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ARDMORE, Pa. -- Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott will play together the opening two rounds of the U.S. Open next week at Merion. For the third straight year, U.S. Open officials have put the top three players in the world ranking in the same group. The feature group will start at 1:14 p.m. Thursday off the first tee, and then 7:44 a.m. starting on the 11th tee Friday. The U.S. Open disclosed the Nos. 1-2-3 group in a tweet, and McIlroy immediately responded on Twitter. "Decent group for the first 2 rounds at Merion I see ..." he tweeted. Woods is trying to end five years without a major title. McIlroy, who has yet to win this year, will be trying to capture a major for the third straight year. Scott is the Masters champion, the only player capable of the Grand Slam this year. This will be the first time Woods and McIlroy have played together in any round of a major. They have played in the opening two rounds together at five previous tournaments -- twice in Abu Dhabi, the Cadillac Championship at Doral this year (won by Woods), the BMW Championship last year (won by McIlroy) and The Barclays last year. The USGA first went to the 1-2-3 grouping in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines -- Woods, San Diego native Phil Mickelson and Scott. Playing in front of that threesome will be former U.S. Open champions Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell, and former Masters champion Zach Johnson. Mickelson is on the other side of the draw -- starting Thursday morning on the 11th hole, Friday afternoon on the first hole. Mickelson, with a record five runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open, is joined by Steve Stricker and Keegan Bradley, his partner from the last Ryder Cup. In front of that group will be the power trio of Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and Nicolas Colsaerts. For those wanting to see Woods and Sergio Garcia mix it up again, that wont happen, at least for the weekday rounds. Garcia might not be thrilled with his tee, however, because hes playing with Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink. Garcia and Harrington, despite being Ryder Cup teammates, are not terribly close. Harrington beat the Spaniard in a playoff at Carnoustie to win his first major in the 2007 British Open, and the Irishman beat him again a year later in the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are in another group, just as they were two years ago at Congressional.Wholesale Asics UK From China . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Asics UK Outlet .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. http://www.discountasicsuk.com/ . Louis Blues absence from top spot in the TSN. Cheap Asics Shoes UK For Sale . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Cheap Asics UK Shoes . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times.This story appears in ESPN The Magazines November 14 Pain Issue. Subscribe today!NFL ratings are down in 2016, and everybody is looking for an explanation. Plenty of theories have been cited: an exhausting election is drawing viewers; off-field incidents and the NFLs treatment of head injuries have sullied the leagues rep; and Thursday night games give us ill-prepared teams, adding to the idea that the NFL TV schedule in general is spread too thin.The other theory bandied about: ugly football. The quality of the game being played in the NFL right now simply isnt very good, the argument goes, and that starts with disappointing performances at quarterback. Is QB play in decline? Is the league getting sloppier because young guys like Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Jameis Winston and others are asked to play right away?Im skeptical.In fact, the evidence says quarterbacks are actually as good as theyve ever been. Really. And contrary to popular narrative, the position hasnt gotten easier to play.Quarterbacks are being asked to do more than ever before. Many are sent to the line with two plays and then kill one based on their pre-snap read. Others wait until after the snap to pick their play with a run-pass option. They also navigate far more complex defenses after the snap, with defensive backs disguising their coverages and pattern-matching instead of dropping into simple zones or man coverage. Theyre facing more complex blitzes too, from defenders who are bigger, faster and stronger than ever.On this alone, you would expect a decline in quarterback numbers, but the opposite is true. QBs -- and offenses as a whole -- are more productive and efficient than ever before.Take the Dolphins Ryan Tannehill. He might be the poster child for the disappointing quarterback of the modern era: a mobile QB with arm strength who struggles to turn those tools into consistent above-average play. Hes the guy who, after being drafted eighth in 2012, started too soon and never lived up to the hype -- but he still managed to get a four-year, $77 million extension from Miami in 2015. Even Dolphins fans would argue that hes frustrating, right?Heres the thing: In any other era, Tannehill would qualify as a superstar. In his 2015 season, widely regarded as a disappointment, Tannehill completed 61.9 percent of his passes with a 2.0 percent interception rate, ranking 21st and 15th in the league, respectively. Those same numbers in 1985? Theyd rank first and second.And keep in mind that Tannehill threw the ball 586 times last year-an impressive volume in any season. A quarterback with those statistics and that volume would have been a star in years past, and thats without getting into the value Tannehill contributes as a runner. Whats below average today would have been above average just 10 years ago and worthy of Pro Bowl consideration in the 1970s and 80s. If you think the 1985 Bears epitomized a golden age of NFL football, think again.Now, I hear you countering: But its obviously easier to pass in todays NFL than ever before. Its true that teams today are throwing shorter passes, which puts an increased amount of pressure on receivers to make plays after the catch. Thats fair. But while we dont have data on air yards (the distance a ball travels before being caught or falling incomplete) going back to the 20th century, ESPN Stats & Information did start tracking it as of 2006, and across the board, regardless of throw distance, quarterbacks completed passes more often and threw interceptions less frequently in 2015 than they did in 2006.And what about that sloppy play? We often hear about all the turnovers. Watch NFL RedZone on Sunday and its one after the other. We see footballs being thrown to a defender without a receiver in the vicinity. We see bad snaps and cripplinng red zone fumbles.dddddddddddd But a declining level of play should mean more turnovers, and again, if you look at the league over time, turnovers of every sort decrease as you get closer to the modern game: A turnover rate of 3.9 percent in 1975 dropped to 3.0 in 1995 and was down to 2.3 percent last year.The anecdotal side of the argument says, Well, if its not bad QB play or more sloppy play, its about the talent coming in. These kids arent ready to play! Sorry, but the idea that colleges arent preparing players like they did in the past is absurd.If colleges were really unhelpful, how could rookie quarterbacks like Wentz and Prescott come into the NFL and excel almost immediately while looking like seasoned veterans? Prescott isnt just winning in Dallas; through Week 9, he ranks third overall in Total QBR at 81.3, behind two MVP candidates (Tom Brady and Matt Ryan). Wentz in Philly? Hes completing 66 percent of his passes -- and he came out of North Dakota State, which is further evidence that NFL quarterbacks can be found all over the place, not just at top schools. Thats not a new phenomenon, of course. Its just a reminder that theres no QB crisis at any level.The QBs arent the only rookies playing well: Cowboys halfback Ezekiel Elliott, Jaguars corner Jalen Ramsey and Titans right tackle Jack Conklin have been among the best players at their respective positions in 2016. Coaches around the league have argued that the schemes being run in college football dont fit their pro standards, but that ignores how teams like the Patriots and Seahawks have successfully integrated concepts into their offenses rather than relying on crafting offenses around their players strengths.Think about it: If teams around the NFL really believed that the quarterbacks coming into the league werent up to the rigors of the professional game, we would see these organizations prefer veteran options like Josh McCown and Chase Daniel in free agency and decline to take passers at the top of the draft. And yet, since the new CBA and rookie scale were enacted for the 2011 draft, eight of the 18 players taken in the top three have been quarterbacks, including each of the top two picks in the past two drafts.Theres scant evidence of a drop in the quality of quarterback play. So why are we having a debate about declining performance around the league?The reality is that we see more football now. Weve had access to Sunday Ticket for a while, but the addition of an oft-mediocre Thursday night game presents a disappointing product on national TV. The addition of RedZone doesnt just mean you see every touchdown, it means you see every turnover. Sometimes twice. Just 20 years ago wed get our game, then maybe Troy Aikman vs. Steve Young in the national broadcast. Of course the NFL looked better when networks picked out the best matchups and you couldnt just flip over to see Jacksonville.The league knows it too. As recently as 2011, the NFL was reticent to share the All-22 coaching film that goes out to teams and officials for analysis, with former Texans and Redskins general manager Charley Casserly worrying that it would be used to draw inaccurate conclusions. That tape was made available to the public the following year.The idea that modern athletes are somehow less schooled in the fundamentals is one we hear repeated in every sport, with no real evidence to back it up. But in the NFL, the complaints that quarterbacking is worse now than ever and that young QBs arent prepared dont just fall flat -- the numbers show the opposite to be true. There are plenty of reasons NFL ratings might be declining. Inferior quarterback play is not one of them. ' ' '