ARE THE BILLS CATCHING THE DOLPHINS AT THE WRONG TIME?
The Buffalo Bills – gamely clinging to hopes of ending their 17-year playoff drought -- will face the Miami Dolphins in two of their three remaining games this NFL regular season.
Not too long ago, when the Dolphins were losing five straight games to drop to 4-7, it looked like Buffalo had caught a break in the schedule down the stretch.
Things don’t look so hot now.
The Dolphins are coming off consecutive confidence-boosting wins over Denver and New England to boost their record to 6-7.
Jay Cutler played well in those victories. I never thought I’d say or type this, but I’m giving the edge to Cutler over Tyrod Taylor at quarterback entering Sunday’s game at New Era Field. Taylor might not be 100 percent healthy, and Tyrod with a gimpy knee is about as useless as a car with two flat tires.
Cutler has a solid group of wide receivers in Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills and DeVante Parke, plus tight end Julius Thomas. And they’re relatively healthy. Buffalo should be so lucky.
Former Alabama running back Kenyan Drake has rushed for 120 and 114 yards in his last two games.
Miami’s underrated defensive unit includes Ndamukong Suh (you might not like him but you’d probably like to have him on your side), Cameron Wake, Kiko Alonso, Lawrence Timmons and Xavier Howard.
Both teams have struggled on offense: Buffalo 26th (298.2 yards per game)...Miami 28th (297.9). The Dolphins have been shut out twice and held below two digits in two other games,
Miami has been slightly better on defense: Dolphins 16th (allowing 332.8 yards per game)...Buffalo 23rd (allowing 351.2 yards per game).
Both teams have weak pass rushes: Buffalo 23 sacks by and sacked 35 times (-12)...Miami 21 sacks by and 29 times sacked (-8).
If there was any chance of Buffalo being confident entering Sunday’s game, that potential problem probably vanished Monday night when the Dolphins thoroughly outplayed New England.
BAD NEWS FOR RED WINGS: MATT HAGUE SIGNS WITH SEATTLE MARINERS
Matt Hague won’t be returning to the Rochester Red Wings.
Hague, the 2015 International League Most Valuable Player with the Buffalo Bisons, signed Tuesday as a six-year minor-league free agent with the Seattle Mariners.
Hague, 32, had a solid 2017 season with Rochester: .297 batting average (third-best in the pitching-rich International League); 30 doubles; 10 HRs; 65 RBI; 8 stolen bases in 10 attempts.
The Red Wings had five hitters with double-figure home runs in 2017: Mitch Garver 17, ByungHo Park 14, Niko Goodrum 13, Daniel Palka 11 and Hague 10.
Four of them won’t return in 2018 to Minnesota/Rochester (Park back to South Korea, Goodrum signed with the Tigers, Palka signed with the White Sox and Hague). Garver, the 2017 IL all-star catcher, is expected to stick with the Twins next spring.
ATTRACTIVE FRIDAY-SATURDAY DOINGS AT BLUE CROSS ARENA
Recommended viewing at Blue Cross Arena at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial:
Friday, 7:05 p.m. – The American Hockey League-leading Toronto Marlies come to town to test the vastly-improved Rochester Americans.
The Marlies are 20-5-0-0 and outscoring opponents 83-47 (+36). They’re 12-2-0-0 on the road and outscoring opponents 49-24. The Amerks enter Wednesday night’s home game against Utica with a 14-5-3-3 record and are outscoring opponents 85-75 (+10).
Saturday, 4 p.m. – St. Bonaventure Bonnies, with one of the best guard duos in the nation, versus the Vermont Catamounts in Division I college basketball.
The Bonnies are 7-2, including 63-61 over Maryland. They’re coming off a 75-67 home win over Yale December 9 and will play at Syracuse December 21.
The Catamounts are 7-4 and coming off an 81-57 romp over Siena. Vermont’s top scorer/rebounder is sophomore forward Anthony Lamb (15.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game). He was a two-time All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year for Greece Athena.
Will the Amerks draw at least 7,000 fans to make it an old-fashioned Friday night event? Can one of the largest communities in America without a Division I basketball team again show how much it likes big-time college hoops?
THURSDAY’S NFL “BEST BET”: BRONCOS OVER COLTS
Thursday night’s NFL matchup isn’t likely to produce record TV ratings – the Denver Broncos at the Indianapolis Colts.
The Broncos have been a huge disappointment but they’re better than the Colts and Denver’s defense should be the best unit on the field.
Thursday night’s “Best Bet”: Denver (-2 ½) 24, Indianapolis 13.
SHORT SHOTS
Syracuse’s men’s basketball team (8-1 record) finally gets some love from the voters in the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Orange rank 35th with 10 total voting points.
Giancarlo Stanton will be the 66th player to wear No. 27 for the New York Yankees. One of them was outfielder Russ Derry in 1945. The future Rochester Red Wings home-run king (42 HRs in 1949 and 134 HRs 1947 through 1952). With the 1945 Yankees, he batted .225 (57-of-253), with 6 doubles, 2 triples and 13 of his 17 career major-league HRs. He was 28 years old. Stanton might have 13 HRs by June 1 next season.
Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Pettit turned 85 on Tuesday. He won his first of four NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Awards on January 24, 1956 at Rochester’s War Memorial. He came off the bench and had 20 points, 24 rebounds and 7 assists for the Western Conference in a 108-94 victory over the Eastern Conference. Starting guard Bobby Wanzer (13 points) and reserve center Maurice Stokes (10 points and 16 rebounds) represented the Rochester Royals on the West squad. Attendance was 8,517 and the game was not televised.
How desperate are the Minnesota Twins for pitching help? They’ve signed 28-year-old former New York Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda to a two-year contract. He’s coming off Tommy John elbow surgery and might not be able to pitch until 2019. He’s always has very good stuff but always seemed to have one bad inning and didn’t handle pressure well. His career MLB record is 40-41 with a 4.05 ERA.
Columbus, Ohio, will host the 2018 Triple-A All-Star Game and the Triple-A Championship Game in September.
The International League team in Gwinnett, Ga., has a new nickname: from the Braves to the Stripers, in honor of the fish (striped bass) in the man-made Lake Lanier near the ballpark.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Wednesday, December 13
Vladimir Tarasekno (26)...Fletcher Cox (27)...Courtney Upshaw (28)...Rickie Fowker (29)...Ricky Nolasco (35)...John Denney (39)...Sergei Federov (48)...Gary Zimmerman (56)...Richard Dent (57)...Bob Gainey (64)...Ferguson Jenkins (75). Taylor Wsift (28), Jamie Foxx (50) and Dick Van Dyke (92) are invited to the birthday party.
Thursday, December 14
Adam Frazier (26)...Robert Covington (28)...Nicolas Batum (29)...Randy Starks (34)...Michael Owen (38)...Dave Gassner (39)...Craig Biggio (52)...Tony Nathan (61)...Bill Buckner (68)...Stan Smith (71).