Le Journal

Mike Vrabel returned to New England on a mission to have the franchise playing again in meaningful games in January — as he did so often as a player. In his first year as the head coach, he wanted to do it by building a culture of players that wanted to perform for each another. Their most complete team effort of the season has the Patriots one win from a trip to Super Bowl LX. Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes in the snow and rain, Marcus Jones returned one of C.J. Stroud’s four interceptions for a score and the Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 28-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the first time in seven years. Next Sunday, the Patriots (16-3) will take on the Denver Broncos (15-3), who will be without injured quarterback Bo Nix after he suffered a broken ankle late in the divisional round. The winner advances to the NFL’s title game in three weeks. “Everybody’s stepping up. We’re using everybody. Everybody’s making plays. Everybody’s helping us win,” said Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls as a playmaking linebacker for the Patriots. “I’m excited for these guys, but also, they’re not satisfied, and I can tell that.” The Patriots — winners of 15 of their last 16 games — will make their 16th conference championship game appearance and first since their run to their sixth Super Bowl title under Bill Belichick in the 2018 season. New England has won its last nine divisional round games. Maye finished 16 of 27 for 179 yards, but had an interception and fumbled four times, losing two in cold conditions in which snow and rain fell throughout. One of Maye’s fumbles set up Houston’s first touchdown. “Just proud of the guys,” Maye said. “Battled the elements. This is New England. This is what we’re trying to embrace and we want to embrace all season long. Props to our defense, played a hell of a game. We’ve got to protect the football better, but we made enough plays to win it.” Carlton Davis III had two interceptions for New England. Craig Woodson added an interception and fumble recovery. “They bring it every week,” Maye said of his defense. “It’s fun to watch. And we could help them out some more, but just proud of the guys. Enjoy this one, and we’re back on the road.” The eight combined turnovers — Woody Marks also lost a fumble for Houston — were the most in a playoff game since 2015 when the Cardinals and Panthers combined for eight in the NFC championship game. The Texans (13-6) have lost in the divisional round in three straight seasons under coach DeMeco Ryans. The franchise fell to 0-7 in this round. “It’s tough to win a game when you turn the ball over five times,” Ryans said. Stroud finished 20 of 47 with a TD pass. All of his interceptions came in the first half as he became the first player with five or more INTs and five or more fumbles in a single postseason. Will Anderson forced two fumbles for the Texans. “I feel like I let people down,” Stroud said. “I’m not happy with that. It hurts. I’m not used to it.” Leading 21-16 in the fourth quarter, the Patriots stretched their lead to 27-16 when Kayshon Boutte got behind Derek Stingley Jr. and pulled in a diving, one-hand catch in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. The Texans had the ball with 5:48 to play, but punted on fourth-and-18 at their own 21 with 4:18 remaining. New England’s next drive took the clock under two minutes. But the Texans turned it over on downs when Stroud’s fourth-down pass to Xavier Hutchinson was batted down by Robert Spillane. The Patriots now go back on the road, where they are 8-0 this season. “We feel like we deserve to be here,” Maye said. “I like our chances with those guys in the locker room.” NFL 21 hours ago NFL Conference Championship Games: Schedule and broadcast info for AFC and NFC NFL Jan 17 Bo Nix breaks ankle during Broncos' overtime win over the Bills Early action With the Patriots leading 7-3 early, a series of miscues produced the next two…

Spanish police said Monday that at least 39 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country. Efforts to recover the bodies are continuing and the death toll is likely to rise. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters from the crash site, Andalusia regional president Juanma Moreno said. The crash occurred Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails at 7:45 p.m. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif. The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact, Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Puente said that it appeared the largest number of the deaths occurred in those carriages. Authorities said all the survivors had been rescued in the early morning while work remained to recover and identify the dead. Moreno said Monday morning that emergency services were still searching. “It is likely (that there will be more dead people found) when you look at the mass of metal that is there. The firefighters have done a great job, but unfortunately when they get the heavy machinery to lift the carriages it is probable we will find more victims.” “Here at ground zero, when you look at this mass of twisted iron, you see the violence of the impact,” Moreno said. Moreno said that authorities are also searching the area near the accident for possible bodies. “The impact was so incredibly violent that we have found bodies hundreds of meters away,” Moreno said. Various Spaniards who had loved ones traveling on the trains posted messages on social media saying they were unaccounted for and pleading for any information. Spain’s Civil Guard opened an office in Cordoba, the nearest city to the crash, for family members of the missing to seek help and leave DNA samples to be used to possibly identify bodies. Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights late on Sunday. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the windows, according to Salvador Jiménez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of the derailed trains. He told the network by phone Sunday that “there was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed.” Authorities said 159 people were injured. As of Monday, that included 11 adults and one child in critical condition. The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid. A sports center was turned into a makeshift hospital in Adamuz and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help center offering assistance to emergency services and people seeking information. Members of the Civil Guard and civil defense worked on site throughout the night. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. “Tonight is a night of deep pain for our country,” he wrote on X. The prime minister will visit the accident site on Monday, according to his office. Officials call accident ‘strange’ Transport Minister Puente early Monday said the cause of the crash was unknown. He called it “a truly strange” incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than 4 years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain’s public train company, Renfe. According to Puente, the back part of the first train derailed and crashed into the head of the other train. When asked by reporters how long an inquiry into the crash’s cause could…

They're not sending their smartest.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive captain Cam Heyward before a game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Dec. 15, 2024. -- Ed Thompson / Steelers Now It’s that time of the month, Pittsburgh Steelers fans: the monthly mailbag is here. Much has happened since the last iteration of this article took place, with them taking home the AFC North crown, Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach, and coaching search on the docket. Combine that with the 2026 NFL Draft taking place on the North Shore in just a matter of months and it feels like we’re all in for quite an eventful offseason. Today, we’ll briefly touch on the past before looking ahead to the future. As always, I sincerly appreciate all of the great questions that you submitted through various platforms. Without further ado, here we go! Q: Perhaps this is too loaded of a question, but where do you think the Mike Tomlin era went wrong? Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin during a preseason game against the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 21, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now A: When things run their course like this over a large sample size of time, it’s more complicated than just one singular issue. During their nine-year drought in the postseason, they’ve felt the ripple effect of so many lackluster draft classes from 2018-22. Despite that, Tomlin’s innate ability to raise the floor of the group was evident, but it came at the expense of having a long-term vision of how to get back to the promised land, too often opting for older veterans in key positions well past their prime. The assembled coaching staffs simply didn’t give them much of a schematic advantage over the past decade, and that’s a reflection of how they struggled to keep up with the times. Obviously, not being able to figure out the quarterback position is low-hanging fruit that doesn’t need any explanation. Despite all of that, they’ve been competitive, but the standard in Pittsburgh should be competing for Super Bowls. Q: What do the Steelers truly need in a head coach, a guy more on the X’s and O’s side or more of a team leader? Would it be better to hire an offensive or defensive coordinator? A: The ability to lead is a non-negotiable element of the job, regardless of your football background, and we’ve seen smart football minds fail as head coaches because they lack the soft skills necessary for this role. Assuming everything is equal, going the offensive coordinator route seems to be best practice. Over the last decade, success on that side of the ball has had a higher correlation towards winning; it’s more replicable year over year, and you don’t have to worry about another team poaching your play caller. On the flip side, Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks are a shining example of what can happen when a defensive mastermind hires the right guy to run to steer the ship on offense. Unfortunately, it’s just impossible to keep those guys in the building long-term with how the NFL turns over coaches these days. It also depends on who is available, which is among the reasons that Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula is atop my choices for Pittsburgh. Q: Where would you rank the Steelers’ job among the NFL’s head coaching vacancies? A: As of the time of this writing, there are nine franchises that will enter 2026 with a new head man in charge, with two of those spots already being filled (Atlanta, New York Giants). This is an older roster, albeit with some intriguing talents on rookie deals, but the main selling point for Pittsburgh is that they have few, if any, peers from an organizational stability standpoint. Whichever candidate is chosen will be given the freedom, and most importantly the time, to build out the team in their image. Baltimore would be the one destination that strikes me as more attractive, and that’s just because they’ve got the game-changer at quarterback already in place. Q: Which of the top Steelers impending free agents would you be looking to re-sign?…