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Showing posts from November, 2015

Cohen's Corner Week 12 Takeaways

The Thanksgiving holiday has now come and gone and with it so does Week 12 of the NFL season. And what a week it was, the NFC East is a mess, the AFC South finally has two teams over .500 and there is one unbeaten left in the league, and it is not who you think it is. Let's recap! The Patriots are Indeed Mortal: The New England Patriots are no longer unbeaten (insert shocked emoji). New England blew a 21-7 lead to the Denver Broncos on Sunday night, as the Brock Osweiler directed team stunned the Patriots with 17 fourth quarter points to take a lead late in the game at 24-21. Of course leave it to Tom Brady to lead the Patriots back into field goal range to tie the game and send it into overtime, but it was not enough. After New England went three and out on its opening possession of overtime, C.J. Anderson went dashing in the snow, for a 48-yard touchdown run that sent Denver to a 30-24 upset win, and sent Bill Belicick into a another classic morose postgame press conference. ...

Giants Blow Opportunity to Control NFC East

REDSKINS 20 GIANTS 14 If the 2015 New York Giants miss the playoffs then the afternoon of November 29, 2015 will be remembered as their waterloo. The Giants who were given a Thanksgiving Day present with losses by the Eagles an Cowboys, decided to exchange that gift for angst and life or death football in the month of December after a hugely disappointing 20-14 defeat to the Washington Redskins. The Redskins (5-6), not the Giants (5-6) now control the NFC East. The Eagles (4-7) and Cowboys (3-8) also have life -- believe it or not. For as much credit as Eli Manning gets for leading the Giants inspite of a mediocre supporting cast this year, he deserves to get as much blame for this disaster. Manning was throwing the football around like it was a game of hot potato. One pass after another was shot up for grabs and more times than not a guy in a Redskins jersey came up with it. Twice in the opening quarter of the game Manning tried to hit an intended receiver only to have the ba...

Brandon Marshall Goes off on Dolphins as Jets win

JETS 38 DOLPHINS 20 Inspite of some early offensive struggles the New York Jets found a way to pull away from the putrid Miami Dolphins, 38-20, at MetLife stadium thanks to Brandon Marshall's best game of his Jets career, combined with the fact that the Dolphins are ... just that ... the Dolphins. Marshall so dominated against the Miami secondary and cornerback Brent Grimes that it became an afternoon of pitch and catch between the Jets wide receiver and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Marshall who has been haunted by countless drops in big situations caught nine passes for 131yards and two scores in the Jets victory. Early on it looked like the Jets were on their way to an ugly affair against the Fish. Miami had the football at the Jets 19 yard line and looked poised to put some points on the board before Darrelle Revis stand-in, Marcus Williams, picked off Ryan Tannenhill handing New York renewed life. The Jets would get a huge break when the officials granted the Jets a f...

Giants Path to NFC East Crown Clearer on Thanksgiving

The New York Giants have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, especially after an entire dinner was consumed and both the Eagles and Cowboys lost on Turkey Day. The Giants now know that with a win on Sunday at the Redskins, New York is going inch even closer to the NFC East title, and a playoff spot that seemed up in the air as recently as 24 hours ago is now coming into focus. The Eagles look dreadful. They were blown out by the Lions on Thanksgiving 45-14, with Matthew Stafford throwing five touchdowns for Detroit. It was the second straight week in which a quarterback threw five TDs on the Eagles. Not to mention Mark Sanchez was woeful yet again. While he didn't throw any interceptions, Sanchez was sacked five times and lost a fumble that turned into a nifty Calvin Johnson touchdown. The Eagles (4-7) are in total collapse mode. The players look totally dejected and it won't get any better when they play the New England Patriots on the road next week. While the...

Cohen's Corner Week 11 Takeaways

It was not exactly the most exciting week of football we had this week; it certainly pales in comparison to Week 10 where we saw more than a half dozen games decided in the closing minutes, but there were still some major happenings in Week 11 that are shaping up the playoff picture. 1) The Green Bay Packers are alive and well: A week ago when the Packers spit the bit against the Detroit Lions at home, it was looking pretty sketchy for the Packers.Then again,when your quarterback is Aaron Rodgers, nothing should ever be in doubt. Remember this is the same quarterback who told the fans to relax when Green Bay got of to a 1-2 start last season. The Packers outlasted the Minnesota Vikings 30-13 on Sunday, with a second half surge proving to be the difference. Rodgers first hit Randall Cobb on a 10-yard strike to push the Pack to a 16-9 halftime lead, completing 9-play, 80-yard drive. Then with Green Bay holding onto a 19-13 lead, Rodgers hit a perfect pass to the corner of the end...

Jets suffer embarrassing defeat in Houston

TEXANS 24 JETS 17 If the Jets season wasn't already on the brink after last week's 22-17 loss to Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills, it is surely on life-support now. The Jets played listless football for 60 minutes on Sunday in Houston. They looked like a team unmotivated and unprepared to take on a Texans team that sees an AFC South title in its sights. If anyone should be blamed for Texans 24, Jets 17, it should rest at the feet of Head Coach Todd Bowles, who started an already injured quarterback and banged-up center, and whose defense was totaly overmatched for Sunday's smackdown. Bowles has wiggle room to figure things out in his first year as a head coach, but the Jets fall from grace after a 4-1 start is so discouraging that the bloom is clearly off the rose. Right from the get-go the Jets looked overmatched against a Texans team that was starting its third quarterback this year in T.J. Yates, who wasn't even on the roster as recently as three weeks ago. In...

Knicks fans NOW on Kristaps Prozingis bandwagon

Back in June after confetti had just fallen down on the Golden State Warriors, and with baseball season in full swing a franchise defining moment took place for the New York Knicks at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. With the sixth pick in the draft the Knicks drafted Kristaps Prozingis, a Latvian national who played basketball in Spain. In other words the Knicks drafted a guy who didn't play with a top college like Duke or Kentucky, and was a virtual unknown. And if you watched that draft that night you would have thought that Jets fans had invaded the Barclays Center dressed in Knicks blue and orange. Knicks fans wanted a super star, they didn't want an unknown. As a result the fans vehemently booed Prozingis that night. They followed that up by bashing him at every single turn, calling him a bum and the worst draft pick in NBA history. Many even questioned the competency of Phil Jackson as General Manager of the franchise. Now Prozingis is proving that Jackson was right to...

Cohen's Corner NFL Week 10 Takeaways

So Week 10 in the NFL is in the books, (sort of as we still have a Monday night game to play) and for the second consecutive week we saw some truly whacky and bizarre finishes to ball games throughout the National Football League. As we start to head closer toward Thanksgiving, I can't help but start to reflect on the lingering impact today's game could have as we head down the stretch. Here a few talking points: 1) Peyton Manning is old, and the Broncos are in big Trouble : It doesn't get much worse for Peyton Manning than going 5-of-20 for 35 yards and 4 interceptions. On the same day he passed Brett Favre for the most career yards by a quarterback, Manning had one of the worst days he's ever had in an NFL regular season game. He looked old and beaten. He was so bad, Gary Kubiak pulled Manning for Brock Osweiler in the third quarter with Denver trailing the Chiefs 22-0. Kubiak took the bullet for Manning, saying that he shouldn't have started Manning becaus...

Gigantic effort not enough for Giants to get past Patriots

PATRIOTS 27 GIANTS 26 The Giants came into Sunday's action against the New England Patriots a heavy 7-point underdog to the undefeated New England Patriots. Nobody expected them to compete much at all against New England, considering Big Blue's defense has been so woeful this season, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this was a game the Giants should have won. New York played it's best game of the season, put a lot of pressure on Tom Brady and Eli Manning was on top of his game. Yet even with all of that it was not enough to pull out a victory as the Giants fell 27-26 thanks to a last second field goal by Stephen Goskowski. The Giants had a great opportunity to finish the game the right way and didn't do it. They left too much time on the clock, which in the language of Tom Brady means he has an eternity to figure things out. The clock: 2:06 to go in the game. The situation: First and goal at the Patriots five yard line after Manning completed pas...

Rex Ryan gets his revenge, beats Jets 22-17

BILLS 22 JETS 17 Talk about an unmitigated disaster. The Jets had every opportunity to avoid watching their ex, Rex celebrate at MetLife Stadium, dancing on the Jets logo and sticking it to the Jets for firing him and his staff 10 months ago. The Jets had every opportunity to win this game and make a statement about the AFC wild card race, and, they let it slip by their fingers like one of the many dropped passes on Thursday night. While 5-4 doesn't mean the Jets are eliminated. They are still very much in the thick of the AFC's wild card hunt, Thursday's 22-17 meltdown felt like an elimination game. A week ago the Jets slipped past the Jaguars, using injuries as big excuse for a poor performance. There were no excuses this time. With the exception of not having Antonio Cromartie and Calvin Pryor, the Jets were as healthy as they could be. They simply didn't execute, and allowed the Buffalo Bills and Rex Ryan to sneak away with a win. Where to begin with this...

Giants & JPP find a way to sneak past Tampa Bay

GIANTS 32 BUCCANEERS 18 If only the final score were a real indication of how this game played out, because in retrospect the Giants are lucky Tampa Bay was scheduled between games against the Saints and Patriots. The Giants spent the entire evening struggling against the Buccaneers. New York had to rely on four field goals by Josh Brown, including two late field goals in the game, and a Trevin Wade fumble recovery for a touchdown, just to get out of Raymond James Stadium alive. The Giants never really established themselves offensively; New York had only 213 yards passing on the night. Eli Manning had a his moments, but he also threw two interceptions, including one on the second play of the game that led to a Bucs field goal. Yet through it all, the Giants never really beat themselves too much, because Tampa Bay doesn't have the teeth the make the Giants regret their mistakes. Manning led two first half scoring drives, that culminated in touchdowns to Ruben Randle and Shan...

Jaguars' mistakes propel Jets to victory

JETS 28 JAGUARS 23 Sometime it takes an opponent to beat oneself in order to get a victory. For the Jets they have to thank the Jacksonville Jaguars for being the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 28-23 win at the Meadowlands on Sunday. New York had almost no energy, no offensive thunder power, and their defense was once again a sieve, yet against the Jaguars, a great effort wasn't needed. If only the Jets could play the Jaguars, or the AFC South every week. While the Jets didn't commit a number of crucial turnovers, the Jaguars did that for them, they allowed the Jaguars to hang around the entire day, and never made the bone crushing play to knock the Jaguars out of the game. Perhaps it was the blatant fact that the Jets are beaten up physically, as a supporting reason behind the Jets sluggish effort, or perhaps it is the fact that this Jets team is not really as deep as many thought coming into the season. Whatever it might be, the Jets looked like the walking wounded on S...

Terry Collins gets deserved 2-year extension from Mets

After leading the Mets to their first World Series in 15-years, the Mets front office rewarded their field manager, Terry Collins with a brand-spanking new 2-year extension that will take him through the 2017 season. 1) This is the right move by the Mets. Collins deserves to be the manager of this team. He guided the ball club through plenty of down years and adversity leading up to this miracle 2015 season. Nobody deserved to enjoy the fruits of a deep playoff run more than Collins, who for the most part, pushed all the right buttons during the months of August, September and October. 2) Is he on the hot seat? As soon as I opened the New York Post today the phrase hot seat was attached to Collins. First of all, yes, techinally speaking Collins is on the hot seat. If the Mets stumble out of the gate in 2016, or are playing poorly through the season's first three months, then the temperature will obviously increase on Collins to get the team moving by the next year's trade d...

Mets season ends in Game 5 defeat

ROYALS 7 METS 2 KC Wins World Series 4-1 The 2015 New York Mets season is over. A season where the Mets came out of virtually nowhere to put together three incredible months in August, September and October concluded early Monday morning with a heartbreaking 7-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 5 of the World Series. It was a season to be proud of for sure, but as always let’s take a look about at Game 5. HEROES: MATT HARVEY: No one will be remembered as a bigger hero in Game 5 than Matt Harvey. What a show by the Dark Knight. The Mets ace showed everyone why he is indeed the Dark Knight with his best performance of the season. For eight innings, Harvey had the Royals totally fooled. For much of the night he held a slim 1-0 lead, and still found ways to dominate the Royals, even when his teammates were doing nothing offensively. Can’t blame Harvey for wanting to finish the game, and can’t blame Terry Collins for wanting him to finish it. The guy was outstanding....