Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Harness

 

LOS ANGELES – First of all, for those of you who have had the pleasure of reading my columns/stories on this Web site for the past 10 years, thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate your support, and I consider it an honor and a privilege to contribute to Sports Radio Service on a regular basis.

 

With that said, for the next four days, I will take you on a journey through Rose Bowl Week, as No. 5 Stanford prepares to take on No. 4 Michigan State in the 100^th-annual Rose Bowl Game. And, of course, it will be through my eyes.

 

My flight down here to Southern California was greatly anticipated, as this was the first time I have flown in an airplane in more than five years. With the exception of a tad bit of turbulence as the plane was starting its descent into Bob Hope Airport in Burbank as well as the fact that I had to surrender a can of shaving cream in Oakland in order to carry on my luggage bag, the flight came and went without a hitch.

 

The most entertaining part of the flight was when the aircraft touched down in Burbank, the flight attendant announced to the passengers, “We have fulfilled our obligation to get you into Burbank. Our contractual agreement is now over,” to which the majority of the passengers (myself included) responded with wholehearted laughter.

 

From there, the trip was a lesson in discovery about the LA area, where I had not been in many years. During a conversation about the notoriously-gut-wrenching traffic in this metropolitan area, the driver of the shuttle which took me from the airport to my hotel educated me to the fact that most of the people that clog the freeways on a daily basis are actually inexperienced drivers. This was certainly news to me, since unlike my native San Francisco Bay Area, you almost have to have your own vehicle if you have any hopes of getting around Los Angeles and its surrounding cities.

 

Once I got to the hotel and got checked in at around 9:20 pm, it was determined that media registration had come and gone for the night, and that it would have to wait until tomorrow morning to become “official.” No worries, however, as a few hours were left to grab a bite to eat and, of course, check out the LA Hotel Downtown.

 

Boy, is it a beautiful hotel! The people here are quite friendly, and the hotel itself is very spacious, definitely a deserving venue to host the media during the week leading up to the Rose Bowl. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to be right about now.

 

That is all for the first night, but I promise you, I will have much, much more for you as we get closer to the big game, which is expected to be a knock-down, drag-out brawl between two hard-nosed teams until the final whistle.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, December 29, 2013

GLENDALE, Ariz. – For Phil Dawson, Sunday’s game was just another example of the highs and lows NFL placekickers endure as part of their job description.

In the third quarter, the San Francisco kicker saw his streak of successful field goal attempts snapped at 27 when he pushed a 24-yard attempt wide left.

But down the stretch, the 15-year veteran dialed long distance for a pair of field goals – a 56-yarder and a 40-yard field goal with 29 seconds remaining that gave the 49ers a 23-20 victory at University of Phoenix Stadium before a sellout crowd of 63,570.

“I hit it pretty good,” Dawson said of his game-winner. “I didn’t wait around to see how much I cleared it by. Coach (Brad) Seely asked me leading up to that, before third down, how I felt. I said, ‘Well, I’ll at least get it there,’ and fortunately, that proved to be true.”

The 49ers (12-4), who clinched an NFC playoff berth last week, are seeded fifth and travel to Green Bay next Sunday for a Wild Card contest against the North Division champion Packers (9-7-1). Game time is 1:30 p.m.

“This is only for the tough. We’ve known that for a while now,” 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Our guys have been coming through in tough ball games. We know it will be more of the same coming.”

Forty-Niners corner back Carlos Rogers added, “With an MVP quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) throwing the ball to their guys – he’s back. They’ve got some other guys back and their running game has picked up. Now, you have to focus on (Eddie) Lacy back there when they’re running the ball. Then all of our linemen have to get after Aaron (Rodgers).”

After losing the Super Bowl a year ago, 49ers running back Anthony Dixon addressed the subject of unfinished business.

“It left a nasty taste in our mouth,” Dixon said. “That’s what we think about – getting back to that big game. We know we have to take it a game at a time, but our eyes are on the prize.”

The Cardinals’ effort to beat San Francisco to reach the playoffs became moot when New Orleans downed Tampa Bay 42-17. Arizona finished its season 10-6.

“It doesn’t feel good, but it doesn’t diminish what we were able to accomplish as a team,” Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “Coach (Bruce) Arians hit it on the head’ he said it’s just the beginning. … Obviously, we would love to be 11-5 and have an opportunity to get to the playoffs, but it didn’t work out that way for us.

“This is a great start for us, and something that we can truly build on.”

Dawson’s miss in the third quarter was his first since the 49ers’ Oct. 6 game against the St. Louis Rams.

“It was just poor execution on my part,” Dawson said. “You can’t take anything for granted. The two most hated words for me are ‘chip shots,’ and I had some opportunities to go back out there and contribute to the team.

“You live and learn on every kick whether you make them or miss them. I missed the earlier one, tried to look at what I did wrong and applied those to future kicks. I’m just glad it came down to the end where I could make one that helped our team win.”

Coming into the game, the Cardinals had the NFL’s best rushing defense, but 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made that a non-factor, along with veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

Boldin, the former Cardinals wide receiver, came back to haunt his old club, snaring nine of Kaepernick’s passes for 149 yards and one touchdown. Kaepernick completed 21 of 34 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns without a pick.

“We liked the matchups we had with him,” Kaepernick said of Boldin. “We didn’t think their corners could match up with him very well.”

Boldin insisted there was no added incentive attached to facing his former team. “It’s another team; a division opponent,” Boldin said. “For me, there wasn’t any added motivation. I’m motivated by winning and that’s it.”

Neither team ran the ball particularly well, each finishing with 83 total rushing yards. Wide receiver Quinton Patton, whose 26-yard scamper on an end around set up Dawson’s first field goal, led all 49er runners with that play. Rashard Mendenhall gained 47 yards on 10 attempts to lead Arizona.

Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer threw for 407 yards, a pair of touchdowns and one interception, completing 28 of 49 passes. Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd each caught six passes – Fitzgerald for 113 yards and Floyd for 91.

San Francisco was on its way to making the game look like a rout in the opening quarter, jumping to a 17-0 lead. Dawson’ first field goal, a 27-yarder at 10:37 following three incomplete passes in the red zone.

Two minutes later, an interception by 49ers linebacker NaVarro Burton at the Arizona 25-yard-line set up San Francisco’s first touchdown, a 4-yard pass from Kaepernick to Boldin on a fade route putting the Niners up 10-0.

Arizona’s offense began to show signs of life when the Cardinals drove to the 49er 23. But the Cards came up empty when Jay Feely missed a 37-yard field goal attempt wide right.

San Francisco extended its lead to 17-0 on the next possession. A 63-yard pass from Kaepernick to Boldin moved the 49ers to the Arizona 3. Two plays later, Kaepernick found Vernon Davis open in the end zone for a 3-yard scoring pass.

The Cardinals broke through in the second quarter on a 1-yard scoring pass from Palmer to Jake Ballard with 4:46 left in the first half. The score was set up by a 49-yard pass reception by Fitzgerald that moved the ball to the San Francisco 23.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Cardinals fought back and tied the game at 17-17. With 3:20 remaining in the final period. Palmer found a diving Andre Roberts open toward the left sideline in the end zone for a 34-yard score. The replay assistant challenged the touchdown ruling, and the play was upheld.

On San Francisco’s ensuing possession, the drive stalled at the Cardinal 38, and Dawson hit a 56-yard field goal – his longest of the season – and the 49ers again led 20-17.

Arizona answered with a 43-yard field goal by Feely with :29 remaining, set up, in part, by a delay of game penalty against the Niners that moved the ball to the San Francisco 25.

Feely’s ensuing kickoff sent LaMichael James five yards deep into the end zone, but he returned the kick 45 yards to the San Francisco 40. Though James fumbled, the replay assistant ruled that he was down by contact and credited with a 41-yard return.

An 18-yard pass from Kaepernick to Boldin and a 29-yard toss to Patton moved the 49ers to the Cardinal 22, setting up Dawson’s game-winning boot.

“My natural instinct was to just go get the ball,” Patton said. “I was just out there running the route. You have to ask Kap (Colin Kaepernick) if I was the first read.”

Kaepernick didn’t answer directly, but said, “It was press coverage over there. We had a double move on, and there was no safety on that side of the field. I thought I’d give him a chance. He’s shown he can go up and make those plays in practice, so he came up with it, and it was huge for us.”

The 49ers turn their attention to Green Bay, which now has quarterback Aaron Rodgers back in the lineup, and the weather factor.

“The team understands all of those things,” Harbaugh said. “They have some control, but little control about who you play. … The thing we have the most control over is how we play. The effort we give, how we play the game – that will be the most important thing, as it always is.”

(TAGS: San Francisco,49ers,Arizona Cardinals,Phil Dawson,Colin Kaepernick,Anquan Boldin)

{Raiders} {NFL}

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-When he finally decides to hang up his cleats, Peyton Manning may hold every record by a quarterback in NFL history.

Manning threw four touchdowns in the first half on 25-for-28 for 266 yards, as the Denver Broncos defeated the Oakland Raiders 34-14 before 51,500 at the Coliseum.

The 266 yards thrown by Manning broke Drew Brees’ two-year record for most yards in a season by a quarterback.

Manning finished the season with an NFL record 55 touchdowns, and threw for 5,477 yards, breaking Brees record by one yard.

Eric Decker, Knowshown Moreno, and Denaryius Thomas were on the receiving end of the four touchdowns, as the Broncos ended their season with a 13-3 record and finished with the number one seed in the AFC.

Terrelle Pryor finished his first season as the starter going 21-for-38 for 207 yards and two touchdowns.

Pryor was also the leading ground gainer for the Raiders, as he carried the ball nine times for 49 yards.

Rod Streater got the Raiders on the board, as he was on the receiving end of a Pryor 14-yard pass with 4:37 remaining in the game.

On their next possession, Pryor then found Nick Kasa for a nine-yard touchdown pass with 37 seconds remaining.

Sebastian Janikowski troubles kicking field goals continued, as he missed a 42-yard field goal wide to the right on the Raiders first possession in the second half.

By Morris Philips

Jeff Powers hadn’t played much thus far this season.  But given an opportunity, the senior forward not only played well, he provided the injury-riddled Cal Bears a much-needed lift.

Cal overwhelmed final non-conference opponent Furman, 90-60 on Saturday at Haas Pavilion, and the game was firmly in the grasp of the Bears when the Powers’ show started, but it was a show nonetheless with reserve hitting six straight three-pointers after missing his first attempt 12 minutes in.

For Coach Mike Montgomery Powers’ display wasn’t just a feel good story, but a potential strategic wrinkle for the Bears with three straight road games coming up to start the Pac-12 schedule.  The Bears are currently without swingman Ricky Kreklow who has a broken hand, and top freshman Jabari Bird, who twisted his ankle in the previous game against Creighton.  Given the absence of those two, the Bears need offense, even better if that offense comes from the perimeter.

“If somebody watched the game and scouted they’d say we need to guard him, we can shoot it,” Montgomery said.  “It means now that the floor is more open for the other people to move because they need to guard him.  Creighton just packed the box.  They put everybody in the paint and dared us.  Nobody was scoring the ball.”

Powers’ first make came with the Bears already leading by 13 with eight minutes remaining in the first half.  In the next three minutes, the catch-and-shoot specialist buried a couple of more as the Cal lead ballooned to 18 points at the half.  With the game out of hand midway through the second half, Powers came on and buried three more long distance shots.

Not bad for a guy who transferred from tiny University of Denver only to spend a lot of time on the bench over the last 2 ½ seasons.  Coming in, Powers had scored just two points and played 21 minutes in Cal’s first 12 games.

“I really wasn’t coming into tonight’s game saying I want to have 18 points and shoot 6-for-7,” Powers said.  “The shots fell, nothing really else I can say. When I put in the amount of hours I have over the years, I expect them to go in.  I just think my teammates did a really good job of finding me when I did start hitting a couple with Justin, Sam.”

According to disappointed Furman coach Nico Medved, the defense Powers faced wasn’t very good.  Medved felt that when his Paladins didn’t enjoy success offensively early in the game, they lost their zest at the defensive end.  The Southern Conference opponent from Columbia, South Carolina trailed by as many as 35 late in the game, and lost for the third time in their last four games.

“As a young team, when things go well, we play pretty well, but when things don’t go well for stretches, it’s when we kind of collapse and go our separate ways.  I think that’s what happened tonight,” Medved said.

William Gates, Jr. led Furman with 13 points.  Larry Wideman and Stephen Croone contributed 11 points each.

Cal got 18 points each from Justin Cobbs and Tyrone Wallace as the pair combined to make 17 of 23 shots.  The Bears shot 60 percent for the game, canned 10 3-pointers and committed just five turnovers on the afternoon.

The Bears open conference play on Thursday at Stanford before a trip to Oregon the following week to face the Ducks and the Beavers.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Friday, December 27, 2013

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Victories away from the Shark Tank have been tough to come by of late for San Jose. In their last seven games on the road prior to Saturday, the Sharks were 2-5-0.

Thanks to shootout goals by Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau, the Sharks left the Valley of the Sun with two badly needed road points with a 4-3 overtime win over Phoenix.

With the win, San Jose has 54 points and pulled into a tie for second place with Los Angeles in the NHL Pacific Division. The Coyotes, at 46 points, are in fifth place in the Pacific, second in the Western Conference Wild-Card standings.

“To me, it’s a coin flip as to whether or not it helps us to go to a shootout,” Couture, who scored the tying goal in the shootout, said. “But in that situation, we have a lot of confidence in Antti (Niemi, Sharks goaltender) and it was great the way he shut the door. And we have a lot of guys on this team who have had a lot of success in shootouts. So yes, we were confident.”

The shootout followed a scoreless 5-minute overtime period with the score tied 3-3. Phoenix’s Mikkel Boedker scored the first goal of the shootout, but it was also the last for the Coyotes. Couture answered Boedker’s goal, and, after Radim Vrbata was turned away by Niemi, Marleau scored. Niemi then shut down Oliver Ekman-Larsson to seal the win.

It’s a situation Sharks coach Todd McLellan would rather not make a habit of.

“In a shootout, you’re looking at trends, a little luck, getting a good bounce,” McLellan said. “It was great that we had a couple of guys score tonight, but hopefully we won’t have to depend on shootouts to win games.

“To me, the game is over when that final buzzer sounds in overtime,” he added. “It’s nice to get that extra point, but we’d prefer to do it earlier.”

Marleau, who scored in regulation and the shootout, added, “Getting two points after the break is nice. It took us a while to find our legs and we did that a couple of shifts in.”

On having to go to a shootout, Marleau said, “Obviously, we’d rather close a team out in regulation. But winning in a shootout is nice. We haven’t won many of those, so this was good for our confidence. But then I hope we’re not in too many shootouts, either.”

Due to a clause in the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL players and owners, there are no games or team flights scheduled for three days over the Christmas holiday. So, the Sharks flew in to Phoenix early Friday morning.

“(The Coyotes) had a little more jump and much better execution than we did early in the game,” McLellan said. “But I was pleased with the way our guys stuck with it and fought through it.”

The sellout crowd of 17,125 had reason to get excited when the Coyotes came out aggressively in the early going, and the tact paid off at 7:43 of the first period. When the Sharks made a lackadaisical effort to clear the puck from their own zone, David Moss intercepted the pass in the slot, spun and flipped a blind shot past the outstretched glove of Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi, giving the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

Midway through the second period, San Jose got the equalizer. Joe Pavelski took a feed from Joe Thornton and fired a shot from the left circle, beating Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith low and through traffic at 9:56.

Nearly one minute later, at 11:04 of the second period, the Coyotes regained the lead at 2-1 when Moss tallied his second goal of the game. Moss, parked outside the crease, redirected a shot from the point by David Schlemko and it fluttered past Niemi’s stick.

With Phoenix’s Derek Morris serving a minor for interference, Marleau scored his 17th goal of the season at 13:13 of the second period, tying the game at 2-2, Marleau took a pass from Tommy Wingels and fired a low wrist shot between Smith’s legs, splitting two defenders.

“That was a great play by Tommy,” Marleau said. “I was just trying to get a quick shot through the 5-hole.”

San Jose took its first lead of the night at 3-2 when Burns, cruising in from the left circle, converted a pass from Pavelski, who circled behind the net. Burns flipped a shot that beat Smith over his right shoulder for his 11th goal of the season at 10:10 of the third period.

Thornton’s assist on the Burns goal was his second of the game, giving him 37 on the season.

Moments later, Phoenix tied the game again at 3-3 with a power play goal by Radim Vrbata at 13:35. Vrbata, on a direct feed from Keith Yandle, fired a one-timer from the left circle for the equalizer.

In the goaltending battle, Niemi stopped 34 of 37 shots, while Smith turned away 29 of 32.

“The last time we got two points on San Jose, we probably didn’t deserve those two points,” Phoenix Coach Dave Tippett said. “Tonight, I thought that game was a toss-up. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the extra point, but we put the work in to get the two points.”

After a long winter day in Phoenix, the Sharks prepare for back-to-back games against first-place Anaheim. The first game against the Ducks is Sunday night in San Jose, with the rematch set for New Year’s Eve in Anaheim.

SHARK BITES: Coyotes RW Shane Doan is still recovering from a bout with Rocky Mountain Fever. His status continues at day-to-day. . … Patrick Marleau’s second-period goal was his 28th against Phoenix in 91 career games against the Coyotes. … The game marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of Jobing.com Arena. On Dec. 27, 2003, the Coyotes opened their new home with a 3-1 loss to Nashville. … This was the third of four meetings this season between the Sharks and Coyotes; San Jose visits the desert again on April 12, 2014.

(TAGS: San Jose Sharks,NHL,Phoenix Coyotes,Patrick Marleau)