The Auburn Tigers won the BCS National Championship on Monday Night defeating the Oregon Ducks 22 – 19. The game was sloppy at best and these two high powered offenses, managed to play a defensive struggle for most of the night. Cam Newton had a good game, but far from his best. He did just enough to get the victory; while you can probably say that Auburn’s offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was the real reason the Tigers offense was able to be effective most of the night. They Auburn defense let by Nick Fairley shut down the Ducks running game, and harassed Oregon’s QB Darren Thomas all night. With all that being said the Ducks had plenty of opportunities to win this game, and will be kicking themselves for all of the missed opportunities they left on the field.
The New York Jets edged out the Indianapolis Colt on a last second field goal. The Jets managed to grind out a win against Peyton Manning and the Colts at Lucas Oil stadium on Saturday night to move into the next round of the playoffs. The Jets defense looked like they returned to form with the exception of giving up a handful of big plays to the Colts, they kept Peyton Manning and the Colts offense in check when they needed too. The Jets offense returned to ground and pound as Peyton Manning watched from the sidelines, and Mark Sanchez came through in crunch time with a big throw to Braylon Edwards to setup the winning score. The Jets will move on to play the New England Patriots on Sunday, but the Colts have to wonder has their window on winning another title started to close?
The Denver Nuggets seem like they are working to send Carmelo Anthony to the New Jersey Nets. The report of this deal started leaking out over the weekend and was rumored to include three teams and 15 players changing teams. Chauncey Billups is one of the players rumored to be moving from Denver to New Jersey, and he does not seem all too thrilled about it. There is a report that a potential cog in the deal is the fact that the Nets do not want to take on the four years and $28 million dollars left on Al Harrington’s contract. Because of information leaks about this deal the Nuggets told the Nets to keep the negotiations private otherwise they would deal Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks instead. We will see what comes out of this, but it appears that the only sure thing is that Carmelo Anthony won’t be with the nuggets next year.
LSU coach Les Miles met with Michigan officials on Monday and it seems he would take the job if offered to him reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter. LSU is not sitting idly by while their coach leaves, LSU officials may be “working to ensure” Les Miles’ current contract “is enhanced” before Michigan swoops in, though Miles may be ready to listen to any offer Michigan is willing to put out there. It is unclear right now if Miles is just doing this to get a raise, or more of a solid standing at LSU or if he really wants to take on the rebuilding job at Michigan. The truth is the LSU community has never really warmed up to Miles, and this might just be a way for him to make them realize they have a good coach.
The Seattle Seahawks make history by beating the New Orleans Saints. They are the first team with a losing record to win a playoff game, and over the defending Super Bowl champions no doubt. It was obvious that the Saints came into that game with the mindset that they were playing a 7 – 9 football team whom they should beat easily. Couple that over confidence with the home field advantage Seattle has and a chip on their shoulder from people saying they should not be there, and you saw an almost perfect performance form Seattle. The Saints were ambushed, and when they tried to recover it was too late. Marshawn Lynch punctuated the game with the greatest touchdown run in NFL playoff history breaking about eight tackles along the way. The Seahawks have to travel to Chicago next week in another match up where people are giving them no chance, but Chicago has flaws and if Jay Cutler plays badly there could be another upset.
