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.
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.
APEAST LANSING, Mich. - First the blocked field goals in the opener, then the comeback in the Happy Valley rain. Now add The Play — Ricky Stanzi to Marvin McNutt — to an Iowa Hawkeyes season that makes them this year's team of destiny.
Iowa 15, Michigan State 13 goes down among the most thrilling finishes anyone in Spartan Stadium on Saturday night will ever experience. But the final score has a more pressing meaning. It kept the Hawkeyes undefeated, among the nation's top 10 and thinking that this season could end with a chance at a championship bigger than the Big Ten.
"Most definitely," Iowa running back Adam Robinson said. "You always have that feeling in the back of your mind, of where this is all going to go. And how this might end for us."
If only Robinson were a realist. Pardon the youngster, he's but a freshman. He's wrapped up in the litany of things that have fallen for Iowa in 2009: Heck, how many teams fall behind on a touchdown set up by a hook-and-lateral, yet still rally to win the game?
Yet the Hawks' 8-0 record, and their crazy comebacks, and their road success (four wins over teams with a combined 21-9 record) guarantee them nothing on the national scene.
Most years, Iowa's ability to endure a 12-game schedule and stay unbeaten would be enough to squeeze into the national championship game. Just two years, a two-loss LSU team met one-loss Ohio State in the BCS title game.
But this year, there's no room for Iowa in the nation's elite. The SEC is sending a team to the national championship game. Texas looks to have righted itself, and with much of the Big 12 playing Sun Belt-level football, the Longhorns can make reservations for the title game, too.
Don't even bother with the debate, the matching of opponents' Sagarin ratings and the strengths of conferences. As magical as Iowa's ride has been, the ceiling has been established. To answer Robinson's pondering, the Hawkeyes will do no better than a Jan. 1 game in the Rose Bowl.
Feel free to blame the system or to argue until your cheeks turn scarlet (and gray) that these Hawkeyes are being punished for the poor postseason play of their Big Ten peers. Or take the approach Iowa's players embraced here after their win.
We can't control the rest of the country. We're just enjoying what we've got going.
"We don't compare ourselves to other teams," defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. "They do what they do. We do what we do."
If the Hawkeyes keep doing what they're doing, they'll earn Big Ten championship rings and a permanent place in school lore. They might get another spot in history, too — next to Auburn's 2004 team as a perfect, BCS conference squad that didn't get a chance to play for it all.
That's an issue for December, at least to these guys. They're too busy providing another heart-stopping Saturday for their fans. And if destiny for them ends up nothing more than that, they say they're fine with it.
At least for 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.
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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.
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.
