WATERCOOLER CHAT: MNF WRAPUP, JANIKOWSKI TIES RECORD, DJOKOVIC WINS OPEN
FOOTBALL When football returns, so does MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. And on opening weekend, we’ve been treated the past few weekends to two featured games.First up, the Miami Dolphins hosting the New England Patriots. There were a lot of questions circling the Dolphins in the pre-season, such as “Is Chad Henne really a starting quarterback?” and “Could the Dolphins even legitimately compete this season?” — so the Dolphins had all the motivation they needed to take on the Patriots. They got out to a hot start, with Chad Henne running for a touchdown and zipping a TD to Brian Hartline. The Dolphins hung in with the Pats for a while. Even in the second half, when the Pats were starting to pull away, Henne remained productive marching down the field for another TD (from new addition Reggie Bush). But the star of the game — guess, who? Tom Brady. Brady threw a remarkable 517 yards and 4 touchdowns! He was simply on fire out there, and connected twice with his favorite target Wes Welker. The Patriots offense will be very hard to stop this season. New England 38, Miami 24. Next up, the Denver Broncos hosting the Oakland Raiders. The Broncos decided in the pre-season that Kyle Orton was their man. However, during the game, the Broncos were playing quite poorly, and the home crowd started “Tim Tebow” chants. Clearly they forgot his putrid pre-season performance. The Broncos stuck with Orton and he eventually started playing well. However, the Raiders defensive line was all powerful, putting an intense amount of pressure on Orton, even causing a few careless fumbles. The Raiders, despite myriad meaningless penalties, actually looked pretty good. Darren McFadden posted 150 yards on the ground, and their kicker, Sebastian Janikowski, got a shot at a 63-yard field goal and NAILED IT! He’s now tied in the record books for the longest field goal. And in the end, the Raiders held on for a win, and are finally poised for a playoff run this year. Oakland 23, Denver 20.TENNISAnd finally, in the finals of the U.S. Open, arguably the biggest of the major tennis tournaments, it was a much anticipated match-up between #1 Novak Djokovic and #2 Rafael Nadal. Coming into the match, Nadal was 0-5 vs. Djokovich this year. And looking at this match, it was clear that Djokovich is seriously in command of this rivalry. Nadal kept it close for starters, even forcing a tie breaker in the 3rd set, but later on, Djokovich simply crushed him. With the win, Djokovic has put together an incredible year with 3 GRAND SLAMS. He is completely in control of tennis right now. So how long can he go?
|
