The Lede
Breaking down the San Francisco 49ers schedule
The official dates and times of all 32 NFL teams were announced last night. News trickled in before the full announcement that Chicago would be San Francisco's first opponent in their new football stadium in Santa Clara, but that would come after opening the season at Dallas in one turns out to be a tough start to the 2014 season.
After the Cowboys and Bears, the 49ers will at Arizona, Philadelphia and Kansas City at home, and then road trips to St. Louis and Denver in primetime before finally reaching their bye week.
There's no Seattle in that stretch, which will obviously be the most anticipated matchup of the season (twice), but all of those teams don't expect to slow down after exceeding expectations a season ago. Luckily, the 49ers won't have to travel much in that stretch, being able to stick around the west half of the country until after the bye week.
In fact, San Francisco gets their two East coast trips out of the way back-to-back. After St. Louis at home, they will head to New Orleans and New York in early November. As reported by most Niner season preview sites, they fully expect the 49ers to stay at Youngstown, Ohio during that stretch to ease the travel.
After that? Six straight games on the West coast with four home games (Redskins, Seahawks, Chargers, Cardinals) and two back-to-back road trips to Oakland and Seattle sandwiched in between those home games.
Compared to last season's traveling, this will be a much easier schedule to maneuver with -- that's especially thanks to taking on the AFC West and having Dallas as a road game in the NFC East slate.
Top Five Stories that Matter to Me
- NFL: More schedule nuances. A maximum of two flex games are allowed between weeks 5-10, and now all-AFC or all-NFC matchups can be switched over to FOX or CBS (and vice-versa) to balance out the schedule if games are flexed. Life sure will be weird if we watch Pittsburgh-Baltimore with the FOX graphics.
- NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge has back-to-back games of 40+ points to give Portland a 2-0 lead over Houston. That's a real bummer, Rockets fans, but you're learning that you need defense the hard way.
- MLB: Michael Pineda ejected for putting pine tar on his freaking neck. Honestly, he was pretty close to getting away with it because his skin tone nearly matches the substance. But what a complete idiot to try and get away with this twice in a row.
- NBA/MLB: Swaggy P not too swaggy on his pitching. One of the Los Angeles Lakers' best players this season, Nick Young, believes that baseballs need to go in some kind of net.
- MiLB: Tracy McGrady joins the Sugar Land Skeeters as a pitcher. The Skeeters are your minor league team that will whore out for any chance of publicity. And it's working. Maybe they'll score some more ESPN3 broadcasts.
Yesterday's Favorites
MLB: Giants 12, Rockies 10 (F/11)
Tuesday came the hits for San Francisco, and then came the runs on Wednesday -- and they needed it. Colorado took an early 5-1 lead after two innings, but Matt Cain rebounded with a six-inning affair thanks to Mike Morse launching two jacks. His second one in the third inning tied it up at 5-all.
Cain's numbers weren't impressive -- 10 hits, seven runs (all earned), and just two strikeouts -- but he actually had a chance to win it as the team had a one-run lead in the top of the seventh. But that was quickly squashed when the Rockies tied it up in the bottom frame.
All tied up at eight heading into extras, Colorado passes on Trevor Ariza to load the bases and pitch to Hector Sanchez, who hit a home run earlier in the game. As I was still trying to figure out why the hell the Rockies would intentionally walk Ariza, Sanchez launches a grand slam to avoid a sweep. Coors Field was in full effect, and the Giants were victorious.
With LA's win last night, SF remains one game back from the NL West lead while Colorado sits a half game back of the Giants. Both SF and Colorado have the night off while the Dodgers play Philly again tonight.
NCAA Lacrosse: Johns Hopkins 13, Villanova 7
After a tight ball game all the way to the middle of the 3rd quarter, the Blue Jays were able to extend their 8-7 lead with three more by the end of the period and tacked on two more in the fourth. Their defense stiffened up and shut down any chance for a comeback by the Wildcats. JHU goalie Eric Schnedier blocked all eight shots by Nova in the final period.
Blue Jays attacker Wells Stanwick had three goals on six shots and also recorded an assist while other attackers Ryan Brown and Brandon Benn also had multi-goal games.
For the most part, Nova played well with JHU. The biggest difference was JHU being able to get two extra man goals in the second period while the Wildcats went 0-3 on EMO.
Stanley Cup Playoffs
- Blue Jackets 4, Penguins 3 (F/OT) (Tied 2-2)
- Stars 4, Ducks 2 (Tied 2-2)
- Blackhawks 4, Blues 3 (Tied 2-2)
Pittsburgh scored three goals in the first period, but couldn't sustain the lead with Columbus scoring a goal in each period. The Dallas-Anaheim series is getting dirty with multiple fights breaking out in the third period and 14 different penalties were called. Vladimir Tarasenko scores his third and fourth goals for St. Louis in the playoffs, but it wasn't enough as Chicago ties the series up.
NBA Playoffs
- Heat 101, Bobcats 97 (MIA 2-0)
- Mavericks 113, Spurs 92 (Tied 1-1)
- Blazers 112, Rockets 105 (HOU 2-0)
It ended up being a close one, but Charlotte could never get over the hump against Miami after being down double-digits in multiple instances. LeBron James led the Heat with 32 points, six boards, and eight assists. Dallas pulled away in the second half, outscoring San Antonio by eight points in each of the final two quarters despite Manu Ginobli's 27 points.
Today's Slate
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1
Bruins at Red Wings (BOS 2-1) - 7:00 NBCS
Avalanche at Wild (COL 2-1) - 8:30 CNBC
-Sharks at Kings (SJ 3-0) - 9:30 NBCS
NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1
Pacers at Hawks (Tied 1-1) - 6:00 NBATV
Thunder at Grizzlies (Tied 1-1) - 7:00 TNT
Clippers at Warriors (Tied 1-1) - 9:30 TNT
MLB
D'backs at Cubs - 1:20 WGN
Padres at Nationals - 6:05 FSSD/MASN2
Phillies at Dodgers - 9:10 CSPH/SNLA
CBB
Texas A&M at Miss St - 6:30 ESPNU
USC at UCLA - 8:00 P12
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