The other player that had a really bad weekend was Miami Dolphins receiver Chad Johnson. Arrested on a domestic abuse charge, he was released by the team late Sunday night. New (old) name, same old dumb ass. What little fantasy value Chad Johnson had, is officially gone now and it will be interesting to see if his career is now over. So much for that Hall of Fame jacket Chad.
As for what you should have watched this weekend:
6. St. Louis Rams at Indianapolis Colts
Peyton who? It looks like Andrew Luck might have a future in football. He looked pretty damn good against an obviously flawed Rams team, but I won't let that dampen his first professional game. Luck finished 10/16 for 188 yards and 2 passing touchdowns including a 63 yard score to running back Donald Brown. Both Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning threw a touchdown on their first ever pass for the Colts...just sayin'. For St. Louis, Sam Bradford was efficiently unimpressive as he completed 7 of his 9 attempts, but for a paltry 57 yards. You can't read much into either stat line, but at least Bradford didn't get injured...yet. Andrew Luck will have plenty of great moments this season and he is bound to look like a rookie at times as well, so don't go too overboard just yet.
5. Washington Nationals at Arizona Diamondbacks
In a series that the Arizona Diamondbacks desperately needed to win, they entered Sunday hoping for a big start from rookie Patrick Corbin just to avoid being swept away. Stephen Strasburg dominated Arizona on Friday night and a 5 run fifth inning by the Nationals sunk them Saturday night. Corbin struck out 7 Nationals over seven very effective innings as Arizona ran away from Washington to salvage the final game of the series. The loss broke the Nationals 8 game winning streak, but they still hold a 4 game lead in the N.L. East. The Diamondbacks are five games out and in third place in the N.L. West.
4. Oakland Athletics at Chicago White Sox
This series had almost everything you could ask for in a series. A walk off win, some bad blood, a dominant pitching performance and a player popping his shoulder in after dislocating it and the getting the go ahead hit a half inning later....say what? Let's slow down and roll back the clock to Friday night. The Athletics jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but three solo home runs later the game was tied at 3 in the bottom of the ninth. That's where Jordan Danks hit his 1st career home run, a game winner for the White Sox. Also that night both Yoenes Cespedes and then later A.J. Pierzynksi were hit by pitches. Cespedes got hit a bit high, but just took his base like a professional. Pierzynski who had homered earlier felt the need to stare down Brandon McCarthy the whole way down to 1st like the douche he is. Sunday saw Chicago starter Chris Sale strike out 11 over 6.2 innings as he helped Chicago cruise to victory. In between the two White Sox victories, Brandon Inge became a cult hero in Oakland Saturday night. After blowing a 6-2 lead the Athletics and White Sox were tied at 6 in the bottom of the seventh. A hot shot down to 3rd was snagged by Inge who dislocated his shoulder on the dive. He then called time and popped it back into place and stayed in the game. The White Sox took the lead, but the inning ended on a double play started by Inge. He then came up in the top of the 8th after Oakland had rallied to tie it at 7 and hit the go ahead single as the Athletics held on to win 9-7. Although he'll probably end up on the DL, I don't think anyone in Oakland will forget that effort for a long time.
3. Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers
Detroit must have felt really good about their chances in this series after storming into Texas and taking game one behind a stellar effort from Max Scherzer and a big home run from Prince Fielder. With Justin Verlander on the mound, the Tigers had a prime opportunity to take the series and look for a sweep. Verlander did his part with 7 strong innings, but he was matched pitch for pitch (and then some) by Derek Holland. The game was ended by rookie sensation Mike Olt who singled with two outs in the ninth after a lengthy at bat. Sunday saw Yu Darvish continue his trend of pitching just well enough to get a win behind the powerful offense of the Rangers. He threw 120 pitches over 6.2 innings giving up 6 hits, 5 walks and struck out 8 batters, but managed to only give up 3 runs. Josh Hamilton hit a home run and the Rangers took advantage of some sloppy Detroit defense to pull away and take the series. The Tigers lost a game in the standings to the White Sox this weekend while the Rangers gained a game on both the Athletics and Angles who each lost their respective series.
2. PGA Championship
There's nothing like a crowded leader board on the back nine of a Major Championship in golf. Rory McIlroy was having none of that this weekend. After John Daly enthralled us on Thursday, he fell out of it with a bad Friday. Adam Scott suffered the same fate with a poor Friday and couldn't get things rolling on the weekend. Tiger Woods played very consistently on Friday and actually held the lead going into the weekend. In years past the tournament would have been over and Tiger would have run away with it. Well the winner won by a PGA Championship record 8 strokes, but it wasn't Tiger. Just like he did at the U.S. Open last year, Rory McIlroy looked like Tiger Woods of a decade ago. Once he got rolling, he didn't stop. He showed no mercy for his competitors and matched his 8 stroke victory from his only other Major victory.
The comparisons had already started between Woods and McIlroy, but now they will be the only thing spoken about for the rest of the golf season. Rory has two Major championships at a younger age than was Tiger when he had two. I assume the question on ESPN will be 'Is there a better chance at Tiger catching Jack Nicklaus in Major victories or Rory catching Tiger (or heaven forbid Jack)?'
1. Men's Olympic Basketball Semis/Finals
Gold or bust. That was the scenario for the United States once again this Olympics as it has been for at least my entire life, if not more. 2012 marked the 40 year anniversary for one of the darkest, most controversial moments in American Olympic history and it marked the 20 year anniversary of the most dominant team in Olympic history. There has never really been an in between option for our men's Olympic basketball teams.
On Friday, Spain outlasted a sluggish start to upend Russia to move into the gold medal game. There they would meet the winner of the U.S. vs. Argentina game. For the most part the first half of that game was closely contested with the Americans threatening to break away, but being thwarted. The second half is where the Americans finally put away pesky Argentina once and for all. They outscored Argentina by 19 points and cruised into Sunday's gold medal game.
Spain is no slouch, led by Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, they have a true NBA front line. As the game began, it was the 3 point shooting of Juan Carlos Navarro and the rest of Spain that caught the U.S. off guard. They made seven 3 point baskets in the first half alone and trailed mighty U.S. by just a single point at halftime. Outside of the barrage of 3's by Spain, the referees were the second most talked about item. There were 33 total fouls called in the first 20 minutes of play. Spain's coaching staff made an egregious error by leaving Marc Gasol on the court with three fouls and he picked up his fourth in the second quarter and didn't return until early in the 4th quarter.
Spain deserves credit, though, as even when that time came around the game was still close. Because of the proficiency from behind the arc, the American defense was stretched out and Pau Gasol took advantage in the second half. He scored with ease and kept Spain within arms reach until midway through the 4th quarter. That is where the overall depth of the American squad finally proved too much for Spain. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 30 points and LeBron James came up with a timely dunk and three point basket late to seal the gold medal. While it wasn't by blowout fashion a la 1992, the gold is all the same for the 2012 version.
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