It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Happy holidays to you and yours!
This week’s Clinger’s Corner has two things that I am extremely excited for: 1. no Alabama football talk and 2. Major League Baseball news!
But first, here’s a look at some professional football, basketball and some collegiate basketball stuff…filler until the baseball news!
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Everyone is well aware of how terrible a few teams are. By a few teams I am of course referring to the 0-13 Cleveland Browns and the 1-12 San Francisco 49ers. However, the Los Angeles Rams are quiety awful too.
Jeff Fisher, the now former coach of the Rams, has been fired. Fisher was in his fifth season with the franchise and had started the season 4-9. In his tenure there, Fisher had a record of 31-45-1. Rams’ legend Eric Dickerson didn’t like him and now he is gone. Coincidence?
The Giants beat the Cowboys for a second time this season, snapping the Cowboys 11-game winning streak since losing to the Giants in week one.
Le’Veon Bell, running back from the Pittsburgh Steelers, quietly had one of the greatest games in NFL history in the Steelers 27-20 win over the Buffalo Bills.
Bell recorded 236 yards rushing in the snow on Sunday, which is a franchise record. Oh yeah, he also had 62 yards receiving and all three Pittsburgh touchdowns. He is the first player in NFL history with 220+ rushing yards, 60+ receiving yards and three rushing touchdowns in a game. But everyone, including myself, is talking about the season that Ezekiel Elliott is having for the Cowboys.
Anyways, here’s the league numbers…
AFC: East — New England Patriots 11-2, North — Pittsburgh Steelers 8-5, South — Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans 7-6 West — Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders 10-3
Most Points Scored — Raiders 358, Most Points Allowed — Browns 375, Least Points Scored — Browns 207, Least Points Allowed — Patriots 230
NFC: East — Dallas Cowboys 11-2, North- Detroit Lions 9-4, South — Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8-5, West — Seattle Seahawks 8-4-1
Most Points Scored — Falcons 428, Most Points Allowed — 49ers 393, Least Points Scored — Rams 194, Least Points Allowed — Seahawks 232
Remember when everyone freaked out because the Patriots would bomb after not having Brady for the first four games? Remember when New England has given up less points than the notorious Seattle defense? Isn’t it weird that the Browns have scored more points this season than the Rams, yet have won four less games?
Most Passing Yards — Drew Brees 4170, Most Rushing Yards — Ezekiel Elliott 1392, Most Receiving Yards — Julio Jones 1253, Most Interceptions — Casey Howard 7, Most Tackles — Bobby Wagner 139, Most Sacks — Vic Beasley and Von Miller 13.5
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
At this point everyone should realize that I am a big Russell Westbrook fan. This young man has taken a team on his shoulders after the departure of Kevin Durant to the dreaded Golden State Warriors. Westbrook is still averaging a triple-double and just recently had his streak of consecutive games with a trip-dub snapped at seven games. Oh yeah, and the guy has 49 for his career…four more than LeBron James. Anyways, here’s the standings and the statistical leaders…
EAST: Atlantic Division — Toronto Raptors 17-7, Central Division — Cleveland Cavaliers 17-5, Southeast Division — Charlotte Hornets 14-11
WEST: Northwest Division — Oklahoma City Thunder 15-9, Pacific Division — Golden State Warriors 21-4, Southwest Division — San Antonio Spurs 19-5
STATISTICAL LEADERS: Points Per Game — Russell Westbrook 31.1, Rebounds Per Game — Hassan Whiteside 14.4, Assists Per Game — James Harden 11.6, Blocks Per Game and Field Goal Percentage — Rudy Gobert 2.8/67.1%, Steals Per Game — Chris Paul 2.4, Three-point FG Percentage — Joe Ingles 48.4%, Three-pointers Made — Stephen Curry 94
You may be asking yourself, as am I, who is Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles? Apparently they both play for the Utah Jazz. They are no John Stockton and Karl Malone, but they lead three offensive categories!
NCAA BASKETBALL
Associated Press Top 25, as of Monday Dec.12
1. Villanova 2. UCLA 3. Kansas 4. Baylor 5. Duke 6. Kentucky 7. North Carolina 8. Gonzaga 9. Indiana 10. Creighton 11. Louisville 12. West Virginia 13. Virginia 14. Wisconsin 15. Purdue 16. South Carolina 17. Xavier 18. Butler 19. Arizona 20. Saint Mary’s 21. Notre Dame 22. Oregon 23. Florida State 24. USC 25. Cincinnati
In NCAAW basketball, the University of Connecticut, a.k.a. UCONN, has now won 84 straight games. Impressive? Yes! But, did you know that the UCONN women’s basketball program owns a 90-game winning streak that spanned from the start of the 2008 season until December 30, 2010?
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
I can not put into words how excited I was to type that! Sure, the season doesn’t kick off until the beginning of April but teams have been busy this offseason bringing in new players. Here are a few key moves that had occurred so far…
Aroldis Chapman resigned with the New York Yankees (boo!), Kenley Jensen has resigned with the Los Angeles Dodgers (yes!), Mark Melancon is headed to the San Francisco Giants, Carlos Beltran will most likely finish out his career with the Houston Astros, Dexter Fowler is now a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, Danny Espinosa is on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Jorge Soler was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Kansas City Royals for closer Wade Davis.
The Boston Red Sox have been busy too. Mitch Moreland is onboard with the good guys, as well as starting pitcher Chris Sale. This fanboy could not be more pumped to have Sale as part of our starting rotation!
