Month: November 2019

Baker Mayfield: win over Bills ‘can get us going here’

Browns QB Baker Mayfield believes the Week 10 win over the Buffalo Bills ‘can get us going here’

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A composed, measured Baker Mayfield addressed the media after the Cleveland Browns’ 19-16 win over the Buffalo Bills. Wearing a knit cap and an approachable demeanor, the Browns QB described how he believes the win can launch something big for the team.

“We didn’t play perfect by any means,” Mayfield said. “We can still learn from the film and move forward and improve. But having a tight victory against a great team is something that we needed — especially at home.”

Mayfield played well in the win. He completed 26 of his 38 pass attempts, netting 238 yards and two TDs. It was the first game of the season where Mayfield threw for multiple touchdowns. He did not turn the ball over, either.

The second-year QB seemed relieved at the win as he continued,

“We kind of got the monkey off our back with that one. First one, at home, in game nine is not something usually that happens but it can get us going from here.”

The Browns don’t get long to savor the victory. They host the rival Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of four in a row, on Thursday Night Football this week.

Why in the world did the Dallas Cowboys have Tavon Austin fair catch this punt in final minute?

Tavon Austin could have taken this to the house.

Tavon Austin has been known as a pretty good punt returner during his lengthy NFL career, which made this decision in the final minute of Sunday night’s Cowboys-Vikings game all the more baffling.

The Vikings, who ended up winning the game 28-24, punted the ball away with under 30 seconds remaining. The ball sailed to Austin who called for a fair catch at Dallas’ 46 yard line. If you missed this sequence you’re probably wondering what the big deal was.

Well, just look at how much room he had to run if he decided to return the punt. Because he had all the room in the world:

Austin had all the blocks in front of him to do something special. Instead, the Cowboys took over in their own territory and ended up losing the game four plays later when Dak Prescott threw a pick on fourth-and-1 from Minnesota’s 45 yard line.

Apparently he was told by the Dallas coaches to fair catch it, which is just some incredibly bad coaching, even if the Cowboys didn’t have any time outs left and wanted as much time as they could for their offense to try to get the game-winning score.

NFL fans couldn’t believe it:

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Savvy Raptors snap Lakers streak despite LeBron’s triple-double

The Raptors turned on the afterburners in the second half and showed their championship pedigree in the win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Anthony Davis had 27 points and four blocks while LeBron James recorded his fourth triple-double of the season with 13 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds but the defending champion Toronto Raptors snapped the Los Angeles Lakers seven-game win streak on Sunday, 111-102.

Pascal Siakam led the Raptors with 24 points, including a couple of huge transition baskets in the final seconds of the game when the Lakers had cut the Raptors lead to just four points in the final two minutes to seal the game.

After the Lakers jumped out to an 11-point lead in early in the first quarter, the Raptors showed their mettle by coming back to slice the Laker lead to just one point heading into the quarter. Energy plays and big shots by the Raptors bench helped neutralize what had been an otherwise terrible quarter.

The Lakers starters again asserted their dominance towards the end of the first half, with James coming close to a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds at halftime while Anthony Davis and Avery Bradley each scored nine points as well. In addition to the play of the starters, Troy Daniels broke out of a shooting slump to score 11 points off the bench in the first half. With the strong finish, L.A. led by eight at halftime.

The two teams continued to play to a standstill the fourth quarter when the Raptors showed their championship pedigree, going on a 13-3 run to go up by 10 with just over nine minutes left in the games. In addition to the strong play of VanVleet and Siakam, the Raptors got a major lift off the bench from Chris Boucher who had 15 points, three blocks and two steals.

The normally great Lakers bench didn’t make the same impact they have over the course of their seven-game win streak, even against a slightly depleted Raptors group missing both starting point guard Kyle Lowry and power forward Serge Ibaka.

Up next for the Lakers will be an interesting test against a surprisingly strong Suns team in Phoenix on Tuesday night.