Armchair Weekend in Review (September 14-16, 2007)

by JB82

It was a pretty wild and wooly weekend, so let's discuss what happened...

NFL Week 2

• All the New England Patriots just wanted to do was put this whole stealing signs via videotape thing behind them after a week in the crossfire from NFL commish Roger Godell. So, the Pats decided to take out their frustrations on the San Diego Chargers, holding last year's leading rusher LaDainian Tomlinson to only a measly 43 yards rushing in a 38-14 rout on Sunday night.

• You gotta hand it to Jon Kitna; the Detroit Lions quarterback got himself injured in the afternoon's game against the Minnesota Vikings (for a while, backup J.T. O'Sullivan got some snaps in), only to come back and help will the Lions to a 20-17 overtime win. The other hero was Lions kicker Jason Hanson, who booted the game-winner to put the Lions at 2-0.

• Another game-winner came under very unusual circumstances. The Oakland Raiders thought they had no longer waited for a notch in the win column with a boot from Sebastian Janikowski, but it was declared nill, null and void after the officials said that the Silver and Black's archrivals, the Denver Broncos, had called timeout just before the ball was snapped. So, Janikowski tried again, only to have this attempt carom off the upright. So, the Broncos got the ball and it was their kicker Jason Elam who nailed the chip shot to give the Broncs the win, 23-20.

• More special teams heroics came from the Chicago Bears' Devin Hester. The Bears' return specialist scored punt return touchdowns from 73 and 70 yards (the latter was called back due to a penalty) and helped in a 20-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

• The New York Giants, thanks mostly to a defense that had more flaws than Britney Spears in a string bikini, ended up on the wrong side of history in a 35-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Pack QB Brett Favre got his 149th win as a QB, passing John Elway for the all-time top spot.

CFB Week 3

Looking at the AWIR from one year ago this weekend, there were three games in which the two teams that played each other this past Saturday also played then. These games are listed to prove the old adage, "What a difference a year makes!"

• On 9/16/2006, Lloyd Carr's Michigan Wolverines beat up on Charlie Weis' Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 47-21, in what was described by this reporter as a "surprise attack". Well, there were no surprises one year later, save for the Irish's lack of offensive gusto, and even though both teams came in 0-2, Michigan made history repeat itself, 38-0, coming through on Mike Hart's guarantee.

• Also on that day, an undefeated USC Trojans squad hosted Nebraska, and came out of it the same way, 28-10. The 2007 meeting, this time in Lincoln, Nebraska, saw the two teams square off again, and again the Trojans came out victorious, 49-31. Pete Carroll got a nice present on his 56th birthday, IMO.

• Tennessee and Florida squared off one year ago that weekend, rallying from the dead to win 21-20. This year, no such miracles were needed as the Gators owned the Vols, 59-20. Urban Meyer's signal caller Tim Tebow got two of the scores, going 14-19 and throwing for one yard shy of 300 yards in the game.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban needed a comeback to score his first SEC win, 48-31, over Arkansas. The Crimson Tide gave up 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, and snatches victory from the jaws of defeat with a two-minute drive from John Parker Wilson. Wilson got a career-high 327 yards passing and four touchdowns, going 24-45 and stealing the spotlight from Razorbacks running back Darren McFadden, who scored two touchdowns in the rally that wasn't.

Kentucky's head football coach has always had no pressure in his job, considering his employers are predominately a basketball school. But, the Wildcats have been surprisingly good in 2007, with upperclassman quarterback Andre' Woodson on the squad. Woodson and his Louisville counterpart Brian Brohm engaged each other in a shootout (outgunning the former 366 yards to 275), but the Wildcats overcame even Trent Guy's 100-yard punt return touchdown to upset the Cardinals 40-34.

MLB continues down the home stretch

• Two archrivals met for the last time in the '07 campaign at Fenway Park and here's how it came out:
  • Friday saw Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka get the better of New York Yankees southpaw Andy Pettite in a snoozefest highlighted with a late Yanks rally. Mariano Rivera put the nail in an almost five-hour marathon to get the 8-7 win after being down 5-1 at one point in the game.
  • Saturday was a battle of two aces: the Yanks' Chien-Ming Wang and Boston's Josh Beckett. The latter easily had the upper hand in a 10-1 no-doubter won by the Olde Towne Team. Beckett is the Majors' first 19-game winner, BTW.
  • The series finale, both for the weekend and the season, is known here as the "Battle of the Aged". However, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling didn't look as though they were over the hill as they held each other to one run while on the mound. However, it was the Yankees who took this staring contest thanks to a three-run homer by ... Derek Jeter. The Yanks withstood a late Sox rally to take the series, 2-1, and the season series, 10-8.

• While the Yanks can no longer win the AL East, they still have designs on the wild card, sitting 2 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers.

• Meanwhile, in the NL Central, the hot potato game continues, this time with the Chicago Cubs, who took three of four from their regional rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals (including a doubleheader split). But, the other horse in this race, the Milwaukee Brewers, took two from three from the Cincinnati Reds to stay one game behind the Cubbies.

Take off ... to the Great White North, that is

• Ricky Ray had the rifle going in his favor, throwing for five touchdowns and over 300 yards passing in the Edmonton Eskimos' 47-28 win over the Montreal Allouettes.

• Down to the south, the Calgary Stampeders also got five scores from their QB, Henry Burris, as the Stamps doubled up the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 44-22.

• Winnipeg Blue Bombers slotback Milt Stegall continues to pad his CFL resume, this time passing Darren Flutie (Doug's brother) for second on the league's all-time yard receiving list despite getting only two receptions for 26 yards in the Bombers' 34-4 romp over the Hamilton Tiger Cats. While Stegall remaing under 500 yards shy of unseating Allen Pitts from the throne as King of the CFL Receivers, it's safe to say that Winnipeg's defense pitched a shutout...

• Jarious Jackson and the British Columbia Lions look poised for another Grey Cup run, thanks to a 40-7 pounding of the Toronto Argonauts. Jackson threw for 264 yards, but the Lions didn't really need him in this game, anyway....

Across the Pond we go

• The lone Sunday action came from the City of Manchester Stadium, where Sven-Goran Erickson got back to his winning ways as Manchester City shut out Aston Villa, 1-0. Michael Johnson notched the lone goal in this match.

• On the same weekend the Yankees and Red Sox, Florida and Tennessee, and the Cubs and Cardinals did battle, two London clubs met at White Hart Lane. Tottenham hosted North London nemeses Arsenal, and Spurs were the most gracious of guests, letting Gunners striker Emmanuel Adebayor loose with two goals in a 3-1 loss.

Fast Track

• The Chase for the Nextel Cup began in earnest on Sunday at Loudon, New Hampshire. Clint Bowyer, a first timer in the Chase, scored his first Nextel Cup Series win, while frontrunner Jeff Gordon kept his lead with a second-place finish.

• Other weekend winners included Kimi Raikkonen (Formula 1 Belgium) and Valentino Rossi (MotoGP in Portugal).

Odds and Sods + Kudos = Crazy Delicious!

• Kudos to Tiger Woods, who clinched the PGA TOUR Championship and the first-ever FedEx Cup (despite blowing an event during the latter). Woods nabs a $10 million (US) annuity, which is like giving someone a 12-pack of beer when he already has a good 15 kegs' worth of it.

• Ditto to our female golfers, who took the Solheim Cup in a rather unusual subconcious way. On Saturday, during The Golf Channel's broadcast of the event, Dottie Pepper (a Saratoga Springs, N.Y. native, like this reporter) came out of a commercial break saying that the US team was a bunch of "chokin' freakin' dogs." While Pepper apologized for what she termed as "a poor choice of words", the dogs came out on Sunday with some bite to come back and win the event. Don't worry, fellow Saratogian, it'll all blow over eventually; you've nary to worry about

• Kudos also going out to Chicago White Sox slugger Jim Thome, who joined Alex Rodriguez as the third player this season to join the 500 home run club. Thome hit the milestone tater as a walk-off game winner, 9-7, over the Los Angeles Angels. Coincidentally, it was Jim Thome Bobblehead Day at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, and his family and friends were in attendance.

• One obituary to report: Colin McRae, 39, a Scottish World Rally Championship driver, was killed on Saturday along with his son and two other people when his helicopter crashed in Scotland.

Dude of the Weekend

After the Cleveland Browns traded quarterback Charlie Frye to the Seattle Seahawks, Derek Anderson was called to fill the void under center. Anderson had the game of his life on Sunday, dueling with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer in a combined 11 touchdown performance (6-5 Palmer). Anderson also threw for 328 yards passing in a 51-45 shootout win over the Bengals.

Dope of the Weekend

Another mutiple honor this week, and its the Notre Dame offense showed why it really does have issues offensively. The key stat here: the Irish offense only got a total of 79 yards. Young offense or not, this was pathetic...

This AWIR sure wasn't, IMO

Until next week, let's all be good sports...

RomiezzoLegend

388 days ago

Score 0

Good weekend summary, JB82. We saw some pretty big upsets this weekend. The Yankees/Red Sox series, which happened to be the final 3 games that fans can watch in the regular season, was definitely one thing I wanted it to be: exciting. I just wanted the RED SOX to win. It's ok though, I guess.

Permalink | Reply