Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
The Cold, Hard Football Facts once again rip into the week’s biggest NFL issues with the same harsh, inevitable melancholy that a North Atlantic iceberg rips into the Titanic.
Icy Issue: Who suffered the worst Pro Bowl snub?
Icier Response: Tampa Bay middle linebacker Barrett Ruud.
Have you heard of the Buccaneers? Probably not. They're this little team that plays in Tampa and generates all the national television exposure of the Ron Paul campaign.
Here's a Bucs primer: They’ve already clinched the NFC South title, with two games to play. At 9-5, they have the third best record in the NFC. They may be the No. 3 seed in the conference and very well could represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. And their defensive accomplishments this year are legion. Tampa ranks:
No. 1 in the NFL (tied with Pittsburgh) in scoring defense (15.6 PPG)
No. 3 in the NFL and No. 1 in the NFC in total defense (278.0 YPG)
No. 3 in the NFL and No. 1 in the NFC in pass defense (5.53 YPA)
No. 4 in the NFL and No. 3 in the NFC in rush defense (allowing 3.73 YPA)
No. 5 in the NFL and No. 4 in the NFC in the Cold, Hard Football Facts Bendability Index (17.85 Yard Per Point Allowed), a measure of defensive efficiency.
No. 7 in the NFL and No. 3 in the NFC in Defensive Passer Rating (74.7)
And for all these accomplishments as the undisputed defensive class of the NFL’s senior circuit? Tampa earns not a single Pro Bowler.
If you were to cite one Bucs player who deserves the honor, it’s Ruud, a third year middle linebacker out of Nebraska.
He’s the heart of Tampa’s classic 4-3 defense and among the league leaders in tackles (108). He’s tied for the league lead in turnovers by a linebacker (two INT, two fumble recoveries) and is among the league leaders with three forced fumbles. Bottom line: he’s the best player on the best defense in the NFC and among the league's top tacklers and defensive playmakers.
Nobody left off the Pro Bowl roster is more deserving of a trip to Honolulu in February. Of course, we're sure that he'd settle for a trip to Glendale.
Icy Issue: Is this the year the Chargers finally win a playoff game?
Icier Response: Only if they face the Browns.
San Diego’s playoff woes weigh on the franchise like Santa’s rosy rotund bottom weighs on a one-horse open sleigh. The Chargers have not won a playoff game since their Super Bowl season of 1994. And it’s this futility in the postseason that caused GM A.J. Smith to panic and fire head coach Marty Schottenheimer after a one-and-done playoff performance last year, on the heels of a 14-2 season, the best mark in franchise history. No coach has ever been canned after such an amazing regular-season record, proving that the organization is obsessed with some semblance of postseason success.
For San Diego it’s pretty easy: win its remaining games against Denver (Christmas Eve) and Oakland, and they capture the No. 3 seed and, in all likelihood, host a defensively challenged Cleveland team. It would be a game the Chargers should win. Of course, the Chargers were also favored at home over the Jets in the 2004 playoffs and at home over the Patriots in the 2006 playoffs. They lost both games.
Should San Diego stumble somewhere over its final two games and fall to the No. 4 seed, that first playoff opponent would probably be a scary Jacksonville club that just rolled the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
A game against the Jaguars would spell trouble for the Chargers and, in all likelihood, another disappointing home playoff loss.
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.