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.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
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.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame’s offense answered coach Charlie Weis’ challenge.
The Fighting Irish put together their most productive third quarter of the season, scoring three touchdowns behind Jimmy Clausen’s passing and Armando Allen Jr.’s running, in a 38-21 victory over Purdue on Saturday.
Notre Dame hadn’t scored in the third quarter this season and were tied 14-14 with Purdue at halftime.
“Basically I told them, 'This is the most important drive of the season here,”’ Weis said of the opening drive of the second half. “Because that game could have gone either way at that point.”
Notre Dame (3-1), which entered the game averaging 78 yards rushing a game rushing, ran for 90 yards in the third quarter against Purdue (2-2).
Allen Jr., who ran for a career-high 134 yards on 17 carries, had a 21-yard run to set up his 16-yard TD run. He then had two runs of 21 yards on the next possession to help set up Notre Dame’s next score, a 5-yard pass from Clausen to Kyle Rudolph.
Clausen passed for a career-high 275 yards and three touchdowns.
When Purdue cut the lead to one touchdown on a 54-yard TD pass from Curtis Painter to Desmond Tardy, the Irish answered with a 30-yard TD from Clausen to David Grimes.
“The response they had in the third quarter was probably the probably the most significant part of this football game,” Weis said.
Tardy had 10 catches for 175 yards.
The Irish ran for 201 yards on 40 carries. Purdue coach Joe Tiller said because of his team’s lack of depth at linebacker he wasn’t surprised to see the Irish run the ball so often.
“We played an awful lot of nickel defense, and if I’m coaching against a team that’s going to play nickel all the time, I’m going to run it. At least I’m going to run it more than I normally run,” he said.
The Boilermakers fell to 1-15 at Notre Dame Stadium since 1976. The loss also left Tiller, who is retiring after the season, with a 5-7 record against the Irish. Purdue had lost 11 straight to Notre Dame before Tiller arrived.
Allen, who had run for 71 yards on 24 carries coming into the game, had the five longest runs of his career.
“I said, ’Where you’ve been?” Weis said.
Allen said, “It feels great to go out there and prove to people what I’m capable of.”
Irish guard Eric Olsen said it wasn’t surprising.
“He has great vision, and for his size, he has great power,” Olsen said. “When he gets his legs churning it’s hard to bring him down.”
Clausen’s previous career-high was 246 yards passing against Air Force. Michael Floyd added six catches for 100 yards and Golden Tate caught a touchdown pass.
Weis said Clausen made good decisions and threw the ball away when he needed to.
“It seemed like every ball we had a chance of making a play on. I thought he had a good day,” Weis said.
Clausen, using a no-huddle offense, was 20-of-35 passes with no interceptions,
“I know I’m capable of doing stuff like this, it was just a matter of time and preparation and practice,” Clausen said.
Purdue linebacker Anthony Heygood said the Boilermakers just gave up too many big plays.
“We’re a talented defense and we know we can play much, much better than we did today,” he said.
Painter was 29-of-55 passing for 359 yards and two touchdowns for Purdue as he kept the Irish off balance in the first half. But the Irish defense came up with some big plays, including a 47-yard interception return by cornerback Robert Blanton.
“We missed some opportunities early,” Painter said. “We got behind a team that was doing some things well and really had to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Weis said the win was big for the Irish.
“The confidence continues to grow,” he said. “I’d say it’s huge.”
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.
 | Video |
 |
 | 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 |
| Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
| First Person |
 | Tailgating pictures View photos of college football celebrations before and after games from our readers, then send your own. |
| Special feature |
 | This week's Top 25 games Images from action across the country, including huge upsets of USC and Florida. NBCSports.com |
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.