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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.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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.
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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.
AP1934 CHICAGO BEARS
Backstory
As the two-time defending NFL champions, the 1934 Bears were already on their way to establishing themselves as the dominant franchise of the 1930s and 1940s. And the T-formation hadn’t even been installed yet.
The regular season
Chicago opened with five straight road games, winning them all while outscoring their opponents 104-20. The Bears didn’t have any close calls until the last three out of four games, eking out victories once against the New York Giants and twice against the newly relocated (from Portsmouth, Ohio) Lions, including the first Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit, to finish 13-0. Chicago was the first undefeated, untied team in the short history of the NFL.
Even in a single-wing era, the Bears’ rushing was impressive — a record (by more than 600 yards) 2,847 yards, including 1,004 by rookie Beattie Feathers, the first-ever 1,000-plus yard season. Chicago had two other runners finish in the top 10 — Bronko Nagurski (586) and Gene Ronzani (485). Red Grange, in his final season, chipped in 156. Feathers’ average gain of 8.44 yards lasted until 2006, when Michael Vick broke it. Speaking of breaking, Feathers suffered a serious shoulder injury in a 17-6 victory over the crosstown Cardinals, forcing him to miss the final two games and the championship game against the Giants.
The postseason
The Bears played in one of the most storied championship games in NFL history — and not because they won. The championship at New York’s Polo Grounds became known as the “Sneakers Game” because down 13-3 in the fourth quarter on a field made slick by freezing rain, the Giants changed out of their cleats into sneakers they borrowed from the Manhattan College basketball team the night before as the rain fell.
The sure-footed Giants scored 27 fourth-quarter points against the stumbling, cleated Bears for a 30-13 victory.
Postscript
In 1942, the Bears would again finish the regular season undefeated, in even more dominant a fashion than they had eight years earlier (their 26.6 average point differential remains the NFL record).
But again, they lost the championship game, this time at Washington, 14-6. Footwear had nothing to do with this loss. Throwing an interception in the end zone and having another touchdown called back by a penalty did. No pro football team would go undefeated through the regular season and playoffs until the 1948 Cleveland Browns of the AAFC.
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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.
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.
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.
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