NFL Football

Eli, the baby of the Manning quarterback clan, has finally arrived. Playing before the largest home crowd in Green Bay history (72,740 spectators), in the third-coldest game in league history (minus-1 at kickoff), Manning threw neither a touchdown nor an interception. Manning repeatedly put the Giants in position to win the NFC championship Sunday, and when Lawrence Tynes came through at last with a 47-yard field goal in overtime, New York had itself an improbable 23-20 victory over the Green Bay Packers at frostbitten Lambeau Field. Now comes Mission Impossible: beating the undefeated New England Patriots in two weeks in a Super Bowl matchup hardly anyone saw coming. Manning wasn't the only Giant who came through. Tynes had two earlier misses - a 36-yarder at the end of regulation following a bad snap, and a 43-yarder with 6:49 to go - before nailing his long winner 2:35 into OT. He got a reprieve in overtime after Corey Webster intercepted a struggling Brett Favre - the kind of mistake Manning often has made before his recent turnaround. The best game Eli has had in his four-year career was the season finale against the Patriots, when he threw four touchdown passes. He and the Giants are getting another shot at New England, the first team to go 18-0. The Patriots will be after their fourth Super Bowl title in seven years on Feb. 3, as well as the league's first perfect season since Miami went 17-0 in 1972.

History has been the Pat's constant companion all season, but in Sunday's AFC Championship Game in frigid Gillette Stadium, New England put this one in the win column by looking to their own storied past rather than writing another gaudy chapter in the league record books. This was the way the Patriots used to win games, long before the points-palooza of 2007 and chatter about a perfect season and running up the score became a near weekly refrain. New England didn't remotely dominate the San Diego Chargers in the AFC title game. All they did was defeat them, 21-12. Reminiscent of how the blue-collar Patriots got things done in their previous Super Bowl seasons of 2001, 2003 and 2004, when they won with sturdy bend-but-don't-break defense, a propensity for takeaways, and just enough ball-control offense to get the job done. It was old-fashioned, conventional football, and for the most part it led to wins that were narrow, with New England needing to bleed the clock in the final minutes of the game to lock things down. That was exactly the recipe for success on Sunday, when the Patriots limited the Chargers to four field goals, forced two San Diego turnovers, and held the ball for the staggering total of 9:13 to end the game. The Chargers' four best drives reached all the way to the New England 8, 5, 22 and 6 yard lines. And all that the Patriots allowed were four measly Nate Kaeding field goals. Eighteen down, one to go.

Super Bowl matchup

Australian Open

Fifth-seeded David Ferrer, who lost to Federer in the Masters Cup final in November, beat fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. He will play third-ranked Novak Djokovic, who ousted the last Australian hope when he defeated No. 19 Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. Hewitt didn't have his usual high energy level after beating Marcos Baghdatis in five sets in his previous match, which didn't end until 4:33 a.m. Sunday. That match was delayed by the length of Federer's victory over Tipsarevic.

Roger Federer sure didn't want to put in another 4½ hours. So he made fast work of Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-3 Monday to continue his march to a third consecutive Australian Open title and narrow his pursuit of Pete Sampras' record 14 Grand Slam titles. Federer next faces American James Blake, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 winner over 19-year-old Croatian Marin Cilic, advancing past the fourth round here for the first time and matching his best Grand Slam showing.

Venus Williams, the eighth-seeded woman, realizes she needs to get over her slow starts. She had to fight back twice from service breaks in the first set before advancing to the quarters with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Marta Domachowska, a qualifier from Poland. She next faces No. 4 Ana Ivanovic, who put together a 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki. No. 8 Daniela Hantuchova beat No. 27 Maria Kirilenko 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and will next play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, who upset No. 14 Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-5, 6-0. Williams is hoping that she can meet sister Serena, who was sitting courtside, in the final. Serena, the defending champion, is in the other half of the draw, where she next meets No. 3 Jelena Jankovic on Tuesday. A victory would set up a matchup between the winner of the other quarterfinal between top-seeded Justine Henin and No. 5 Maria Sharapova, last year's losing finalist.

Australian Open

World Cup Skiing

Bode Miller won the combined title for the slalom and downhill Sunday, setting a U.S. record with his 28th World Cup victory. Miller finished 14th in the slalom after finishing second in Saturday's downhill race. Jean-Baptiste Grange of France won the slalom on Sunday. Phil Mahre set the American record of 27 World Cup victories more than two decades ago. "It's a nice record, something you dream about as a kid," the 30-year-old Miller said. "As a professional skier, you're more focussed on winning each individual race. Before the season, it was my target to break that record and it's a really good feeling if you reach your goals."

Benjamin Raich was second in the combined and went back to the top of the overall World Cup standings. The 27-year-old Grange, who led after the first leg, finished in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 45.04 seconds. The Frenchman edged Jens Byggmark by 0.15 seconds, and Mario Matt took third. American Ted Ligety, who faced a 0.74-second deficit, started fast in his second run but lost control of a ski at the bumpy upper part of the course. He finished eighth.

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Maria Holaus of Austria won a sunny Super-G on Sunday to claim her first World Cup victory while Julia Mancuso of the United States finished second. Holaus covered the melting Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 24.63 seconds. Mancuso finished 0.23 behind, and overall World Cup leader Nicole Hosp of Austria was third. Emily Brydon of Canada finished fourth and downhill winner Lindsey Vonn of the United States was fifth.

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Five-time Olympic biathlon champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen got his fifth win of the World Cup season Sunday. The Norwegian won a 15-kilometer mass start race in 36 minutes, 26.99 seconds, with one missed shot. Bjoern Ferry of Sweden finished second, 20.5 seconds behind, also with one miss, and Michael Greis of Germany was third. In the women's 12.5-kilometer race, Andrea Henkel of Germany recorded her second victory in two days. Henkel won in 36:07.37 with one miss. Anna Carin Olofsson of Sweden finished 16.1 seconds behind with no misses and World Cup leader Kati Wilhelm of Germany was third.

Australian Open

Roger Federer took his time about this one -- needing 41/2 hours and five sets to advance at the Australian Open. There was never a letup in the tension. Starting when Federer was forced to rally before outlasting 49th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 to reach the fourth round of the tournament he has won the last two years. That pushed back the night session two hours.

Venus Williams beat Sania Mirza in straight sets in the first night match. Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis went on court at 11:47 p.m. Saturday, the last scheduled match at Rod Laver Arena on Day 6, and Hewitt ripped a forehand winner on his fifth match point 4 hours, 45 minutes later. The Aussie set a record for the latest finish for a day's play at a Grand Slam, beating 2006 runner-up Baghdatis 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-3, and completing the marathon at 4:33 a.m. local time Sunday.

James Blake, seeded 12th, came back from down two sets, then from a double break in the fourth before beating veteran Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-2. No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez, who lost the Australian final last year to Federer, was ousted 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1 by Croatia's Marin Cilic, who had never gone past the first round in three previous majors. Cilic, who called it his best performance, faces Blake next. Two of Russia's top 10 women also were ousted. No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by 18-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze lost 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-2 to No. 27 Maria Kirilenko. Fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic reached the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 28 Katarina Srebotnik.

Australian Open

Bowl games, 1/1/08

Georgia would love to be back at the Superdome next week, playing for the title it really wanted. Instead, the Bulldogs will have to settle for being Sugar Bowl champs. Overpowering the country's last unbeaten team, black-clad Georgia took out its frustration at getting passed over for a shot at the BCS championship with a 41-10 rout of Colt Brennan and the Warriors on Tuesday night. Next Monday, on the very same Superdome field, Ohio State will meet LSU in the national title game. The No. 4 Bulldogs feel they're as deserving as either of those teams, and they'll certainly get no argument from Hawaii, which came to the Big Easy with a perfect record and left all beaten up.

This would have been a perfect Rose Bowl for the USC Trojans, except for the one part they couldn't control. They couldn't pick their opponent. The sixth-ranked Trojans routed Illinois 49-17 on Tuesday and showed the rest of the country that, yes, maybe they are the best team in college football right now. Certainly, a better test could have come against Georgia or Virginia Tech, or maybe next week against Ohio State in the national title game. But the Rose Bowl wanted a Pac-10-Big Ten matchup, and the national title game didn't want Southern California. So, it wound up being USC-Illinois in the Granddaddy of 'Em All, and the Trojans made the Illini pay.

Colorful confetti flip-flopping around him, fans in black and gold chanting his name, Tony Temple and his Missouri teammates were basking in a terrific ending to a magical season. Only one thing was wrong - the setting. See, this was the Cotton Bowl, not the national championship game they were a win away from reaching, and it wasn't the Orange, Fiesta or Sugar Bowl like they thought they deserved. Motivated instead of deflated, the guys from the 'Show-Me State' did their best to prove they belonged in the BCS by routing Darren McFadden and Arkansas 38-7 on Tuesday. Temple led the way, rushing for 281 yards and four touchdowns, both records in the 72-year history of the Cotton Bowl. Mizzou (12-2) was ranked No. 1 after beating Kansas in the regular season finale, then lost badly to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game - so badly that the Jayhawks wound up with an at-large berth into the Orange Bowl. Coach Gary Pinkel kept his team's spirits up by having them put together a list of reasons why Dallas was a great place to spend New Year's Day. Recruiting and appeasing their largest out-of-state alumni base likely were near the top.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was doused with water, surrounded by dancing players and then carried onto the field. He went out a winner. Chad Henne threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, Mike Hart ran for 129 yards and two scores and the Wolverines upset No. 9 Florida 41-35 Tuesday in the Capital One Bowl to win their first bowl game since 2003. This one was special. Michigan's senior class won its first bowl game in four tries and Carr ended his coaching career on a high note. Henne, Adrian Arrington and Mario Manningham torched Florida's secondary all game. Arrington caught nine passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns, and Manningham added five catches for 78 yards and a score. The Gators (9-4) kept it close thanks to four turnovers and plenty of big plays by Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and speedster Percy Harvin. Playing with a broken bone in his non-throwing hand and facing constant blitzes, Tebow was 17-of-33 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 57 yards and a score. Harvin ran 13 times for 165 yards and a touchdown, and caught nine passes for 77 yards and a score. It wasn't enough.

NCAA Football