Washington and Minnesota hope to clinch NFL playoff berths with weekend victories while four other clubs need a win and some help to book a spot in the post-season.
Unbeaten Carolina, Arizona, Green Bay and Seattle have already clinched National Conference (NFC) berths, with the Redskins and Minnesota trying to join them.
Washington (7-7) will try to clinch the NFC East division title with a victory today at Philadelphia (6-8), while the Vikings can grab no worse than a wildcard berth by defeating the visiting New York Giants tomorrow.
Photo: Matt Kartozian - USA TODAY
The Vikings (9-5) also clinch a playoff berth with an Atlanta loss to Carolina or Seattle (9-5) home victory over St Louis (6-8).
Washington receiver DeSean Jackson struck his former Eagles teammates for 126 last season to end Philadelphia’s playoff hopes in the penultimate game of the season and could doom their bid again this year.
“My motivation for this game is to win,” Jackson said. “I could care less about what it has to do on the other end. We have something special to do here.”
Photo: AFP
Eagles cornerback Byron Maxwell has a shoulder sprain and missed practice this week, leaving rookie Eric Rowe to return after a concussion to face Jackson.
“Although he’s not the No. 1 target they have, every time he is targeted, it can be explosive. He can change a game probably quicker than all of their threats,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “So we have to know where he is at all times. His ability to stretch the field is something to be respected.”
Undefeated Carolina, 14-0 and two wins from a perfect season, own a first-round playoff bye and can clinch a home-field edge throughout the NFC playoffs with a victory at Atlanta (7-7) or Arizona home loss to Green Bay. A Cardinals victory over the Packers (10-4) would give the Cardinals (12-2) a first-round bye.
In the American Conference (AFC), defending Super Bowl champion New England have clinched a first-round bye and Cincinnati have secured a playoff spot.
New England (12-2) would secure a home-field edge throughout the AFC playoffs with a victory at the New York Jets (9-5) while Cincinnati (11-3) would clinch a first-round bye with a victory on Monday night at Denver (10-4).
Houston, Denver, Kansas City and Pittsburgh can clinch playoff spots as well, while the Jets will hope to stay in contention to the season’s final weekend.
A Denver victory on Monday and loss by either Kansas City against Cleveland, Pittsburgh at Baltimore or the Jets would put the Broncos in the playoffs.
A Houston victory at Tennessee and Indianapolis loss at Miami would ensure the Texans (7-7) the AFC South division crown and a playoff berth.
Kansas City (9-5) claims a playoff spot with a victory and loss by either Pittsburgh or the Jets and the Steelers (9-5) get a playoff spot with a triumph and Jets loss.
Tomorrow’s other games find Chicago at Tampa Bay, Dallas at Buffalo, San Francisco at Detroit and Jacksonville at New Orleans.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS