The weekend has come and gone and a lot happened in the sports world those two days. Since I don't publish anything on the weekends, I decided to make Monday the day I recap the weekend. I won't recap anything and everything though, no no, that's what ESPN is for. I'm going to go over what I think are the five most important things of that weekend. The recaps won't be full length essays either. They'll be more like press releases, but with substance instead of just the facts. The substance of course will be what the piece of news means going forward for the individuals or teams involved. So now that the groundwork has been laid out, let's go back and relive some of the moments from this weekend. Recaps will be ordered from least headlines to most headlines.
5. NASCAR: Chase Drivers Locked in
Saturday's race in Richmond was the last chance to qualify for the Chase for the Cup, NASCAR's version of the postseason. Clint Bowyer narrowly beat out Jeff Gordon to win the race, but he was already locked into a Chase spot. Jeff Gordon, however, needed a good showing to get one of the two wild card spots and his second place finish was enough to do so. The other ten qualifiers are Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, Greg Bifle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., and Kasey Kahne. That list is ordered from first to eleventh. Bowyer is between Bifle and Dale Jr. in sixth and Gordon rounds out the qualifiers in twelfth. Now, who will win the Chase and become NASCAR's next champion? That is something I wouldn't go to Vegas to bet on because it is a total crap-shoot. Hamlin and Gordon are only separated by twelve points and anything can happen on the racetrack. Johnson has had the best year so far trailing Hamlin in wins and poles by one but leading him by one in top fives and four in top tens, but he also had plenty of did-not-finish's and hasn't finished well lately. NASCAR's Chase for the Cup is arguably the most exciting playoff format in sports because there are no clear favorites to win. If you like some good, hard racing, then keep your eye on the Chase the next couple months.
4. WTA: Serena Continues to Win
Serena Williams continues to prove that she can compete at an elite level. The 30-year old beat the world's top ranked female tennis player in Victoria Azarenka. Williams grinded it out against the much younger Azarenka (23) to win the 2-hour, 18-minute match yesterday 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. The victory gives Williams four US Open titles and 15 Grand Slam titles overall. Williams has been on fire lately winning Wimbledon, the gold medal in London, and now the US Open. The next major will be the Australian Open in January. This gives Williams plenty of time to recover from a tough summer that included the French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympics, and the US Open. Will Serena continue her roll? We'll find out in 2013.
3. NCAAF: Upset Season
The second week of college football brought some major and minor upsets throughout the FBS. Saturday's major shocker was Louisiana-Monroe stealing one from eighth ranked Arkansas, 34-31. Down by two touchdowns, ULM shutout Arkansas in the fourth while putting up 14 points of their own to push the game into overtime. Arkansas won the toss in OT and kicked a field goal, but ULM's Kolton Browning decided the kicker wasn't necessary as he ran 16 yards to end zone for the win. Arkansas will have to rebound in a big way after the stunner as the face top ranked Alabama in Week 3. Other Saturday upsets included: Oregon St. over 13 Wisconsin, 22 UCLA over 16 Nebraska, and 24 Arizona over 18 Oklahoma St. Watch out to see how these teams respond from early defeat, especially Arkansas and Wisconsin.
2. MLB: Yankees Collapse Watch
There is plenty to watch for this year in the majors as the final month winds down and the playoffs loom over the horizon, but there is no bigger story than the New York Yankees blowing their comfy 10-game lead in the AL East and allowing it to become a three-team race for the division. It seems commonplace now that a team in the MLB will collapse at the end of the summer and miss the playoffs. The New York Mets started the trend in the mid-2000s and last year we saw both the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox blow big leads, resulting them to watch the postseason from their couches. This year the mighty New York Yankees seem to be following that path. All the injuries have finally caught up with the Yanks. Even after crushing the Baltimore Orioles 13-3 yesterday to regain a one game lead, they still have to several games against the very capable Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. Throw in two crucial series against the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics and you got a stretch run with no breaks. They do play a series against the lowly Minnesota Twins, but the Twins and Yanks have a lot of history and the Twins would love to play spoilers and keep New York from reaching the playoffs. If winning a much-needed series in Baltimore in dominating fashion is any indication of the rest of September for the Yankees, then I think they'll be fine. Andy Pettite will be returning soon and that'll give the Yanks three viable starters to lead them into the postseason. Then again, you just never know in baseball, and so we'll just have to wait and see how things unfold.
1. NFL: First Impressions
Realistically, Week 1 of the NFL does not mean much anything. The first game of 16 is easily forgotten in a month or so by both the teams and fans. Week 1 is not totally irrelevant though. It works as a glorified preseason game as starters play the entire game and coaches unleash their entire playbooks, if needed. It makes for a great first impression. Some first impressions that jumped out at me as I watched, or followed along with, each game were: the Packers and Saints defenses do not look like they improved, the Patriots defense looks more like a unit, the Jets offense seems like it'll do fine, and that the Eagles may be in trouble offensively (somehow). The Packers and Saints played the 49ers and Redskins, respectively. The Pack allowed 30 points against a conservative Niner offense that tries to control the clock more than score while the Saints allowed 40 points to a Redskins team with a completely revamped offense that has a new starting quarterback, halfback, and wideout. Both offenses are average or not very far above, and the Packers and Saints will be in for long seasons if they can't stop those kinds of offenses. On the other hand, the Patriots defense looked much better than last years version. Although they played a Titans team that has trouble scoring, the Pats D still showed that they have been working hard all summer and that they were a unit that knows how to get the job done, notably stopping the run. After not scoring until the final preseason game, the Jets exploded yesterday against the Bills. This is significant because the Bills defense was supposed to be much improved compared to last year. Turnovers helped the Jets offense, but Rex Ryan wants his good defense to make life easier on his offense. I think we saw the Jets at full potential yesterday. Meanwhile we saw the Eagles if they had no potential, offensively speaking. The defense did well to keep the Browns from scoring after Michael Vick decided to throw to the Browns defenders instead of his receivers. However the offense, Vick in particular, did a terrible against a Browns defense that's decent at best. The Eagles should have blown out the Browns, regardless if it's home or away. The Michael Vick Era may not turn out as well as the Eagles originally thought. But hey, it's only Week 1, the game everyone forgets by Columbus Day.
References
http://espn.go.com/racing/standings
http://espn.go.com/tennis/usopen12/story/_/id/8360200/serena-williams-survives-victoria-azarenka-4th-open-crown
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/scoreboard
http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/schedule/_/name/nyy/new-york-yankees
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/scoreboard
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