The Philadelphia Eagles should have been able to defeat the Detroit Lions, despite a lackluster performance by the defense in the first half. They gave up 21 points very easily. In the second half they recovered and played shut down defense, which allowed the team to come back to take a two point lead into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Ryan Matthews fumbled the ball when the Eagles were already in field-goal range to increase their lead to five, with only just under three minutes left in the game. The Lions then went down and kicked the game winning field goal.
The reason why this loss could be very important is because they have a very difficult schedule in the near future including the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, their first game against the Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. This week's game against the Washington Redskins is on the road, another early season test.
I am the biggest Tiger Woods fan and even I am disappointed in him for how he has handled his planned comeback this week. I can't figure out why he decided to announce that he was coming back for this week's Safeway Open and then decided to withdraw two days after officially committing to play. What could have changed in that short time span? I hope he's ready to play by the end of November for his exhibition tournament in the Bahamas because if he doesn't play there, no one has any clue when he's going to come back.
In the baseball playoffs, there have been some surprising results, mostly on the American League side. The Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Indians swept their respective series from the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox. For me, the Boston-Cleveland series was the most surprising result, because of the famous offensive power Boston supposedly had in David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez and others. It was sort of sad to see Big Papi Ortiz go out so quietly in his last postseason appearance.
It was also shocking to see how the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants to end that series. The Giants were up by 5 to 2 in the ninth inning of game four and for some reason tried to use their entire bullpen for the save, but they failed and gave up 4 runs and lost.
The NHL season has started andrecently something really cool happened. Austin Matthews, the number one NHL draft pick for this year, scored four goals in his first game playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs! No one playing their first game has ever done that in the entire history of the NHL. What a start! Unfortunately his team lost 5-4 in overtime!
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
