Articles in

September 2014

MLB playoff winners; World Series winner

September 30, 2014

American League Wild Card game

Oakland A’s (88-74) @ Kansas City Royals (89-73)

Kaufman Stadium, KC (37,903)

Tonight: 8:07 ET/7:07 CT; WTBS

Starting pitchers: A’s: Jon Lester (16-11, 2.46 ERA, 48 walks, 220 strikeouts) vs. Royals: James Shields (14-8, 3.21 ERA, 44 walks, 180 K’s)

A’s throwing Lester, who has a 2.11 ERA in 13 postseason outings, which includes two victories and an 0.59 ERA for the Red Sox in their World Series championship series last season. “Big Game James” Shields is going for the Royals. Shields registered a 2.31 ERA in September for the surprising and impressive Royals, but his career postseason numbers, all with the Tampa Bay Rays– he came over in a trade to the Royals in 2012–are 2-4, 4.98 ERA. So I’m going with the A’s to take this win or you’re done scenario in the wild card game. Pretty exciting with a one game deal in the AL and NL wild card games.

A’s 3, Royals 2

National League Wild Card game

San Francisco Giants (88-74) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (88-74)

** the Pirates get home field due to a 4-2 head to head advantage this season

PNC Park, Pittsburgh (38,496)

Wednesday(tomorrow): 8:07 PM ET/7:07 PM CT

ESPN

Giants Madison Bumgarner (18-10, 2.98, 43 walks/219 K’s) vs. Pirates Edinson Volquez (13-7, 3.04, 71/140)

The Giants usually raise their game in the postseason, but I’m going with superstar center fielder Andrew McCutchen and the Bucs in this one.

Pirates 5, Giants 3

American League Division Series

Detroit Tigers (90-72) @ Baltimore Orioles (96-66)

Best of 5 games series: 2 @ Baltimore, 2 @ Detroit and game five, if necessary, @ Baltimore

First game: Thursday, either 5:37 PM ET/4:37 CT or 6:07 PM ET/5:07 CT-will update on blog after wild card games

Oriole Park @ Camden Yards, Baltimore ( 45,971)

All games on WTBS

Thursday’s starters: Tigers: Max Scherzer (stud, 18-5, 3.15 ERA, 63/252) vs. O’s Chris Tillman (13-6, 3.34, 66/150)

Prediction:

With the Tigers starting Sherzer, then Justin Verlander then David Price, wow, I like that rotation to get it done. Rick Porcello goes in game four for the Tigers. The O’s are undecided about their pitchers after Tillman tonight. Like the Tigers pitching to get this done though the Birds can hit it. The Tigers might lose one with one of their studs going, but I don’t think it’ll be in the first game with Scherzer going. Like the Tigres to move on to the ALCS

Tigers in 4

ALDS @ LA Angels

Oakland A’s (predicted wild card winner) @ LA Angels (98-64)

Best of 5

First game: this Thursday, Oct.2 : 9:07 PM ET/ 8:07 PM CT or 9:37 PM ET/8:37 PM CT; will update

All games on WTBS

Pitchers: To be announced: Jared Weaver (18-9, 3.59 ERA) most likely for Halos; Sonny Gray ( 14-10, 3.08 ERA) most likely for A’s.

The A’s have excellent arms and the Angels have excellent bats. Oakland general manager may, for a while at least, regret trading Yoenis Cespedes, without a doubt the A’s best hitter, before the July 31st trade deadline to the Red Sox for Jon Lester. While Lester is stellar, The A’s haven’t been able to hit a lick since trading their star left fielder. He set the tone for the lineup. After Aug.1, the A’s hit .225 as a team. They were never prolific hitting, but Cespedes just gave them that added punch that really helped them offensively. The A’s had the best record in baseball before the All-Star break, but after the break and the trade of Cespedes they stumbled and went 29-38. The Angels are on fire with their all world center fielder Mike Trout (.287, 36 homers, 111 RBIs, 39 doubles, 9 triples and 16 stolen bases), and the rejuvanated Albert Pujols (.272, 28 homers, 105 Ribeyes) at first base. Trout had the highest WAR (Wins Above Replacement) rating in baseball @ 7.87. That’s almost eight wins that Trout provides versus a replacement for him. Very significant and interesting number in baseball. Like the Angels bats, a pretty good starting staff, good defense and a good bullpen to get the job done here.

Angels in 4

National League Division Series:

St. Louis Cardinals (90-72) @LA Dodgers (94-68)

Best of five series

First game: Friday 6:37 PM ET/5:37 PM CT

Dodger Stadium (56,000)

Games on Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network; Friday night’s game on Fox Sports 1

Pitchers Friday night: Cards; Adam Wainwright (20-9, 2.38 ERA, 50/179) vs. Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw (21-3, 1.77 ERA 31/239)

Can one pitcher make that big a difference in a series? When it’s Clayton Kershaw, who is the best in the business and there are a lot of good ones, yes. Kershaw’s fast ball comes in at 93 and his curve is just electric and almost impossible to hit. Kershaw has the second highest WAR in baseball @7.54. Can’t stress how significant that number is. Kershaw gives you seven and a half more wins when he’s in the lineup than when a substitute pitches for him. Pretty cool stuff. Wainwright-Kershaw is quite a matchup, but I barley like Kershaw and the Dodgers to take game one and win the series with Kershaw closing it out in game 5 again.

Dodgers in 5

NLDS

Pirates (predicted wild card winner) @ Washington Nationals (96-66)

Nationals Park (D.C.)

Best of five

Game one: Friday, Oct.3 12:07 PM ET/11:07 AM CT or 3:07 PM ET/2:07 PM CT; will update on blog

Pitchers: To be determined: Pirates may go with Gerritt Cole (11-5, 3.65) vs Nationals Jordan Zimmerman (14-5, 2.66)

***Note: Zimmerman pitched a no-hitter Sunday against the Miami Marlins. Walked one and struck out 10 and got a beautiful diving catch in left center by backup left fielder Steven Souza for the third out in the ninth that clinched the no hitter for Zimmerman. Zimmerman said he would have Souza over for dinner any time he wanted. If I was Zimmerman, I’d take him out for steaks for the next week and a half. The catch was unreal.

The Nationals hit it well and pitch well. Like them here.

Nats in 4

ALCS: Best 4 out of 7

Angels vs. Tigers

WTBS to televise

Angels over Tigers in 7

Angels home field, pitching, defense and hitting overcome the Tigers stellar pitching rotation but suspect defense.

NLCS: Best 4 out of 7

Dodgers vs. Nationals

FOX and Fox Sports 1 to televise

Dodgers over Nationals in 7

The Kershaw factor prevails again here.

2014 World Series-Home field American League

Angels vs. Dodgers

Begins Tuesday, Oct. 21

FOX will televise entire series

In an LA Freeway series (Jim Morrison and the Doors would love this), those bats and enough pitching give the Angels their second world series title in franchise history over the storied history of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Angels won it as the Anaheim Angels in 2002. Mike Trout and company deliver the Commissioner’s Trophy to Anaheim and the Angels organization.

Angels in 6

Ryder Cup thought; Colossal weekend in college football

September 29, 2014

I thought Phil was way out of line in his criticism of Tom Watson as the captain this year and the two captain’s in the past, Davis Love (2012) and Corey Pavin (2010). We just got beaten by a better team; nothing else to say. To blame it on the captains is a low blow and pretty classless. Our guys just need to work harder. Maybe there needs to be better structure. For those who didn’t see the comments, Phil criticized the organizational structure of the team that Watson, Love and Pavin had put together in the last three Cups. Phil said that Paul Azinger set it up where there were groups of four and you had one “leader” of the group who would guide you through the whole preparation and week of the competition. Probably a good idea, but he was critical of Watson’s and Love’s and Pavin’s approach and that was totally out of line. Our players just didn’t get it done. Phil may have been a little hot about not getting a start on Saturday in either the morning or afternoon competition so that probably had something to do with his frustration. Maybe our captains need to do a better job starting with the 2016 captain, and the players seem to want Azinger, but the players have some responsibility as well. They’ve just got to play better. It’s as simple as that. They’ve got to practice harder, and they’ve got to be mentally ready. Maybe we need 12 captain’s picks in the future instead of automatic qualifications because it’s looking like we’re not getting our best competitors out there.

Tremendous week for Alabama and Auburn and the SEC. No.3 Bama @ No.11 Ole Miss @ 2:30 PM CT on CBS on Saturday and No.15 LSU @ No. 5 AU @ 6 PM CT Saturday on the Plains. ESPN to telecast AU-Bengal Tigers matchup. A&M @ State ( 11 AM), ESPN, Florida @ Tennessee (Noon ET/ 11 AM CT, SEC Network) and South Carolina @ Kentucky (7:30 PM ET/ 6:30 CT on SEC Network) also. Vandy @ N0.13 Georgia (4 PM ET/3 CT on SEC Network) could be a long day for the Dores. But some great stuff. Also, No.14 Stanford @ No.9 Notre Dame (3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT, NBC) and kind of an underrated game No.4 Oklahoma @ No. 25 TCU (3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on FOX). No. 19 Nebraska @ No. 10 Michigan State (8 PM ET/7 CT on ABC) . No.7 Baylor @ Texas (3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on ABC) . I just like what Charlie Strong is doing at Texas. Somebody is finally taking a stand and punishing bad behavior. I like that there is a coach who is holding his players accountable and not letting bad behavior slide. Pulling for Strong.

Will have a lot more on these upcoming games tomorrow on the blog.

NFL picks week 4

September 27, 2014

Last week: 9-0; Overall: 15-11 (58%)

Bears 31, Packers 30

Ravens 28, Panthers 27

Lions 27, Jets 24

Steelers 34, Buccaneers 24

Falcons 28, Vikings 27

49ers 34, Eagles 30

Saints 38, Cowboys 34

Patriots 34, Chiefs 30

College football, Week 5; Ryder Cup preview and prediction

September 25, 2014

Auburn in a much needed developmental game this week against La. Tech @ home as they prepare for LSU next Saturday Night at Jordan-Hare at 6 CT on ESPN. Bama off this week and reps it this weekend and next week in preparation for a trip to Oxford to face the Ole Miss Rebels @ 2:30 PM CT on CBS next Saturday. Both games should be epics and colossal tests for both squads. This week has some good SEC matchups. Here’s a look at those game and other predictions:

Last week: 7-3; overall: 39-12 (76%)

Louisiana Tech (2-2) @ No.5 Auburn (3-0)

Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn (87,451)

4 PM CT/5 ET

SEC Network

Brent, Jess, Maria Taylor

Line: AU by 32 1/2

Auburn needs to get back to what they were doing in the spring game and the Arkansas game, which was dominating offensively. Nick Marshall and his receivers, particularly Sammy Coates and Duke Williams, need to light it up Saturday against La. Tech. The running game needs to get on track again after a somewhat below par performance against K State. I’ve thought a lot about the Kansas State game and K State is actually a pretty good team. They’re big and athletic on the offensive line. Their defense played a good game and it was in Manhattan, a tough place to win. So that would be a tough game for anybody, even the elite teams. Auburn needs to get back their elite status on Saturday. The defense needs to keep progressing, especially the front four in Ellis Johnson’s 4-2-5 alignment. The secondary has been pretty good at times. The linebackers have done some good things. Auburn just needs a complete game this Saturday.And the offense needs to explode. Maybe if Nick struggles, Gus puts Jeremy Johnson out there and auditions him for next week against LSU. The way Nick was throwing it around in the spring game looked a lot like Johnny Manziel last year. So it’s in him. La Tech is 2-2, having lost to Oklahoma, 48-16, and Northwestern State, 30-27. Northwestern State is in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Can’t tell you that I know exactly the whereabouts of that town. Northwestern State did lose to Baylor, 70-6. La Tech has beaten La Lafayette, 48-20, a pretty good win though La Lafayette is pretty down this year, and they’ve beaten North Texas, 42-21. So they’re not terrible. But Auburn should dominate this game. They need to and get the momentum revved up heading into next Saturday’s showdown on the Plains against The Hat and LSU.

Auburn 56, La Tech 24

Arkansas (3-1) vs. No.6 Texas A&M (4-0)

AT&T Stadium (Jerryville), Arlington, Texas (80,000, but with standing room only crowd could be close to 100,000)

2:30 PM CT/3:30 ET

CBS

Verne ” I don’t believe what I just saw!” Lundquist, Gare Danielson, Allie LaForce

Line: A&M by 9 1/2

The line for this game started out at A&M -15 1/2 and has moved down to 9. That’s pretty major. I think the Vegas guys and the gamblers are believing Arkansas has a good shot in this game. Arkansas’ running backs are all world. Alex Collins has rushed for 490 yards on 65 carries (7.5 average) and five TDs. Jonathan Williams has rushed for 391 yards on 48 carries (8.1) and seven TDs. Their offensive line is the biggest line in football; college or pro. That’s astounding really. Their left tackle, Dan Skipper, is 6’10”, 315. They average 319.6 pounds across the front. Wow. Their quarterback, Brandon Allen, is 43-of-70 (61.4%) for 552 yards, eight TDs and only one int. He’s really gotten better this season. A&M had an outrageously explosive game offensively against South Carolina with first time starter Kenny “Trill” (some rap thing) Hill throwing for 511 yards while completing 44 of 60 passing attempts and throwing for three TDs. They just pummeled SC. And they’ve had three easy games since against Lamar, Rice and SMU to keep their momentum going. Malcome Kennedy has already caught 30 passes for 334 yards and a TD, and Ricky Seals-Jones has caught 16 for 192 and 3 TDs. Josh Reynolds has four TDs receiving. Seals-Jones is 6’5″, 236, a huge target for Hill. Reynolds is 6’4″, and Kennedy is 6’0″, though he is a heckuva receiver, probably their best one. But Arkansas’ defense is better than A&M’s. Still not a buyer in A&M’s defense; at least not this season. I see them as vulnerable on D. I like Arkansas’ old school approach of running the football, passing off play action, playing physical upfront and playing solid defense. They have a pretty good passing game utilizing their athletic wide receivers and excellent tight ends. I checked it out and the tickets are a 50-50 split @ Jerry’s World. College Station is four hours from Arlington (Dallas), and Little Rock is not that much farther away. So the home field advantage doesn’t really apply here. So I’m going with the upset in this one.

Hogs 38, Aggies 35

Missouri (3-1) @ No.13 South Carolina (3-1)

Williams-Brice Stadium (80,250)

7 PM ET/6 CT

ESPN

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

Line: SC by 6

Mizzou lost to Indiana last week in what looked like a disastrous upset loss. South Carolina is not too swift on defense, but the offense is pretty good. Ball Coach was doggin his team earlier in the week, so maybe that got them fired up. Dylan Thompson has done a good job at quarterback, the running backs are getting it going and they have excellent receivers. South Carolina is going to have to play better defense though to win the East. I see the Gamecocks taking care of business here, but in a good game.

South Carolina 38, Mizzou 31

Tennessee (2-1) @ No.12 Georgia (2-1)

Sanford Stadium, Athens (92,746)

Noon ET/11 AM CT

ESPN

Dave Pasch (get ready to be annoyed), Brian Griese, and Tom “Lugues” Luginbill

Line: Dawgs by 17

UT is much improved this year, but I’m still not totally buying them yet. Dawgs fighting to get back in the SEC Championship game conversation and a win here would get them right back in it with SC having a tougher road ahead than the Dawgs. I look for Todd Gurley and the Dawgs to do well here. Should be a good game for a while though. UT is better.

Them Dawgs 38, UT 24

Vanderbilt (1-3) @ Kentucky (2-1)

Commonwealth Stadium, Lexington (67,606)

Noon ET/11 AM CT

SEC Network

Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Laura Rutledge

Line: Wildcats by 17

Kentucky really gave the Florida Gators a tough game down in the Swamp two weeks ago. I don’t know how good Florida is though, and if they’re any good at all, but that was a good effort by the Wildcats; and they really should have won down there because after Ky scored a touchdown in the first overtime and Florida had the ball fourth and goal on the Ky seven and didn’t snap the ball before the play clock hit zero. It was close, but it was a delay of game. The refs didn’t call it and Florida threw seven on the play and won the game in the third overtime. If the penalty had been called, the Gators would have faced fourth and goal from the 12. That’s a huge difference. It’s tough getting calls on the road in the SEC, especially if you’re the total underdog. But the Wildcats should be fine against the Dores, which have struggled under first year coach Derek Mason. He has a somewhat young team in experience, but there is talent, and he hasn’t seemed to maximize it. He’s actually messed it up for the most part. Like the Cats to handle the Dores. Mark Stoops is doing a very good job up there.

Kentucky 38, Vandy 20

Other scores:

No.17 LSU 45 New Mexico State 10

6:30 PM CT, SEC Network

No. 10 Ole Miss 45, Memphis 24

6:30 PM CT, ESPN3

No.1 Florida Sate 34, NC State 30

3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on ABC or ESPN2

Washington 34, No.16 Stanford 30

4:15 PM ET/3:15 CT on FOX

Oregon State 35, No.18 USC 31

10:30 PM ET/9:30 CT on ESPN

Tonight:

No.24 Oklahoma State 45, Texas Tech 30

6:30 PM CT on ESPN

No.11 UCLA 35, No. 15 Arizona State 30

10 PM ET/ 9 CT on Fox Sports 1

The 40th Ryder Cup

The Gleneagles Hotel, PGA Centnary Course, Auchterarden, Scotland

7,243 yards, Par 72

Weather fine, no rain expected, but pretty windy. 16 MPH Friday, 11 Saturday and 11 on Sunday

TV: Golf Channel and NBC. Friday: Golf Channel: 2:30 AM ET/1:30 AM CT ; Saturday: 2 AM ET/1 AM CT on Golf Channel with NBC picking up 1-6 PM ET and 12-5 CT; Sunday: 7 AM ET/ 6 AM CT on NBC

Phil’s line to the media on Rory yesterday was all time classic. To give a little background for the quote, Rory is suing Horizon Sports, the agency that landed his $100 million deal with Nike, stating they took too much commission. One of his partners on this year’s Euro Ryder Cup team, Graeme McDowell, is also represented by Horizon and Rory, in his suit, says McDowell received preferential treatment with Horizon. First of all, Rory will surely have enough money to “feed his family” without a lawsuit. He can feed himself, his parents, his agent, his swing coach, his personal trainer, his massage therapist, his nutritionist and his sports psychologist while still having plenty of money to live the Hollywood lifestyle he wants to live. For a little more background, Rory said about a month ago that Phil and Tiger were on the “back nine of their careers.” I know that didn’t sit well with Phil or Tiger. So when Phil was asked yesterday if the U.S. team can play well together after not having a lot of success in recent history, Phil responded:

Not only are we able to play together, we also don’t litigate against each other, and that’s a real plus, I feel, heading into the week.

Love it. Tired of Rory. He’s changed drivers this week. That’s pretty weird heading into the Ryder Cup. He says he can get about eight to 10 more yards on it and can work it better. We’ll see how that works out. He might be going back to his old driver if the first match doesn’t work out for him. I like the Tom Watson factor for the U.S. team. Tom has won eight majors and five of them are British Opens, four on Scottish soil. That tells me a lot. He’s the toughest guy mentally in the competition this week, along with assistant captain Raymond Floyd. And Phil, Keegan, Jordan Spieth, Hunter Mahan, Patrick Reed, Jim Furyk and the rest of the American team is homed in and hungry. To me, the reason the Euros pulled off the massive comeback in 2012–when they were down 10-6 heading into Sunday at Medinah and won eight and tied one of the 12 singles matches to win the Cup 14 1/2 to 13 1/2–was the fact they had Jose Maria Olazabal was their captain. He and Seve were machines together in the Ryder Cup and he brought that mentality to his captaincy. He was just mentally tougher than U.S. captain Davis Love. He willed his guys to victory. This year, the European team is captained by unknown Paul McGinley, an Irishman who has four European tour victories on his resume; not that impressive. So I really like the Watson factor here, and I like Phil and the guys as the underdog. Europe has won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups and are the overwhelming favorite on paper. But the U.S. has always played a great underdog. Should be incredible. I’m going with the upset here.

U.S. 14 1/2, Euros 13 1/2

Bears get it done at the Meadowlands; set up for huge Sunday tilt vs. Pack

September 23, 2014

Beat the Jets, 27-19. Jay 23-pt-38 for 225 and 2 TDs and no ints. Played an excellent game. Jay’s passer rating was 94.7. Connected with tight end Martellus Bennett for two sevens. Martellus felt disrespected by Rex Ryan, who before the game, said the Bears have two superstars in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey and referred to Martellus as “that big dude.” It was pretty funny. Really motivated Martellus. Defense did an excellent job despite having an ambulance squad in our secondary. Safety after safety went down with injury. It was gutsy effort by our defense and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker did an excellent job of keeping our guys together back there. Rookie Kyle Fuller from Virginia Tech is quickly becoming one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Had another huge interception of a Geno Smith pass in the end zone which preserved the lead in the third quarter. Love Kyle. What a future he has ahead of him. Thought our o line did a pretty good job overall with two of our starters injured and out once again this week. Jay was sacked four times by a tough defense-they were number one against the league against the run and have a very active and physical front four. But we did a good job. Matt Forte didn’t have his best game at running back, but had some key runs towards the end of the game. Maybe the play of the game was on third and seven on our final drive when the Jets brought the kitchen sink after Jay on an all out blitz and Jay threw it up to Alshon who made a leaping catch. Incredible play by Jay and Alshon. Anyway, huge win by the team. Hopefully we’ll get some of our players back for Discount Double Check and the Packers this Sunday at Soldier Field. 1 PM ET/Noon CT on FOX. Incredibly large game in the Windy City on Sunday. Love the way the team is fighting. Playing very well. Bears now 2-1 in the NFC North. Tied with the Lions atop the division. Pack 1-2 coming in. Will get to see Casey Hayward and Sean Richardson play for the Pack.

Also, and I should have mentioned this earlier, Jordan Matthews caught two touchdown passes for the Philly Eagles Sunday in their 37-34 heated victory over the Redskins. Huge day for JMatt. JMatt making a statement as a stellar wide receiver in the National Football League. Incredible future ahead for Jordan.

Our guys gave an excellent effort against SC last Saturday. Going to re-watch the game and give you some more thoughts tomorrow. Wade Freebeck, our freshman qb, played extremely well. Ralph Webb had another big game. Lost 48-34, but played the Gamecocks pretty tough. Darius Sims with two kick returns for TDs of 90+ yards each. Wow! Darrius is a superstar. Would like to see him get some more time at corner if Derek feels like he can get the job done there. He’s such an electric playmaker. Huge game against the Wildcats in Lexington on Saturday @ Noon ET/11 AM CT on SEC Network. Will give a preview closer to the game. Need this one. This would be a huge one to get.

Dave and Sonny on the hill for the Tigers and A’s respectively. The wild card races are hot and the Tigers are still leading their division. David going against the White Sox at home, while Sonny is @ home against the LA Angels, which have already clinched the AL West. Tigers lead the KC Royals by one game in the AL Central heading into tonight, so huge start for DP. Sonny and the A’s lead the Royals by one game in the wild card standings. Would be good to get that No.1 spot in the wild card for the home field in that one game win or go home scenario in the wild card game. Will be in touch with anything that comes up and preview our game with Kentucky later in the week. Thanks.

Wow, what a Saturday; look back at AU on Thursday

September 22, 2014

Alabama 42, Florida 21

The Tide trounced Florida. Blake Sims and Amari Cooper were all world, and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon. Everything was clicking. Blake was 22-of-33 for 445 yards and four TDs. Amari caught 10 passes for 201 yards and three TDs. Not only is Amari right in the thick of the Heisman race, Blake could be right there as well. He’s got to be in the top 5 or six too. I’d put Amari neck and neck with Marcus Mariota right now. I’d actually put Amari ahead of Mariota at this point. Amari now has 43 receptions for 665 yards (15.2 average) for five TDs. That over the shoulder catch he pulled in for a 79 yard score was a beauty. Blake’s 87-yard TD pass to Kenyon Drake was exceptionally good too. Blake hit Kenyon right in stride and Kenyon did the rest with a house call. Blake’s pass to Amari was thrown right in stride as well. It was a tougher catch, but Amari made it look like a backyard football catch as Blake called it in his post game. Amari made heralded cornerback Vernon Hargreaves look like a third stringer. He just took him to school. Hargreaves seemed to be hurt about every series, too. He’s overrated to me. The best guy in the Florida secondary is Keanu Neal, one of their safeties. He’s a good player. He stripped DeAndrew White and took it to the house to put the Gators ahead briefly in the first quarter, 14-7. But the Tide came roaring right back with the Sims to Cooper 79-yard connection for the tying score. Blake just did about everything right. I know S is hard on his critiques of Blake and he did made a couple of miscues with his fumble in the third quarter and his interception, but S has got to be pleased with his senior, who has worked his backside off with offensive coordinatorLane Kiffin to be an elite quarterback in the SEC. I’ll tell you who else deserves a lot of credit: Lane Kiffin. Lane has Blake clicking on all cylinders right now. He’s dialing up excellent plays and has turned Blake into a highly confident and elite SEC quarterback. Both Kiffin and Blake have done their part. Lane has coached him up and Blake has put in the hours in the film room and the practice field. It’s a combination that looks championship-like. I know S is not happy about the fumble and the int, but he’s got to be pleased with what Lane and Blake are doing, without a doubt. The defense was solid after a somewhat slower start. Landon Collins and Jabriel Washington both had interceptions. Kirby Smart and S have to be pleased about that. I thought the defensive line did a better job of rushing the quarterback, and Reggie Ragland and Trey DePriest had excellent games. Ragland finished with eight tackles and Trey had seven. Landon and Trey are the leaders. They really stepped up on Saturday. Landon Collins is an All-American looking player this year. He’s the guy who can lead the defense, along with Trey, into playing championship caliber football.

Next up is Ole Miss @ Oxford. No TV or time has been announced yet for the game. Should come out later this week, maybe this afternoon or tomorrow. I expect it to be the 2:30 PM CT CBS game. Should be an epic. Blake and Lane will be tested by a pretty darn good defense, and the Alabama defense will be tested by Bo Wallace, who looks like he may have become a solid SEC starting quarterback, though I still say the jury is still out on Wallace. But he has a talented offensive group around him. Hugh Freeze is doing an excellent job in Oxford. Should be quite a test for the Tide.

Another group that is playing as well as anybody in the country is the Bama offensive line. Really like this group led by center Ryan Kelly and right tackle Austin Shepherd. True freshman Cam Robinson, one of the top five-stars in the country in recruiting last year, has been outstanding. Like what Arie Kouandijo is doing at left guard and Leon Brown @ right guard. Excellent group. Kelly is 6’5″, 296, and the smallest of the group. Shepherd is 6’5″, 320, Robinson is 6’6″, 323 (wow!), Kouandijo is 6’5″, 315 and Brown is 6’6″, 320. That’s massive, and they are tough, physical players. The running game is getting it going. Derrick Henry ran for 111 yards and a seven, and T.J. (18-59) and Kenyon did well. Kenyon had a fumble, as did DeAndrew White and Blake. Kenyon’s and DeAndrew’s were just good strips by the Gator defenders. You get some fumbles with Kenyon, but she also get some massively explosive plays. Just needs to get that ball security down.

So the Tide is now No.3 in the polls right behind the fortunate FSU at No.1 and Oregon, which survived a tough contest with Washington State, 38-31, @ No.2. If you watched Florida State on Saturday Night vs. Clemson, you saw how incredibly fortunate they were to win. They beat Clemson 23-17 without Jameis. Sean Mcguire filled in for Winston and did a commendable job. He was 21-of-39 for 305 yards with a huge game tying 74 yard TD pass late in the game to Rashad Greene which tied the game with 6:04 left in the game. But with just over two minutes left in regulation, McGuire was intercepted by Clemson linebacker Jadar Johnson who returned it to the FSU 26. But sure enough, Clemson running back C.J. Davidson fumbled it right back to FSU and FSU took it to overtime where they won it with a game winning touchdown after Clemson couldn’t make a first down on fourth and one on their possession at the FSU 11. The Clemson kicker was terrible. Missed a couple of easy kicks which Taylor Swift might have made. Clemson had it inside the FSU five twice and didn’t get any points. So FSU survived Clemson and move on with Jameis back at quarterback.

Auburn 20, Kansas State 14

Not sure what happened to the Tigers’ offense Thursday night. Nick Marshall played a pretty good game, but really didn’t get much help. Duke Williams dropped a sure touchdown pass and there were other drops. Nick was a little inaccurate at times, too. Kansas State played the Tigers tough though. That offensive line for K State is big and they handled the AU defensive front all night. Not sure why the AU d line isn’t better. There is great size and athletic ability on that front four, but they can’t seem to get a good pass rush. Defensive line coach Rodney Garner needs to figure some things out to get better pass rush from his front. The defense kind of got the job done, but the first interception by Jonathan Jones was a drop by Kansas wide receiver Tyler Lockett in the end zone that would have been seven for K State. The second int by Trovon Reed was beautiful. Nice diving play by Trovon. So overall, the Tigers really need to get better on offense and need to shore up their defense. Surprised at their performance Thursday night. Kansas State had something to do with it, and on the road at K-State is not easy. So there is a lot to get better at for the Tigers as they prepare for Louisiana Tech this weekend @ 3 PM on the SEC Network. They need to really improve this Saturday because LSU, which lost a wild one to State Saturday Night (how does Les lose these games every year?), comes to Auburn on Saturday, Oct. 4. Just thinking about which game, Alabama-Ole Miss or Auburn-LSU will be the 2:30 PM CT, CBS game. Should be an interesting decision. One of those games will be the CBS and the other will be the ESPN game at 6 PM CT or so. Should be an epic Saturday on Oct.4th.

Mississippi State was awesome Saturday Night in Death Valley. Wow, they pulled it off beating the Bengal Tigers, 34-29. They look for real, though LSU did come back and had a 50 yard Hail Mary in the end zone as time expired to try and steal one from State. But State intercepted it and upset the Bayou Bengals. Dak Prescott was 15-of-24 for 268 and two TDs, including a beautiful 74 yarder to Jameon Lewis, in which Dak escaped the pressure, rolled to his left and lofted it 10 yards to Lewis, who caught it at around his own 35, and took it the distance to put State up 31-10, which gave State a commanding lead. Dak also ran for 105 yards and one TD. What a player. I still wonder sometimes about Dak’s consistent accuracy throwing the ball, but overall, he’s quite a quarterback. Running back Josh Robinson ran for 197 yards on 16 carries and one TD. And the State defense was pretty dominating until LSU made their frantic comeback at the end behind freshman quarterback Brandon Harris. I knew coming into the season that while LSU was talented, they lost a lot to the NFL, their quarterback was inexperienced (Anthony Jennings), and their skilled players, for the most part, were inexperienced. But after the Wisconsin game and a couple of easy home victories, I thought that maybe this team is so talented it can overcome its youth and inexperience. But an experienced, talented team with a high caliber SEC quarterback handled them. Les Miles should still have won this game. He has really good talent and LSU was 43-3 in night games under Miles at Tiger Stadium before Saturday night. Every year, he always seems to lose a game or two he is expected to win. Very surprising, but an awesome victory for head coach Dan Mullen, who finally got the monkey off his back with a huge win over a top 10 team, and Dak Prescott and the team. State hadn’t beaten LSU since 1999, so a huge one for the Bulldogs.

South Carolina pretty much handled Vandy, 48-34. Their offense looked pretty good, but their defense is questionable at best. Georgia is still very much in this SEC East race, and I guess you can’t count out Florida totally, though Florida doesn’t look too swift to me. Missouri took a real step back with their upset loss to Indiana @ home. They travel to Columbia, S.C. this week to take on the Gamecocks (7 PM ET/6 PM CT, ESPN). South Carolina still has to go to Auburn and go to Florida. They have to play Kentucky and Tennessee @ home and UT upset the Gamecocks last year. And Kentucky, which is much improved, has given the Gamecocks fits over the past five years. But the schedule is now more doable with Auburn not as strong at this point as anticipated. The Dawgs have to go to Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas–which might be the toughest of the three– and they have Florida in Jacksonville, the usual Cocktail game, and Tennessee, Vandy and Auburn at home. So their schedule, like SC’s, is tough, but doable. A two loss team could very well win the East this year.

As for the West, it’s incredibly good. It could be tougher than one of the divisions in the NFL. Alabama, A&M, Ole Miss and State look like the best teams right now, with Auburn looking to get back in that elite group and Arkansas making a statement after thrashing Texas Tech in Lubbock , Texas (49-28), and then routing Northern Illinois, 52-14 @ home over the weekend. Northern Illinois was 3-0 coming into the game and had beaten Northwestern at Northwestern, 23-14. So that’s a legitimate victory and Texas Tech is a juggernaut on offense, but was unable to stop that stellar running game of the Hogs. The Hogs’ running game is terrific with Alex Collins, who has run for 490 yards on 65 carries (7.5 average) and five TDs, and Jonathan Williams, who has run for 391 yards on 48 carries (8.1), and seven TDs. These two guys are hosses and their quarterback, Brandon Allen, is starting to play well. The Hogs host A&M this Saturday in what could be a very interesting game. It’s the 2:30 PM CT game on CBS.

Awesome stuff going on in college football right now both in the SEC, where the West could be better than ever, and nationally. Will have previews and predictions of games on Thursday and anything else that comes up in the meantime, will keep you posted.

NFL picks, Week 3

September 19, 2014

Last week: 3-6; Overall: 6-11

Dallas 27, St. Louis 24

Eagles 34, Redskins 27

Saints 38, Vikings 24

Bengals 31, Titans 20

Lions 30, Packers 28

Cardinals 30, Niners 27

Seahawks 35, Broncos 28

Steelers 28, Panthers 27

Bears 31, Jets 27

Week 4 in the SEC and college football

September 18, 2014

Auburn in a key game in Manhattan, Kansas tonight against the Kansas State Wildcats. Bama in a test against the Gators Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa. Jameis with another degenerate act that could affect his team Saturday night at home against Clemson. Some other key SEC games and Oregon in action. Here’s a look at the match ups tonight and Saturday:

Last week: 13-2; overall: 32-9 (78%)

No.5 Auburn (2-0) @ No.20 Kansas State (2-0)

Bill Snyder Family Stadium (50,000)

6:30 PM CT/7:30 ET

ESPN

75 degrees, partly cloudy at kickoff

Line: Auburn by 9

Kansas State is a pretty good team. But they’re not elite. Their quarterback is a pretty good player, Jake Waters. He’s run for four TD’s and passed for a couple of more. Receiver Tyler Lockett is good with seven receptions for 145 yards and one score in the Wildcats’ first two games. Running back Charles Jones has rushed for 130 yards on 21 carries and four TDs. DeMarcus Robinson is a good running back too, he’s rushed for 71 yards on 18 carries. All of their offensive linemen are over 300 pounds, so it’ll be interesting to see how Montravius Adams, Gabe Wright and company do against them. Auburn’s defense might be tested here some. With Jermaine Whitehead not in this game for disciplinary reasons–he mouthed off to a coach and Gus suspended him for the game–safeties Jonathan Ford and Derrick Moncrief will be challenged, if Moncrief does indeed take Whitehead’s spot. Freshman Stephen Roberts is listed as the backup to Whitehead, but that may be risky. It’ll be interesting to see what Ellis Johnson decides to do at the safety spots. Ford will start; not sure about the other spot. But it won’t matter as much because the Auburn offense should have their way with this Kansas State defense. Their defense is fine, but they haven’t faced an offense like Auburn’s, maybe ever. Baylor and Texas Tech are wide open, explosive offenses in the Big 12, but they don’t have the powerful line and the talent at the skill positions that AU has. Nick will be ready to perform well as he played junior college ball in Kansas; this game means a lot to him. I see him having a breakout performance tonight. With Cameron Artis-Payne and Corey Grant punishing K State on the ground, and Nick with his wheels and his arm, and the ultra talented Sammie Coates and Duke Williams at wide receiver, Auburn should have a field day on offense. This will be a good test for the defense with the SEC coming around the corner in Oct. (LSU, Oct. 4 on the Plains) Like the Tigers to take care of business here in a pretty much a big way.

AU 42, Kansas State 24

Florida (2-0) @ No.3 Alabama (3-0)

Bryant-Denny Stadium (101,821)

2:30 PM CT/3:30 PM ET

CBS–Verne, Gary, Allie LaForce

Around 80 degrees at kickoff-clear

Line: Bama by 14 1/2

Blake Sims and Lane Kiffin will be challenged here. Can they get it done against a pretty quality SEC defense? I watched Florida-Kentucky, and the Gators are a good team, but not a great team. Jeff Driskel, I don’t see him ever being an elite quarterback in the SEC. I like the way Blake has played in the last two games, and Kiffin has called good games that have played to Blake’s strengths. But this will be a challenge against a better defense than the Tide has faced this year. Florida will be tougher to run against; their front seven is pretty good. But I still see T.J. Yeldon, Derrick Henry, Kenyan Drake and Tyren Jones, if he gets opportunities, to have good days on the ground. I trust the Bama offensive line. They’re a good group. The Alabama defense needs to take a step forward as the season is getting intense now. The talent defense is out the roof, but they need Trey DePriest and Landon Collins to be leaders and take this defense to a higher level. Cornerback is an issue with some injuries, but I really like freshman Tony Brown. He looked all-world in the spring game. He’ll start. And Nick Perry is out at safety for the first half for a targeting foul in the second half against Southern Miss last week, so Geno Smith will most likely get the call. I see the Tide handling the Gators; not with total ease, but I see them making progress on both sides of the ball and advancing to the next round at Ole Miss on Oct. 4th.

Bama 31, Florida 20

Mississippi State (3-0) @ No.8 LSU (3-0)

Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge (102, 321)

7 PM CT/8 ET

ESPN

85 @ kickoff, clear

Line: LSU by 9 1/2

LSU is 43-3 in night games at Baton Rouge under The Hat, who’s been there since 2005. Their only three losses came to Alabama (27-21) in 2008, Florida (13-3) in 2009, and Bama (21-17) in 2012. They have beaten State 14 in a row since 1999 and have won 21 of 22 over the Bulldogs since the SEC split into two divisions (the East and the West) in 1992. Dan Mullen has a 39-28 overall record in his six years at State, but is 2-25 against Top 25 teams. People who might have been discounting LSU before the season because they lost so many guys to the draft, shouldn’t discount them any more. Their defense is playing well and their running game and passing game are both solid. Quarterback Anthony Jennings is doing a nice job. He’s been like Blake; solid with some really big plays too. I like him. LSU is a big factor in the west. They do have to go to Auburn (Oct. 4), and A&M (Nov.27), but they have Alabama at home on Nov.8th. They also have Ole Miss at home on Oct. 25th. So this team is very much in the SEC title conversation. It’s going to be hard, but it’s hard for everybody. Schedule and team health are so critical if you’ve got a team that is in the hunt for the SEC and national championship. I like the Bengal Tigers for sure in this one. State has a good team, but this is too much to ask of quarterback Dak Prescott and his team.

LSU 31, State 17

No.14 South Carolina (2-1) @ Vandy (1-2)

Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville (39,790)

6:30 PM CT/7:30 ET

SEC Network

75 @ kickoff, clear

Line: South Carolina by 21 1/2

Greg McElroy and I were about the only two guys who picked Ball Coach and the Gamecocks to beat the Dawgs. My wife thought I might be smokin’ some crack to pick South Carolina. I didn’t; I’ll leave that to Jameis.

Ball Coach said he felt good about the game once he saw Finebaum picked Georgia by 20. I just had a feeling that Ball Coach would get it done and Mark Richt wouldn’t. Sure enough, Ball Coach, at Williams-Brice Stadium, where the Gamecocks are almost unbeatable except for that disaster against A&M, came out on top 38-35 in a classic. Georgia looked like they might beat them when safety Damian Swann intercepted a Dylan Thompson pass late in the fourth quarter and returned it to the South Carolina eight. A penalty on SC put the ball at the four; first and goal for the Dawgs. But Mike Bobo, Georgia’s much maligned offensive coordinator with good reason, called for quarterback Hutson Mason to do a boot leg rollout pass instead of handing off to Todd Gurley, who, as usual, was having his way on the ground. Mason throws the ball in the ground, gets an intentional grounding call, and the Dawgs don’t get any closer. Marshall Morgan, who had connected on 20 in a row before a miss before this kick, missed a 28 yard attempt to the right, and South Carolina got a fourth and inches and won.

So now South Carolina goes against a team that I don’t know what to think about. Derek Mason got good quarterback play from Patton Robinette last week in Vandy’s 34-31 victory over mighty UMass, but has decided to use a two quarterback system this week despite Robinette’s pretty stellar play last Saturday. Unless he’s trying to throw the Gamecock defense off by saying he’s starting two quarterbacks when really he’s going with Robinette, I don’t understand the logic in this. He wants to use true freshman Wade Freebeck also at qb. Freebeck started last week against the People’d Republic of Taxachusetts and threw three passes. One of them was intercepted. Mason pulled him for Robinette in the first quarter. So I’m not sure what Mason is doing here. He has talent, according to the recruiting rankings, but the team looks pretty confused out there on defense, particularly in the secondary. Dylan Thompson should have a big night against the swiss cheese Commodores secondary. Brandon Wilds should have a big night running the ball, and Mike Davis needs to get on track, and he could very well do that in this game. Like Ball Coach and his squad to handle the Dores pretty easily.

South Carolina 48, Vandy 24

No.22 Clemson (1-1) @ No.1 Florida State (2-0)

Doak Campbell Stadium (82,300)

8 PM ET/ 7 CT

ABC

80 degrees, clear

Line: Florida State by 16 1/2

FSU is dysfunctional. Not only the football team, but the whole university. With the latest Jameis incident it just keeps getting worse for the Seminoles and Jimbo Fisher. I don’t see them winning it all this year. For that matter, they may not even make the playoff. The ACC is pretty soft overall, so they may sneak in the playoff. But they’re not going to win it all. Just too many distractions with Winston. He is as big of a liability as he is an asset for Jimbo Fisher and the team. And Fisher and Florida State just keep excusing him for his bad behavior. It’s just as much Fisher’s fault as it is the misguided Winston’s. Clemson has a pretty good team and Winston will be out for the first half, so I see this one being interesting. While it might be too hard for Clemson to pull off the upset since Winston will come in for the second half, they can make FSU really sweat it out. I think they will, but I see FSU surviving this game. But I just don’t know if they can survive the one man wrecking crew who is Jameis Winston.

****Amendment: I’m changing my pick to Clemson. This is on Saturday early afternoon after Jameis is out for the entire game. The game doesn’t kickoff until 7 PM CT, and it’s 12:10 PM today.

Clemson 31, FSU 30

Other scores:

No.13 Georgia 52, Troy 10

Noon ET/11 AM CT

SEC Network

Arkansas 45, Northern Illinois 14

6 PM CT/ 7 ET

ESPNU

No.6 A&M 62, SMU 14

2:30 PM CT/ 3:30 ET

ESPN2

No.18 Mizzou 42, Indiana 27

3 PM CT/4 PM ET

SEC Network

No.2 Oregon 56, Washington State 37

9:30 PM CT/ 10:30 PM ET

ESPN

SEC teams off this week: Ole Miss Tennessee, Kentucky

VU football, basketball, baseball unlimited

September 16, 2014

Excellent win for Derek and the program. Some stellar individual efforts from Patton Robinette, Stephen Weatherly, Caleb Azubike, Ralph Webb and C.J. Duncan. Patton was 15-of-21 for 147 yards and a touchdown through the air, and ran for 35 yards on six carries with a TD. Stephen, who was a constant presence on defense, executed one of the plays of the game with his block of a UMass punt in the fourth quarter that he scooped up and scored on from 11 yards out. Stephen hesitated for a second, then just busted threw the line and blocked the punt beautifully. The ball rolled around and Stephen gathered it up and scored. What an athlete! Caleb “Zu” Azubike had a couple of sacks, seven tackles, including three for a loss of 17 yards, and was a game changer for the team on defense. Ralph Webb, our stud redshirt freshman tailback, ran for 116 yards on 26 carries and got us a seven. And C.J. Duncan, our scrappy, athletic redshirt freshman wide receiver, probably made THE play of the game with his amazingly acrobatic catch of a Patton deep ball, which looked like it was going to be intercepted by the UMass defensive back at the UMass four. C.J. just stole the ball from the cornerback as they were going to the ground and set the offense up for the winning score. The win may not have been pretty throughout the game, but really it was overall. Any win is a beauty. We’ll take 37-34. The players seem to be finally acclimated with our coaching staff and the coaching staff to the players. Now we’re ready to move forward and do some damage.

South Carolina will be tough, but it’s at home which is a very good thing. The Gamecocks may be a little overconfident after their scintillating 38-35 victory over them Dawgs last Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. So we may be catching them at a good time. Dylan Thompson is becoming an excellent quarterback. Pretty big believer in Thompson. They’ve got good backs, wide receivers and an outstanding offensive line. Their defense is shaky though. We’ve got a lot of good football players too; guys who’ll play on Sundays. As a matter of fact, Adam Butler, Zu, Stephen Weatherly and plenty of others look like they’ll be missing some church Sundays in the fall in a few years because they’ll have a job to do that day and they won’t be able to make it to the sanctuary unfortunately. But, hopefully, they can go during the week sometime and then in the offseason. But I see these guys playing in the National Football League. Luckily, we’ll have them all for one or two more years after this season. I see some of our other guys with that potential too. This team is interesting. It’s a talented group which are trying to find the right chemistry. That’s what our coaches are looking for too. Last Saturday was a huge step in the right direction

The NFL is down the road for Zu, Stephen, Adam and others. Right now we need to worry about beating South Carolina. Patton will need to play well, both in the running game and the passing game. We’ll need his leadership. It looks like true freshman Wade Freebeck will be playing as well. I hope Patton can play most of the game, and we can get super redshirt freshman wide receiver Jordan Cunningham, running back Jerron Seymour and some others, involved in the offense. Derek likes to use the tight ends and we have some good ones in Steven Scheu and Davis Dudchock among others, so would like to see them play a big part in the offense against the Gamecocks. I’m sure Derek and Coach Karl Dorrell (offensive coordinator) do. If the O line can handle a somewhat suspect Gamecocks defensive line and suspect defense in general, we’ve got a shot. Can we win? Yes. Will we win? It’s going to be a hard game, but one we could come out on top of if we take care of the ball, have good sustained drives, make some explosive plays offensively, and contain Thompson and his weapons on offense. Their line is good, so Zu and Weatherly will have to find ways to put pressure on Thompson to help our secondary in coverage. We’ve definitely got a shot.

May have the Samir Sehic announcement in this blog because he is announcing while I am writing this (***Note-Samir committed today). Samir would round out an awesome fall class along with four star center D’Jerry Baptiste, high three-star small forward Joseph Toye, and high three star shooting guard Camron Justice. Watched film on all three guys. Excellent basketball players. Like I wrote yesterday, D’Jerry is just so agile and athletic. Really like what we can get from D’Jerry in a front court with Damian Jones and Luke Kornet next year and Samir also if we land him. D’Jerry can be an enforcer, really board and scores well. Joseph looks like an excellent player with high athletic skills, good shooting and excellent leaping ability for cleaning the glass. Camron is an outstanding shooter. He averaged 25 points his junior year in Kentucky and shoots 41% from trifecta. With Camron, Joseph, the four studs we have coming in this year in the backcourt along with small forward Jeff Roberson, we should be loaded in the backcourt next year. And we have Cornell transfer Nolan Cressler, who is a sharpshooter and will be part of the team next year. Nolan is supposedly an outstanding shooter; Shan Foster-like. Really pumped for next year’s team and psyched to see what this year’s squad will do. Like our new young assistants, Derrick Jones and Adam Cohen, who will take our recruiting to a new level and already are. Both guys are young–Derrick in his early 30’s and Adam in his late 20’s–they’re energetic and they’re making some real inroads in recruiting.

Samir Sehic is now a Dore! The 6’8″, 255 pound Bosnian who now lives in Houston, joins D’Jerry Baptiste, Joseph Toye and Camron Justice in this stellar 2015 class. The early signing period starts November 12th for basketball. Watched film of Samir and love his skill set. He’s big and will get bigger, he likes to rebound and finishes extremely well. I’m not saying he’s Pau Gasol, but he really plays like him. He can stroke it from 15-18 feet consistently. Really like this final piece in this class. Just need to get them all signed up on November 12th. This should be an excellent basketball team next year. Hopefully, we can surprise some people and get in the tournament this year. Just depends on how our young guys develop in the backcourt. Derrick Jones is known to really develop big men, so that’s good for all our guys, Damian, Luke, Shelby Moats, who just got a job today with a renowned New York investment firm for next year, Josh Henderson, keeping my fingers crossed be can stay healthy, and James Siakam, who Kevin said had an excellent summer. We’ve got a good team this year. Just depends on our young guards. They’re very talented and we do have Carter Josephs too, who is a tremendously hard worker and is pretty skilled at the point. Nathan Watkins can help us with his hustle and good shooting.

So everything is clicking. Bears and Jay had a huge win at the Niners on Sunday night. I didn’t expect them to win quite honestly. I picked the Niners on my regular blog. We had our starting center and one of our starting guards hurt and out for the game. Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey were probably at 40 percent coming into the game. Both stellar wide receivers had leg issues. We lost three defensive starters during the game. Safety Chris Conte sprained his shoulder after making a spectacular interception of a Colin Kaepernick pass, our starting defensive tackle Jay Ratliff suffered a concussion during the game and was out for the entire second half. Jay was playing very well too. And our always reliable and terrific cornerback, Charles Tillman, tore his triceps muscle during the third quarter. That’s a blow because Charles is such an incredibly awesome person and teammate, and was having an awesome first two games. He’s the only cornerback in league history to have 30 interceptions and 30 fumble recoveries. Charles is unfortunately lost for the season,. Hope to have him back next year, and maybe, maybe, in the playoffs. But Charles’ replacement, Kyle Fuller, our rookie corner from Virginia Tech, was incredible. He intercepted two Kaepernick passes that really won the game for us. The first one he just wrestled out of the receivers’ hands and made an excellent return to the 49ers five. The second was just a beautiful read on a downfield pass by Kaepernick. Kyle was covering his man on a 12 yard out and saw that Colin was throwing it to a guy five yards behind him. He read Colin’s eyes, moved back, and picked it off and made another excellent return. Jay and the offense took advantage of both ints turning them into TDs. Kyle is going to a sensational player for the Bears. He already is.

I’ll take a 40 percent Brandon Marshall any day. He caught three TD passes from Jay. Tight end Martellus Bennett caught the other. The Bears won 28-20 and Jay was 23 of 34 for 176 yards and four TDs with no ints. His rating was 119.2, which is excellent. Anything over 110 is outstanding. The highest rating is 157.9, but 119 is superior quarterback play. Bears @ the Jets next Monday night in the Meadowlands. Need to keep the momentum going. Brandon and Alshon should be a lot better by then. Brandon made this one handed grab for seven right before half that was other worldly it was so good. Alshon looked like he was bothered by his hamstring injury, and it affected his route running and speed. Both should be a lot better on Monday night, though Brandon didn’t look like he missed a beat despite being slowed up. Hopefully, we can get the running game going some more. But our offensive line was awesome in pass protection. Not sure if we’ll have our starting center and guard back, but our backups did a heckuva job. The Niners have a very good defense and a tough front, and we kept them off Jay for most of the night. Pumped for the team. Sorry for Charles Tillman though; such a class act. He was a finalist for the prestigious Walter Payton Award in 2o07 for his philanthropic work. That award is for the entire NFZL. Charles had tears in his eyes when he was on the bench. He knew it wasn’t good. I felt so bad for him. He’s a really, really good guy. Hoping that Charles can get back at corner by the playoffs, when we get there. Kyle Fuller is doing an incredible job in Charles’ absence though.

David Price moved to 14-11 with a 7-2 victory over the Cleveland lndians last Friday night. Dave went 7.2 innings, gave up eight hits, one earned, with zero walks and seven ring ups. David now has 33 walks on the season and 250 strikeouts. That’s spectacular. David’s ERA is now 3.26. He goes again tomorrow night at Minnesota. The Tigers are @ 84-60 and a game and a half up on the KC Royals in the NL Central. Sonny didn’t get the victory Saturday night, but he pitched very well in helping the A’s beat King Felix and the Seattle Mariners. The A’s beat the M’s, 3-2. King Felix Hernandez didn’t get the loss; he went seven, allowing two runs, with no walks and eight K’s, but the A’s won it in the 10th on a walk by Seattle reliever Fernando Rodney that gave the A’s the wining margin@ Seattle. The A’s also won Sunday @ Seattle. Sonny went eight, gave up five hits, two runs, with two walks and seven K’s. He threw 96 pitches, 59 for strikes with 37 balls. David threw 106 pitches, 75 for strikes with 31 balls. Mike Minor got rocked pretty hard by the Rangers on Sunday. The A’s are 10.5 back of the Angels in the AL West, so that’s over, but they lead the wild card over the second place Royals. The A’s are 83-66 and the Royals are 82-67. It’s pretty important to get the home field advantage for the wild card game, a one shot deal, where you win, you advance, you lose, you’re done till late February. Pedro is lost for the season with a broken toe. There is a possibility he could make it back if the Bucs make the playoffs. The Bucs have the second wild card spot behind San Francisco right now. The Giants are 82-68 and the Bucs are 79-70. The Brewers are next at 78-72, so it’s a horse race to the wire. The Braves are now 75-75 and not looking too swift.

Will have more later this week. A lot of high quality visitors for the South Carolina game this Saturday. Will keep you posted if we get any commits.