Weekend Notes
Another weekend jam-packed with sports for me to consume. Before we get to that, I have to mention the weather here.
Following a summer-like week, fall bucked its head over the weekend. We went from 90° Wednesday to 33° Sunday morning. Yikes! Friday was rainy and dark and chilly. Fortunately Saturday and Sunday days were gorgeous and seasonal. The week ahead looks like classic, beautiful fall weather. Jackets in the morning, short sleeves in the afternoon, a quick cooldown as the sun sets.
Friday
Another double-barreled night of sports on my couch. To start the evening, we had CHS taking on Archbishop Hoban, a long-time Akron power. Fortunately this year’s Knights aren’t up to their traditional standards. On their first drive of the game, they made it to the CHS one yard line before two penalties on one play pushed them back to the 20. They failed to convert on fourth down, CHS got an 80 yard touchdown run on the next play and never trailed again. A commanding 38-16 win to wrap up a 6-3 regular season.
The Irish should be ranked #1 in 5A in both polls this week.1 They got the best possible sectional draw: a bye next week then they will face the winner of a game between teams that went 5-4 and 2-7. Meanwhile the other two top five teams in the sectional have to play each other this week.
I don’t want to the jinx them but the Irish have improved each week, are getting players back who have been injured all season, and now have four defensive holds inside their own five on the season. Back in August we all assumed they wouldn’t make it out of sectionals and would drop down to 4A next year. Today, I think they are absolutely capable of making a run.
When the CHS game hit halftime the new fangled KU Late Night/Exhibition Game thing tipped off. I figured this would be extra sloppy, what with all the new guys and then two returning players who arrived in the past couple weeks. Sure enough, Pittsburgh State hung with the Jayhawks for about 10 minutes, then a 20-0 run or something blew it open.
I was half watching most of the time so can’t say much.2 Tyran Stokes is huge, more like the Morris brothers than Josh Jackson. He can legitimately do it all, but is far less polished than Darryn Peterson. But if he plays 35 minutes a night for 35 games I’ll take his warts. More about the Jayhawks after Wednesday’s exhibition game.
Saturday
The Football Gods were not kind to our house on this day. Well, they did offer us hours of terrific ball to watch but no W’s.
KU losing to K-State for the 18th straight time was a real bummer. I did not expect KU to have a chance this year, until I found out KSU is kind of crappy, too. The quick Wildcat touchdown to start the game seemed to confirm my initial expectations. Then KU ran the ensuing kickoff back, got a stop, took the lead, extended it, and really should have been up 21-7 at the half. Until the inevitable end-of-the-half collapse that has plagued Lance Leipold pretty much the entire time he’s been at KU arrived and KU actually trailed 18-17 at the break.
Still, KU had the lead in the third quarter until the already porous defense had a couple really bad drives and it was over. Way too many missed tackles. I’m not sure Isaiah Marshall always knows where he is throwing the ball. The O-line will look great one play, awful the next. A thoroughly mediocre team.
Guess what thoroughly mediocre team I’m traveling to watch this week?!?! At least the weather looks good and it will be fun to see a lot of friends and peep the in-process new stadium in person.
I had that game on the laptop with the sound up. IU-Ohio State was on the TV muted. S was busy binging The Diplomat on her laptop with headphones so was only sneaking glances at the TV to track her Hoosiers. She got very confused, as usual, when I yelled at my laptop when nothing was happening on the TV.
What a game, though. IU is not as locked in as last year, but they are so well coached. They hung in all day. Just like at Nebraska a week ago, the moment it felt like the game was slipping away, they found a new life and seemed to take control.
That last play of their last drive…man, that one is going to hurt for a long time. That instant of ecstasy followed by the realization that Nick Marsh was barely out of bounds when he hauled in the potential game-winner. The margin of error that always seemed to break their way last season finally bent the other way. Six inches to the right and IU might be ranked #1 today.
At least in this new era the loss doesn’t hurt IU much, as long as they don’t slip up in the back half of their schedule. They’ll get another shot at OSU in December.
Some friends from Michigan were in town, so we gathered in the evening at a Notre Dame alum’s house to watch the ND-BYU game. That was a hell of a game. I was shocked at how good BYU’s defense was. The BYU offense basically handed the Irish the game for most of the second half, but their D refused to let the Irish extend the lead.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a play like the one at the end of the first half, when CJ Carr’s attempt to spike the ball was ruled a fumble. Another thing I hate about replay review. The announcers clearly said if he had just trapped the ball and pushed it down, it wouldn’t have been ruled a fumble. But if you do that, YOU NEVER HAVE POSSESSION, so it has to be a fumble then, too, right? Meaning like 70% of clock spikes in the history of the game should have been ruled fumbles. If they were viewed in slow motion replay to determine whether the quarterback’s hands completely enveloped the ball before downing it. We’ve had this understanding for decades and Saturday’s decision violates the spirit of the rule.
Late in the Pittsburgh-Tampa game Sunday a defensive lineman dove through the legs of offensive linemen to try to catch an Aaron Rogers spike. I’m telling you, correct or not, those replay officials in Provo opened a whole can of worms that is going to be hard to put back in.
Anyway, all three of us guys watching in the Irish fan’s basement were yelling at Carr to pull a Dan Marino and fake the spike then throw to the end zone. As we yelled, we had no idea we might have saved Notre Dame three points rather than just being sneaky about getting six.
S and I headed home left before the game ended, so missed the Irish going ahead then BYU responding, but were home in time to see the final play. Big 12 refs gonna Big 12 ref, I guess. Not that it mattered. Even if they had thrown a flag for the clear, but uncalled, defensive pass interference, or given Notre Dame the one second the clock showed, I doubt the Irish would have scored. The Football Gods were Mormons for the night.
What an insane day of football, though. #1 loses. #2 loses. #3 survives two Hail Marys to win in double overtime. #5 loses. #6 loses. #7 loses. Chaos! Sadly the playoff means all of these teams are still in it. Well, maybe not Texas. Horns down.
Sunday
It was a Get Right Day for the Colts, with the hapless Titans coming to town. I was so confident I skipped most of the first half to do some yard work outside.
Tennessee said “Not so fast!”
What a dumb game. What a dumb team. The Colts should have won that one by at least 10. Instead they played with their food all day until their inevitable mistakes let the Titans steal the win. I think we might have seen the straw that broke the camel’s back. Chris Ballard should go ahead and start cleaning out his office. Same for Shane Steichen and the rest of the coaching staff.
The performance by the offensive line was ridiculous. Atrocious. Border line criminal. Daniel Jones just loves turning the ball over. Jonathan Taylor, too. There isn’t a good, healthy receiver on the team, and they overpaid for the injured receiver who hasn’t been on the field in a month.
Thanks to Ballard’s brilliant trade that brought in the overrated Sauce Gardner, there is no first round draft pick to use next spring, when there should be several quarterbacks worth spending the pick on. Which means next year is a tank year to land a high pick in 2028. Kamario Taylor, come on down?
Or, oh Lord, what if Arch Manning spends another year in college to try to fix his many issues???
I’m old enough to remember when this franchise won 10 games every season. We were mad that they would always blow out Denver or whoever in the first round of the playoffs but couldn’t seem to get past New England or Pittsburgh. Now we’re made because they are rudderless, dumb, make terrible personnel decisions, and have been stuck in NFL purgatory since Andrew Luck retired.
If St. Louis or San Antonio offered some sweetheart deal to the Irsay ladies, I would help them pack and buy a Hammond Bears shirt the next day.
After a week off, L is back in class today. She spent time with friends every day last week. Friday she went to Bloomington to hang out with C. They went to the OSU game tailgate Saturday before she game home once traffic cleared out. Today is also the first official practice of her final year of organized basketball.