Monday, 16 Novembar, 2015

Brady drives Pats close enough for long Gostkowski field goal. Panthers also 9-0. Big Ben returns.

New England's Malcolm Butler breaks up a pass intended for Odell Beckham of the Giants in Sunday's game. 

By: The Associated Press, Published on Sun Nov 15 2015

Stephen Gostkowski’s 54-yard field goal with one second remaining Sunday kept the New England Patriots unbeaten with a 27-26 victory over the New York Giants.

After Josh Brown made his fourth field goal of the game with 1:47 remaining, Tom Brady drove the Patriots 44 yards, converting a fourth-and-10 on the series. Gostkowski, the NFL’s leading scorer the last three seasons, sent his winning kick soaring through the uprights.

“You’re one kick away from being Public Enemy No. 1,” Gostkowski said. “You’re always one kick away from trending on Twitter as the No. 1 loser in America. But it’s fun being on a good team. It’s kind of like being on a baseball team where everybody’s got a hit, and you can’t wait to get up there and get a hit, too.”

The Giants have given the 9-0 Patriots fits under Tom Coughlin and nearly pulled off another victory. But you don’t beat New England with field goals, and a five-yard pass to Odell Beckham Jr. on New York’s final drive was originally called a touchdown, then reversed by a video review.

Both Beckham and New England’s Rob Gronkowski had the longest TD catches of their careers: Beckham for 87 yards and Gronkowski for 76.

PANTHERS 27, TITANS 10: Cam Newton completed his first 11 passes, the longest streak of his career, and Carolina remained unbeaten, also at 9-0. The Panthers extended their league-best winning streak to 13 games over two seasons as Newton ran for a touchdown and passed for another score. The Titans suffered their 10th straight home loss in the first home game under interim coach Mike Mularkey. Rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Titans were held scoreless in the second half.

REDSKINS 47, SAINTS 14: Kirk Cousins threw for a career-high four touchdowns — each one longer than any scoring pass he’d completed all season — to lead Washington. Cousins went 20 for 25 for 324 yards, zero interceptions and a perfect passer rating of 158.3, connecting for TDs of 78 yards to Matt Jones, 16 and eight yards to Jordan Reed, and 11 yards to Jamison Crowder. Cousins didn’t have a touchdown toss of more than seven yards until he got to go up against the Saints’ porous and poor-tackling defence. The 33-point margin of victory for the Redskins (4-5) was the team’s largest since beating San Francisco by 35, 52-17, in October 2005.

STEELERS 30, BROWNS 9: Ben Roethlisberger returned from a sprained left foot much earlier than expected and threw for 379 yards, including three touchdowns for Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger started out on the bench but entered in the first quarter after Landry Jones went down with a left ankle injury. Roethlisberger completed 22 of 33 passes and was sacked once as Pittsburgh won its second straight. Antonio Brown caught 10 passes for 139 yards and two scores as the Steelers remained unbeaten at home against Cleveland since 2003. Johnny Manziel passed for a career-high 372 yards with a touchdown and an interception but was also sacked six times. The Browns, ran for just 15 yards and were penalized 11 times for 159 yards.

JAGUARS 22, RAVENS 20: Jason Myers kicked a 53-yard field goal after Jacksonville got one final play on a facemask penalty with no time left, and the Jaguars ended their 13-game road losing streak. Down 20-19 with no timeouts, the Jaguars got the ball at their 20 with 1:06 left. After moving to the Baltimore 49, Blake Bortles took the snap an instant before the clock expired and was quickly sacked by Elvis Dumervil. But Dumervil grabbed the quarterback’s facemask, giving the Jaguars one final play even though the clock read 0:00. The victory enabled the Jaguars to end a road skid that followed a win in Cleveland on Dec. 1, 2013.

VIKINGS 30, RAIDERS 14: Adrian Peterson ran for 203 yards and a touchdown in his record-tying sixth career 200-yard game, Cordarrelle Patterson returned a kick 93 yards for a score and Minnesota took over sole possession of first place in the NFC North by winning in Oakland. Teddy Bridgewater threw a touchdown pass, and the Vikings held the Raiders’ potent offence in check for their fifth straight win. Minnesota moved a game ahead of Green Bay in the division heading into next week’s showdown at home with the Packers. Derek Carr threw two touchdown passes for the Raiders, but also was intercepted twice. Oakland lost its second straight game to fall further behind in the AFC playoff race.

DOLPHINS 20, EAGLES 19: Chris McCain knocked Rams QB Sam Bradford out and Reshad Jones spoiled Eagle Mark Sanchez’s comeback bid. Ryan Tannehill threw a go-ahead four-yard touchdown pass to Jarvis Landry and the defence held on for Miami. Bradford injured his left shoulder and sustained a concussion on a hard hit by McCain in the third quarter and didn’t return, though X-rays were negative. Sanchez drove the Eagles to the Dolphins eight late in the fourth quarter, but Jones intercepted his pass in the end zone. Miami’s defence held again in the final minute.

BUCCANEERS 10, COWBOYS 6: Jameis Winston scored on a one-yard quarterback keeper with 54 seconds remaining, extending Dallas’ longest losing streak since 1989 to seven games. The No. 1 draft pick shrugged off two interceptions — the first he’d thrown in a month — and benefited from a defensive holding call that wiped out his goal-line fumble on the play before the rookie faked a handoff to Doug Martin and circled around right end all alone. The Cowboys reached the Tampa Bay 44 following the ensuing kickoff, but Matt Cassel’s throw to the end zone intended for Dez Bryant was intercepted by Bradley McDougald.

(( Posted By Estiak Hasan Hridoy

Monday,16 Novembar, 2015

Bernier’s blunder helps sink Leafs in Big Apple: DiManno......

Leaf Dion Phaneuf reaches for a loose puck in front of Ranger goalie Antti Raanta in Sunday night's game.

By: Rosie DiManno Columnist, Published on Sun Nov 15 2015

NEW YORK—Not for the first time, Mike Babcock relied on the hockey Zen found at 36,000 feet to make a down-on-the-ice goaltender decision.

Somewhere between the Big Smoke and the Big Apple — perchance whilst ascending aboard the team charter over Lake Ontario or at cruise altitude across the Catskills or banking down the lovely autumn palette of Hudson Valley — the Maple Leaf bench boss committed to Jonathan Bernier as his starter for Sunday’s encounter at Madison Square Garden.

Didn’t even make it back to the airport for the flight home before he’d decided to reverse throttle.

“Well, Reims is starting against Colorado,’’ Babcock announced after his club dropped a squeaker to the mighty Rangers, a 4-3 loss, the winner scored by Leaf nemesis Mats Zuccarello after a huge rebound with a mere 54 seconds left in regulation time.

That’s Reimer, James Reimer.

“The bottom line is, we’re in the winning business. You’ve got to earn your own confidence. That’s how the league is.’’

So don’t give me no boo hoo, Jonathan.

Bernier got his chance, again, to make a good impression — which would have been his first, frankly, this season. He blew it. In ghastly fashion, such that the many decent and more-than-decent saves executed on this night in the Leaf net didn’t amount to a hill of beans.

Bernier has become a serial stiff — even if only one (1) dunderhead flub marks the spot. Because that’s all it takes to suck the guts out of a team.

And this is now Bernier’s motif.

He was handed the net on Sunday, despite Reimer getting in the goalie groove nicely through a three-game win streak for Toronto — a modest success, admittedly, but they hadn’t managed it since Dec. 13-16, 2014 — and five games without a regulation time loss (3-0-2), yeoman duty for a guy who just can’t buy No. 1 bona fides.

But Bernier, last seen between the pipes on Oct. 31 — out with a lower-body injury; think real low, ’round the ankle, but a coach’s decision the previous two games — had been quietly waiting to reclaim the crease he clearly considers his real estate, 0-6-1 record notwithstanding.

Actually, Babcock didn’t sound all that invested in Bernier as his go-to-goalie as the Leafs returned to New York for the second time in a fortnight, though obviously there was some urgency building to get the guy back in active harness. “I did that early,’’ Babcock had noted of his fealty to Bernier through October, speaking a few hours before the Rangers set his team aside abruptly — Zuccarello, backhand to forehand, drawing Bernier out of his crease and out of position, Morgan Rielly sprawling vainly in pursuit.

The Z-Man: five goals against Toronto in two games this season.

From Babcock’s perspective, he’d cleaved to Bernier gamely, even as the losses piled up, and the netminder could be relied on for at least one cringe-inducing goal surrendered per game, often on the first shot faced.

"""""'And Reimer decided he wanted the job,” Babcock continued. “So he took the job. So now Berns gets an opportunity.’’ He added, obliquely: “No one can give you confidence. You’ve got to earn your way back"""""