sports: Along with having to wait to write my Skyfall post because I had a friend in from out of town (i Would take that weekend every weekend, really not complaining), I also was not writing anything else. But as the news came in I realized that there was enough sports news to fill a weeks worth of posts. Instead of trying to write what is already out dated long posts on every single thing that happened, it is time for a weekend recap. Here we go.
Pro Football: In a weekend in the NFL where I finally started to feel like I had everything under control in terms of looking at the match-ups and knowing what I was going to get, things went a little haywire. I know the Giants are the Giants and they do this every year and will be back come January to winning games, but oh my god did they look bad getting shellacked by the Bengals 31-13. It wasn't even the loss that was so bad but the fact that the one thing that has never been questioned with the Giants, Eli Manning, looked terrible for the third straight week. Then there was Atlanta losing its first game of the season. I feel like that was easy to see coming but no less noteworthy since it has been about four weeks since the Falcons have looked really great (their beat down of the sad sack Eagles notwithstanding) and the heater that the Saints are on. Seriously, they may be a playoff team now. Speaking of the Eagles, can we say hello to the sure to be shortlived Nick Foles era? With Michael Vick out with a "significant cuncussion" the changes we were all expecting in Philly may be coming sooner rather than later. Holy crap did the Houston defense look great in Chicago. And a quick shout out to the Chiefs for holding their first lead of the season in the first half of their game against the Steelers that they still were not able to pull out after Ben Roethlisberger left the game in the second half with a shoulder injury.
College Football: Alabama goes down! It appears that there will be a non-SEC champion this year with three remaining undefeated teams after the Tides loss to Texas A&M after a brilliant performance from "Johnny Football", Johnny Manziel. who handled to stifling 'Bama defense as well as anyone since Nick Saban rolled into town. The Tide do still have a shot a the title game with the three remaining undefeateds (Kansas State, Oregon, and Notre Dame) having tough games down the stretch. Kansas State still has to face Baylor, Texas, and probably Oklahoma for the second time in the Big 12 championship. Oregon still has Stanford, Oregon State, and a shootout rematch with USC in the Pac 12 championship Notre Dame has the easiest path with only USC as a difficult team to beat on their schedule. If the top three teams go down, the Tide can still get back to the National Championship, but regardless, their loss is huge. And even bigger may be the win by A&M in their first year in the SEC, proving they belong.
Racing: I am not going to claim to be a racing expert, but watching Jeff Gordon try to kill someone on the track followed by a bar room brawl on pit road has to be one of the craziest things I've seen in a while. If you don't believe me just watch the post-race rant by points leader and accused dirty driver Brad Kaslewski.
NCAA Basketball: With a slate of top ten match-ups wrapping up as I type this, I have no doubt that college basketball will be off and running with a bang. But dealing with the debacle of humidity condensation delaying and ruining the aircraft carrier games because they were held in the southeast this year (a place where humidity is about as common as breathing) instead of San Diego was a tough way to open the season.
NBA: The NBA had quite a weekend. The Grizzlies convincingly beat the Heat and now appear to be contenders if the display they put on is the team they really are. The Clippers are playing defense, also a contender proposition. But, of course, the scene stealing news was the Lakers firing of Mike Brown and hiring of Mike D'Antoni. Phil Jackson was in negotiations to come back as head coach when, out of the blue, the Lakers hired D'Antoni. It was a bizarre move that is filled with intrigue considering the conflicts coming from the Lakers and Jackson camps. The Lakers are claiming that Jackson made insane demands about not travelling and missing shootarounds and getting control of the front office. Jackson denies all of this of course. No one seems to be able to sort it all out though. Then there is the question of what kind of a fit the coach they have is. While it is hard to argue with Jackson's history, he is the greatest coach in NBA history. There is no doubt that Mike D'Antoni is a good coach. He also is good fit for this team. Being the architect of the "seven seconds or less offense" in Phoenix which featured Steve Nash running the point and Amare Staudemire running pick and rolls, this team seems like a great fit. He still has Nash, Dwight Howard is a clear upgrade from Staudemire, Gasol should be effective in pick and pop situations, and Kobe, in his short time in the Princeton offense, has shown he is great slashing for easy baskets. Now all the Lakers need is a couple of spot up shooters, their health to hold up, and their age not to show in the fastest offense ever and you may have something fun to watch that could work. Oh and the front office needs to stop making rash decisions every five games.
Of course a crazy fun weekend in sports had to come when I was shut down for the weekend and just having fun. But hey, that's always the way it works.
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