In Monday Night Football it was an almost perfect night for Alex Smith as the San Francisco 49ers flexed their NFC West dominance with a 24-3 flattening of the Arizona Cardinals.
Smith completed 18 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns two to Michael Crabtree and one to Randy Moss, as San Francisco (6-2) opened a two-game lead in the division and sent Arizona (4-4) to its fourth straight lost.
As we’ve come up on the mid-point in the NFL season coaches around the league are reassessing their strategy. Jet’s coach Rex Ryan is sticking with Mark Sanchez as starting quarterback, but adds the coaching staff will look at "everything" during the bye week because the team has "no wiggle room." The Jets fell to 3-5 with an ugly 30-9 loss Sunday that left Ryan searching for answers and fans chanting for Tim Tebow to replace Sanchez. Ryan says Sanchez is "our guy," and believes the fourth-year quarterback still gives the Jets the best chance to win. Ryan acknowledges that he and his coaches will explore how Tebow can be used more after the versatile backup saw minimal playing time during the season's first half. The Jets have games at Seattle and St. Louis after the break, followed by a home game on Thanksgiving against New England.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin isn’t relaxing much either despite Big Blue’s 2 ½ game lead in the NFC East. The Giants have come away with a series of clutch if not lucky wins this season, most notably this past Sunday’s 29-24 win over the Cowboys, earned after blowing a 23-point lead and eeking out the win on a reversed touchdown call for the Cowboys after replays showed Dez Bryant’s finger landing out of bounds on the catch.
The San Francisco Giants’ World Series sweep of the Tigers was, perhaps literally, too easy. The series scored a record low in television ratings. The four games on Fox averaged a 7.6 rating, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. The previous low was an 8.4 for the 2008 Phillies-Rays and 2010 Giants-Rangers series, which each went five games.
It’s opening night for the NBA, Championship Miami Heat host the Celtics, The Wizards will play in Cleveland against the Cavaliers and the Mavericks and Lakers play in Los Angeles tonight. The Knicks and now-Brooklyn Nets open their seasons with an inter-borough matchup on Thursday.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press