Yes, I play requests

Mere moments ago, Uncle Skip asked in the previous thread whether I had anything to say about the Beavers.  I haven't been real motivated to post any blogjunk lately, so I hadn't really planned on it.  But Skip asked nicely, so, here goes...

For those unfortunates who haven't been paying attention, we were supposed to play [cough] Nicholls State on opening day.  But Hurricane Isaac kept the [insert Nicholls State mascot here, as I have no idea who/what the Nicholls State people call themselves] plane on the ground.  Last I heard, the game was tentatively rescheduled for December.  The day before that game was supposed to be played, I was at Reser Stadium installing some last-minute signs and banners and I chanced upon some Nicholls State boosters wandering around the stadium.  They said they'd flown out a few days prior and now were kinda stuck out here until things dried out enough back home for them to fly back.  They seemed like pretty decent guys, even if I almost needed a translator to make the Southern Loozyanna--->English conversion for me.

Which brings us to Wisconsin.  Never been there, but I've developed a fondness for the place.  What with Paul Ryan and Scott Walker in and Kohl and Feingold out, that's a lot of Happy for me.  Except for football.  They whupped on us last year 35-0.  Zip, zero, nada, or even nil, if you prefer.

Payback time.

But, we didn't have that tune-up game against Nicholls State.  Would we be ready for a ranked team?  The answer to that was yes, yes and more yes.  Offensively we moved the ball quite well.  Our placekicker is OK.  Just OK.  So on at least 3 drives we got into 4th-and-3 kind of situations where the FG attempt would have been sketchy, and opted to go for it on 4th down.  Failed a couple times, which explains much of our low scoring output despite having a generally good day on offense.

Our D was the best I've seen it in about 3 years.  For a while our secondary has been kind of thin, but we're finally back to having top-tier talent there and can do more man-to-man.  In the previous couple years, the DBs were getting burned too often to do that regularly.  Now man defense isn't so risky, which allows more versatility in what the Large Men in the front 7 can do.

Well, what did they do?

They harassed the heck out of the Wisconsin QB, forcing a fumble and an INT.  They held Wisconsin to about 35 yards of rushing, which pretty much kicks Ball's Heisman hopes right in the Montee.  And their receiver Jared Abbrederis got hit so hard, it knocked his ribcage right out of his body.  Thankfully he's expected to make a full recovery.  Linebacker D.J. Welch was named Pac12 Player of the Week.

Like Coach Riley said late last season: "Go ahead and pick on us now, because next year's gonna be a different story."  So far, so good.  This week we have a regularly scheduled bye.  Which means that going into week 4, we'll have only played one game.  Weird.  That next one'll be against "now-u-c-l-a-now-you-don't" at the Rose Bowl.  UCLA just beat Nebraska, so it should be pretty interesting.

As for my other Orange-n-Black team, the Giants continue to lead the Detestable Dodgers, who, even with a decent guy like Don Mattingly at the helm, are still detestable.  I particularly enjoyed the Giants' recent victory over Josh "My Face Looks Like a Moon Pie, Only Rounder" Beckett.

Finis.

Crrraaaaapppp!

Sacra...

mento...

State....

We just lost to a 1-AA team.  At home.  In the freekin' Kansas Plan OT.  They went for the win with a 2-pt conversion.  And got it.

Now I REALLY need Andy's Tigers to come through and keep the rest of my weekend life from being utterly ruined.

Ready for some football?

Please forgive the momentary departure from blogging about Obama being a boogerhead.  Lord willin' and the seas don't rise, there'll be plenty of time for that...

But I'm gettin' itchy for a kickoff.  There's just something special about football.  Whatever that special "something" is, it is even evident in pop culture.  Now I'm not much of a moviegoer (twice in the last 15 years or so) and not much of a TV watcher, but I've managed to see a lot of good football movies.  What about other sports?  I like baseball (especially when my Giants are still relevant in September) but I can't think of one good dramatic baseball movie.  Baseball seems to better lend itself to Major League and Bull Durham fun movies rather than drama.  Basketball?  There's Hoosiers.  Can't think of any others.  Well, there was that awful Robby Benson thing back in the '70s, too.  Hockey?  Please don't even start with the Mighty Ducks.  Soccer?  The Stallone/Pele flick Victory was pretty decent.  When the crowd starts chanting Dies Irae it gives me a little chill.  But really, would it have been half as cool if they were playing the Paraguayan National Team?  Nah, it's cool 'cuz they're beating Nazis. 

That brings us to football...

I can't think of one single serious football movie that sucked.  Some of the comedies (Adam Sandler, I'm looking at you) haven't done anything for me.  But the serious football flicks all seem to be really good.  I don't want to spread it on too thick, but there's a certain nobility about football.  That nobility lends itself to good cinema.  Think about it for a sec...

• Invincible
• Remember the Titans
• Gridiron Gang
• Blindside
• Facing the Giants
• We Are Marshall

Note that most of these are true stories.  Football doesn't need a lot of embellishment to be compelling.  I could add quite a few more to the list.  Heck, even Rudy was alright, and that was about Notre Dame. (spit) There were even some really sad ones from the '70s, whose titles escape me right now.  One of them was something like "The Brian [somebody] Song".  I think you get what I'm saying.   Football lends itself to drama in ways other sports don't. 

Consider this a general-purpose football/football movie thread.  Have at it.  And, oh yeah, one more thing:

GO BEAVS!!

One month to KICKOFF!

September 4th...September 4th...  I think I can make it 30 more days...

My Beavs start the season on the 4th against the TCU Horndogs at Jerry Jones' billion-dollar playpen ostentatious show of wealth Coyboy Stadium.  ESPN has already started the hype (sigh).  The pointyheaded sportswriters are saying my Beavers should compete for the Pac-10 title and maybe end up in the Rose Bowl.  If that's true, it'll be their best season in my lifetime, with the possible exception of the 41-9 stomping of Neutered Dame in the Fiesta about 10 years ago and a #4 ranking at the end of that season.

Unfortunately, non-conference road games early in the season have been BAD NEWS in Beaverland for years.  Perhaps there's an LSU fan reading this who remembers how my Beavs CHOKED down there a few years ago on several missed PAT kicks.  That's the kind of thing that happens.  Either that or somebody like Cincinnati makes us look like 8th graders.  Heck, most years the Midsoutheastern Kentucky Academy of Swine Herdsmanship would give us trouble if they were the first game on the schedule.  That's 'cuz we're famous for slow starts.  Then when we're just about written off, we go on about a 7 game win streak and end up in a middlin'-level bowl game and a ranking in the low 20s. 

So, what can I do differently this year?  What can I do (that isn't a felony :) to prevent another embarrassing, "make me want to drink hemlock" first-road-game faceplant? 

Beavers!

My Beavs beat the ASU Sun Devils tonight. That's cool. Did it in Tempe, which we hadn't done since 1969! That's cooler.

Taught my 13mo. old grandson how to gimme high-fives. That's coolest.

Steeeeeelers!

Hines Ward fumbled near the goal line and gave me a GIANT heart attack. What's most amazing about that, is that I have such a withered, cold, tiny heart, it takes a lot to give me such a giant heart attack. Thankfully my Steelers won it in OT. But heartbeat still ain't quite right. Dizzy. Not thinking clearly. Tunnel vision. Craving organically grown produce and free-range escargot. Hopefully there's a pill for this...

Chip Kelly: I Hope He Fails!

Chip Kelly was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach of the Oregon Ducks and last night was his first game against the Boise State Broncos. For the record, I am a OSU Beaver and I hate the Ducks with the white-hot fury of a thousand supernovae. I rather like Boise State, but I cared more about the Ducks losing than the Broncos winning.

I got my wish! The Ducks looked wretchedly awful. Then they lost ALL composure at the end of the game...



Watch it soon before ESPN has it pulled from YT.

This Beav is happy today!

Broncoooooooooooos!