Week 14

After the Patriots scored their last offensive touchdown yesterday WBCN radio broadcaster Gino Cappeletti said, "It's 28 to nothing and the Patriots are just absolutely dismantling the Buffalo Bills in this game."

That may have been an understatement. The '05 Patriots looked more like the '03 team in their 35-7 shellacking of the slowly-coming-unglued Buffalo Bills. With the win they moved into position to clinch the AFC East yet again and were only delayed in so doing by Miami's shocking victory in San Diego.

The turning point in this game came early when the Bills had a 1st and goal from the 9 yard line after a 59 yard pass from J.P. Losman to Lee Evans. After 1st and 2nd down moved the Bills backwards to the 22 Losman flipped his third down pass softly into the end zone where it was easily intercepted by Asanti Samuel. On the ensuing posession the Patriots drove 80 yards with ease and Brady capped the drive with his first touchdown run of the season from 3 yards out. From that point on it was never a contest.

Tom Brady played probably his best game of the season despite a banged up knee and snowy conditions, throwing for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns. Corey Dillon once again topped the 100 yard mark and as a team New England rushed for 159 yards. 8 different receivers caught passes and 6 caught more than 2 as the offense racked up a season high total of 494 yards.

Even the defense looked like the Belichick teams of old allowing only 184 total yards including only 14 rushing yards. J.P. Losman was smothered all day, completing just 10 of 27 passes for 181 yards and 3 interceptions (70+ of those yards came on the Bills' only touchdown during 4th quarter garbage time). The defense also did something they had yet to do this season, they scored a touchdown.

All in all the team played their most complete game of the season, totally controlling both sides of the ball. Of course we cannot get too excited about this win since it came against a Buffalo team that has now lost 6 of its last 7 and was offically eliminated from the playoffs yesterday. However, winning on the road in December in the snow is no easy task regardless of the opponent. Just like I said last week at this time of year taking care of business and getting into the playoffs is all that matters.

Don't look now but the Patriots have won 3 out of 4 and 5 out of 7 and have just now played their best game from start to finish. The key in the NFL has always been to peak at the right time, the Patriots have yet to peak this year but if they were to do so the next few weeks would certainly be the best time to start moving in that direction. We will see if this game was simply an annihilation of an inferior opponent or a sign of things to come next week as the pesky Tampa Bay Bucs come to Foxboro to fight for their playoff lives. If the Pats can take care of business against a tough Buccaneers team hope will once again spring eternal in New England. I'm not talking Super Bowl, I'm just saying that some post season noise could be made.

The only negative that came out (or almost came out) of yesterday's game was the, "Oh my God no!" moment of the season for the Patriots, Tom Brady coming up limping. I've always said that the X factor in this team's guaranteed trip to the playoffs is the health of number 12 and for just a moment I thought that the X had landed. The team has said that the injury is nothing major but the lump in my throat when he came gimping off the field was tangible. This particular injury may not be serious but it is indicative of a persistent problem with the Patriots. When you live and die by your quarterback he cannot be the most hit QB in football, it's just asking for the inevitable. Right now Brady is the most frequently knocked down signal caller in the NFL and Tampa's defense has a monster pass rush. They need to figure something out before next week so that the Pats do not see Brady limping off again, only this time not to return.

One odd note about this game. I have not talked to anyone else who watched the game on CBS 4 in Boston so I do not know if this happened to others or just to me. Throughout the game the sound on the broadcast constantly sounded like a skipping CD with regular hesitations and pauses.

"Br-- back to --ass, co---ete to Branch. To----own!"

This actually ended up being a good thing as Randy Cross' unendingly annoying commentary was regularly interrupted. Hopefully since next week's game has playoff implications for both teams a less than 12th string commentary team will be calling the game.

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Other NFL Stuff:

- Chicago Headline: "Bears Exposed as NFC Quality!" The line in the sand between the majors and AAA was drawn yesterday as the struggling Steelers smacked around the 2nd or 3rd best NFC team. It was snowing, muddy, and cold i.e. perfect Bears defensive football weather. Too bad they just are not that good. The vaunted defense certainly can beat up on a conference with 2 good offenses but when the ageless Jerome Bettis and an injured Ben Roethlisberger came to town they looked very ordinary, failing to force a single turnover.

Look at their 2 worst defensive performances of the season, 21 points to Pittsburgh and 24 points to Cincinatti, both AFC playoff contenders. Their best defensive performances: Detroit (6), Minnesota (3), Baltimore (6), San Francisco (9), Carolina (3), and Green Bay (7). The Carolina game is impressive, no question about that but the other 5 teams they've held to under 10 points are among the worst offenses in football. It's starting to seem as tough the NFC playoffs are once again a tournament to see who will earn the right to lose the Super Bowl.

And oh yeah, they scored 9 points and for the 6th time this season were held under 14. The calls for Rex Grossman get louder and louder. Why? Because the mediocre quarterback on the bench is always better than the mediocre quarterback on the field.

- I HATE the Giants, I mean really HATE them. I hate them because they are from New York, I hate them because they have Eli Manning, I hate them because I have had to watch them every week this season on Fox. That being said I was rooting with all my might for Jay Feely to make the game winning kick against the Eagles yesterday. Did I want the Giants to win? No. However, did I want to see Michael Strahan rip a 185 pound man limb from limb on national television? No. It would have been like the scene in Swingers when Mike calls the girl he met at the Dresdin 10 straight times, so uncomfortable and even though you know what is coming you still hope it will be different everytime, except for in this version Mike is thrown out the window by a giant black man after she answers and tells him to never call her again. Thank you for sparing me that feeling Jay Feely.

- On the other hand you have Lawrence Tynes. Oh Lawrence, your team improbably drove 55 yards in 18 seconds to give you a shot at a game tying 41 yard field goal at the end of regulation and you shanked it. The snap was not great but the holder got it down and in the NFL 41 yards should be a chip shot. If you want to make the playoffs in the AFC you simply have to make that kick. If I were a lesser writer I'd make a joke about Dick Vermeil crying about the missed kick right now. Maybe something like, "The only thing that could make Vermeil cry harder than that miss is the Bridges of Madison County."

- Sure the Colts won yesterday against the Jaguars, but what the heck happened to their defense in the last 6 minutes? David Garrard just shredded them, not once but twice for touchdowns plus a 2 point conversion. Now if the Colts go undefeated I will wonder forever what would have happened if the Jags could have covered Dallas Clark just one more time. If I had not already declared that I was not going to say anything nice about the Colts for the rest of the season I would have to point out that the 3rd down conversion to ice the game was a gutsy call and a clutch play.

Despite the Colts victory there was a relatively silver lining yesterday from Tony Dungee. To me his press conference sounded like he was setting us up to announce that he is shutting down the starters after next week with all his talk about the Super Bowl and how 16-0, "would be nice." The Colts obviously don't want to lose to a conference team next week against San Diego but the game in Seattle will be totally meaningless to Indianapolis and will mean everything to the Seahawks, will Manning be on the pine? Come on Tony don't choke on a chance for history, play Manning and lose to Seattle the right way.

Dream Scenario: The Colts run the table, the Pats beat the Jaguars at home in round 1 and then in Indy Rodney Harrison comes back on crutches and single handedly destroys Manning's psyche just by stepping onto the field in uniform and New England wins 45-7. A man can dream can't he?

- Does Dom Capers not realize that he's not going to be around next season to coach Reggie Bush? If he does why would he tell his kicker that he'll treat to Friendly's after the game if he misses a 31 yard game winner by more than 50 feet, thereby keeping the Texans headfirst in the Bush. (Sorry...)

- Speaking of Reggie Bush, has there been a player coming out of college recently that has had this much hype? Of course I think that he's going to be a great pro, but what if he isn't? Will we remember all of this talk about puposefully missing field goals and losing games to get him or will he just go into the Charlie Ward Hall of Fame?

- San Diego Headline: "Brees, Gates, McCardell - Good Players, Nothing Without L.T." The Chargers proved yesterday that they will go exactly as far as Tomlinson takes them. With bruised ribs and probably some year long wear and tear this year's league MVP (don't try to talk me out of this, it's a fact) only managed 75 yards and the Chargers were beaten by the resurgent Miami Dolphins. The halftime speech last that Nick Saban gave last week in Buffalo must have been something impressive because the Fish have played like a team possessed since. If L.T. isn't 100% you can stick a fork in San Diego, they're done.

One question about this game. The on side kick by the Chargers at the end of the game was ruled to be recovered by the Dolphins, but at the end of the unpiling of the scrum a Chargers player was holding the ball. How does this happen? If he has the ball does that not mean that he recovered it? If not how did he get it? Doesn't the definition of possession basically come down to who is holding the damn thing? I guess not.

- The Broncos beat the Ravens 12-10. Huh? I thought the Broncos were a Super Bowl contender. The actual headline about this game on ESPN.com "Flat Broncos manage narrow win v. hapless Ravens." I guess this one won't be an Instant Classic or an NFL Films Greatest Moments will it? Is there another program for games like these, "Insomniac Treatment Sporting Events" perhaps?

- Brooks Bollinger set a record for rushing yards in a game by a Jets quarterback yesterday with 56. He also set a record for worst NFL quarterback to have any kind of positive record ever. They beat the Raiders 26-10. This raises the question: If an Oakland Raider falls in the woods an no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? That random gunfire you hear is the friendly fans in Oakland hunting Norv Turner.

- The longest win streak in the NFL not including teams quarterbacked by salad bar groupies: your Minnesota Vikings. They are now 1 game behind "The Greatest Defense Ever Assembled that Can't Beat an AFC Team." Further proof that a possibly illicit gang bang on a boat and an injury to your best player is all it takes to send a team straight to the top of a crappy division.

The Hot Stove

Can someone please tell me who is pirating this Red Sox ship these days, because GM by committee is starting to look a little bit like closer by committee, i.e. not good.
A few weeks ago I'm on here saying that it's okay that the Red Sox traded Hanely Ramirez because if he were as good as everyone was predicting they never would have signed Edgar Renterria for 40 million. Now this week they have traded Renterria for Andy Marte, a minor league third baseman from Atlanta and the Sox are paying 11 million of Renterria's remaining salary.

Um...guys...now that you've traded your best infield prospect and your shortstop I just have one question... Who the hell is going to PLAY shortstop? If Alex Cora just popped into your head you need to seek professional help.

Don't get me wrong, Reterria was awful last year and the majority of me is happy that he's gone but a tiny part of me looks at his career stats and thinks that maybe paying another team 11 million dollars to take him off of our hands after just one season is a tad premature, especially with no back-up plan. I think it's safe to say that the Sox soured on Edgar in a hurry.

The thinking by...whoever did this must be along one of two lines. 1: He is no longer the player he was in the NL and that what we saw last year is what he has become. Or 2: He would never have become comfortable in Boston and thus would never have been able to produce under the pressure.

It's a great move IF you can get someone better to replace him. Don't even mention the names Alex Gonzalez (he could not bat his way out of a room full of baseballs) or Julio Lugo (24 errors to Edgar's 30 with less pop, not an upgrade) to me, in my mind those are not options. This is Boston, guys like that get eaten for breakfast in this town. Talk to me about trading for Miguel Tejada (he wants out of Baltimore...Manny for Tejada?) or tell me about bringing back Pokey Reese (at least we know he can play here).

Important Sidenote: We all know that another ex-Red Sox shortstop is available, but that is NOT going to happen. I repeat NOT going to happen, forget it. Remember when he refused to play in the Bronx while Jeter was leaping face first into thorn bushes and burning buildings to catch foul balls?

I'm not crazy about the idea of moving 22 year old Dustin Pedroia into the limelight either especially since he has been groomed as a second baseman and has not really played shortstop since college. The upside of that idea is that you already have him for free.

The fact is we can speculate all day but in reality we have no concrete idea who will be playing the most important infield position next year.

The other question is what exactly did they buy for that 11 million? By all reports Marte (right) was the maquee prospect in the Braves organization and should be one of the future starts of the league. Everything I've read on him calls him a "throwback" third baseman. I have no idea what that means but he seems to have good power numbers, a strong arm, and huge potential. If he develops into the star the experts say he will be the Red Sox will have come out of this deal on top by a long shot. The question is will he be ready to play next year and if so what do you do with the excess baggage of Mike Lowell? Move him to first? Take him out back and shoot him?

Imagine this opening day infield, Marte at third, Pedroia at short, Cora at second, and Lowell at first. I'll be losing some sleep over that image for a while.

While it's clear that this was a financial move what did it open up space for? They offered Damon arbitration so hopefully they were allowing space for his contract, and they did just take on Lowell's 7 million per year but it doesn't feel like they are done to me. It looks like the pieces are being laid out for a blockbuster at some point in the near future like these are the warning shots before the actual attack.

Am I offically allowed to be worried yet? I'm a great fan of procrastination but it's December and we don't have a shortstop or a GM. Call me crazy, but I think we should have both by the time spring training starts in February.

Now for my weekly plea: Don't trade Manny, please please God in heaven don't let them trade Manny. If the opening day lineup card reads: Damon, Cora, Nixon, Ortiz, Varitek, Marte, Pedroia, "left fielder", and Lowell I will stick a screwdriver into my neck. Please please don't trade Manny.

20-0? I think NO.

In the closing seconds of last night's 77-70 victory over Boston College the Michigan State bench was all smiles, hugs, and handshakes. They thought they had just knocked off the #6 team in the country. Tom Izzo knew different.

"This was a step. How big a step? It's too early to tell."

At Madison Square Garden, in front of a largely Spartan-friendly crowd Michigan State proved that BC lacks the size the quickness to defend both good perimeter shooting and solid interior play. After a back and forth first half the Spartans quickly siezed control in the second half with an 18-4 run and an impressive shooting display. At the 7:00 minute mark in the second half the Spartans had missed exactly one shot since halftime and finished the half shooting over 77%. The Eagles responded to pull within 2 at 69-67 but were buried in the end by clutch free throw shooting by the Spartans. Down the stretch they made them all and for the game made 15 of 18 never opening the window for BC to pull within one possession.

Jared Dudley played well for BC scoring 23 points, most of which came in crunch time. His first team All American (scoff) teammate Craig Smith on the other hand was invisible throughout the second half. He scored 17 of his 18 points in the first 27 minutes of the game and was unable to beat Paul Davis one on one with 3 minutes to play and the Eagles trailing by 5. Davis, a good player, is not going to make anyone's NCAA all-defensive team. A first team All American should dominate him without help from the middle, Smith could not.

Over the first 7 games Smith seems unable to handle the defensive attention that opponents are paying him without the assistance of Shawn Williams in the middle. John Oates is hardly providing a second interior presence and until Williams returns the lack of a "true" big man will continue to put added defensive attention on Smith. This should not be a suprise, Smith while a shifty player with massive strength is only 6'8" and will not command the interior and be able to manage double teams from players with several inches on him. He scored his last basket last night at the 12:53 mark in the second half. A first team All American does not wilt on national television against a highly ranked opponent with Paul Davis on him when his team is trailing. If this team is to deserve a ranking anywhere in the neighborhood of #6 Smith is going to have to play better when the game is on the line.

No reasonable basketball observer can be surprised that BC lost this game. Michigan State had 2 losses coming in to the contest but one was against a top 10 team in Gonzaga and they already had a win against another top 10 team in Arizona. They were certainly more tested whereas BC had "earned" their top ranking by not losing to inferior competition while teams ranked ahead of them did so. Not to mention the Eagles, in both football and basketball, always lose this game. "This" game being a big early season game on a national stage which they have a chance to win but don't ultimately proving that they are still one step from elite (see Florida State).

You cannot take anything away from Michigan State's second half performance. They took the bull by the horns and shot the lights out scoring 51 points after only managing 26 in the first half. If you look at the box score the Spartans clearly outplayed the Eagles on the offensive end shooting 53.8% to BC's 46.9%. From beyond the arch Michigan State connected on 46.2% while the Eagles managed to only hit on 30%. And in perhaps the most important statistical category the Spartans hit 83.3% of their free throws while BC made just 66.7% (18-27).

On the positive Al Skinner's team proved that they can, at the very least hang in there with a top caliber team, even one that shoots 77% for the second half. Also the Eagles showed great resiliance in making a run to come back from a 54-41 defecit with 9 minutes to play and a 65-53 defecit with 5 minutes remaining. Had Michigan State missed some free throws or if another three pointer had dropped for BC (like Dudley's at 3:02 with the score 67-61) they would have been in a position to win this game, which is more than I expected. Frankly, I thought that they were going to get blown out of the building in this one, at least we can take something out of that not being the case.

I think what we learned from this game is that Michigan State was a bit underrated at #14 due to their murderous schedule over their first few games and that BC was a bit overrated at #6 due to their easy schedule and the teams ahead of them falling off. In the end we won't know much about this BC team until we get into the arduous ACC season which begins on Sunday in College Park, Maryland against Gary Williams and the Terrapins.

One quick sidenote: This game was played for the V. Foundation for cancer research, named after the late Jim Valvano. Every year one of Valvano's closest friends ESPN color man Dick Vitale gives a speech at halftime of the second game about the foundation and his deceased friend.

This year as Vitale started his comments a smattering of boos was heard throughout Madison Square Garden. That is absolutely deplorable. We all know that Dickie V. is a Duke homer and sometimes irritatingly over enthusiastic but that does not change the fact that he is a man who lost a friend and wants to do something to help erradicate a terrible disease. Largely due to his influence the V Foundation stays in the forefront of people's minds long after Valvano's death and as a result they have raised over 50 million dollars for cancer research.

Boo him all you want at ACC road games when he is brown nosing Coach K and J.J. Reddick, but when he is post-humously giving homage to a great and inspirational figure like Jimmy V. allow the man his piece. It's so obviously cathartic for him to get on stage and make a statement about his friend and this cause that to attempt to besmirch it is childish and embarassing. We are all better than that.

I'm Going to Boise! WoooHooo!

Let's talk Boise, Idaho. For a mere $900 you can be a part of the undoubtedly huge contingent of BC faithful that will make the pilgrimage to the "City of Trees" (I kid you not) to watch the Eagles tangle with the local Boise St. Broncos on their home blue field (where they are 31-0) in the MPC Computers Bowl.

For your $900 the BC travel package certainly makes it worth your while. You get 2 nights in a hotel, a ticket to the game in the BC section, and a pre-game tailgate! Now why would you want to spend your money anywhere else, like on an week long all inclusive trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico ($750 per person) or on a 20" Aquos LCD TV ($799), or maybe 10 tickets to a Patriots home game ($89 each) when you can spend 3 days and 2 nights in style in beautiful Boise in December?

For those of you who consider flying to Idaho for the weak and uninclined you best start packing the car. After departing from Boston you will pull into Idaho after 39+ riveting hours on the road, each of which is more exciting than the last! Among the highlights, a 1175.6 mile jaunt on route 80 spanning the entirety of Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming. But fear not from there it's only another 350 miles until you hit paydirt.

Now aside from the obvious attractions in Boise, including the Prairie Dog Playhouse and their lovely staff (see right) PDPLAYHOUSE, the main reason you would journey to Idaho would be to see the game itself. Of course this is THE bowl that the BC team and its fans circled at the beginning of the season. Tom O'Brien was actually quoted as saying, "The Gator Bowl would be nice but to be honest I'd rather play essentially another road game against an unranked Boise St. team on their bright blue home field where they have never lost a game on December 28th in Boise." BC MVP Matthias Kiwanuka said, upon hearing of BC's invitation to play in Boise, "Coming from Africa you hear about New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago but the name that really captures the hearts of the children is Boise, this is a dream come true."

Lee Corso ACTUALLY (hold the sarcasm for a second) picked this game as the best non-BCS bowl game of the season, and College Football News picked it as the 4th best bowl of the year. So theoretically the game itself should be interesting, and at the very least you know you are going to be one of the coolest people to ever set foot in Boise, Idaho.

In all seriousness we have Florida State and Virginia Tech to thank for our pending trip to Boise. Had the ACC Championship game gone as planned, i.e. a blowout by Virginia Tech then the BCS bid would have gone to the Hokies and the Eagles would have won the second bowl selection with their 3 losses compared to Florida State's 4 (in conference) which would have sent them the Gator Bowl against Louisville. The Seminoles would then be in the MPC Computers Bowl and their fans would be over-running Boise on the 28th, drinking on the street outside of their liquor stores and generally being rowdy and southern all over town. Those lunatics would travel to Boise, now on the 28th the crickets in the "City of Trees" will be heard coast to coast.

The one thing that should be driving us crazy (for 39 hours from Boston to Boise) is that if BC had beaten North Carolina (i.e. if Tom O'Brien could coach his way out of a paper bag) we'd all be planning New Years in Florida, for a lot less than $900.

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In other BC news the 6th ranked mens basketball team faces their first real test (since beating powerhouse Drake by 3...) in the Jimmy V. Classic against #14 Michigan State tonight at Madison Square Garden.

The Eagles are 6-0 but have struggled against some inferior competition to this point, while the Spartans have already dropped 2 games in the early part of their schedule. In a shocking beginning to their season Michigan State lost by 22 to Hawaii in what was supposed to be a warm-up for the Maui Invitational. Since then they have a quality win over #8 Arizona and were involved in the game of the year so far, a triple overtime thriller against #9 Gonzaga. The Eagles, while still undefeated lack a quality win and have had a real scare against Drake (3 points, Drake is I-AA) and were given a game by Sacred Heart (11 point margin). Both games were at home.

This one should be interesting as both teams are looking to prove something. BC is trying to make a statement that they deserve their #6 ranking and Michigan State wants to show the world that their early season struggles were just an aberration. It should be a good one. The game is on ESPN at 9:00.

Week 13

"So this is what it's like to get close to a QB..."

In the NFL there is nothing like a visit from the Jets, who actually have more players (10) on injured reserve than the Patriots (9) to make your defense look effective. The Patriots were hardly impressive on Sunday, beating quite possibly the worst team in the NFL on this side of Texas by a slim margin of 16-3. But it's still a W and one step closer to the illustrious AFC East title.

Last week I wrote that I had watched the entirety of the Saints v. Jets game on Sunday night and had subsequently written to the NFL demanding 3 hours of my life back. After watching yesterday's game if I was not a Patriots fan I would be doubling that demand to 6 hours. This game was dull to say the least.

The conditions were bad, the Pats offense moved but hardly scored, the Jets offense (behind one of the worst quarterbacks I've ever seen professionally) could not even score a touchdown on the second worst defense in the NFL, and the announcers slowly devoured your ears with their innane commentary throughout. All in all, not a banner display for the NFL.

On the positive the defense did play better, albeit against utterly inferior competition, allowing only 164 yards of total offense (after allowing over 394 for the last four games) and holding the Jets to just 3 points. They mounted a consistent pass rush and the holes in the secondary seemed smaller, although much of that can likely be pinned on the ineffectiveness of Brooks Bollinger. The offense actually amassed good yardage numbers on the day with 397 yards of total offense despite thier inability to get the ball into the endzone. Also, the running game returned to form a bit with a committee of rushers combining for 146 yards. Were this game against anyone but the Jets it would have been an impressive performance. Regardless it is crucial to take care of business at this time of the season and that's precisely what the Patriots did, although not in terribly exciting fashion.

With an utter absence of highlights from this contest the only moments I can relate are instances of pure shock or amusement. In the first quarter the Jets tried a long pass down the left sideline intended for Keenan McCardell, Ellis Hobbs was on the "coverage". So there they are streaking down the sideline the ball is in the air McCardell is looking over his shoulder for it, eyeing it, making it painfully obvious that the ball has been thrown his way and Ellis Hobbs is just jogging along like he's out for a Sunday workout along the Charles not glancing back towards the pass or apparently even wondering if the ball had been thrown. The pass was badly overthrown but McCardell watched it the whole way, even as it skipped along the ground. Hobbs never saw it and probably to this moment is unaware that the ball was even thrown in his direction. Further proof of my theory that I'd rather be lucky than good.

The second moment came from CBS's color man Randy Cross. I don't know much about Randy Cross but he's going on the list of TV analysts who I cannot believe continue to find employment with major networks. This gem came from the second quarter. The Jets kicked the ball away to the Patriots who then committed two holding penalties on the return, one by Troy Brown. The Jets accepted the Troy Brown penalty because holding is penalized from the spot of the foul and Brown's offense took place further into their on territory than the other. After the referee finished announcing the call Cross wondered aloud, "Now why did they accept the one on Troy Brown, is it because he has seniority?" This was followed by an awkward five seconds of silence at which point the lead announcer took over and changed the subject and every football fan in America said to someone sitting next to them, "It's because holding is from the spot of the foul you ass!"

The next moment of note from this game was yet another liguistic foul up this time by the head referee. For the majority game he had this expression on his face that looked like a mixture of confusion and tired amusement, as though he found the calls he was delivering vaguely puzzling and humorous, especially the triple penalty (more on this later). On this particular play the Pats got to Brooks Bollinger and forced a wild throw to the right which was immediately flagged by an offical for intentional grounding, however, there was a receiver within the vicinity of the ball so the flag was picked up. This is how the ref explained it, "There is no intentional grounding on the play. The receiver was in the area... of the vicinity... of where the ball was thrown." Hmmm....

And finally, the triple penalty. This was one of those classic moments that makes you shake your head and wonder if it wouldn't be easier to take up knitting on Sundays instead of football. The play started out well with the Patriots recovering a Bollinger fumble. Then as the play ended it seemed as though every official on the field threw a flag at someone, there was yellow flying everywhere. The referees conferred for a few moments and then with nothing short of a smirk on his face the head referee delivered the news: a fifteen yard personal foul on the Patriots, a 10 yard holding penalty on the Patriots, and a fifteen yard personal foul on the Jets. By rule the penalties offset and it basically becomes a do-over. So, by rule 2 teams can account for 40 penalty yards on one play and they wipe it clean and say, "Eh, just try it again." What are we playing touch football at recess? It's as if the NFL doesn't want anyone to remember the ugly plays like that so they wipe them off the record and turn back time hoping we'll forget.

On a less ridiculous note as a result of this three field goals yesterday Adam Vinatieri is the new all time points leader in Patriots history, passing radio announcer Gino Cappeletti. The man has brought so much glory to this organization (despite the Papa Ginos, "It's good!" ads) that he deserves the be on the record books. For me, and fans of this generation he will always be the quintessential kicker for the Pats even if he were to retire today. He's already a legend and it's fitting that he should be so statistically as well.

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More NFL:

- Oh Buffalo.... A 21 point first quarter lead, a 23 to 3 halftime lead....over the Dolphins, that's right the Dolphins. You poor poor Bills fans. Remember when you came back to beat the Oilers in the '92 playoffs after being down 35-3 at the half? This was kind of like that (okay it's nothing like that...) except for unlike the '92 Bills the Dolphins are awful. However, like your comeback led by Frank Reich this comeback was led by Sage Rosenfels... ouch. With the win the Dolphins are now just 2 games back of the Patriots for the AFC East lead. Try to tell that to someone with a straight face. This more or less puts the division in the bag for the Patriots, they have to go to Buffalo next week but now their lead is 3 over the Bills and while it is only 2 over the Dolphins the fish have to come to New England later this month and Miami is notriously awful in Foxboro in Decemeber. Plan the parade for the champions of the "New NFC North"...

- As the scores ticked by on the bottom of screen yesterday I noticed that the Colts were only beating the Titans 7-0 with 4 minutes to play in the half. I then excitedly said, "Hey look, the Titans are hanging with the Colts!" Sometimes I have the intellectual capacity of a five year old.

12-0 and the misery continues. Next person that says, "If you are a legitimate sports fan you should be rooting for the Colts to go 16-0," will be forced to move to Indianapolis and actually cheer for Peyton "D-Caf!" Manning with sincerity. Don't you remember the face he used to make when things were going wrong, blaming all his receivers, pouting, and looking like a spoiled little snot? How can you cheer for that. You know if they go undefeated it's going to be like the scene in Kingpin when Bill Murray wins the million dollar bowling game. "I'm above the law! Screw Tom Brady I am SOOOOOOOO much better than him now and everyone knowwwwwsss it! Whhheeeee!!!"

- As much as I hate them I refuse to believe that the Colts are using mics in their dome to amplify crowd noise...unless Archie Manning is the one flipping the switch. Which raises the question, would he use the crowd noise on Eli if they met in the dome?

- In the best game of the day the Bengals beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. This has to be the legitimizing win for Cincinnati. The rest of their schedule is laden with cupcakes and their road is paved to 12-4 and a first round bye. This was definitely capped by the, "How the heck did he catch that ball," play of the day. It's not describable just watch the highlight. Certainly a nice win for the Bengals but no celebration for Chad Johnson (and no fantasy points for me). I think we all needed a week off anyway, stop jinxing yourself Chad.

On the other side of the coin the Steelers may have cost themselves a playoff berth with yesterday's loss. There are only two spots up for grabs between the Chiefs, Chargers, Jaguars, and Steelers and right now Pittsburgh is sitting in the 8 spot, 2 spots out. Can you believe that the Patriots could possibly go 8-8 and play a home playoff game while 2 teams could go 11-5 and miss the dance? Is that parody or robbery?

One comedic moment about this game from NFL Primetime last night. Sean Salisbury said that he thought the defense was going to be the strength of the Bengals heading into the playoffs. Ah Sean, they just gave up 31 points to the Steelers with Roethlisberger throwing the ball without a thumb. I hesitate to call that defensive strength.

- Carolina stomped on the Falcons yesterday, screwing up my defensive fantasy points, and ending their losing streak to Michael Vick. I actually didn't see a single second of this game (the only NFC team I've seen play this year is the Giants, every week we get the "closest market" game and unfortunately since NY is so close I have to watch Eli 16 times a year) but the highlights made it look like an utter demolishing. It might be time to slide Carolina into that "favorite in waiting" spot so they can be the team to beat when Seattle loses their first playoff game.

- Ladanian Tomilinson was held without a touchdown yesterday for the first time since the dawn of man. What do you think the chances were that he circled the Raiders game on the schedule as the game in which he would lose his NFL record streak? Probably about as likely as the Colts circling the Cardinals game in week 17 as a "trap game."

- Ryan Fitzpatrick, all I'm going to say buddy is that I told you so. Always listen to the B-Slant, when he tells you to hang up, hang it up. I heard that he got this letter from Harvard this morning.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, we are writing to request that you stop embarassing this institution on national television. As you know Harvard has a certain reputation for success amongst its graduates and your failure to be competitive in your chosen field has cast a black mark against our unparalled record (don't mention the Una-bomber, he was in Montana so it doesn't count). Should you decide to continue to ruin the fantasy stats of Issac Bruce...I mean besmirch the heralded name of this fine university we will be forced to revoke your degree. Good day to you.

- The Vikings won their 5th straight game on the resurgent shoulders of Brad Johnson and are now 7-5 and tied for second in the Wild Card race. This is incredible, sure they haven't beaten the cream of the crop (Lions twice, Green Bay, Cleveland, and Eli) but from where they were it's damn close to a miracle. What if they make the playoffs, would you want your team to play them?

- Memo to Dallas Cowboys fans:

Welcome to Hell. Remember when the Cowboys signed Bledsoe and you looked up his stats, impressive weren't they. Remember when New Yorkers and New Englanders used to wail about those cripling interceptions? Now you know why.

Signed: Pats and Bills fans everywhere.

I would take credit for predicting this, but who didn't predict this?

- The Chiefs beat the Broncos at home proving once again that they can beat anyone at Arrowhead. Trouble is they won't get to play a game there in January. How upset will KC fans be that their Chiefs, after what they did to the Patriots last week, will have to come to New England for their Wild Card game? Doesn't seem fair does it? Guess what, I don't care.

- Last year Seahawks at Eagles would have been a great Monday Night game. Now it's a trap game for Seattle. You can't like Phili's chances against Shaun Alexander and a Seahawks team that only has to stay the course in the winnable NFC to get home field throughout. But then again, we are talking about Mike Holmgren...

- Next week's MVP: David Garrard...like I said, the intellectual capacity of a 5 year old.

One non-football note: the finish of the Duke game last night was incredible. Watching that crowd go crazy reaffirms my thought that Cameron is probably the best place to see a game college sports, maybe all of sports. Hate them if you want but that atmosphere cannot be topped.

Not seen: The 11 KC players tapping the ball around to each other and then CATCHING it

Week 12

I held off on writing this week's football post until today (Tuesday) for the obvious reason of wanting to be able to include the Monday night game in my comments. I was hoping to be able to relate the fall of the Manning machine and the celebration around the country at the homes of the '72 Dolphins. More on this later.

First the Patriots.

A team can only come out playing flat uninspired football so many times before you have to start looking inwards at the coach. We are not at that point yet, probably only because Bill Belichick gets a pass from this community for just about everything, (and even more so on the week of his father's death) but the time is coming when the spotlight will shine on his failures this season as much as the failures of his formerly vaunted defesne.

I am not going to be the man standing on the mountain proclaiming the deficiencies of the Patriots coaching staff when they continue to lead the division, but the fact remains that the team was simply not ready to play in Kansas City on Sunday. You cannot coach talent, this is something we are all aware of after watching this season. You can however, have your team flying out of the gate looking as though they believe they can win, even if they cannot. The Patriots for whatever reason failed to even give the appearance of competition on Sunday and that is a frightening trend.

While I refuse to believe that Bill Belichick was underprepared for this contest it is possible that the people with whom he has surrounded himself, especially his coordinators, were not ready to put their players in a position to win. While the defense has looked lost all year this week they looked simply dead. Chiefs receivers were coming wide open across the middle of the field and while the pass rush was acceptable the same defensive line was completely unable to stop the run for the first 3 quarters of the game.

The highlight moment of this defense's recent struggles came with 4 minutes to play in the 4th quarter with the Patriots trailing by 10. The Chiefs had the ball on about their own 35 yard line and were facing a 3rd and 16 after two excellent stands by the Patriots defense. With a stop on this play the Tom Brady and the offense would have gotten the ball back with approximately 4 minutes to play needing 2 scores to tie. Instead the Chiefs easily picked up the first down with a completed pass over the middle to a WIDE open Eddie Kennison. It was a signature moment for an utterly ineffective defense. Conventional wisdom says that the Chiefs should not have even risked throwing the ball in that situation, but why would they not? The Patriots are so weak in the secondary that a pass in a late game situation is probably just as safe as a run and is almost surely more effective. In years past there is no chance that the Chiefs pick up that first down on 3rd and 16 and while in all likelihood the Patriots were not going to be able to come back to win anyway they did not even give themselves an opportunity. I think that's one of the main differences this year, this defense used to give the team a chance to win every week, now if they have a chance to win it is despite the defense.

Watching the game on Sunday you can tell that losing is starting to wear on the players who are not accustomed to struggling so mightily. Many of the regular starters (the half dozen or so who are left) have never suffered through a season like this in New England and you can see that some of the swagger and confidence has been taken out of the team as a result. There is very little of the traditional New England passion on this team right now, especially on the defense. In the recent past they would set the tone for the game with a big hit early or give the offense a chance to win with a crucial stand late. Now they are getting run over on the first possession of nearly every game and they are rolling over in the end.

The New England defesne was never statistically the best in terms of passing yardage allowed or rushing yardage allowed (regularly in the high teens) but they were always in the top 10 in points allowed. The bend but not break defense relies pretty heavily on the "don't break" part of that theory, this year they are snapping in half. The ability to lock down when it counts is gone and to win they now need 28 per game from the offense.

There is no debating that this game was an absolute disaster but has anything really changed? The Bills also lost on Sunday so the Pats' lead in the division is still 2 games with the lowly Jets coming to town this week. In reality they should finish 10-6 and could easily finish 11-5. Their remaining schedule has exactly 1 tough game on it and that is Tampa Bay at home. In franchise history the Bucs have won 1 game in temperatures under 40 degrees. At this time of year there are not too many games played in New England where the thermometer climbs over 40. Aside from that they have the 2-9 Jets twice, the Bills (in Buffalo which could be tough), and the Dolphins at home (another bad cold weather team).

I'm not asking anyone to climb on a bandwagon here, I'm just saying that although this game reeked of the Devener / San Diego debacles (fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...three times...) the position of this team is still the same. The 4 seed is in the bag and someone will have to come to Foxboro in January. We won't talk about the game after that...

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- Speaking of bandwagons... Colts 26 Steelers 7. Okay, so last week I said that admitting that the Colts might go undefeated was going to be the last nice thing I was going to say about them all year. Were I to break that promise I would have to point out that Indianapolis absolutely dominated the Steelers last night and looked unbeatable. If I were to continue to break my word I would then point out that the NFL Gods continue to shine upon them. Byron Leftwich's injury makes the Jaguars a non-issue for the Colts and after watching the lesser Manning beat the Seahawks on 3 different occasions (HA! I love to see him fail even if it isn't his fault LOVE IT) in Seattle I can't imagine that big brother is going to have any trouble doing so.

Sticking with the Monday night game, how if you are the Steelers can you spot the Colts 7 points on the first play of the game by not covering Marvin Harrison? You didn't think that the Colts were going to try to make a statement at the beginning and take the momentum? You didn't think that Manning could throw it that far or that he would look to Harrison first? What the hell happened? From that moment onward it was not a game. They took the Steelers hearts on that play and never gave them back.

I hope like hell that they lose a game (because if they don't they will unfairly be labeled as THE team of this era of the NFL which they are not - see the quote below) but I can't see how they will at this point. Of course 95% of my predictions turn out wrong so there is some hope.

"At this point, how can you NOT be rooting for the Colts to go 16-0?It would be the greatest single season achievement by any NFL team ever, and arguably by any team in sports." - ESPN's Dan Shanoff.

- Giants fans welcome to Red Sox nation. Just wanted to give you a little advice on what to do in situations like these. Back in our tortured days we would usually insert an expletive between the first and last name of the player who caused us the overwhelming misery we are are currently feeling. For example, Bucky "Bleeping" Dent, Aaron "Bleeping" Boone, Larry "Bleeping" Lucchino. You see? It's easy! Now you try, Jay "Bleeping" Feely... If this doesn't work for you there is always the Pittsburgh option, throw trash in his yard and torture his kids at school.

Sidenote: My best fantasy move of the year bar none was picking up Jeff Wilkins and playing him instead of Feely this week...more on my bad fantasy moves later.

- Note to Jeremy Shockey: Make sure the ball goes THROUGH the uprights before you start dancing, through...before... got it?

- This year's award for "Throwing an Innocent Guy Under the Bus 2 Months Early" goes to the Detroit Lions. I find it hard to blame Steve Mariucchi for this team's failures. You could give the Lions Chuck Knoll, Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells, and Tom Landry and that team wins exactly the same amount of games. The real reason? They suck like a Hoover. Dre Bly hit the nail on the head when he blamed "the quarterback" for the firing. Now if we could just figure out which quarterback he was talking about...

- An appeal to Ryan Fitzpatrick: Please, please, if you are half as smart as you must be to have graduated from Harvard, please retire today. You played one amazing, perfect game but this is the NFL, phonies are exposed quicker than Tara Reid's nipple and believe me my friend you will be exposed as an Ivy League quarterback. Ask Kurt Warner how quickly things can turn against you in St. Louis.

- I watched the entire Saints v. Jets game on Sunday night. I have called the NFL and demanded 3 hours of my life back. They have yet to respond. Watching two downtrodden teams try to give the game away to each other is soul crushing, I wept watching the post game handshakes. What were they saying to each other? Were Aaron Brooks and Brooks Bollinger discussing the irony of their names or is everyone involved too embarassed to even make eye contact after a game like that? "Hey nice game, good luck...you know...with umm well with ah..."

- The Vikings' record: 6-5, the Patriots record: 6-5. And lo' there was misery throughout the land. Brad Johnson 4-0? Further proof that Brad Johnson has more than one soul since he must have already sold one to win a Super Bowl in Tampa.

- On Sunday morning my fantasy football starting lineup contained Joe Jurevicious, by 4:00 PM Sunday afternoon it did not. I lost by 10. I made sure I got Brady into the lineup though...

- When Tim Dwight is not resigned by the Pats he will ebark on a wildly unsucccesful career as a juggler.

- The Rolling Stones will play the halftime show at the Super Bowl. The only thing better than the Stones playing the halftime show is NO HALFTIME SHOW AT ALL! At least we're pretty sure we won't see any nipple (oh God did I really just make that joke?) unless one of them goes into cardiac arrest on stage and has to be defibrulated.

- The NFL notified the Seahawks that two of the Giants' touchdowns in their overtime win on Sunday should not have counted. Do you think the response to that call would have been slightly different had Jay Feely made 1 of his 3 kicks to win the game?

"Hi Mr. Holmgren, this is Joe Whipping Boy from the NFL officals office, we just wanted to let you know that you were right about Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer's touchdowns, they shouldn't have counted... So ah, I guess you should have been up by 2 touchdowns and had 2 more timeouts... and you ah probably would have won pretty easily...just FYI."

"Growl..."

"So to make it up to you guys we're going to give you the 9 home games and next year like we gave the Giants and you get to play the 49ers 3 times... Please don't kill me..."

- What is going on with the Mets? Is Steinbrenner running their organization through the pseudonym Omar Minaya? Wagner, Delgado, and maybe Manny Ramirez? Wow, now they're really going to be the best team to ever finish 8 games out of the Wild Card.

Sidenote: Since when do closers get 10 million per year for 4 years? Isn't this kind of like putting it all on black? So risky, not as risky as trotting Keith Foulke out of the bullpen, but risky nonetheless.

- It's all over for Pete Rose, he was left off the ballot in his final year of eligibility. Get used to that idea Raphy.

- Now for my traditional early week appeal to the Red Sox: DON'T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRADE MANNY RAMIREZ!

Here's to hoping!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Turkey Day, and "Innocent Shopper Trampling" Weekend B-Slant land!

Did you see the footage of the obese black woman being over run by crazed shoppers trying to get into a WalMart at 6:00 AM? Luckily the store had emergency personnel on site for just this reason. Are they serious? They knew this was coming? It's freaking WalMart! What are you trampling old women to get to? Cheap electronics, overpriced DVDs, or bargain boxes of CheezIts?

Anyway, I hope you're all fat and still a little groggy from devouring pounds of leftovers over the past few days. Take it easy on the shopping, everything will be there at 6:45 AM I promise.

The top story of the past week in my mind has been the Josh Beckett trade to the Red Sox. Unlike many Red Sox fans I am not willing to throw my support behind this deal yet. Sure we got a potentially great young arm who has proven World Series experience, against the Yankees no less. However, being just one year removed from the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes, which were driven primarily by his post season performance from the previous season (look how that turned out for the Mets) I have my doubts about Beckett being the savior we are waiting for based on one Game 6 in Yankee Stadium.

Don't get me wrong that was a performance for the ages and I will love him forever for crushing the hearts of the evil empire in their house but one great complete game under the brightest lights does not a superstar make. His numbers are solid, last season he was 15-8 with a 3.38 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. Certainly those stats are better than anything the Red Sox put out this season, but remember he was pitching in the NL East, i.e. against the Braves, Phillies, and company. Take an all star team from the NL East and the lineup does not compare to the lineups he will face in the AL East with the Yankees, Orioles, and to some degree the Blue Jays.
Also, he's never consistently faced the DH. It's been documented that pitchers always improve statisitically when they move to the NL (ex. Colorado) just look at Pedro Martinez. The opposite has to be assumed when moving to the heaviest hitting division in baseball.

Beckett has also never pitched 200 inning in his career and has been on the DL 9 times in 4 years. That does not bode well for a move to a more grueling environment away from pitcher friendly Pro Player Stadium.

The other downside of this deal is Mike Lowell. When Peter Gammons points you out as a player that will likely be affected negatively as a result of the new steroid policy and then you go out and hit .236 the next season that tells me something. His on base percentage was .298, which is absolutely atrocious. For his career he is a .272 hitter with an OBP of .332. Of course you cannot discount his defense, he is a gold glove caliber 3rd baseman but the fact is you already have a light (or non) hitting first baseman, and an offensively underachieving shortstop, no second baseman, and you may be trading the best right handed hitter in the AL. The lineup can't afford this much of a decline at another positiion regardless of how effective Lowell is defensively. Not to mention, what have you been holding onto Kevin Youkilis for if you are never going to play him? If the Red Sox intended to keep stringing him along and never spot him into the lineup they should have traded him when his value was at its highest. Of course I understand that taking Lowell was the only way that the Marlins were going to part with Beckett but if that is the case it calls the whole deal into question.

The final factor is Hanley Ramirez. We've all been hearing about this kid for 3 years now. I have no idea what to think about him, I've barely seen him play. I actually don't have a problem with this part of the deal because if the Red Sox were as high on Ramirez as we all thought that they were they would not have given Edgar Renterria 40 million dollars to play the same position. He could just as easily have turned into Casey Fossum as he could have turned into A-Rod, in baseball potential amounts to less than in any other sport and it is totally unpredictable. It's like stocks, buy low sell high and hope it pays off, in this case the Sox were selling high.

I guess when all is said and done this is a wait and see deal, but if the Red Sox slate Lowell as their starting 3rd baseman, allow Bill Mueller to leave, trade Manny, play (Insert Someone Here) at first base and Beckett has a predictable NL to AL downturn this trade could go down as a desperate attempt to rebuild fan confidence following the Theo Epstein debacle. Of course if Lowell experiences a resugence and Beckett wins 18 games I'll be as happy as a pig in mud.

Hey, if it doesn't work out, who can I blame? Who made this trade?

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- Predictable Thanksgiving game in Detroit. When is the NFL going to realize that it's not the turkey that puts people to sleep BEFORE dinner, it's the Lions. They should put the Lions on Thanksgiving Day probation until they can win more than 5 games in a season.

- A brilliant idea was put out by Mr. B-Slant during Sheryl Crow's halftime performance, "I think they should have a 15 minute football game in the middle of the Grammys." That would be amazing, bring out Brian Urlacher to crush Jake Delhomme right into the stage in front of all those people in tuxes. Fact is though, the Grammy audience would still care more about the football game than a football audience cares about Sheryl Crow. Why do they insist on doing this during every nationally televised game? Do you ever hear anyone say anything good about the halftime performances?

- T.O. gets a stipend? What the heck does that mean? At least he won't be on the field and the Eagels' struggles will continue to make the Pats look strong in their defense of the AFC.

- I wish I could tell you that Ben Roethlisberger in the lineup this weekend was going to make a difference for Pittsburgh. I really wish I could tell you that. With him the Steelers won't get blown out, but I'm having trouble finding a way in which they can beat the Colts. Maybe if they can run the ball for 450 yards and just dominate the clock completely they will be able to limit the amount of touches for the Colts, i.e. limiting them to that many touchdowns (less maybe one).

- Corey Dillon is out for this week's game in Kansas City. Of course he is. Should this be a surprise anymore? This might not be a must have game for the Pats, but KC is always a tough place to play and with a limited rushing attack and no defense they could be in real trouble. Is there any way they will be able to stop Larry Johnson? I doubt it, and Trent Green is much better than the triumvrate of names that have torched them recently (Holcomb, Frerotte, and Brooks). I see this game in the 40's on both sides. Put it all on Brady again.

- Did anyone see the Celtics new alternate road uniforms last night? Darker green with black numbers and trim, very modern NBA, very anti-"We have 16 World Championship Banners Hanging in our Gym." I have mixed feelings on this, the Red Auerbach part of me hates it. I never want to see Boston sports gear on a rapper. The other part of me realizes that this franchise needs to disassociate itself with it's past in order to get out its own shadow and bring in new younger fans that don't remember and base their idea of success on the era of Parish, Bird, and McHale.

Enjoy the leftovers and the truly leftover college football on today. Maryland v. NC State, division I AA playoffs, who cares? Bring on Florida v. Florida State.

Look at Pete Carroll in the background...what a clown...

Patriots Monday

I only have enough time for quickie today so I'm going to bang out as much as possible in the 35 minutes I've got.

The Patriots won yesterday but hardly so in my mind. How do you allow the 3rd worst team in the league to be within one play of sending the game to overtime? I know it's overstated at this point but that defense is just atrocious. Aaron Brooks passed for over 300 yards, throwing his hat in the race for the, "Worst Quarterback to Look Solid Against the Patriots" award for 2005, (although I think Gus Frerotte has it locked).

The offense did enough to win, but after starting the game with 2 touchdowns on their first 2 possessions they should have mustered more than 24 points. This game should have been 42-7 or at least more convincing than it was. A lot of their momentum was lost on a Brady fumble on their 3rd possession but a good offense recovers from that. The blame this time falls not only to the defense but also to the offense. This should have been put away early, not on an interception on the last play of the game.

All the credit in the world has to be given to Bill Belichick for coaching his team to a victory just a few hours after the death of his father. This is just further proof of how utterly superior a coach he really is and that his dedication to the team and to the game are unparalled. Jim Haslett couldn't beat him under these circumstances and he probably never will. Belichick is so tough that he didn't even tell the team what had happened until after the game, and he's so stoic that they didn't realize that something was wrong until he brought it up. The man is simply a machine. Obviously the B-Slant's condolences are sent to the Belichick family.

Anyway, back to the game, I fear what will happen when this team plays a decent quarterback. Actually we saw what happened, Manning tore them apart and literally was not stopped even one time. I think that was not an aberrition, this defense could potentially not stop a team once in a game...like say...Kansas City. Luckily the division is pretty much in the bag, if it were up for grabs the playoffs could be a stretch. I think we'll learn where this team is headed next week in Kansas City, always one of the toughest places to play.

Other Football Stuff:

- Reggie Bush is your Heisman Trophy winner. Don't even mention the name Vince Young in my presence again. 513 yards is more than most players, even great players account for in 3 games. It's absolutely the most impressive college football performance of the year and his dominance when his team needs it the most (i.e. Notre Dame) makes him easily the best player in the country. Not giving it to him would be blatent east coast bias. You can't punish a kid because his team plays late at night, he doesn't make the schedule. Stay up later sports writers and watch him play, it's worth it, plus you're writers what the heck do you have to get up early for anyway?

- Donovan McNabb is done for the year. As the B-Slant predicted last week, following their loss to the Giants on Sunday the Eagle's quarterback decided to have season ending surgery on his sports hernia. This is a good move, the season is over anyway, now he'll have a full 8 months to recover and find a new favorite target.

- For Mike McMahon's sake it's a good thing that T.O. is done for the year. Can you imagine him playing with a third string quarterback? He couldn't handle the inconsistent play of Jeff Garcia. Mike McMahon is no Jeff Garcia. Owens may actually have killed him by week 17.

- The exodus off the "Colts defense is the strength of the team" bandwagon has been swift this morning. Even the ESPN guys, who love the Colts more than you love your children, are pointing out the fact that if you give up 37 points on almost any other Sunday you lose. I wouldn't say they were exposed here but it's obvious that they aren't going to beat you like the '85 Bears. You might just have to score everytime you touch the ball.

- The Colts are still 10-0. The offense is ridiculous. They might go undefeated. That's the last time this year I'm saying something nice about them. I hate them. HATE them.

- Ben Roethlisberger needs to get back on the field now. This Steelers team is remarkably ordinary without him. Or maybe Tommy Maddox is so bad that they are remarkably worse with him. Or maybe it's a combination of the two. Either way losing to the Ravens is bad, real bad. Throw the Steelers into the discussion of pre-season Super Bowl contenders that might not make the playoffs and I'm not kidding. If you think they're beating the Colts like this you're out of your mind. That notwithstanding, I'm still rooting for them in that game.

- Aaron Brooks became the all time leader in touchdown passes in New Orleans franchis history with is 116th. Who cares? He topped Archie Manning who was so by far the worst quarterback in that family that it's like comparing Bill and Cal Ripken. Just because his last name is Manning does not mean that he was any good. It's cool to set records but do you really want to be the best quarterback in the history of the worst franchise?

- Tonight's Monday night matchup is exactly the reason that in the future the network has the right to change the schedule at any time. Pre-season this looked like a great game. Culpepper against Farve in a crucial divisional contest at Lambeau. Now it's a matchup of the Packers starting Sam Gado at running back instead of Ahman Green against the Vikings and their signal caller Brad Johnson. Yikes, you're telling me the Cincy v. Indy game wouldn't have been switched? Still, if the Vikings win this one they're at 5-5 and not totally out of the picture in the NFC North. That being said, I can't see the Bears collapsing that bad. Either one will lose in the first round of the playoffs anyway.

- Did I mention that Reggie Bush should win the Heisman? 513 #$%!ing yards! Thats like a quarter mile of offense!

Okay time's up. This will be a light week for posting since I'll be spending a good amount of it on the Cape with the family and without internet access. Yeah I'm sure that breaks your hearts...both of you.

Rivalries

* One note before I get started on the college football. Last night's Celtics v. Raptors game involved something you will almost never see in an NBA game, 2 red heads occasionally covering each other. Brian Scalabrine for the C's and Matt Bonner for the Raptors. Okay so we're not talking about all stars but they combined for 7 points and no rebounds...never draft a red head in the NBA, never.

Sorry, I have to take advantage of any opportunity to trumpet the achievements of carrot tops whenever they appear.

Anyway, today is one of those days that were made for picture-in-picture. I don't think they even make those kind of televisions anymore but for this afternoon it would be worth the investment.

For example right now I'm fulfilling my alumna obligations by watching the BC v. Maryland game (14-10 BC with 9:00 to play in the 3rd) but I'd really like to keep an eye on the biggest spectacle in college football Ohio State at Michigan. For my money this is the second best rivalry in college sports (Duke / UNC in hoops) and since I've seen a Duke game live at the Dean Dome the UM / OSU game is tops on my list of college events to attend in my lifetime. It's just beyond my comprehension that a college team can fill a stadium with over 100,000 people on a Saturday afternoon, regardless of how good Michigan is at the time. BC can barely fill their 45,000 seat stadium.

As with every UM v. OSU game you can throw out the records and the rankings at kickoff. The emotion and the hype almost always trumps the discrepencies between the two teams. Trying to pick a winner or a score in this game is basically impossible. I just go with the home team, and since my parents live in Michigan now I'm a proxy Wolverine fan.

Some of the other big games today are in state rivalry games like Auburn and Alabama, which is probably the second biggest game in college football.

Marcus Vick and Virginia Tech at Virginia. This game was preceded by a great prank by someone from VTech. Last night someone snuck onto the field and added a T to the V at midfield to change the Cavaliers logo to something closer to the Hokies'.

Clemson at South Carolina, Tennesee v. Vanderbilt, and LSU at Ole Miss round out the great southern rivalry games.

In New Haven it's the nerd bowl as Harvard and Yale play "The Game." It's been a long time since this was "The Game" to anyone outside of the Ivy League but it's still an institution of college football, evidenced by the fact that it's actually televised.

As great as all these games are there is something missing from this weekend for me. Rivalry week makes me think of one thing: Notre Dame v. BC. The Irish have never wanted to admit that BC is a legitimate rival, even though there has been a trophy involved in this game for the last 6 years and the game has been dubbed "The Holy War". To eliminate this rivalry that the Irish consider beneath them they have omitted BC from the schedule for this season. After this year they will play for the next 3 years then Notre Dame has decided to replace BC on the schedule with Rutgers. Huh?

This Notre Dame arrogance has bothered me from the beginning of my time at BC. The fact is that that over the last 7 years the Eagles lead the series against the Irish 5-2 despite the fact that Notre Dame has always been more highly regarded. Someone at Notre Dame must have considered BC a rival when they decided, foolishly to come out in the green jerseys in the 2002 matchup. There is a pilgrimage in either direction whenever the teams meet, the students flock to either location and it's an event for both sides. Everything about the schools and the teams to this point has pointed to a great developing rivalry.

Now I understand that Notre Dame is an emerging program about to simply explode over the next 10 years under the genius of Charlie Weis and that BC will always be mired in mediocrity while they are coached by the ultra-conservative dinosaur Tom O'Brien but to replace the game with a guaranteed blowout against Rutgers makes no sense.

Or maybe it makes a twisted kind of sense. They must be thinking that it is better to avoid a loss and eliminate your second biggest rival than to suffer what you consider to be an embarassing rivalry regardless of the outcome. They hate the association with BC to begin with so to actually lose in a rivalry game, and have all the stats of BC's dominance played all over SportsCenter would be more embarssing than running and hiding from the contest. The problem is that it is no longer embarassing to lose to BC and while they will never challenge for a national title as ND is almost sure to do in the near future they are a legitimate top 25 program. Maybe what they're worried about is a trap game on the schedule every year. Say the Irish are headed to a one loss season with BC coming to town on the last week of the season, there is at least a 50/50 chance that they would end the season with 2 losses, one of which being to a team that they consider beneath them.

It's a strategy of avoidance that reeks of cowardice and stains this great day of college football in my mind.

Play BC every year Notre Dame, at least until you beat them 5 out of 7, then you can consider yourselves above them.

This has to be staged...right?

I Got Nothin'

What can I say? It's a boring sports week. Thus, I got nothin', well almost nothin'.

There are 2 football games this weekend that could potentially drive me into an early grave. BC at Maryland and Saints at Patriots. If either of those teams lose there will be an epic sized freak out on here probably laden with curses and mutterings. Keep the kids away. I just have a feeling that one of these teams is going down, probably BC given the fact that the outcome of this game will drastically affect their bowl bid and that they ALWAYS lose this kind of game.

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Fighting...impulse...to...blast...T.O.

Oh what the hell?

Reports out of Phili are that T.O. is looking to settle with the Eagles before or during today's arbitration hearing, i.e. "I don't care if I play, I just want my money."

Mr. Owens we seem to have backtracked. He's not the only professional athlete to fall into the "only money matters" catergory, but he is certainly the most blatent. If they pay him to go away I don't ever want to hear him say anything about wanting to help a team win or anything even remotely game related. I want him to say, "I play for money, pay me."

The only ending that makes any sense here is the one the Eagles decided upon 2 weeks ago. The arbitrator cannot tell them to play him, and I cannot see any possible way that he can decide that Owens' myriad of misbehaviors do not qualify as, "conduct detrimental to the team." His suspension should be upheld and then he should be benched. T.O. is an employee of the Eagles and regardless of any paperwork mistakes they may have made the punishment certainly fits the crime(s) and no outside authority should decide otherwise.

Sticking with the Eagles. They're done. With this distraction I can't imagine that their preparation for the Giants will be 100%, not to mention they're now without both McNabb and T.O. In my opinion if they lose this weekend they should shut McNabb down for the year. At 4-6 they might not make the playoffs even if they win out (which they won't) and end up 10-6 since they will be on the short end of all the tie-breakers within their division.

On the positive, their failures make the Patriots' struggles look like a tiny speed bump.

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To celebrate the anniversary of the Detroit / Indianapolis brawl I'm going to hire a 6'8" black dude to let me throw a beer on him and then beat the shit out of me in front of 20,000 people.

Wait, I do that anyway. Sweet.

Can you believe they are talking about a fresh start for Artest after that? The guy would be in jail if he did that on the street. He's still a %#!$ing lunatic! Let's not forget that.

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It's getting to that point in the fantasy football season where almost every decision you make is an annoyance. Early in the season you have hot players, bye weeks, and difinitive injuries. Now matchups get trickier, half your team is questionable for Sunday and game time decisions have guys like me getting out of bed before noon on a Sunday, a monumental achievement.

Just this week alone I have half a dozen questions that the Yahoo! notes can't answer. For example, will Thomas Jones play, and even if he does do I want to start him against Carolina? On the other hand, my next option is Reuben Droughns with 702 yards rushing, 251 yards receiving and a whopping 1 touchdown.

Can I play 2 Green Bay receivers just because they're playing a Minnesota team that might suck...but who also might not be as bad as advertised? I don't know.

What's up with the Rams wide receiver situation? Is Bruce ever going to get healthy? Do I want him to since I also have Kevin Curtis who has been solid for me? Can I play them both this week since they're up against the horrific Arizona Cardinals who actually made me consider picking up Roy Williams this week (until I remembered who throws him the ball.)

Heath Miller at Baltimore or Randy McMichael at Cleveland? Joey Galloway at Atlanta when I'm starting the Atlanta defense?

Donte Stallworth against the Pats because their secondary would make Quinton Porter look like a Heisman candidate? (Do I really want to put myself in the position of rooting against my team...again?)

And I still smack myself on the forehead every time I remember who I took with my first overall pick...I say again, "#$%!ing Culpepper!"

Tough times in fantasy football land, and in sports writing land with so little to talk about I felt that this was an interesting subject. Maybe not a good choice.

I'm going to put up some funny pictures to make up for this lame post.

"Talons of Fury, Get Ready!"

Another Day - 2 More on IR

This particular incarnation of the Patriots is starting to look like a combination of the Sports Illustrated and John Madden curses. Everyone with face time goes down.

This week the victims are Randle Gay (goodbye and good riddance...unless of course we can't get anyone better...which we can't...) and Dan Koppen (of BC fame). Each were placed on injured reserve and are done for the season.

The Patriots now have 9 players on injured reserve. Most of the teams the Patriots have played this season have not had that many players listed on their weekly injury reports.

I ask you, tossing grammar and manners to the side, what the hell?

The loss of Gay is barely worthy of comment at this point. This season has been a genocide to the secondary, one more loss, albeit one of the players who has actually made a contribution in the past, will not sink this ship. They stink with our without him.

Dan Koppen, a center on the other hand is yet another big loss. He is the lynchpin of the offensive line, i.e. the only thing that keeps Brady from joining the parade to IR list. He calls many of the formations at the line, much like a safety in the secondary, and while his loss will be nowhere near as crushing as the loss of Rodney Harrison, it is too much to hope that there will not be a dropoff with Hochstein filling in.

With this team where it is right now I can't even begin to guess how these losses are going to affect them. In the long run I think the prognosis remains the same. They'll win the division, make the playoffs, go out early. The only x-factor: if there is a total breakdown, even if it's just once, by Hochstein and Brady gets his bell rung it could be all over.

Other Stuff:

- Everyone is praising baseball's new steroid policy and while I agree that's it's an improvement my enthusiasm is tempered by one aspect of it. 50 games for a first offense, 100 for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third all make sense. But there's a catch. If you weren't watching closely you might have missed it on Sportscenter and none of the other news outlets that I've read or watched are reporting it. 2 years after the lifetime ban players are eligible to be reinstated. Why? If it is a lifetime ban they should never be eligible to be reinstated, thus: LIFETIME. In reality it's a 2 year ban, which isn't all that much different from the penalty for a third offense in the original system. Also, if after 2 years a player's appeal is denied can he continue to appeal whenever he wants or does he have to wait another 2 years, or God forbid is he now actually gone for life? I give MLB no credit for, "taking a stand," when Congress had to get invovled before they would act and once they did act they fell short of cementing a Pete Rose style punishment for a crime worse than gambling. Baseball continues to fail to put this wholly behind them, as if they still secretly want the 'roids in the game.

- Donovan McNabb wins the VH1 "Worst Day Ever" award for this week. A game losing interception and a potentially season ending injury on Mondy night may have buried the hopes of an entire city. Even we in New England cannot relate to Phili...yet.

-The question on everyone's mind after the Dallas v. Philadelphia game (not regarding McNabb) was, "Would T.O. have caught that ball?" That ball being the dropped pass at the 20 by Philadelphia backup receiver Reggie Brown which would have put the Eagles in field goal range trailing 21-20. The answer is yes he would have caught THAT pass, but the the more important question is, "Would they have won the game?" No. T.O. would have been double covered and there is no way Mike McMahon or anyone else is throwing that floater up into double coverage when an interception ends the game. Too bad he didn't catch it though, a win in that game would have silenced a lot of doubts.

- Albert Pujols won the NL MVP for the first time. Just rename it the Albert Award because he's not giving it up in the meager NL.

- There is something wrong with the fact that the all of the headlines regarding the NBA today revolve around the matchup between Larry Brown and Phil Jackson tonight. Are they playing? No. This isn't football where coaching matchups really matter on an individual game basis. Over the course of the season of course coaching matters but there isn't anything that Phil or Larry are going to do tonight that warrants this much attention. Unlike the NFL where preparation and game plan can make the difference on any given night the NBA is all about individual performances by the guys on the court not on the bench. Focus on the guys who have to make the plays if you're going to focus on this game. On second thought, don't even focus on this game, the Lakers and Knicks are both under .500!

- Did Chad Johnson guarantee that the Bengals will beat the Colts this weekend yet? Just wait for it, he will. I'm not guaranteeing it but the Bengals are the best team the Colts have played this year.

- The Yankees resigned Hideki Matsui for 52 million over 4 years. Good move by the Yanks, he's been an absolute machine. He hasn't missed a game in his career in the MLB and is only 31. He'll be a stud for another 6 or so. I still hate him.

Don't miss the Northern Illinois v. Toledo game on ESPN 2 tonight. If anyone can tell me why I have a connection to both of these schools (one is easy, one insanely hard) I'll buy you dinner.

Decent Over Mediocre

A Familiar Win

The Patriots always seem to pull out victories like yesterday's. Struggle mightily, allow hope, take the lead, lose the lead, ride Brady to yet another lead, hang on in the end. They usually win games like this ... against the Colts, Steelers, Eagles, etc.

Those were not the Colts. No no, they in fact were the Dolphins, Gus Frerotte's Dolphins.

Now some may look at this game and say, "Hey, that's just how the Patriots win. Against adversity they come up with just enough plays to sneak away with a victory." I choose to look at it and say, "How in the name of Zeus's butthole did they give up 360 $#!&ing yards to Gus Frerotte? What's next, Cody Pickett winning offensive player of the week against them?"

There isn't much else to say about this game or this team right now. The only real positive seems to be that Tom Brady is the best player on the field everytime he steps out there, and luckily that's going to be enough in a division consisting of teams led by Brooks Bollinger, Kelly Holcomb / J.P. Losman, and the afore mention Frerotte.

I guess you do have to give them credit for standing tall on the goal line when the Dolphins were threatening to tie the game at the end. Or maybe you have to give Chris Chambers a paddling for dropping a touchdown pass that hit him the stomach in the end zone on 4th down. The man in coverage on the play was Ellis Hobbs. When asked after the game what grade he would give the Patriots secondary in this game he said he would give them a "V" for victory. I think that is a good way to look at it, they deserve much worse than an F for allowing a 12th string quarterback to shred them like Senate expense reports, but they escaped with a win on the road. Heading into an almost guaranteed win next week against New Orleans I'll take it.

Other Sunday NFL stuff:

- My buddy Dan wins the first memorial, "Luckiest Fantasy Football Mistake" award for this season. He started Joey Harrington against me. My reaction when I saw the matchup on Thursday, "Holy #$%! I'm going to win this easily, the jackass is playing Joey Harrington." My reaction on Sunday night when I saw the result, "Silly Yahoo Fantasy Football, they seem to have made a few typos here, putting 3 touchdowns next to Harrington's name, just let me go find out what he really did in the box score...(sounds of typing)... Oh the humanity! Why oh good lord why!?"

- Cody Pickett was 1-13 for 27 yards on Sunday in windy Chicago, making the Kyles (Orton and Boller) share second worst quarterbacking performance of the day honors. There aren't winds accompanying a monsoon with a hurricane swirling within it to make an NFL quarterback go 1-13. If that didn't make Dick Vermeil cry...

- ... then certainly seeing his team come up with one of the worst performances of the year against Buffalo must have. That's definitely the "Inexplicable Egg Laying" of the week. Hope you took the points on that one.

- Nathan Vashar wasn't even supposed to catch the ball that he brought back a record 108 yards for a touchdown. You only put a safety in the end zone if you're afraid that the kicking team is going to fake the kick and try to throw a bomb, you don't expect or hope for the kick to come up 20 yards short. Think about this. If it's a 52 yard field goal the line of scrimmage is the 35. If a defensive back, who doesn't return kicks, catches a ball in the end zone, he's going to take a knee (okay not this guy but everyone else would). That would give you the ball on the 20, costing you at least 15 yards. Er... Obviously it worked out well but what the hell was he thinking? I wish I could be in that film session.

Coach: Okay, here's the kick...clearly coming up short. So this play should be over...but here you come. Freeze it! Right there, now see you're 8 yards away from the ball there and you're supposed to let it fall but, okay roll tape, but there you go running after it, yup okay now you've caught it in the end zone, costing us huge yardage. Why?

Vashar: Ahh yea coach, I er...thought it was gonna...

Coach: Nevermind, one mistake no big deal. Okay, here you go about to take a knee. Good thinking, it's not as good as the 35 but at least we'll get it on the 20. Freeze it! Now see here you're almost to the ground a few inches from sanity. Did the wind pick you back up and throw you out onto the field? Roll tape, so there you go, inexpicably taking off... Why? Why? WHY?

Vashar: Ahh yea coach, I er...well I'm really fast so...

Coach: Nevermind. So now you run out to the 30, directly towards traffic, stop, do a Barry Sanders, hand on the ground spin and take off up the sideline. Nice run, but did you have money on this or something? That's the only justification I can think of. Good play, you ever do that again and you're cut. By the way do some wind sprints after practice, you looked like you needed emergency defibrulation at about the 15.

- Let's all thank Dick Vermeil, not for showing us that men have a sensitive side and that it's okay to cry... all the time ... in front of national television audiences ... and in locker rooms full of half naked men. Rather, let's thank him for starting the, "Hey it's a game, let's win it," movement among NFL coaches. I wonder if Jon Gruden would have gone for 2 and the win yesterday if Vermeil hadn't gone for the touchdown and the win last week. I love it, and you'll keep seeing it until someone tries it and loses as a result. Then he will be a moron and a scapegoat, likely will lose his job and all coaches will go back into their shells until someone's balls drop back down and the cycle begins again.

- Last night the ESPN bottom line ticker listed Mike Tice's knee injury following the score. There wasn't something more important they could have mentioned first like say... Eli Manning's 4 picks? Oh right I forgot, this is ESPN, worshiping at the altar of Manning is their credo. I feel a little bad for Tice on this one. First, obviously you don't want to see someone get hurt, but the embarassing thing is the question that comes after. Why the hell wasn't he watching the play? The guy that hit him had the ball! Pretty embarassing to get taken out on the sideline and at the same time get caught day dreaming about what you'll do with all that free time next season...

Finally - The MVP.

You can't say that A-Rod didn't deserve it. What you can say is that Ortiz deserved it more. While A-Rod was the king of the meaningless home run, Big Papi was the best clutch hitter in baseball. Nothing is more valuable to a team tha big, late inning hits, not even great third base play.

The only assumption I can make is that the DH thing tipped the scales. This voting should be like a jury trial. I as the opposing attorney should be able to poll the voters and make each and every one of them tell me to my face that what Ortiz did this year wasn't worthy of an MVP trophy.

Sure I don't like it, but I don't like the way the Red Sox season ended even more and in the grand scheme of this season it's just another disappointment to add to the many that have piled up since October 1st. Remember how good things were in Red Sox nation last year at this time? Ahh memories.

The Top 3

So 48 hours later I'm halfway recovered from Saturday's ridiculous football marathon ending with a five mile walk home from IHop down the Charles at 7:30AM. On that note, the top 3 BC football moments of my era.

3. Notre Dame v. BC, 2001. It was the only time BC played Notre Dame at home in my college career so naturally the hype was huge. Neither team was highly ranked, BC was 5-2, Notre Dame just 3-3 but the rivalry still garnered as much attention as any meeting, especially in Chestnut Hill. My team (swimming) had a meet the next day so weren't "supposed" to drink. Oops. Willie Green had his best day as an Eagle, rushing for 195 yards, including a 71 yard touchdown, and had 262 yards of total offense. BC took the lead for good at 21-17 early in the 4th but tried mightily to lose with Green fumbling and the defense allowing the Irish to move to the BC 16 before standing tall and running out the clock. The game may not have meant as much as other meetings in terms of the standings but it was the most impressive atmosphere at BC in my time there.

2. Tie. BC v. Stanford, 2002. I almost didn't go to this game, I don't think a lot of people did. It was one of the most beautiful days for BC home game I can remember. For some that would guarantee a trip to the stadium, for us it just meant that we spent more time outside tailgating instead. From what I remember I don't think it was supposed to be close, Stanford was starting a freshman quarterbak and hadn't really been competitive recently. It ended up being the only buzzer beater I've seen at Alumni. BC was down 27-17 going into the 4th. Derrick Knight scored with 12 minutes to play, they got a field goal with just over 6 to go, and then with 36 seconds remaining Knight scored again from 12 yards out to seal it. It was one of the few truly exciting games that I can remember coming down to the last play.

Tied with the Stanford game is BC v. Rutgers, 2002. The game itself was unmemorable, a predictable rout 44-14 by the Eagles. I remember it because it was the last home game of our undergrad career. That day we did something that I don't think I did more than 3 times in 4 years, we stayed until the very end of the game and heard "Alma Mata". It's incredibly cheesy but it was a great moment watching the players salute the fans and vice versa knowing that it was the last time we would do as actual BC students.

Okay, wipe the tears and on to number 1.

1. BC at Notre Dame, 2002. As if there was any doubt. This was the second best sporting event I have ever seen live (2004 ALCS game 7), but it was the weekend as a whole that made it the climactic event that it was. Unlike my first ND pilgrimage in a Chevy Blazer Sport, this time we flew to Chicago and spent the first night (Halloween) with a roomate's friend from high school at Depaul. During the day we were shameless tourists, going to the art museum, the Sears tower, etc. The night invovled one of the best meals I've ever had at a Brazilian steak house called Fogo de Chao (they bring you meat on a stick...as much as you can eat), some of the highest comedy at a friend's expense when an unnamed roomate had substantial stomach problems and spent the majority of the night running for the border, and one of the worst nights of sleep of my life on a love seat about 2 feet shorter than I am.

The next day (Friday) we took the train the South Bend. After a stop at a great ND sports bar called Corby's we headed back to the bar I mentioned in the blurb about the first Notre Dame trip the Boat Club. (Why in the middle of Indiana would you have a bar named the Boat Club?) In the two years since I had visited things had changed very little, although now when you entered you had to sign a waiver asserting that you were 21 and that the bar was not liable for anything for any reason. That should have been a sign. The pitchers were a dollar, the shots were a dollar, every freaking thing was a dollar. Much drama and madness ensued. On the walk home we got jumped by townies and two of my buddies took pretty good shots to the face. To celebrate one went home and made out with a St. Mary's girl while sleeping on the floor, with blood literally on his face. She was a classy lady.

The next morning the St. Mary's ladies who housed us, (who were so incredibly awesome the entire time we were there) woke us up at 7:30 to start drinking. I think we went to bed at 5:00. They are so hardcore I could barely handle it. Finding the BC tailgating area was a nightmare, they stuck us in a field about 2 miles from the stadium and didn't tell anyone about it. What happened on that field is still one of the greatest times of my life. A few thousand BC fans of all ages on a sunny cold day just going crazy, there is no way to describe it, it was just amazing.

The game itself should not have been close. Notre Dame was 8-0 and the Irish fans were thinking national championship for the first time in decades. Most everyone assumed that the Irish were going to roll over BC and head into their matchup the next week with USC at 9-0 with a legitimate chance to knock off the Trojans. The entire world was basically looking past the Eagles. Then, in quite possibly one of the worst coaching moves of all time, they came out in the green jerseys. The Irish had not worn green since 1985 when they changed into them from the blue at halftime of a rout over USC. What was Ty Willingham thinking? Everyone at ND been saying all weekend that BC wasn't a real rival...but the green jerseys were supposed to be a rallying point for a team that needed a little something exra to get a victory. Notre Dame should not have needed anything extra to beat BC, they were the better team. Not on that day however. They fumbled 7 times losing three of them, prompting NBC to send a sideline reporter over to the ND bench to feel the jerseys to find out if they were more slippery than the blues (worst job ever). With BC leading 6-0 in the second quarter, in what was likely the greatest moment of Josh Ott's life, the ND backup quarterback Patrick Dillingham tried an ill advised shovel pass to his left which hit Ott in stride and he was gone for a touchdown. It proved to be all that BC would need, they won 14-7.

We won't discuss the fact that I threw up twice on the train back to Chicago the next day. It was one of the best 4 day spans of my life capped by best moment of my BC football patronage.

That's my list, I'd put the Florida State, Gameday scene this season on a sidenote, but they should have won that game and I'm still disappointed.

Top 10 BC Football Moments

One the morning of the last BC home game of the season I thought I'd take a look back at my 10 favorite BC football memories (not necessarily involving the games). Obviously this is just from my BC era so forget about Flutie.

10. Baylor v. BC, opening game 1999. This is where it all began, my first game as a student. The game itself was awesome, an overtime thriller with BC winning on a field goal. Other highlights, passing a bottle of Rubinoff (Vermont's finest spirit) around with 10 guys from Keyes 3rd floor in a tiny dorm room and chasing it down with potato chips (nothing else available). Of course we got to the game about an hour early, as freshman are known to do and got awesome seats on the field side of the student section in the second row. Things changed quick.

9. ALMOST beating Miami in 1999 when they were undefeated and ranked number 1. This actually turned into a crushing defeat but it was pretty awesome for 3 quarters thinking we were going to bring down the goal posts. A 31 point 4th quarter by the Hurricanes ended that but the energy in the stadium that day was incredible.

8. Virginia Tech v. BC 2000. Sure they lost this one too but this was the Michael Vick experience. V-Tech went up 14 nothing, but BC rallied to tie with two quick TD's. Then for the next 3 quarters Vick single handedly demolished the Eagles. Over 200 yards rushing, he was just totally unstopable, one of the best athletic perfomances I've ever seen live.

7. The Matthias wine incident. I don't remember what game it was, I think it might have been one of the first of our senior year. I remember being in the mod but that's it. He went to cater a pre-season event, afterwards he was aware that he was going to come home to a shit show so he decided to try to catch up...by drinking 2 bottles of wine. When he arrived at the mod he looked like he was made of jello, limbs and goonishness flopping everywhere. Classic. Later in the day he was so passed out that his sketchball roomate thought it was okay to fool around with a girl with him in the room. The girl was not as psyched.

6. 8:00 AM, speakers outside blaring "Move Bitch" and "For Boston". A cop drives by, stops, and in a completely shocked voice says, "Are you guys serious right now? All of Edmonds and Walsh just called to complain about you. Just stop."

5. The "SuperDrunk" t-shirt incident. We made up shirts spoofing the BC student "Superfan" shirts with an Eagle tapping a keg on the front and "Get Wasted" written on the back. We were selling them, at cost in our mod during the first game of senior year. Apparently this was a rather large mistake. The slip and slide in the backyard initially drew the attention of the police, the alleged, "copyright infringment" kept it for the remainder of the afternoon. Come for the slip and slide, stay for the arrest.

4. Notre Dame pilrgimage 1. 8 morons pile into a Chey Blazer sport that comfortably holds 4. 16 hours later they arrive in South Bend, tired, smelly, and hating each other. Madness ensues including a trip to a bar with a $6 cover charge and dollar pitchers. BC loses the game but it's one of those classic trips that I'll always remember.

The top 3 later, M.A.'s calls.