0-2

Miami Dolphins. Football is the best.

Eliminated

Pittsburgh Pirates



P.S. - I love baseball.

12.5

I hate baseball.

1.5

That's how many games the Phillies are behind in the NL East AND the Wild Card...

2.5

That's how close the Yankees currently are to the top of the AL East. Just thought I'd share.

NFL Hot 12 - After Week 2

Check out the new rankings in the right panel below the College Football Top 25. The AFC continues to dominate and the Patriots take over 1st place after their convincing win over the Chargers, without CHEATING! I didn't think Belichick had it in him...

This weekend's prime Big Ten matchups

Time to look ahead to this weekend because, let's face it, it's never too early to start thinking about college football.

Let's take a quick look at three intriguing matchups involving Big Ten teams. Later this week we'll take a look at some big SEC matches and the mediocrity of this weekend's Saturday Night Football split telecast (it's why Iowa/Wisconsin is not included here).

Illinois at Indiana
Why it's important: The Big Ten's perennial bottom-feeders square off in each team's conference opener. Both are off to a decent start -- a combined 5-1 record between them -- with the only loss between the two coming when Missouri beat Illinois in a tense 40-34 game in St. Louis. One will be one step closer to a long-awaited bowl game, the other will head back to the basement. Ron Zook is out to prove he's more than just a glorified recruiter, and Indiana still looks to honor the memory of Terry Hoeppner.
Important Stat: Illinois and Indiana have combined for a 13-67 conference record since 2002. The best performance put up by either team over the last five seasons was a 4-4 finish by Illinois in 2002. Indiana went 3-5 last year. Over that same span, Indiana was 1-7 four times and Illinois went 0-8 twice.
The Edge: Of the two Memorial Stadiums, this one's being played at Indiana's, so I think the home field advantage gives it to the Hoosiers.

Penn State at Michigan
Why it's important: The winner in Ann Arbor Saturday gets the inside track at the Big Ten title. I know that sounds odd, with Michigan's 0-2 start, but c'mon, it's Michigan. They're bound to bounce back somehow. Both get Ohio State and Purdue at home and Penn State gets to play Wisconsin in Beaver Stadium. Anthony Morelli is making smarter passing decisions, but still needs to work on his overall play. (In other words, let's not scramble with 14 seconds left in the half, cut away from the sideline and cough up the ball.) It should be interesting to see if the Wolverine's D has improved or whether the Notre Dame O-line was just that awful. Lloyd Carr may also be pulling a Charlie Weis and we may never know if Chad Henne or Ryan Mallet will be the starting QB for Michigan until the 3:30pm kickoff.
Important Stat: The last time Penn State beat Michigan was 1996. In other words, Lloyd Carr owns Joe Paterno. Luckily for Nittany Lions fans, most Wolverine fans only remember that Jim Tressel owns Lloyd Carr.
The Edge: Penn State, but only if Joe Paterno releases Anthony Morelli and Galen Hall from his chokehold and lets them exploit the Michigan secondary. Austin Scott or Rodney Kinlaw up the middle is not going to win this football game.

Michigan State at Notre Dame
Why it's important: Notre Dame has never started 0-4. I think this is only the second time they've started 0-3 -- something Ty Willingham never did -- but surely the first 0-3 squad never looked this bad. Just the other day, I saw an ESPN report about Notre Dame students' reaction to the 0-3 start. One sophomore said, "Well, as long as we keep the winning streak against Navy alive, I think we'll call it a successful season." Charlie Weis will be looking to right the ship at home. Mark Dantonio will be looking to avoid that typical, disappointing slump that annually started about this time of the season in the John L. Smith era. Sparty might be handing the Irish a historic loss if they can't get their act together quickly.
Important Stat: Notre Dame leads the nation in most sacks allowed this season thus far, at 23. (Hey, at least they lead in one category.) Michigan State is tied for the most sacks against their opponents, at (I believe) 17. Yikes. Jimmy Clausen better bring a lot of ActivOn and IcyHot to the stadium Saturday.
The Edge: Michigan State. If Michigan can put up 38 points and devour Notre Dame fresh off a 39-7 embarrassment against Oregon (and some other travesty that Michigan fans no longer speak of), then Sparty's got a damn good shot.

And then there were two

In case you don't follow college football in the slightest, you may not have heard that Demetrius Jones has decided to leave Notre Dame and will enroll at Northern Illinois. He let the coaching staff know in that classy way that only Notre Dame can achieve -- he silently didn't show up for the team's bus trip to Ann Arbor.

So, in a season in which Charlie Weis started off with four quarterbacks, he now has only two at the end of Week 3. Maybe you've heard of one. But if you haven't, his name is Jimmy Clausen and I heard a rumor somewhere that he might be the second coming of Christ. And then there's Evan Sharpley, whose only chance at seeing any more playing time this season is if a linebacker snaps Clausen in two (just like a crisp Clausen pickle). Given the performance of ND's O-line this season, though, Sharpley is probably praying Clausen stays in one piece.

But it gets better. Jones told the South Bend Tribune that he was misled by Charlie Weis. No way. I can't believe it. He must be joking! I mean, Charlie Weis is the most honest, angelic soul I've ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. Behind Bill Belichick, of course.

And so says the Tribune, via ESPN.com:

"When I heard Jimmy was the No. 1 all the way through spring and that the only thing that was keeping him out of the lineup was his surgery, well that's not what I was led to believe going into the summer," Jones told the South Bend Tribune for a story Monday. "I thought I was getting a chance because coach Weis believed in me. Then I didn't know what to believe anymore.''

So much for the whole team knowing the quarterback depth order during summer practice, eh, Charlie?

Best wishes to Demetrius as he moves on to Northern Illinois. They seem to need as much help as the Irish do, but I'd rather see the Huskies get it instead.

It's Official: God is a Detroit Lions fan

Kitna is such a faker and you know it.

Read it.

Top 25, Version 4

For the 2nd straight week we have a tie at the top: USC and LSU each received 3 first place votes (FPVs) and the same amount of points overall at 170. The Top 25 was shuffled yet again as mediocre teams continue to win and lose. There is evidence of parity in college football this year. The total points each team received is now in parentheses so you can see how close (or how far) your team was from the next rank or even making the poll. Ties aren't designated by the word 'tie' any more because I figured you all would understand what it meant when 2 or more teams were ranked the same. And, oh yeah, you now can see that their points are the same too! Polls on the right. Enjoy!

Pennsylvania Football Roundup - aka the War of Buffalo

I guess to make this a complete PA roundup I would have to wait until the Eagles play the Redskins...but I'm not an objective journalist, I'm a partisan blogger! My prediction is that they will win 24-10. McNabb will throw for 3 td's despite having a low per attempt average, and people will start talking about how good the Eagles are like they do in September every year (oh wait nm they lost to the Pack).

The major story of the weekend was both my college (PSU) and NFL (Steelers) teams played Buffalo...at home. Saturday it was the U of Buffalo Bulls, Sunday it was the Buffalo Bills. I'd imagine the odds of this happening on the same weekend were astronomical. The last PSU/UB matchup was 107 years ago, and the Steelers last played the Bills in 2004, and not in Pittsburgh since 1996. Having them appear on both schedules during the same year would be impressive enough, but the same weekend? I may have to play the lottery soon.

Here ya go, with the teams I do (and don't) care about:

Chartiers-Houston: The Buccaneers beat the Bentworth Bearcats 19-7 (on the road...!) for their first win of the year. 5 years ago, I would have given a crap. Nah, I wouldn't have then either.

Pitt: Played at Michigan State and did better than this blogger expected, losing by only 17-13. Of course, if I was still dating a Pitt fan I would have to hear about how because they played Mich State close they could give PSU a game....but I'm not so thank your higher being of choice for that! 2-1, play UConn next week at Heinz Field, which means the field will be in horrible condition for the Steelers/49ers game the next day.

Temple: Gave undefeated UConn a good test, but ultimately fell 22-17. So...yeah good for them.

Penn State: Battle of Buffalo Part I. Overall, an uninspiring effort by the Nittany Lions, but that could have been expected due to a number of factors:

1) Still hungover from last weekend's craziness with Notre Dame
2) Noon start and insignificant opponent meant students were late arriving, and not as much energy
3) Looking ahead to next week at the Big Toilet where we have a legitimate chance to beat Michigan for the first time that I can really remember.

Offense, much like the first two games, started very sluggish. Austin Scott fumbled on his first two carries, one setting up a UB field goal and a 3-0 deficit. Scott was pulled for Kinlaw and he seemed to have much more energy (not to mention he could hold on to the ball). Morelli was way off with his throws in the 1st and much of the 2nd quarters, but improved as the day wore on and wound up with 4 TD's vs. no picks. First TD was a nice throw to Quarless, then a quick turnover put us in the red zone again, leading to the most amazing catch I've ever seen in person, by Jordan Norwood. I won't describe it, just click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjque0fNqhM and go to about the 1:20 mark.
So it was 17-3 at halftime, and Morelli chalked up 2 more TD's in the 3rd quarter to make it 31-3. That score would have been satisfying, but Buffalo played a full 60 minutes, scoring 3 TD's in the 4th quarter (mostly against our reserves). Luckily we countered with two more TD's, and the final score was 45-24. Give the Bulls credit for coming in and playing hard. Especially QB Drew Willy and the receiving corps, which played an amazing game. The defense played hard as well, and they actually rushed for positive yardage (because there weren't many sacks). This team is clearly on a different echelon from Florida Intl or Temple, and I bet they could even give Notre Dame a game.
Next: Michigan. First game in the Big Toilet since :01 (aka "The Squeal" - inside joke) in 2005. We'll be favored going into this one, but it looks a lot more scary now that the Wolves have a convincing win under their belt. We will probably have to play better than Saturday if we definitely want to win that game. Should be fun...

Elsewhere in college football: There's a clear 4 team argument for #1 right now, between USC LSU Florida and Oklahoma. Everyone else (including PSU) is on a lower level at this point.


Steelers: At least 100 Steelers fans around the country had strokes or heart attacks when the team came out wearing their 75th anniversary "throwback" jerseys - including gold helmets and white pants. The team also had some problems adjusting to the new/old look, managing to get only 4 field goals in the 1st half despite having a significant advantage in yardage against the Bills. At halftime they all put some sunglasses on (for protection from the helmets glare) and dominated in the second half. Matt Spaeth caught his second TD in as many career games and Fast Willie had a nice jolt to finish off the scoring. (Parker got over 100 yards for the second time this season.) Big Ben played well, with one TD and one punt pick. The offense was efficient moving the ball, as we only punted once; and the defense was dominant for the second straight game, although they got plenty of help from J.P. Losman. I seriously think that Drew Willy from the UB Bulls would have a better game against the Steelers than Losman. Final score: 26-3.

Elsewhere in the NFL...Browns shock the Bengals 51-45, making the Steelers' performance in Week 1 look that much better (though I'm sure Anderson over Frye made a difference). The Ravens rebounded from their Monday Night loss, with a predictable win over the Jets and their backup QB. Regardless, the Steelers have sole possession of first place (and a common opp in hand over the Bengals). The Patriots were disgustingly good, and you cant blame it on stealing signs since the Chargers have a whole new coaching staff. Colts won barely...my survivor pick Broncos did just that, beating the Raiders in OT....the Lions and 49ers are both 2-0, and are my nominees for the worst 2-0 teams ever...and HOW ABOUT THE HOUSTON FREAKING TEXANS??? The most amazing stat from that game was that their 34 points was the most EVER by the franchise. Sorry, but that's just pathetic. That's all notable that happened.

If you want a post about the Eagles after tomorrow night...just watch the game and save me the trouble.

Sunday's most impressive victory?

While most of the country was watching football, Tiger Woods played the best round of his life and smoked the field at the Tour Championship, winning the very first FedEx Cup and a cool $10 million. Oh yeah, and another $1.2 million for winning this weekend. But that's just an afterthought, I guess.

Tiger finished at 23 under par -- that's a 257 -- shooting his lowest 72-hole score ever. Needless to say, it wasn't even close. Mark Calcavecchia and Zach Johnson tied for second at 15 under.

If that's not enough for you, chew on this: Tiger's putt count for each round this weekend was 27, 27, 26 and 28. Insane.

Even for a Phil Mickelson fan like myself, that's damn impressive. The man is untouchable.

Week 3 College Football Synopsis

I had a fun run with this last week so I'll try to make this a weekly thing.

To kick off the week 3 festivities, West Virginia breezed by Maryland...well, more Slayton breezed by Maryland. On Friday, Oklahoma State embarrassed themselves on national television by getting pounded by Troy 41-23.

In the ever-so-pitiful ACC, they seem to finally have a couple front runners/teams that can actually play. Those two teams right now would have to be Clemson (who disposed over their I-AA opponent) and BC (who won a tough road game against GT). Outside of that the ACC was pretty much normal outside of the fact Duke beat somebody (on the road, no less) by handing Northwestern their first loss of the year. Poor showings again by Virginia (who barely beat UNC), VT (who didn't pull away from Ohio until late) and Miami (gotta beat FIU by more than 14). Everyone else in the conference won but who cares, its not like they're gonna do anything anyway this year.

Sticking around in the Southeast, we'll talk about the SEC. Florida looked very impressive in dismantling Tennessee in the swamp 59-20. LSU keeps rolling as they've now won their games by a collective score of 137-7. Auburn keeps tripping over their own feet, this time falling flat on their face at home to Mississippi State. Alabama defeated Arkansas at home last night, but not before squandering a 21 point lead. Kentucky proved that Louisville officially has no defense at all, beating them in Lexington by 6 on a last second TD.

Moving west into the Big 12. Oklahoma is going to win the conference. That's all you need to know. That and Northern Iowa is officially the best team in Iowa (Northern Iowa beat Iowa State who beat Iowa). Oh, and Texas is overrated...a lot. Can't struggle with the C-USAs.

Continuing westward, we move on to the Pac-10. USC had an impressive win at Nebraska, reaffirming their status as a national power. Oregon State, Cal, Oregon, Arizona State, Stanford and Washington State all won with ease. Washington probably is not as good as people thought as the shaky Ohio State offense lit them up in Seattle for 33 points. Arizona embarrassed themselves by losing at home to New Mexico but that wasn't even close to most embarrassing happening in the conference as (formerly) #11 ranked UCLA got drubbed 44-6 to a (formerly) winless Utah team.

Let's cross over the country to the Big East. As I said before, Louisville lost the big in state game, dropping their stock considerably. Cincy keeps destroying everything in its path, beating up on Miami (OH) 47-10. UConn just squeaked by Temple and Syracuse still is terrible. Pitt almost went into East Lansing and beat the Spartans but the key word there is almost, losing 17-13. Rutgers had me worried a little bit as they were only up on I-AA Norfolk State 3-0 after the 1st quarter. I wasn't worried when I saw the score at halftime was 45-0.

And finally, we arrive at arguably the most awkward conference in the nation. Wisconsin struggles with The Citadel, Northwestern loses to Duke, Minnesota loses to Florida Atlantic, and Iowa lost to Iowa State. Michigan pounded Notre Dame 38-0 after getting pounded by Oregon the week prior. The lost another game the week before that too... Ohio State learned to play offense in the second half of their game against Washington after trailing 7-3, ultimately winning 33-14. Purdue, Illinois and Indiana easily mopped up their cupcakes while Penn State looked relatively unimpressive against Buffalo (yet comfortably beat them).

So this week brought another big shake up in the polls. Next week, conference schedules start to pick up a little bit more so I'm sure there will be even more changes to come. Maybe I'll start doing my rankings by picking teams out of a hat...

Uhm... is this thing on?

Hi all. I'm the new kid in the neighborhood. Looking forward to enlightening you with my, uh... sports expertise. Naturally.

I don't know about you, but if you vote in some sort of college football top 25 poll (and if you don't and would like to, I direct your attention to www.bcsfanpoll.com... but not until you finish reading), you probably struggled with this question while filling out your ballot... is South Carolina really a top 15 team? Oregon? Clemson?! ¡Ay, caramba!

Such is the mediocrity of the top 25 in Week 3 of this very interesting football season. The middle of all the polls went down faster than a drunk sorority girl. UCLA got their asses handed to them by the Utes. Nebraska got manhandled for three quarters by USC. Georgia Tech let Boston College leave Atlanta with a 3-0 record in the Atlantic Division. Arkansas valiantly fought back in Tuscaloosa only to have Nick Saban sneak out of the stadium with a win.

So what's a voter to do? South Carolina was okay against South Carolina State. Clemson played Furman. (Analysis of the week, Doug Flutie: "This is a Clemson team that can really play four quarters." ...against Furman. Was Flutie watching the Bowden Bowl?) Personally, I still have Louisville in the top 15. I still think Brian Brohm and company would beat the likes of South Carolina and Clemson, even if it would come down to having to just outscore them. Yeah, the Ol' Ball Coach held the Bulldogs to 12 points, but we'll see just how good Georgia is down the road -- because nothing builds a resume like Western Carolina and Oklahoma State (did anyone see that Troy game?).

I think I'm digressing here, but what I'm getting at is the overall feel of the Top 25 this week. The top six are solid: USC, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, WVU, Cal. They're solid, and perhaps interchangeable. They all deserve #1 props. USC is rolling. Tim Tebow's a beast. LSU is just sick. Then you get into good teams that have yet to have that moment affirming their abilities. I'm looking at you, Texas. (Coach's quote of the week, Mack Brown: "We're never opening anyone's stadium ever again.") But I'm also talking about the Buckeyes, the Nittany Lions, the Badgers, and the Scarlet Knights. And then, as I touched on, come the teams that got into the top 15 by default: South Carolina, Oregon, Clemson, Virginia Tech. And then under that, Hawaii's back on track, but Texas A&M is unproven.

Wanna know how bad it got? USF enters the AP poll at #23 after a bye week. You don't need to play this week, we're giving these spots away! But the point is, and I know I'm being superfluous with it here, the college football scene is pretty much wide open outside of those solid top six. It won't turn out to be as crystal clear as all the analysts said it would be during the preseason. I think #21-25 could pretty much be any number of teams. My short list includes Cincinnati, Purdue, Michigan State, perhaps even Air Force.

But I guess we'll see what happens with our blog poll when it's posted later on. (Shameless plug.)

So, despite it being a frustrating week for voters, I'm definitely looking forward to see how things play out once the crux of the conference matchups start rolling in (unless you're BC, of course). We're in for an exciting fall, folks.

Trenton Thunder = 2007 Eastern League Champions!!!

For the first time in franchise history, the Trenton Thunder are champions of the Eastern League (AA baseball) by defeating the Akron Aeros 3 games to 1. I remember way back in the day (1994 I believe) going to a Thunder game during their inaugural season and I've been going ever since. Unfortunately, because I spend a lot of time out at State College, I haven't been able to go to many games the past few years but in my lifetime I guess that I've probably (literally) been to about 100 games there. The organization is top class in Trenton and they always know how to treat their fans right. There isn't a team or loyal group of fans more deserving of a title than the ones in the capital of New Jersey. Credit for the photo goes to the Thunder's website.

Thanksgiving

Dear Kentucky and Utah,

Thank you for defeating #9 Louisville and #11 UCLA, respectively. Your wins are wonderful. They will certainly vault us into the Top 10...even though, after today, we don't deserve it. Thanks again.

Penn State football team

Preliminary Week 2 College Football Observations

Let's keep this as simple as possible...

Overrated
Virginia Tech
Minnesota (in a they lost to FAU kinda way)
Washington
Navy (hey, some had really high hopes)
UCLA
Notre Dame (people including myself thought they could win this week...)
Oklahoma State (Troy?)

Holy crap people actually thought they had a shot to do something this year
Texas
Iowa
Auburn (USF and Miss. State at home...mega ouch)

-----------------

Underrated
Purdue
Michigan State
The Citadel (I had to)
UCF
Missouri
Iowa State (Just kidding)

Holy crap people actually thought they wouldn't do anything this year
Cincinnati
UConn (3-0!!! Oh...my bad...wins were over Duke, Maine and Temple...never mind)

Bob Davie inching closer to Mark May status

Bob Davie, former Notre Dame head coach (1997-2001) that amassed a 35-25 record while coach of the Irish, hosts a Question & Answer section on ESPN's weekly College GameDay Kickoff article. This week as I was reading the main article, the mention of Penn State was absent. So I searched the rest of the page and found Penn State mentioned in Bob Davie's Q&A. I was stunned when I read this:


3. Penn's State's D is overrated. I love Nittany Lions D coordinator Tom Bradley, but I wasn't impressed by Penn State's play against Notre Dame. I don't think the Nittany Lions are as good as people are predicting. In fact, this could be the year that a team like Purdue comes out of nowhere to win the Big Ten. -- Bob Davie


What!?!? Overrated? Penn State? Linebacker U? The defense with arguably the best linebacker, cornerback, safety trio in all of College Football this year? Let's talk about Penn State's defensive statistics through the first 2 games (yes, I know that FIU and Notre Dame blow, but good teams are supposed to beat inferior teams easily...which PSU did):

Penn State defense vs FIU
Points Allowed: 0
First Downs Allowed: 7
Total Yards Allowed: 114
Passing: 117
Rushing: -3
3rd Down Conversions: 1-15
Turnovers: 5

Penn State defense vs Notre Dame
Points Allowed: 10 (realistically it was 3 because their TD came from an INT return)
First Downs Allowed: 9
Total Yards: 144
Passing: 144
Rushing: 0
3rd Down Conversions: 2-16
Turnovers: 1


Again, I know Florida International and Notre Dame are terrible. But those statistics are still really great. Besides the opening drive in each game, the Penn State D easily handled each team. This should continue against Buffalo and, the way Michigan looks, against them as well. This D is good, possibly better than each of the last 2 years. In 2005 and 2006 Penn State's defense was ranked in the Top 10 nationally in almost all the major categories. This defense is good. Bob Davie is stupid. Mark May is preparing your membership card to ESPN's "Terrible Analyst" club.

Goodell is a pansy

I'll write a long rant later when I have the time but that's how I feel.

FYI...The Patriots already have 2 first rounders. Boo-hoo if they lose one. They got an extra one last draft for letting the 49ers jump up a few spots. Belichick is rich. The Patriots are very rich. The money doesn't really hurt that much.

Steelers: Super Bowl XXXIV AND XL Champions?

Eric brought this up earlier in the week, but as the story gains steam, I am compelled to comment. The Patriots, as I'm sure everyone is aware of now, are accused of stealing the Jets' hand signals during their game last week. If this is true, it may not have benefited them during that game (which they wound up winning by a convincing margin), but would help them immensely for their second match up this season. In fact, last year the Pats lost to the Jets at Foxboro during the regular season. In the rematch during the playoffs, they crushed them. At the time, it was because of Brady and Belichick's playoff mastery, but maybe it was because they had knowledge they weren't supposed to? Then I remembered something that absolutely infuriated me when I thought of it:

October 31, 2004: Steelers 34, Patriots 20
January 23, 2005: Patriots 41, Steelers 27

The first matchup was when the Steelers broke the Pats record winning streak. The score was closer than the actual game was. The second was the AFC Championship Game that year. The score was closer than the actual game was. Hines Ward has already been quoted as saying that something was fishy with the Patriots that day, that they seemed to know the Steelers' moves one step ahead of time. So....it's a lot of second guessing at this point, but if it turns out the Pats weren't playing by the rules, what would have happened in the playoff game if they were? That's something we'll never know, but we do know that if the Steelers would have won that game, McNabb would have been vomiting well before the 4th quarter in the Super Bowl and there would currently be a debate on who the team of the decade is.

So here's my advice for Mike Tomlin: we play the Patriots 12/9 in their place. If, when the time comes, it seems that we have a playoff berth secure, I suggest this: dog the game. Treat it like a preseason game, have the most basic offensive and defensive signals you can possibly have. If we get crushed, so what? We got crushed in Indy two seasons ago and managed to turn that around in the playoffs. Whatever you do, don't let the Pats get the same advantage they had three years ago in the playoffs against us. Save your best effort for the potential playoff rematch.

And Commissioner Goodell: If the investigation reveals that the Pats were doing dishonest things for a long period of time, come down on them. Come down on them hard. As fans, we care about this more than we care about Pacman Jones makin it rain, or even about Michael Vick's dogfighting. Those things are negative conduct off the field, these things are negative conduct on the field, that can affect who the league crowns as champions. So come down on Belichick, Crennell, whoever was guilty of this garbage, just as hard as you did on Pacman and Vick.