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.
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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
AP
LANDOVER, Md. - This was how the New York Giants played when they were starting 5-0, back when they looked like a solid Super Bowl contender.
The dominant version of the Giants showed itself again Monday night, only this time as a desperate team clinging to its playoff hopes.
The Giants controlled every facet of the game in a 45-12 rout that wasn’t as close as even that margin of victory would indicate, embarrassing a Washington Redskins coach and team that failed miserably in an attempt to make a good first impression for its new general manager.
“We felt we can play at that caliber that we were playing at the beginning of the year,” said Ahmad Bradshaw, who ran for two first-half touchdowns. “We came out fired up. This was a must-win. I told everybody before we went out: ‘I need the whole team to come with us.’ And that’s how we played — together.”
The Giants (8-6) don’t control their destiny, but they moved one game behind Dallas and Green Bay in the race for wild-card spots with two weeks remaining in the regular season. A loss would have left New York with only the faintest of postseason hopes.
“We were the team that had more at stake, obviously — and played that way,” New York coach Tom Coughlin said. “We always talk about being the team that demonstrates greater purpose. And we did.”
In theory, the Redskins (4-10) should have had a great purpose — a desire to put on a good show for Bruce Allen, hired on Thursday in a major front office shake-up. Instead, they did a good job of showing Allen that maybe everyone ought to be fired.
“You’ve got a new boss to impress,” cornerback DeAngelo Hall said. “This is an audition. These last couple of games is an audition. Bruce Allen pretty much got a head start on evaluating talent. If he looks at what he saw today, he’ll scrap this whole thing.”
Redskins coach Jim Zorn didn’t do much to help whatever slim chances he had of returning next season. Defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth sounded ready to cast a vote for someone else.
“I don’t think really this team is that bad. The players ain’t that bad,” said Haynesworth, who drew a personal foul for throwing a haymaker at Brandon Jacobs in the fourth quarter. “The score, the record, (they) say that we’re horrible, that we don’t know how to play football. But I’ve been around these guys a lot and I think they know how to play football. I think we’re just all going in different directions, and we need somebody to lead us in the right direction.”
Eli Manning played seven possessions before taking an early seat in the fourth quarter. New York scored on six of them. He completed 19 of 26 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. His 26 scoring passes this season are a career high.
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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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.