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
PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Steelers finally won the kind of close game they’ve been losing at home all season. The problem was it wasn’t supposed to be nearly this difficult, not against a depleted Ravens team whose season already seems to be fading away.
Jeff Reed kicked a 37-yard field goal with 1:36 remaining after Ben Roethlisberger opened each half with touchdown passes to rookie tight end Heath Miller, and the Steelers held off the injury-weakened Ravens 20-19 Monday night to tighten up the AFC North race.
But only with a sigh of relief did Pittsburgh (5-2) stay within a half-game of division leader Cincinnati. The Ravens (2-5) were without the last two NFL Defensive Players of the Year, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, and, seemingly, much chance of ending what now is a seven-game road losing streak, but nearly pulled out a game it seemed only they thought they had a chance to win.
“But our players know,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. “This is still Baltimore. They still have some good players, and their coach challenged them and they responded.”
The Ravens, two-touchdown underdogs, took a 19-17 lead after an uncharacteristic botched play by Pittsburgh’s special teams, a failed punt attempt in which rookie Greg Warren’s snap to Chris Gardocki deflected off upback Sean Morey and resulted in Gardocki’s incomplete pass.
“It’s a first,” Cowher said, saying Warren mistakenly snapped the ball early. “But we were holding them to field goals rather than touchdowns and got a chance to win it in the end.”
Thanks to the mixup, the Ravens got the ball at the Steelers 45 with 5½ minutes to play and a chance to steal a victory in a stadium where they haven’t won since 2001. Matt Stover followed with his fourth field goal, a 47-yarder with 3:21 remaining that gave the Ravens their first lead — and, to the crowd of 64,178, brought back unpleasant memories of a 23-17 overtime loss to Jacksonville and a last-play 23-20 loss to New England at Heinz Field earlier this season.
“I looked at Ben and said, ‘This is what it’s all about,”’ Cowher said. “He kind of smiled and has a look of confidence about him.”
Roethlisberger (18-of-30, 177 yards, one interception) then hit Antwaan Randle El for 14 yards and Quincy Morgan for 23 yards, and Jerome Bettis had an 11-yard run on the 60-yard drive that led to Reed’s go-ahead field goal.
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Baltimore had one more chance to win it, but Anthony Wright’s fourth-and-6 pass from his own 47 fell at Chester Taylor’s feet and the Steelers ran out the clock. Wright was 25-of-44 for 252 yards and two interceptions as running back Jamal Lewis, a 2,000-yard back two years ago, was held below 100 yards for the seventh consecutive game.
“I defy anybody to show me one frame of film that doesn’t show us playing as hard as we could,” Ravens coach Brian Billick said. “This group of guys had a lot of circumstances working against them, but they almost beat one of the best teams in the league.”
The Steelers are 11-0 in Monday night home games under Cowher and Roethlisberger, who was hit on the right knee during the first half and seemed to be bothered the rest of the game, is 18-1 as a regular-season starter.
“I caught a cleat,” Roethlisberger said. “They’re going to take a look at it tomorrow and, hopefully, it will be nothing.”
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Baltimore seemed to be in trouble at the start as the Steelers drove 79 yards on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead on Miller’s 4-yard touchdown catch. Baltimore, winless on the road for 350 days, couldn’t have liked this, down 7-0 away from home against their biggest rivals before an offense that hadn’t scored a touchdown in seven quarters got the ball.
But a pregame pep talk from owner Steve Bisciotti was credited by the players as helping them think they could win.
“I think that got us all pumped up,” linebacker Bart Scott said. “He wanted to win as much as anybody in the locker room. We were missing some pretty big guys, but I think we did a darned good job against them.”
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.
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