Weekend Roundup

In the words of Larry David: pretty, pretty good.

This weekend did not really disappoint the viewer.

Friday kicked off with a vintage playoff pitcher's duel as Pedro threw 7 scoreless innings that made you think it was the 90's again. Him and Vicente Padilla were painting corners, changing speeds and overall just throwing everything but the kitchen sink at guys to get them out - and it worked. Just a fun game to watch that the Phillies bullpen predictably lost. And that is the difference between this series being 3-0 Phils after last night's bloodbath.

Yanks took game 1 Friday behind the masterpiece CC turned in. Then came back Saturday in what will go down as one of the more epic ALCS games ever played. Fitting end to a game littered with errors that the second baseman throws one away to end the game, but am I the only one who found that to be a bit anti-climatic? Lots of questionable managerial decisions in my opinion, but pretty much all worked out. The only thing that didn't work out? Turns out 0-2 to A-Rod up a run isn't a great time to throw a belt high 91 MPH fastball down the middle.

Saturday gave us some good college football (before that classic Yanks/Angels game stole the show)...Texas knocked out Bradford early, looked like the lesser team for most of the game, but gutted out a 16-13 win in the Red River Rivalry. It wasn't the shootout we hoped for, but finally we had a hyped up college football game that was watchable.
USC/Notre Dame then gave us a more exciting game, though honestly I thought USC should have won by 20+. Props to Notre Dame for hanging tough but they looked much out-classed to me.

A young Bobby Petrino led Arkansas team went into Florida and gave them all they could handle. Ryan Mallett looked good and this Arkansas team is going to be a National force next year. Of course Tim Tebow and company found a way to win, but much like Ole Miss did last year, Arky stripped a bit of their invincibility from them.

The big teams to lose were: Ohio St to Purdue in a real shocker. The Ohio St offense continued to sputter and their defense looked terrible. I can't figure out the Big Ten. Iowa sucks, Ohio St sucks, Penn St sucks. The whole conference is terrible...but who will emerge? I still don't think it's Iowa when all is said and done. And Va Tech fell to Georgia Tech in a less shocking defeat.
A lot of arguing about "what if this team goes undefeated, what if these two go undefeated, who plays in the championship game?" I think I'll make a post about that later in the week with a little preview of next weekends games, but none of this matters if Florida and Alabama win out.

NFFFFL SUNNNDAY:

No 48, NYG 27: My GGGGGGGGGGGG-Men got destroyed. They looked completely over-matched and it turns out the defense can't just turn it on when they need to. This was a game I fully expected to lose but the way which the Giants did so was very alarming. They couldn't get to Brees and even when they did he would just throw it up to receivers that were bigger and way too physical for our d-backs. Even when guys were covered they would come down with the catch. Defensively, the Saints are very much smoke and mirrors. The Giants could have run it all over them if they didn't fall behind early...and Eli missed a couple receivers (including once Steve Smith who had about 5 steps on the entire Saints defense) and this could have turned into a closer, complete shootout.

Houston 28, Cincy 17: So the Bengals aren't that good? Shocking.

Green Bay 26, Detroit 0: Drew Stanton and Daunte Culpepper got shut out? I don't believe it!

Jax 23, St. Louis 20, OT: Alright guys, I admit it, you were right, my prediction of 12-4 for the Rams was off the mark.

Minnesota 33, Baltimore 31: Told you Baltimore's defense is no more. Can't say I saw this type of shootout coming.

Pitt 27, Cleveland 14: Yahoo's spotlight player for Cleveland? Lawrence Vickers (I believe about a 5th year FB out of LA Tech or Colorado, how do I confuse those two schools? I don't know..but I recall wanting the Giants to draft him in the 6th round or something one year, pewch). Vickers stats: 1 catch, 1 yard, 1 TD. At least Derek Anderson raised his completion percentage to 37.5% this week.

Lina 28, Tampa 21: I don't even believe this game was played, I think they just did a Madden simulation.

KC 14, Wash 6: So Washington isn't winning the NFC East?

Oakland 13, Philly 9: Still not convinced this actually happened either. I'm waiting for the NFL to release a statement: "Sorry fans, we were just kidding. Come on, you didn't really believe the Raiders beat the Eagles, did you?"

Arizona 27, Seattle 3: Nothing to say.

New England 59, Tennessee 0: That damn Madden simulation again? I guess we can stop hearing about how Tennessee is a "good" 0-5 team (and not just because they're 0-6)?

Buffalo 16, Jets 13: After I sent out an en masse text message to most people from school including a bunch of Bills fans and a few others proclaiming "Wide Right Bitches" after Lindell missed the would-be game-winner at the end of regulation my responses varied from "lol" to "im glad, we want a better draft pick" to "die" (the last of which being a female respondent - welcome to ruff buff)...of course, more responses were added after the conclusion in which the Bills won in OT after Sanchez threw his 6th int of the game. It took until about 8:30 for a Bills fan to be wise enough to rip into my Giants, but hey, congrats Bills fans, you just missed out on a franchise QB! But Ryan Fitzpatrick looked great!

Atlanta 21, Chicago 14: I actually found this to be a compelling game. Just a good battle between evenly matched teams. I thought Ryan and Cutler were better than their numbers and though they each threw some picks on balls they let fly, both can really sling it when they get in a groove.