Baily's Sports & Stuff

Brian Westbrook came through for an NFl team; something we haven't been able to hear for 2 years. After being signed to back up the injury-prone Frank Gore, he was finally needed. Westbrook rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown while leading San Francisco to a 27-6 Monday night Football win over Arizona, keeping San Francisco right in the thick of the playoff race. Troy Smith threw a touchdown for San Francisco, while Anthony Dixon rushed for 54 yards and a score. Frank Gore dominated the game early, showing the same poise as Westbrook with 52 yards on just 5 carries. He led San Francisco to the 30 yard line, but rookie kicker Shane Andrus missed the field goal wide right, keeping the score 0-0. However, on the first offensive play for the Redbirds Derek Anderson stuffed the ball on Chris Wells' elbow, causing a fumble. San Francisco recovered, and on the first play, Michael Crabtree got a step ahead of his defender, catching a play-action pass for a TD and a 7-0 lead. B

Hawaii: Hawaii vs Tulsa Poinsettia: Navy vs San Diego State Alamo: Arizona vs Oklahoma State Capital One: South Carolina vs Michigan State Humanatarian: Boise State vs Ohio New Era Pinstripe: Syracuse vs Kansas State GoDaddy.com: Miami Ohio vs Troy New Mexico: Fresno State vs BYU New Orleans: Florida International vs East Carolina Cotton: Oklahoma vs LSU Little Caeser's: Northern Illinois vs BYU MAACO: Utah vs Temple Music City: Boston College vs Georgia Kraft Fight Hunger: Nevada vs Georgia Tech Meineke Car Care: Pitt vs NC State Independence: Air Force vs North Carolina Sun: Notre Dame vs Maryland Military: UTEP vs Clemson TicketCity: Northwestern vs Texas Tech Holiday: Washington vs Texas A&M Liberty: UCF vs Tennessee BBVA Compass: Kentucky vs South Florida Armed Forces: SMU vs Army Insight: Michigan vs Missouri Texas: Penn State vs Baylor Champs Sports: Miami Florida vs West Virginia Outback: Iowa vs Florida Gator: Mississippi State vs Illinois B

Auburn at Alabama Almost 25 minutes into the Iron Bowl, the number 2 team in the nation was about to pave the way for TCU or Boise State. Trailing 24-0 on the road against the defending champions, the situation seemed bleak. But don't fear. Cam Newton is here. And he produced. Newton led Auburn to a 28-27 win in the last 35 minutes as Auburn ended a 2 game Iron Bowl losing streak, and kept them alive for the BCS Title, which they should make with a SEC Title W over South Carolina next week. Alabama struck first, starting at the 29 and picking up short chunks of yardage to get into the red zone. On first and goal, Mark Ingram took a handoff up the middle and ran into the end zone to give Alabama a 7-0 lead. After a Tiger 3 and out, Alabama came back. At the 32 yard line, Julio Jones slipped through the secondary and caught a McElroy pass. After reaching the end zone, Alabama led 14-0. Then on their next possession, an unsportsmanlike conduct turned 4th and 19 into 4th

OK, after al your turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and a family favorite, frozen mocha cheesecake is all done, and you are looking for some more holiday spirit, look no further. We have a little more holiday spirit. Top Rookie: Chris Ivory, RB, Saints, 7 carries, 38 yards, 2 rushing TD's #1 Moment: Drew Brees GW TD drive, Saints 30, Cowboys 27 Unexpected Star: Brad Smith, RB, KR NYJ, 3 carries, 55 yards, TD, 89 yard KR TD Un-MVP: Alphonso Smith, CB, DET, 4 TD's allowed, 45-24 loss Losers MVP: Maurice Morris, RB, DET, 9 carries, 55 yards, 2 TD's Biggest dominance: 28-0 run late by NE, 45-24 W over Lions Defensive MVP: Devin McCourty, CB, NE, 2 INT, set up 2 TD Biggest play: Malcolm Jenkins forcing and recovering game-changing fumble, Saints vs Cowboys Most bonehead coaching decision: 59 yard FG try :30 left, 30-27 L Cowboys Best Coach: Rex Ryan, NYJ Worst Coach: Jason Garrett, DAL Best kicker: Garrett Hartley, NO, 3-3, 50, 45, 27 yard FG's Best run: 15 yar

Again, spectators enoying turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie had something interesting to watch. Until about 5 minutes left in the game, the Patriots-Lions game was interesting. The Saints-Cowboys game came down to the last minute. And the Jets kept another defensive struggle against the Bengals close. And in college, Texas A&M against Texas wasn't decided into the clock struck double-zeros, and Cal vs Temple proved interesting in college basketball. Lets kick off the action. Patriots at Lions At the half the New England Patriots trailed the lowly Detroit Lions, the team that had a record of 4-39 in it's last 43 games, by a touchdown. Bill Belicheck knew they needed to exploit something, and they chose Lions CB Alphonso Smith, who was picked by the Seahawks then traded to the Broncos, who dealt him to the Motor City. It turned out to be a good call. Tom Brady threw 4 TD passes, Benjarvis Green-Ellis plowed into the end zone twice as New England dominated the

Colts at Patriots This game has kind of turned into an annual rivalry. Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady, 2 of the best quarterbacks in the league. But this year, a new person; out of D-II Chadron State stepped up to the task. Danny Woodhead scored on an amazing, cutback 36 yard touchdown, then made a great tackle that drew even more applause on the ensuing kickoff. That touchdown run; and a late interception, lifted the Patriots to a 31-28 win and an 8-2 record. The Colts started with the ball, but just as Indy was driving, Brandon Meriweather closed in on a pass over the middle, intercepted it and returned it to the Colts 39. 3 plays later Tom Brady hit Wes Welker for a 22 yard score, and New England led 7-0. After a Colts punt, Tom Brady got to work again. Brady led a 15 play, 87 yard drive, and although he fumbled at the 3 yard line, receiver Wes Welker recovered, another big play from the wideout. On the next play Brady hit tight end Aaron Hernandez for a score, and the Pats

Arkansas at Mississippi State Ryan Mallett and Arkansas are kind of used to these big games. So when them and 21st ranked Mississippi State were sent into double-overtime, the Razorbacks were ready. Knile Davis rushed for 187 yards and 2 scores, Mallett fired 3 TD's as Arkansas survived Mississippi State to set up a huge match-up between LSU and Arkansas. Arkansas got the ball first, but they failed to make something happen. Then Mississippi State got a chance, and they struck. Chris Relf hit Brandon Henderson for a 29 yard pass completion, then he ran for a TD. However, once Knile Davis got another chance, he succeeded. He found a hole, and took it. Davis scored, and that tied the game up at 7. Then the Razorbacks got a stop, and the momentum continued to live with Arkansas. Then Davis took over again, gaining 40 yards and setting up a 4th and 1. Mallett hit D.J Williams for a 5 yard gain, then he fired a 25 yard scoring strike to Williams. Mississippi State took

While the NIT season tip-off marathon and tournament start and end, and we get an idea of how good the teams are, we will simulate to March Madness. Who will make it. Who will play who? Who will play where. Let's see. 1 seeds: Duke, Michigan State, Kansas State. Ohio State 2 seeds. Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas, Syracuse 3 seeds: Baylor, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Villanova 4 seeds: Virginia Tech, Purdue, Michigan, Texas 5 seeds: Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, Tennessee 6 seeds: Gonzaga. San Diego State, Memphis, West Virginia 7 seeds: Washington, Georgetown, Missouri, Temple 8 seeds: St. Mary's, Butler, Xavier, Marquette 9 seeds: Mississppi State, UCLA, Oklahoma, Miami FL 10 seeds: Texas A&M, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Minnesota 11 seeds: Arizona, Dayton, New Mexico, Virginia Commonwealth 12 seeds: Murray State, Creighton, New Mexico State, Missouri State 13 seeds: North Texas, Kent State, Richmond, Cleveland State 14 seeds: Pacific, Lipscomb, Appalachian State

Finally! After a wait of over 7 months, college basketball is finally back. And from Butler to San Diego State to the Uconn women, we have some surprises. #18 Butler at Louisville The Butler Bulldogs came into the KFC Yum! Center expecting a team who can only shoot the three and pass well. But that's not what they saw. The Cardinals were aggressive, and when they saw open lanes, they took the lanes for easy buckets. When they didn't, they passed the ball around for 3 pointers. And Louisville was passing well. They had 18 assists, and that's because they spread the floor and drew double-teams to try to find the open man. When the bench players came in they stepped up and played to that level, too. The Louisville bench outscored the Butler bench 36-16. When Louisville is aggressive and on from beyond the arc, these Cardinals are unstoppable. Maybe they weren't perfect against Butler, but they were good enough for an 88-73 win to open up the KFC Yum! Center. Ea

Texans at Jaguars Mike Thomas wasn't even a receiver on the final play. He was really just a decoy trying to erase one of the Texan players. But when Glover Quin batted the ball into Thomas' hands, he was fine with that. Thomas caught the pass and ran a yard into the end zone to win the game for Jacksonville as the Jags avoided a 14 point rally and improved to 5-4. Maurice Jones-Drew scored 2 touchdowns for the Jaguars. On the game's opening drive the Jaguars used a mix of runs and passes to get down to the 20 yard line, where Josh Scobee would boot a 38 yard field goal. Matt Schaub and the Texans had the same kind of success, with passing setting up a 24 yard field goal. But after 2 punts, Jacksonville came back. Maurice Jones-Drew would freeze and run, just go, it didn't matter. The end result of the drive was a MJD touchdown that put the Jags on top 10-3. The Jaguars got great field position after just a 20 yard punt by Houston, and Maurice Jones-Drew took a

Iowa vs Northwestern In a game where Northwestern has had so much success, rallying from double-digit deficits and playing great defense, this game appeared different. Iowa was shutting down Dan Persa and Northwestern and the Hawkeyes held a 17-7 lead in the middle of the fourth quarter. But in this situation, Dan Persa came up big. Persa scored 3 total touchdowns and led Northwestern 91 yards on the final drive as Northwestern rallied for their second straight win against a ranked Iowa team. Ricky Stanzi led Iowa into Northwestern territory, but his desperation heave was knocked down with 6 seconds to end the game. The Wildcats struck first, with Dan Persa leading a 62 yard scoring drive and punching the ball in to give Northwestern a 7-0 first quarter lead. And just like they did in other games against the Hawkeyes, they shut down the Iowa offense, allowing only a field goal with 24 seconds left in the half. Northwestern led 7-3 at halftime. But on the opening second half dr

Cardinals vs Vikings In a game filled with mistakes, sloppy plays, bad quarterback calls and nearly no offense from one team, somehow teams scored points and made it close. But for 2 teams that won their division and won a playoff game last year, you wouldn't expect this. But, these teams have changed. Brett Fsvre led the Vikings from down 14 to beat the Cardinals with 2 fourth quarter touchdown drives as Arizona fell to 3-5 and Minnesota improved to 3-5. Both teams are struggling, but both are still in the race for the division title. Early in the game Favre led the Vikings to midfield, but he threw an intercpetion. Kerry Rhodes intercepted the pass and seemed to have a touchdown, but Viking WR Greg Camarillo never gave up. He stripped the ball, and it went into the back of the end zone for a touchback. However, on the ensuing kickoff Larod Stephens Howling got some blocks, moved to the left of kicker Ryan Longwell and he was gone. 13 seconds after a 7-0 Vikes lead, the

Alabama vs LSU At the beginning of the game, the Alabama offense didn't show up. Then, they started playing for a drive, then another possession in the 3rd, and finally one more time in the fourth quarter. Even with a great defense, that wasn't enough. A little fourth down trickery led LSU to a 24-21 upset of Alabama, eliminating the Tide from BCS title contention. ALthough LSU wasn't much better, Rueben Randle and the Tigers stated their case to the BCS with a W. Alabama went 3 and out in their first try, and their second resulted in a pick. LSU got a field goal off of that, and then Alabama failed to advance the ball. But on their next drive, the Crimson Tide took the lead. A 22 yard run by Trent Richardson set the ball up at the 1 yard line, where Greg McElroy passed to Richardson for a TD. The Tigers moved the ball well, but they couldn't score. The score was 7-3 Alabama at the half. LSU got down to the 28 yard line to open the second half, but Josh

Tim Lincecum. Edgar Renteria. Juan Uribe. Cody Ross. Matt Cain. Aubrey Huff. Brian Wilson. Buster Posey. Pat Burrell. Freddy Sanchez. Andres Torres. Who would of thought that this group of guys would lead the Giants to title glory? No one really, except the Giants. Edgar Renteria belted a 3 run homer, Tim Lincecum pitched 8 strong innings and got the win as the Giants beat the Rangers 3-1 to win their first World Series title since arriving in San Francisco. The Giants last won a title in New York, 56 years ago. The game was a pitcher's duel for 6 innings, as only 5 hits were surrendered in total over the first six innings. But after Cody Ross and Juan Uribe hit change-ups for no-out singles, the inning looked pretty good. Aubrey Huff bunted the runners, and then Pat Burrell struck out for the 10th time in 12 at-bats. After Burrell came Renteria, an experienced veteran who had hit the walk-off RBI single in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Renteria has been in 2 World S