Nobody wants to play for Tom Coughlin
The Sporting News surveyed 111 players around the NFL and asked them a series of questions at the NFL’s midpoint of the season. One of those questions was, “Which coach would you least like to play for?” Not surprisingly, the most popular answers were the mean guys. Here are your top-three vote-getters: Tom Coughlin, New York Giants – 22Tony Sparano, Miami Dolphins – 21Bill Belichick, New England Patriots – 15 Pete Carroll, Todd Haley, Jim Harbaugh, Rex Ryan and Jim Schwartz were next on the list, but none of them had more than six votes. Coughlin, Sparano and Belichick are clearly the meanest teachers in the school. My guess would’ve been that Sparano topped the list. Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick may be unbending hard-asses who will abuse you emotionally every day of your life, but they at least offer the benefit of winning. In 16 years in the NFL, Tom Coughlin is 139-109 (68-60 with the Jaguars, 71-49 with the Giants) and has a Super Bowl ring. Belichick is 167-97 (36-44 with Cleveland, and 131-53 with the Patriots) and has three rings. Sparano is 26-30 and has had exactly one season above .500. It seems like it should be easier to put up with a screaming coach if you’re at least winning. Related: Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Giants
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TD with :08 left gets Ravens by Steelers (AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Torrey Smith(notes) wasn’t going to let the game-winning touchdown slip through his hands twice. Five plays after a sure scoring strike tipped off his fingers, the Baltimore rookie receiver held onto a 26-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco(notes) with 8 seconds remaining to lift the Ravens past the Pittsburgh Steelers 23-20 on Sunday night. Smith, also flagged for a costly penalty on the game’s first play, capped Baltimore’s game-winning 92-yard drive by beating William Gay(notes) down the right sideline as the Ravens (6-2) snapped Pittsburgh’s four-game winning streak. Flacco finished with 300 yards passing and Baltimore swept the season series from the rival Steelers (6-3) for the first time since 2006. The Steelers appeared to be in control after rallying from a 10-point deficit to take a 20-16 lead with less than 5 minutes to go when Ben Roethlisberger(notes) hit Mike Wallace(notes) for a 25-yard score. Pittsburgh’s defense held once and the Steelers moved in range for Shaun Suisham(notes) to attempt a 47-yard field goal that could have pushed their lead to seven. A delay of game penalty, however, pushed Pittsburgh back five yards and the Steelers opted to punt. Flacco, who fumbled midway through the fourth quarter to set up Roethlisberger’s strike to Wallace, atoned during a brilliant 13-play drive. He converted a fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 49 with less than a minute to go to keep Baltimore’s hopes alive and Smith made up for a drop with the biggest play of his young career. The Steelers got the ball back with 8 seconds left but Antonio Brown(notes) fumbled a lateral from Wallace and the Ravens poured onto the Heinz Field turf in celebration. It was sweet vindication for the Ravens, who watched two of their three previous seasons end on the same field. With one dramatic play, Baltimore ended Pittsburgh’s surge and moved into a tie with Cincinnati atop the AFC North. Flacco, who had come under fire from his teammates for inconsistent play, completed 28 of 47 passes and kept his head late after spending much of the second half trying to avoid Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison(notes). The All-Pro sacked Flacco three times in his first game back after missing a month with a fractured orbital bone around his right eye, but Pittsburgh’s pass rush disappeared on Baltimore’s final drive. The Steelers trailed by 10 going into the fourth quarter but put together an impressive rally. Rashard Mendenhall(notes) scored from 1 yard out to pull Pittsburgh within 16-13 and Harrison swatted the ball out of Flacco’s hand on Baltimore’s next possession. Gay recovered and Roethlisberger put the Steelers in front when he rolled right to avoid pressure and threw in the direction of Brown. Wallace streaked in front of his teammate for the score and Pittsburgh appeared to be on its way to avenging a 28-point loss to the Ravens in the season opener. Roethlisberger finished with 330 yards passing to become the first Pittsburgh quarterback to top 300 in three consecutive games, but the Steelers’ defense couldn’t contain Flacco at the end. Pittsburgh vowed it was a better team than the one the Ravens routed in the opener, a whipping so decisive Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs(notes) joked he “owned” Roethlisberger after sacking him three times. Suggs backed off his claim—a little anyway—in the run-up to the rematch, saying “no man owns another, but if any one man can take Roethlisberger down, it’s me” during the week. Suggs did just that, only he did it with his head, not his hands. The All-Pro outside linebacker picked off Roethlisberger’s pass in the third quarter to preserve a 9-6 Baltimore lead. A dozen plays later, Ray Rice(notes) darted in from 4 yards out to put the Ravens up 16-6. Yet the NFL’s best defense couldn’t make it hold up, though for once Flacco bailed the defense out in a relationship that’s often been vice versa. The Steelers spent the last two months slowly recovering from the beatdown in the opener and appeared to be back to their old selves during an emphatic 25-17 win over New England a week ago, their fourth straight victory. The Ravens have been more of a mixed bag, solid one game, so-so the next. They needed a furious rally to get past Arizona a week ago to avoid their second straight loss, perhaps because they were caught looking ahead. The Ravens had a 76-yard touchdown run by Rice on the game’s first play wiped out by a holding penalty on Smith. The reprieve seemed to wake up Pittsburgh’s defense, and the two teams settled into the kind of hard-hitting defensive struggle that’s become the hallmark of one of the league’s fiercest rivalries. The Steelers lost wide receiver Hines Ward(notes) in the second quarter when he went down with a stinger after getting hit by Ray Lewis(notes), leaving Pittsburgh with just three healthy wideouts for the rest of the game. Pittsburgh’s Ryan Clark(notes) was flagged for unnecessary roughness on Baltimore’s final drive of the first half after drilling Baltimore’s Ed Dickson(notes). The penalty helped the Ravens get close enough for Billy Cundiff(notes) to drill a season-long 51-yard field goal as time expired to put the Ravens up 9-6 at the break.
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Bartoli retires with injury in Bali (AP)
BALI, Indonesia (AP)—Top-seeded Marion Bartoli retired with an ankle injury during her Tournament of Champions quarterfinal after missing a match point against Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain on Friday. Bartoli limped off the court in tears after retiring with unseeded Medina Garrigues ahead 4-6, 7-6 (7), 1-0. The Spaniard argued twice with the umpire as Bartoli took control of the first set. Bartoli had to rally in the second to force a tiebreaker in which she held match point. But Medina Garrigues prevailed 9-7 to lead the match into a third set. Bartoli began the set with her right ankle taped and lasted only one more game.
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Golf-Strong field for Singapore Open despite Australia clash (Reuters)
SINGAPORE, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Former world number one Ernie Els will be joined by a host of other major winners in next month’s Singapore Open which has secured a strong field despite clashing with an Australian event headlined by Tiger Woods. The Asian Tour on Tuesday announced the South African duo of Els and Retief Goosen and Americans Jim Furyk and Webb Simpson would participate in the $6 million event in Singapore, also sanctioned by the European Tour. “With such an elite line up of players confirmed and with other marquee names still to be announced it is clear that the Barclays Singapore Open will boast one of its strongest ever international line up of competitors,” an official representing the title sponsors was quoted as saying in a statement. Major winners Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang will also tee off in the November 10-13 tournament at the Sentosa Golf Club. Elsewhere in Sydney, former world number one Woods will be joined by home favourites Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Day and Greg Norman at the Lakes Golf Club for the Australian Open, a PGA Tour of Australia event. (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Patrick Johnston) Please double click on the newslink: for more golf stories
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Azarenka easily claims Luxembourg title (AP)
LUXEMBOURG (AP)—Seventh-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia advanced to the second round of the Luxembourg Open on Monday when an injured Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain retired while trailing 7-6 (5), 3-6, 3-0. Kirilenko will next meet Iveta Benesova for a place in the quarterfinals after the Czech player rallied to beat Pauline Parmentier of France, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. In other first-round matchesn, Tamira Paszek of Austria defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-2, 6-2, and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain swept past local wild card Anne Kremer 6-0, 6-0.
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