Texans QB Deshaun Watson says Broncos DB Kareem Jackson played with a lot of energy

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson says Denver Broncos defensive back and ex-teammate Kareem Jackson played with tremendous energy in Week 14.

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson saw a different force from his former teammate, Kareem Jackson, when he faced the Denver Broncos Sunday at NRG Stadium.

According to the Pro Bowler, the 31-year-old Jackson played with an abundance of energy as his new team came away with the 38-24 victory over the club that drafted him in Round 1 of the 2010 NFL draft.

“He had a lot of energy, made a lot of plays,” Watson told reporters. “He was jacked up. This is his home away from home pretty much and he was excited to come back. So, he did a good job today.”

The former Texan collected 11 tackles, a tackle for loss, three pass breakups, an interception, and returned a lateral on a fumble 70 yards for a touchdown. Jackson also had an uncanny instinct to know where Watson was going with the football as he stopped tight end Darren Fells for no gain on a third-and-1 reception and also came away with another interception when Watson threw his hot route.

With Jackson and his statement game against his former team in the past, the Texans will have to get over it as they have a Week 15 showdown with the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium next Sunday.

Spencer Dinwiddie: Defense and scrappiness Nets’ ‘hallmark’

With Kyrie Irving and Caris LeVert out, the Brooklyn Nets continue to find different ways to win games.

Last time the Brooklyn Nets played the Denver Nuggets before Sunday’s matchup, they lost, even though they had Kyrie Irving — who was dealing with the early stages of his right shoulder impingement. Brooklyn also had to take on Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray without Caris LeVert in the previous contest.

The Nets didn’t have either on Sunday. In the end, Brooklyn found a way to knock off the tough Western Conference opponent without their elite backcourt.

While Spencer Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen continue to provide offense for the Nets, the team’s scoring is not what defines this group without Irving and LeVert. After the win, Dinwiddie explained what makes the team tick and why they’ve found success without their stars:

The guys that are still in this locker room, not only believe, but know that we can compete at a high level. Coaching staff knows that. As long as we play defense, as long as we hold people to around a hundred points, we feel like we can score enough to win. That’s gonna kind of be the hallmark of this group: defense and, kinda, that scrappiness.

Phillip Fulmer discusses Tennessee’s process of accepting Gator Bowl invite

2020 Gator Bowl: Tennessee-Indiana

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee will conclude the 2019 season with a matchup against Indiana in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET on Jan. 2 at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.

Following the announcement of the Tennessee-Indiana matchup, UT’s Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer discussed the Vols playing in the Gator Bowl and how close they were in heading to the Music City Bowl.

“Nashville would have been a fantastic destination,” Fulmer said. “It is a great venue, a great place and in-state. The conference commissioner, in the end, makes the decision to ask for our preferences and we went back and forth a couple of times of what was best, and at the end I think we landed in the right place for this football team for this particular time.”

Fulmer also mentioned that the Gator Bowl is getting “the hottest team” as the Vols have won five consecutive contests.

“It played out very well,” Fulmer said. “There’s a process in place, starting with the College Football Playoff, things kind of fell where they did and being in the group that we were in, I think the Gator Bowl got the hottest team right now.”

How to Watch Seahawks vs. Rams, NFL Week 14 Live Stream, Schedule, TV Channel, Start Time

Watch Seahawks vs. Rams Live Online.

While the Seattle Seahawks (12-2) sit atop the NFC West standings heading into Week 14, they are far from clear at the top thanks to stiff competition from the San Francisco 49ers. However, don’t count out the Los Angeles Rams (7-5), who sit in third in the division. In this Sunday Night Football showdown, the Seahawks and Rams meet for the second time this season. The Seahawks won a tight 30-29 contest in October. 

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Seahawks vs. Rams

When: Sunday, December 8

Time: 8:20 p.m. ET

TV: NBC

Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

The Seahawks earned their fifth straight win last week when they bested the Minnesota Vikings 37-30 on Monday Night Football. Despite falling behind 17-10 at halftime, the Seahawks scored 24 unanswered points to pull ahead for good. They had the ball for nearly 40 minutes of the game with their 218 yards on the ground propelling them to victory. Seattle also played a clean game, committing just one penalty in the contest.

Los Angeles dominated the Arizona Cardinals their last time out, getting a 34-7 victory over their division foes. Jared Goff threw for 424 yards and two touchdowns in the game, as the young quarterback looked like the player the Rams hoped he’d be rather than the struggling signal caller that has hurt the team’s chances at times this season. Up against a tougher opponent on Sunday night, the Rams will need Goff to play at a similar level against Seattle to stay in the playoff hunt.

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Fans react to Jags’ poor first half performance vs. Chargers with frustrations at an all-time high

Jags fans weren’t happy with the team’s first half performance against the Chargers. In fact, the game can’t end soon enough.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have gotten off to another embarrassing start and entered the half of Week 14’s game down 24-3. That quickly turned into a 31-3 deficit in the third quarter and fans have let their voices be heard about the product on the field.

Below are just some of the few fan reactions from the Jags poor showing in the first half:

Talk about an angry fanbase. But then again, can they really be blamed at this point?

The Jags poor showing in the first half wasn’t shocking, unfortunately. When looking at their 10 quarters heading into the half, they had been outscored by a deficit of 150-50.

With just under two minutes left in the third quarter, they will need a holiday miracle to close their current deficit of 37-10.

Titans S Kenny Vaccaro OUT with concussion vs. Raiders

Safety Amani Hooker is in at safety in Vaccaro’s place, opposite of Kevin Byard.

Tennessee Titans safety Kenny Vaccaro has been ruled OUT for the remainder of Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders with a concussion.

Safety Amani Hooker is in at safety in Vaccaro’s place, opposite of Kevin Byard.

The Titans and Raiders remain tied in Oakland with just over 11 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Despite past barbs, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban stay congenial in first VRBO Citrus Bowl presser

In the first media appearances since the matchup announcement, despite trading barbs 3.5 years ago, the two head coaches were congenial.

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Michigan gets the daunting task of taking on Alabama in the VRBO Citrus Bowl come Jan. 1 in Orlando, and while the Wolverines have played in the game, and have also played head coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide in the past decade, this will be the first meeting between Saban and Jim Harbaugh — which is sure to draw a lot of attention.

Naturally, some of it will come because of both of their bombastic personalities, as both tend to garner national attention on a semi-weekly basis, as-is.

But also, there was this back in 2016, when Nick Saban spoke out about Harbaugh and the satellite camps he was running.

And because the poster child for satellite camps is Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh — who seems to be holding a camp in every state in the union every day of the upcoming month of June — of course his name came up.

“I’m not blaming Jim Harbaugh, I’m not saying anything about him,” Saban said, his quotes published over at Dr. Saturday. “I’m just saying it’s bad for college football. Jim Harbaugh can do whatever he wants to do. I’m not saying anything bad about him if he thinks that’s what’s best. There needs to be somebody that looks out for what’s best for the game, not what’s best for the Big Ten or what’s best for the SEC, or what’s best for Jim Harbaugh, but what’s best for the game of college football — the integrity of the game, the coaches, the players and the people that play it. That’s bigger than all of this.”

And naturally, Harbaugh, who was very active on Twitter back in those days, firing back at any rival coach who dared draw his ire — well — fired back.

But now that the two teams are facing off in less than a month, neither would take any of the bait.

Saban was asked simply of his impressions of Harbaugh and if he has any kind of relationship with him, and while he says he doesn’t, he does offer up some respect and admiration.

“I have a lot of respect for Jim,” Saban said. “I think he’s a great coach and has done a great job at Michigan. Done a great job every place he’s been prior to that. We have a lot of respect for the University of Michigan, their program and their tradition, and the job he’s done as a coach. I don’t know Jim Harbaugh all that well, but I do have a tremendous amount of respect for him.”

Conversely, Harbaugh was asked directly about the incident back in 2016, but he wouldn’t bite — just as he usually won’t in advance of a game.

Per usual, Harbaugh kept things quite congenial, especially not looking to rile the most decorated head coach in modern college football history.

“Good, professional and very cordial every time I’ve been around him,” Harbaugh said. “Which has been a few of the Heisman ceremonies and a basketball game pretty long time ago. Been a coach who’s admired the career and the job that he’s done.”

Of course, Harbaugh sees various challenges in facing Alabama, thus game planning has already started in earnest.

The VRBO Citrus Bowl will take place Jan. 1 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida at 1PM EST. The game will be nationally broadcast on ABC.

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Wisconsin-Oregon in the Rose Bowl is the best NY6 game

Early reflections on Wisconsin versus Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

The Wisconsin Badgers will face the Oregon Ducks in the first Rose Bowl of the new decade. Wisconsin and Oregon play on the first day of 2020 in Pasadena, California, giving the Granddaddy a rematch of the 2012 game won by Chip Kelly and the Ducks over Russell Wilson and the Badgers in a fun shootout.

Will this 2020 UW-UO game be as fun as 2012? That’s a high bar to clear. Don’t expect as many points in this game. However, one can still make a very convincing case that this is the best New Year’s Six bowl game of them all.

First, let’s knock down the lesser members of the New Year’s Six. Florida versus four-loss Virginia in the Orange Bowl? Yawn. Memphis versus Penn State in the Cotton? I have seen better matchups than that, to say the least. Baylor versus Georgia in the Sugar? Those two offenses have looked bad for large portions of the 2019 college football season. Georgia didn’t care about playing Texas in last season’s Sugar Bowl, so why would the Dawgs care about this Sugar Bowl trip?

Let’s look at the College Football Playoff semifinals. They might be very exciting games. However, many people will pick LSU to beat Oklahoma by 25 or 30 points in the Peach Bowl. That game could easily become a dud. Then we arrive at the one game which, to be honest, could be seen as better than Wisconsin-Oregon. Ohio State-Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl does have the potential to be an absolute classic.

Yet, what do we know about Clemson and Ohio State? We know that Clemson shut out OSU in the previous Fiesta Bowl semifinal between the two teams. We know that Clemson, if not playing Alabama (in the 2017 season) in the semifinals, has dump-trucked its semifinal opponents.

Clemson beat Oklahoma in the 2015 semifinals by 20 points. Clemson destroyed Ohio State in 2016. Clemson annihilated Notre Dame in the 2018 semifinals. None of those three games were close. Maybe Ohio State brings its A-game and creates an epic semifinal. that could happen. If you were to say that OSU-Clemson is the best of the New Year’s Six, you will get no argument from me.

Yet: If you were to ask me a more specific question — namely, “Which NY6 game has the best chance of being a good game?” — I think Wisconsin-Oregon in the Rose is the best answer.

This game reminds me of the 2014 Rose Bowl between Michigan State and Stanford. Both of those teams were very physical and hard-hitting, as Oregon and Wisconsin are. Oregon is not what it was under Chip Kelly in the early part of this decade, when the Ducks previous met the Badgers in Pasadena. That was a team (and program) based a lot more on perimeter speed. This Oregon team, under Mario Cristobal, emphasizes offensive line play and the ability to knock teams off the ball. Chip Kelly was rooted a lot more in the need to get his skill players in space and use tempo as a weapon. This UO team doesn’t have that same identity.

If this game is similar to the 2014 Michigan State-Stanford Rose Bowl, viewers will get a quality game. If the Big Ten can win this Rose Bowl just as Michigan State won six years ago, Wisconsin fans will be very happy.

Ohio State-Clemson COULD be a much better game, sure. However, if you want a game which is the most likely to satisfy, Wisconsin versus Oregon is the New Year’s Six game to choose this bowl season.

12 of the best games of the 2019 NFL season

The Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens were among the teams in the NFL best games of 2019.

The San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints put on an incredible offensive display for 60 minutes in the Big Easy Sunday before the Niners came away with a 48-46 victory. This sets the bar for 2019 NFL games. Here are some of the others for the year-end highlight reel.

Saints 30, Texans 28

AP Photo/Butch Dill

New Orleans wound up on the winning end of this score in Week 1. It appeared as if the Saints were headed for defeat when Kenny Stills caught a 37-yard TD pass from Deshaun Watson with 43 seconds left. Drew Brees led a stirring final drive that set up a field-goal attempt in the final seconds. Will Lutz was true from 58 yards. It was the third score in the final minute as Lutz had kicked field goal from 47 yards with 55 seconds left.

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3 takeaways from Packers’ 20-15 victory over Redskins

The Green Bay Packers are 10-3, so that’s good. There’s a realistic chance they could double up their win total from a year ago. A double-digit win total doesn’t happen by mistake. But the NFL is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, and if the …

The Green Bay Packers are 10-3, so that’s good. There’s a realistic chance they could double up their win total from a year ago. A double-digit win total doesn’t happen by mistake.

But the NFL is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, and if the Packers continue to play the way they have been, they’ll be one-and-done in the playoffs. It would be a hard pill to swallow for a team that pushed a lot of its financial chips in for the back nine of Aaron Rodgers’ career. They have a prime opportunity to make some post-season noise, but can they?

For the second straight week, the Packers granted an NFC East basement dweller some free rent. The Packers wouldn’t evict the Washington Redskins until Mason Crosby connected on a 33-yard field goal after the Packers chewed up over seven minutes of game clock. The two-score lead wouldn’t hold as Terry McLaurin would catch a touchdown pass during the corresponding two-minute drill, but the game was more or less in the books at that point.

The Packers played quite well in two of the three phases today. The Redskins had a respectable yards-per-rush number (4.3), but a bulk of that came on a Derrius Guice 24-yard rush. Aside from that, the Packers’ defense held the Redskins’ offense in check.

As Aaron Rodgers said afterward, Sunday could be just another “ugly” win en route to a Super Bowl, but it could also be a stark reminder of why you want to be playing your best football in December.

Let’s cheers to the former.

Special teams turnaround

One of Brian Gutekunst’s attributes as a general manager has been his consistent churning of the bottom of the roster. This week, we’re seeing the benefit.

After watching Darrius Shepherd and Tremon Smith try and fail to give the Packers any juice returning punts, Gutekunst claimed Tyler Ervin this week. The results speak for themselves.

Ervin returned four punts for 51 yards (an average of 12.8 yards per return). The Packers were trending in the “historically bad” territory prior to Ervin’s work today. Ervin’s first return of 10 yards was the team’s longest of the season, illustrating just how putrid the punt return game has been up to this point.

Second-year punter JK Scott also continued his upward trend. After a nice game last week, Scott kicked the ball well again. Scott pinned two of his four punts inside the 20-yard line.

Mason Crosby was again a model of consistency, making both of his kicks, including the fourth-quarter game-sealing field goal to go ahead two scores.

Offense sputters again

Whatever the plan is on offense for the Packers, it’s not working very well.

Facing a bottom-third defense, Aaron Rodgers started out fast, getting the team to a quick 14-0 lead. Then? A whole lot of nothing.

The Packers reverted to their heavy shotgun formation and scramble offense to “get back on track.” After their second touchdown: Punt, Fumble, Field Goal, Punt, Punt, Field Goal.

Asked after the game if he’s concerned about the offense, Rodgers said he is not.

“I wouldn’t mind winning ugly all the way to the Super Bowl,” Rodgers said at his post-game press conference.

Rodgers finished 18 for 28 passing for 195 yards and one touchdown. As is tradition, Rodgers didn’t throw an interception, but he took four sacks, totaling 28 yards. On a day where Rodgers was averaging under 7.0 yards per attempt, it might have been wise for Matt LaFleur to keep the offense running through Jones, with the quarterback consistently under center.

The Packers are an enigmatic bunch, because some games – or stretches, rather – they look like they can compete with anyone. A few minutes later, they look like they can’t move the ball against anyone.

At their apex – the stretch that includes Philadelphia, Dallas, the first quarter against Minnesota and Oakland – the Packers fired on all cylinders, their offensive output indicative of a Super Bowl contender. But that hasn’t been the case since, perhaps, the Kansas City game.

At first glance, it appears that this team falls into its offensive morass when it settles into a spread-em-out, shotgun formation offense. The football isn’t delivered within the rhythm of the play, second-reaction plays are hit-or-miss, and any sense of tempo is lost.

The Packers face a stout defense next with the Chicago Bears, who are also suddenly receiving competent quarterback play. If the Packers can’t find their way out of this rut, they could be in for a rude awakening. Ugly or not, it would be wise for LaFleur to get the offense back in rhythm.

Defense makes life tough for rookie quarterback

The Washington Redskins had won back-to-back games going into this week’s matchup, but it’s hard to say that was because their offense inexplicably metamorphosed into a juggernaut.

It’s true that rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins has improved as of late, but the Packers did what they were supposed to do on defense. Early and often, Mike Pettine sent pressure into the face of Haskins. With a bum leg, Haskins struggled to maneuver the pocket after the rush moved him off his spot. Haskins already struggles to quickly filter through his progressions, so it was pleasing to see the Packers make his life uncomfortable. With the Packers applying the clamps well enough against the rush, Haskins had little else to work with.

The effort was led by the defensive line, including standout performances from Kenny Clark and, you guessed it, Za’Darius Smith. In total, Haskins was sacked four times. Clark is credited with 1.5 sacks and two quarterback hits. Za’Darius Smith didn’t have a sack, officially, but he still recorded one tackle for loss and one quarterback hit. Even when he’s not filling out the stat sheet he’s making an impact on the game.

Adrian Amos also contributed with an interception late in the first half. Jaire Alexander, shadowing Terry McLaurin, more or less erased Haskins’ favorite target until late in the game with the Redskins down two scores.