With everything that went on Thursday night in sports, it’s hard to just pick one thing to briefly talk about before I talk about some big NFL match-ups this weekend, but I’m going to do it. There was an NFL game involving rivals, Buffalo and Miami, but that’s not what I want to talk about. There was even a nice Pac-12 match-up between California and USC, that saw the Golden Bears give the Trojans a scare. But, that’s not what I want to talk about either. How about losing a game by 53 points? That’s it! And what team would do such a thing? Oh yeah. That would be the 0-8, Philadelphia 76er’s. Not only are the 76er’s off to horrible start, but now that they lost by 53, to the Mavericks on Thursday, they can put another notch on the old belt. With the 123-70 loss, the 76er’s now have five 50 point losses, the most in NBA history. That’s two more than any other team in the NBA and one of the worst records to own.
It seems like the city of Philadelphia has had some hardship when it comes to their hometown teams, doesn’t it?! The Phillies happen to have the most career franchise losses in Major League Baseball and had a subpar year for their standards this past season, but at least there’s the Eagles, right?
Currently, the Eagles are soaring high at 7-2, atop the NFC East standings, and with the resurgence of Mark Sanchez, the Eagles haven’t skipped a beat, since losing QB Nick Foles to a fractured collarbone. The Eagles host the Packers this week in a huge Sunday afternoon contest. Green Bay comes into the game at 6-3, second place in the NFC North, a game behind the Lions. The Packers are playing some great ball right now. Last Sunday, Green Bay clobbered the Bears by a final of 55-14. Aaron Rodgers played a little over a half. In the first half, Rodgers had an unbelievable 6 touchdown passes. A far cry from earlier in the season, when seemingly all the Packers fans and media were freaking out, only to have Rodgers spell and utter the word: Relax! Since then, the Pack show is 5-1.
I mentioned the Lions as the NFC North leaders. Detroit, at 7-2 on the season, have a pretty big match-up themselves. The Lions travel to Arizona taking on the Cardinals, who are 8-1 on the season and leading the NFC West by 2 games, over the defending Super Bowl Champs, Seattle. Though, the big question with Arizona is how they’ll cope without their number one quarterback, Carson Palmer, who is done for the season with a torn ACL. Drew Stanton will assume the starting role on Sunday afternoon. In a small sample scale this season, the Cardinals are 2-1 this season, when Palmer is out of the lineup. A great winning percentage, but can the Cardinals extrapolate that over these next seven games? That’s the real question. One thing is for sure. This should be quite the defensive battle. The Lions and Cardinals have stingy run defenses, 2nd and 3rd in the league, respectively. But, the separation could be in the pass game on defense, as Arizona is 30th against the pass. Detroit is really good, at 3rd place.
You probably thought that the Eagles-Packers or Lions-Cardinals was the game of the week, right? Well, Sunday Night Football has an absolutely huge game between to great teams, with two of the best quarterbacks in the league. I’m speaking of the Patriots and Colts, and of course, Tom Brady and Andrew Luck. Need I say more?! New England is 7-2, and has won five straight games, quickly throwing those outcries to replace Tom Brady at quarterback, where they belong. That would be in the dumpster. Very foolish remarks at the time and even more asinine after you see what the Patriots offense is doing now. Brady has gone over 300 yards passing three times in the last five games, with his worst game being a 261 passing yards game over the Jets. Though Brady still had 3 touchdowns. So moral of the story, Tom Brady and New England Patriots are right where they want to be. Let’s not overlook what Andrew Luck has done though. Eight of Luck’s nine starts are over 300 yards passing, and the Colts have been playing excellent football, winning six of their last seven games. Something has to give in this Sunday Night Football game, but barring any unforeseen events, should also live up to the billing as well.
Featured Image by: Tony Fischer
