Weekend Preview will not be seen this week due to technical difficulties.

Blogger ate my post and I forgot to back up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Rainy Day Blog Posts #12 and #35

More Rita Stories

Our sports blogger friends weren't the only ones affected by Hurricane Rita. Some of the players for Texas and Texas A&M had to deal with the tragedy as well.

Texas RB Jamaal Charles, a Port Arthur native, told the San Antonio Express-News that he was "heartbroken" when it happened, but also says that his family is safe.

Texas A&M CB Danny Gorrer, also of Port Arthur, said that his family is in Lufkin and OK, and DT Red Bryant, who is from Jasper, said that his family is OK also despite a tear in the roof of their house. (Dallas Morning News)

Where was this from the Rangers' in August?

The Texas Rangers are 15-10 in September, which is a nice September record to have until you consider that they were 18-29 from the All-Star Break to August 31.

Quips Rangers' blogger Austin Swafford, "Yeah, now they start winning. Go figure."

The Ticket of a Generation?

This weekend's Saints-Bills game in the Alamodome is seen as huge. Some say that a sell-out would go a long way towards landing the Saints in San Antonio long-term.

The Express-News's Buck Harvey wonders about the true significance of the game:

The NBA Finals seventh game just three months ago — that doesn't compare to watching someone named J.P. Losman play quarterback, does it?

The Saints' historic first regular-season game here is worth a watch, but San Antonians would react far better if they had their own team. They would react differently, too, if an offseason had been spent marketing the team.

Instead, the Saints were unsure where they would play until 17 days ago, and the Spurs know how demanding selling that ticket would be. They market a well-run and championship organization, and yet they have to work the full year to optimize sales.

And when the first round of the playoffs come? Then the Spurs scramble, even with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili to sell, because there's so little time.

Given that, San Antonio has done well to break the 50,000-ticket barrier for Sunday's game. But is that enough, or will fans also need to throw wadded-up bills at the Saints as they leave the field?

San Antonio has a small TV market in terms of actual people, but it's a Sun Belt market that is growing, and San Antonio is home to major companies like SBC Communications and Clear Channel (they of the radio, billboard, and concert promotion buisness). San Antonio also has a high per capita income. Throw in the fact that the high-tech hub of Austin, another growing, high-income market, is only 2 hours away, plenty of time to drive to a game on Sunday, and you can see why Tom Benson might find this market attractive.

Still, I get Harvey's point. San Antonio should not have to prove that they deserve an NFL team based on the ticket sales for this game.

Of course, Jerry Jones could still find a way to thwart the whole thing, and render this all a moot point.

Tomorrow: Weekend Preview

Torbush's head on chopping block; Bennett's should be.

Aggie Fans fault Torbush for near miss against Texas State

The Aggie defense, once one of the best in the nation, has fallen on hard times.

Against Clemson, they allowed 396 yards of total offense, and allowed Charlie Whitehurst to complete 73% of his passes. They also gave up 9.7 yards per pass attempt (that's counting incompletions) before Whitehurst left with an injury.

Against SMU, they allowed 3o9 yards passing, and SMU's only touchdown came on a long passing play.

Against Texas State, Bobcat QB Barrick Nealy threw for 378 yards (at 34 attempts, that's 11.1 yards per pass attempt) and 3 touchdowns.

As a result, the Aggies are statistically last in the Big 12 in defense. Defensive Coordinator Carl Torbush, naturally, has been taking the heat from Aggie fans and pundits.

To Torbush's credit, he's been a standup guy about the whole thing:

"It starts with me ... [The Aggies] have not gotten better-than-average play from any position. That's disappointing for me because I felt like we would be better at this point than we have been."

Unfortunately, he also got the dreaded "vote of confidence", so for all that honesty, he may still get fired.

Speaking of the "vote of confidence"

Carl Torbush is taking the heat for a 2-1 season, Phil Bennett, who's SMU Mustangs scored fewer points on A&M than Texas State did, is surprisingly not under any pressure despite a 7-25 career record.

And Tim Cowlishaw wonders why:

We are 17 seasons removed from the death penalty at SMU. Forrest Gregg and Tom Rossley combined to win seven of the team's first 39 games after the NCAA shut down the program. More than a decade later, Bennett has managed to do no better than that.

Harris Poll Voter gives vote to Idaho

The inagural Harris Interactive Poll for College Football has been released today. And while no one has any problem with the teams that came out with a final ranking, it's been fashionable to rip on one poll voters' choice of 0-4 Idaho. And since they don't know who said poll voter is, the press has been ripping on the whole poll.

Not that the media has any cause to be ripping on anyone for bad polling considering that they have made many a screw up doing their college football polls.

What Harris, who some readers may remember because they run one of the 2 high school polls in Texas, is learning is that there's a lot more scrutiny on a major college football poll than there is for a high school poll. High school fans are just happy to see their team ranked. College fans want their team to be ranked, and are willing to nitpick anything they see wrong with a poll if it makes their team look better.

Tomorrow: TBA

Rita Stories

Some of our blogger friends had to deal with Rita.

These are their stories:

Ryan from Texas A&M And Baseball talks about evacuating his entire family

Lisa from The Dugout actually had to convince her husband to leave.

Journalism is for Rockstars was sent by his newspaper to cover the hurricane and blogged it all. (One has to ask though, was his newspaper trying to off him?)

Weekend Wrap-Up: "Writer's Block" edition

Colleges

Big Story of the weekend: Another hurricane wrecks the schedule.

It's becoming abundantly clear that teams in the Gulf States need to start leaving open dates later in the schedule. If we're in a big hurricane cycle, and these things do go in cycles, it would be a prudent measure.

Rice and Houston both had games cancelled due to Hurricane Rita, and it forced Texas A&M to move up their game with Texas State (which should have been Florida State, but they chickened out).

UPDATE: AgRyan04 of Texas A&M and Baseball has informed me that the SMU game, not the Texas State game, was the replacement for the Florida State game. Still a chicken move by FSU.

This on top of Hurricane Katrina messing up the Week 1 schedule.

Big 12 games

Texas A&M 44, Texas State 31
We've already covered this game, but a couple things bear repeating. First, Texas State QB Barrick Nealy threw for 379 yards against this A&M secondary. Not good. Second, Texas A&M let Texas State hang around for too long.

More Commentary: Texas A&M and Baseball

Iowa State 28, Army 21
TexasTommy really thinks I should rate Iowa State higher, so I decided to check out their game with Army on Friday to see if they could actually lay the wood to a bad team, albeit one that is training for a more important job than playing football on Sundays. The Cyclones were awful for the majority of the game. Iowa State gained 229 yards and turned the ball over 3 times, all Bret Meyer picks. Yes, the Cyclones came back and won, which is commendable, but a Big XII team shouldn't let an independent not located in South Bend, Indiana hang around like that.

Miami 23, Colorado 3
Unfortunately for the Buffs, Kyle Wright picked this game to establish himself as a bonafide college quarterback. Also, Joel Klatt looked horrible. While I admire his courage for sticking around with the foot injury, his mechanics were clearly affected because he couldn't throw a deep ball or get the necessary zip he needed on short throws. There's playing hurt, and then there's hurting your team by playing hurt. Klatt's decision falls under the latter.

More Commentary: Canes Addiction

Texas Tech 63, Indiana State 7
Well, I hope Larry Bird's alma mater got their money's worth out of their trip to Lubbock. Congratulations go out to Red Raider RB Taurean Henderson, who broke the school records for career touchdowns and points.

Expanded Recap: Double T Ranch

Kansas State 54, North Texas 7
Darrell Dickey needs to consider playing either Patrick Cobbs or Jamario Thomas on defense, because it's pretty clear the Mean Green doesn't have any quality talent on that side of the football. Nice bounce-back for the Wildcats, who had a record-setting offensive day of their own with 658 yards of total offense.

Another Recap: Math Dojo
"The Math Ninja," as she calls herself, is a student at Kansas State University, I'm guessing studying something math-related, with a football jones. She lists 2 NFL teams and Tom Brady among her interests.

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska all had the week off.

Our Adopted Team

For those who are catching this blog for the first time, Cheap Seats adopted the Tulane football team after Hurricane Katrina because I love their "we'll play anywhere" attitude.

Tulane 31, SMU 10
Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo said he play in a Popeye's Fried Chicken parking lot. SMU coach Phil Bennett should probably be looking for a job at a fast foot joint right now. With a 7-32 career record, it's becoming abundantly clear that he can't hack it as a coach.

Credit Tulane's Lester Ricard with this victory. His line: 22-34, 213 yards, and 2 TDs.

Recap: Frank McGrath (Tulane blogger)

Around the State

TCU 51, BYU 50 (2 OT)
Wow, is TCU lucky or what? Another team from Utah, another overtime game, another close call that goes in their favor. Eventually, they are going to have to start winning these games on skill, though.

UTEP 21, New Mexico 13
The defense and special teams come through for the Miners as Joe Flesoski returns a pick 68 yards for a touchdown and Nate Draughton blocks a punt for another.

Hurricane Rita wiped out Rice and Houston's home games.

Around the Nation
(Recaps from around the Blogosphere, A lot of blogs haven't posted recaps, so we'll keep this updated as more come in)

USC 45, Oregon 13
Boi from Troy
SportsFrog
Lost in the Mind of myself

Virginia Tech 51, Georgia Tech 7
Sporting Fools

Florida 49, Kentucky 28
Every Day Should Be Saturday

Boston College 16, Clemson 13 (OT)
Eagle in Atlanta
Happy Valley Tiger Chunks

Wisconsin 23, Michigan 20
MGoBlog (not really a recap so much as it is a cry for help from a Michigan fan)

South Florida 45, Louisville 14
Before I Get Old
Bull Pen

Ohio St. 31, Iowa 6
Buckeyecommentary.com

Alabama 24, Arkansas 13
Journalism is for Rockstars

Georgia 23, Mississippi State 10
Georgia Sports Blog

Cheap Seats' Blogpoll Ballot

We're waiting for Tennessee-LSU tonight to fill it out completely, so here's a preliminary forecast of who on our ballot last week is moving up and who's moving out.

Rank	Team	Momentum	Comment
1	Southern Cal	Holding	So far so good, Trojans pass toughest road test to date
2	Georgia	Down a little	Not looking as impressive in their last contest.
3	Texas	Up	Probably should have been #2 a long time ago. This is a correction
4	Virginia Tech	Up	Ranked teams generally don't blow out other ranked teams the way the Hokies blew up the Ramblin' Wreck
5	LSU	???	vs. Tennessee tonight
6	Louisville	Way down	Teams that have BCS aspirations don't get blown out by weaker conference foes.
7	Florida	Up	Despite their second half against Kentucky, Gators in great shape
8	Florida State	Holding	Bye week
9	Purdue	Dropping fast	So much for the advantage of not having Ohio State or Michigan.
10	Ohio State	Up	Probably shouldn't have dropped so much after Texas game, but oh well.
11	Michigan	Down	Still can right the ship vs. MSU, but it's not looking likely
12	Tennessee	???	Need to beat LSU tonight to maintain their position.
13	Arizona St.	Holding	Nice win over Oregon State
14	Miami (FL)	Holding	Right now, the only team that can knock off Va. Tech in the ACC Coastal Division.
15	Texas Tech	Holding	Faces 1st real defense next week vs. Kansas
16	Georgia Tech	Down a lot.	Even with a somewhat recovered Reggie Ball, Virginia Tech slaughtered the Yellow Jackets.
17	Clemson	Down	Can't drop them too much for losing close, but everyone else with 2 losses right now is getting dropped also.
18	Notre Dame	Up	Now, the "angry Ty Willingham" storyline can finally be put to bed
19	UCLA	Holding	Bye week
20	Alabama	Up	1st real test against Florida next week
21	Boston College	Up	Happy first ACC win, Eagles!
22	Texas A&M	Holding	... but very precariously.
23	UTEP	Holding	ditto
24	Iowa	Dropping out	The loss to Ohio State hurts Iowa (and Iowa State by extension)
25	TCU	Holding	Escaping Provo with a victory and their vote in my ballot

Under consideration

Team	Momentum	Comments
Fresno State	Holding	Bye Week
Colorado	Down	Beginning of the end for Gary Barnett?
Utah	Down	Narrowly avoided a loss at Air Force
Michigan State	Up to Top 25	OK, they survived a trap game. They've probably earned their ranking now.
Oklahoma	Holding	bye week
Iowa State	Up?	Positives: Best team in the Big XII North Negatives: That last game against Army was too close and their "marquee win" against Iowa ain't lookin' so good now.
Virginia	Up	All they do is win.
Boise State	Up	Closing the gap with Fresno for WAC lead
Oregon	Down	Had a chance to make noise and couldn't take advantage of it
Cal	Holding	Beating New Mexico State is not enough to move this team.

NFL

Sunday's Games

Dallas Cowboys 34, San Francisco 49ers 31
Last week, the Cowboys couldn't by a key play late in a close ball game. This week, they made the key play to win the game. But the defense had it's first poor performance, allowing 31 points, their highest amount so far, to a 49er team that looked anemic against Philly.

More commentary:
Dallas Cowboys Blog on AOL
The Cowboy Roundup

Minnesota Vikings 33, New Orleans Saints 16
Well, the vagabonds are now 1-2. Fantasy owners of Daunte Culpepper were happy, as he passed for 300 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. (Fantasy owners like me who faced a team with Culpepper, not so much).

The Saints play their first "home" game next week at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Monday Night Football vs. CSI:Miami

This Week's Monday Night Football (Broncos vs. Chiefs)
Let's see, Kansas City, believe it or not, is 2-0 and actually plays defense. The Broncos lost badly in Week 1 to the Dolphins, but bounced back last week against San Diego. Should be a good game.
I should disclose that a couple of my buddies, a Chiefs fan and a Broncos fan, have invited me to go down to a sports bar here in Austin, and that's going to affect my decision. (Guess they need an arbiter to settle bets).

This Week's CSI:Miami ("Blood in the Water")
Yahoo! TV Listings:

A rich couple's daughter dies when the family is trapped on a burning yacht in shark-infested waters.

It's another new episode, and I've already missed the season premiere. Don't want to miss two new episodes in a row. Decisions, decisions...

The Verdict
In another close call, the fact that I'm going to a sports bar with friends trumps CSI:Miami. Socializing is good for you.
Monday Night Football

Tuesday: After-Action Report

Weekend Preview - 9/23/2005

Apologies for not posting yesterday. Bunch of stuff to do to get ready to host stuff this weekend. (Thankfully Rita's just going to rain on us here in Austin. Plus, it's indoor stuff.)

For the second time this season, we've had a major storm wreck the weekend football schedule. Fortunately, some of the schools planned ahead this time, and were able to reschedule some of the games.

Several Big XII Programs are off this week as conference play starts next week, but there are a couple interesting storylines among the remaining games. Colorado takes a roadie to Miami, Texas Tech wants triple digits against Indiana State, and Iowa State gets to play Army

Colleges

Games Postponed due to Hurricane Rita
Southern Miss at Houston
Navy at Rice

Starting their weekend off early

Texas A&M 44, Texas State 31
This was a bizarre game to watch. If you tuned into FSN last night, The play-by-play was basically the radio broadcast from A&M, meaning many fans were treated to A&M broadcaster Dave South for the first time, an experience not recommended for the faint of heart, weak of stomach, those who are nursing or pregnant, or fans of teams other than A&M. Dude is a serious homer.

The other oddity about the game is how empty the stands were. I know they had a sell out, technically, but the announced attendance had to be based on ticket sales. Part of that's because out-of-town fans were told to stay home. Part of that is because a lot of people drive in from Houston to see the game and they were stuck trying to get out of town. Whatever the case, it wasn't the same Kyle Field atmosphere we're used to seeing.

The only oddity about the actual game play was the fact that A&M let Texas State hang around so long.

Texas State QB Barrick Nealy threw 379 yards, which should scare A&M fans, or at least the level-headed ones not going to the "two days of preparation" card. It's one thing to allow Clemson to go pass-happy, they are at least a I-A team with a pretty good QB in Charlie Whitehurst. This is a I-AA team.

The Aggie offense, however, showed up as expected and saved A&M's bacon. Texas A&M had a 300 yard passer (Reggie McNeal), a 200-yard reciever (Jason Carter), and a 100 yard rusher (Courtney Lewis) in the same game for the first time in their history. (That's right, it took them 129 years to have this kind of offensive success in a single game.)

Big 12/Texas Game of the Week
Colorado vs. Miami
11:00 AM ABC (KVUE 24)
Regional Coverage: Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, Midland, El Paso, Tyler, Lufkin, Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, Albuquerque, Topeka, Wichita, Western Kansas, plus all markets in Colorado and Oklahoma.*
Stations Recieving Iowa-Ohio State instead: Kansas City, Texarkana, Shreveport, Ft. Smith, Sioux Falls, plus all markets in Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.

Key Matchup
Joel Klopfenstein vs. Miami linebackers
Can the Miami linebackers stop one of the nation's best tight ends on passing downs? We'll see.

Key Player for Colorado
Hugh Charles
With back to back 100 yard games, Charles is establishing himself as an offensive threat.

Key Player for Miami
Kyle Wright
Wright has been chastized for his play at Florida State, but seemed to redeem himself leading Miami to an overtime victory over Clemson. Which Kyle Wright will show up this week?

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Colorado offense vs. Miami defense	Miami	This is about the weakest group of recievers Miami has faced all year. Miami can key on the run game.
Miami offense vs. Colorado defense	Colorado	I don't trust Kyle Wright to run this offense, yet.
Special Teams	Colorado	Colorado: Mason Crosby; Miami: botched field goal.
Coaching	Miami	Even though we suspect Gary Barnett may somehow be immortal because he manages to keep his job despite mediocre results, Larry Coker is the better game coach.
Intangibles	Miami	Both teams have proven they can win close games, but Miami has done it against better competition

Big XII Games

Iowa State at Army
Friday 7:00 PM ESPN2
The Cyclones have had a week to cool down from their big victory over Iowa, so expect them to be focused for this game at Army

North Texas at Kansas State
Saturday 2:10 PM
Former Kansas State quarterback Darrell Dickey leads the team he now head coaches, North Texas, into battle with his alma mater. Both teams come off bad losses. K-State did not look impressive in their last outing at Marshall. North Texas was dismantled by Tulsa.

Indiana State at Texas Tech
Saturday 7:00 PM Free Webcast (on foxsports.com)
A number of people are predicting Texas Tech will hit 100. It will be a huge blowout, and I'd love to see it happen as a Red Raider alumnus, but I have my doubts about Tech hitting the century mark.

Bye Week
Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri

Our Adopted Team

Tulane at SMU
Saturday 1:00 PM
After a heartbreaking loss to Mississippi State, Tulane takes on SMU, a team which has lost to Baylor, upset TCU, and gotten run out of Kyle Field. Which SMU team that shows up this week is anyone's guess. Hopefully for Tulane, it will be the squad that showed up in SMU jerseys last week.

Other Texas Teams

New Mexico at UTEP
Saturday 8:05 PM CSTV
This is probably the most dangerous game on UTEP schedule to date. New Mexico already has a win over Big 12 team Missouri, and UTEP is coming off a close overtime win over Houston.

TCU at BYU
Saturday 2:00 PM PPV
After their Thursday win over Utah, TCU takes its first high-altitude road trip to Provo, Utah.

National Games of Note
Cal at New Mexico State (Friday) - 9:00 PM ESPN. - The first game ever broadcast in Navajo language. (Currently looking for an internet link to the actual broadcast)
Iowa at Ohio State - 11:00 AM ABC (see above for regional coverage) - Loser can kiss their Big 10 title hopes goodbye
Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech - 3:30 PM ABC/PPV - Those lucky Hokies don't have to face Reggie Ball, thanks to Ball's viral meningitis.
Notre Dame at Washington - 3:30 PM ABC/PPV - Ty Willingham doesn't want to get revenge on Notre Dame, but there's a lot of people pulling for him anyway.
USC at Oregon - 7:00 ABC - The first of 3 dangerous Pac-10 games for Oregon.
Tennessee at LSU - (Monday) 6:30 PM ESPN - Finally, LSU opens it's home schedule. Tennessee, coming off a bad loss to Florida, is walking into a hornets' nest.

NFL

We're running short on time, so I'm just going to go to the "Tale of the Tape"

Bye Week: Houston
That's not a cancelled game. Fortunately for the Texans, their bye week is this week. However, the Texans are reportedly making preparations for a three-week roadie.
Lost in all the hurricane news: Phillip Buchanon, the Texans' big offseason signing at CB, was demoted.

New Orleans at Minnesota
Sunday 12:00 PM FOX (KTBC 7)
Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Saints offense vs. Vikings defense	Minnesota	Minnesota's defense has improved, and is probably the only working part of this game right now.
Vikings offense vs. Saints defense	New Orleans	Purple jerseys, Daunte! Throw to the Purple jerseys!
Special Teams	New Orleans	Again: John Carney... Good night everyone!
Coaching	New Orleans	I wouldn't trust Captain Tice with a dinghy, let alone this Viking ship, in a storm.
Intangibles	New Orleans	The hurricane vagabonds are ticked off. I wouldn't want to line up against them after the NFL did them wrong.

By the way, my mother sent me the following joke via e-mail:

I read that the Vikings are going to tear up the artificial surface in the Metrodome and replace it with cardboard.

Apparently, the Vikings always look better on paper

Dallas at San Francisco
Sunday 12:00 PM FOX (KTBC 7)
Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Cowboys offense vs. 49ers defense	Dallas	It doesn't look like the 49ers have the tools to stop Julius Jones or get pressure on Drew Bledsoe.
49ers offense vs. Cowboys defense	Dallas	Tim Rattay, meet DeMarcus Ware.
Special Teams	Dallas	Neither team has great special teams, but Mat McBriar gives Dallas the edge since he can create field position for Dallas with his leg
Coaching	Dallas	Gotta take Parcells over the rookie coach
Intangibles	San Francisco	Neither team is real sure of themselves going into this week, but I think Dallas has the most recovering to do after that heartbreaker against Washington.

* - This game will also be shown in the Houston, Beaumont, Tyler, and Lufkin markets, but if you're planning on watching TV on Saturday in one of those markets, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT!

BlogPoll Week 4

Week 4's Blogpoll



My Ballot:


Games I watched:

• TCU-Utah,
• UTEP-Houston,
• Texas A&M-SMU (while doing laundry),
• UCLA-Oklahoma,
• parts of Tennessee-Florida and Texas-Rice (while socializing at a friend's birthday party).
  

Cowboys beaten on two plays in fourth quarter

Santana Moss pulls in a touchdown in front of Aaron Glenn (L.M. Otero/AP)

Two plays. That's all it took.

Two long bombs to Santana Moss, the only two times the Cowboys failed to execute their coverages, and it's enough to beat the 'Boys. Why wasn't Terrence Newman covering Santana Moss on those touchdown plays?

I have also never seen so many third down passes end up so short of the marker as I did last night from the Cowboys. If you need 7 yards, you need to run a 7-yard route.

Jose Cortez should have hit that 41 yarder in the first quarter. That was an inexcusable miss, especially considering he hit one from the same distance later in the game.

Everything else they did right. No picks, no fumbles lost, no sacks of Drew Bledsoe, blitzed Mark Brunell into the ground.

It's just those two stinking pass plays.

Game Summary:
Dallas Morning News
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Washington Post
More Commentary:
Michael Wilbon
The Cowboy Roundup
Hog Heaven
Sports Bloggers Live's Jamie Mottram
Dallas Cowboys Blog on AOL

Last anyone checked, Urban's players weren't getting car-bombed

Surely Urban Meyer remembers the media firestorm that erupted when Kellen Winslow II declared himself "a soldier" simply because he played football. Even if he was in Utah at the time, Utah has cable TV, all-sports radio, and the internet.

So he's gotta know from Mr. Winslow's experience that referring to football players as "soldiers" is disrespectful, right?

Apparently not.

From Meyer's press conference:

We take care of our soldiers around here . . . When one soldier drops a rifle, the next one's got to pick it up and go a little harder.

Naturally, the media has let him have it.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel puts it better than I ever could:

A blitzing linebacker doesn't compare to an inescapable suicide bomber. Staring at a 3rd-and-7 pales in comparison to staring at an AK-47. And if Florida quarterback Chris Leak makes a bad decision, the consequence is a loss of down or yardage; not a loss of life or limb.

Urban's blaming this on not being used to big time media pressure. Sorry not buying it. It doesn't matter whether you are coaching Lampasas High School or the University of Florida, the comment is still inappropriate.

Now, the mainstream media calling Urban Meyer out for being disrespectful of the troops is the pot calling the kettle black given all the articles they've spewed out post-liberation, but that's a separate issue.

(Story Courtesy We Are The Boys)

Wednesday: TBA

Weekend Wrap-Up: "16 de Septiembre" edition

With the Texas-Oklahoma game drawing near, a young fan at the UT-Rice game mocks how the Sooners' season is going so far. (Deborah Cannon/Austin American-Statesman)

Happy Mexican Independence Day Weekend to all.

In the spirit of the weekend, the revolt is on in college football. UCLA played Augustín Iturbide to Oklahoma's Imperial Spain. Florida, vanguard of college football's "offensive revolution", beat a Tennessee team that was a preseason #3 in most polls. Michigan State came in to Notre Dame Stadium and beat the previously undefeated Fighting Irish. Florida State and Miami both needed late rallies to hold off the Father Hidalgos of the ACC: BC and Clemson. TCU bounced back from a horrible defeat at the hands of SMU to snap Utah's 19-game win streak.

As for the NFL, it resembles Mexican history in between it's independence and the beginning of Porfirio Diaz's presidency: No one's sure who's in charge, and it could change at any moment.

The Eagles, who lost in Week 1, beat a 49ers team that beat it's Week 1 opponent. The Lions, who looked like world beaters against Green Bay, came crashing down to earth against the Bears, who looked horrible in a loss to Washington in week 1. The Patriots looked on track in Week 1 against the Raiders, then they lost to Carolina, who lost their Week 1 game to the inspired New Orleans Saints. The Jets looked bad in week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, then bounced back agains the Miami Dolphins, who slaughtered the Broncos in their opener.

Seems like the entire league is 1-1 right now. I give up.

Colleges

Big Story of the Weekend: UCLA puts the nail in the coffin of OU's BCS aspirations

Ironically, OU's BCS Bowl aspirations died on the very field that the BCS championship will be decided on in January.

If Oklahoma can take any solace out of this, it's that Rhett Bomar showed some flashes of ability and solidified his hold on the QB job. Also, Travis Wilson established himself as an offensive playmaker.

Still, this defense still has issues in the secondary and Maurice Drew still got 4.6 yards per carry despite the fact that OU was keyed to stopping him.

More Commentary:
Gaylord Memorial Gathering
My Opinion on Sports
Bruins Nation: Article 1 /Article 2

The Rest of the Big XII

Texas 51, Rice 10 - No letdown here in Texas's final tuneup for the OU game. Jamaal Charles has established himself in the Texas backfield after his second 100-yard game this season.

More commentary: All Things Longhorn

Texas Tech 80, Sam Houston State 21 - Nope, not a misprint. Nor is this: Cody Hodges had 436 yards and 5 touchdowns. 14 of Sam Houston State's 21 points came against the reserve defenders, and the only Sam Houston State score against the first-stringers came after a special teams mistake.

Nebraska 7, Pittsburgh 6 - For those of you who were subjected to this game on your local ABC affiliate, I'm sorry you had to see this game. This was a horrible game. It was supposed to be a statement game for both teams, but the only statement that was made appears to be, "Nebraska and Pittsburgh both stink."

More commentary:
StrugglingJoe
Pitt Sports Blather

Texas A&M 66, SMU 8 - SMU basically tried to run Clemson's game plan. Unfortunately, they don't have Clemson's personnel and it showed. Reggie McNeal set an A&M school record with 449 total yards and was A&M's leading passer and rusher. And apparently Dennis Franchione has stolen Urban Meyer's spread option play because that's what they seemed to run every other down.

More Commentary: Texas A&M and Baseball

Kansas 34, Louisiana Tech 14 - The Kansas defense everyone anticipated in preseason finally showed up as the Jayhawks registered 7 sacks and 4 picks.

Missouri 52, Troy 21 - Missouri avenged it's biggest loss of last year, but still gave up 260 yards passing

Oklahoma State 20, Arkansas State 10 - A repeat of all Oklahoma State games to date: defense performs well, offense has issues. Still, the Cowboys are unbeaten so far, something their Bedlam Series rivals can't claim.

More Commentary: Cowboy Brand (a new OSU blog)

Baylor 20, Army 10 - To everyone's surprise, Baylor is 3-0, which puts them 3 wins away from bowl eligibility.

Colorado has the week off to prep for their game against Miami.

Kansas State and Iowa State also had the week off.

Our adopted team

Mississippi State 21, Tulane 14 - In a battle of two programs that have been deeply affected by Hurricane Katrina, Cheap Seats' adopted team Tulane came up just short. The Green Wave came back to tie M-State in the fourth quarter, but they muffed a punt, which was recovered by the Bulldogs' Lance Long. The Bulldogs scored a TD on the following drive and Tulane could not muster another score.

More Commentary:
Frank McGrath (Tulane blogger)
Mississippi State Sports Blog

Around the State

TCU 23, Utah 20 (OT) - The way is open for TCU to take the Mountain West Conference, if they stick to the same offensive game plan. Utah couldn't handle TCU's running game, and not many defenses in the Mountain West will be able to either.

UTEP 44, Houston 41 (2 OT) - Jordan Palmer, Tyler Ebell, and Johnnie Lee Higgins all put up gaudy stats, but this game was rife with turnovers and penalties.

Tulsa 52, North Texas 2 - The era of North Texas's Sun Belt dominance may be over. The rest of the Sun Belt has to be licking it's chops. The Mean Green's defense was exposed.

Around the Country

The best blog recaps of the Weekend's action

Florida 16, Tennessee 7
Every Day Should Be Saturday
VOLuminous
Florida State 28, BC 17
Sporting Fools
Eagle in Atlanta (Article 1/Article 2)
Miami 36, Clemson, 30 (3 OT)
Canes Addiction
Clemson Sporting News
Happy Valley Tiger Chunks
Michigan State 44, Notre Dame 41
Blue-Gray Sky (Article 1/Article 2)
Georgia 44, Louisiana-Monroe 7
Georgia Sports Blog

Blogpoll Ballot

1. USC
2. Georgia
3. Texas
4. Virginia Tech
5. Louisiana State
6. Louisville
7. Florida
8. Florida State
9. Purdue
10. Ohio State
11. Michigan
12. Tennessee
13. Arizona State
14. Miami (Florida)
15. Texas Tech
16. Georgia Tech
17. Clemson
18. Notre Dame
19. UCLA
20. Alabama
21. Boston College
22. Texas A&M
23. UTEP
24. Iowa
25. TCU

First 5 Out:

Fresno State
Colorado
Utah
Michigan State
Oklahoma

NFL

Pittsburgh 27, Houston 7
It was an offensive performance so pitiful that the Texans canned offensive coordinator Chris Palmer. Ironically, he is being replaced by offensive line coach Joe Pendry, who seems to be the least qualified candidate after his offensive line allowed 8 sacks.

Monday Night Football vs. CSI:Miami

This week's Monday Night Football(Cowboys-Redskins and Saints-Giants):
A rare Monday Night Football doubleheader, with the nightcap being one of the few true rivalries left in the NFL: Cowboys vs. Redskins. Plus, we get to see the team everyone is pulling for.

This week's CSI:Miami(Season Premiere "From the Grave"):
Yahoo TV Listings

Horatio finds himself with a price on his head when he makes plans to shut down the illegal smuggling operation of one of Miami's fiercest gangs

And according to the advertising, we get to find out more about Horatio Caine's past. Rhis makes it a tough call.

The Verdict
It's the first new CSI:Miami, but I gotta watch my Cowboys whoop up on the Redskins. Anyone out there got a DVR?
Monday Night Football

Tomorrow: Are You Ready For Some Football?

Weekend Preview: 9/16/2005

Something to think about: How good is the Big 12 really?

We know Texas can go to Ohio State and beat them. We know that Iowa State surprised Iowa. We know any Big 12 team can beat a Sun Belt team. But other than that, the results have been disappointing.

- OU lost to TCU, a team that has beaten 2 BCS teams from last year (more on their second victory below, keep reading), and let Tulsa hang around.

- Missouri lost to New Mexico at home

- Colorado needed a last second field goal to beat Colorado State after the Rams basically outplayed the Buffs the majority of the game.

- You could probably figure this out based on the above info, but it bears repeating: The Big 12 is 1-2 versus the Mountain West.

- Texas A&M lost to Clemson. Granted it was a road game, and A&M did rally, but A&M could not stop Clemson's passing game.

- Kansas State only beat Marshall because the opposing coach gambled on a pass play to get more yards when he should have kicked the game winning field goal. The Wildcats did not look good that game.

- Oklahoma State needed a 4th quarter touchdown pass to beat 1-AA Montana State, and the defense bailed the offense out in the win over FAU.

- Prior to their upset of Iowa, Iowa State allowed 3 touchdowns to 1-AA Illinois State.

- In Texas Tech's big victory over FIU, the first team defense allowed a bunch of long drives.

- Kansas has not really looked good in either of it's blowouts.

- Nebraska was not impressive against Maine (though they looked better against Wake Forest).

- Baylor barely beat SMU, who will be one of the worst teams in Conference USA when it's all said and done.

The Big 12 may be better than the Big 10, but given the Big 10's recent results against BCS teams outside of conference, that may not be saying much.

Colleges

Getting their weekend off early

TCU 23, Utah 20 (OT)
The BCS conferences can breathe a sigh of relief. They won't have to worry about splitting the pie with an undefeated mid-major again. (Granted, UTEP could still go undefeated, but they aren't playing anyone of note, which pretty much excludes them from any BCS buster talk.)

It's probably safe to say that the Mountain West has been decided. TCU went to the ground to beat last year's BCS buster and the other top team in the MWC, a strategy which will prove effective against every other 3-3-5 Stack defense in that conference.

It's also probably safe to say that last week's Horned Frogs loss to SMU was a fluke.

By the way, the officials did miss a pick on the winning play, but Utah could have helped themselves by scoring a touchdown instead of a field goal on the opening drive. Had they gotten 7 instead of 3, the pick play would have tied it instead of won it and the Utes would've had another chance.

Utah also could have avoided overtime completely by containing TCU freshman running back Aaron Brown, who went off for 163 yards. 163 yards to a freshman not named Adrian Peterson? Pitiful.

Big XII/Texas Game of the Week
#23 Oklahoma at UCLA
Saturday 2:30 PM ABC (KVUE 24)
Regional Coverage: Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, El Paso, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, Tyler, Lufkin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Ada, Wichita, Western Kansas, Shreveport, Albuquerque, Jonesboro (AR).
Overview
OU needs this one in order to re-establish itself as a contender going into their Big 12 schedule. The question may be whether or not they can get it. UCLA is better than a lot of people expected, they have solid performers on both sides of the football, a dark horse Heisman candidate in Maurice Drew. Plus, they can be surprisingly tough at home for teams that have to adjust to the Pacific Time Zone.

Key Matchup
Maurice Drew vs. Oklahoma's defense
Maurice has put up some good numbers, but against bad competition. Oklahoma allowed only 1.7 yards/carry against TCU and 2.5 yards/carry against Tulsa.

Key Player for Oklahoma
Rhett Bomar
At some point, OU will be in a passing situation. Rhett Bomar needs to show he can be the man.

Key Player for UCLA
Drew Olson
Here's OU's passing defense stats through their first 2 games:

Opponent	Comp %	Comp.-Att.	Yards	Yards/Catch
TCU	53.3%	24-45	226	9.4
Tulsa	66.7%	24-36	246	10.25
Total	59.2%	48-81	472	9.8

And here's Drew Olson's stats through 2 games:

Opponent	Comp %	Comp.-Att.	Yards	Yards/Catch
SD State	66.7%	10-15	152	15.2
Rice	72.0%	18-25	296	16.4
Total	70.0%	28-40	448	16.0

Yo! Think someone's going to have a good day throwing the football?

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Oklahoma offense vs. UCLA defense	UCLA	Simply put, OU has no passing game, which simplifies things for UCLA's defense
UCLA offense vs. Oklahoma defense	UCLA	Running defense, good, Passing defense, not so much.
Special Teams	UCLA	Kickers seem to be even. I give UCLA the edge in the return game.
Coaching	Oklahoma	Bob Stoops is a better game coach than Karl Dorrell, but he may have his toughest coaching job yet.
Intangibles	UCLA	Oklahoma doesn't have the swagger and they are waiting for someone else to make the big play instead of trying to make it. UCLA, on the other hand, comes in with a bit of confidence.

Big XII Games

SMU at #25 Texas A&M
11:30 AM FSN Southwest/Midwest/Rocky Mtn.
A&M, after a bye gets a chance to reintroduce itself to the nation after the debacle at Clemson. SMU isn't as good as their win over TCU would suggest.

Baylor at Army
2:00 PM ESPN Classic
Baylor would like to have a win going into their Big XII schedule, but Army will play them tough. Don't think it will be a "classic", but it will be a tight ball game.

Pittsburgh at Nebraska
2:30 PM ABC
Regional Coverage: Omaha, Lincoln, Albion, Western Nebraska, Sioux Falls (SD), Sioux City(IA), Des Moines, Topeka, Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, Joplin, Springfield. (Cedar Rapids and some portions of Missouri that border Illinois will get Ohio State-San Diego State)
Speaking of teams needing a non-conference win to prove themselves, Pittsburgh needs this one after bad losses at Ohio (not State) and against Notre Dame. Nebraska's played two soft opponents, and is looking to down a 3rd cupcake before their conference opener.

Rice at Texas
6:00 PM FSN Southwest/Midwest/Rocky Mtn.
Can the Longhorns put the big win in Columbus out of their minds. It helps that they are playing Rice this week, but the Longhorns need to play assignment football.

Troy at Missouri
1:00 PM
Missouri suffered a bad loss last year at the hands of the Trojans, now they get to avenge the defeat this year at home. The real difference: Brad Smith now has the green light to run at will. (He has 299 yards already)

Sam Houston State at #20 Texas Tech
6:00 PM
Jarrett Hicks returns for Texas Tech as they host last year's Division I-A runner-up and former Tech QB Phillip Daugherty.

Louisiana Tech at Kansas
6:00 PM
Louisiana Tech comes off a blowout against Florida and now must play Kansas. Kansas needs a big blowout here to put everyone in the Big XII North on notice.

Bye week
Colorado
Kansas State
#24 Iowa State

Our Adopted Team

As we said last week, Cheap Seats is adopting the Tulane Green Wave because we love their attitude in the face of being displaced by the Hurricane

Mississippi State vs. Tulane
at Ruston, LA
Saturday 7:00 PM CSTV
I know Mississippi State's an SEC team, but they're a bad SEC team, and Tulane is a very dangerous team that will play anyone anywhere.

Other Texas Teams

Houston at UTEP
Tonight, 7:00 PM ESPN2
UTEP has a chance to get an early jump on the Conference USA West race by beating Houston.

Tulsa vs. North Texas
Saturday, 7:00 PM
After getting blistered by Adrian Peterson, Tulsa now faces the 1-2 rushing attack of Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas.

National Games of Note

#4 Tennessee at #6 Florida 7:00 PM CBS (KEYE 42)
Michigan State at #9 Notre Dame 1:30 PM NBC (KXAN 36)
Oregon State at #11 Louisville 11:00 AM ESPN
#10 Florida State at #16 Boston College 6:45 ESPN
#14 Miami (FL) at #21 Clemson 2:30 PM PPV
Fresno State at Oregon 6:00 PM TBS

NFL

Pittsburgh at Houston
Sunday 12:00 PM CBS (KEYE 42)
Overview
Well, the expansion label is off this year, so we can officially say that the Texans stink. And it only gets worse for them as the Pittsburgh Steelers come to Reliant Stadium.

Key Matchup
Texans' D-line/ILBs vs. Willie Parker
One thing for the Texans to give up a ton of yards to Willis McGahee, but not being able to stop a one-week fantasy wonder would be a bad sign going forward.

Key Player for Pittsburgh
Tommy Maddox
With Ben Roethlisbeger possibly not starting, it's up to Maddox to manage the game and complete passes when necessary.

Key Players for Houston
Texans Offensive Line
This offensive line simply has to be better than Week One.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Texans offense vs. Steelers defense	Pittsburgh	Texans could possibly be the worst offensive team in NFL history.
Steelers offense vs. Texans defense	Pittsburgh	No matter who starts at quarterback for the Steelers, The Texans' defense can't stop a three-toed sloth.
Special Teams	Pittsburgh	Texans have an unreliable kicking game and return game.
Coaching	Pittsburgh	If anyone knows Dom Capers' tendencies, it's Bill Cowher. Capers was once Cowher's defensive coordinator.
Intangibles	Pittsburgh	The pressure is squarely on Houston to produce. The expansion label is gone and the natives are restless.

New Orleans at New York Giants (Let's not kid ourselves)
Monday 6:30 PM ABC (KVUE 24)
Overview
San Antonio's new temporary home team plays it's first home game, but they are not playing it close to home. Oops on the NFL's part. Still, it's not like the New York Giants are good or anything.

Key Matchup
Eli Manning vs. Saints Secondary
The Saints held Jake Delhomme to 209 yards passing and forced a couple picks. Eli Manning threw a couple picks against a bad Arizona defense, though in a win, and now faces a secondary a heck of a lot better.

Key Player for New Orleans/San Antonio
Deuce McAllister
Fantasy owners have known what it's taken the pundits a while to figure out (and some still don't get it) McAllister is one of the top 5 backs in the league. New Orleans's offense revolves around him.

Key Players for the New York Giants
Will Peterson and Will Allen
These guys will be in single coverage much of the time as the Giants' safeties will have to provide run support. In the NFL, single coverage favors the offense.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Saints offense vs. Giants defense	New Orleans	Can't stop the Deuce. Won't be able to stop the play action.
Giants offense vs. Saints defense	New Orleans	Let's see 42 points against a real team before we decide Eli Manning is for real.
Special Teams	New Orleans	John Carney... Good night everyone!
Coaching	New York	Tom Coughlin can get the most out of a bad team. You never know what to expect from Jim Haslett
Intangibles	New Orleans	They have nothing to lose, and they are going to play like it.

Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys
Monday 7:00 PM ABC (KVUE 24)
Overview
One of the NFL's few true rivalries lines up for another edition this Monday Night, but don't expect it to be close. Washington is a mess despite their 9-7 opening day victory over the Bears

Key Matchup
Mark Brunell vs. Dallas's pass rush
Brunell doesn't have the mobility that he used to and the Cowboys can really put some heat on the quarterback.

Key Player for Washington
Clinton Portis
A solid rushing game will take some of the heat off Brunell and give the Redskins more makeable 3rd downs.

Key Player for Dallas
Rob Pettiti
Can the unheraled rookie right tackle hold up against a very good Washington defense?

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Dallas offense vs. Washington Defense	Dallas	While the defense is the only functioning part of this Redskins team, Dallas got some good yardage against a good San Diego defense.
Washington offense vs. Dallas defense	Dallas	If LaDanian Tomlinson, the best back in the league, only got 72 yards, what makes Washington think Portis is going to get more? Did we mention the quarterback situation is a mess?
Special Teams	Dallas	Jose Cortez was reliable on extra points at least and Mat McBriar is capable of completely flipping the field.
Coaching	Dallas	While Bill Parcells seems to have adapted to the modern NFL, Joe Gibbs still seems stuck in the past
Intangibles	Dallas	Dallas is coming off a big victory and Washington already has a quarterback controversy

Monday: Weekend Wrap-up

A thin line between fandom and insanity

It's ok to support your team and cheer and boo and all that stuff. That's what fans do. You can care about your team.

What Ohio State fans are doing to TE Ryan Hamby, however, is over the line.

Hamby dropped a TD pass in the 3rd quarter (note that) that could have given the Buckeyes a 10 point lead. Instead, the Buckeyes settled for a field goal and Texas came back to win the game.

Now Buckeye fans are sending hate mail to Hamby. Over a 3rd quarter dropped pass. What a bunch of lunatics.

Even Jackie Smith wasn't treated this badly by Dallas Cowboys fans and he dropped a game winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.

TMQ on "The Throwdown"

Gotta love Greg Easterbrook's parody of the Eagles-Falcons throwdown:

And in other football news, as I was getting limber to write this column -- jumping up and down, chanting to myself "a gerund is a noun derived from a verb, a gerund is a noun derived from a verb, yes!" -- Peter King of Sports Illustrated comes out of nowhere and jams in my face. "Your historical references lack footnotes!" this guy screams. I get right back in his face and shout, "Your metaphors exhibit reductionist solipsism!" Before you know it we're messin' with each other, and in comes Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to throw the flag. Now King and I are banned from writing for the New York Times op-ed page for a week. Is that fair? We were just jive-talking in warmups!

And if you miss any more class, Bob Stoops will shake his finger at you.

Adrian Peterson was suspended for 2 days of practice for missing class.

That's right, A.I., "Not a game, we talking about practice!" And we're talking the two easiest days of practice also: Monday and Tuesday.

Bob Stoops says he has not decided Peterson's status for the game, but let's not kid ourselves. Oklahoma desperately needs this UCLA game after the Sooners lost to TCU and looked bad against Tulsa. And they desperately need Peterson to be Peterson. So he's going to play.

Bohls: Vince Young has better chance at Heisman.

Longhorn mouthpiece Kirk Bohls continues to push Vince Young's Heisman candidacy, but admits there is one stumbling block:

Of course, it would help if Southern California's Matt Leinart up and quit football in favor of the pro ballroom dancing circuit. We understand it's a much less physical league.

If the Trojans' senior quarterback sticks it out, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner may well have the first matched set since Archie Griffin's pair.

Parcells: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Despite the fact that the Cowboys went on the road and beat a possibly playoff-bound San Diego Chargers team, Bill Parcells thinks his team stinks.

And he needs to get over it.

I know they started out horrible, but they eventually got things together. They battled the whole game. They got turnovers. They slowed down San Diego's pass rush enough to give Drew Bledsoe the time to throw.

Bottom line: They corrected themselves. Parcells doesn't need to labor the point further.

Astros lose ground on Wild Card

On the surface, it appears that Bruce Dreckman's phantom call cost the Astros a chance to make up ground in the wild card race.

With the game tied 2-2 in the 7th, Dreckman called a 3-2 pitch to Florida's Juan Pierre a ball because Astros pitcher Wandy Rodriguez allegedly licked his fingers before throwing the pitch. Rodriguez was replaced, and Paul Lo Duca homered on the next at bat.

However, the Astros could have made this a non issue by doing 2 things:

1) Leaving Rodriguez in there and not bringing in Chad Qualls. The Astros middle relief is horrible and Rodriguez should have had an opportunity to work himself out of that situation.

2) Hitting with runners in scoring position. They left 10 runners on base.

Eddie Sutton Sings!

Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball coach Eddie Sutton sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" yesterday during the Chicago Cubs game versus Cincinnatti yesterday

Video of the alleged singing incident can be seen here (Daily Oklahoman), although compared to Ozzy Osbourne and Jeff Gordon, he can at least carry a tune.

Plus, he's still not the worst singing basketball coach in the Big 12. Check out Quin Snyder's rendition of "Eye of the Tiger". (Courtesy Phog Blog)

Trotter has to "be a man"; Eagles pay the price

Falcons players celebrate a recovered fumble that Donovan McNabb dropped. (Rich Addicks/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

New strategy for teams facing the Eagles: Pick a fight with Jeremiah Trotter.

Seriously though, how bad did the Eagles defense look after Trotter got ejected? 200 yards rushing? You'd think Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson was in Atlanta's backfield.

I know a lot of people are rushing to Trotter's defense and saying that he's just trying to "be a man." and defend his side of the field. I'm not buying the explanation. "Being the man" doesn't give you license to be stupid. And letting someone get in your kitchen that much that you have to push back immediately, rather than wait until kickoff where you could have kicked his tail legally, is stupid.

He could have walked away from that and channeled it into a better performance on the field. Instead, he got ejected and cost his team the game.*

Worse, other players are going to try and start stuff with Trotter because a) they know they can and b) they know it's to their advantage to get Trotter ejected.

BTW, Kevin Mathis is an idiot too for instigating the thing. His idiocy is more obvious, and I shouldn't have to repeat what others can say better.

Hopefully, the players have learned their lesson and they can be professionals about this.

Later today: Blogpoll Ballot and Roundtable.

* - Matt, if you ever have to do a sermon on "turning the other cheek", this would be a good object lesson.

Weekend Wrap-Up: "Who Dat Say Gonna Beat Them Saints?" Edition

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints on their emotional win over Carolina yesterday.

College Football

Big Story of the Weekend: Ohio State gets Hooked

In the biggest regular season college football game this decade (so far), the Texas Longhorns went into The Horseshoe and beat the Ohio State Buckeyes.

In fact, it's UT's first regular season win against a top 10 team this decade. The last one came in 1999 against Nebraska.

True, they won the Rose Bowl last year, but you still had to wonder if that was a fluke or Mack could really coach a big game.

Now we know he can. Maybe there's hope for the Red River Shootout this year.

The Rest of the Big XII

Iowa State 23, Iowa 3 - Maybe the Cyclones aren't another one year wonder. They played inspired football and forced 5 turnovers to beat their cross-state rivals.

By the way, the top 3 teams in the Big 10: Iowa, Ohio State, and Michigan, all lost. Maybe the Big 12 isn't so bad after all.

Oklahoma 31, Tulsa 15 - This should read: Adrian Peterson 21, Tulsa 15. Rhett Bomar threw 2 picks, which is 2 more balls thrown than OU as a team had in the entire second half. (That's right, they didn't throw a single pass in the second half).

Texas Tech 56, Florida International 3 - 5 years ago. Texas Tech would have struggled to beat a team like this. Now they are blowing them out.

Kansas State 21, Marshall 19 - Don't let the final score fool you. The only reason K-State won this game is because Marshall decided to go for an ill-advised pass (which KSU picked off) on their last drive when they were already in field goal range.

Let me repeat that for any Wildcat fans that happen to read this:

You didn't beat Marshall. Marshall handed that game to you.

New Mexico 45, Missouri 35 - Last year, Missouri dropped a non-conference game to unheralded Troy. This year, they drop one to unheralded New Mexico. Hope all the people who paid for that webcast got their money's worth.

By the way, the Mountain West is 2-1 against the Big XII, and if it werent for a field goal by Colorado's Mason Crosby in Week 1, it could have been 3-0. Speaking of which...

Colorado 39, New Mexico State 0 - Colorado bounces back from last weeks near-debacle against their cross-state rival. New Mexico State really misses Tony Samuel right about now.

Nebraska 31, Wake Forest 3 - Well, at least the defense works.

Oklahoma State 23, Florida Atlantic 3 (Thursday) - Despite the win, Donovan Woods has been replaced at QB.

Kansas 36, Appalachian State 8 - Wow. Appalachian State got that many points?

Baylor 48, Samford 14 - Again, that's Samford, not Stanford. The difference? A couple letters and 1000 SAT points (on average).

Texas A&M had the week off.

Around the State

SMU 21, TCU 10 - See what happens when you read too many of your own press clippings, Horned Frogs?

UCLA 63, Rice 21 - UCLA gets a little momentum heading into the Oklahoma game. Drew Olson's line: 18-25, 296 yards, and 3 touchdowns.

Houston 31, Sam Houston St. 10 - If you could ever call a 31-10 victory "pedestrian," this game would be it.

North Texas 14, Middle Tennessee State 7 - MTSU outgained North Texas and had more first downs, yet only put 7 points on the board. Pathetic. Doesn't speak well about the Mean Green either.

UTEP and our adopted team Tulane both had the week off.

Blogpoll Ballot

Still working on it. Will post later.

NFL

Cowboys 28, Chargers 21

After an early stutter, the Cowboys came back to win. Drew Bledsoe looked really good as he had 3 touchdowns. The new defense looked really good, holding LaDanian Tomlinson to 72 yards rushing and picked off Drew Brees twice. And where did this Patrick Crayton kid come from? Wow.

Game Ball: Patrick Crayton
Led the Cowboys with 6 catches for 89 yards and his first NFL touchdown. May have cemented his spot on the roster and doomed Terry Glenn's chances once Peerless Price learns the offense.

Bills 22, Texans 7

Used to be the Texans just had problems blocking on passing downs. Now they have problems blocking period.

The Texans have had this offensive line problem every year of their existence, and GM Charlie Casserly has failed to come up with a solution. If someone's head should roll for this so-called football performance, it's his.

Right now, I bet Houston is sorry it asked for another football team.

Game Ball:None
No one deserves it.

Monday Night Football vs. CSI: Miami

This week's MNF: (Philadelphia vs. Atlanta): A rematch of last year's NFC Championship, which was a slaughter despite the fact that Terrell Owens was out with injury. Now T.O. is playing and Atlanta doesn't have a chance.

This weeks CSI:Miami ("10-7"):
Yahoo TV Listings:

Horatio finally learns the truth about what happened to his brother, and the repercussions will change his life forever

This was last year's season finale. It revealed a lot about Horatio Caine and it's worth viewing again to prepare for the season opener, where more details will be revealed about Horatio Caine's past.

Verdict:
Let's face it, this game's going to be a blowout. Not really worth watching.
CSI:Miami

Update: Maybe the Monday Night Football game was more interesting after all...

Katrina Update: UNT-LSU game rescheduled.

North Texas has finally rescheduled it's games with LSU and Louisiana Monroe(DMN)

The updated schedule reads as follows:

North Texas at LSU - Oct. 29

North Texas vs. Louisiana-Monroe - Nov. 19

Weekend Preview - 9/9/2005

(BlogPoll rankings displayed. All Times Central)

Before I begin, I gotta relay what I saw on Cold Pizza this morning:

Jay Crawford, Woody Paige, and Skip Bayless were in Columbus for the Texas-OSU game (more on that below), and during one of their little "First and 10" segments one of the cheerleaders, Jaclyn Burke, through an absolutely perfect spiral up to Woody Paige, who's on an elevated stage about 20 yards away. Then when Coach Tressel was up on the stage with Jay, Jaclyn threw him another perfect pass, which he bobbled. Later, she won a contest to win $500 in groceries by throwing another pass that was on the money.

Jaclyn Burke, 3rd in from the left on the front row, was "The Girl with the Golden Arm" on Cold Pizza. (Ohio State Athletics)

One thing's for sure, there are a bunch of co-rec intramural football teams at Ohio State that are rushing to sign her as a QB. (And the way co-rec rules are with the "closed/open" downs, you are at a disadvantage if you don't have a female who can throw.)

Anyway, with the Big XII falling on it's face in the marquee matchups last week, it falls to Texas to prove the conference's strength as they go into Columbus for possibly the biggest non-conference game you will see this decade. Texas Tech finally opens this season after taking the opening week off.

Colleges

Starting their Weekend Early

Oklahoma State 23, Florida Atlantic 3

Sure, the score looks really good. But the Cowboys only managed 98 yards passing and had no passing touchdowns. This from a team trying to install a passing offense. Their defense did force 4 turnovers, however.

Big XII/Texas schools Game of the Week

#2 Texas at #5 Ohio State
6:00 PM ABC (KVUE 24)
Overview
Unfortunately, because all the good independents from the 1980s like Miami and Florida State that always scheduled strong have been forced into conferences, and because strength of schedule has been taken out of the BCS formula, matchups like this are now a rarity.
It's nice to see that there are still title-contending programs like Texas that have the spine to risk everything on a road game like this.

(It would be nice if fans could organize to demand better matchups, but for every fan that boycotts, there's about 4 or 5 others waiting to take their season tickets.)

As for the game, I thought Texas would win this game at the outset of the season because of the talent they have on both sides of the football. However, the nagging thought of "Mack Brown can't win big games" is still creeping in my head.

Key Matchup
Ohio State's Linebackers vs. Vince Young and Texas's Linebackers vs. Troy Smith.
(Note: I know there's a possibility that Justin Zwick will start, but he's as mobile as a rock and the Texas defensive line will get to him. Troy Smith, if he doesn't start, will be in there sooner rather than later)
Both Vince Young and Troy Smith are fast, but so are the opposing linebackers they face. When the LBs rush, they have to stay in their lanes. When they spy the QB, they must be vigilant. Whoever is able to contain the other QB's running ability will win the game. (Hmm... sounds like a college game from the 1920s or 1930s)

Key Player for Ohio State
Bobby Carpenter
He now must back up his smack talk by not getting stuffed by Texas's massive offensive line on run plays and spying Vince Young on passing plays.

Key Player for Texas
David Thomas.
Like many close games, controlling the ball and controlling the clock will be important. That means converting a lot of 3rd-and-6s and 3rd-and-7s. Thomas must provide a consistent safety valve for Vince Young on those plays to make the linebackers respect him enough to cover him. Taking a linebacker out of the box will open things up for Young's scrambling ability in obvious passing situations.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Texas offense vs. Ohio State defense	Texas	One of the best offensive lines in the country. Texas *must* run the ball well to keep Ohio State's offense and the Longhorns' defense off the field
Ohio State offense vs. Texas defense	Push	I would give Texas the edge, except no one knows how they will defend Troy Smith when he's in there, and their secondary vs. Ted Ginn and Santonio Holmes is a big unknown.
Special Teams	Ohio State	Everyone says Ohio State has an edge in the kicking game, but last I checked, Mike Nugent graduated, so it's probably even with 2 kickers that have never had to perform under this kind of pressure. Where Ohio State does have the edge is with Ted Ginn's speed in the return game.
Coaching	Ohio State	Jim "Sweater Vest" Tressell has a BCS National Title game win under his belt. Yes, the methods he used to get quality players were underhanded, but a good football coach still has to put the good players in the right position to win. (You can cheat and still lose, just ask any bottom-feeding SEC program) Mack Brown, on the other hand, has had great talent, and not a whole lot of big game results outside of last year's Rose Bowl.
Intangibles	Ohio State	Texas is 10-14 in non-conference games under Mack Brown(!). Plus, he's only got 1 win against AP Top 5 competition.

Big XII Games

#20 Oklahoma at Tulsa
Saturday 11:30 AM FSN Southwest/FSN Midwest/FSN Rocky Mtn.
Oklahoma should beat Tulsa, but if they want to prove they are better than what they showed last week, they need to perform better than Minnesota, a mid-level Big 10 team, did last week. For the record, Minnesota beat Tulsa 41-10 and Laurence Maroney had 205 yards. If Oklahoma wants to show they've recovered, they need to beat Tulsa by better than 31 and Adrian Peterson needs to have more than 205 yards.

Kansas State at Marshall
Saturday 9:30 AM ESPN2
No, that time is *not* a misprint. That's the time they moved it to in order to accomodate TV.
Kansas State beat FIU last week, but did so without making a big play against a very bad defense. Also, K-State let FIU hang around until late in the game. Now the Wildcats step up to play a very dangerous team, Marshall, on the road.

#9 Iowa at Iowa State
Saturday 2:30 PM ABC (KVUE 24)
Regional Coverage: All markets in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa will get this game
Iowa might as well have scheduled Ball State again this week, it would have provided the same level of competition. The Cyclones allowed 21 points to a I-AA team last week.

Wake Forest at Nebraska
Saturday 6:00 PM TBS
If this was a basketball game, Wake Forest might have a chance. However, this is a football game. And it's at Nebraska.

New Mexico State at Colorado
Saturday 9:00 PM FSN Southwest/FSN Rocky Mtn
(FSN Midwest affiliates check local listings)
After surviving Colorado State, Colorado now faces a much easier New Mexico State opponent that was manhandled by UTEP last game.

#21 Texas Tech at Florida International
Saturday 6:00 PM
(Note: Mike Leach said Vincent Meeks and Jarrett Hicks will not suit up for this week's game, but only told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that it was an "in-house matter", which suggests that they have been suspended.)
Watch how Texas Tech's defense is performing in this game. They need to hold FIU to a touchdown or less on offense to prove that they are better than last year. Texas Tech also needs to roll up a bunch of points on FIU's bad defense to prove that they are ready to go.

New Mexico at Missouri
Saturday 6:00 PM (Webcast at 9:00 PM ($$$))
New Mexico is a team that can surprise an unwary opponent, as they did Texas Tech a few years ago. Missouri must stop the Lobos' DonTrell Moore to avoid a surprise here.

Appalachian St. at Kansas
Saturday 6:00 PM
No offense to Appalachian State, a very good I-AA team, but they are going against a talented Kansas defense. Their only hope is that the QB situation is still unsettled.

Samford at Baylor
Saturday 6:00 PM
That's Samford, not Stanford. Stanford probably would have beaten Baylor.

Bye Week
Texas A&M
Next Game: September 17th vs. SMU

Adopted Team

Bye Week
Tulane
Next Game: September 17th at Mississippi

Other Texas Teams

TCU at SMU - "The Iron Skillet Game"
Saturday 8:30 PM CSTV
TCU, fresh off their upset win over Oklahoma, must take the Iron Skillet Game by a wide margin or else people will regard their hard-earned win as a fluke. It stinks, but that's how the system treats mid-majors.

North Texas at Middle Tennessee State
Saturday 6:00 PM PPV
Still waiting for word on a possible make-up date for the LSU game, the Mean Green face off against Middle Tennessee State, the biggest challenger to North Texas's Sun Belt dominance.

Sam Houston St. at Houston
Saturday 6:00 PM
After losing a heartbreaker to Oregon last week, Houston tries to rebound against the I-AA Bearkats from nearby Huntsville (home of Texas's "Death Row"). Should be no contest.

Rice at UCLA
Saturday 9:00 PM
I'd love to see the expression on the Karl Dorrell haters at Bruins Nation when UCLA beats this team by 45 and they have to put up with Dorrell for another week.

Bye Week
UTEP
Next Game: September 16 vs. Houston

NFL

Houston at Buffalo
Sunday 12:00 PM CBS (KEYE 42)
Overview
Two teams with outside chances to make the playoffs this year face off in this game. Houston starts it season knowing it can no longer fall back on the "expansion team" excuse if it fails to make the playoffs again. Buffalo showed some flashes at the end of last year, but enters the year needing to show it's more than a one-dimensional offense. (But what a dimension!)

Key Matchup
Texans' D-line/ILBs vs. Willis McGahee
With an inexperienced quarterback, it's imperative that the Texans' challenge the Bills to beat them through the air. That means containing Willis McGahee.

Key Player for Buffalo
J.P. Losman
We know Willis McGahee can run, but it's up to Losman to provide balance to this offense or else Buffalo will face 8-man fronts for the rest of the season.

Key Player for Houston
Domanick Davis
Establishing a solid running game with Davis will help slow down the pass rush. Domanick Davis must also pick up blitzers on passing plays.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Texans offense vs. Bills defense	Buffalo	It's probably too much to ask this Texans O-line to block this aggressive Buffalo defense.
Bills offense vs. Texans defense	Push	Buffalo must show the league it can pass the football now that Drew Bledsoe is in Dallas
Special Teams	Buffalo	Kris Brown is not a reliable kicker outdoors
Coaching	Houston	Dom Capers has a better track record than Mike Mularkey
Intangibles	Buffalo	The pressure is squarely on Houston to produce. The expansion label is gone and the natives are restless.

Dallas Cowboys at San Diego Chargers
Sunday 3:15 PM FOX (KTBC 7)
Overview
Dallas wants to prove it wasn't the 5-11 team that they were last year. San Diego wants to prove to the naysayers that last season was no fluke. San Diego has LaDanian Tomlinson. Dallas has Julius Jones. Both teams have solid 3-4 defenses.

Key Matchup
Dallas' front 7 vs. San Diego's O-line and LaDanian Tomlinson
We know the new defensive scheme can produce a good pass rush, but can they stop the run? Especially a running game powered by TCU alumnus Tomlinson.

Key Player for San Diego
Antonio Gates
As with most good NFL tight ends, he creates matchup problems for any defense, but especially the Cowboys as neither OLB is as good in coverage as they are in the blitz.

Key Player for Dallas
Drew Bledsoe
In his first game, Bledsoe faces a defense that blitzes frequently. He's got to show the poise of a veteran on pass plays.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
Cowboys offense vs. Chargers defense	Dallas	Hello San Diego. Meet Julius Jones and Jason Witten.
Chargers offense vs. Cowboys defense	San Diego	Antonio Gates is the perfect antidote for an agressive blitz.
Special Teams	Push	Neither kicker or return unit is all that impressive
Coaching	Dallas	Come on, it's Parcells against Schottenheimer. Would you want Marty in a close game given his big game history?
Intangibles	San Diego	Both teams feel like they have something to prove this year, but this is the first real NFL game for Dallas's new defense.

Monday: Weekend Wrap-up

Gotta Love Tulane's attitude.

There's a scene in the movie The Replacements where Gene Hackman, who plays the coach, is addressing his team, I think it's before they play their last strike game. Anyway, he tells his team. "You have no tomorrow, and that makes you very dangerous people."

And Tulane, a private school, may not even exist tomorrow. It's students have transferred elsewhere, and except for those in it's prestigious law school, they may not want to come back. Tulane will have to make cutbacks to fund the rebuilding it's school, and that may mean cutting back on luxury items like football.

They won't even have a home this season as the entire campus, including athletic facilities is underwater and the Superdome (it's home football arena), is a biohazard that has to be torn down.

But you have to like the attitude of Tulane coach Chris Scelfo and his team. (Washington Post)

"We don't have a home stadium, so we don't need home jerseys. Hey, we ain't going back home this year. So we're on the road and that's all we have."
...
"I'll play in the parking lot of a Popeye's Fried Chicken and so will my team,"

(article link courtesy Every Day Should Be Saturday)

That last quote has to be early favorite for "Quote of the Year."

It also shows the kind of moxie Tulane has developed throughout all of this. They may not have a tomorrow, and they don't have a home, but they are a very dangerous team.

While the Football team is now working out at Louisiana Tech, other schools such as Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, and SMU have opened their doors to their athletes.

So Cheap Seats is going to do the same. We'll be "adopting" the Tulane Green Wave as an honorary Texas team this year and we'll be featuring them in our Weekend Preview and Wrap-Up.

How can you call this a "rematch"?

The Patriots are playing the Raiders tonight, and all the lazy sportswriters and talk show hosts seem to want to focus on the "Tuck Rule/Snow Job" angle.

For those of us who have put this game out of our minds, the Raiders appeared to have stripped Tom Brady on a play where his arm was going forward, but he never released the ball, and throwing arm extended, lost it. The Patriots challenged the play, saying that his arm was going forward when the fumble occured. The Raiders thought he tucked the ball back into his body. Well, what the Raiders' thought was a tuck didn't match the NFL's definition of a tuck, and as President #42 might have said, "It all depends on how you define 'tuck.'"

Point being, what could have been a game-clinching play gave the Patriots new life, and they went on to win the game. Four years and 3 Patriot championships later, the Raiders' fans are still steaming about this.

But is it really fair to ask players to care about this angle? These are almost two different teams.
Key figures in the Tuck game, such as Rich Gannon, Charlie Garner, Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, John Gruden, Tedy Bruschi, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Charlie Weis, and Romeo Crennell, have all moved on.

Warren Sapp was a Tampa Bay Buccaneer that year. Randy Moss was a Viking. Kerry Collins was a Giant. Norv Turner was coordinating Miami's offense at the time. Carlos Francis was at Texas Tech. Why should they care about what happened to a past Raider team they weren't a part of?

Conversely, why is it up to Rodney Harrison, Chad Brown, Monty Beisel and other Patriots who weren't around in 2001, to defend a rule that even the NFL can't defend or the honor of a team that they weren't a part of?

Furthermore, both sets of fans need to get over it. The game has been decided, and unless BALCO or shady payments from Michigan boosters to Chris Webber are somehow involved, it's not coming off the books.

Sure, tonight's game will be competitive and will be a great kickoff to the 2005 NFL season, but calling it a rematch of a game that happened four years ago with all the roster turnover in the salary cap NFL is ridiculous.

So please, drop the rematch angle.

Big XII/Texas Schedule for Thursday

Oklahoma State vs. Florida Atlantic
(at Dolphins Stadium, Miami, FL)
6:00 PM ESPN2

Oklahoma State has to improve greatly on offense. They barely beat 1-AA Montana State last week on a 4th-quarter touchdown. FAU performed admirably, albeit in a loss, to Kansas, so OSU needs to not take this trip to South Florida lightly.

Tomorrow: Weekend Preview

BlogPoll Week 2

The BlogPoll has officially released it's Week 2 Poll:



My ballot here

Non-Toxic Gumbo Edition

We'd like to thank Paul Westerdawg at Georgia Sports and "Mork calling" Orson Swindle and Stranko "City of Joe," Montana at Every Day Should Be Saturday for the recent link love. Great fooball sites both.

If you're here from one of those sites, feel free to look around and see what we're about.

R.D's Podcast Debut

I will be appearing on The SpursCast tonight at 8:30 Central. I don't know if there's a live feed, but the RSS feed (for your iPodder or however you get your podcast) is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/spurscast

Michael De Leon will be hosting, and we're going to be having a Roundtable discussion on the Spurs' season.

Astros get control of the Wild Card

Thanks to Jason Lane's RBI single against the Phillies, the Astros are back on top of the wild card by one game over Florida and 1 1/2 games over Philadelphia.

Makes you wonder about the overall depth of the National League though, when a team which has one of the worst hitting lineups in Major League Baseball and leads MLB in getting shut out is the best non-division champion.

Bulletin Board Material

Surprisingly, there has been a lot of trash talk going on between Ohio State and Texas in advance of the game.

The first volley was shot off by Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter, who said "When Vince Young leaves here, he won't be carrying the Heisman." (SA Express-News)

Texas's senior safety Michael Huff simply replied "I'll let my play on the field do my talking for me." (Statesman) Which you know, of course, is a polite way of saying "We're coming for you."

Vince Young, of course, is looking forward to breaking Ohio State's home non-conference winning streak. (Denton Record-Chronicle):

Now the No. 2 Texas Longhorns head into Ohio State for a Saturday night matchup with the No. 6 Buckeyes, who bring a crowd in excess of 100,000 every week. Ohio State has never lost a night game in Columbus and hasn't lost at home outside the Big 10 since 1990.

So is Texas intimidated? Not a chance.

"I love it," said quarterback Vince Young. "We could go down there and make history."

Anthony Schlegel, OSU linebacker and graduate of Highland Park (TX) High School, allegedly denied ever being a Longhorn fan to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Fighting words, if true, but I'm having a hard time finding the article on the Plain Dealer's website where the direct quote from Schlegel is.

I did, however, find this interesting column by the Plain Dealer's Bill Livingston. Lots of good bulletin board material for Longhorn fans.

Final Thought on FSU-Miami from Monday

How can a rivalry be great when it's best moments are special teams miscues?

Tomorrow: Patriots, Raiders, Cowboys and Owls(?)

Blogpoll Ballot: Week 2

Here's my BlogPoll Ballot for this week:

1. USC
2. Michigan
3. Georgia
4. Virginia Tech
5. LSU
6. Texas
7. Iowa
8. Louisville
9. Ohio State
10. Tennessee
11. Arizona St.
12. Florida
13. Purdue
14. Florida St.
15. Miami (FL)
16. Texas Tech
17. UTEP
18. Boston College
19. TCU
20. Utah
21. Oklahoma
22. Fresno St.
23. Georgia Tech
24. Alabama
25. Colorado

First 5 out

Notre Dame
Clemson
Texas A&M
Bowling Green
North Texas

Weekend Wrap-Up: Premiere edition

I know, I know, technically it's the Labor Day holiday and the weekend is still in progress, but we're debuting our Monday all-football post anyway.

Weekend Wrap-up is our look at the weekend's college action, as well as how the Cowboys and Texans did in their games, plus give you our Blogpoll vote for the week as well as a unique look at Monday Night Football.

We'd like to dedicate our first edition to the family and friends of former ESPN broadcaster Adrian Karsten, who died at his Wisconsin home over the weekend, and also to all the hurricane refugees out there.

College Football

Well, Aside from Texas's beat-down of Louisiana-Lafayette (who were probably just happy to be on the field after Katrina laid a beat-down on the state of Louisiana), the Big 12's top teams looked horrible. The Big 12 was 1-2 against all I-A teams not in the Sun Belt or named SMU, and that 1 win could have easily been a loss.

Texas Tech improved itself by doing absolutely nothing.
Big Story of the Weekend: TCU upsets Oklahoma 17-10

Leander's Paul Thompson gets sandwitched (SoonerSports.com)

I knew TCU was going to be better than they were last year. In my preseason preview, I picked them to win the Mountain West. And I gave them the #22 ranking in my first Blogpoll ballot, which I took no end of heckling for on TexasTechFans.com

But I figured they would be a 9-2 team. I certainly never thought they would beat the likes of Oklahoma.

Not only did TCU beat the Sooners, they made alleged Heisman candidate Adrian Peterson look human, as he only got 63 yards. Neither Sooner QB was particularly effective, but OU's recievers didn't help their passer any. They dropped a lot of balls. And the only types of blocks the offensive line appears to have mastered are the "OLE!" block and "Look out!" block.

Now, granted it's one game, and OU could still has time before their Big XII schedule to pull things together, but they looked horrible

TCU deserves a lot of credit for going into a hostile environment and playing great defense on a talented, albeit inexperienced and out-of-synch offense. A lot of the reason OU looked horrible was because the Horned Frogs got great pressure and made plays. And they justified their ranking in my poll, and I think a lot of people are waking up to this team.

The rest of the Big XII

Clemson 25, Texas A&M 24 - True, Franchione didn't help his team's chances when he went for two instead of one in the 4th Quarter, which could have made the game winning field goal a game-tying one instead, but that doesn't tell the whole story. A&M's defense was exposed by a Clemson team who is still going through growing pains as they transition to a new passing offense. Clemson utilized a lot of plays from spread formations that looked similar to plays run by Texas Tech, which Aggie fans should be concerned about. Oh by the way, the Aggie coverage teams, one of the worst last year, is already getting off to a bad start: They allowed a return touchdown to Chansi Stuckey, who's not exactly Danny Amendola or Selvin Young.

Colorado 31, Colorado State 28 -

Colorado's Mason Crosby is mobbed after making the game-winning play (Ed Andrieski/AP)
Not to rain on their parade, but Colorado continued the Big XII's day of bad play. Joel Klatt looked awful. Had it not been for Hugh Charles breaking off a couple of long runs and Mason Crosby making an early case for the Lou Groza award, we might be talking about 3 upsets today.

Texas 60, Louisiana-Lafayette 3 - I'll try to hold off on saying anything bad about ULL because the Ragin' Cajun players are probably going through a lot right now. Suffice to say, Selvin Young looks like he's recovered fully and Vince Young looked really good. Now they can focus on Ohio State.
On a personal note, I would like to thank all the UT fans in Austin for packing Memorial Stadium. My family and I had a shorter wait at Chuy's on Green Chile Fest weekend because everyone was at the game.

Missouri 44, Arkansas State 17 - Out of all the 4 teams that played Sun Belt teams this weekend, only Missouri and Texas actually looked impressive in their victories. Even though it was Kansas City, it was basically a road game for Missouri as KC is pretty much pro-Jayhawk.
I hope Jeremy from Sports and Bremertonians, currently an Arkansas State student, enjoyed the BBQ on his trip to Kansas City.

Kansas State 35, Florida International 21 - Texas Tech's opponent for next week forced 4 turnovers from the Wildcats, 3 of them on fumbles. KSU's defense was not impressive as they allowed 3 touchdowns to an FIU team picked by many preseason publications to finish dead last in the Sun Belt (a.k.a. "Division 1-A 1/2").

Kansas 30, Florida Atlantic 19 - Good news: Clark Green had 107 yards and 5.4 yards/carry, and the defense scored on a safety, forced a fumble, and held FAU to 70 yards rushing. Bad news: Neither Kanas QB was impressive (each threw a pick) and FAU QB Danny Embick had 299 yards passing and 3 TDs. Lucky for KU, FAU failed to convert 2 2-point conversions.

Baylor 28, SMU 23 - Ugly game. At least Baylor played a I-A opponent.

Nebraska 25, Maine 7 - Nebraska Blogger StrugglingJoe, who saw more of the game than I did, had these thoughts:

- The defensive line is good. Eleven sacks is a school record. Plus they held the Bears to (-15) yards on 37 attempts.

- The offensive line is not good. If you can't push around a 1AA team then you're not gonna push around anyone else. Nebraska had 126 yards rushing on 42 carries, a 3.0 average.

- The receivers are also not good. Zac Taylor had a pretty decent completion percentage in the first half but ended up just completing 16 of 36 passes. After reading a few game stories, it turns out the receivers dropped A LOT of passes.

- In saying that the receivers aren't any good, Frantz Hardy put on a show catching 7 passes for 156 yards. At one point in the first half he had like 140 of Taylor's 170 passing yards. It's obvious that Hardy is Taylor's favorite target. It also helps that they were teammates last season at Butler.

- Losing LB Steve Octavien for the year with a broken fibula obviously sucks, but maybe the drop-off won't be that bad as Bo Ruud, who had the defensive touchdown that saved the night, will start in his place.

- I should give credit to the entire Husker defense tonight and not just the defensive line. They were one crappy 52-yard TD pass away from holding these guys to under 100 yards of offense.

- We also like freshman kicker Jordan Congdon, because he kicked four FG's. If we had the usual Husker-type kicker, this game may have not resulted in a Husker win.

Iowa State 32, Illinois State 21 - Yeah, the Cyclones won, but they also were burned by long touchdown passes and they only had 8 points in the first half.

Oklahoma State 15, Montana State 10 - OK, when you're a Big XII team and it takes a last second pass to beat Montana State, you're in trouble.

Texas Tech had the week off and will take on FIU on Saturday

Around the State

UTEP 34, New Mexico State 17 - Well, UTEP didn't disappoint, jumping out to a 31-0 lead at halftime before putting in the backups. The Miners' D picked off 3 passes, got a fumble and recorded 8 sacks. NM State didn't score a touchdown until the 5:19 mark of the 4th quarter when the walk-ons were playing.

Oregon 38, Houston 24 - We covered this in our weekend preview, but I think it's safe to say that it was Kellen Clemens' coming out party.

North Texas at LSU - Postponed. Still being rescheduled.

Rice had the week off and will face UCLA on Saturday

TCU and SMU were covered above.

Blogpoll Ballot

Obviously, we're waiting to see how FSU-Miami turns out tonight, so I can't give you my ballot yet, but we can take a look at how my top 25 and the other teams fighting for recognition fared.

1. USC - Beat up Hawaii, despite the jet lag. Still #1
2. Virginia Tech - The defense looks good. Ron New Mexico looked OK, but not like Ron Mexico. May slip a bit
3. Michigan - Despite Brian and Joey's misgivings, they didn't really hurt themselves with that win over Northern Illinois
4. Georgia - Basically out-played a very good Boise State team and.
5. LSU - Obviously, LSU stays here because they couldn't play.
6. Oklahoma - I wouldn't drop them completely out, but now it's they who have to prove themselves.
7. Texas - One of the few Big XII teams that didn't take their opener off
8. Louisville - Yeah, they beat Kentucky, but they let them hang around. Not good. Will slip.
9. Miami - We'll see after tonight
10. Iowa - Laid the smack down on Ball State.
11. Tennessee - Only scored 17 against UAB, which hardly justifies the ranking most people are giving them. 11 is still about right
12. Texas A&M - Look out below! That wasn't just a loss, that was an "exposure" loss. And to a Clemson team that didn't look impressive in beating them.
13. Arizona State - OK, they beat Temple. I can put together a team of flag footballers who can beat Temple. Wait until next week.
14. Ohio State - Could move up after Justin Zwick led them to an impressive opening day win.
15. Florida - Well, we now know Chris Leak is strictly a drop-back passer.
16. Purdue - took the week off
17. Florida State - needs this victory tonight.
18. UTEP - Won big against NM State
19. Texas Tech - May move up for doing nothing because they are the second best team in the Big XII
20. Boston College - There's no religious angle to it. BC simply beat BYU on their own merit.
21. Colorado - Sorry, I don't care if it's a rivalry game, CU can't simply beat CSU on a last second field goal, they have to show me that they want to play.
22. TCU - Nice win by the Horned Frogs.
23. Fresno State - Did not play
24. Utah - Beat Arizona to complete a Mountain West sweep over the Stoops brothers.
25. Bowling Green - No D against Wisconsin? No ranking for you!

The rest of the teams

Moving up: Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Alabama
Not Moving: North Texas, Southern Miss, West Virginia, NC State
Moving down: Cal, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Auburn, Boise State
Moving out of consideration: BYU, Northern Illinois

Cowboys/Texans

Both of the pro teams finished their preseason on Thursday. However, the Cowboys signed Peerless Price to bolster their recieving corps.

Monday Night Football vs. CSI: Miami

I love all the CSI shows. Outside of sports, this is my favorite thing to watch. This, however, creates a bit of a problem during the football season, as I don't have a DVR and have to choose between CSI:Miami and Monday Night Football. So I'm going to compare the two to see if the Monday Night Football game is actually worth not watching CSI:Miami

This weeks' "MNF" (Florida State at Miami): OK, it's not an NFL game and Al Michaels and John Madden are off until Thursday, but it is a football game on Monday night in prime time on ABC, so it might as well be "Monday Night Football". Besides, the only real difference in between FSU, Miami, and pro teams are the fact that it's legal to pay the pros.

Anyway, FSU has slipped in recent years while Miami has come back from probation in the late 1990s to re-establish itself as one of the premiere programs in college. This year, both programs have great talent, but are debuting new QBs in the game. Should be a good game.

This week's CSI:Miami ("One Night Stand"):
From the Yahoo! TV Listings -

The murder of a bellboy during tourist season leaves detectives with many suspects, but the luggage he had been loading helps them to uncover a complex counterfeiting operation.

I've seen this one before.

Verdict:
Since this is a rerun, it's an easy choice
Florida State vs. Miami

Weekend Preview - 9/2/2005

Every Friday, through the end of the NFL regular season, we are going to do a "Weekend Preview" to get you set for the weekend's Big XII, other Texas Division 1-A schools, Cowboys and Texans games. It will be one of the typical notebook-style posts you will see on Cheap Seats: Lots of blurbs of info and short takes on each game. We'll also have a "Game of the Week" for college and pro, and we'll go into more detail.

By the way, A number next to a college team is their BlogPoll ranking.

All Times are Central Time
--------------------------------

There's a lot of weak games this weekend, but that's pretty typical of Labor Day Weekend college football. People are so happy to have it back that they don't care.

Starting their Weekend Early

College

Oregon 38, Houston 24

If this game had been over at halftime, the Cougars would have pulled off a huge upset. However, football rules say you must play 2 halves, and U of H fell apart in the second half. Key Play: Art Briles tried to be like his mentor Mike Leach and went for it on fourth down from the Oregon nine yard line with Houston up 21-20 early in the 3rd quarter, when Briles could have opted for a chip-shot field goal and extended the lead. The pass was incomplete. Oregon took over from that point on.

NFL Exhibition

Buccaneers 38, Texans 14

How horrible is the Texans' defense? Bucs QB (and former Longhorn) Chris Sims put up the following line: 12-16, 166 yards, 3 touchdowns and a passer rating of 146.6! From Chrissy Sims!The kid who almost ruined Mack Brown's career!
How horrible is the Texans' offense? David Carr was 1-5 for 4 yards and a passer rating of 0.0. Ouch, babe!

Cowboys 27, Jaguars 20

About as good as one could hope for the final preseason game. The first team is clicking on both sides of the ball, and nobody got injured. DT/DE Marcus Spears made his Cowboys debut and recorded 4 tackles and a sack. Not bad. Jason Ferguson also returned from injury and was rock solid at NT. However, before everyone gets excited, remember that this game doesn't count. Next week at San Diego, it starts for real.

College Game of the Week

#15 Texas A&M at Clemson - Saturday, 7:00 PM ABC (Austin: KVUE 24)

Overview: Clemson is a middle of the pack ACC team, but one that is very dangerous at home and has an experienced QB in Charlie Whitehurst that could shred this A&M secondary. It will be a nail biter and it's going to be as good a game as you can find this weekend in a sea of boring State U vs. Directional State U matchups.

Key Matchup:
Clemson's O-Line vs. A&M's D-Line
Clemson's offensive line allowed 25 sacks last year, while A&M's defensive line only recorded 19. Whichever unit shows improvement over last year will win the game.

Key Player for Clemson:
Charlie Whitehurst
He came into last year on the Heisman Watch list, now he enters this season wanting to prove that last season's bad performance wasn't a fluke. Hopefully he has acquired the wisdom that comes with senior status.

Key Player for A&M:
Courtney Lewis
A&M has to play ball control to keep it's suspect secondary off the field. If Courtney Lewis runs like he's capable of (5.5 yards/carry in 2003 when he was All-Big XII), then A&M will have the upper hand.

Tale of the Tape

Category	Edge	Notes
A&M offense vs. Clemson defense	Texas A&M	Tigers have not faced a QB with mobility in a while
Clemson offense vs. A&M defense	Clemson	A&M has to prove it's pass defense is better than last year
Special Teams	Texas A&M	Todd Pegram is a more reliable kicker
Coaching	Push	This is a battle of 2 coaches that haven't lived up to expectations in their current job
Intangibles	Clemson	A&M is 2-8 in road games under Franchione and the game is in Death Valley East

Big XII Games

TCU at #7 Oklahoma
Saturday, 11:00 AM ABC (KVUE 42)
It's possible that TCU could come in here and pull off a big upset, but certain things have to go right for the Horned Frogs: Hell has to freeze over, pigs have to fly, and Roselyn Sanchez has to call me for a date. OU has lost a lot of players to the draft, and TCU will be a very good MWC team by season's end, but OU still has too much talent and Paul Thompson gives this team a mobility dimension they haven't had in the past.

Colorado State at Colorado
Saturday, 1:30 PM TBS
This game is always tough for Colorado because it's almost a trap game for CU. Colorado State cares more about the game than Colorado, and the Buffs need to play well to win. Throw in the fact that it's the first game of the season when no college team has their offense, defense, or special teams exactly right, and anything could happen.

Louisiana-Lafayette at #2 Texas
Saturday, 6:00 PM FSN Southwest
(FSN Midwest and FSN Rocky Mtn. check local listings. I know for sure it conflicts with a Cardinals game on FSN Midwest)
Given what the Ragin' Cajuns had to survive to get here, they are probably glad to be playing a game, even if it's a potential blowout at the hands of the Longhorns. Don't count on UT looking ahead to next week, they know they are playing a team with nothing to lose.

Arkansas State vs. Missouri
@ Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Saturday, 11:00 AM
What would possess Missouri to move a game to pro-Jayhawk Kansas City? Not that the boys from Jonesboro pose much of a threat on paper (Sorry, Jeremy), but then Troy wasn't supposed to be a threat to the Tigers last year either.

Florida International at Kansas State
Saturday, 1:00 PM
I'm sure FIU head coach (and former Dolphins' quarterback) Don Strock would love to suit up and play QB for this one, but his eligibility was used up a long time ago. FIU is playing it's first full slate of Div. I-A games this year. They were 0-6 against I-A teams last year.

Florida Atlantic at Kansas
Saturday, 6:00 PM
The Owls are also playing their first full slate of I-A games after play, and actually beat 3 last year (Hawaii, North Texas, and Middle Tennessee State). Now, they step up in competition level to Kansas, which is poised to have it's best defensive unit since joining the Big 12.

Illinois State at Iowa State
Saturday, 6:00 PM
Illinois State's most famous alumnus? Jenny McCarthy. And she's probably a better tackler than anything the Redbirds have.

Maine at Nebraska
Saturday, 6:00 PM
Nebraska better take Maine seriously. The Black Bears beat Mississippi State last year at home. Not that winning this game will ease the pressure on head coach Bill Callahan any, since Nebraskans seem too eager to run him out of town. In most places, peace protesters blame the Iraq war on George W. Bush. In Nebraska, it's Callahan's fault. (I can't figure it out either.)

Montana State at Oklahoma State
Saturday, 6:00 PM
Montana State actually has a pretty good I-AA track record, but their last win over a I-A school was 1984 against Fresno State. Even though the Cowboys are in a rebuilding cycle, that's not likely to change.

Baylor at SMU
Saturday, 7:00 PM
Finally, a Big 12 team gets brave enough to go on the road. Two years ago, Baylor beat SMU 10-7 and this one figures to be just as ugly and low scoring. We'll see if the women's basketball team's success hasn't made the football team jealous enough to do something about it.

Bye Week:
#21 Texas Tech
Next Game: September 10 vs. Florida International

Other Texas Teams

UTEP at New Mexico State
Saturday, 9:30 PM ESPNU
Shouldn't be too difficult for what could be the best team no one is talking about. UTEP is coming in with a fast defense, and a great QB, and is moving to a new conference after getting an invite to the Houston Bowl.
One thing bothers me, how did they land a quarterback as good as Jordan Palmer at UTEP, anyway? They can't exactly sell fun in the sun down there.

Bye Week:
Rice
Next Game: September 10, at UCLA

Game Postponed:
North Texas vs. LSU
Status: Rescheduling this game isn't a simple proposition because the only off date North Texas has is December 3, the same day as the SEC championship game. But they are trying to find a game that can be moved to accomodate the game because North Texas is being paid a lot of money to come to Baton Rouge, and LSU has a lot of money invested in the game already. According to Glen Gulibeau of the Shreveport Times, Both schools are negotiating with Louisiana-Monroe to move their October 29th game against North Texas to Dec. 3, so the Mean Green can come down to Baton Rouge on what would have been an LSU off week.

Monday: MNF vs. CSI Miami.

Katrina Update: BlogAid for victims

Today is "Blog for Relief Day" in the blogosphere. Bloggers around the world are uniting to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their lives. Please donate money today to a relief organization

(Not that you can't donate tomorrow or the next day or anything like that, but they need shizzle as soon as possible. Disaster relief is kind of a time-critical thing like that.)

Details: Truth Laid Bear

If you don't know who to donate to, the BlogFather, Instapundit, has a list.

I'm donating through the special offering at my church, so I don't know if that's loggable, but I'm participating.

(Links Courtesy College Football Resource blog)

Podcast Mania

To all who are wondering how my time at the Sheehan rally went, I'm OK, and aside from a few people who were treated for heatstroke, most of the people who went, pro-war and anti-war, are doing fine as well. My prayers for peace at the rally were answered. (God is good!)

Trust me, if violence had broken out, it would have displaced all the hurricane news coverage.

There was more woofing out there than a one-on-one game between Charles Barkley and Larry Bird, though (and yes, Bird was a legendary trash talker on the court). I swear, people have forgotten how to debate.

I have pictures, but I also have one of those old fashioned cameras where you actually have to process the film. And you don't get digital discs of that in one hour. Sorry.

Anyway, on to today's post:

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Podcasts rock!

I've been taking up walking lately to try and lose some pounds, so naturally, I now have an iPod, the first electronic gadget I've recieved in months, so now I can take sports talk with me wherever I go thanks to podcasts. That is, when I don't decide to listen to all of Pink Floyd's The Wall while walking.

Podcasts also rock because I don't have to tune in the radio to listen to Jorge Sedano in between the end of J.T. The Brick and the start of Bucky and Erin on 1300 The Zone. (I don't get ESPN Radio 1260/1530 after sunset). I can just shut off my radio and set my computer to play 6 hours worth of podcasts and I don't have to listen to Sedano's homerism and screeching voice anymore.

By the way, the only podcast reciever (software to download podcasts) you need is iPodder. Don't use iTunes.

Podcasts I love:

Sports Bloggers Live
Website: http://www.sportsbloggerslive.com/
RSS Feed: http://sportsbloggerslive.podcast.aol.com/sportsbloggerslive/
AOL has really taken the lead by producing an original sports podcast complete with interviews with bloggers and internet personalities. The audio quality rivals any sports talk radio show.

Mario and Jeff
Website: http://www.360thepitch.com/radio/fromchicago/index.php
RSS Feed: http://www.360thepitch.com/fork/rssfc.php
Two dudes from Chicago talking baseball.

Outsider Radio
Website: http://www.360thepitch.com/radio/outsiderradio/index.php
RSS Feed: http://www.360thepitch.com/fork/rssor.php
Another great baseball podcast

Just Talkin' Sh--
Website: http://jts.mysportsradio.com/
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jts
Lance Williams' Podcast on sports and pop culture.

Project Spurs' Spurscast
Website: http://www.projectspurs.com/podcast
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/spurscast
The Only Spurs' Podcast out there. Great show, they just need to post more often.

Talkin Texas
Website: http://rangers.mysportsradio.com/
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rangers
The Texas Rangers might not be a good team, but for all you diehards out there who don't wait for Cowboys' training camp once the Rangers are eliminated from playoff contention, Lacy Collum is your source for Rangers news and opinion.

Stations that podcast:

1460 The Fan WBNS - Columbus, Ohio
Website: http://www.1460thefan.com/
RSS Feed: http://radiohio.com/1460thefan/Audio/WBNSAMaudio.xml
For no other reason than to get Kirk Herbstreit's radio show.

1300 The Zone KVET - Austin, TX
Website: http://www.sportsradio1300.com
RSS Feed: http://sportsradio1300.com/podcast/BuckOnSports.xml
Not whole shows, but they do have selected interviews, which are just as good because Bucky and Erin are great interviewers.

Update: Brian Behrend has informed be that 1310 The Ticket in Dallas has a podcast as well, but it's only their "Top 10". They don't podcast any shows.
Website: http://www.theticket.com/podcast.asp
RSS Feed: http://www.theticket.com/RadioWeb/PodCast/KTCK-54-109.xml

If there's any other stations you know of that podcast, let me know in the comments.

Things I'd like to see podcasts on:

- Houston Astros
- Dallas Cowboys
- All Big XII Schools

If anyone knows where I can find podcasts on any of the above leave it in the comments.

Shows I wish would podcast

2 Live Stews - I've heard these guys on the internet a couple times. Doug Stewart and Ryan Stewart are a lot of fun to listen to. Very high energy. Would be a highly downloaded podcast if 790 The Zone in Atlanta would just invest in the technology.
Max Kellerman - No one in America has ticked off as many people as Max Kellerman, yet no one has gotten more people to pay attention to him. No sports personality in America today will also take an unpopular view to argue for the sake of arguing. Would probably do well as a podcaster.
Jack Dale's Sportsline, The Cafe, and Williams and Hyatt - No reason other than I need my fix of Red Raider info and these radio shows from Sports Radio 1340 in Lubbock are the best ones to provide it.

Tomorrow: Weekend Preview