Lock It Up: Weekend Picks

Last night? Yea, we're not going to be talking about that. Just know that I looked like that guy in the picture for about 2 hours straight last night. Let's move on to the weekend...

E. Carolina + 7.5 at N. Carolina- When you need a safety in the last two minutes to beat UConn, let's just say that I'm less than impressed with you.

North Carolina 24, E. Carolina 20

UCLA -12.5 vs. Kansas State- Bill Snyder has to be thinking right now, "I came back for this???" First, they barely hold off UMass at home, then they go on the road and lose to Louisiana-Lafayette. That actually happened. And they're only getting 12.5 points at a decent UCLA team who just won at Tennessee. This one's going to get ugly.
UCLA 38, Kansas State 10

Florida -29.5 vs. Tennessee- Urban Meyer runs up the score on The Citadel; what do you think he's going to do to big mouth Lane Kiffin who called him out in the offseason?
Florida 62, Tennessee 7

Michigan State +10 at Notre Dame- Yea, I know Michigan State lost to Central Michigan last week, but I think 10's too many here. Central Michigan is the best of the directional Michigans, and I'm guessing MSU might have looked past Central Michigan a bit to this game. Either way, I think the Spartans defense is good enough to keep this close.
Notre Dame 27, Michigan State 21

West Virginia +7.5 at Auburn- This line opened at 4, so the betting public has been absolutely hammering Auburn here. As for me, I'm on the record as saying I think both of these teams are pretty good, but I'm also I think the only person in the country on the West Virginia bandwagon. For as great as Pat White was, he made them very one dimensional offensively. Now, they can still run the ball well with Noel Devine, but Jarrett Brown also gives them a much better passer and someone who can get the ball to Jock Sanders out in open space. Need proof of that? Did you see Pat White over throw a wide open Ted Ginn by 15 yards last week? That happened all the time at West Virginia.

Also, look at their schedule after this game: they get a week off, then get Colorado at home on a Thursday night (who is 0-2 with losses to Colorado State and Toledo. Insert joke here), at Syracuse, vs. Marshall, vs. UConn, at South Florida, vs. Louisville, at Cinci, vs. Pitt, at Rutgers. They win this week and they're looking at cruising to 7-0 before going to South Florida; this may be the last chance to get in on West Virginia before everyone else realizes how good they are (or at least how good I think they are). This team is a real sleeper to go to the BCS title game if they get past Auburn here, and at the very least, I think this spread is much too high. Oh, and there's also the added advantage that Bill Stewart is facing a coach who definitely isn't better than him for once.

West Virginia 27, Auburn 24

California -13.5 at Minnesota- Minnesota stinks. Sure, they're 2-0, but they should've lost to Syracuse, and a 20-13 win over Air Force at home does not impress me. Meanwhile, Jahvid Best has been eating babies and absolutely dismantling Maryland and Eastern Washington-- I know, they aren't exactly USC and Florida, but this team has looked ridiculous. Plus, I don't think Minnesota is much of a step up from those two anyway.

California 45, Minnesota 17

Texas -17.5 vs. Texas Tech- You think Texas might be up for this game after what Tech did to them last year? Also, historically Mike Leach's teams can compete against the big boys in Lubbock, but when they go on the road, they get stomped (for a recent example of this, see what happened to them at Oklahoma last year, or even what happened against Mississippi in the Cotton Bowl). And to make things worse, Tech doesn't have half the talent they had last year. I think this one gets ugly early and Texas never takes its foot off the gas

Texas 49, Texas Tech 21.

(Update: somehow forgot to include these two games:)
Oregon State +1 vs. Cincinnati- Cinci has looked impressive so far, completely eviscerating Rutgers and, for what it's worth (probably not much) SE Missouri State, while Oregon State barely held on at UNLV last week. Tony Pike has looked mighty impressive so far, but I want to see Cinci's d-- which lost a lot of talent from last year-- perform against a real offense. Sean Canfield will easily be the best QB they've seen so far this year, and Quiz and James Rodgers will be the best skill position players they've seen too. This should be one of the best games of the weekend, and I'll take Oregon State with the home field advantage.
Oregon State 28, Cincinnati 24

Virginia Tech -5 vs. Nebraska- This line opened curiously low at 2.5, and I'm not ready to take Nebraska and an inexperienced QB on the road against perennial defensive powerhouse Virginia Tech. Tyrod Taylor hasn't really shown any improvement as a QB so far this year, but freshmen RBs Ryan Williams and David Wilson have shown that their running game didn't die with the injury to Darren Evans. Remember, Taylor was also the QB for Tech last year when they dropped 35 on the Huskers in Lincoln. I don't think Nebraska can score enough to keep this one close.

Virginia Tech 30, Nebraska 17

NFL PICKS:
Jacksonville -3 vs. Arizona, simply because it's a 1 o'clock game, and Arizona sucks, and Dallas -3 vs. NY Giants, because I don't think the Giants are that good.

Thursday Night Lock it Up: GT-Miami

Georgia Tech +4.5 at Miami-
Two weeks in a row of Georgia Tech on Thursday night, and I'm sticking with the Ramblin Wreck despite how they absolutely tore my fucking heart out last week blowing that 24-0 lead. This is a very intriguing matchup with a lot of different angles to look at on both sides, so let's get to it:

Point: Georgia Tech absolutely beat the shit out of Miami on Thursday night last year, rushing 56 times for 472 yards and only throwing 6 times; they should do it again- Miami is basically the same team as last year, and they got absolutely shredded by GT last year. I can't recall a much more dominating performance than the show the Tech runners and O-line put on last year. By this line of thinking, getting points with GT, even if they're now on the road, is an absolute gift.

Counter-Point: There is no fucking way Georgia Tech does that again this year- This is a fair point; I don't see them rushing for 472 yards. But what about 300 yards? That seems doable, and would still give Miami quite the headache. Possibly the bigger issue is what the hell happens if at some point, Josh Nesbitt has to make a play through the air for Tech? He was absolutely dreadful against Clemson last week (3 for 14, 2 INTs), and with the big play ability Miami's offense showed in its opener against Florida State, there is a real possibility this turns into a shootout.

Point: Miami last year was a young, talented team that is still talented but has now matured and will handle the flexbone better- This is a fair point; add in that they are playing at home on a Thursday night with what is likely to be a wild crowd, and Miami's youngsters should feed off that emotion. However, while there is undoubtedly a lot of talent on this team, I think it's very easy to counter whether or not they've matured.

Counter-Point: It's only their second game of the year; how much could they have matured already?- I guess you could say their big win over rival FSU showed "maturity," but their play didn't look all that poised to me but looked more like they got by just on talent. They played very loose against Florida State, had trouble with turnovers, and really should have lost the game if Brandon Fortson makes that catch on the last play. There is no doubt Miami will be better prepared to face the flexbone this time around, but do they have the personnel to stop it? They were shredded by a Florida State offense that managed a whopping 19 points against Jacksonville State last week, and if I were Miami I wouldn't want my defense thinking too much about where the Tech players are going and what they are doing, but I'd rather just want them to read and react. Their defense didn't show much improvement or maturity against FSU over last year's defense that GT just embarassed, so I think it's a tall order to ask them to mature so soon and stop an offense that so thoroughly dominated them last year. Also on the maturity front, Miami could be in for a letdown after that huge win, although working against that for GT is that Miami has had 10 days off since then, so a letdown really shouldn't be much of a concern.

Point: Tech's secondary got lit up by a completely untested QB last week; Jacory Harris is going to have a field day- Clemson threw the ball all over GT in their comeback last week, while Miami's offense, and specifically Jacory Harris, showed some big play potential against FSU. If GT struggled with Clemson's athletes, just wait til they get a load of Harris, Graig Cooper, and Travis Benjamin.

Counter-Point: Harris was still mistake prone against FSU, and he faced absolutely no pass rush- Even without Michael Johnson this year, there is absolutely no way GT doesn't put more pressure on Harris than the miserable effort FSU's defensive front showed. Also, while it wasn't their defense taking advantage of mistakes last week (the punt return TD, fake field goal TD), Paul Johnson's teams have a reputation for being extraordinarily opportunistic, and I see Harris giving them some chances to make some big plays defensively.

Summary- I look for this to be a wild, entertaining, back and forth game, but I think ultimately Miami will make too many mistakes and won't be able to slow down Tech's rushing attack enough to win.
Georgia Tech 37, Miami 31

Weekend wrapup, college edition

Quick hit thoughts on a big weekend of football. FYI, Baseball is now officially dead to me, as not only are the White Sox done, but my fantasy team was just ousted in the first round of the playoffs. Anyway, here's what I thought of the weekend on the college gridiron...

- Houston stunned Oklahoma State 45-35; I thought Oklahoma State would have a letdown game, but I didn't think they'd actually lose. They had a chance down 3 with the ball late, but Dez Bryant cramped up on a slant route, Robinson threw it anyway, and Houston picked it and took it to the house. The real reason Oklahoma State lost though is that they didn't show up until the 3rd quarter; when your defense is as bad as theirs is, you just can't spot teams 24-7 leads. Oklahoma State got back into it and took the lead at 28-24, but they essentially needed their offense to score every time they had the ball in the 2nd half. Real tough loss, but an entertaining game all around, highlighted by Dez Bryant's electrifying punt return TD.

- Michigan beat ND 38-34; I actually didn't see much of this game because I was watching the Houston-OK State game, but from everything I heard this game was wild. I saw most of the 4th quarter of it, but really I just couldn't get too excited for this game; I still don't think either of these teams are that good. Also I didn't take this game in my picks from Friday because I really had no idea what to expect-- I didn't think ND was nearly as good as they looked last week, and I wanted to see Michigan again because I didn't trust a blowout win over Western Michigan. Watching this game intermittently basically confirmed what I thought going in; they are two evenly matched teams each probably destined for 8-4 records. At least this ought to shut Lou Holth up about ND going to the title game.

- WV beat ECU 35-20; everyone seems to be sleeping on West Virginia, but Jarrett Brown threw the ball all over the field in this game, something WV just could not do consistently last year. They've got a huge game at Auburn this week, and Auburn looked solid in their dismantling of Mississippi State Saturday--let's just say it was a mild improvement over the 3-2 slugfest from last year. I'm telling you though, if West Virginia can win at Auburn, this is a real sleeper to get to the BCS title game-- I think the only two teams in the Big East that can beat WV are Pitt and Cinci, and I do not trust Pitt at all.

- TCU pounded Virginia 30-14, and it wasn't even that close. Despite having a soulless ginger for a quarterback, TCU is a good team, and I cannot wait to bet on them to pound the heinously overrated Utah. And Virginia is very bad. As I said Friday-- Al Groh, Dead Man Walking.

- My upset special of Buffalo over Pitt didn't exactly come to fruition, although Buffalo did put up a shit ton of yards. Evidently their defense did not get the memo that gametime was at noon Saturday.

- Similarly, the Georgia/South Carolina under may have been the worst bet I've ever made in my life. They had covered the under with 12 minutes to go in the second quarter. This game is why college football is so great, and so maddeningly frustrtating all at once. Last week each of these offenses looked absolutely pathetic and useless; Georgia could only muster 10 points on Oklahoma State, and USC scored 7-- on a 14 yard drive no less-- on NC State. This week? Oklahoma State surrenders 45 points to Houston, while Georgia rings up 41 on South Carolina. I caught a bit of this game when I wasn't watching USC-Ohio State, and it looked absolutely wild. Of course, I now have absolutely no read on either of these teams and won't be betting on or against them for a couple of weeks.

- I don't want to talk about the end of the UNC-UConn game. It looks all poised to go to OT where UNC might be able to sneak out a rat cover, and then they get a fucking game winning safety. Unreal. And even though UNC won, they really shouldn't be too proud; they looked miserable on offense for most of the game, and UConn is really not very good. A win's a win I guess though.

- Missouri beat Bowling Green 27-20 in what was actually a pretty good game. I didn't notice the line on this was 20 freaking points until Saturday night, so I bet Bowling Green but didn't include it in my picks Friday. Missouri was primed for a letdown here after playing out of their minds against Illinois, and Bowling Green was coming off an impressive blowout of Troy. This game also may be an indication that Illinois is still very bad. Poor Ron Zook; things looked so promising a couple of years ago there.

- And the big game of the day really didn't disappoint, as USC beat Ohio State 18-15. I pretty much hit the nail on the head of how this game was going to play out-- low scoring, relatively conservative football. However, I do have this to say about Pete Carroll-- the man has clearly built a tremendous program and is a great recruiter. But why in God's name does he not feed the ball to Joe McKnight more? He did this when Reggie Bush was there too-- remember how he was on the bench for that 4th and 1 play against Texas in the title game? On the game winning drive, they finally found ways to get McKnight the ball both rushing and receiving, and he essentially carried them for that whole drive. Barkley also was pretty impressive and poised on that drive, but as many people (myself included) have said before, being the QB for USC isn't all that hard with that offensive line and all those playmakers around you. Plus, he was pretty miserable for about 90% of the game, and Barkley wouldn't have even been in position for that game winning drive if USC's defense didn't play so great all game. Again, these are the perks of quarterbacking USC.

And if you're Ohio State? You have to be absolutely kicking yourself for blowing that game. I can't really pinpoint one bad play or one bad decision, but overall I just felt like Tressel's trademark conservative playcalling nipped them in the ass. Pryor didn't play particularly well, but the one area he seemed to excel in Saturday night was throwing the ball down the field. Neither him nor Boom Herron ran the ball with any success, and Pryor wasn't accurate on the short stuff, but he did average over 16 yards a completion-- and they weren't the 2 yard pass, 14 yard run after catch types, but mostly were post patterns down the middle. I understand not wanting to stop the clock with his incompletions, but at some point you've got to think USC was going to put a drive together, especially considering that before the last drive their other TD drive spanned a whole 2 yards. You can't expect your defense to completely shut down USC for the entire game, and at some point you've got to let your playmakers try to do something for you offensively.

Back later today with some thoughts on the opening weekend of the NFL.

Syracuse-Penn State Live Blog

12:00- It's gametime. The optimism I felt an hour ago has completely evaporated with the sight of Penn State. Oh, we're playing these guys? We're fucked.

12:05- Penn State converts a third and long. I'd forgotten how awful Syracuse's secondary is. The only question is "which starting corner with the last name of Scott is worse?" I'm going with Kevyn, simply because he spells his name like that. And I like the name "Nico"

12:08- Well that didn't take long. Touchdown Penn State, on one of the worst defensive plays I've ever seen. That's not being hyperbolic at all; they blitzed 6, got nowhere near the QB, hit Royster on an innocent little slant, and he ran through the defense untouched for a 49 yard TD. Just to reiterate what I said three minutes ago-- Syracuse's secondary is really bad.

12:12- And it's Greg Paulus time. Tell you the truth Syracuse's skill players aren't bad; Delone Carter is a good RB and Mike Williams is an absolute freak. How Robinson recruited those two remains a mystery.

12:14- First look at Cuse's version of the "wildcat," which they call the "stallion." Antwon Bailey runs up the middle for 4 yards on it. Tip to all opponents-- every time they do that Bailey doesn't hand it off and runs right up the middle.

12:15- Time for a look at Syracuse's best player, punter Rob Long! Paulus got sacked on 3rd down. Remember what I said about Cuse having good skill players? Problem is, their O-line blows. Stunningly, Long pins Penn State at their own 4. I'm really going to miss him when he's gone.

12:18- On commercial, I flip over to Pitt-Buffalo to check on my bet. It's already 14-0 Pitt. I may start drinking shortly.

12:20- Penn State has a wideout named Graham Zug Jr. I have nothing to add to that.

12:21- Zug with a 20 yard reception, and there wasn't a Cuse defender within 10 yards of him. One more time, say it with me: Syracuse's secondary is awful.

12:24- You know, Mike Holmes would be a really good defender if he could tackle. Unfortunately, that's kind of an important skill for a defender.

12:28- First and goal Penn State. This has been quite the effortless 96 yard drive.

12:31- First quarter ends, and it's going to be 4th and goal from the 1; looks like Penn State's going to go for it. This has been an impressive goal line stand so far for Cuse, which I'm sure they'll negate here by giving up an easy TD.

12:34- Clark fumbles the snap on 4th and goal!!! That was something Syracuse would do. Cuse's defensive line was really impressive on that stand. Now my money's on a sack for a safety.

12:37- Apparently, Marrone was afraid of the safety/sack too. Syracuse just ran the ball directly up the middle 3 times, getting nothing on every run. George DeLeone would be proud of that playcalling. Number of people reading this that got that reference? 1.

12:42- Wow, something has clicked for Syracuse's defense. They just held Penn State to a three and out, and they didn't get a single yard. The bad news? Syracuse will be starting from their own 2 again. Let's get a little more creative with the playcalling this time boys.

12:45- Playfake on first down, which everyone in the stadium saw coming. However, I still like the call, and Paulus scrambled for 5.

12:47- Fresno is up 14-0 on Wisconsin, and they were getting 9. I have no idea why I didn't bet them.

12:48- Three and out. Paulus looks more jittery in the pocket than a crackhead who just pounded 5 red bulls. To top it off, Our Best Player Rob Long (that's officially his name) just shanked one out of bounds and Penn State is going to start somewhere near Syracuse's 40 yard line. At some point, our offense is going to have to do something here.

12:54- Hot Big Ten Network sideline reporter informs us that there "isn't a lot of emotion on the Penn State sideline." That's because they're playing Syracuse dear. Right on cue, Evan Royster waltzes 15 yards, completely untouched, into the end zone. I can't really get mad at the defense for that; they've been on the field all half and Penn State's been getting great field position. Get a few fucking first downs here Cuse.

1:01- Syracuse gets a first down or two, then in a completely gutless move, they punt on 4th and 3 from the Penn State 35. My mother is now watching the game with me, placing me further on tilt.

1:05- I think Syracuse blitzes on every single defensive play. All out blitzes, zone blitzes, delayed blitzes. It's unreal; our secondary is pathetic enough as it is, stop leaving them in single coverage.

1:07- Wow, Kevyn Scott makes a ridiculous interception. He just ripped it out of the guys hands.; that was awesome. I will now cease making fun of Syracuse's secondary for the next 30 minutes.

1:12- Cuse is moving a bit at the Penn State 40, but there's only 53 seconds in the half and we just burned our last timeout. Apparently, Doug Marrone and Greg Paulus went to the Andy Reid school of clock management.

1:19- I cannot even describe what is happening right now. All you need to know is that it's 4th and 2 from the Penn State 34 and Cuse is going to try a long field goal. And surely miss.

1:20- Someone named Jake Smith, who is apparently our long field goal kicker, kicks the ball somewhere towards Florida. "Duck hook" does not even begin to describe how far left that went. 14-0 Penn State at half. That was an ugly display of football.

1:25- Rough day in Upstate NY; Syracuse is losing, Buffalo is getting creamed, and I'm in Albany losing money. I'm going to make some lunch, and perhaps washing it down with a glass of ice cold gasoline.

1:35- Your announcers for today's UConn-UNC game? Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante. I guarantee you one of those names is made up. Oh, and UNC is losing too. I may look into selling body parts soon.

1:42- Second half has started, Cuse starts from their own 24. Let's take a shot or two deep to Williams here.

1:45- Syracuse does precisely nothing and will punt. They threw two passes, each were caught behind the line of scrimmage. Can we please attempt to throw a pass longer than 2 yards?

1:47- New goal for the second half-- I'm going to chart the number of defensive plays where we don't blitz. So far it's 0 for 1.

1:48- 0 for 3. In a related story, Penn State has gotten 2 first downs on those 3 plays.

1:49- 0 for 4, as Clark throws a Chad Pennington-esque floater to a wide open Zug. Stop. Fucking. Blitzing.

1:51- Well, we've stopped blitzing, but Penn State hasn't stopped completing passes to wide open receivers. I'm realizing that perhaps the problem lies in a lack of talent in the secondary. (It's been a half hour since the Scott INT, so I can freely go back to openly mocking them.)

1:52- TD, Clark to Zug. And oh by the way, he was wide open. Our secondary is making Clark to Zug look like Brady to Moss. 21-0 Penn State.

1:55- Nice kick return by Mike Jones (not the rapper, I think), followed by a nice 15 yard Paulus to Williams pass. Apparently we do have a pass play in the playbook that goes more than 1 yard downfield.

2:00- Whoa, a shovel pass! And it kinda worked! We're really opening up the playbook now. Let's go with that stallion look again.

2:01- We call another pass play 10 yards down the field, Paulus puts it right in Alec Lemon's gut, and he drops it. Fuck you Lemon.

2:04- Cuse is moving; first and goal at the 5. This has been a really nice drive actually, mainly because they've been throwing to Williams.

2:07- I'm squarely on tilt. On first down, Cuse runs that dumb dive play that hasn't worked once all game. On second down, they inexplicably run a bubble screen to the utterly useless Alec Lemon. On third down, Paulus scrambles around like a chicken with his head cut off, has a wide open alley to walk into the end zone, and instead dances around like a pussy and gets tackled after running for one yard. Then on 4th down, they finally go back to my boy Mike Williams-- you know, the guy responsible for every positive offensive play of this game-- on a quick slant, and Williams promptly drops the ball in the end zone. That sequence is what I like to call "the past 4 years of Syracuse football in a nutshell."

2:11- Quick three and out for Penn State, as Doug Hogue makes a great play blitzing Clark. Hogue was a RB who was ridiculously underutilized last year, and Marrone switched him to LB because their linebackers sucked. If only Williams had caught that fucking pass. First and ten Cuse on the PSU 45.

2:13- The return of the stallion! Like I said earlier, Bailey fakes handing it off and runs up the middle for 4 yards. They do the same thing every time out of that formation, but for some reason they seem to get positive yards out of it each time. I think they ran that play 15 times against Notre Dame last year and they had no idea how to stop it. End of the third quarter, 21-0 PSU. Should be 21-7. Goddamnit.

2:17- Stop me if this sounds familiar-- Stallion look, Bailey at QB, he fakes the handoff and runs up the middle for 8 yards. It's unreal how effective that play is.

2:21- Paulus looks pretty good throwing the ball, but when shit breaks down he keeps going into "crackhead on red bull" mode. Don't be so afraid of getting hit for christ's sake. On comes Long to punt it away on 4th and 22 from the PSU 35, and Long promptly boots it into the end zone. I remember Long being much better than this last year.

2:24- Hogue nearly picks a pass off. I like the way he's played today. It's good to see my mancrush on him has carried over from offense to defense. Hogue is also responsible for one of my favorite moments of the Greg Robinson era-- last year against Rutgers, he rushed for an 82 yard TD in the first quarter. And never touched the ball again. Greg Robinson everybody!

2:27- Another nice defensive series for Cuse, as Penn State gets 15 yards and then nothing else. Cuse will start from their own 15. This may sound odd considering we're down 21-0 and all, but I've seen some nice things today; the defensive line and linebackers have played really well, and when we've opened it up and let Paulus let it rip downfield, some good things have happened. Definitely some positive signs here.

2:28-Realizing how depressing it is that I feel enthused in a game where we trail 21-0 in the 4th. Syracuse football everybody!

2:29- Paulus promptly throws a pick and Penn State will start at the Cuse 2. I recant every positive thing I just said.

2:33- TD Penn State on 3rd and goal from the 1. Again, this will sound weird considering we're getting killed and all, but I like what I saw there. Cuse stuffed em on two straight runs, they were flying all over the field, pounding their chests, and playing confidently. That is something that just wasn't there under Greg Robinson. Last year after that pick the other team would've scored so easily on the first play. At least there is some effort and confidence this year.

2:37- Stallion look, Bailey at QB, fake handoff, run up the middle for 3 yards. The terrible announcers have just picked up on the fact that they do the same thing every time out of the "wildcat." IT'S THE STALLION ASSHOLES.

2:39- The bubble screen might be my least favorite play ever created. Have you ever seen it gain more than 2 yards?

2:40- Another INT as the ball bounces off Mike Owen's chest, goes straight in the air, and into a LB's arms. I'm done with this game.

Syracuse Football

"We need to make this place the hardest place to play in the country. We need you, we need everyone. This is our state, our town, our team, and we gotta win. Now. G'Orange."

If that video doesn't get you pumped up, you don't have a pulse. Or don't like Syracuse, which basically means you're dead to me anyway. Cuse-Penn State kicks off in an hour, and for those of you who don't know, this used to be a huge rivalry. The rivalry basically died when Cuse joined the Big East and they stopped playing every year, but when I was little and first started following sports this was the rivalry for Syracuse, and I can't even begin to discuss how much I used to hate Penn State. Now they're trying to bring the rivalry back a bit (although it's uncertain whether they'll stil play after this seas0n), and now, we're kind of a joke, and Penn State's kind of good. I don't care; I ordered the Big Ten Network just to watch this game, and I'm all fired up and delusional because I've talked myself into thinking Syracuse has a chance to keep this close. G'Orange.

I'll put my random/suicidal thoughts in a post here during the game in what the kids like to call a "live blog." Be prepared for obscenity-laced tirades.