t from close range at Stamford Bridge after only four minutes, Hazard hit back in the 17th with a superb strike. Etoo gave Jose Mourinhos team a decisive lead from Oscars back pass in the 34th. Matchups are often a driving force behind fantasy owners weekly lineup decisions. When choosing between two

MINNEAPOLIS -- Blair Walshs five seasons in Minnesota were filled with big-time makes and big-time misses.With the skidding Vikings desperate to save their season, they simply couldnt wait for Walsh to pull himself out of another rut. Minnesota cut Walsh on Tuesday, two days after he missed his league-leading fourth extra point in a 26-20 loss to Washington.Walsh was 12 of 16 on field goals and 15 of 19 on extra points in nine games this season. For a team that started 5-0 but has gone 0-4 since and is constructed to play close games, Walshs inconsistency could no longer be tolerated.After he missed an extra point, had a field goal blocked and misplaced a kickoff in a loss to Detroit two weeks ago, the Vikings brought in six kickers for a tryout. They ultimately decided to give Walsh one more chance, but his miss just before halftime against the Redskins sealed his fate. Walsh was in the first year of a four-year, $13 million extension he signed last season , undoubtedly one reason why the Vikings stayed as patient as they could with him.The Vikings reached agreement on a contract with Kai Forbath to take Walshs place, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made. USA Today first reported the move to Forbath, who made 34 of 35 extra points and 10 of 15 field goals last season while kicking for Washington and New Orleans.With Forbath, punter/holder Jeff Locke and long snapper Kevin McDermott, all three of Minnesotas specialists will be UCLA products. The 29-year-old Forbath is 69 for 82 for 84.1 percent in his NFL career on field goals and 124 for 127 for 97.6 percent on extra points.Walsh was an erratic kicker at Georgia when Vikings special teams coordinator Mike Priefer started to scout him. The coach said Walsh had the best performance at the combine he had ever seen from a kicker leading up to the draft in 2012, and the Vikings selected him in the sixth round before releasing reliable veteran Ryan Longwell. After working on some tweaks to his approach with Priefer, Walsh set a Vikings rookie record with 141 points and established an all-time NFL mark by going 10 for 10 from 50 yards or longer.Walsh bounced back to make an NFL-high 34 field goals last season, but he missed four extra points and shanked a 27-yard field goal in the closing seconds of Minnesotas 10-9 loss in the playoffs to Seattle. Despite Walshs public expressions of confidence in his ability since then, even after his rough game against the Lions, he clearly hasnt recovered yet mentally from the crushing miss against the Seahawks that left him sobbing in front of his cubicle in the locker room afterward.One of the few roles in sports without any gray area between success and failure, where sending the ball through the uprights is the only responsibility and the only outcome worth judging, being a kicker in the NFL can be a pressure cooker. At least in his interaction with reporters, Walsh has been more guarded and on edge than any other season with the Vikings.For the Vikings, the setbacks to a season that began with Super Bowl aspirations havent stopped. Neither have their aggressive attempts to stay on track, even if the move away from Walsh mightve come a little late. Walsh will still count more than $1 million against the teams salary cap in each of the next two years.They parted with two high draft picks, including their first-rounder in 2017, to bring in Sam Bradford after quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was lost to a massive injury. They took a flier on injury-waylaid former No. 1 overall draft pick Jake Long, who lasted four games before tearing an Achilles tendon and needing season-ending surgery. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner resigned two weeks ago amid philosophical differences about the scheme with Zimmer, even expressing belief in subsequent interviews that his removal from the strategical process could help the team get going.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---AP Pro Football Writer Dave Campbell contributed to this report. Cheap Jerseys From China . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . How great will be revealed in the next couple of days at the board of governors meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. https://www.wholesalejerseysaaa.com/ .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Wholesale Jerseys China . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Wholesale Jerseys 2022 . After Martin Skrtel put the Reds in front from close range at Stamford Bridge after only four minutes, Hazard hit back in the 17th with a superb strike. Etoo gave Jose Mourinhos team a decisive lead from Oscars back pass in the 34th. Matchups are often a driving force behind fantasy owners weekly lineup decisions. When choosing between two or more similarly talented players, you know the first question that comes to mind: Which one has the best matchup?But what, exactly, constitutes a favorable or unfavorable matchup?Thats where this column comes in. The Matchups Map provides a schedule-independent methodd to determine strength of positional matchups using the most recent, relevant data.dddddddddddd Check back for updated numbers each week, including matchup highlights at each position -- both favorable and unfavorable -- based on those statistics. ' ' '