NFL:
On Sunday in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles stunned the New England Patriots 35-28. The Pats have blown 14-point leads in consecutive weeks. And now they are tied with Cincinnati and Denver for best record in the AFC at 10-2. It's the first time the Pats have lost back-to-back regular season games since 2012. The Jets beat the Giants in overtime 23-20, and Buffalo topped Houston 30-21.
Meanwhile Pittsburgh won against Indianapolis 45-10, Arizona defeated St. Louis 27-3, Miami trumped Baltimore 15-13, Cincinnati crushed Cleveland 37-3, Tennessee beat Jacksonville 42-39, Seattle beat Minnesota 38-7, and Kansas City won against Oakland 34-20. The Carolina Panthers are 12-0 for the first time in franchise history after toppling New Orleans 41-38.
Tonight on Monday Night Football, the Cowboys are in Washington to face the Redskins at 8:30.
NBA:
In the NBA, Golden State is now 22-0 extending its 26-0 winning streak by downing Brooklyn 114-98, Detroit bested the Lakers 111-91, Oklahoma City beat Sacramento 98-95, Dallas topped Washington 116-104, and it was Memphis over Phoenix 95-93.
NHL:
In the NHL, the Rangers beat Ottawa 4-1, Edmonton doubled up Buffalo 4-2, New Jersey topped Florida 4-2, Chicago won against Winnipeg 3-1, Carolina edged Arizona 5-4, Anaheim skated past Pittsburgh 2-1, and it was Los Angeles over Tampa Bay 3-1.
NCAA:
To nobody's surprise, Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma are the four schools in the second annual College Football Playoff. Clemson will face Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl while in the Cotton Bowl Alabama will go against Michigan State in the national semifinals on New Year's Eve. The National Championship will be on Jan 11th at 8:30.
Clemson also is the near-unanimous pick in the final regular-season Associated Press poll. The Tigers got 59 first-place votes with second-ranked Alabama getting nine and third-ranked Michigan State one. Oklahoma and Stanford round out the top five.
Locally:
In men’s college basketball, Saint Peter's held off Siena for a 72-68 win yesterday. Quadir Welton scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Chazz Patterson added a career-high 17 points, and Antwon Portley had 11 for Saint Peter's, which has won its first two conference games for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
UMass Lowell beat Boston College 68-66 yesterday. Isaac White hit four 3-pointers in the second half and made 1 of 2 free throws with 4.2 seconds left to lead all scorers with 20 points. BC played without leading scorer Eli Carter and leading rebounder Dennis Clifford, who were in uniform on the bench but unavailable.
MLB:
The general manager of the New York Yankees and Yogi Berra's granddaughter have rappelled down the side of a Stamford, Connecticut, high-rise in what has become an annual holiday tradition. The Stamford Advocate reports a spotlight shone on Brian Cashman and Lindsay Berra as they travelled down the 22-story Landmark Square building just after sundown yesterday. Berra donned a Mrs. Claus outfit, and Cashman dressed in a costume as "Cash the elf."
A person with direct knowledge of the deal says free agent pitcher Ryan Madson has agreed to a three-year, $22 million contract with the Athletics. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a physical was still needed to finalize the deal. Madson went 1-2 with a 2.13 ERA in 68 outings and 63 1-3 innings for the World Series champion Kansas City Royals this past season.
In other baseball doings:
— It looks like the Mets and Yoenis Cespedes (yoh-EHN'-ehs SEHS'-peh-dehs) are parting ways. Assistant Mets GM John Ricco says it's "unlikely" the Mets will pursue the free agent outfielder who helped the Mets make their first World Series appearance since 2000.
— Free-agent pitcher Mike Pelfrey has finalized a $16 million, two-year contract with the Detroit Tigers, who also added catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia (sahl-tah-lah-MAH'-kee-ah) for the major league minimum of $507,500.
Olympics:
The grassroots activists who upended Boston's well-funded and star-studded Olympic bid are exporting their expertise. Leaders of No Boston 2024 and No Boston Olympics are showing opposition groups elsewhere how they helped turn public opinion against the city's bid for the 2024 summer games, forcing organizers to withdraw.
Olympic organizers in Japan say they have received more than 14,000 applications for the design of the new logo for the 2020 Tokyo Games by Monday's deadline. The emblem selection committee plans to choose 100 to 200 candidates by the end of the year and will narrow the list down by Jan. 9. The new logo will be unveiled next spring.
The initial emblem was scrapped over accusations of plagiarism. It came under intense scrutiny because of its similarity to the logo of a theater in Belgium. The emblem's designer, Kenjiro Sano, stood by his design but offered to withdraw the logo when allegations surfaced that he may have used material for other designs.
Tokyo organizers also scrapped the logo for the Paralympic Games, which was also designed by Sano.
MLS:
Diego Valeri scored at the 27-second mark for the fastest goal in MLS Cup history and the Portland Timbers won the league title for the first time, beating the Columbus Crew 2-1. Rodney Wallace made it 2-0 in the seventh minute. The Crew's Kei Kamara scored in the 18th minute to finish the scoring.
FIFA:
The FBI is investigating Sepp Blatter's role in a kickbacks scandal that involved his predecessor as FIFA president, Joao Havelange. That's what the BBC reported Sunday. The BBC said it will air a program Monday with evidence that indicates Blatter knew about millions of dollars in bribes being paid out to senior FIFA officials in the 1990s by sports marketing company ISL in return for television and marketing rights.
Golf:
Bubba Watson won the PGA's Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas by three shots over Patrick Reed. Each man shot a 6-under-66 in the final round but Watson completed play at 25-under-par. Rickie Fowler was third at minus-21 with Jordan Spieth, the defending champ finishing play at 20-under.
Speedskating:
It was another 1-2 finish for Americans in a women's 1,500 meter speedskating World Cup event. In Germany, Brittany Bowe beat Heather Richardson-Bergsma to win the race in a time of 1 minute, 54.68 seconds. Bowe also won the 1,000 meters race on Saturday. Overall, she leads Richardson-Bergsma by 20 points in the standings after three races.
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