South African technology firm Altech ALTJ

I Believe this past game was the changing of the guard and it is Carson's turn to get them two super bowl rings. He hasn't had the benefit of playing on any great teams until this year. In fact, some of the Bengals teams he has played for have been God awful. This is not the case anymore. The offense has clicked much better as Cedric Benson's turnaround has been the key to this season. The defense has played well in some of these tight games and I have been impressed by some of their narrow victories this season. Winning the close games is what makes a team ready for the playoffs and the tough battles that will occur for them.

Carson Palmer and the Bengals will the annual playoff teams of the AFC with new poses and challenges this playoff season. I fully expect them to go into the playoffs as division winner and possibly with some home games. The fans of Cincinnati deserve a winner for once as their professional teams have struggled badly in recent years.Marvin Lewis should be comended for the fine coaching job he has done this season. I believe he is one of the ore underrated coaches in the game. When a coach consistently wins the close games a lot of times it comes down to the coaching that wins. The bengels are the biggest surprise in the NFL and they need to cap it off with a sucessful playoff stretch leading to the Super Bowl..

Tribunal approves purcahse (Adds details) JOHANNESBURG, Jan 8 (Reuters) - MTN (MTNJ.J), Africa'sbiggest cell phone operator by subscribers, has won competitionapproval for its acquisition of Verizon's African businesses,which it is buying to add muscle to its data division. MTN is buying a 69.38 percent stake in Verizon South Africa,a unit of U.S.-based Verizon Communciations (VZ.N), for anundisclosed amount to help it better compete with rivals such asDimension Data (DDTJ.J) in the corporate communications market. Verizon Business South Africa provides telecommunications tocorporate customers in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambiaand Kenya. South African technology firm Altech (ALTJ.J) had initiallyobjected to the deal on grounds it would give MTN too muchcontrol of the local communications market, but withdrew itsopposition on Wednesday. The Competition Tribunal said on Thursday it had approvedthe deal without conditions (Reporting by Rebecca Harrison).

It's rough playing the second night of back-to-back games.The team is usually showing fatigue. By the time the third period rolls around, it's understandable to see the team struggling.That's what happened to the Ducks on Saturday night when they battled the San Jose Sharks in a 3-2 loss.Funny thing is, it was the Sharks who played their second game of a back-to-back, not the Ducks.Could have fooled me.This season, the Ducks have been completely incapable of keeping their momentum going from game to game. Just when it looks like they've turned things around and have found the fire they need to play physical and win games, they follow up a victory with an embarrassing loss.The Ducks are defeating themselves. The Ducks were controlling the puck, dominating down low, and cycling well.Once again, the second line combination of Evgeny Artyukhin and Teemu Selanne was showing promise. Chase the Sharks, chase the puck, and chase the play.Inconsistent.If there was one very important lesson has been learned from Saturday's game, it is this: the defensemen need to continue to shoot the puck.James Wisniewski had a great shot from just inside the blue line and Ryan Whitney's bullet to the back of the net are the types of goals the Ducks need to win games.However, when those are your ONLY goals, there is little to no chance of beating a team like San Jose.The big offensive names from San Jose did their part, they scored goals. Joe Thornton and Dany Heatly took care of the offense for their team, as they're expected to do.While yes, Corey Perry has continued his point streak to a career high 14 games, he did not score a goal. The offense simply did not do their job.Inconsistent.Maybe it was their inability to get the puck over the blue line during the third period.