Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 9/14

Paw Prints Daily Roundup

With the UConn Huskies beating up on the Virginia Cavaliers last night, you can bet there is plenty of linkage from the local media here in Connecticut about the game.

Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register has some postgame notes here as does Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post. John Silver of Journal Inquirer has some postgame notes as well along with Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant.

Dave Solomon of the Register has a look at the climate surrounding UConn football.

Randy Edsall strives for perfection each game and almost got that last night.

The Huskies brought out some new wrinkles last night.

Tyler Lorenzen was in a groove last night. He also used his arms as well as his legs to lead the team.

Darius Butler paid tribute to his newborn daughter Maya last night.

The Huskies delivered the whole package last night.

The Huskies were happy with their experience at the Meineke Car Care Bowl last season.

The Huskies were firing on all cylinders last night.

Joe Perez of the Norwich Bulletin looks at what the Huskies can take from the win last night.

Donald Brown earned a helmet sticker from ESPN for his performance last night.

The UConn Huskies men’s soccer team tied St. Louis 0-0 in double overtime last night.

David Gillett has a look back at the UConn careers of Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon.

Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 9/14

Jon Lester goes in search of win #15 this afternoon for the Boston Red Sox.

Jon Lester goes in search of win #15 this afternoon for the Boston Red Sox.

The Boston Red Sox look to put an end the Toronto Blue Jay’s slim playoff chances this afternoon in the finale of this 4-game set. The task of doing that falls on the left arm of Jon Lester.

Lester has faced the Blue Jays twice this season and is 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA. He has faced them 3 times in his career and is 0-1 with a 4.24 ERA.

Roy Halladay starts for the Blue Jays this afternoon, making the start on 3 days rest. He is 2-1 with a 2.10 ERA in three starts against the Red Sox this season and 11-11 with a 4.51 ERA in 35 games (32 starts) against the Red Sox in his career.

Paul Kenyon has some news and notes about Julio Lugo and Jed Lowrie.

If you missed Amalie Benjamin’s mailbag this week, you can check that out here.

If you missed it, here’s video of Scott Downs slipping, Bartolo Colon’s great grab on the mound and RemDawg giving driving advice.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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Patriots Tailgating Tidbits – Week 2

Matt Cassel talks to reporters
Matt Cassel talks to reporters this week while preparing for the Jets and his first NFL start.

With kick off just a few hours away it’s time for a little pregame news for the match up with the AFC East rival New York Jets.  Make sure you check that link for my all the game news including my weekly prediction.  The line is holding steady at Patriots +1.5 with an over/under of 37 this morning.

Yesterday the Patriots added QB Matt Gutierrez to the active 53-man roster from the practice squad.  In order to create roster space the team released first year WR C.J. Jones.  There is now a spot on the practice squad and Jones is a likely candidate but he needs to clear waivers first before he can be re-signed.

Bill Belichick downgraded TE Ben Watson (knee), WR Sam Aiken (knee) and LB eric Alexander (calf) to out.  Eric Mangini listed K MIke Nugent (thigh) and WR David Clowney (shoulder) as out.  The rest of the players who are inactive wil be in the post game report.

With the Tom Brady injury there appears to be much more further reaching financial issues by losing the leagues best player.  Newsweek talks about how the loss of Brady affects the team, NFL and the TV Networks in the pocketbook.

Indianapolis QB and Brady friend Peyton Manning says he is “sick over Tom Brady” and “Brady texted me and said it must not have been in the cards for him to stay healthy this year, and he’s going to fight hard in rehab and be back next year.”

When a prominent former player says this like:

“the offensive line used to come back and say, ‘Hey, there’s something about this kid.’ He always had a swagger every time he stepped under center.  The confidence level’s amazing.”

When a former coach says

“Vivacious — he is just 100 percent go all the time.  He is just on fire, mentally aggressive, physically aggressive.”

You tend to listen.  The player was Doug Flutie, the coach was Bill Coan of Chatsworth High, the player they are talking about is Matt Cassel.  Lots of people had high praise for player many people have never heard of until last Sunday. 

Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees has a won-loss grading system for the defense on 1st, 2nd and 3rd down plays. 

  • First down: A win is 3 yards or less, setting up second-and-7 or more.  
  • Second down: A win is anything that makes it third-and-4 or more.  
  • Third down: A win is stopping the offense short of the first down.

Pees was very happy with first down but said there were issues on third down where the Kansas City Chiefs converted on 8 of 16 3rd downs.

“There were a couple situations where we were very competitive on the routes but the guy made the catch, basically [Tony] Gonzalez,” he said. “Regardless of that, we have to do a better job on third down. … We have to a little better job of playing our techniques and doing some things to get off the field. We have to get that number lower.”

Will someone tell ESPN’s Emmit Smith it’s Matt Cassel…not Matt Hassel.  He screwed up his name at least 6 times this morning on Sports Center.

Boston Red Sox News & Notes – 9/14

Yesterday’s split of the doubleheader for the Boston Red Sox only ended up costing them one game in the wild card standings as the Minnesota Twins took 2 from the Baltimore Orioles. With the Chicago White Sox rained out yesterday, the Twins moved into a virtual tie for first in the AL Central with the Chisox and now sit just 5 games behind the Red Sox for the wild card.

The Red Sox also didn’t lose any ground to the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East standings as the Rays split their doubleheader with the New York Yankees. And with just 14 games left in the season, the Red Sox magic number for a playoff spot currently sits at 10 games.

Dustin Pedroia became the first person to have 200 hits since Mo Vaughn 10 years ago. He’s only concerned about getting wins though and not records.

He is also in select company with 200 hits and 50 doubles.

The Jays playoff hopes may have gone out the door last night.

Bartolo Colon returned with a flourish last night.

Colon could end up in the bullpen for the playoffs.

The Red Sox may go after A.J. Burnett during free agency. They should since he owns them.

If you missed it, here’s video of Scott Downs slipping, Bartolo Colon’s great grab on the mound and RemDawg giving driving advice.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying, head over to the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail websites.

Destination Red Sox Nation – 9/14

Destination Red Sox Nation

Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story links and links to team stats and league standings are after the jump.

The Red Sox have 4 of their minor league teams in the playoffs. The Pawtucket Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs, Lancaster JetHawks and Lowell Spinners all clinched playoff berths. Only the JetHawks remain alive.

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Watch Out! RemDawg’s Giving Driving Advice

Jerry Remy's giving driving advice

Since I was taking care of the UConn Huskies football recap tonight, I was unable to listen to the Boston Red Sox broadcast but was able to watch it which means I missed the gem from Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy of NESN.

I’ll let Steve do the explanation from his game recap:

Roush Fenway driver Dave Ragan was interviewed tonight by Heidi Watney which lead to an exchange by Remy and Orsillo about a new route Jerry gave Don which lets him cut off traffic and then jump the line when leaving the park. Don credits it with saving him 10 minutes on the way home. Jerry then suggested drafting the tractor trailers on the highway home.

[flash http://ianbethune.com/remadvice.FLV w=425 h=300]

Now if you can remember back to last year, RemDawg actually took a spin around the track at New Hampshire International Speedway with Roush Fenway driver Carl Edwards.

[flash http://ianbethune.com/remy.FLV w=425 h=300]

How’d He Do That?

Sometimes it’s better not to ask questions when you see a play like this. I don’t know how Boston Red Sox pitcher Bartolo Colon fielded this ball of the bat of the Blue Jays’ Alex Rios but he made the play and got the out.

{flowplayer}http://ianbethune.com/wtfcolon.FLV{/flowplayer}

Brown, Lorenzen Lead UConn To 45-10 Rout Of Virginia

Donald Brown was once again the man for the UConn Huskies

Tyler Lorenzen shook off his past two performances and was perfect passing the ball in the 1st half while Donald Brown scored 3 more touchdowns to lead the UConn Huskies to a 45-10 rout of the Virginia Cavaliers in front of a sold-out Rentschler Field. The win for the Huskies avenges a 17-16 loss to the Cavaliers last season in Charlottesville.

Lorenzen had a great game overall as he didn’t have any turnovers today. The offensive line was huge tonight as well as they opened up huge holes for Brown and Jordan Todman. The Huskies had 502 yards of total offense with 382 of those coming on the ground. They were highly effective on 3rd downs as they were 6-of-11.

The UConn defense finally gave up a touchdown this season and that didn’t come until the 4th quarter. They only allowed 219 yards and only allowed 31 of those yards on the ground.

Tonight marked the debut of Darius Butler on the offensive side of the ball. He played both ways tonight and had 2 catches for 40 yards and 1 run for 13 yards and a touchdown.

Tonight also marked the debut of true freshman running back Jordan Todman, who may be the fastest player on the UConn Huskies. Todman jumped onto the scene 13 rushes for 81 yards and his first collegiate touchdown. The emergence of Todman now gives the Huskies 4 running backs, once Andre Dixon is healthy, who can do damage to any team.

I have to wonder if you might hear Brown’s name in the Heisman candidates. He’s got the numbers right now that rank right up there with anyone in the country. I highly doubt he’d win it but it would be a great thing to see and would be huge for the program for him to even be mentioned.

A great team win for the Huskies tonight as both the offense and defense looked good.

Scoring:

1st quarter

Donald Brown had 3 touchdowns for the UConn Huskies

Donald Brown had 206 yards and 3 touchdowns for the UConn Huskies.

CON – Donald Brown 3-yard run – Tony Ciaravino PAT  – UConn 7 Virginia 0

2nd quarter

CON – Tyler Lorenzen 3-yard pass to Anthony Davis – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 14 Virginia 0

CON – Darius Butler 13-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 21 Virginia 0

CON – Brown 8-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 28 Virginia 0

3rd quarter

UVA –  Yannick Reyering 43-yard field goal – UConn 28 Virginia 3

CON – Brown 63-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 35 Virginia 3

CON – Jordan Todman 14-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 42 Virginia 3

4th quarter

CON – Ciaravino 29-yard field goal – UConn 45 Virginia 3

UVA – Cedric Peerman 1-yard run – Reyering PAT – UConn 45 Virginia 10

Offensive Player of the Game:

I am going with co-players of the game today. Tyler Lorenzen was 13-of-15 for 124 yards and 1 touchdown. Donald Brown rushed 20 times for 206 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also had 5 catches for 32 yards

Defensive Player of the Game:

Lawrence Wilson had 2 tackles, an interception and pass breakup.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

I’m not sure there really was a turning point in the game as UConn dominated from the opening kickoff to the end of the game.

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Great Scott Blue Jays Melt Downs

Scott Downs falls flat on his face costing the Jays the game.

The Boston Red Sox did everything they could to give this game away early. Fortunately for them the Toronto Blue Jays did give it away late as the Toronto bullpen allowed the Sox to chip away late in the game and come away with a 7-5 come from behind win to earn a split of the day-night twinbill at Fenway Park Saturday night.

Down 5-2 in the sixth inning the Sox grabbed a run back and cut the Jays lead to 5-3 when Kevin Youkilis lead off with a double to center, Mark Kotsay walked, Jason Bay blooped a single off the end of the bat into center to load the bases for Jed Lowrie. The rookie infielder then hit a deep fly to right for a sacrifice fly scoring Youkilis.

Boston cut into Toronto’s lead even further in the 7th when once again a lead off double would lead to a run. This time Jacoby Ellsbury doubled into the right centerfield gap to start the inning, a Dustin Pedroia ground out to short pushed Ellsbury to third. Scott Downs came in to face David Ortiz and he walked and when Youkilis bounced into a 4-6 fielder’s choice Ellsbury cut the lead to 5-4. The RBI was the 100th of the season for Youkilis and also aiding on the play was Ortiz who cut down Blue Jay shortstop Marco Scutaro when he couldn’t get the ball out of his glove.

It wasn't pretty but Jacoby Ellsbury's single gave the Red Sox the lead for good.

It wasn't pretty but Jacoby Ellsbury's single gave the Red Sox the lead.

In the eighth another Boston lead off hit started a rally that led to three runs and a 7-5 lead. Bay doubled into the left field to start the inning, Lowrie singled to center to score Bay and tie the game at 5-5. David Ross, in his only at bat of the game, sacrificed Lowrie to second. He would move to third on Coco Crisp’s bounce out to short. Ellsbury then would battle downs through a lengthy at bat eventually chopping a ball off the plate that died about half way down the first base line as Down’s fell on his face trying to field it. Lowrie scored on the dribbler and it was 6-5 Boston. After Shawn Camp came on to pitch, Pedroia singled to left for his 200th hit of the year Ortiz doubled to left to score Ellsbury to give the Sox a pad run and a 7-5 lead heading into the ninth.

Jonathan Papelbon then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

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