Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

I meant to post this a few days ago, but then I got sick. But anyway...

So long, Mad Dog. Greg Maddux formally announced his retirement on Monday, ending his spectacular career. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1986 where he went to 2 of his 8 All-Star Games, won 3 of his 18 Gold Gloves, and the first of his 4 Cy Youngs. Maddux is a well traveled ace, he has played for four different teams during his illustrious career. As I mentioned before, he was drafted by the Cubs and played for them from '86 to '92 then was traded to the Braves where he one a World Series in 1995. He then returned to the Cubs in 2004 and was traded to the Dogers in 2006. He played for the Padres from 2007 to 2008 and then returned to the Dodgers for his last season. Wherever he went, teammates would always talk about his creepy ability to predict what the opposing pitcher would throw next, and most of the time, he was right. Mad Dog is one of the greatest pitchers to play in the Majors, this is shown in the fact that he won a Gold Glove every year of his career from 1990 except for 2003. Well, for now, thanks for playing Mad Dog. See you in the Hall.

Bradford is POTW, American Dolphins in Toronto, and The BCS Is Looking Pretty Good

The NFL played it's first regular season game in Canada yesterday, with the Buffalo Bills first game in the contracted Toronto Series. They took on the Miami Dolphins, who are tied at the top of the division along with the Jets and Patriots (however, the Jets are leading by net points). The Phins came in and dominated the Bills 16-3, however, neither one of the teams were spectacular. Dan Carpenter of Miami nailed a 50 yard field goal, but that's pretty much it. I guess the most important thing to develop from this game was that the Dolphins swept the season series against the Bills for the first time since 2003.
Meanwhile, the Giants fell pretty hard without Plaxico. Eli Manning completed less than 50% of his passes for the first time all season, but this was mostly because receivers were dropping passes left and right. The Giants didn't score and offensive touchdown until there were 20 seconds left in the game, and their other touchdown came on a blocked field goal to end the first half to prevent them from being shutout in the first half for the first time this season. Even though the Eagles cruised to a 20-14 victory, the Giants still clinched the NFC East by the Cowboys loss to the Steelers. The Steelers, by the way, are looking pretty good right now, look out for them in the playoffs.

-Let's Go Bowling!
The bowl schedule has been set, including the BCS Bowl bids, and I'm pretty happy with the matchups. We have: USC/Penn State in the Rose Bowl, Texas/Ohio State in the Fiesta, Alabama/Utah in the Sugar, Cincinnati/Virginia Tech in the Orange, and of course Oklahoma/Florida playing in the BCS National Championship Game. Now the Orange Bowl got the short end of the stick, but I'll watch anyway. Now, I've made my picks for the Bowl Pick 'Em games I'm playing, and over the next few days, I'll post them for you to debate.

OJ Is Put On Ice, The Cards Fold, Army/Navy, and I Weigh In On The SEC Championship Game

Well OJ, we all saw this coming. You were acquitted from murder 14 years ago, and then you went and did something stupid like this. True, it might have been your stuff, but you can't rob somebody for your own stuff. I mean, if you got robbed, call the cops. The cops can't arrest you for something you did a long time ago (we all know you did it) when you call them to complain about someone else. Now, I don't want to talk about OJ anymore. He's going away for a long time, end of story.

-Stampede!
After watching Ball State roll through their schedule, I thought they were a sure shot to win the MAC Championship, but the Buffalo Bulls had something to say about that, specifically the words, "We win". Buffalo forced 5 turnovers and took advantage of each of them, including an 80 yard fumble return. BSU's star QB Nate Davis turned the ball over four times himself, all on fumbles. However, he gets a pass on one of the fumbles because his longsnapper snapped the ball at Davis' shins. But, it's impossible to win when you turn the ball over 5 times, and the Cards deservedly lost to Buffalo, who played their hearts out.

-The Army/Navy Game
I always make sure to watch the Army/Navy game every year, because it is always one of the greatest games on TV to watch. Right now, Navy leads 27-0 in the fourth, and it looks like they will continue to roll. I would like to point out the special jerseys Army wore for todays game; they wore black tops with beige camoflauge numbers, same camoflauge pants, and camoflauge helmet. On the back of their jerseys, instead of them wearing their names, they wore "Duty. Honor. Country." They look pretty good, even thought the score doesn't.

-Gatorbait
I really don't care what Lee Corso thinks, Florida wins. Tim Tebow will control the game and Florida will continue to execute their offense to the best of their ability, giving the Bama defense fits. Alabama is good, but not good enough to beat Florida.

Bruce Pearl Is Good As Gold, But As For The Louisville Cardinals...

Look out, Pat Summitt, Bruce is only 588 wins behind you. Bruce Pearl scored win number 400 of his career yesterday (Dec. 3) in a 87-69 win at home over UNC-Asheville. This win is merely a semicolon in his career, on his way to Rocky Top to meet Pat Summitt. The other leading story of this game was Tyler Smith, also of Tennessee. He became the first Vol to drop a triple double in school history with 12 points, 10 boards, and 10 assists.

-Waxed
Yeah, Louisville, you should have just stayed home. But they ventured to Piscataway, NJ to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights anyway, and promptly gave up a touchdown on Rutgers first drive of the game by a twelve yard pass from Mike Teel, and that set the tone for the game. Rutgers only scored twice in the first quarter going up 14-0 through one, but scored five times in the second all on passes from Mike Teel. He would go on to throw one more ending the game with 447 yards, and 7 touchdowns, earning himself a nomination for player of the week next week. Louisville eventually got onto the board a minute and a half into the second half but it (obviously) wasn't enough and got crushed 63-14.

Extra Stuff: Sam Bradford got a nomination for player of the week, because any performance that could encourage the computers to put them ahead of Texas in the BCS, had to have been good.
Second, congratulations to Matt Ryan for being voted ESPN The Magazine's NEXT.

Sean Avery Steps Into A Pile of Slop, and Irish Eyes Are...

Frowning. I mean, seriously. Charlie Weis is getting a contract extension despite FAILING. He did well in his first two years with Ty Willingham's recruits, and then as soon as Jimmy Clausen and the rest of Charlie's recruits came in, he went 3-9 including Notre Dame's first loss to the Naval Academy in 42 years. Now, I mad with Weis because he got a contract extension in his first year with a 5-2 record, and the university denied Ty a contract extension in his first year with an 8-0 record. Ultimately, Ty got screwed out of his job. He was only at Notre Dame for three years, then went to Washington to a team that was already bad, and he barely got a chance before getting fired. I hope you continue to fail Charlie Weis. Your failure makes me happy.

-Sloppy Words
Sean Avery, you just got put on the list. I don't care if the woman is your ex or not, you will never refer to a woman as your, "sloppy seconds". Think before you open your mouth, and if it's intelligent, speak. If not, SHUT UP.

Open Letter of the Week, and Other Stuff

I've got way too much stuff to cover today, so it's getting bulleted. So, here we go:
-Houston Comets Fold: So sad. The team that has won four WNBA Championships, just couldn't find somebody to buy them. All players will be dispersed through a draft.

-Stephon Marbury Is Told To Go Home: Stephon, you're on my list. You don't want to be there. The Knicks organization has asked Marbury to just stay away. Honestly, if I was Mike D'Antoni, I'd do the same thing. I don't want or need him around my team with the way he's acting. I mean, the Knicks only have eight active players, and he's going to refuse to play anyway. He needs to go stand in a corner somewhere.

-Plaxico Burress put on Non-Football Injured Reserve List: Plax, you're an idiot, and you're on my list with Marbury. He released this quote yesterday, saying, "I would like my fans, and fans of the Giants to reserve judgement until all facts have been disclosed in this case." Plax, I hate to tell you this (actually, I don't) but, you don't have any fans. You were losing them at the beginning of the season with your domestic violence cases, and when you shot yourself, all the rest walked away. And just a few minutes ago, the Giants put him on the Non-Football Injured Reserve officially ending his season. So, in other words, Boom. Outta here.

-Pete Carroll In Trouble With NCAA Without An Alleged Recruiting Violation: I know, right? Pete Carroll is stickin it to the NCAA by announcing that USC will wear their home Cardinal and Gold jerseys at the Rose Bowl saturday at UCLA. Now, the NCAA requires one team to wear white uniforms, typically the away team, which is USC (however, LSU wears white jerseys traditionally as the home team). Now, the penalty for this is one timeout per half, reducing them to four total timeouts (2 per half) from 6 (3 per half). Now, as Scott VanPelt noted on his radio show 'Tirico and VanPelt', USC could spot UCLA points, and it still wouldn't matter.

Now, here's my open letter, this week, to Allen Iverson.
Dear A.I.,
What's up man? Now, don't even front about sunday, or try to act like it didn't happen, cause we all saw it. You were missing layups left and right man. And that pull up that rolled around and out late in the second half on the other side of the floor, that was just unfortunate. But, that's why we talking bout practice. You shot 2 for 9 and scored only 9 points. GO TO PRACTICE!

Seeing Red, Romo wins Option POTW, And The First Player of the Week candidate is in

****Sooner fans stop here, and jump down to the next article****

You know what? The BCS sucks. Of course it only sucks, because an inatimate CPU carried out its programming and turned the whole NCAA upside down by letting Oklahoma jump Texas into second place in the BCS and giving them a trip to the Big XII title game, and ultimately the BCS National Title game because, lets face it, Mizzou isn't as great as they're ranked. They gave up 40 to Illinois, and lost to Kansas over the weekend, so how are they going to stop OU? Anyway, I digress. Texas is third in the Harris Poll (.9115), third in USA TODAY (.9154), and second in the computers (.940). But Oklahoma is fourth in the Harris (.9094), second in USA TODAY (.9161), and first in the computers (.980). Now Texas claimed third in the Harris by a margin of six total points, and Oklahoma took second in the USA TODAY poll by one total point. I don't understand, why the outright better team can't be put in front? Oh well, the best retribution would be for Mizzou to come in and wipe the floor with Oklahoma. I mean, put the boomdown on Boomer Sooner. After that, I think the voters would move Texas into the two spot because they'll feel that winning the BCS Title will make up for not getting a shot at the Big XII title.

****Sooner fans can resume here****

-Ravens Leave Bengals Feeling Weak and Weary
Yeah, it's a pun, bonus points if you know the original author. Anyway, Joe Flacco took apart the defenseless (literally) Bengals with ease throwing for 280 yards, and 2 TDs. But that's not the reason I'm including this game. This game is included because Mark Clayton did something that no other Raven player has done before. He was the first player to throw and catch a touchdown in the same game in team history. He threw a 32 yard strike to a wide open Derrick Mason on a WR reverse pass, and then later on raked in a magnificent one hand grab for 70 yards. He finished with 32 pass yards, 1 TD; 5 rec., 164 yds., 1 TD.

Alright, I'm out, and if you like this blog, add yourself to the followers list, so I can keep you guys in the loop.

Diving Deep

Well, that's it. The regular season is over, and the only games left are conference championships. That means, the BCS rankings are near final, we can almost predict the final rankings after championship weekend. So, with a little help from my friend Bevo, here are the final top 10: 1 Florida, 2 Texas, 3 Oklahoma, 4 Alabama, 5 USC, 6 Utah, 7 Penn State, 8 Boise State, 9 Texas Tech, 10 Ohio State.
Now, the reason why I keep Texas in front is because I think winning by 40 (49-9) and allowing less than ten points to an unranked opponent is more convincing than winning by 20 (61-41) and allowing 40 against a lesser ranked opponent. Let me know what you think.

Be on the lookout next week, cause I'm going to post my personal picks, along with my formula picks with an entirely fake and made up formula that I'm going to make work.

Thanksgiving in the Superdome, and The Rambllin Wreck keeps Ramblin

As I write, the Bayou Classic is being broadcast on NBC. Now, most of you have probably never heard of this classic rivalry game, seeing as how it's not as big as either the Iron Bowl, Textile Bowl, or GTech/UGA in Clean Old Fashion Hate. The Bayou Classic features to HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), the Southern University Jaguars located in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers of Grambling State University, who are located in Grambling, LA which is about 60 miles east of Shreveport. This is a very heated rivalry dating back to Thanksgiving weekend of 1974. Southern currently leads the series 18-16 with an eight game win streak stretching from 1993-2000 to tilt the seires from 13-6 Grambling to 14-13 in their favor. This years battle has a trip to the conference championship on the line to represent the West division of the SWAC. Now the actual football is only half of the rivalry. The other half happens during halftime with the Battle of the Bands. Both bands have showstopping drum majors who perform back bends, backflips, and everything in between. Grambling's band is named "The World Famed Tiger Band", and Southern has "The Human Jukebox". The winner is decided by a text poll by the fans. Now, you're probably thinking that these small schools probably don't put out good football. Well, bet you didn't know that Super Bowl XXII MVP, Doug Williams graduated from Grambling. There is actually a long list of NFL Hall of Famers who have graduated from HBCUs, most notably, Jerry Rice, graduate of Mississippi Valley State University. If you have never seen the Bayou Classic, make sure to tune in next year, or right now on NBC is it's still on.

-Wrecked!
Well, I predicted that Tech would be a winner, and the last time I said, "Tech's a winner" I was correct in picking Texas' demise. Today, the Yellow Jackets did what they do best, and shut down Knowshon Moreno in the process. Tech ran for 409 yards out of their Wishbone offense, and since GTech only allowed 71 yards rushing, Matt Stafford did it all himself with 407 yds, 5 TDs, and 1 pick. UGA was up 28-12 going to halftime and was hoping to put it on cruise control in the second half, but as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!". The Ramblin Wreck was working overtime in the second half outgaining Georgia 201-1 on the ground and outscored them 26-0 with 3 TDs with 2 2-pt conversions and an extra point, and a field goal, leading 38-28 going into the fourth, and Georgia never got the lead back.

I have one last thing to add before I go. Hey, Plaxico, what's up with you man? You know you my boy, right? I mean, I try to defend you and your No-practice-co nickname, but when you shoot your ownself in the leg at a night club, you make it really difficult. Step yo game up.

Stephen Curry held to a career low 0 points against Loyola (MD), and the Lions continue to go out like a lamb.

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving! Make sure to enjoy your Turducken!

Yeah, you read right, Stephen Curry was held scoreless over his 32 minutes of play going 0-3 in his shots (yeah, only Three shots!). But this is because, Loyola's coach Jimmy Pastos decided the team was going to double team him. THE WHOLE GAME. So, for the whole game Curry just stood in the corner while his teammates played 4 on 3. Unbelievable. Curry still managed 3 boards, and 3 assists, but no points. But that didn't stop Davidson forward Andrew Lovedale from dropping 20 on the Greyhounds, en route to a 78-48 waxing. I would feel sorry for them if they tried, but they didn't, so they get my Herm Edwards award. (You play to win the game!)
Now after the game, Loyola's coach Pastos had this to say,
"We had to play against an NBA player tonight," Patsos explained. "Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"
No, you will be remembered as the loser who had nothing better to do but make Curry look bad at the expense of your own dignity. Coach Bob McKillop of Davidson had this to add,
"It seemed to me they were willing to risk the game at the expense of locking Steph up," McKillop said. "When you put two people on somebody and you do it for 30 minutes and at the end of the game, you have to wonder what the reasons for that are."
Yeah, Pastos continued to run the triangle-and-two even after Davidson was running away with the game getting a lead as much as 34. He even continued to run it at the end of the game, while a very annoyed McKillop put Curry in for the end of the game, just to spite Pastos.
PTI debates the questionable coaching

-Motor City Meltdown
Yeah, the Detroit Lions continue to play in the NFL, against NFL opponents like the Tennessee Titans who are up 35-3 with a minute to go and Kerry Collins was stripped and fumbled at the 15 and the Lions got the ball to the goal line, where I doubt they'll score a touchdown. I was just proved wrong! Touchdown Lions 35-10 going to halftime. But, I digress. I think the Lions should just go ahead and start running some college offense. They're not going anywhere with their current scheme, so let me see them running the wishbone, or flexbone, or why not the wing T? Let me see you run the option, and a couple of double passes and flea flickers for good measure. You never know, it might work.

Alright, I'm gone, and you're Running the Option.

Quotes copied from ESPN.com

Post #1

For the record, I hate right hand columns on my blog, but I'm gonna have to deal with it. As I type right now, the game of the night is on ESPN2 Ball State vs. Western Michigan, whilst Ball State competes to keep their perfect 11-0 record, Western Michigan tries to win 10 games for the first time in their college history. The score is currently 38-22 with BSU poised to score. It's looking pretty clear that Ball State will continue to cruise to a perfect season and possibly a win against projected Big 10 representative in the Motor City Bowl, Minnesota.
Meanwhile, in New York, LeBron James attempts to make New York City happy, and embarrass the New York Knicks at the same time. If you remember, last year King James became only the third person to drop 50 on the Knicks at the Garden behind Rip Hamilton (51) and Michael Jordan (55).
Now, we can't forget the Monday Night Football game yesterday. The Packers showed up, but the Saints took it to em. The Saints put up a franchise record 51 while picking off 3 of Mr. Rodgers errant passes. Deuce McCallister also took his place in the Saints record book by breaking the franchise record of total rushing touchdowns. And, last but not least, Drew Brees starred as Drew Brees. He didn't change a thing about his game, which is what makes him so good. Brees completed 77% of his passes (20/26) for 323 yards, 4 TDs and no picks. He broke their defense apart like a crawdad, and the Saints D-Line devoured Aaron Rodgers like a po boy sacking him twice, and causing him to throw passes he shouldn't.

This week, I'm looking forward to watching the Titans score 40+ against the Lions on Thanksgiving, showing their thankfulness for Rod Marinelli. And, just maybe, Donovan McNabb won't throw three picks before halftime, and will help the Eagles pull of what would be considered an improbable, if anything, win against Kurt Warner and the Cardinals.

Alright, I'm gone, and for now, you're Running the Option.