er with pop-up kicks that drop short of the goal line, thus forcing a return and achieving the opposite effect of the rule change.NF | Forum

NEW YORK -- Freshman Shamorie Ponds scored a season-best 25 points and St. Harold Baines Jersey . Johns held off Cal State Northridge 76-70 on Monday night.Darin Johnson hit two free throws with 1:08 left to get CSUN within 71-68. After Bashir Ahmed went 1 of 2 at the other end, Tavrion Dawson made a layup with 40.3 seconds left to cut it to 72-70.Kendall Smith, who finished with 10 points for CSUN, fouled out with 18.7 seconds left and Ponds sealed it with two free throws.Ahmed added 13 points and Federico Mussini had 12 for St. Johns (4-5), which was coming off a 20-points victory -- its largest winning margin on the road since 2009. The Johnnies set a program by hitting 16 3-pointers against Tulane on Friday and went 10 of 21 against CSUN.Johnson finished with 16 points for Cal State Northridge (3-6), which is still seeking its first road win of the season after six tries.Aaron Parks completed a 3-point play with 6:52 remaining to give CSUN a 62-61 lead -- its first since 28-27. Jesse Chavez Jersey . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. Colby Lewis Jersey . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. https:///...-jersey-rangers.html .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. NFL touchback numbers dropped in the first week of the 2016 preseason despite an offseason rule change that marks them at the 25-yard line instead of the 20.According to NFL.com numbers, 29 percent of Week 1 kickoffs (42 of 142) were downed in the end zone for a touchback. Thats well below the leagues rate of 56 percent during the 2015 regular season.More kickoffs tend to be returned in the preseason, when a big return can boost players chances of making the team. But the 2015 preseason rate of touchbacks was 43.4 percent, still notably higher than what the league produced in the first week of the 2016 preseason.Although it is a small sample size, the rate decrease is consistent with what NFL coaches have said about the rule change during training camp.The league is attemmpting to reduce returns for safety purposes, hoping that better field position will incentivize more teams to take touchbacks. Hunter Pence Jersey. Coaches have said they will experiment this summer with pop-up kicks that drop short of the goal line, thus forcing a return and achieving the opposite effect of the rule change.NFL officials have said they will study the full-season impact of the new touchback rule before deciding whether to abandon or tweak it in the offseason.During a conference call with league executives last spring, special teams coaches advocated a new, mandatory formation that would convert the kickoff into a play closer to a punt. ' ' '