Getting it done when it matters

Man that was a clutch performance! With only seconds left it seemed like it was destined to happen, then in a flash it looked like it couldn't possibly happen. Then things changed once again and when the final buzzer sounded they had pulled off a win. Nope, not talking about the Patriots, but the Blazers, who picked up their first road win of the season behind two clutch shots by Travis Outlaw in the last 15 seconds to beat Memphis 106-105. With 15 seconds left Outlaw hit a 3 to put the Blazers up by one, but a Rudy Gay tip-in with only 2.8 seconds left put the Blazers back down by one and seemingly headed for their 9 road loss of the season. But Outlaw came through again, dropping in a short runner as the buzzer sounded. Outlaw said after the game he was just trying to get fouled, but hey, sometimes you get lucky. Outlaw finished with 21 points on 8-13 shooting, including 3-3 on tres. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 49 more. The Blazers play 4 of their next 5 at home.

As for the Patriots/Ravens games, thats two weeks in a row the Patriots have been taken to the max. This time the Patriots escaped thanks to a few penalties, a few Baltimore mistakes, and some questionable play-calling at the end of the game. They all combined to allow the Patriots to head back home to Boston with their 12th win of the season. Baltimore's defense looked like the Raven's of old though, and for the second week in a row, Brady was harassed and rushed and kept in check. After taking down quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, and Carson Palmer, the Patriots have nearly lost two games in a row to AJ Feeley and Kyle Boller. I'm not sure if that bodes well for Ben(I'm not using his last name the rest of the year as a tribute to Bill Simmons) and the Steelers or not. I gotta say though, if New England loses that game last night, they would probably have been so pissed they would have destroyed the Steelers next week, but now the Steel City D should be able to keep Brady on his toes. If you look at the stats, it is shaping up to be an epic battle as the Steelers are #1 in the NFL on defense in points, yards, passing yards. All categories in which the Patriots are #1 in the league on offense. The Steeler D has a slight edge in rushing yards at #2 on defense(the Patriots are #8 on offense). To use an overused phrase the last couple weeks, we have the blueprint for beating the Patriots: get to Brady, keep Moss contained, and control the ball, now the Steelers just have to execute and avoid mistakes.

I'd also like to link to Dan Steinberg's post picking apart ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd who has been pretty unrelenting concerning Sean Taylor's death. Couldn't agree with Dan more. Cowherd is mildly entertaining at times, but there is a time to shut the fuck up. That time was sometime last week Colin.