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Last Word On Sports

Sports News Since 2011. Honestly.

Last Word On Sports Logo

Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

Day: September 7, 2011

Jon "Bones" Jones: Flavour of the Month? Or here to stay?

Posted on by Mark Modeski

Jon Jones. His rise to stardom has been nothing less than awe inspiring. Devastating victories over all of his opponents, with convincing finishes over each of them. Only one loss marks an otherwise perfect record – the DQ to Matt Hamill (whom he was dominating before being called for an illegal elbow). With all of that said, how can you really argue that the guy isn’t going to be king for awhile?

A couple of things come into question…

  • Arguably, Shogun is the only top level competitor that Jones faced.
  • Jones’ chin has really not yet been tested – one lucky “Matt Serra-esque”hayday could be the end of a very short reign.
  • The Light Heavyweight division is still considered one of the deepest in the UFC.
  • Second to the previous point, Rampage was the last champion to successfully defend his title (I still don’t consider the Machida defence legit) – it’s a revolving door title.
  • Nerves. Jones is going to be facing his first defence and that can be a tough mental obstacle for any fighter to overcome.
My opinion? I think Jones is here to stay. In a lot of ways he reminds me of a bigger Georges St. Pierre; crisp stand-up, fantastic ground game, bigger than most guys in the division. He poses a lot of problems for most of the fighters in that division.
Let’s look at his upcoming fight against Rampage. Rampage has that one knock-out punch power that can ruin anyone’s night, and is always considered one of the top fighters in the division – his problem? He needs to get inside the massive reach of Jones; getting inside that 84.5″ reach is no easy task. His other problem? Rampage has zero ground game off his back – and Jones is almost guaranteed to put him there.
Despite my opinion, I think Jones faces a crossroads. It’s either his chance to become the next face of the UFC (which he is well on his way to becoming), or become the next Houston Alexander… well, maybe not that bad.
…And that is the last word.

AFC South QB's

Posted on by Ben Kerr

It has just been announced on NFL.com that Peyton Manning will miss the season opener versus the Houston Texans. This news comes straight from Bill Polian speaking on ESPN radio.  Kerry Collins will be the starter.

Last night it was announced that the Jaguars had released former starting QB David Garrard.  This pushes Luke McCown into the starting role and makes Blaine Gabbert the recent first round draft pick the top back-up.

These moves could really shake up what the top of the division looks like this year.  The Houston Texans were an explosive offense last year but were held back by the second worst defense in the league (stats based on footballoutsiders.com advanced metrics).  They brought in Wade Phillips as defensive co-ordinator to change the mentality on defense. Phillips is known for his ability to turn around the fortunes of a defense, add to that the fact that they spent their first five draft picks on defense and get some key defenders back from last year.  Then there is the signing of Jonathan Joseph, one of the top CB’s in the league. If Houston can simply improve to a league average level on defense their offense should be able to carry them to the playoffs.

The only defense worse than the Texans last year was the Jaguars.  The Jags also finished 31st in pass D, the second straight year they were in the bottom five in pass D. They also failed to draft any defenders until the fourth round this year. This means alot of pressure will be placed on whoever ends up as the starting QB.  Somehow the Jags were still able to win 8 games and were even in position to make the playoffs late in the year if they could have won some division games.

As for Indy, the Manning injury is distracting from the fact that the Colts are in decline.  Last year they finished 10-6, good enough to take the division. But even with a healthy Manning they dropped their first two division games and didnt have the play the remainder of their division games until very late in the season when they had rounded into shape.  What you see when you watched Indy though was a team that played increasingly close games against tough competition.  The team never able to pull away from decent opponents and only pulling out the victory because of Mannings complete control over the game and ability to pull out any victory as long as his team is within one score.

The team is in decline because it has been a while since the Colts have had a decent draft.  They are a top heavy team, relying on a few superstars to show up and win them the games and carry the rest of the mediocre players.  As those superstars grow older this task becomes more difficult.  With a healthy and practicing Manning it would be extremely difficult to predict anyone but Indy to win the division.  But with this current squad and Manning sitting out Indy no longer feels like a powerhouse.  Remember in 2008 when Manning was not able to practice in prior to the season the team opened up only 3-4 before rallying to make the playoffs.  If something simliar happens to start this season I don’t think they will have the talent to turn it around.

Is this crazy talk, or will someone other than the Colts win the AFC South for only the third time since it\s creation in 2002?

43 KHL hockey players dead in plane crash!

Posted on by Michael Kovacs, ADMIN

Sorry to bring such bad news, but please read this from Canadian Press:

TUNOSHNA, Russia – A Russian jet carrying a top hockey team crashed while taking off Wednesday in western Russia, killing 43 people and leaving two critically injured, officials said.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 crashed immediately after taking off from an airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River, 240 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

The ministry said the plane was carrying 45 people, including 37 passengers and eight crew. All but two were killed in the crash.

The ministry said the plane was carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl.

The team was heading to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play Thursday against Dynamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Kontinental Hockey League.

The KHL is an international club league that pits together teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is a leading force in Russian hockey and came third in the KHL last year. It’s coached by Canadian Brad McCrimmon and includes several international stars in its ranks, such as Stefan Liv of Sweden and Czech Republic players Josef Vaicek and Jan Marek. Lokomotiv was a three-time Russian League champion in 1997, 2002 and 2003 and took the bronze last season.

It wasn’t immediately clear which players were on board the Yak-42.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has sent his transport minister to the site of the crash, 15 kilometres east of Yaroslavl.

Former Montreal Canadien Brent Sopel, who is now playing in Russia, tweeted shortly after the crash: “In shock. Prayers out to all of the KHL families.”

McCrimmon, 52, is a native of Saskatchewan. He played defence for six NHL teams — Boston, Philadelphia, Calgary, Detroit, Hartford and Phoenix from 1979-80 to 1996-97.

He played 1,222 regular season games in the NHL, collecting 81 goals, 322 assists and 1,416 penalty minutes.

McCrimmon was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Detroit Red Wings. He also served as head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades.

The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and dozens are still in service with Russian and other airlines.

In June, another Russian passenger jet crashed in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 people. The crash of that Tu-134 plane has been blamed on pilot error.

President Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

Fantasy Football: Tight End Strategy

Posted on by Ben Kerr

This is an interesting year for fantasy Tight Ends.  Not only are there several candidates for the top TE to be drafted, but the depth at the position is unrivaled.  The number of prospects out there is enough to make me change my TE drafting strategy.  I think the fantasy monsters, Gates and Witten, are worth drafting very high.  But if I miss on getting one of those guys I feel like there is more value in waiting until near the end of the draft to grab one of the up and coming TE’s.  This means letting everyone else spend their mid-round picks on some good players like Dallas Clark, Vernon Davis and Jermichael Finley,  But instead of grabbing one of these guys I load up on RB and WR talent and grab one of these guys late:

Bradon Pettigrew (DET): Caught 70 balls last year and will only go up with Stafford back.

Rob Gronkowski (NE): A redzone threat for NE and sure to be incorporated more in the offense in his second year.

Jimmy Graham (NO):  The “sleeper” everyone knows about.  But I like him because he could be the best redzone threat on the team.

Aaron Hernandez (NE):  Being overlooked because he is the second TE on his team but in reality he is NE’s deep threat and I would gamble on him overtaking Gronkowski this year.

Lance Kendricks (STL): Not being drafted in most leagues but could become one of Bradford’s favorite targets.

What do you think of this strategy?