TRUE FRESHMAN RULE, IRISH, BUCKEYES & COWBOYS GAG....AGAIN
Michigan's Tate Forcier & USC's Matt Barkley, both true freshman, won Saturday against ranked(for now) opponents. Both had the help of their teammates & in Forcier's case, Irish penalties & dropped passes, Barkley was aided by the often clueless & sometimes gutless play calling of Buckeye coach, Jim Tressell. Forcier had the benefit of playing at home, but in the 38-34 Wolverine win, he was easily the more impressive of the two. He was 23 of 33 for 240 yards & 2 touchdowns plus he ran 13 times for 70 yards with a 31-yard touchdown run. Forcier threw the game winning touchdown pass with 11 seconds remaining in the game. Barkley was 15 of 31 for 195 yards, no touchdowns & had 7 carries for 8 yards. In the USC-OSU game, USC's Pete Carroll faced a 4th & goal at the 1, the Trojans went for it & scored. Later in the first half with the score tied, Tressell's Buckeyes had a 4th & goal at the one & he kicked a field goal. It really let the air out of the crowd for a time. In the 4th quarter with about 8 minutes left & the Buckeyes leading 15-10, they had a 3rd & 3 in field goal range at the USC 24, QB Terelle Pryor gets sacked for a 9-yard loss & now they're out of field goal range. They punt to the 13-yard line. On 3rd & 9 from the USC 14, in an obvious passing situation, Tressell doesn't blitz the true freshman QB, lets him stand back there until he finds running back Joe McKnight for a 16-yard gain. Trojans out of the hole with a first down. That was the last play Ohio State could have done anything to stop USC. They drove down the field using over 6 minutes of the clock & scored with 1:06 left, then tacked on a 2-point conversion to make the final margin 18-15. He didn't bother to call his last 2 timeouts until there was less than 1:45 left in the game & USC knocking on the door inside the 5-yard line. When you're playing a superior opponent, you have to stick your neck out, take a few calculated chances, don't sit back & watch the other team drive down your home field to beat you.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys celebrated their #5 ranking by laying a giant egg at home, losing to a very hungry, very resourceful Houston Cougar team, 45-35. OSU's star running back Kendall Hunter was injured in the 1st half after scoring once. But it wasn't Hunter's absence that beat the Cowboys, it was their 4 turnovers & very aggressive play calling by Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin. I hope Texas Tech was paying attention, they're next on the Cougars' schedule, right after Tech plays Texas on the road in a real grudge match.
Virginia's Al Groh may not be the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers come December. They were beaten last week by William & Mary 26-14. Saturday they should have known things weren't going to go well as their mascot, a sword wielding horseman, got bucked off the horse in the pre-game activities. TCU totally dominated them 30-14, the Cavs getting 2 consolation scores late after the Horned Frogs were ahead 30-0.
Virginia's other ACC brethren narrowly escaped more humiliation as Maryland squeaked out a 38-35 overtime win over James Madison & Florida State, starring right down the barrel of 0-2, scored twice in the last 33-seconds of the game to beat Jacksonville State, 19-9. Pretty sad.
Big-12 highlights include Oklahoma pounding Idaho State 64-0, lots of frustration in Norman. Texas goofed around for about 25 minutes before getting down to business & whipping Wyoming 41-10. Texas Tech flogged Rice 55-10 & Nebraska's Zac Lee threw for 340 yards & 4 touchdowns as they hammered Arkansas State 38-9. KU's Jake Sharp was a one-man wrecking crew in the Jayhawk's game with UTEP. He ran for 104 yards on just 16 carries with 2 touchdowns & added a 3rd receiving. WR Dezmon Briscoe chipped in with 8 receptions for 154 yards. Mizzou awoke late in the 3rd quarter to score 21 unanswered points in the 27-20 win over Bowling Green. QB Blaine Gabbert threw 2 TD's & didn't throw an interception. RB Derrick Washington had 120 yards on the ground & scored the winning touchdown. Iowa State was crushed by Iowa 35-3 & Kansas State was handled by Louisiana-Lafayette, 17-15.
Couple of injuries to report for you fantasy players & those of you who might make a wager from time to time. Cleveland running back, James Davis, sustained a head injury in a car wreck on his way to the team facility yesterday & spent most of the day in the hospital. He was released Saturday night & his availability for Sunday's game with Minnesota in unknown. Davis is Jamal Lewis' backup & actually out-performed Lewis by quite a margin in the preseason. Wes Welker, New England's league leading pass receiver is now questionable for Monday night's game with the Buffalo Bills. His ailing knee got tweaked a bit in Saturday's practice.
Hey Chiefs' fans, here's some news you're gonna like to hear. Your(they're mine too) Chiefs are $16 million under the salary cap & more importantly, they are $7 million under the minimum base they are required to spend on player salaries. This minimum figure is 87.6% of their salary cap & Scott Pioli & company are $7 million under that. They have until the end of the season to spend it. Could some of it go towards signing tackle John Runyan? They can also spend it on personnel already on their roster in the form of contract extensions.
Ex-Patriot all-pro defensive tackle Richard Seymour reported to Oakland Saturday, did ten minutes with the press & then practiced with his new team. Before traveling to Oakland, Seymour told The Boston Globe he "was blindsided" by his trade from New England. He said Bill Belichick called him last Sunday afternoon & told Seymour "we've traded your rights to the Oakland Raiders, so you need to get in touch with them & your agent". What? No 'have a nice day'? No 'thanks for being one of the best 3-4 tackles in the game'? More like 'see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya'. The business end of professional football can be as brutal as the game itself sometimes. This is one of those times.
For the 3 people who inquired about a name in my post about Troy Polamalu's injury, yes Virginia, there really is an Alge Crumpler. I had a typo, sorry, it's not Algae, but it's pronounced that way. His real name is Algernon Darius Crumpler. He's the brother of former Seattle tight end Carlester Crumpler Jr. & the son of Carlester Crumpler Sr, formerly of the Buffalo Bills. Alge has over 300 career receptions & 36 touchdowns. Thanks for your inquiries.
Crumpler's aside, today's real name of the day is; Handsome Tanielu, defensive tackle, Waianae High School, Waianae, Hawaii.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys celebrated their #5 ranking by laying a giant egg at home, losing to a very hungry, very resourceful Houston Cougar team, 45-35. OSU's star running back Kendall Hunter was injured in the 1st half after scoring once. But it wasn't Hunter's absence that beat the Cowboys, it was their 4 turnovers & very aggressive play calling by Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin. I hope Texas Tech was paying attention, they're next on the Cougars' schedule, right after Tech plays Texas on the road in a real grudge match.
Virginia's Al Groh may not be the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers come December. They were beaten last week by William & Mary 26-14. Saturday they should have known things weren't going to go well as their mascot, a sword wielding horseman, got bucked off the horse in the pre-game activities. TCU totally dominated them 30-14, the Cavs getting 2 consolation scores late after the Horned Frogs were ahead 30-0.
Virginia's other ACC brethren narrowly escaped more humiliation as Maryland squeaked out a 38-35 overtime win over James Madison & Florida State, starring right down the barrel of 0-2, scored twice in the last 33-seconds of the game to beat Jacksonville State, 19-9. Pretty sad.
Big-12 highlights include Oklahoma pounding Idaho State 64-0, lots of frustration in Norman. Texas goofed around for about 25 minutes before getting down to business & whipping Wyoming 41-10. Texas Tech flogged Rice 55-10 & Nebraska's Zac Lee threw for 340 yards & 4 touchdowns as they hammered Arkansas State 38-9. KU's Jake Sharp was a one-man wrecking crew in the Jayhawk's game with UTEP. He ran for 104 yards on just 16 carries with 2 touchdowns & added a 3rd receiving. WR Dezmon Briscoe chipped in with 8 receptions for 154 yards. Mizzou awoke late in the 3rd quarter to score 21 unanswered points in the 27-20 win over Bowling Green. QB Blaine Gabbert threw 2 TD's & didn't throw an interception. RB Derrick Washington had 120 yards on the ground & scored the winning touchdown. Iowa State was crushed by Iowa 35-3 & Kansas State was handled by Louisiana-Lafayette, 17-15.
Couple of injuries to report for you fantasy players & those of you who might make a wager from time to time. Cleveland running back, James Davis, sustained a head injury in a car wreck on his way to the team facility yesterday & spent most of the day in the hospital. He was released Saturday night & his availability for Sunday's game with Minnesota in unknown. Davis is Jamal Lewis' backup & actually out-performed Lewis by quite a margin in the preseason. Wes Welker, New England's league leading pass receiver is now questionable for Monday night's game with the Buffalo Bills. His ailing knee got tweaked a bit in Saturday's practice.
Hey Chiefs' fans, here's some news you're gonna like to hear. Your(they're mine too) Chiefs are $16 million under the salary cap & more importantly, they are $7 million under the minimum base they are required to spend on player salaries. This minimum figure is 87.6% of their salary cap & Scott Pioli & company are $7 million under that. They have until the end of the season to spend it. Could some of it go towards signing tackle John Runyan? They can also spend it on personnel already on their roster in the form of contract extensions.
Ex-Patriot all-pro defensive tackle Richard Seymour reported to Oakland Saturday, did ten minutes with the press & then practiced with his new team. Before traveling to Oakland, Seymour told The Boston Globe he "was blindsided" by his trade from New England. He said Bill Belichick called him last Sunday afternoon & told Seymour "we've traded your rights to the Oakland Raiders, so you need to get in touch with them & your agent". What? No 'have a nice day'? No 'thanks for being one of the best 3-4 tackles in the game'? More like 'see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya'. The business end of professional football can be as brutal as the game itself sometimes. This is one of those times.
For the 3 people who inquired about a name in my post about Troy Polamalu's injury, yes Virginia, there really is an Alge Crumpler. I had a typo, sorry, it's not Algae, but it's pronounced that way. His real name is Algernon Darius Crumpler. He's the brother of former Seattle tight end Carlester Crumpler Jr. & the son of Carlester Crumpler Sr, formerly of the Buffalo Bills. Alge has over 300 career receptions & 36 touchdowns. Thanks for your inquiries.
Crumpler's aside, today's real name of the day is; Handsome Tanielu, defensive tackle, Waianae High School, Waianae, Hawaii.
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