Super Bowl XLVI
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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
Arc: After heartbreaking loss, Tyler Zeller and No. 5 North Carolina made an impressive statement with a 70-52 win over No. 19 Virginia.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Charlie Wi holds a three-shot lead at the midway point of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Tiger Woods sits six back.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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.
Getty Images
|
“We’re really only focusing on this year,” the Notre Dame sophomore running back said.
It might not be a bad idea to have selective amnesia regarding last year’s Notre Dame-Michigan game.
Allen lined up to take a direct snap on the first play of the 38-0 drubbing of the Irish, watched it sail over his head for a 17-yard “team” rushing loss back to the 1-yard line. The Irish finished with minus-6 yards rushing, 79 total yards, four turnovers and eight and a half sacks given up.
“Like I said,” Allen said, shaking his head, “we’re moving forward.”
Any forward movement against the Wolverines (1-1) this time around would seem to symbolize progress.
Allen may not be the key player in Saturday’s matchup in South Bend, Ind. -- only the second meeting in the series’ 27 games since the AP poll was established in which both teams came in unranked -- but he is an interesting measuring stick.
The 5-foot-10,195-pounder, whom the Irish (1-0) secured in a recruiting taffy pull with the University of Florida two years ago, has been more about promise and less about performance since his arrival. Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis expected that to change this season, elevating Allen to at least even if not ahead of bullish sophomore Robert Hughes and last year’s leading rusher, junior James Aldridge.
The anticipation is that Allen will at some point flash his big-play ability, with his career long run still sitting at 15 yards.
“I think that he’s getting tremendously better,” offered Mike Haywood, Irish offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “He’s understanding defenses better. You can talk to him in football terms now, and he understands.”
In what shapes up as more of a smash-mouth game when it comes to running, it will be interesting to see if Allen can complement that smash with some flash.
Whether he can would be just as much a reflection on the Irish offensive line, which did manage to avoid giving up a sack last Saturday for the first time since the Navy game of Weis’ first season at Notre Dame (2005), yet it hardly dominated in the run game.
Michigan is markedly better against the run than San Diego State (41.5 yards per game, 1.1 per carry against) and in bringing pressure against the passer, which is why junior defensive end Brandon Graham is the logical player to watch for the Wolverines.
|
In last year’s mismatch, the 6-foot-2, 270-pound who ran a 10.9 100-meter dash in high school track, had a career-high three and a half sacks and forced a fumble. Graham will be testing former Irish line prodigy junior Sam Young, ND’s highest-rated non-quarterback recruit of the Weis Era, and supposedly old-but-improved senior left tackle Mike Turkovich.
He has already recorded five and a half tackles for loss this in two games this season for minus-33 yards - both totals best in the Big Ten.
"There are a lot of people that stepped up on the d-line and we're more vocal now, especially me,” he said. “I feel like a lot of things have changed. A lot of people are starting to buy in for real that we can really shock the world this year.”
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez would settle for shocking the Irish.
The glitz in this matchup is Rodriguez’s spread offense against the Corwin Brown/Jon Tenuta blitz-happy defense of the Irish. But Allen and the Irish run game against a stout Michigan run defense may just end up settling the score and providing a realistic glimpse of just how far the ND o-line has come or needs to go.
It took a while for the light bulb to go on, but when it did, Jonas Gray finally showed the talent many had expected from the blue-chip prospect from Detroit. In a recent interview, Gray, who is rehabbing an ACL injury to get ready for the NFL Scouting Combine, expressed the confidence and support he has for head coach Brian Kelly.
 | Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
 | Timeline |
 | Notre Dame 2011 schedule See when all the big matchups will take place with Notre Dame's 2011 schedule. NBCSports.com |
 | Slideshow |
 |
| Slideshow |
 |
| Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
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.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
