The Indianapolis Colts hope they got their 10-day break at just the right time. They may need every healthy body to hold off charging Jacksonville in the American Football Conference South.
"We aren't as sharp as we need to be because we haven't been together and haven't been practicing as much and as well as we need to," said coach Tony Dungy, whose Super Bowl champions have been without a raft of important players.
The notable absentees include Marvin Harrison, their best wide receiver, and starting offensive tackles Tony Ugoh and Ryan Diem.
So after being off since Thanksgiving, the Colts go into today's game at 9-2, just a game ahead of the 8-3 Jaguars. The Jags have won three straight and four of five in a division Indianapolis considers its property -- the Colts have won it for four straight seasons.
Jacksonville's success has been due in part to the return of David Garrard, who sprained his left ankle in the first meeting with Indy, a 29-7 Colts victory on Oct. 22. He has been back for two games, throwing three touchdown passes in wins over San Diego and Buffalo and continuing a remarkable mistake-free run. Garrard has yet to throw an interception this season in 209 attempts.
The weekend started on Thursday night with Dallas winning their sixth straight game with a 37-27 victory over the Packers. The Cowboys improved to 11-1 and the Packers, who lost Brett Favre to an injury early in the second quarter, fell to <>b10-2.
In other games today, the New York Jets are at Miami; Houston at Tennessee; Detroit at Minnesota; Buffalo at Washington; Atlanta at St. Louis; San Diego at Kansas City; Seattle at Philadelphia; San Francisco at Carolina; Denver at Oakland; Cleveland at Arizona; the New York Giants at Chicago; Tampa Bay at New Orleans; and Cincinnati at Pittsburgh.
New England are at Baltimore tomorrow night.
A win for Jacksonville would put them in a flat tie with Indianapolis because it would mean the Jaguars split their two games with the Colts. That would leave a battle for the division title in the last four games and Indianapolis look to have a slightly easier schedule.
But the Colts also are playing for a first-round bye; top seed in the AFC seems unreachable because they are two games behind unbeaten New England and lost to the Patriots. They are also a game ahead of Pittsburgh for the second seed, which would give them that week off in the playoffs.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB