Feb 03 2012
Warm up on a chilly winter night with these spicy recipes from “Top Chef Masters” Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Add some cinnamon marshmallows to your Venezuelan hot chocolate or try making skillet chilaquiles al diablo.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29054368/vp/46221211#46221211
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Jan 17 2012
NFL playoffs are full of big passing games and weak defensive squads. It’s easier for fans to cheer champion quarterbacks than defensive squads in the NFL playoffs.
For the last few weeks, the picture that has emerged of this year?s NFL playoffs has been one of marquee quarterbacks, high-powered offenses, and middling defenses. The rankings of the perceived Super Bowl contenders on either side of the ball are telling enough. The Green Bay Packers, for instance, have the league?s top-ranked offense and a defense ranked only 19th . The Patriots: 3rd ranked offense, 15th -ranked defense. The Saints? 2nd and 13th. The Giants? 9th and 25th .
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These? teams are challenging the conventional wisdom that ?defense wins football games,? as Monitor staffer Mark Sappenfield wrote Sunday.?This past weekend?s results only underscored the point: Going against every expectation, the Pittsburgh Steelers? top-ranked defense (including a highly touted pass defense) was dismantled by the Broncos and Tim Tebow, a guy who, as we all know, has trouble accurately throwing a football.
So as the Broncos take the field against the Patriots Saturday, the talk is not of which defense can stop the other. It’s about which defense can slow the offense enough so that their offense will score more points.
If there was any doubt that this year?s Super Bowl will be an offensive shoot-around, it was thoroughly banished by the Steelers? shocking exit. Going forward, this will mean more points on the board and, quite possibly, more people watching.
Television is responsible for changing the landscape of a number of professional sports, and those which have adapted to the medium have endured as the nation?s most popular. Most of these changes have benefited the offensive side of the ball. The NBA started using the shot clock, and adopted the three point shot in 1980. Major League baseball parks shortened their fields and began using designated hitters so that home runs became the rule, rather than the exception. Over the past decade or so, as Mr. Sappenfield notes, several NFL teams have moved to offenses that value and showcase the quarterback more than ever.
This translates into a more accessible television experience for two reasons. For one, the action is centered around a single guy, who can serve as the hero?s face for an entire team. Teams that are strong on defense don?t have the capacity for that kind of easy allegiance: It?s more natural to root for Eli Manning, for example, than for a faceless group of defenders.
Second, high-scoring games are just plain more exciting than those low-scoring defensive chess matches ? there?s more crowd noise, tangible results, and a sense that a lot more is happening. Just as much happens in defensive contests, but defense in football is more about thwarting action than creating it. The lowest-rated Super Bowl of the past decade was in 2001, when the Baltimore Ravens beat the New York Giants 34-7. The big story that year was the Baltimore Ravens defense, led by Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis.
There are, admittedly, a slew of factors that determine how many viewers tune in for a football game. Last year?s NFL playoffs were among the highest rated in history, not because of the games themselves, but because that winter was one of the worst in recent memory, prompting people to spend their January weekends indoors. A team?s market share also plays a huge role: With their huge fan base, the New England Patriots will inevitably draw more viewers than, small market teams like the Carolina Panthers or the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The market share factor (or lack thereof) was painfully evident in this year?s World Series between the small market St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers. From a baseball standpoint, the series was one of the best in recent memory, but because both teams have relatively small fan bases, it didn?t get nearly the viewership it deserved.
But the Cardinals-Rangers matchup did benefit ratings-wise (if not enough) from the quality of play, as it progressed, and exciting NFL games can follow suit. Sunday’s matchup between the Broncos and Steelers earned the highest ratings share for a wild card game in 24 years, as an uncommonly good passing performance from Tebow catapulted Denver to a 29-23 overtime win.
And, in a playoff field that still includes Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers, and Eli Manning, we can expect viewers to tune in for more.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/jEcpXBrjz7E/NFL-playoffs-When-offenses-shine-fans-tune-in
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Jan 02 2012
By DAVE SKRETTA
updated 6:22 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mike McCarthy never put a whole lot of stock in a perfect season, except as a means of gaining home-field advantage and setting the Green Bay Packers up for another Super Bowl run.
Well, they still have a chance to earn home-field advantage.
The perfect season? That’s history.
Kyle Orton threw for 299 yards to outduel Aaron Rodgers, and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied behind interim coach Romeo Crennel for a shocking 19-14 victory on Sunday that ended the Packers’ 19-game winning streak. It was their first loss since Dec. 19, 2010, at New England.
“I personally always viewed the undefeated season as, really, just gravy,” McCarthy said. “The goal was to get home-field advantage and win the Super Bowl. That’s what we discussed.
“We were fortunate enough to be in the position to possibly achieve the undefeated season,” he added, “but we still have the primary goal in front of us, and that’s to get home-field advantage.”
Green Bay, playing without leading receiver Greg Jennings and top rusher James Starks because of injuries, can wrap up the No. 1 seed in their final two games against Chicago and Detroit. But the Packers no longer have the pressure of becoming the second team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with a perfect record, or extending the second-longest winning streak in league history.
“I think our goal ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl. The next step is getting that number one seed in the playoffs,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got a home playoff game ? we’ve got a bye secured.”
Rodgers was 17 of 35 for 235 yards and a touchdown, and he also scampered 8 yards for another touchdown with 2:12 left in the game. But the Packers (13-1) were unable to recover the onside kick, and Kansas City picked up a couple of first downs to secure the victory.
“They had a good game plan,” Rodgers said. “You have to give them credit.”
Ryan Succop kicked four field goals for Kansas City (6-8), which had lost five of its last six games and fired coach Todd Haley last Monday. Jackie Battle added a short touchdown plunge with 4:53 left in the game, points that came in handy when Rodgers led one last scoring drive.
“Everybody had marked it off as a win for the Packers, but those guys in the locker room, they’re football players,” Crennel said. “They decided they were not going to lay down, they were not going to give up, so they went out and played a tremendous game.”
Neither team looked all that tremendous in the first half.
Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson was hit twice with offensive pass interference, Rodgers was harassed by the Chiefs’ weak pass rush, and Green Bay wound up making five first downs.
One of them came when Kansas City’s Jeremy Horne ran into Packers punter Tim Masthay, giving them 15 free yards. The Chiefs tried to give Green Bay another gift later on the drive when Mason Crosby missed a 59-yard field goal attempt but Kansas City had 12 men on the field.
With another chance from 54 yards, the normally reliable Crosby still pushed the kick right.
Rodgers finished the half 6 of 17 for 59 yards, with a handful of drops between wide receiver Donald Driver and tight end Jermichael Finley. In fact, things were going so badly for Green Bay that at one point it ran out of the wildcat despite having one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
The Chiefs were still clinging to a 6-0 lead when Rodgers finally hit down field, finding Finley over top the coverage for a 41-yard gain. Three plays later, the Packers’ star quarterback hit Driver in the corner of the end zone for a 7-6 lead with 8:04 left in the third quarter.
Kansas City answered when Orton hit his own tight end, Leonard Pope, for a career-long 38-yard catch. Jon Baldwin added a 17-yard grab to set up Succop’s 46-yard, go-ahead field goal.
The Packers moved into field-goal range on their ensuing drive, but rather than have Crosby attempt a 56-yard kick in the same direction he had already missed, McCarthy elected to go for it on fourth-and-9. Rodgers’ pass fell incomplete and the Chiefs took over.
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??Matthew Stafford threw a 6-yard TD pass to Calvin Johnson with 39 seconds remaining to cap a 98-yard scoring drive as the Detroit Lions rallied from 13 points down late in the fourth quarter to stun the Oakland Raiders 28-27 on Sunday.
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??Tim Tebow ran out of miracles. The Denver Broncos quarterback finally found a foe he couldn’t rally past as the New England Patriots pulled away Sunday for a 41-23 win. It ended Denver’s six game win streak.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45716261/ns/sports-nfl/
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Dec 21 2011
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Lions’ defensive tackle?Ndamukong Suh celebrates a 28-27 win against the Raiders.
By JOSH DUBOW
updated 7:40 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2011
OAKLAND, Calif. – Ndamukong Suh provided the perfect exclamation point to the Detroit Lions’ thrilling comeback in his return from a two-game suspension.
Matthew Stafford threw a 6-yard TD pass to Calvin Johnson with 39 seconds remaining to cap a 98-yard scoring drive and Suh blocked a 65-yard field goal attempt by Sebastian Janikowski to seal the Lions’ 28-27 win over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
The Raiders (7-7) appeared in control of the game when Aaron Curry returned a fumble 6 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-14 with 7:47 remaining.
But Stafford engineered two long scoring drives in the final minutes to give the Lions (9-5) their first lead of the game and Suh ended it when he got his hand on Janikowski’s field goal attempt.
Suh threw his helmet and ran down the field in celebration, providing a loud finish to an otherwise quiet day for the defensive tackle in his first game back since serving a suspension for stepping on the right arm of Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith during a loss on Thanksgiving.
Until that point, the day belonged to Stafford and Johnson, who helped give the Lions a stunning victory and hand the Raiders (7-7) a crushing third straight loss to damage their playoff aspirations.
Stafford completed 29 of 52 passes for four touchdowns. He completed nine for 214 yards to Johnson, including a 21-yarder and a 48-yarder on the winning drive that started at the Detroit 2 with 2:14 to play and the Lions out of timeouts.
They also connected on a 51-yard scoring play in the first quarter but they had to sweat out the closing seconds as Carson Palmer got the Raiders to the Detroit 47 with 4 seconds to play.
Janikowski, who tied the record with a 63-yarder in the season opener at Denver, couldn’t get the ball past the line as Suh blocked it to end the game.
Palmer finished 32 for 40 for 367 yards and a touchdown to Darrius Heyward-Bey, who had eight catches for a career-high 155 yards.
But Palmer also slightly overthrew Chaz Schilens on a third-down pass just before the two-minute warning after Stafford’s TD pass to Titus Young cut Oakland’s lead to 27-21.
That gave Detroit one last chance and Stafford and Johnson delivered. Stafford started the drive with an 8-yard completion to Nate Burleson on third-and-2 and then Johnson made an acrobatic 21-yard catch on the sideline. Johnson then beat the Raiders deep for the 48-yarder and drew a pass interference penalty from Stanford Routt at the 6 to set up the touchdown.
The game was tight for most of the second half until the Raiders scored 10 points in a 25-second span in the fourth quarter to take a 27-14 lead. Janikowski kicked his second field goal of the game, a 51-yarder, for the first points of the second half to make it 20-14.
Three plays later, Stafford dropped back to pass deep in his territory and was stripped by Tommy Kelly on a sack. Curry scooped up the ball at the 6 and rambled his way into the end zone for the score.
But the Raiders couldn’t hold it and missed a chance to tie Denver for the AFC West lead and the New York Jets and Cincinnati for the lead for the final AFC wild-card spot.
The Raiders, who came into the game as the most penalized team in the NFL, were the beneficiary of undisciplined play. The Lions committed two horse collar penalties and an illegal contact foul, setting up Louis Murphy’s 12-yard reverse for a score.
Then both teams took advantage of big pass plays and poor defense for three long scores in the half, with Johnson beating safeties Tyvon Branch and Mike Mitchell for a 51-yard TD catch for the Lions late in the first quarter.
Heyward-Bey then scored on a 43-yard pass play for Oakland, breaking a tackle by Chris Houston. Nate Burleson answered with his 39-yard catch from Stafford with help from a missed tackle by Lito Sheppard.
The Raiders took a 17-14 lead into the break when Janikowski kicked a 46-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More news
??Matthew Stafford threw a 6-yard TD pass to Calvin Johnson with 39 seconds remaining to cap a 98-yard scoring drive as the Detroit Lions rallied from 13 points down late in the fourth quarter to stun the Oakland Raiders 28-27 on Sunday.
Getty Images
??Tim Tebow ran out of miracles. The Denver Broncos quarterback finally found a foe he couldn’t rally past as the New England Patriots pulled away Sunday for a 41-23 win. It ended Denver’s six game win streak.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45718164/ns/sports-nfl/
Dec 16 2011
That extra analog stick and three shoulder buttons — they make all the difference and net you additional street cred in the process. Following up on its Japanese release of the Circle Pad Pro over the weekend, Nintendo has stated that it will release the accessory to the US exclusively through Gamestop on February 7th with a retail price of $20. Though still relatively unknown in American gaming circles, the Circle Pad Pro is cited as running for 480 hours on one AAA battery, which is nothing to sneeze at. Nintendo has stated that upcoming games will need to be optimized for the device but suggest that it can bring tighter controls to titles such as Resident Evil: Revelations and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Also, it makes your 3DS mildly huge. Click the break for the full PR and a quick video guide of the Circle Pad Pro’s features.
Continue reading Nintendo to release Circle Pad Pro to US through Gamestop: February 7th for $20
Nintendo to release Circle Pad Pro to US through Gamestop: February 7th for $20 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/13/nintendo-to-release-circle-pad-pro-to-us-through-gamestop-febru/
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