yield more sauce than you need for a smaller batch of ribs but never fear you can save it or you can cut the contents back. I usually just make it as it is and save it.

• 1 cup ketchup
• ¼ cup rose` wine
• 2 tbs. soy sauce
• 2 tbs. maple syrup
• 2 tbs. lemon juice
• 2 tbs. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Arrange the ribs in a baking dish coated in non-stick spray.

In a bowl combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly. With a basting brush coat the ribs with sauce and back for 30 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake for an hour. Turn and baste ribs every 15 minutes while cooking.

The best part of this recipe is you can also cook the ribs (or chicken) on the grill, which makes it great for tailgating. These are guaranteed to be a hit. I’ve had people who don’t like to eat pork love this recipe.

The worst part of the recipe is no matter what it comes in contact with you will need a jackhammer to clean. Over the years I stopped using my Pyrex baking dishes and cook the ribs (or chicken) in a disposable foil baking pans you can buy at any supermarket or Wal-Mart. It’s well worth the little extra for the foil pans because even with the non-stick spray on the dish it’s still tough to clean.

Back in August, Steve gave you a list of potential free agents and explained how free agency works. This year, players will have until November 12th to file for free agency. The teams who have players who file for free agency, can talk with their free agents up until Nov 12th. Starting November 13th, any team can contact the list of free agents.

Here is the list of the free agents as of November 4th. I will update this daily if any more players file for free agency.

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I found this over at Awful Announcing so OMDQ gets all the credit but I figured I would pass it along here as it pertains to the Red Sox.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has posted 200 candidates for the 2008 Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball. Some of the past winners include Vin Scully, former Red Sox announcer Curt Cowdy, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell, Joe Garagiola, Marty Brennaman, Bob Uecker and Jerry Coleman.

Fans get to vote for three candidates all through November and the list will be paired to ten on December 5th. Among the nominees for 2008 are:

Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Joe Morgan, Chip and Skip Caray, Tom Cheek, Phil Rizzuto, Dizzy Dean, Joe Nuxhall, Jim Kaat, former WFSB-TV (Hartford) sports director Ted Leitner, former ESPN anchor and CT native George Grande, Tony Kubek, Ron Santo and Jose Mota.

Those on the list with ties to the Red Sox include:

Jon Miller, Ned Martin, Ken Coleman, Bob Starr, Jim Woods, Joe Castiglione, Jerry Trupiano, Bob Kurtz, Bob Montgomery, Sean McDonough, Dave O’Brien and Jerry Remy.

Talk about a team with a great broadcast legacy. My only question is what no Glenn Geffner?

UConn in the NBA returns again this year as I will show you how the former UConn men’s players did in the NBA for the previous week. You can see their entire stats by clicking on their names to the left in the stats.

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Day 7 of the offseason for the beloved Boston Red Sox and things were quiet. From the looks of things, the Red Sox will raise the banner and probably get their rings on April 8th, which will be the opening day at Fenway. The Red Sox will open up the season on the left coast and maybe even in the homeland of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima. I don’t know about you but I am not really one for watching live baseball at 5 am or something crazy like that. So while you’re sitting here up an hour earlier than normal due the time change, why not check out these headlines from the Boston area media.

Stars and hidden jewels dazzled [Boston Globe]

’The plan’ right for the man [Boston Herald]

Sox to raise Series banner April 8 at Fenway opener [Pro Jo]

Beckett shows he can pick his spots [Boston Globe]

Tito deserves better [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.

In what seemed like mere moments after Boston Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell declined to be interviewed the Pittsburgh Pirates are about to announce their new manager.

Published reports are saying the Bucs have decided on John Russell.

Who????????????

John Russell, manager of the Phildelphia Phillies Triple A affliate Lehigh Valley, will be named the skipper to replace Jim Tracy who was dumped after two thoroughly exciting seasons of Pirates baseball. Russell in the past was a third base coach for the Pirates in 2003 and 2004 under former manager Lloyd McClendon.

He has a big job ahead of him as the Pirates have not had a winning season since 1992 when they won the AL East under Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds played left field with a skinny body and normal size noggin.

The Pirates have had just 8 winning campaigns since Chuck Tanner led the franchise to it’s last World Series title in 1979 when they beat the Baltimore Orioles.

The University of Connecticut football team continued it’s run in the Big East as they picked up another huge win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 38-19 in front of 40,000 chilled fans at Rentschler Field. The win puts the Huskies at 8-1 and are on top of the Big East standings with a 4-0 record in conference play.

The story of this game was the total team effort. UConn got big plays from it’s offense, defense and special teams. While certain guys may have stood out on the stat sheet, it was the play of everyone whose feet touched the turf at Rentschler Field.

Scoring:

1st quarter

• CON – blocked punt out of the end for a safety – UConn 2-0
• CON – Lorenzen 2-yard pass to Brouse – kick failed – UConn 8-0
• RU – Ito 30-yard field goal – UConn 8-3
• CON – Ciaravino 43-yard field goal – UConn 11-3
• CON – Lorenzen 34-yard pass to Jeffers – kick good – UConn 18-3

2nd quarter

• RU – Ito 28-yard field goal – UCONN 18-6
• CON – Branch 97-yard kickoff return – kick good – UConn 25-6
• RU – Rice 4-yard run – kick good – UConn 25-13
• RU – Ito 28-yard field goal – UConn 25-16

3rd quarter

• RU – Ito 27-yard field goal – UConn 25-19
• CON – Brown 33-yard run – kick good – UConn 32-19

4th quarter

• CON – Ciaravino 30-yard field goal – UConn 35-19
• CON – Ciaravino 26-yard field goal – UConn 38-19
  

Offensive Player of the Game:

Donald Brown – Brown came in for gimpy Andre Dixon and rushed for 154 yards on 24 carries with one touchdown.

Defensive Player of the Game:

Tyvon Branch and Dahna Deleston – Branch and Deleston both had a team high 13 tackles.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

Branch’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown seemed to deflate the Rutgers players and sideline.

Donald Brown being able to give the defense a much needed break with 38 yards rushing on his touchdown scoring drive and then after the defense held Rutgers to field goal attempt that was missed, helped with 26 yards on the ground during a 7-minute drive that led to a Ciaravino field goal.

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The Division II Single-Game Rushing Record fell last night as Southern Connecticut State University running back Jerom Freeman had 34 carries for 418 yards in SCSU’s 56-28 victory over Bryant. Or as the headline on SI.com reads, Bryan.

The all-division record is 441 yards set back in 1996 by Division III running back Dante Brown.