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SPORTS Saturday, January 4, 2020 East Oregonian B3 Seahawks get Diggs back, expect Clowney to play vs. Eagles By TIM BOOTH Associated Press RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks defense will get a big boost as both safety Quandre Diggs and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney will play in the opening round of the play- offs Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Diggs had been expected to return after missing the fi nal two games of the regu- lar season with a high-ankle sprain. He has been a full participant in practice this week but there was uncer- tainty about Clowney and his ongoing issues with a core muscle injury. Clowney played in the regular season fi nale against San Francisco and was in for 66% of the defen- sive plays. But his impact was limited, as it has been since he fi rst suffered the injury in Week 10 against San Francisco in the fi rst meeting between the teams. Clowney had just one tackle last Sunday. He was still dealing with the injury and did not play when Seattle played in Phil- adelphia in late November. “We’re just getting him to game time is all that we AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, right, stretches as he talks with defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, left, before a Dec. 27, 2019, practice in Renton, Wash. can get done right now,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “He worked today, he got his reps in today and was able to demonstrate the game plan and knew what was going on. If this is what we’ve got, this is what we’ve got. We’ve got to work with it.” Carroll said Marshawn Lynch had no problems bouncing back from his fi rst game action in 14 months and will be part of Seat- tle’s game plan. Lynch was in for 23 plays last week against San Francisco and had 12 carries, and is likely to again be in a comple- mentary role with rookie Travis Homer. “We’re in good shape. It really does feel differ- ent than it was a week ago at this time,” Carroll said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen and we feel confi dent that we have a really nice mix in our style of runs from our guys. It’s a different feeling, more con- fi dent that we know what we’ve got this time around.” Seattle listed left guard Mike Iupati and wide receiver Jaron Brown as questionable. Iuptai has been dealing with a neck stinger and is a game-time decision. Brown suffered a knee sprain last week but recovered quickly and was expected to practice Friday before leaving town to deal with a family issue, Carroll said. Brown’s status could be important since Seattle is thin at wide receiver. Malik Turner has already been ruled out due to a concus- sion suffered in Week 16. Seattle also ruled out left tackle Duane Brown. Brown underwent minor knee surgery two weeks ago and Carroll held out a slight bit of hope Brown would be able to recover in time for this week. George Fant is likely to get his second straight start at left tackle. “He’s still feeling the effects of the surgery. The challenge is to get through the swelling and he’s not bad, but he’s working through that,” Carroll said. BRIEFLY AP Photo/Yi-Chin Lee, File Houston’s J.J. Watt speaks during a press conference on Dec. 24, 2019, in Houston. Watt has been activated for Saturday’s playoff game against Buff alo. AP Photo/Ron Jenkins, File Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) celebrates after making a touchdown throw against the Washington Redskins during the second half of an NFL football game in Arling- ton, Texas, on Dec. 15, 2019. NFL TV ratings up again this season By JOE REEDY Associated Press LOS ANGELES — The NFL goes into the play- offs with its regular-sea- son ratings having gone up for the second straight year, the fi rst time the league has seen back-to-back increases since 2010. The league’s 100th sea- son was its most viewed in four years as games aver- aged 16.5 million viewers on television. That is a 5% increase over 2018, accord- ing to Nielsen. Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs his own sports television consult- ing company, attributes the continued increases to the emergence of younger play- ers as well as the league becoming year-around programming. “The league is quite for- tunate with young players who have had tremendous publicity in college doing quite well. They’ve also had some good games and have largely avoided off-fi eld controversy,” he said. “The NFL has also learned from the NBA’s playbook of stay- ing on the sports page and being relevant during the offseason with the combine and draft keeping them on the front pages for several months.” The NFL said in a release that female viewers were up 5% over last season and that women have accounted for at least 35% of the audience for each of the past three years. Digital streaming con- tinues to see signifi cant gains with a 51% jump. The league reported an average of 487,000 online viewers via different packages. One constant is that Dallas continues to be a big draw. The Cowboys had three of the fi ve most- watched games and they had the top game on every package except “Monday Night Football.” Dallas’ Thanksgiving Day game against Buffalo on CBS was the top game at 32.6 million. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” once again saw the biggest gains with an 8% increase for the second straight year. The 17-game package over 16 weeks aver- aged 12.57 million viewers. The most-watched Mon- day night game was Seat- tle’s overtime win over San Francisco on Nov. 11 (16.73 million). That was also the highest viewership for a Monday night game since Dallas vs. Detroit in 2016. Fox Sports — which has this year’s Super Bowl — averaged 19.24 mil- lion viewers for its Sun- day games, a 7% increase. The “America’s Game of the Week” continues to be the top window, averaging 24.36 million. Fox had this season’s most watched Sun- day afternoon game as the Nov. 24 matchup between Dallas and New England drew 29.9 million. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” had its best sea- son since 2015, averaging 20.5 million (5% increase). The Sept. 29 game between Dallas and New Orleans led the way at 24.2 million. Last week’s matchup between San Francisco and Seattle averaged 22.8 million, mak- ing it the most viewed game in the package’s 14-year his- tory between a pair of West Coast teams. CBS and the Fox/NFL Network Thursday night package each had 4% increases. The Thursday night package averaged 15.4 million with Dallas vs. Chi- cago on Dec. 5 being the most-viewed game (18.8 million). CBS averaged 17.22 mil- lion for its best regular sea- son since 2016. The league’s packages don’t begin to expire until after the 2021 season, but negotiations on extensions with all of the league’s broadcast partners could begin soon. “The NFL continues to be the Tiffany of sports programming. It is such an important property for the networks and carriers that the competition will be just as strong even if the rat- ings were fl at,” Pilson said. “The major sports proper- ties have become even more effi cient in delivering audi- ences to advertisers. More effi cient is more valuable.” Houston’s Watt added to active roster ahead of playoff game M’s players, Moose to be at Whitman College on Thursday HOUSTON — J.J. Watt has been added to Houston’s active roster ahead of the Texans playoff game against the Buf- falo Bills. Watt, who tore a pectoral muscle in October, returned to practice on Dec. 24 and was activated to the roster from the injured reserve on Tuesday. The Texans host the Bills on Saturday afternoon. The defensive end said last week that he was confi dent that he’d play this week but that it’s unlikely that he’ll participate in as many snaps as he has throughout his career. This is the third time in four seasons that the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has had a major injury. He missed the last 13 games of 2016 with a back injury which required surgery and played just fi ve games in 2017 before breaking his leg. He played all 16 games last season and was a fi rst-team All-Pro after fi nishing with 16 sacks and 18 tack- les for losses. WALLA WALLA — The 2020 Mar- iners Care Community Tour is making a stop at Cordiner Hall on the Whitman Col- lege campus from 4:30-6 p.m. on Thursday. M’s players Matt Festa, Austin Nola and Dylan Moore will be joined by broadcaster Bill Krueger and the Mariner Moose for a free autograph session. Festa spent most of 2019 pitching for AAA Tacoma, but had four stints with the Mariners, going 0-2 with a 5.64 ERA in 20 games in relief. Nola made his big league debut in Seat- tle on June 16, 2019, and batted .269 with 37 runs scored, 12 doubles, a triple and 10 home runs in 79 games. Moore appeared in 113 games for the Mariners as a versatile infi elder/outfi elder, in three different call-ups by Seattle. Krueger has been a baseball analyst for Mariners TV partner ROOT SPORTS since the 2000 season, after pitching 13 years in the majors. — Associated Press and wire services JUST RELEASED UMATILLA COUNT Y MEMORIES Hardcover book Limited supply $44.95 plus tax & shipping Heirloom quality, 144 pages • Historic photos of Umatilla County from the mid-1800s through 1939 • Books are selling quickly — order yours today! Learn more and order online at Umatilla.PictorialBook.com or call 800-522-0255
