HBO's Inside the NFL (7 tonight, 11 a.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday) takes a look at Sunday's Green Bay-Bucs game, with some sobering prognosis for the home team.
"I think Brett Favre may come out in the two-minute offense," Cris Collinsworth said. "Right now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their two-minute defense cannot get it done and it is costing them ballgames."
But Collinsworth forgets one key fact: Green Bay coach Mike Sherman is much too conservative and uncreative to dream up that plan, so expect him to rely on the run as he has all season. But that too could pose a problem for the Bucs, Cris Carter said.
"Tampa Bay's run defense is missing a key part and that is John Lynch being close to the line of scrimmage," he said. "Now he is trying to do everything he can; he has a bad shoulder, a stinger, his arm might have 20 percent strength in it, and he is not nearly the player he used to be trying to play through this injury.
"They are not going to be able to stop Green Bay's running game with John Lynch playing the way he is playing."
Naturally, Dan Marino took the obvious route, saying the way to beat the Bucs is, all together now, "run the ball right at them."
All aboard
Fox will broadcast Sunday's Bucs game to 86 percent of the country, and viewers once again get treated to the No. 1 team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Collinsworth.
No pay for the replay
Say one thing about the suspect scoring of boxing matches, but it's definitely a reason to watch the replays.
At 9:45 p.m. Saturday, HBO will replay the world light heavyweight title fight between Tampa's Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jr., which produced 250,000 buys on pay-per-view last week.
The fight will be paired with the live featherweight bout between Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao.
HBO2 also will replay the fights Sunday (9 a.m., 6:30 p.m.) and Tuesday (11 p.m.).
Too much to fill?
Sounds like a neat idea at first, and then, when you really think about it . . . yawwwwwwn
The NFL Network will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the "Heidi Game," when NBC switched away from a Jets-Raiders nailbiter to show the popular movie, by televising a special edition of the movie at 9 p.m. Monday.
The presentation also will feature exclusive interviews with those directly and indirectly involved in the "Heidi Game." NFL Network will show the two key touchdowns that NBC missed as well.
Lebron, part deux
The New York Post reported that Brooklyn prep star Sebastian Telfair and his Lincoln basketball team will appear on ESPN2 Dec. 11 against Orlando Edgewater High School at 7 p.m. The Post says that ESPN is "only planning on showing one Lincoln contest," and that the team also is "being filmed for a possible documentary."
Just one game? Hmmmm. We'll see.
Jump start on hoops
Sunshine Network will air Florida and Florida State men's and women's basketball previews at 5:30 and 6 p.m. Sunday, respectively.
