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Wednesday TIME: US | UK WEATHER: US | UK HOME THE NEIGHBORHOOD "Life in the UK" American Groups Essential Contacts Money Education Driving WHAT'S ON US Group Events Diary Dates Music Live FEATURES Politics blog SPORTS Features Sideline blog NFL Draft THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE ONLINE |
SIDELINE ARCHIVE Santa's Sackings January 01, 2009 Ready for the Turkey November 27, 2008 Making it to the Big Dance November 26, 2008 Brighter Days Ahead for Chargers? November 5, 2008 Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale Turning The Page It's time to turn the page. After eight years of mismanagement leading to a crisis and a widespread lack of confidence, the President needed to be held to account. And sure enough, the Lions cuts Matt Millen loose last week. The Lions aren't the only team looking for a new beginning. In St Louis, the Gateway to the NFC West (everybody travels through, and every visitor leaves smiling), the Rams decided that 17 losses in 20 games was as much of Scott Linehan as they could take, and promoted Jim Haslett to interim coach, perhaps figuring that a defensive coordinator hasn't had anywhere near as much opportunity to antagonize the offensive stars as Linehan. However, as investors will be acutely aware, it's easy to talk about turning the page, but solving the crisis takes a little longer. The Lions are free of Millen, but not of the ineffective collection of players and coaches he assembled, nor of their 0–3 start. Jim Haslett may be the new head of the headless Rams, but his defense was hardly the team strength: next to last in the league in both yards allowed and points allowed. How Haslett will have to solve the offense while his defense is still a disaster. And then there's the Raiders. Coach Lane Kiffin could be sacked 'as early as today' (as the press have been telling us for three weeks) but bizarrely remains in place, losing leads, calling for 76–yard field goal attempts and throwing heavy hints that he's not much in charge anyway. At least with Oakland it seems clear that when Kiffin finally earns his endgame, and the page is turned, it'll just be the same Al Davis storyline. After a weekend of college upsets, several national championship contenders are going to turn to conference concerns for a while. USC lost to Oregon State, Florida to Ole Miss, Georgia to Alabama, Wisconsin to Michigan — not just falls from grace by top 10 teams with national aspirations, but upsets to conference rivals. All have a long way to climb and can't be worrying about the polls again until some other contenders slip. There seems to be a pattern to these wild, 'upset' weekends, or at least two universal rules. (1) Upset weekends rarely develop late on Saturday with a flurry of unlikely results; more usually they begin with a Thursday of Friday wobble by a big–name team, sending a ripple through Saturday's games as all the underdogs catch the 'can–do' attitude. And last season, the Appalachian State upset of Michigan in week one sent a shiver through the entire year. (2) Minnows break out early in games while the high–ranked team is flat; when was the last time you can recall the underdog mounting a big come–from behind surge to snatch the game at the last moment? This week, there's little time to move on from the upset atmosphere, with a raft of mid–week college games, and some unbeatens amongst them. 3–0 Boise State plays Louisiana Tech on Wednesday; Thursday has 5–0 South Florida against 3–1 Pittsburgh (an NASN game), and Oregon State — yes, that Oregon State — hoping for another scalp against 5–0 Utah with the Pac–10 reputation on the line. Again. Only more so. And on Friday, BYU defends its new top 10 ranking against Utah State. The world could be a different place before we even get to Saturday. Their record may have a blemish on it now, but I'll admit that I was wrong about the Baltimore Ravens' prospects this season. Maybe they're further along than the Ravens themselves knew — rookie QB Joe Flacco has been thrown in at the deep end after injuries to Kyle Boller and Troy Smith, and appears to be a very good swimmer. Returning to Pittsburgh — the city he escaped when he transfered to Delaware — there were moments of seasoned brilliance in his first Monday Night Football. Ultimately, the Steelers prevailed over the Ravens in overtime, but Flacco's stats simply didn't reflect the confidence, arm strength, mental toughness and great decision making that flashed across our screens. This wasn't Baltimore as advertised. For the past decade, we've been used to seeing a Ravens team big on defense and conservative on offense, telling their quarterbacks to play safe and tidy, manage the game, let the linebackers and the running game beat up the opposition. Flacco blows that idea out of the water. He's going to give them the cannon–armed threat of the pass. The Ravens could be about to change. It isn't just talk. In a topsy–turvy AFC, this could be the genuine page–turner. |
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