The Seahawks Narrowly Escape Defeat From The Rams 14-9

On Monday Night Football, the Seattle Seahawks narrowly escaped defeat from the St. Louis Rams 14-9. The Rams had a 4th and goal at the Seattle 1 yard line, with 4 seconds remaining, but couldn’t connect on a pass from back-up quarterback Kellen Clemens, to upset the 7-1 Seahawks. The Rams are now 3-5. Other than 2 interceptions thrown by Clemens, and a 80-yard touchdown pass from Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson to wide receiver Golden Tate, who waved at a defender for about the last 30 yards, earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the Rams dominated this game.

The Rams outgained the Seahawks 339-135 in total yards. The Rams rushed for 200 yards against one of the best defenses in the National Football League (NFL), and held the Seahawks to 44 yards rushing. Rookie Zac Stacy rushed for a career-high 134 yards. But they Rams still couldn’t finish off the Seahawks, when they had the chance. Wilson was sacked 7 times in the game, 3 times each by Robert Quinn and Chris Long. This was a win by the Seahawks, but not impressive in the least.

After 8 weeks in the NFL, 9 teams have 2 losses or less. The Kansas City Chiefs are the only undefeated team at 8-0, but their schedule is much tougher in the second half of the season, including 2 games against the 7-1 Denver Broncos. The only other 1-loss teams, are the Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints, who are 6-1, since they already had their bye week. The Chiefs and Broncos are in the American Football Conference (AFC), and the Seahawks and Saints are in the National Football Conference (NFC). The winners of each conference of course meet in the Super Bowl.

In the AFC, the New England Patriots and the Cincinnati Bengals are both 6-2, while the Indianapolis Colts are 5-2, already having their bye. The Colts have been impressive, with wins over the Broncos, Seahawks and the 6-2 San Francisco 49ers. Joining the 49ers as the only other 2-loss team in the NFC is the Green Bay Packers, who are 5-2. All 9 of these teams with records of 5-2 or better, have the inside track to the playoffs, where 6 teams from each conference qualify, 4 division winners and 2 wild cards.

The Detroit Lions have the next best record at 5-3, and are followed closely behind by 10 teams that are either 4-3. 4-4 or 3-4. As always, there will be a mad scramble for the remaining playoff spots. In the AFC, the final playoff spot will go to either the San Diego Chargers who are 4-3, if they can withstand 2 games each against the Chiefs and Broncos, or the defending Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens, who are at 3-4 now. The Lions should grab the last wild card in the NFC, and the Dallas Cowboys who are 4-4 now, will probably win the NFC East.

I don’t really anticipate any other team having a chance to make it to the playoffs, other than the teams I’ve mentioned. We’ll see what happens by the end of the season. Injuries, especially to quarterbacks, can always change things quickly, but with almost half of the season over (the season is 16 games for each team in 17 weeks), that is how I anticipate the playoffs looking in January. I won’t make any playoff predictions until late December. In the meantime, enjoy the games, and let’s see how things end up in the 2013 NFL regular season.

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The Cardinals Helped The Red Sox Win Game 1 Of The World Series

On Wednesday night, the 2013 World Series opened with the Boston Red Sox beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 by a score of 8-1. The Cardinals helped the Red Sox win the game with their lousy fielding. In the first inning, David Ortiz of the Red Sox grounded into what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Cardinals’ shortstop Pete Kozma dropped the ball at second base, enabling Dustin Pedroia and Ortiz to be safe at second base and first base, respectively. The next batter, Mike Napoli, doubled to center, clearing the bases, to give the Red Sox a 3-0 lead. Game over, in this postseason where run-scoring is at a premium.

The Cardinals didn’t stop after that, with their fielding woes. They had two more errors, before finally scoring in the top of the ninth inning, with a solo home run from Matt Holiday. By then the Red Sox already had 8 runs of their own, including Ortiz’ 2-run home run in the 7th inning. This isn’t a good start for the Cardinals. In addition to the poor fielding, and being routed by the Red Sox, 9 of the last 10 World Series Champions have won Game 1.

There was controversy about the Kozma error in the first inning. When the play happened, the umpire called Pedroia out, even though he had a clear view of Kozma dropping the ball. The call was reversed, but this obvious blown call goes right in line with all the poor umpiring that went on during this season. Amazingly, the Cardinals manager, Mike Matheny argued the reversed call, and some of the Cardinal players complained about it after the game.

Also, a Cardinals’ minor league pitcher, Tyler Melly, tweeted that Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester was using vaseline during the game. While there was a foreign substance seen on his glove, it was probably Bullfrog sunscreen, which allows a pitcher to get a better grip on the ball. Major League Baseball responded “we can not draw any conclusions from this video”. The Cardinals should worry more about fielding the ball properly , and scoring some runs, rather than the reversal of an obviously bad call, and whether an opposing pitcher has sunscreen on his glove.

Game 2 starts in a few hours in Boston. The Red Sox will send out starting pitcher John Lackey, while the Cardinals will have Michael Wacha, the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series, starting for them. Games 3 and 4 will be in St. Louis, as well as Game 5, if necessary. If the series goes to Game 6 and 7, then it will be back in Boston.

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6 of the Top 11 Teams In College Football Lost This Weekend

The first big shake-up weekend of the college football season finished on Saturday night. #3, #6, #7, #8, #9 and #11 all went down to defeat. #3 Clemson was pummeled by #5 Florida State at home 51-14, in the first match-up of Top 5 ranked teams this year. This game was over early in the 3rd quarter, after the Seminoles took a 34-7 lead on their first drive of the second half. Their redshirt freshman quarterback, Jameis Wisnton, threw for 444 yards and 3 touchdowns, and also had a rushing touchdown.

In 3 of the other 5 upsets, Southestern Conference foes beat each other. #6 LSU was edged by Mississippi 27-24. Ole Miss never trailed in this game, as they handed LSU their second loss of the season. #7 Texas A&M lost to 24th-ranked Auburn 45-41, even though defending Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel had a chance to win the game in the end, but they turned the ball over on downs just past midfield. #11 South Carolina was beaten by Tennessee 23-21 on a last second field goal. This was the Volunteer’s first SEC victory of the season.

The other losses by teams in the top 11 ranked teams, were #8 Louisville blowing a 28-7 third quarter lead, and losing to Central Florida 38-35. Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had a good game, but his Heisman Trophy aspirations had to take a hit, because of this loss in their relatively easy schedule. UCLA who had just entered the Top 10 at #9 the previous week, lost to #13 Stanford, who had just dropped out of the Top 10, by a score of 24-10.

The first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll of the season came out tonight. Alabama is #1, Florida State jumped up to #2, Oregon is down to #3, Ohio State is #4, and surprising Missouri is #5. This is of course the poll that determines who plays in the 5 major bowls at the end of the season. The BCS is based on the Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll and several computer polls. 2013 is the last season of the BCS, before the 4-team playoff system starts next year. While the playoff system is what many have been wanting for decades, I’m sure there will many complaints about which 4 teams are chosen each year. Personally, I think an 8-team system would be better, as I’ve written in a previous post.

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The Colts’ Luck Ran Out In San Diego

Last night on Monday Night Football, the San Diego Chargers beat the surging Indianapolis Colts 19-9.  After beating the National Football Conference (NFC) heavyweights, the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks in previous weeks, the Colts looked to pick-up a relatively easy win against the Chargers, who embarrassed themselves the previous week, losing to the Oakland Raiders 27-17. But as ESPN’s Chris Berman says, “That’s why they play the game.”

The Colts have been very impressive since the increasingly puzzling loss to the Miami Dolphins in the second week of the season. Their second year quarterback, Andrew Luck has shown signs of becoming the next come-from-behind specialist. He has 9 late comebacks in his 15 wins so far. In fact, ESPN play-by-play man Mike Tirico seemed to expect another comeback when the Colts took the field late in the 4th quarter down 16-9. But this time the Colts’ Luck ran out. The Chargers’ defense held Luck to only 202 yards passing, which is a very small number in today’s NFL, and no touchdowns, to go along with one interception, which virtually ended the game.

The Chargers are very hard to figure out. They started by blowing a 28-7 lead to the Houston Texans in the first game, and losing 31-28. Although a very strange grazing the center on a field goal penalty, enabled the Texans to continue a drive which had pulled them to within one point, instead it allowed them to take the lead, with the last points of the game. The Chargers lost their 3rd game of the season to the Tennessee Titans 20-17, giving up a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jake Locker to Justin Hunter with 15 seconds remaining. Last week the Chargers committed 5 turnovers to the Raiders. When your turnover margin is -5, you almost never win. However, they beat the Philadelphia Eagles 33-30 in their second game, and defeated the Dallas Cowboys 30-21 in their 4th game.

So the Chargers lost their 1st, 3rd and 5th games, and won their 2nd, 4th and 6th games. Do you see a trend here? I’m sure they won’t continue to lose odd numbered games, and win the even numbered games, but it is ironic. One week they make the Raiders’ Terrelle Pryor look like an elite quarterback, then the next week they don’t allow Luck to even have a touchdown drive. Chargers’ quarterback Phillip Rivers is having a great season considering two of his receivers were out for the entire season very early in this campaign. He is averaging over 300 yards passing per game, and has 14 touchdowns, to go along with 5 interceptions.  3 of those interceptions came against the Raiders.

The Chargers were helped in losing to the Texans by a terrible referee call, gave up a late long pass to the Titans, and had 5 turnovers to lose the Raider game. It seems like this team is very close to making a strong run for the playoffs. But since both of the remaining undefeated teams, the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, are in their division, the Chargers are probably just fighting for a wild card spot. They play each of these teams twice, but it’s pretty unlikely they will win all 4 games.

Yes I know that baseball is currently having their league championship series. The St. Louis Cardinals lead the Los Angeles Dodgers 2 games to one in the National League, and the Detroit Tigers are tied at a game apiece with the Boston Red Sox. But other than the Red Sox David Ortiz’ grand slam to tie the game in the 8th inning of game 2, after the Red Sox went 16 innings scoring only one run, and the fake Dodgers’ bear mascot getting kicked out of the game last night, football has consumed my interest more.

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Three Undefeated Teams Remain After Week 5 In The NFL

After 5 weeks of play in the National Football League (NFL), three undefeated teams remain. One of these teams, the Denver Broncos, is not a surprise at all, with Peyton Manning breaking records at quarterback. But the other two teams are a surprise. The New Orleans Saints, with head coach Sean Payton returning from a one-year suspension, are a mild surprise. However, the Kansas City Chiefs, who won only 2 games last year, are a major surprise, winning their first 5 games.

The Chiefs tied the Jacksonville Jaguars for the worst record in the league last year, at 2-14. The Jaguars have started with 5 straight losses, are poised to make a run at the 2008 Detroit Lions, for the only team to lose all their games since the NFL went to a 16-game season. The Chiefs have a new coach in Andy Reid, but he isn’t really new, because he coached the Philadelphia Eagles the previous 14 seasons. Kansas City did have 6 players voted to the Pro Bowl last year, after that 2-win season.

The schedule so far was pretty easy for the Chiefs, and it doesn’t get much more difficult until their 10th game, against the Broncos. They beat the lowly Jaguars, and three teams from the National Football Conference (NFC) East, which is a division with all losing teams, but last week’s win on the road against the Tennessee Titans 26-17, has to be their most impressive win. This was the Titans’ first loss at home this year. Looking at their schedule the rest of the way, the Chiefs, with new solid quarterback Alex Smith at the helm, look to be a certain playoff team, barring a total collapse.

The Saints have a tougher schedule upcoming, although the demise of the Atlanta Falcons, dramatically helps their chances to win the NFC South division. No other team in their division has more than 1 win presently. The Saints were 7-9 last year, without their head coach, and other suspended players from the bounty gate fiasco. Their defense was the worst in NFL history, as far as most yardage allowed, giving up just over 440 yards per game. This year’s defense, under new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, has improved dramatically, now giving up 330 yards per game.

Of the three undefeated teams, the Broncos are only surprising in the fact that Manning is re-writing the record books on a weekly basis. He now has 20 touchdowns after 5 games, and he finally threw his first interception on Sunday, in a 51-48 win over the Dallas Cowboys. This was the 4th highest scoring game in NFL history. So the Cowboys scored 48 points, and still lost. That’s gotta be a tough pill to swallow. Denver still has to play the Chiefs twice, the New England Patriots, and the crumbling Houston Texans. But unless the Chiefs upset them at least once, the Broncos look to be headed for the top seed in the American Football Conference (AFC) again. Last year they lost to the Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens, with a late touchdown in their Divisional Game. It will be interesting to see how much success the Broncos have in the playoffs, since Manning is only 9-11 in the playoffs in his career.

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Patrick Roy Loses It

On Wednesday night, the Colorado Avalanche opened the National Hockey League (NHL) season at home against the Anaheim Ducks with a resounding 6-1 win. After the game, the new Avalanche head coach flipped out. Check out as Patrick Roy loses it, while he argues with Ducks’ head coach Bruce Boudreau:

Apparently, Patrick Roy (pronounced Wa), was upset that he thought a Ducks player tried to injure one of his players with a knee-to-knee hit. You can see him talking to Ducks player Corey Perry (#10) at first, before Boudreau comes over to the glass partition, between the benches. After the Ducks’ only goal, Roy put his thugs on the ice for the last 6 seconds, which Boudreau told Roy was a bush league maneuver, that’s when Patrick Roy loses it.

Roy was fined $10,000 by the NHL on Thursday, for his eruption at the end of this game. But I liked it. Whether right or wrong, he was sticking up for his team. He may have gone a little overboard, but it also brought more attention to the sport of hockey. I’m sure more fans will come to Avalanche home games, and other fans everywhere will watch on television, hoping to see a Patrick Roy meltdown in a future game. This was the first game of the season, and his team won. What will he do when he’s upset after his team loses, especially if they make the playoffs?

Roy was an excellent goalie during his playing days, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006. He won 4 Stanley Cup Championships during his career. His first two were with the Montreal Canadiens, in 1986 and 1993, and he also won championships with the Avalanche in 1996 and 2001.

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Terrell Suggs Accuses Roger Goodell Of The Super Bowl Blackout

Did you see this video of Baltimore Ravens’ linebacker Terrell Suggs from an interview with ESPN? Suggs accuses Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, of being responsible for the lights going out during the last Super Bowl. Here is the interview he did with Lisa Salters of ESPN.

I had 3 immediate questions after hearing Suggs talking crazy in this interview. First, is he a moron? Second, is he joking? But you can see he’s serious, because he explains his ridiculous reason for thinking this. Goodell was laughing with Denver Broncos’ General Manager John Elway before the AFC Divisional Game. I guess the commissioner isn’t allowed to talk with anybody affiliated with either team before a game. My last question was, has Suggs been drug-tested lately?

Super Bowl XLVII, which was played in the Superdome in New Orleans, on February 3, 2013, did have a power outage early in the third quarter. At the time, the Ravens were beating the San Francisco 49ers 28-6. After the 34 minute delay, play resumed. The 49ers then scored the next 17 point, to cut the lead to 28-23. However, the Ravens ended up winning the game 34-31. Suggs’ team won the game, and never even trailed.

So we have a player from the winning team expressing a crazy conspiracy theory about the commissioner causing a power outage, so that the losing team would make a comeback. Is Goodell so smart that that he knew the 49ers would play better after the blackout than the Ravens would? How did he do this without anyone knowing that he was behind it, or leaking his responsibility? If Goodell is this powerful, why would Suggs risk upsetting him? Then Suggs finishes by saying Goodell isn’t doing a good job, and shouldn’t be making $10 million per year. This will be interesting to see how Goodell reacts to Suggs talking crazy about him.

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It’s Been a Bad Month For Oklahoma State Football

The month of September has been a bad month for Oklahoma State football. After Sports Illustrated published the findings of it’s 10-month investigation of the OSU football program, the 11th ranked Cowboys ended the month with a road loss to West Virginia 30-21 on Saturday. This same West Virginia team lost the previous week to unranked but undefeated Maryland 37-0.

The Sports Illustrated’s Special Investigation was presented in a five-part series. The parts of the series were divided up into money, academics, drugs, sex, and the fallout. Over 60 players were interviewed during the investigation, which covered the time period of 2000-2011.

The money section of the study referred to direct payments to players, bonuses for performance, and players being paid for jobs they didn’t do. The accusations related to academics, was that the program didn’t strive to educate, but to get the players passing grades so they can keep playing. Former players at OSU also said that drug use, as well as drug dealing was prevalent among some players, and some even smoked marijuana before games.

Early in the period investigated, under head coach Les Miles, the football program’s hostess program, Orange Pride, tripled in size, and became a key recruiting tool. Players say that a small number of these girls had sex with players. The fallout or result of all the allegations was that players who became injured, or were not meeting expectations, became expendable, and were dropped from the team, left to fend for themselves, after broken promises during recruitment. Between 2002 and 2010, a whopping 43.5% of football players left OSU before their five years of eligibility ran out.

Of course, we don’t know how many of these accusations are true about the Oklahoma State football program. However, when over 60 players agreed to go on the record with their interviews, and neither Miles, nor Mike Gundy, who has been the head coach since 2005, would comment for the story, it looks bad for them and their program. Hopefully these aren’t the reasons a perennial conference doormat has risen to become a national powerhouse. But if they keep winning, and no NCAA sanctions hit the program, you figure this story might blow over eventually.

Maybe these allegations have affected the football team, considering their surprising loss to West Virginia on Saturday. OSU scored the first touchdown, but then gave up 17 straight points, and trailed at halftime 24-14. The Cowboys scored a touchdown in the third quarter to get within 3 points, but could get no closer. The Mountaineers kicked 2 field goals to finish the scoring at 30-21. OSU hurt themselves with 3 turnovers and 10 penalties during the game.

John Madden, the former Oakland Raiders head coach, and popular professional football color commentator, used to say “Winning is the best deodorant”. While that is very true in sports, it may take more than that for this story to go away for Oklahoma State. If their team starts going downhill, things may snowball in a negative way for the program. I’m sure this isn’t the end of the story, but nevertheless September has been a bad month for Oklahoma State football. Stay tuned for updates on these accusations.

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UCLA Football Is Taking Charge In Southern California

It may sound strange to those of us that live in Southern California, but the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is becoming the dominant football team in Southern California. Since we haven’t had a professional football team here in 20 years, the team that normally gets most of the attention is the University of Southern California (USC). However, since the Pacific (Pac) 10 Conference added Colorado and Utah, and became the Pac 12 in 2011, UCLA won the Pac 12 South division both years.

Yes, I know UCLA won the division in 2011, because USC was on probation, and pounded them 50-0. But shortly after that game, and the subsequent 49-31 loss to Oregon in the Pac 12 Championship Game, UCLA fired head coach and former quarterback Rick Neuheisel, and hired former NFL head coach Jim Mora. Between the hiring of Mora and the addition of redshirt freshman quarterback Brett Hundley as starting quarterback, the improvement of the Bruins was immediate.

The 2012 season saw the Bruins start with a 9-2 record. The ninth win was a 38-28 win over USC. So their battle for supremacy in Los Angeles, went from a 50-point defeat, to a 10-point win. But then they lost twice to eventual Rose Bowl winner Stanford to end the regular season. The Bruins lost the last scheduled game, then also the Pac 12 Championship game by a score of 27-24. UCLA did lose the Holiday Bowl to Baylor 49-26, to finish their season with a 9-5 record.

In their second season together, Mora, Hundley, and the rest of the Bruins have stormed out of the gate, with 3 easy wins to start the season. The crushing wins over Nevada and New Mexico State were expected, but their 41-21 beatdown of Nebraska, in Lincoln, made a major statement. What makes this win even more impressive was the fact that Nebraska had a 21-3 lead late in the second quarter. It almost seemed like the 9:00 am Pacific starting time was too early for the Bruins. Once they woke up, they scored 38 straight points to embarrass the Cornhuskers by 20 points at home.

UCLA has a brutal back-to-back road stretch coming up against Top 5 ranked Stanford and Oregon in October, but they are far and away the best team in the Pac 12 South this year. USC has already lost to Washington State at home 10-7, and beat Utah State by a 17-14 score, so they don’t look much better than their terribly disappointing 2012 season. The Trojans started last season ranked #1 in preseason polls, and finished 7-6, losing 5 of their last 6 games.

Until USC gets rid of head coach Lane Kiffin,  I don’t expect much improvement in their team. I don’t understand how he keeps getting offered head coaching jobs. With the Oakland Raiders professional football team in 2007 and 2008, he was 5-15 before being fired. The next year he went 7-6 with the University of Tennessee. Somehow that record was impressive enough for USC to hire him. Other than the 10-2 record in one of the probation seasons in 2011, USC is 17-12 with Kiffin as head coach.

Kiffin keeps getting head coaching jobs despite his moderate success at best. I don’t know if it’s because of his hot wife, or the success his father had as a defensive coordinator. His father, Monte Kiffin won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003, and was defensive coordinator at USC from 2010-2012. It’s looking bleak with USC football for the foreseeable future, especially with cross-town rival UCLA showing such promise. The Bruins beat them by 10 last year, and it might be even worse this year.

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Blocked Kick Turns Into A Touchdown

I saw this video of a Washington state high school football game between Columbia River and Skyline. Columbia River was trailing 24-23 with seven seconds remaining, and attempted to kick the winning field goal. The kick was blocked, and all the Skyline players ran off the field celebrating.

The problem is that the play was still alive. As all the Skyline players were leaving the field, Columbia River’s Reese Keller picked up the ball and scored, to win the game for his team 29-24. So a blocked kick turns into a touchdown for the team that had the kick blocked.

The video isn’t very good, but you can see the play best from the 15 second point of the video.

This play just reminded me what happens when you’re not thinking for yourself. Don’t follow the crowd. Not one of the Skyline players knew that the play was still alive after the blocked kick. Either they didn’t know the rules, or once a few players started running off the field celebrating, they just followed along. Skyline player #33 should have jumped on the ball, rather than leave it on the ground next to him, then get up and run off the field. Instead they lost the game.

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