GLENDALE, Ariz. — That’s how they wanted to start the second half of the season. Yes, the Arizona Cardinals lost the turnover battle Sunday, but they had just enough to beat the Houston Texans 27-24 to push their record to 5-4 and announce themselves as true second-half players in the NFC Playoff picture. The Cardinals […]
The bye week in the National Football League. It’s a necessity for coaches and players — a chance for them to recharge their batteries and prepare for the upcoming rigors the league presents. But for fans (and fantasy football players), it’s terrible. A week without football can be like a week without air. That’s the […]
Administrators at Washington State University canceled classes Thursday in preparation for that night’s game between the Cougars and the Arizona State Sun Devils. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any schooling going on in Pullman on Halloween. It just happened to be taking place on the football field at Martin Stadium. The 25th-ranked Sun Devils (6-2, […]
TEMPE, Ariz. — Where did that come from? The popular thinking heading into their homecoming matchup against Washington was that the Arizona State Sun Devils defense would struggle to stop the run. Why wouldn’t they? They allowed Wisconsin to rumble for 231 yards. Stanford went for 240. USC gouged their defense for 247. Notre Dame […]
GLENDALE, Ariz. — There was plenty of talk about the opportunity that laid ahead of the Arizona Cardinals Thursday night. Their game against the Seattle Seahawks represented a chance. A chance for the Cards to announce themselves as real players in the NFC West. A chance to continue their home dominance over their division rivals […]
For the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday’s 32-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers was both very familiar and very different. The familiar part was the result. The defeat was their eighth in the last nine matchups against San Francisco, and their fifth straight loss at Candlestick Park. The difference was in the details. Unlike so many […]
For the first time in a calendar year, the Arizona Cardinals are above the .500 mark. The Cardinals got another dominant performance from their defense in a 22-6 win over the Carolina Panthers at University of Phoenix Stadium Sunday. Here are six things that stood out to me from Sunday’s Cardinals’ victory. 1 Welcome back, […]
I’m not sure how it happened, but the Arizona Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13-10 Sunday at Raymond James Stadium to push their record to 2-2 on the season. Now this wasn’t the same kind of shock we all felt when the Cardinals knocked off Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Foxborough […]
TEMPE, Ariz. — The goal for head coach Todd Graham was for his Arizona State Sun Devils to bounce back after a confidence-sapping 42-28 loss at Stanford last Saturday that was not nearly as close as the score would indicate. The Devils did just that, racking up 612 yards of offense against USC, who came […]
Before I started writing this, I had to check my calendar, you know, just to make sure it was indeed 2013. Because watching the Arizona Cardinals get pummeled 31-7 by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday felt a lot like 2012. And 2011. And 2010. Many of the same issues that have plagued the Cardinals […]
There’s a faction of people who believe that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pool party at Chase Field Thursday afternoon was perfectly acceptable. After all, the Dodgers’ historic 42-8 run in June, July and August catapulted them from a last place team that was on the brink of firing their manager to becoming the first MLB […]
OK, what the hell happened? It’s Sunday morning, and I still can’t fully grasp what transpired on Frank Kush Field at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe Saturday night. The only thing I know for sure is Arizona State knocked off Wisconsin 32-30 in a game that featured the strangest ending since, well, I don’t know […]
At long last, we finally got our first glimpse at the new-look Arizona Cardinals. New general manager, new head coach and a slew of new players. The only thing that felt like years past was the result. The Cardinals squandered an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and fell to the St. Louis Rams 27-24 at the Edward […]
It’s here! College football returns and the Pac-12 has a bit of a new look this season — trust us DirecTV subscribers, it does. After four new coaches joined the fray in 2012, three newcomers take over programs at vastly different success levels in 2013. Mark Helfrich takes over for Chip Kelly at Oregon, and […]
Man, this Kool-Aid tastes good. OK, I’m not exactly gulping it down, but when it comes to football teams in the Valley, I can’t remember going into a season where I’m as optimistic about both the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Cardinals. The main reasons for the optimism? There are many, but it’s […]
Despite his rousing success in the first 18 months on the job at Arizona State, Sun Devils’ head football coach Todd Graham is still labeled in a very particular way by those outside the Valley. He’s still known for his less-than-perfect exit from the University of Pittsburgh after just one season to take over the […]
The University of Arizona has unveiled the brand new Lowell-Stevens Football Facility at Arizona Stadium. It is, in a word, gorgeous — at least from the pictures I’ve seen. The facility is five stories high, features new football offices, a modernized weight room and 5,000 upgraded seats and an indoor club that also has 600 […]
I’m not going to lie…I can’t wait for football season. While I love baseball, basketball and hockey, football season is the by far the best time on the sports calendar. And for the first time in a while, there is optimism surrounding the Arizona Cardinals. A front office makeover, hiring the reigning NFL Coach of […]
One general feeling surrounding the Arizona Diamondbacks these days is that the they’re in desperate need of pitching — both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. Only Patrick Corbin, who represented the franchise in last Tuesday’s All-Star Game, has been a reliable starter this season. The bullpen? That’s been a disaster as well, […]
A manager calling to the bullpen to summon his closer is a common baseball event that’s been glorified by Hollywood forever. Here’s the way it’s supposed to go: The good guys are up one run, bases loaded, two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The skipper goes out to the mound to pull the […]
As anniversaries go, June 20 marked a pretty grim one in the minds and hearts of Phoenix sports fans. On that date in 1993, a reserve guard from Notre Dame took a pass from a player who was inexplicably double-teamed and hit a three-pointer from the left wing with 3.9 seconds left. John Paxson was […]
If you’re a fan of the Phoenix Suns, you’ve got a lot of reasons to hate the San Antonio Spurs. While the Suns are still seeking the first championship in their 45-year history. The Spurs, a team who joined the NBA nine years after Phoenix did, has four of them. The Suns have never had […]
We’re more than a quarter of the way through the 2013 Major League Baseball season, and we’ve learned a few things. We’ve learned that Mets pitcher Matt Harvey is really good. We’ve learned that spending towering piles of money on talent does not pave the way to success. To wit — the Dodgers and Angels […]
In my current job, it’s very rare that I get to attend a sporting event as a fan. So when my 17-year-old son told me he’d won tickets to Wednesday’s day game between the Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves, and he wanted me to go with him, I jumped at the chance. It represented the […]
