Andy

ND loses to Butler 71-69. Well, it took four days for my enthusiasm to crap out. That was fun.

Michigan 31, Ohio State 20, but it's not as close as it looks. Troy Smith completely craps the bed and blows the Heisman.

except that O$U didn't get a gift victory over a bad team. Yeah ND won that game, but they wouldn't have without the help of Moo. You can say that of any big comeback. If the victimized team played perfectly every time they took a big lead, there would of course never be a comeback to begin with. I'd like to thank MSU, by the way, for once again playing, BY FAR, their best game of the season against ND, and then crapping the bed against everyone else. I'm rooting for whoever comes in to coach that team to do well because I'm sick and tired of MSU making ND's games with them look worse than they already were by playing miles below their talent level afterwards.

I have no argument whatsoever. As a side note, Hanley and Zimmerman are both gonna be really special players.

See the ND thread for my breaking down of what it would come down to if Michigan were to dominate OSU (which I stubbornly think they will). It's amazing how similar the teams would be then if that happened.

I think at this point, a USC win helps ND more than any other team on their schedule. Their schedule is ranked 21st in the country by Sagarin (pre-USC), so they'll be fine there. I personally think Michigan will pretty well dominate Ohio State. They may not win by 26 because O$U has a good D in their own right, but I think they'll be in control throughout, and the pollsters will see that, with both teams sporting lopsided losses to Michigan, that ND's other 11 games are a total toss up with OSU. ND's most impressive win right now WOULD be at USC, who will either win the Pac-10 (IMO, the Pac-10 is the 3rd-best major conference behind the SEC and Big 10). O$U's best win is a road win over Texas, also a 2-loss team, but in a conference that's probably worst of all the big six conferences. It's likely they too will win the conference, but I'll give a slight edge to ND should they win. ND's 2nd-most impressive win (presuming the USC win) would be at Georgia Tech, who appears to have a good shot at winning the ACC. Ohio State beat Iowa on the road, dominating that game as well 38-17. I'll call it a slight edge to OSU based on the scores of those games. ND's 3rd-most impressive win was the 41-17 beating of Penn State. Ohio State's 3rd-most impressive was a home game against Penn State that was a 1-possession game until Morelli threw two pick-sixes in about a minute's time. Big edge to ND here obviously. 4th-most impressive wins: ND over Purdue 35-21, OSU over MSU (on the road) 38-7 post-ND meltdown. Slight edge to OSU probably. 5th-most impressive wins: ND's is either of the comeback wins. It depends on whether you think MSU or UCLA is better. I'll call it MSU, since it was on the road. This is where OSU starts falling off big. Either IU or Minnesota (both home blowouts) would be their 5th-best win. Since IU crushed MSU, we'll give a big edge to OSU. 6th-most impressive: ND's was UCLA. Ohio State's was IU or Minnesota. Edge to ND. From there on down: 7th-most impressive: Navy or Northwestern (both road, basically). Conveniently, Eastern Michigan played both, hanging with NW and getting creamed by Navy, so I'll give an edge to ND. 8th-most impressive: Air Force or Illinois (both road). Since both teams' best games were close games on the road against good teams (Tenn and Wisco respectively) and both teams' worst games were home losses to bowl-bound lower-tier teams (Navy and Ohio respectively), and ND played better than OSU in the respective game, I'll give a slight edge to ND. 9th-most impressive: Stanford or Cincinnati (both home). Clear edge for OSU here. 10th-most impressive: UNC or Northern Illinois. Edge to OSU again. 11th-most impressive: Army or Bowling Green. They're both awful, so call it a wash. ND edges: 3 big, 2 slight. OSU edges: 3 big, 2 slight. Washes: 1 I mean, if OSU is to be blown out by Michigan, these two teams will almost have identical profiles.

Wow, Virginia's not even supposed to be decent, let alone good.

Bradley 13-25 from 3. That's the thing about that shot, if it falls you have a good chance of winning. I think I'll like your Big East talk much more during basketball season. :wink: At least the Good Old Boys don't decide who gets to play for the championship in basketball. Regarding ND in the Big East, I want them out if they don't play at least 2 BE teams in football and I've been on record saying how much I dispise this 16 team thing even though I'd like to know how the other confernces feel about it since they have 3 to 4 more teams in football. They can't cry about it in basketball and be happy about it in football. Well, you'll be glad to know that Kevin White has already made public that ND is committing to play three Big East teams in football each season. Of course, it'll be a few years before they can start that because their schedules are made so far in advance, but they will be doing it.

I guess that's easier than posting the entire exchange that I incited right before the comeback began. :wink:

You can pretty much pen (not pencil) in the Bears and Seahawks as division champs. The wildcards are going to come down to 2 NFC South teams and 2 NFC East teams.

There were at least 5 game threads longer than this, and I'm pretty sure there was a Juan Pierre thread longer, and the Aramis thread in Transactions now is longer. It's long, but it's not by any stretch near the top.

Also worth noting that my Bears-trashing worked again. Geez, I wish that would happen to one of my teams sometime.

What's that you guys were saying about not wanting a playmaker? :wink:

Are you kidding? Wow.

[trying to save the Bears] So the Bears look really bad right now, I hope Carolina gets them in the playoffs... [/trying to save the Bears]

No kidding. there was holding (actually tackling) at the point of attack as well. that's how the hole was washed out for Hunter to spectate from. we're just gonna have to give up on the officiating front and win the game anyway. it's like a Cubs game with Wendlstadt behind the dish. Or Froemming anywhere in a 10-mile radius

So, do you guys want me to come in and trash the Bears every time they look bad in the 1st half from now on? :lol:

:lol: Carolina's the kind of team that, if they play well can beat almost any team in NFL history, but if they play bad they could lose to the 1976 Buccaneers. And there's usually no middle ground. Weird...Bears are the same. In fact probably most teams in the league would probably claim the same... :) Nah, Bears are the kind of team that can lose to the 1976 Buccaneers for three quarters, then score a whole bunch of points without an offense on the field and beat them anyway. :wink:

:lol: Carolina's the kind of team that, if they play well can beat almost any team in NFL history, but if they play bad they could lose to the 1976 Buccaneers. And there's usually no middle ground.

Yay Moose!

Not sure about the roughing penalty. But that wasn't smart to take down Grossman like that.

He did get it out....barely. I don't suppose Hester gets forward progress there......nope. I don't think you get forward progress if you run backwards yourself. Refs have been far from stellar, but that's the right call.

Do you mean the Vermeil commercial? I love those. More Vermeil and less Mellencamp plz.

Haha, what a flop by Plax

Exactly. Signing the players keeps from making a terrible team even worse, but they still need to get alot better. Hendry has, in my opinion, earned a temporary stay of execution, but he still needs to do A LOT more.This is a little off topic, but what result would be acceptable at the end of the '07 season? For me, assuming the team stays moderately healthy and doesn't lose any of their best players for vast majorities of the season, Hendry needs to get the Cubs into the playoffs to have any level of redemption. Problem is, the Cubs always lose some of their best players for vast majorities of the season. I think if the team's healthy, 2nd place, at least, is a must. The NL Central totally blows right now, which is why a division title is not out of the question with some luck and Hendry pushing the right buttons.