afc Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NFL RedZone Previews, Part 2: The Bathroom Breakers
One of the things that’s exciting about the NFL is that, with only 16 games — sorry, with only 17 games in a season, a couple of unexpected wins or losses can change the entire complexion of a season. A bad team can make the playoffs, while an otherwise good team can miss out because of a couple of ...

NFL RedZone Previews, Part 1: <i>Every</i> Touchdown? From <i>Every</i> Game? Really?
The NFL’s television schedule doesn’t tell you everything about who’s expected to be good in a given season. The Cowboys and Steelers will always get plenty of games in prime time, because no matter what, they’re going to draw eyeballs....

Does Big Ben even have anything left to run it back with?
One last run for the Pittsburgh Steelers and future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The last ride for the six-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion is about ready to take off into the regular season. But how much does Big Ben have left at this point? Enough for a last dance?...

Carson Wentz is back way ahead of schedule
Everyone in the Indianapolis Colts organization should be jumping for joy today with the return of quarterback Carson Wentz to the practice field. It has been just three weeks since Wentz had surgery to remove a broken bone in his foot. Initially, estimates were that Wentz would miss anywhere from 5...

Watching the Bengals will lead you to drink… a lot
Who Dey drinking all that beer!...

The AFC North running backs are here
The NFC East gets a lot of media attention, mostly because the Dallas Cowboys are “America’s Team” or something, and rightly so. The division is constantly a circus and has very large, passionate fan bases. Home to Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliot, rounded out by Miles Sanders and up-and-coming Ant...

A look at the very young AFC East quarterback picture
At some point this coming football season (oh and side note, training camps start next week so football season is basically here), the oldest starting quarterback in the AFC East will be Josh Allen, the No. 7 overall pick only three years ago. This division is far and away the youngest division of s...

Ravens will take to the air
I’m going to keep talking about it until people start understanding what’s happening, because the clues just keep on coming: The Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson are going to throw the football a lot more this year. ...

Leicester found a new way to blow it, and their fans probably won’t care
The warping of European soccer and its priorities make judging Leicester City’s last week of the season decidedly foggy. Twenty years ago or so it would be easy. Win the FA Cup, finish fifth, that’s an unqualified success. But that’s not the world we live in anymore, and that’s what makes it so uncl...

Let's predict each NFL team's win-loss record!
The NFL season is still four months away, but with the draft, the schedule release, and most of free agency in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to start looking forward to a season with lots of storylines to follow, more games than ever before, and fewer preseason games than ever before (three is sti...

NFL schedule offers weird and wonderful highlights (and, oddly, a lot of Saints in primetime)
Football people are weird people, because we get giddy over something as simple as a schedule release. That giddy feeling happened last night, as the NFL (and it’s teams’ social media departments) released their full 18-week slate for the upcoming season, which will be the first in which every team ...

The Chargers are finding new ways to make us hurl
If the Chargers’ late-game meltdowns and greedy move from San Diego make you want to grab the Pepto-Bismol, you may need another bottle before scrolling through the team’s Twitter feed....

Three yards and a cloud of dust won’t cut it in AFC North anymore, and draft proves it
When I think of the AFC North, I think of smashmouth football. I think of Jerome Bettis vs. Ray Lewis. I think of physical, hard-hitting games, ending in scores like 13-9. I think of heavy-set run formations, with three yards and a cloud of dust, accompanied by some of the best defensive players acr...

Browns fans have earned this Factory of Gladness
Take a bow, Browns fans. After years of torment, ridicule, bags over heads, a parade “celebrating” a winless campaign, and a Factory of Sadness, you have earned the right to be excited for this season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Yes, there was already excitement brewing in...

When these 9 rookie quarterbacks will make their first starts
In total, nine quarterbacks were taken in the NFL Draft. No quarterback is ever a sure thing, but in this talented group, the odds are very high that there will be a handful of difference makers that alter the league’s landscape. Out of these nine quarterbacks taken, all of whom went in the fourth r...

MLS is back, and I’m really going to try this time
MLS returns this weekend, and unlike most of the big soccer leagues in the world, it can do so in front of some fans. We won’t hear the sheer wall of noise we would usually get in Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, and Orlando, or in more and more places these days, just yet. But it will be a relief to hea...

If Steelers bring back Big Ben it would be one garbage move
It’s Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Pittsburgh Steelers for wanting to bring back aging QB Ben Roethlisberger....

It's been a while since we've talked about Buffalo in the context of a Super Bowl run
In one week, the Bills will be in the AFC title game for the first time in 27 years, when, perhaps in a bit of foreshadowing — depending on the outcome of Sunday’s divisional playoff — Buffalo hammered Kansas City, 30-13, to advance to Super Bowl XXVIII....

The MLS playoffs are already borked and they haven’t even started
As if it wasn’t hard enough to navigate a team or sport through a pandemic, and some would rightly suggest it’s impossible and stupid to do so, soccer has to add onto that an international break. So not only do you have strict protocols and testing and basically have to cross your fingers and clench...

Lamar Jackson still can't pass big test, while Steelers are incapable of failing even one
While much of the nation was stuck watching Colts-Lions (and got to see Nyheim Hines’ roundoff backflip with a full twist, twice!) the marquee matchup of the day yesterday was between the Steelers and the Ravens....