Sippenforum » crazy league, and anythings possible, really.Just a

KINGSTON, R.I. -- A total of 364 days elapsed between games for No. 23 Rhode Islands E.C Matthews.Matthews, who missed all but 10 minutes of last season after tearing his right ACL, played like he never missed any time as he scored 21 points Friday night to key an 84-61 victory over Dartmouth in the season opener for both teams.It was amazing just being out there with my teammates, Matthews said after connecting on 75 percent (9-for-12) of his shots. I almost forgot because its been so long. You could feel the excitement in the air.Coach (Dan Hurley) had to calm me down. He called me last night to let me know just to let it come. It felt good to be back. Ive been doing this my whole life. Just being comfortable and reading and reacting and having a good pace are important.Matthews was one of a trio of Rams who scored in double figures.Hassan Martin recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds while Kuran Iverson added 11 points.Rhode Islands suffocating, man-to-man defense also factored in the Rams lop-sided victory.We got separation in the second half, Hurley said. We played a level of defense that was an elite defense. We held them to 35 percent from the field and forced 20 turnovers. Thats kind of who we are.The Big Green, who trailed 39-26 at halftime, was led by Evan Boudreauxs 14 points and Guilen Smiths 13.We got off to a slow start on defense, Hurley said. I thought we were jittery to start. At the first timeout we did not do a real good job but then we picked it up.We were hoping to have 22 to 24 steals. We wanted to keep them under 38 percent from the field and we did that. But our defense has to be an elite defense for us. We have a lot of athletes. We come at people in waves.BIG PICTUREDartmouth: First-year head coach Dave McLaughlin inherits a team that was 10-18 last season and includes six freshmen on its roster. In order for the Big Green to qualify for the Ivy Leagues first-ever, post-season tournament (the top four teams qualify) theyll have to improve on last seasons sixth-place finish.Rhode Island: After defeating Dartmouth, the Rams play home games against Marist College and Brown University which should give coach Dan Hurley an idea of the players he can count on to play meaningful minutes. That will be important because the Rams play a potential Top 25-calibre team in Cincinnati at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament at the Mohegan Sun Arena on November 19.POLL IMPLICATIONS: A lop-sided victory could ensure that Rhode Island remains ranked in the Top 25 and that the Rams may move up a notch in the next poll.STAT OF THE NIGHT: Rhode Island had 11 assists, turned the ball over 11 times and blocked 11 shots.STAR WATCH: Hassan Martin began the game as Rhode Islands career leader in field goal percentage (57.3 percent). That percentage should go up a couple of decimal points because Martin only missed one of his six shots.TURNING POINT: Rhode Island led 32-24 with 4:02 left in the first half when Christion Thompson stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a dunk. That play ignited a 21-6 run which gave the Rams a 53-30 lead. Dartmouth failed to get closer than the final score.ROLE PLAYER: Sophomore Nicole Akele came off the bench to score nine points in 17 minutes. Even though this only was one game, Akeles play may be an indication of Rhode Islands depth.SAME OLD STORY: The Big Green committed 401 turnovers last season and ranked seventh in the Ivy League in assist-to-turnover ratio. Dartmouth repeated that scenario by turning the ball over 20 times and assisting on only six baskets.UP NEXT;Dartmouth: The Big Green return home on November 15 to host Fairfield in another non-conference game. The Stags are coming off a 19-victory season during which they earned a post-season berth.Rhode Island: The Rams host Marist College on November 14. The Red Foxes, who lost to No. 1 Duke on Friday, finished 7-23 last season and 4-16 in the MAAC Frank Mason Bucks Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Ray Allen Jersey .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. https://www.bucksrookiesshop.com/Ersan-Ilyasova-City-Edition-Jersey/ . All of the scoring came in the final 20:04. Lucic scored on a power play at 15:46 of the third period, when he tipped a shot over Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for a 3-1 lead. Milwaukee Bucks Jerseys . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. Oscar Robertson Bucks Jersey . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Now you know why Tom Brady did not seem terribly thrilled this summer with the whole notion of Jimmy Garoppolo, first-string temp. The kid has a lot of talent, a little swagger and the kind of cover boy looks that, you know, a supermodel could fall for.Oh yeah, and hes 15 years younger than the 39-year-old Brady. Deep down, even a four-time Super Bowl champ who will likely go down as the greatest quarterback of all time could feel a little threatened by that.Bill Belichick has already Gronk-spiked the notion that a 4-0 Garoppolo could keep Brady on the bench for Week 5 in Cleveland, so theres no point in harboring any crazy ideas. Only heres the thing: Everyone gets replaced at some point, thanks to human frailty and the indomitable forces of gravity and time. Just as clearly as Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Bobby Orr and Larry Bird were replaced in Boston, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. is going to be replaced in Foxborough.And Sunday night, Garoppolo offered up the first strong suggestion that he might be the man worthy of the honor. In fact, as a nod to Bradys childhood idol, Joe Montana, Garoppolo showed he just might be the New England Patriots answer to Steve Young.No, Garoppolo doesnt have Youngs athleticism, even if Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians tried warning his team during the week that the new Patriots quarterback had feet like Michael Vick. But Garoppolo, 24, can move around in ways Brady cannot, and the time he bought for himself was critical in this highly improbable 23-21 victory over a home team that was, by Arians admission, obviously not ready to play.More to the point, the Cardinals were not ready to play against this version of Garoppolo, who walked into his first career start facing the worst kind of circumstances. Carson Wentz got the Cleveland Browns at home. Garoppolo? He traveled across the country to face a Super Bowl contender with a fearsome defense, a thundering dome crowd and every reason to believe it would shred a Patriots offense missing the injured Rob Gronkowski and a couple of starters on the offensive line.The Patriots were 9?-point underdogs, the biggest spread against them since they upset the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl nearly 15 years ago. I picked New England to go 3-1 without Brady. I thought this would be the 1.And yet Garoppolo was last seen walking out of University of Phoenix Stadium with a self-satisfied smirk on his face and two footballs tucked under his left arm, one a game ball. He took smelling salts before the game (Nothing crazy, it just gets you going, he said), and then it was no Brady, no Gronk, no problem from there.Garoppolo overthrew Chris Hogan on the first play of the rest of his life, and then he calmly led the Patriots on an eight-play, 74-yard drive. He found a wide-open Hogan down the left sideline for a 37-year-old touchdown, following the game plan that instructed him to attack the Arizona rookie corner?Brandon Williams, who had been a running back for most of his college career.Garoppolo?weathered his share of big hits as the night unfolded and backed up Belichicks earlier claims about his physical toughness. In the second quarter, Garoppolo was blasted by a blitzing Tony Jefferson on a second-down incompletion, then he stood tall on the very next play in hitting Hogan for 19 yards.Jimmy made some really gutsy plays, Patriots defensive end?Chris Long said. He has a quiet confidence, and everyone on this team was confident in him.Garoppolo did fumble the ball on a sack, and the Cardinals did recover and later score to cut their deficit to 10-7. But in the fight for that loose ball, Garoppolo angrily rolled over the top of his former teammate, Chandler Jones, and dug an arm underneath the linebacker in a vain attempt to rip away the ball. In other words, even in his worst moment Sunday night, Garoppolo was putting up a fight.He caught his own deflected pass and ran for three yards (lets see Brady do that). He scrambled 10 yards for a first down. He burned Williams again, and he kept denting Arizonas spirit with big thirdd-down plays (the Patriots converted 10 of 16 chances).ddddddddddddn the fourth quarter, after the great Larry Fitzgerald did what the great Larry Fitzgerald does -- borrowing an over-the-head catch out of the Willie Mays playbook for his 100th career touchdown -- Garoppolo had to deliver the throw of the night on third-and-15, with the home crowd at full roar. He used his dancers feet, stepped up and fired a pass down the middle just before he got drilled from behind. Danny Amendola made the 32-yard catch, and soon enough Stephen Gostkowski was returning a lead to the Patriots that they wouldnt surrender.Hes incredible, Patriots defensive back?Devin McCourty said of Garoppolo. All game he went out there and made the plays he was supposed to make.We believed in him. There was no doubt in this locker room that Jimmy could go out there and play.The Cardinals had their chance to reduce the visiting quarterbacks performance?to a moral victory, the equivalent of a mortal sin in New England, but they botched the snap and the kick that wouldve done the trick. Belichick wasted precious seconds before finally calling a timeout before Arizonas last-ditch field goal attempt; he explained that when he saw the Cardinals rush onto the field, he figured (incorrectly) that they would rush the kick and allow him to save the timeout for Garoppolo.The scene summoned the memory of Belichicks dramatic timeout gamble the last time his team had played in this building in the Super Bowl 19 months ago, when Belichicks stare down of a frazzled Pete Carroll led to Seattles, well, you know what it led to.When it was over Sunday night, Belichick wanted no part of the canonization of Saint Jimmy, mocking the notion that he cared a lick about Garoppolos play as the news medias lead storyline. His former boss, Bill Parcells, liked to say a certain great player was heading to Canton on roller skates. Belichick wasnt about to lace em up for his kid quarterback.Good, was the coachs assessment of Garoppolos play. Asked to elaborate, Belichick said, Its been good. He made some plays. Its not perfect, but he made a lot of good plays.As it turned out, Garoppolo made enough good plays to complete 24 of 33 passes for 264 yards, and to go punch for punch with an old pro, Carson Palmer. By comparison, a 24-year-old Tom Brady was no comparison in his first NFL start; he went 13-for-23 for 168 yards and no touchdowns in a Week 3 victory over the Colts in 2001.Garoppolo said he was amped up before the game. He didnt need any time to catch up to the speed of his first regular-season game -- and to remain one step ahead of a defense heavily favored to eat him alive.We were confident going into the game, Garoppolo said, and it showed.Hes no longer a quarterback at Eastern Illinois, breaking?Tony Romos records and lighting it up against the?Eastern Kentuckys and Murray States. Garoppolo is officially a big leaguer now. He started acting that way when he called practice a smoother operation after the suspended Brady was banished from the grounds. And when he told WEEI of his possible not-too-distant future as a Patriots starter: Its a crazy league, and anythings possible, really.Just as crazy as it was on Sept. 23, 2001, the first Sunday of pro football after the 9/11 attacks. When Drew Bledsoe, $103 million man, was knocked out by Mo Lewis of the Jets, who could possibly believe that some sixth-round scarecrow could become what he became?Brady grew into a titan so big that the Patriots slapped an outsized banner of him on the Gillette Stadium lighthouse. Now that banner has been taken down, physically and symbolically, to make room for Garoppolos team next Sunday.Brady will be the starting quarterback in October, but he knows this isnt a lifetime job. He watched his idol, Montana, get forced out in San Francisco. If Garoppolo turns out to be New Englands Steve Young, Bradys challenge will be to handle it with more grace than Montana did. ' ' '