Skins win!

The Washington Redskins played a solid day of football on Sunday afternoon and defeated the Oakland Raiders 34-13. The game was close in the middle of the third quarter, the Skins led 17-13, before the Raiders fell apart. Oakland had the ball on the Skins 34 yard-line with backup QB JaMarcus Russell at the helm. In a 5 play span, the Raiders went sack, penalty, penalty, sack, completed pass overturned on review. This turned a possible field goal into a punt. The Redskins took possession and made it 24-13 and basically put the game away. Washington QB Jason Campbell had a decent game, throwing for 222 yards and 2 TDs with no picks. Fred Davis caught both TD passes from Campbell. RB Quinton Ganther had two rushing TDs and 93 total yards. The defense had 8 sacks, led by rookie Brian Orapko's four sacks. The Skins have a tough remaining schedule as they face the Giants, Cowboys, and Chargers. Hopefully, they can play spoiler in the NFC East.

The Atlanta Braves have made some moves to tighten up their roster. They traded Rafael Soriano to the Rays for right-hander Jesse Chavez. Chavez had a 4.01 ERA in 67 innings over 73 games for the Pirates last year. He will give us a little more depth in the middle innings and help us against left-handed hitters as he has held them to a .227 average over his career. The Braves signed Matt Diaz to a one-year deal worth $2.55 million. I would think that he would get a chance to start in the outfield as he has played well over the past two years for Atlanta. The Braves have not offered contracts to Kelly Johnson, Ryan Church, Boone Logan, and Peter Moylan. The potential loss of Logan and Moylan underscores the need of getting Chavez, Billy Wagner, and Takashi Saito to fill out the bullpen.

Ball State's football team will have to wait until at least mid-January to find out if MiQuale Lewis and Madaris Grant will be granted an extra year of eligibility due to injury hardship. The paperwork has been filed with the MAC and the NCAA.