Well the cornucopia of sports has intersected with randomness to bring us some surprisingly results. Boston Red Sox swept? Packers winning by 49? Brian Billick having an anemic offense? Alright that was more predictable than a FSU player getting a restraining order. Nonetheless a ton of unexpected results this week. In trying times I have two sources to solve the mysteries of the sporting world: George, an orangutan who uses a magic eight ball and Clint Eastwood. Unfortunately George was busy.
MLB
The Good - Houston v. Atlanta game 4 (and in theory game 5). 18 innings? 2 grand slams? Damn straight it’s an instant classic. However my favorite part of the game (and frankly one of the best parts of baseball playoffs) is the all-star starter coming out of the bullpen. A chill went up my spine when Roger Clemens walked out of the bullpen to pitch (and hit) in the last 3 innings.
The Bad - White Sox advancing in the playoffs. See its stuff like this that just encourages the White Sox not to be disbanded. I had high hopes that they would be stomped so badly that all of South Chicago would disband. No such luck. I begrudgingly now admit that the White Sox are for real and heck might even win the World Series however...
The Ugly - Defending Champs don't get swept. Defending Champs don't miss opportunities with the bases loaded and no outs. Boston should be ashamed of itself (which is small pick me up). The other ugly part is that San Diego proved that didn't belong in the playoffs and the annoying part is that the West will get a playoff team next year too...Sigh.
NFL
The Good- Denver showed me that they can score on anybody and by anybody I mean a real defense. Given San Diego's tough schedule and KC inability to keep the Shriners Association out of the end zone (let alone a NFL team), Denver can now be seen as a front runner in the West. Dallas thumped Philly. Besides a 2 minute glitch against Washington, this team has played pretty error free. Dare I say the NFC East might be the most competitive division in the NFL? I realize I can be pretty sappy but I had a big grin after seeing Walter Payton's son Jarett score a touchdown. Is it just me or does Philly's punter (Dirk Johnson) have a porn star name?
The Bad- The Vickless Falcons put up 28 points on New England. Either Vick isn't nearly as good at moving the ball as his backup or New England's interior defense has serious issues. Can anyone explain how Detroit scored 35 points but only had 97 yards passing? Those two figures defy all known laws of physics. Philly's defense needs to find an extra cb or a pass rush or nap time or something. In back to back weekends they've been outscored in the first half 51 - 16. That's not good for long term success.
Ugly- Too many yellow flags. I noticed several games where the number of penalties exceeded 15. That’s not good for anybody.
Random Things (or the part that if I was Peter King I'd narcissistically talk about my love of Starbucks)
I love the great College Football Championship train wreck watch. Every year there's at least a half dozen undefeated teams in October. Typically by the time the selection committees get together for bowl games, there's one maybe two undefeated college teams and we avoid sports pundits from having epileptic seizures on camera (dear lord there's three undefeated teams, our nation is in peril without a definitive title game). It might happen that we'll only have one undefeated team but does anyone think Texas is slipping up? USC? Both FSU and V-Tech? Oh yeah and Alabama, Georgia and Penn State are still rolling. At this moment Michael Wilbon is dusting off his yearly rant against the BCS. Begin the great train wreck watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment