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Vincent Rey Jersey - elaine95 - 11-29-2019
Some of the sports stories The Associated Press is covering Monday. A full Sports Digest will be sent by about 3 p.m. All times EDT: – NEW YORK – The U.S. Open begins with five-time major champion Maria Sharapova playing Simona Halep. Sharapova Giovani Bernard Jersey , a wild card, returned to tennis this year after a 15-month doping ban. – FRISCO, Texas – J.J. Watt and the Texans are to work out at the Cowboys’ practice facility because of floods pounding Houston. The team’s Thursday exhibition game might shift to Dallas. – CINCINNATI – Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict is suspended by the NFL for five games for leveling a Kansas City running back in an exhibition game. Burfict is appealing. – FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Patriots are still absorbing the impact of the season-ending knee injury to Tom Brady’s favorite target, Julian Edelman. – Two division preview stories as part of the preseason NFL package: AFC East, NFC East. – MIAMI – Giancarlo Stanton is on a home run binge – the first NL player in a decade to reach 50 – but he’s also smacking singles at the best rate of his career. – MINNEAPOLIS – The Twins have a surprising hold on the AL’s second wild-card spot, and 44-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon has proved an important part of this surge. – NEW YORK – In an All-Star pitching matchup, the Yankees’ Luis Severino (11-5) faces Cleveland’s Corey Kluber (12-4) in a game between playoff contenders. Game starts 7:05 p.m. – BALTIMORE – The Orioles are on a four-game winning streak and open a series against Seattle, with both teams are part of the crowded AL wild-card chase. Game starts 7:05 p.m. – TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Florida State don’t shy away from big games out the gate – and they’re gearing up for a really big one now. They play Saturday in Atlanta. – CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has spent months on this – drilling the good feelings of a national title out of the No. 5 Tigers heading into the season. – SEATTLE – This time a year ago, Washington was all about potential. When the No. 8 Huskies open Friday at Rutgers Michael Johnson jersey , they’ll be carrying the expectations of Pac-12 North favorites. – WHIPPANY, N.J. – The U.S. soccer team practices for a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica on Friday in Harrison, N.J. The U.S. is third in its group in the final round of qualifying. Forget Carrie Underwood. Well, don’t forget her, she’s terrific.But the NFL’s theme song these days belongs to Maren Morris, Zedd and Grey. You know, “Meet Me In The Middle.”That’s where a bevy of NFL teams sat through Week 14 — all with shots, both reasonable and long, at making the playoffs.Take a deep breath and consider:—Seattle and Dallas at 8-5.—Pittsburgh at 7-5-1.—Indianapolis, Baltimore, Tennessee and Miami at 7-6.—Minnesota at 6-6-1.—Philadelphia, Carolina Kevin Huber Jersey , Denver and Washington at 6-7.—Green Bay and Cleveland at 5-7-1.And, yes, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Cincinnati and the New York Giants at 5-8.All are alive for the postseason.Even Atlanta, at 4-9, if you can imagine, isn’t eliminated.Just what the league loves heading toward Christmas: charity for nearly all.So let first-year Titans coach Mike Vrabel play the Grinch, trying to ignore any playoff chatter as his team heads to the Meadowlands to face the Giants.“We haven’t talked much. We try to eliminate all the scenarios,” he says. “The only scenario that we try to focus on is our preparation right now as we head into a road game against the Giants.“You could talk about scenarios all day. There’s scenarios where the Dolphins give up two punt blocks and score on a 70-yard hook-and-ladder; a scenario where a player jumps offside on a third-and-1 in a four-minute situation; a situation where a team executes a 50-yard hook-and-ladder and then the kicker slips. Those are all the scenarios that are crazy that happen in this league every week, so the one we’re going to try to focus on is our preparation versus the Giants.”Fair enough, because all of the playoff-qualifying scenarios for this week are enough to spark a migraine.The questions that should be raised are:—Is all of this competitive balance or simply mediocrity? Oasis or swamp?—Is it good for the NFL that such spiraling messes as the Falcons and Bengals remain in the running?—Do people really want to see a .500 (or worse) team playing in January Clint Boling Jersey , perhaps against a 14-2 opponent?LEVEL OF PERFORMANCENearly all the teams in the middle of the standings belong there. It’s fair to point out that the Redskins, Bengals and Falcons have been severely damaged by injuries — hey, Cincinnati was once 4-1 and Washington held the top spot in the NFC East until its current four-game slide.Still, there’s a flawed bunch of “contenders” for the playoffs. They are profiting because they are keeping company with equally blemished clubs.All of them have had impressive stretches and pretty much unwatchable ones, though Seattle and Dallas probably don’t deserve to be lumped with the stragglers because they seem to be legitimate threats to do something in January.What’s missing with the others is the consistency that the top teams possess. Look at the Colts, who went from 1-1 to 1-5, then won five in a row, only to get blanked at lowly Jacksonville before going to Houston, the league’s hottest team, and winning.FORGET THEMDo fans in Atlanta and Cincinnati and Washington envision any sort of turnaround in the final three games that would lift those teams into the postseason? Do those clubs’ front offices?They shouldn’t, even as the NFL boasts that 26 teams still have a shot at the Super Bowl.One likely good thing about such deficient teams being in the running in mid-December is that it should cool talk of expanding the playoff field — something that virtually would guarantee impostors getting in.MISMATCHESOnce in a while, a team scrapes into the postseason and catches fire. Wild-carders have won the Super Bowl often enough to keep that dream alive once you get in.But should Vincent Rey Jersey , say, a 7-8-1 Packers or 8-8 Lions sneak in, does that make for must-watch TV in the playoffs? Is a game with 8-8 Miami at 12-4 Houston enticing?SEEDINGSWhat is nice about the chase in December is the intrigue of seedings. The general feeling in the AFC is that avoiding a trip to Foxborough in January is necessary. So, the other division winners not only want and likely need to win their games, they’re hoping the Patriots, currently seeded second, don’t win out. Kansas City tops the conference right now, but barely.The NFC is a two-team race for the top spot between the Saints and Rams, who met in a high-scoring affair won by host New Orleans in early November. Both are 11-2, making their final three weeks critical in that race.And then they have the prospect of sitting out wild-card weekend while a team or two emerging from the quagmire stokes up its fan base before probably getting routed.