Well, it certainly was a mixed weekend for the teams that I follow — a combination of good, bad and ugly, with a healthy dose of awesome thrown in at the end.
Let’s start with the good, and there ain’t much of it. Friday night, my old high school alma mater of Angleton continued its undefeated season on the Texas prep gridiron, pounding Pt. Lavaca Calhoun 55-0 to go to 5-0. Today, it looks like I’m cruising to another win in my fantasy football league. My 4-1 start will be my best opening for many seasons in a league I’ve shared with an ever-changing cast of old National Guard buddies and co-workers for over a dozen years.
Now we turn to the bad, most of which was to be expected. The college football weekend really bit the proverbial big one and, other than my fantasy results, today’s NFL action followed suit.
There were two games involving Big 12 South teams that particularly chafed, though the final results were as I expected.
Young leads Texas to first OU win in five years
The game was over, the “Eyes of Texas” had been sung and Vince Young was still on the run.
The Texas Longhorns had finally beaten the Oklahoma Sooners — stuck it to ’em, 45-12 — and more than 30,000 people wearing burnt orange were on their feet turning five years of frustration into sheer joy. Young had as much to celebrate as anyone, so he whipped up a few more cheers by going along the stands slapping hands and posing for pictures.
“We wanted them to feel everything we were feeling,” Young said. “It was a great moment for all of us.”
Hey, I’m certainly no Sooners fan, but I must admit I’d rather see them beat the Horns. Still, I was in no way surprised by the lopsided outcome. At least Dr. Steven Taylor at PoliBlog enjoyed the victory, revelling in it here and here.
Raiders win despite blowing 21-point lead
Coach Mike Leach’s head was spinning after all that happened in the final minutes of Texas Tech’s win over Nebraska.
Had it not been for Nebraska nose tackle Le Kevin Smith fumbling while returning an interception, No. 15 Texas Tech wouldn’t have been in position for Cody Hodges to throw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Joel Filani with 12 seconds left in a 34-31 victory Saturday.
[…]
Actually, it was a great deal for the Red Raiders (5-0, 1-0), who squandered a 21-point lead before scoring late to preserve their best start since 1998.
Smith intercepted Hodges near the goal line with 1:11 left and, instead of falling down to secure possession for Nebraska, he decided to run the ball back. Bryan Kegans pried the ball loose, and Danny Amendola recovered to set up the Raiders at the Nebraska 18.
I expected Tech to win, and probably easily at that. It was brutal to see Nebraska absolutely seize defeat from the jaws of victory on a split-second of poor judgement. Oh well, good news for my fiancee and Chad over at In the Bullpen, Raiders both.
Bledsoe throws for 289 yards, three TDs in rout
So much for the Dallas Cowboys following their season-long script of playing conservatively and trying to win late. Coach Bill Parcells unleashed his team from the start and they stomped the Philadelphia Eagles.
Drew Bledsoe led the suddenly risky Cowboys to two early touchdowns and scores on six of their first seven drives and the defense shut down Donovan McNabb and the league’s top offense in a stunning 33-10 victory Sunday.
My dad was a St. Louis Cardinals fan who taught me at a very early age to hate the Cowboys. My later migration to Houston only reinforced this.
Titans’ McNair picks apart Texans
Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher wanted to see his young team execute. On Sunday he got his wish and a nice bonus — his 100th career victory.
Steve McNair threw for 220 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another to lead the NFL’s youngest team to a 34-20 win over the hapless Houston Texans.
[…]
The Texans continued their downward spiral, converting none of their 13 third downs and managing just one touchdown. They are the only winless team in the league and are 0-4 for the first time in their short history.
It is sad to see the apparent regression of the Texans this season. Sadder still it is to see them fall so meekly at home to the team that used to be the Oilers.
And now we turn to the ugly, and ugly is probably an understatement.
A&M’s weaknesses exposed
Texas A&M had displayed numerous deficiencies during its three-game winning streak prior to Saturday night’s game at Colorado.
But the holes in this edition of the Aggies — susceptibility to big plays in the passing game, trouble stopping teams on third down and inconsistency on offense — had been eased by victories.
That changed drastically Saturday night when the Aggies ran into a team physical enough and with a sound game plan to make them pay. The result was a 41-20 loss at the hands of the Buffaloes in front of 50,686 fans at Folsom Field.
“I don’t think you ever expect anything like that,” said A&M coach Dennis Franchione. “(Colorado) has got a good football team. They played very well, and we didn’t have a lot of answers for them.”
A&M, which suffered its worst Big 12 Conference loss since falling to Texas 46-15 to end the 2003 season, wasn’t competitive in a game in which it was down 21-0 before the first quarter ended.
And the final score was deceptive as the Aggies’ second team, trailing 41-6, managed two touchdowns on Colorado’s subs in the fourth quarter.
And I thought last week’s struggling overtime victory against Baylor was bad. Oh, I had no idea. November’s schedule of Tech, Oklahoma and Texas alreadly looked brutal enough; now the rest of October has grown intimidating.
There you have it, the Target Centermass look at the good, albeit scant, the bad and the ugly of this weekend’s pigskin action.
I did promise some awesome though, and for that we have to leave behind football and turn to the baseball playoffs. On Saturday, the Houston Astros pushed the Atlanta Braves to the brink of elimination with a 7-3 victory. Today, Atlanta refused to go down meekly.
Berkman, Ausmus bring Astros back; Burke’s HR wins it
Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros gave a whole new meaning to the word “longevity.”
The 43-year-old Rocket came out of the bullpen to rescue the Astros and Chris Burke ended the longest postseason game in baseball history with a home run in the 18th inning, lifting Houston over the Atlanta Braves 7-6 Sunday and into the NL championship series.
[…]
The Braves took a five-run lead into the eighth, and were poised to send this first-round series back to Atlanta for a decisive Game 5 Monday night. Instead, Lance Berkman hit a grand slam in the eighth and Brad Ausmus tied Game 4 with a two-out homer in the ninth barely beyond Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones’ outstretched glove.
Then, at 6-all, the Braves and Astros began the real endurance test that wound up lasting 5 hours, 50 minutes. The previous longest postseason game also occurred in Houston — the New York Mets clinched the 1986 NLCS with a 16-inning win at the Astrodome.
I’d love to say I watched this historic thriller. Instead, I was out shopping with the future Mrs. Gunner, getting updates from the internet via my cell phone. Let me throw in a quick kudo here to modern technology. However, I must have looked quite the idiot there in the middle of Circuit City, raising my arms in celebration and shouting exuberantly when the update suddenly read 7-6.
