searching for just one win, viewing Game 4 as a best-of-one they had no choice but to from zgr123's blog
San Antonio, TX (SportsNetwork. Ezekiel Elliott Jersey .com) - A couple of nationally-ranked teams trying to bounce back from defeat in their last outings get together in the Alamo Bowl, as the 11th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats battle the 14th-ranked UCLA Bruins on Friday. The Bruins opened the 2014 campaign with four straight wins before hosting Utah and Oregon in early October and bowing to both Pac-12 Conference foes. However, UCLA rebounded by stringing together five consecutive victories in league play, but ended up falling to Stanford in the regular-season finale, 31-10. UCLA wound up in a three-way tie for second place in the South Division of the Pac-12 at 6-3. It is an honor to be a participant in the Valero Alamo Bowl, said UCLA head football coach Jim Mora. Our players know that when you play in a bowl of this magnitude, the nation is watching. When you consider that the Valero Alamo Bowl has produced a number of the most-watched Non-BCS Bowl Games in its broadcast partners history, we cant wait to get on the field at the Alamodome, compete every down against a tremendous Kansas State team and fight for our second consecutive 10-win season. As for the Wildcats, they too had a strong start to the campaign with seven wins in the first eight outings, the lone setback being a 20-14 decision against Auburn in the middle of September. However, there were a couple of stumbling blocks down the stretch as the program bowed to both TCU (41-20) and Baylor (38-27), although both opponents were nationally-ranked at the time. With the two defeats in the last four games, KSU was left with a 7-2 mark against the rest of the Big 12 Conference. Kansas State does not have an extensive history in the postseason as the team enters its 18th bowl contest. The squad is 7-10 in such efforts dating back to a 14-3 loss to Wisconsin in the 1982 Independence Bowl. Last season, the program managed to halt a five-game slide with a 31-14 triumph over Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. The bowl history for the Bruins reaches back to a 9-0 loss to Georgia in the 1943 Rose Bowl. Since winning eight straight bowls between 1983-1991, UCLA has been unable to register back-to-back bowl victories in the last 15 appearances, although the team will have a chance to make it happen this time around after having defeated Virginia Tech, 42-12, in last years Sun Bowl. Overall, the Bruins have a record of 15-17-1 in bowl games. The teams have split two previous meetings, the most recent coming in 2010 when Kansas State opened the campaign with a 31-22 home victory over the Bruins. Kansas State leaned quite a bit on quarterback Jake Waters this season, as he completed 66.2 percent of his passes for 3,163 yards and 20 touchdowns against only six interceptions. His efficiency rating was 157.8 and thanks to the contributions of Joe Hubener in his six limited appearances, the Wildcats rank eighth in the nation in pass efficiency (158.67). Tyler Lockett blazed a trail through opposing defenses with his 93 catches for 1,351 yards and nine touchdowns. Lockett, the first player in school history to earn All-America recognition in all four years, is also a two-time winner of the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year award as he averaged 19.0 per punt return and 21.2 yards per kickoff return this season. Lockett ended up as one of the nations leaders in all-purpose yards in 2014 with 2,047 (170.6 ypg). Other credible offensive threats for Kansas State are running backs Charles Jones and Waters, who combined to produce just under 1,000 yards and a total of 21 TDs on the ground. From a defensive standpoint, the Wildcats ranked 26th in the country in points allowed (21.8 ppg), and the red zone defense was 28th as it limited opponents to only 77.1 percent success. Jonathan Truman topped the tackles list with an impressive 114 stops, his 74 solo tackles alone being enough to pace the program. However, Truman was short on impact plays as he failed to record a single stop behind the line of scrimmage and had only one fumble recovery. Among the top eight tacklers on the roster, there were just two sacks, far short of the 5.5 sacks logged by Ryan Mueller who had just 33 total stops to his credit. Then again, Dante Barnett (73 tackles) and Randall Evans (61) did handle the pass defense rather well with a combined seven interceptions and 24 passes defended. Going up against the KSU defense will be the highly-touted Brett Hundley for the Bruins. Listed as probable for the contest with a finger injury, there is little doubt that Hundley will have a say in the outcome of this meeting after completing a sizzling 70.4 percent of his pass attempts for 3,019 yards and 21 touchdowns, against only five interceptions. His efficiency alone (155.4) compared favorably to the Wildcats as a whole. More than just a passer Hundley, who was named a finalist for the Manning Award, also made himself into a threat with his legs as he finished second on the team with 548 yards on 148 attempts, culminating in a team-best eight touchdowns. Paul Perkins, a starter in 10 games at running back, took most of the beating on the ground with his 1,381 yards, averaging 6.0 ypc as he reached the end zone seven times. As for options down the field, Hundleys favorite targets are Jordan Payton and Devin Fuller, the former catching 63 balls for 896 yards and seven touchdowns, while the latter turned his 57 grabs into a modest 428 yards and a single score. Thomas Duarte was a significant contributor with 27 receptions for 521 yards and four touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball, the Bruins were rather mediocre from a statistical standpoint. The unit was 68th in the nation in yards allowed (401.0 ypg) and 74th in points surrendered (27.5 ppg), and yet Eric Kendricks still played the game with reckless abandon. The 2014 Butkus Award winner and the recipient of the Lott IMPACT Trophy, Kendricks averaged close to 12 tackles per game, notched 8.5 TFL, two sacks and three interceptions on his way to being named an All-American. Also having an impact for the UCLA defense were Owa Odighizuwa with 9.5 TFL and five sacks, as well as Deon Hollins who needed just 27 total takedowns to reach seven TFL and a team-best six sacks. Their defense is very good - the safeties and the corners, KSUs Lockett said of his competition. They are physical and they are really good at high pointing the ball as well. We have to work on high pointing the ball and not waiting for the ball to come to us. We just have to be able to beat them in and out of our routes. Larry Allen Cowboys Jersey . The Swiss won on the fastest run-time tiebreaker after the four-racer teams tied 2-2. Wendy Holdener and Reto Schmidiger won their final heats against Julia Mancuso and Tim Jitloff, respectively. Troy Aikman Womens Jersey .Y. -- Major League Soccer has agreed to new measures to protect gay players from discrimination and harassment as a result of meetings with New Yorks attorney general.NEW YORK – On this day, at least, it was the King and not the Kings standing at the very top of the castle. Henrik Lundqvist did all he could to keep the Cup from seeing the light of day on Wednesday night, stopping nearly every piece of rubber flung his way in a do-or-die tilt for the Rangers at MSG. Vowing to raise the level of his performance just a day earlier, Lundqvist did that and more, turning aside 40 of 41 shots in a 2-1 Game 4 win. “It was pretty self-explanatory out there,” said Dan Girardi. “He was the King tonight for us, making huge saves when he had to.” Girardis unfortunate broken stick catapulted the Kings to their only goal on Lundqvist, a breakaway marker from Dustin Brown midway through the middle period. It was from that point on that the 32-year-old simply took over, preserving the Rangers one-goal lead amidst an avalanche of incredible pressure from an L.A. squad intent on capturing the Cup for the second time in three years. New York was outshot 15-1 in the final period and an unimaginable 26-3 over the final 31-plus minutes of regulation, completely dominated by the Cup-hungry Kings. Lundqvist turned every shot aside though, rising to every challenge his rivals could muster. “Goaltender was real good,” said head coach Alain Vigneault with a smile, asked how the Rangers managed to preserve a 2-0 lead after failing to do so in Games 1 and 2. “He had to make some huge saves in the second and the third. He got and we got a few bounces. You need those. Maybe the luck is changing a little bit.” Believing the breaks had been against them in the opening three games, the Rangers saw that luck turn in their favour in remarkable fashion on this night. On not one, but two occasions did a puck sneak through the pads of Lundqvist and land squarely on the goal-line, kept at bay by morsels of snow before a Ranger could calmly swat it away – first Anton Stralman midway through the first frame and later Derek Stepan in the dying moments of regulation. “Dont fool yourself either,” said Stepan. “Hank stood on his head. He made some big saves at big times for us. Those are the big plays we need at certain moments to keep the momentum or shift the momentum. Roger Staubach Womens Jersey. Hank stood tall and hes a big part of why were going back to L.A.” Lundqvist and the Rangers are now 11-2 in their last 13 games when facing elimination, the King entering the night with a .957 save percentage in such situations. “When everything is on the line, you just have to challenge yourself the right way, I guess, as a team and personally,” said Lundqvist, who allowed 11 goals in the first three games against the Kings. “You have to go out there and leave everything out there and be extremely focused. One mistake and the season is over. Youre definitely aware of that. When you go out to these types of games where you know everything can be over after this period or after the next two periods.” Despite relentless waves of pressure over the final period and a half the Kings believed they could do more to disrupt the Rangers Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender. “I think we can do a better job getting to him,” said Anze Kopitar, one of only three Kings without a shot on goal. “I think [there were] a couple of times where we didnt make it tough on him. The pucks were sitting there. But the pucks hes gonna see, hes gonna stop. Thats just how it is.” Despite owning the back half of Wednesdays game, L.A. is now forced to make the long flight back west in hopes of procuring the Cup on home ice. It was two years earlier in the 2012 Final that they raced out to a 3-0 series lead only to drop Games 4 and 5 to the Devils before finally emerging with the first Cup in franchise history at Staples Center in Game 6. “Were going back home, thats where we won it last time, hopefully we can do the same thing again,” said Drew Doughty. The Rangers, meanwhile, were searching for just one win, viewing Game 4 as a best-of-one they had no choice but to capture. Rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the second round against the Penguins, their focus now shifts to bringing the series back to the Garden for Game 6 and hopefully beyond. “Well, we went into this game with the approach that we wanted to win at home in front of our fans,” said Lundqvist. “That was our approach. We got that accomplished. 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