Andy

Aaron Schatz reports that 1966 was the last time an NFL team exceeded 62 points in a game. So there's something to shoot for.

Naw, Stanford will handle us pretty easily. Oregon is in video game mode again with their offense. If your defense plays as well as it did yesterday it will be close, but I don't see Stanford finding a way to lose that one. Course, after TTech beat Oklahoma, a lot of bets are off.

Top 25 games ------------------------ Baylor at (3) Oklahoma State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) (5) Clemson at Georgia Tech (8 pm, ABC – Regional) (6) Stanford at (20*) USC (8 pm, ABC – Regional) Washington State at (7) Oregon (3 pm, FSN/CSN) (9) Oklahoma at (8) Kansas State (3:30 pm, ESPN) (10) Arkansas at Vanderbilt (12 pm, SEC Network) (11) Michigan State at (14) Nebraska (12 pm, ESPN) (12) Virginia Tech at Duke (12:30 pm, ACC Network) (13) South Carolina at Tennessee (7:15 pm, ESPN2) (15) Wisconsin at Ohio State (8 pm, ESPN) Missouri at (16) Texas A&M (12 pm, FX) Rice at (17) Houston (8 pm Thursday, FSN/CSN) Purdue at (18) Michigan (12 pm, ESPN2) Illinois at (19) Penn State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Iowa State at (20) Texas Tech (7 pm, FSN/CSN) Colorado at (21) Arizona State (6:30 pm, FSN Arizona) Florida vs (22) Georgia – in Atlanta (3:30 pm, CBS) Ole Miss at (23) Auburn (7 pm, ESPNU) Kansas at (24) Texas (7 pm, Longhorn Network) (25) West Virginia at Rutgers (3:30 pm, ABC – Regional) (* denotes AP ranking; ineligible for BCS) Games of interest ------------------------ Northwestern at Indiana (12 pm, BTN) NC State at Florida State (12 pm, ESPNU) Syracuse at Louisville (12 pm, ESPN3) Ball State at Western Michigan (2 pm) Navy at Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) Western Kentucky at UL Monroe (3:30 pm) Iowa at Minnesota (3:30 pm, BTN) California at UCLA (7 pm, FSN Prime Ticket) Mississippi State at Kentucky (7 pm, ESPN3) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Troy at Florida International (8 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) Connecticut at Pittsburgh (8 pm Wednesday, ESPN) Virginia at Miami (8 pm Thursday, ESPN) BYU vs TCU – in Arlington, TX (8 pm Friday, ESPN) Central Michigan at Akron (12 pm, ESPN3) Boston College at Maryland (3 pm, ESPN3) Buffalo at Miami (OH) (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Fordham at Army (3:30 pm, CBS College) Wake Forest at North Carolina (3:30 pm, ESPNU) San Jose State at Louisiana Tech (4 pm, ESPN3) Hawaii at Idaho (5 pm, ESPN3) Nevada at New Mexico State (8 pm, ESPN3) Southern Miss at UTEP (8 pm, CBS College) Arizona at Washington (10:30 pm, FSN/CSN)

I don't trust any Cardinal, even Pujols, to be as good as they are now outside the STL uniform.

Notre Dame apparently got their best win in terms of end-of-season ranking in God knows how long over MSU (Nebraska's probably the only team left on the schedule that might be favored over them), but naturally it won't matter because we just loooove giving the other team the ball.

Too high or too low? Kidding. I expect it to be within a TD. It's funny that gameday will be so close but highlighting a blowout just bc ND/USC is on NBC. Can you imagine the backlash from most fans if they'd come to a game involving 2 unranked teams? I agree Wisc/MSU will be a blowout, but that's where they had to go.

Hadn't heard that, but if true, 10% of the ESPNU top 150 recruits will be there.

Hendry asked for Murton very late in the negotiations and made it something of a deal-breaker if what I remember reading is correct. Theo wasn't crazy about giving up Murton but they were so close to getting the deal done that he decided to do it anyway, I believe.

That was a wildly entertaining few minutes of TV.

He's been Jaime [expletive] Garcia for like 3 years now to me. Cardinals' players are completely immune to growing pains evidently.

Won't believe this until I hear more confirmation from @thekapman

Their '06 team was pretty bad. Can't leave the '05 White Sox out of that discussion either. what is this lunacy, they won 99 games that year Yeah the '05 White Sox were good that year. Granted, they got a bunch of ridiculously fluky career years out of people (I still can't believe that Neal Cotts, Dustin Hermanson and Cliff Politte combined to deliver a Bob Gibson-like season and then were all out of the majors within 18 months), but for that one year, they were good.

The rest of us had this moment like 8 days ago. I didn't hear about the Hoyer thing until just now, haven't been around today.

Congrats on your first victory as a pro starter, John Beck

Holy God, we're getting Theo and we're getting a Theo disciple. I don't even care that it's Theo specifically, the fact that we're getting two guys in that school, and we're getting a brain trust that knows their [expletive]... holy crap, this is awesome.

There is a chance Carolina could see the first starts by John Beck and Christian Ponder in back to back weeks. Maybe we can win one of them.

You have a rooting interest in this one? Never would've guessed.

Well done, sir.

That's what I thought was kind of funny. At the beginning of the article Theo talks about how he couldn't believe Beane was allowing Michael Lewis to write that book... then he's sort of doing the same thing in this piece on a much smaller scale. I think the difference is that at the time Beane was in the severe minority. By the time Theo did this article, he definitely was not.

Your hatred of the Big Ten is hilarious. MSU held you to 275 total yards, well below your season average. They outgained you by 100 yards that day. You also got 7 of those points off a kickoff return. MSU held Michigan to 250 total yards. In comparison, ND gave up more than 450 total yards to Michigan. MSU is a good defense. MSU is a good defense. MSU is not a premier defense. They are not even close. Alabama and LSU are premier defenses. This observation can in fact be made independent of one's opinion of the B1G, believe it or not.

I feel much more comfortable about this game than I probably should. When I start getting comfortable is when the wild [expletive] tends to happen.

Confusing question as the Brewers play the Cardinals the same amount of times. Yeah but this is the first year where both have been competitive. Do they always hit 12 hoppers through the infield and hit bloop doubles, and every single bounce basically going their way? I'm sure they don't, but damn does it ever seem like it sometimes.

To me this year pisses me off more than the years where they are really good and they deserve the success. There's no winning in those scenarios. The 04 and 05 teams where they ran away with the division with teams that weren't close to 100-win good on paper were just as annoying, it's just there were other games on to distract me.

Wisconsin @ Michigan State.

This week, like ESPN, we switch to the BCS rankings. Top 25 games ------------------------ (20) Auburn at (1) LSU (3:30 pm, CBS) Tennessee at (2) Alabama (7:15 pm, ESPN2) Texas Tech at (3) Oklahoma (8 pm, ABC – Regional) (4) Oklahoma State at Missouri (12 pm, FX) Air Force at (5) Boise State (3:30 pm, Versus) (6) Wisconsin at (16) Michigan State (8 pm, ESPN) North Carolina at (7) Clemson (12 pm, ESPN) (25) Washington at (8) Stanford (8 pm, ABC – Regional) (9) Arkansas at Ole Miss (12 pm, SEC Network) (10) Oregon at Colorado (3:30 pm, FSN/CSN) (11) Kansas State at Kansas (12 pm, FSN/CSN) Boston College at (12) Virginia Tech (3 pm, ESPN3) (13) Nebraska at Minnesota (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) (15) West Virginia at Syracuse (8 pm Friday, ESPN) (17) Texas A&M at Iowa State (3:30 pm, ABC – Regional) Marshall at (19) Houston (3:30 pm) (21) Penn State at Northwestern (7 pm, BTN) (22) Georgia Tech at Miami (3:30 pm, ESPN) (23) Illinois at Purdue (12 pm, ESPN2) Games of interest ------------------------ UCLA at Arizona (9 pm Thursday, ESPN) Rutgers at Louisville (8 pm Friday, ESPN2) Jacksonville State at Kentucky (12 pm, ESPNU) Indiana at Iowa (12 pm, BTN) Northern Illinois at Buffalo (12 pm, ESPN3) Wake Forest at Duke (12:30 pm, ACC Network) Central Michigan at Ball State (2 pm) Maryland at Florida State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) UL Monroe at North Texas (7 pm) USC at Notre Dame (7:30 pm, NBC) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Florida International at Arkansas State (8 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) Cincinnati at South Florida (12 pm, ESPN3) Louisiana Tech at Utah State (3 pm, ESPN3) East Carolina at Navy (3:30 pm, CBS College) Temple at Bowling Green (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Ohio at Akron (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Miami (OH) at Toledo (7 pm, ESPN3) Army at Vanderbilt (7 pm, ESPNU) Tulsa at Rice (7 pm, FSN/CSN) SMU at Southern Miss (8 pm, CBS College) Oregon State at Washington State (10:30 pm, FSN/CSN)