Dustin Johnson returns from injury as the Wells Fargo Championship moves from its normal venue to Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, NC. A strong field of top. 2009 Colts and 2012 Falcons reached the conference championship game with a lower rush percentage than this year's Colts. The Players Championship Preview May 11 – 14 2015/16 Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two season previews. Aston Villa season preview. Tim Sherwood has seen two star names leave Villa Park.

World Championship Preview - The Cannon. IIHF Men’s World Championship. May 5- 2. 1, 2. 01. Paris, France and Cologne, Germany. TV: Streaming on NBCSports. More Information: www.

Ncaa Championship Preview

• 2017 AFC Championship Preview: Steelers Wide Receivers vs. Patriots Defensive Backs.
• 2017 NYSPHSAA Wrestling Championships. The 2017 NYSPHSAA Wrestling Championships return to the Times Union Center in Albany (Section 2).

2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship preview New-look Prototype class, additions to GT Daytona field will be the talk at Daytona. The 2017 NIT championship game is Thursday night, March 30, in Madison Square Garden in New York between TCU and Georgia Tech. Championship 2015/16 preview: Derby and Boro eye promotion, Bolton backed to struggle. His trophy shelf boasts the award for LFE Championship Apprentice of the.

Stars and Stripes Forever. Team USA is going for a sweep of major hockey tournaments this year.

In January, the men’s junior team won with a thrilling shootout victory over Canada. Last month, after an 1.

American women rolled through the competition to win the women’s world championship. USA is led in this tournament by head coach Jeff Blashill of the Detroit Red Wings. Notable NHL stars on the roster include Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Dylan Larkin, Jacob Trouba, and Noah Hanifin.

The goaltenders are Jimmy Howard and Connor Hellebuyck. The team also includes Arizona Coyotes defenseman and Central Ohio native Connor Murphy.

Murphy was previously part of the team that won the 2. World Junior tournament. Blue Jackets in action. Now for the important part: which members of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization will be competing?

Belarus: Oleg Yevenko. Czech Republic: no current players, but former Jackets Vinny Prospal and Jaroslav Spacek are assistant coaches (still love ya, Vinny!)Finland: Joonas Korpisalo, Markus Hannikainen. Latvia: Elvis Merzlikins.

Russia: Vladislav Gavrikov. Switzerland: Dean Kukan.

Sweden: Lars “William” Karlsson. Teams that have no Blue Jackets and are therefore dead to us: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, Slovakia, USA (gasp!)Full rosters here.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysisby Aaron Schatz. You aren't going to find a controversial, counterintuitive take on the NFC Championship Game here. Pretty much everything you have read about this game is true.

This is a battle of high- powered offenses, likely to be a shootout from the opening kickoff until the final whistle. This year's NFC Championship Game opened with an over/under of 5. Watch Mississippi River Sharks movie online with subtitles 1280 21:9 here. That was the highest ever for a conference championship, and it's gone up to 6. Atlanta and Green Bay ended the season as two of the four best offenses in the NFL according to our DVOA ratings. In the weighted ratings, including the postseason, they are the top two offenses.

Since Week 1. 2, and including the postseason, Matt Ryan leads all quarterbacks with 4. DVOA and 8. 3 net yards per pass (including DPIs). Aaron Rodgers is second with 3. DVOA and 7. 5 net yards per pass. Yes, we can argue that Ryan plays with better receivers and in a better scheme, so perhaps Rodgers is the better quarterback overall.

It doesn't matter in this game because Ryan gets to bring his receivers with him and he's still playing in the better scheme until Kyle Shanahan decamps for San Francisco. The offensive showdown here goes past just the offenses. Both defenses are below average, even when we consider that Atlanta's defense improved a bit in the second half of the season.

Both defenses were even worse in the red zone than they were overall, making it even more likely we'll see Rodgers and Ryan trading touchdowns for 6. There's a very good chance that this is the most offense- oriented matchup of the Super Bowl era for either a conference championship or a Super Bowl. It certainly is the most offense- oriented matchup of the DVOA era, going back to 1. In the history of DVOA, there has only been one other conference championship where both teams had top- five offenses but below- average defenses. That was the 1. 99. NFC Championship Game, which Dallas won over San Francisco 3.

However, the Cowboys defense was just barely below average that year (1. Suspicious Minds watch in english with english subtitles FULLHD. DVOA. As with the divisional round, both conference championship games this year are rematches from the regular season. However, just as with the AFC Championship, this game will differ significantly from the first matchup because of injuries. No, there wasn't a backup quarterback involved when the Falcons squeezed by the Packers 3.

Week 8 shootout, but there were a lot of other backups involved. The Packers played without their top two cornerbacks, Quinten Rollins and Damarious Randall. They played without their top pass- rusher, Clay Matthews, who was out with a hamstring issue. On the offensive side of the ball, neither Randall Cobb nor Jared Cook was active for that game, and the Packers running game was in complete shambles.

The Packers played the Falcons after Eddie Lacy's ankle injury but before they had officially moved Ty Montgomery to the running back position. Their running backs in this game were undrafted rookie Don Jackson and Chiefs refugee Knile Davis, who was cut the day afterwards. Atlanta's injury situation was nowhere near as bad as Green Bay's at that point, but they did play this game without running back Tevin Coleman. Julio Jones was on the field for 8. He had three catches for 2. Once again for this game, the injury situation favors the Falcons. Yes, they have lost cornerback Desmond Trufant since the first Green Bay game, and Julio Jones was limited in practice this week.

However, the Packers' wide receivers are a mess. Jordy Nelson (ribs), Davante Adams (ankle), and Geronimo Allison (hamstring) are all going to be game- time decisions on Sunday, and the Packers are also dealing with an illness that has swept through their locker room this week. For those who may be unfamiliar with the Football Outsiders stats, they are explained at the bottom of the page. Scroll down or click this link. Game charting data appears courtesy Sports Info Solutions, unless noted. Please remember that all stats represent regular season only, except for weighted DVOA and anything else specifically noted. This week, we're breaking out separate charts for offensive and defensive DVOA each week.

The defensive charts are . If you have FO Premium, you can click here to see all the matchup of DVOA splits for this game. WHEN THE FALCONS HAVE THE BALLPreviewing this matchup presents an interesting quandry. Do we concentrate on the splits where the Falcons have an absurd advantage over the Packers, or do we focus on finding those few places where the Packers may be able to slow the Falcons down somewhat? Perhaps the clearest problem for the Packers is right off the bat at the start of every series.

The Falcons were the No. Packers ranked No. Ryan averaged 1. 0. Atlanta pass on first down gets a new set of downs. The Packers were surprisingly good against the pass on second down, fifth in DVOA, but then there's another big gap on third downs. A number of other media outlets have pointed out that Ryan actually had better numbers this season throwing to receivers who weren't Julio Jones. DVOA doesn't quite agree, because Jones was so strong getting first downs, but it's close.

When you remove sacks and other passes with no intended receiver, Ryan had 6. DVOA throwing to Jones and 5. DVOA throwing to everyone else. Jones had the highest receiving DVOA for any wideout with over 6. Taylor Gabriel (3. DVOA on 5. 0 targets) had the highest DVOA for any wideout with at least a 2.

Tight end Austin Hooper finished second in DVOA among qualifying tight ends, while Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman were both in the top six for receiving DVOA among qualifying running backs. Dropped passes can be hard to categorize and different sources will have different numbers, but SIS charting counted just five drops for Julio Jones while no other Falcons receiver had more than two. The wide receivers are the biggest problem for the Packers.

Green Bay ranked 3. DVOA covering wide receivers, compared to seventh against tight ends and 1. The Packers actually had the league's best DVOA against passes on the left side of the field, but this seems to be a complete fluke. With the constant movement of cornerbacks in and out of the lineup and all around the field due to injuries, this number certainly isn't related to an particular player. We've run a table with Green Bay's cornerback charting stats in each of the last two playoff previews, and to summarize, nobody stands out as very good. The only one of Green Bay's main cornerbacks to come out above average was Ladarius Gunter in success rate, where he ranked 3.

However, add in the two playoff games, and he drops to 4. Quinten Rollins has the worst charting metrics of them all, allowing 1. That means that if Green Bay wants to slow down Matt Ryan, the Packers will have to do it with the pass rush. This should be a place where the Packers have an advantage. Both the Packers' defensive pressure rate (2.

Falcons (2. 3. 1 percent) were close to league average, but the Packers pressure did a good job of getting home to force lost yardage. Green Bay ranked sixth in adjusted sack rate, while the Falcons' offensive line was just 2. Charting stats suggest that defenses can slow down the Falcons with a lot of blitzes, and that happens to be a favored strategy for Dom Capers' defenses. Green Bay blitzed this year on 2. And yet, in the first meeting between these teams, the Packers sent a standard four pass- rushers on almost every pass play. They only blitzed Ryan three times; Ryan completed two of those passes, both for first downs.

And they only sent a limited pass rush twice, and Ryan completed both passes for 1. But the season- long numbers are really clear. Give Ryan time to pass by sending a limited pass rush, and the Falcons will destroy you. Blitz Ryan, and at least you have a better chance to stop them. Passing by No. Pass- Rushers, 2. Pass- Rushers. 4 Pass- Rushers. Pass- Rushers. Freq.

Yd/Pass. Rank. Suc Rate. Rank. Freq. Yd/Pass. Rank. Suc Rate. Rank. Freq. Yd/Pass. Rank. Suc Rate. Rank. GB defense. Matt Ryan. 11%1. 0. For Capers, it's not just about blitzing but about who's blitzing.

The Packers sent more defensive back blitzes than any defense other than Los Angeles, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and allowed just 5. That's the same average yardage Ryan gained on such blitzes this year, which ranked the Falcons 2. So the recipe is not just blitzes but a lot of defensive back blitzes. Of course, one reason the Packers send so many defensive back blitzes is that they essentially use 2- 4- 5 as their base defensive set, and almost always have at least five defensive backs on the field.

The downside of that strategy is that it can open things up for the running game. The Packers' run defense started the season off like gangbusters and has slowly and steadily become more and more porous over the past four months. Here's a table we also ran last week; I've added a line for the playoffs, though that's obviously just a two- game sample that includes a game against the Ezekiel Elliott. Remember that these are team DVOA numbers and include all plays, so the average rushing play is below zero (because the average passing play is above zero). Green Bay Run Defense, 2. Weeks. Run Def DVOARB Yd/Carry. Adj Line Yards. Stuff Rate.

Weeks 1- 5- 3. 4. Weeks 6- 1. 0- 1. Weeks 1. 1- 1. 72.

Playoffs- 4. 5%4. The first game against Atlanta falls into the second period on that table. The Packers limited Devonta Freeman to 1. Terron Ward, playing in place of the injured Coleman, managed 4. Complicating things for the Packers is that Atlanta's strongest run- blocking doesn't match the strength of the Green Bay run defense. Based on adjusted line yards, the Falcons were strongest on runs up the middle or behind right tackle, while the Packers were weaker on those runs and strongest on runs to the outside.

With the runs, of course, come the play- action passes, and the Falcons led the league by using play- action on 2. They were great with play- action, second in the NFL with 1.