12/01/2008 - Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gus Frerotte connected with former Bear Bernard Berrian on a franchise-record 99-yard score, and the Vikings posted a pair of touchdowns in the final five minutes of the first half to beat Chicago, 34-14, and take over first place in the NFC North.
Frerotte completed 16-of-25 passes for 210 yards and also ran for a score for the Vikings (7-5), who won for the fourth time in five games. Adrian Peterson rushed 28 times for 131 yards and a touchdown, and Berrian had four catches for 122 yards.
Kyle Orton connected on 11-of-29 throws for 153 yards and two scores but was picked off three times for the Bears (6-6), who fell out of a first place tie with the Vikings. Orton threw a 65-yard TD pass to Devin Hester. Chicago, which lost for the third time in four contests, is also a game ahead of Green Bay in the division. Matt Forte ran 22 times for 96 yards and caught a touchdown pass in defeat.
The Bears were threatening to expand their lead to 14-3 late in the second quarter, but the Vikings came up with a huge goal-line stand. Forte's 26-yard run put the ball at the one, but the Vikings denied the Bears on four straight plays from that distance, including stopping Forte on a try up the middle on fourth down with barely under five minutes left.
On the next play, Berrian, who played his first four seasons (2004-07) for the Bears, got behind cornerback Charles Tillman to catch the bomb on the left side of the field and coasted to the end zone for the longest offensive play in Vikings history.
The play tied the longest from scrimmage in NFL history, with this being the 11th time it's been accomplished.
Minnesota then expanded its lead to 17-7 with 48 seconds left in the half on Frerotte's one-yard push across the goal line. Frerotte hit tight end Jim Kleinsasser on a 21-yard pass that was originally ruled a TD but later reversed. Frerotte scored on the following play.
Chicago got within 17-14 on Orton's two-yard TD pass to Forte with 8:53 left in the third quarter. The Bears needed to move just four yards thanks to Kevin Payne's 36-yard interception return.
Orton then fell into trouble and was picked off three times in a seven-pass span. Darren Sharper came up with the first one, rumbling 12 yards to the Chicago 35. That set up Chester Taylor's 21-yard TD run with 4:27 remaining in the third.
Linebacker Ben Leber picked off Orton and fumbled the ball out of bounds at the Chicago 22 three minutes into the fourth quarter. Bears tackle John Tait tried to knock the ball back in play, and Chicago was originally ruled with the recovery, but Minnesota challenged, and replays showed when Tait swiped to hit the ball back in bounds, it hit the sideline.
The Vikings won the challenge, and Peterson scored on a one-yard run with 8:25 left for a 31-14 difference.
Benny Sapp then picked off Orton, leading to a Ryan Longwell 27-yard field goal.
Hester caught a short pass over the middle and raced 65 yards to the end zone nearly seven minutes into the game, but Longwell hit a 23-yard field goal with 12:45 left in the half. On the previous play, Frerotte was hit late from behind from defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, but no penalty was called.
Game Notes
The Bears host Jacksonville on Sunday, while Minnesota plays at winless Detroit...Minnesota has won three of the last four meetings, but the Bears won, 48-41, at home on Oct. 19 this season...Minnesota's previous longest play in NFL history was 89 yards from Fran Tarkenton to Charley Ferguson on Nov. 11, 1962...Home teams went 2-10 on Sunday in the NFL.
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Maya Moore added 27 po
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Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa has reportedly
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The 37-year-old American sur
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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