Here are some things not covered by my Top 10:
RGIII and the Redskins finding a way to win with kicker Billy Cundiff saving his job on a last second field goal
The Atlanta Falcons pulling victory out of defeat with a last second drive to stay undefeated against the Carolina Panthers
The Green Bay Packers getting screwed by another set of officials, but surviving at home sending New Orleans to an 0-4 start.
The University of Texas outlasting Oklahoma St. on the road with a last minute touchdown run.
The University of Georgia combining with Tennessee to score 88 points in the first 3 quarters before running out of steam and only scoring 7 in the final 15 minutes with Georgia hanging on between the hedges.
The University of Nebraska winning a close game against Wisconsin despite being forced to wear Scrabble tiles for uniforms.
Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds throwing a no hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates matching the MLB record of 7 total no hitters pitched in a single season.
Outside of that, nothing much else happened...but I'll still cover the 10 things I was watching this weekend:
10. #14 Ohio St. Buckeyes at #20 Michigan St. Spartans
7-3 at the half. Yup, another riveting Big 10 game. I don't give a damn that it ended up being a 1 point game the two teams were a combined 10-28 on third downs. They couldn't sustain a drive to save their lives. The 3rd quarter was the only watchable quarter where *gasp* 20 whole points were scored. Defensive dominance?? No. More like putrid, slow, outdated offenses. The worst part about it is that Ohio St. won to stay undefeated meaning the Big 10 will still stay on the radar for another couple of weeks.
9. Miami Dolphins at Arizona Cardinals
Beware of the trap games. I tried to warn everyone that this looked too good to be true for Arizona. Everything was in their favor and it took Kevin Kolb pulling a rabbit out of the hat to survive. Miami held a 13-0 lead into the 3rd quarter when Arizona finally woke up putting together 14 consecutive points to take a lead. It lasted just over two minutes. Brian Hartline caught an 80 yard touchdown pass en route to 253 yards receiving while collecting dust on my fantasy football bench. Arizona answered back, scoring the game tying touchdown with only :22 left. In overtime, Jay Feely blasted a game winning 46 yard field goal to keep the Cardinals undefeated heading into their prime time, nationally televised game on the Thursday night against the St. Louis Rams. I had the game being 20-17 Arizona and it finished 24-21...not too shabby.
8. A.L. Central Race (Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins & Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox)
Ding dong the White Sox are dead...almost. After a very promising start to the weekend with Detroit losing and Chicago winning Friday night, it was all down hill for the White Sox the rest of the way. Chicago was shut down as the Tampa Bay Rays rolled out Matt Moore and David Price who combined to give up just 2 runs in 12.1 innings. The Minnesota Twins didn't help Chicago either against Detroit as Justin Verlander dominated them on Saturday and Prince Fielder hit a go ahead 2 run home run in the 8th inning Sunday. This leaves the A.L. Central exactly as I predicted at a 3 game spread with 3 to go. Get the champagne ready Detroit.
7. Washington Nationals at St. Louis Cardinals
In a potential playoff preview, the Washington Nationals continued to show some cracks in the mighty exterior against a quality opponent. Their starting pitching struggled (Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler gave up 16 runs, 11 earned in just 4 total innings) and when Jordan Zimmermann actually gave them a good start, Drew Storen blew a 9th inning lead. The Nationals survived in the Storen game, but they lost 2 of 3 and are now 7-9 in their last 16 games. Because the Dodgers swept the Rockies while giving up just 1 run all weekend, the Cardinals didn't clinch a playoff spot and the Nationals are still stuck with a magic number of 1 because the Braves won 2 of 3 against the Mets. Washington welcomes Philadelphia to D.C. with the champagne still on ice while St. Louis plays their main rival, the Cincinnati Reds to end the regular season with the playoff hopes on the line.
6. #25 Baylor Bears at #9 West Virginia Mountaineers
There were no rational words to describe this game. The scoring came easier than {insert racy, adult joke here}. 133 total points. I pray to God you all bet the over. Each team scored double digits in each quarter except the 3rd where Baylor only mustered 7 points. Luckily West Virginia scored 21. It was 35-35 at the half thanks to your average, run of the mill 67 yard (non Hail Mary) touchdown pass on the final play of the second quarter. You name an offensive record and it was probably broken. I had predicted the score to be 38-27, but I forgot that they play two halves and not just one in the Big 12. Geno Smith, the quarterback for the Mountaineers, made his Heisman statement by going 45-51 for 656 yards (not a typo), 8 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He also added 31 yards on the ground, but who is counting? He now has 20 passing touchdowns and only 28 INCOMPLETIONS on the season with no interceptions. That's absurd. Nick Florence did his best to keep pace for Baylor throwing for 581 yards, 5 touchdowns and rushing for a score as well, but the Bears ran out of time. Somewhere between this and what the Big 10 produces is good, quality college football. (Hint: its called the SEC).
5. New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills
For more than half of this game, it looked as though Buffalo was ready to take control of the AFC East and put a boot to the throats of the Patriots. Then reality set in. New England reeled off 35 straight points after falling behind 21-7 in about 13 minutes of game time. In all the Patriots scorched the Bills for 45 second half points and climbed back to 2-2 along with Buffalo by winning 52-28. My score of 27-20 New England was spot on if the game had ended after the 1st minute of play in the 4th quarter. Somehow I keep underestimating the quality of offenses and the lack of defense in both college and pro football. Not only did New England get 340 yards passing and 3 touchdowns from Tom Brady, but they had two running backs (Stevan Ridley and Brandon Bolden) eclipse 100 yards while scoring three times total. Buffalo had both of their running backs (Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller) quasi-healthy for the game, but they were held in check rushing for only 62 total yards on 21 carries.
4. New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
What started out as a snooze fest, turned into another dramatic, down to the last play, controversial ending, classic NFC East grudge match. The keys for Philadelphia (per me) was to involve LeSean McCoy more and he had 26 touches for 140 yards. Michael Vick didn't turn the ball over and since both of my two keys came true it only meant that the Eagles were destined to win a close game. Down by just a point late in the 4th quarter, the Eagles were forced to settle for a field goal after having a 1st and goal. This left just under 2 minutes to play and Eli Manning with yet another chance to win a game late. Thanks to a very, very questionable pass interference call, the Giants moved to within field goal range with only seconds to play. That didn't stop them from taking one last shot to the end zone, but Manning under threw the receiver and he was forced to tackle Nnamdi Asomugha for offensive pass interference. The Giants were now forced into attempting a 54 yard field goal which they missed. But wait...Andy Reid called a timeout. The Giants got a second chance and this time the kick split the uprights, but fell two yards short. The Eagles won 19-17 which was kind of close to my 27-26 prediction.
3. A.L. West Race/Wild Card (Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics & Los Angeles Angels at Texas Rangers)
Both of these series were incredible. The Athletics took care of business easily on Friday night, but looked to be dead in the water on Saturday. Heading into the 8th inning they trailed Seattle 4-1 and the half empty (shocker) O.co Coliseum crown was listless. They scored a run in that inning, but the rally was squashed when the potential third run was gunned down at the plate. But the 9th inning in Oakland is when the magic begins for these Athletics. After a walk to Josh Reddick, Josh Donaldson hit a game tying 2 run homer and in the 10th inning, Brandon Moss hit the game winning 3 run homer to give Oakland its 14th walk off victory of the season. Sunday saw the Athletics hit two more home runs in the 8th inning to break open a 2-2 tie to sweep the Mariners. In Texas, the Angels survived a late rally to win game one of their series. Saturday was rained out forcing the two teams to play a double header on Sunday. The Rangers were an out away from evening the series at a game apiece when Torii Hunter smashed a two run double and the Angels won game two in dramatic fashion. Game 3 was more of the same at the start as the Angels raced out to a 4-0 lead. The Rangers were staring at a one game lead heading to Oakland, but rallied to score the next 8 runs. Los Angeles hit a 3 run homer to close the gap to 8-7, but that was all she wrote. Texas goes into Oakland needing just one win to clinch the West while Oakland needs a win or a loss by both Tampa Bay and Los Angeles to clinch a playoff berth. With the Rangers win, they are in the playoffs as are the Orioles and Yankees.
2. A.L. East Race (Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles & New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays)
So I called for the Orioles to sweep the Red Sox. Yup. So I called for the Yankees to take two of three from the Blue Jays (after losing game one of the 4 game set Thursday). Yup. Nailed it. Baltimore and New York are tied atop the A.L East (and Wild Card #1 for the matter) with only three games left. Baltimore has by far the tougher road as they go to Tampa Bay for their games, although they will miss both David Price and Matt Moore. The Yankees get to head home and welcome the horrid Red Sox to town. Now nothing would make Boston fans somewhat happier than watching the Red Sox cost New York a division crown, but I don't know if the players on the field have enough talent to even make it close. Their heart may be in it, but the current Red Sox suck to put it bluntly. They have lost 9 of 10 as they limp to the end of a disastrous season. As much as it pains me to do so, I think the Yankees win the division outright by a game as Baltimore has to settle for a one game playoff against (probably Oakland) someone.
1. The Ryder Cup
I don't think even the most talented writer would be able to piece enough glorious prose together to give what actually happened justice. To put it simply, the USA got beat by the better team in remarkable fashion. After the first two days, the Americans held a very commanding 10-6 lead. Only once (in 1999) had either side come back to win on Sunday when trailing by 4 points or more. That lead was 10-6 for Europe and the Americans made a outrageous comeback on home soil. This time, with the tables turned, but still on American soil, nobody gave Europe much of a chance to win away from home. The strategy that was employed by captain Jose Maria Olazabal was to put his best players out first to try and quiet the raucous crowd. It worked perfectly. The Europeans won the first four matches out of the gate and the score was even at 10. Since Europe had won the previous Cup they only needed 14 total points to retain it, while the Americans needed 14 1/2 to win it. The next two groups split victories to keep the score knotted at 11. The Americans took a 12-11 lead, but Europe erased that quickly winning two straight and took their first lead of the weekend 13-12. All they needed was one more point. It wasn't going to come easy as Jason Dufner won to tie the score at 13. It came down to the final two matches and with Europe leading in one and trailing in the other things were looking good for them. American Steve Stricker holed a par putt to force Martin Kaymer to sink a six foot putt to win and that's just what he did. It was an epic collapse, but the tension was unmatched. I had predicted a 16-12 American victory and that's how it should have happened, but sports doesn't work that way. Win, lose or draw that's the way I like them.
