Jon

Oh, there was a rule question I was wondering about. During the punt that would eventually get blocked and returned for a TD, the refs started the play clock without Michigan State on the field. It took them a few seconds to get on the field and even longer the get in punt return formation. Northwestern never snapped the ball, but apparently the ref was standing over the ball the entire time. And that happened another time during the game. If the refs aren't going to let you snap the ball, how the heck can they penalize the team with possession by running the play clock? Is this common in college football?

At least those guys didn't pee themselves. They looked downright scared after that free kick (of course, I would be, too). Because of the placement of the ball, it looked like the best they could have done was take it right in the side of the face. I guess there's no update on Dempsey's ankle yet.

Hmm. Sutton has gone out of his way to make it seem like he's happy (I'm sure the media has been asking him that for weeks), but I'm sure he's at least frustrated. However, with Bacher in there now, he's actually going to be able to get the ball now. Until Bacher got healthy, he was a victim of the Brewer and Kafka QB draw-only offense. Now they're finally able to run the offense he was so successful in last year. If Bacher can spread things out against Michigan, it'll be interesting to see how many carries Sutton gets and what he does with them. It's a real shame that Bacher didn't start the Purdue game, as CJ will now have to face Michigan, Iowa, and Ohio State in consecutive weeks, but we'll learn a lot about his ability. If he's not the answer, that only leaves Mauro and Persa next year as options. Fitz and McGee should be fine. They're quite bad right now, but they'll get better. My main concern is whether or not they'll really be ready for next season. They've got a lot of catching up to do. And he still needs to fire Colby. Maybe it'll finally happen this offseason. But the decision to hire Fitz really came down to recruiting and he's pulling in one heck of a recruiting class this year. It could get up to 5th in the Big Ten on Rivals when the final rankings are released. And perhaps most importantly, they have 3 good looking DB recruits, good enough for a tie for 6th nationally.

Heard on WBBM today that Ogunleye was back in practice.

Apparently Clemson school officials claimed that they were the first team in the modern era of football to wear head-to-toe purple. I guess all purple with an orange helmet is the real head-to-toe purple and not this: http://www.geocities.com/proj4utep/sutton.jpg Roach's career is indeed over. He was third in the Big Ten in tackles at the time of his injury. Apparently Peterman only had a bad cramp, though, which is good.

The Vikings seal up the win. 31-13 with 8 minutes to go.

Such a bizarre sequence. 38-38 tie, Falcons nail a 56-yarder with 38 second left but it gets callled off b/c the Steelers called a timeout just before. The re-kick is no good but the Steelers get flagged for roughing the kicker. The Falcons then switch kickers and bring in Anderson. His kick is on target but a yard short. Then the Steelers move the ball down to about the 33 or 34, but when they try to spike it with 8 seconds left, they get called for a false start. The refs run off the clock and they're going to OT. Crazy.

So if game 2 ends with the Revs winning 1-0, does the game go into PKs or extra time? 30 minutes of extra time and then, if needed, PKs. Same with the conference championship game, although that's just single elimination.

It'll be different since Michigan won't have any problem running the ball (especially after Roach's injury), but they should still run short crossing patterns at least 25 times during the game. If Bacher, Peterman, and Rees are healthy, though, it'll be interesting to see what they can do on offense.

Fire take it 1-0! Exciting game that finished on a goal kick and save by Pickens. The thing about the 2-game series, and why many teams would prefer to be the 3rd seed instead of 2nd, is that the approach for each game is different. The 3 seed hosts the first game, giving them homefield advantage when the goal for each team is to simply win. The second game is all about playing to what happened in the first game. Since the Fire took the game 1-0, they'll go into New England playing more for a tie, although a 1-0 victory doesn't give them much cushion.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! What a shot by Orton...err...Mapp!

I have never been more embarrassed in my life. Giving up 15 yards on every short crossing pattern is no surprise, but I had no idea how stupid Fitz and McGee were. Sutton had 5 carries after it was 38-5, the first of which was for 64 yards. The punting unit was out on the field with the playclock running and no Spartans anywhere to be seen. So what do they do? They take their sweet time, run the clock down to 3, and decide not to block someone on a punt attempt from midfield. Then they get the brilliant idea to put the hands team out there with 11 minutes to go with Sutton, who doesn't have experience fielding kickoffs, the only man deep. He can't get it on the fly and then they're stuck at the 9. And that's instead of putting the very talenting McManis back there. And, of course, because he returned the kick, they had Jordan at RB the entire 3 and out. And brilliant decision on calling a timeout on 3rd and 1 after moving the ball instead of getting to the line quickly and running it up the gut. Biggest choke job in history. I'm sick of this team. And all of this after losing the best defensive player on the team for what will likely be the rest of his career.

He didn't say they can't rely on homeruns, but he did say that tracking down a handful of extra balls hit to the outfield and getting them back in quickly is more of a necessity in Wrigley than hitting HRs. It's a Dusty-esque statement and, as if it needs to be said, also an absurd one. Wrigley Field ranked 5th in the majors in park factor for HRs, 6th in doubles, and 7th in triples. In 2005, Wrigley was 11th in HRs, 12th in doubles, and 12th in triples. In 2004, 2nd in HRs, 14th in doubles, and 15th in triples. And between 2001 and 2003, they were just below average in HRs. There is nothing to suggest that getting on base and hitting for power isn't a good strategy for Wrigley Field. It's just that they don't actually bother to try it out. And yes, in 2004, the Cubs were only 7th in the NL in runs scored not because of being 1st in HRs and 2nd in SLG, but because they were 11th in OBP. OBP and SLG is always a great way to score runs regardless of the home ballpark. Finding outfielders with speed to get to the ball quicker isn't going to do that much in the grand scheme of things.

Todd Johnson will start for Brown against the 49ers. Who knows if McGowan could have won the spot if he wasn't suspended until next Monday.

You left out the best part, which came right after that: "You need pitchers who can command the strike zone, you need defensive players who can catch the ball, and you would think in a ballpark like this that you need a lot of power, but you what you need is athleticism. You catch more baseballs. Singles stay singles, doubles stay doubles." Yes, he's actually implying that defensive speed (not speed, but speed on defense) is more important than power on offense.

:shock: Wow. And just imagine what the total would have been if he didn't play like poop in the first quarter. And I'm not sure how much someone would have to pay me before I rewatch the first 44 minutes of that game.

This sucks. And what the heck? McGowan, so close to coming off the PUP list, was suspended for a week for breaking team rules?

The collision didn't look really bad, at least from the angle that I saw, but yikes.

Wow. Watching the replay on ESPN Classic of the Arsenal game. Henry had a goal waved off in the 86th minute which would have tied the game and was given a yellow for a hand ball that was very hard to see on TV.

I can't see it happening, but it could ultimately be a close decision.

And in non-Cubs related news, TBS will broadcast one league championship series every October. They will alternate every year and start with the NLCS in 2007. The deal runs through 2013.

The drop was even worse than previously throught: Good going, Jim.

Ferguson could be done for the year with the Packers with a foot injury. And Koren Robinson was just suspended by the NFL for one year.

Deciding between Ramirez at third and A-Rod at short over A-Rod at third and Izturis at short shouldn't be a decision that needs discussing, regardless of the money.

Despite the goal, Christiensen is having a fantastic first half.