Hi
all,
Forgive
the ‘radio silence’ over the past two weeks… as you know I spent last week
getting in touch with my Inner Idiot, KC-style, and the work week got away from
me. Let’s start with the new feature:
Word
of the Week I: with my final
journey to ND in the books, word #1 is in tribute to all the fantastic
tailgaters I was fortunate enough to participate in this past year. The BC was
no different, even in snow apparel. Plus some of us learned of a new species,
that of the vodka slut (see bottom right picture)… Matt, Mark and I watched
girls practically mainline the nominated Bloody Mary base (“we don’t need no
stinking Mr. T mix…”) and could only ask ourselves, where were these women
when we were here?
(adjective)
|
|
|
|
|
bacchanal'
(băḱə-năĺ, -näĺ, băḱə-nəl) (noun)
|
- A
participant in the Bacchanalia.
- The
Bacchanalia. Often used in the plural.
- A
drunken or riotous celebration.
- A
reveler.
(adjective)
Of, relating to, or typical of the worship of Bacchus.
Word
of the Week II
– not one of my favorite words but to the degree that so many of ND Nation are
totally ‘glass half empty’ about the program, I figured this’ll come in handy
at cocktail parties, water cooler chat and future emails. I’m pretty sure
you’ll figure out how to put it in ND football context.
moribund
(môŕə-bŭnd́, mŏŕ-)
|
(adjective)
- Approaching
death; about to die.
- On
the verge of becoming obsolete: moribund customs; a moribund way of
life.
(derivatives)
moŕi·buńdi·ty noun
moŕi·bund́ly adverb
Game
comments:
BC
ü
What
the hell is up with our turf?! The number of slips we see every
week is unbelievable. Whether the conditions are bad or not. And with the
number of timing plays we run, passing-wise, something’s gotta change.
ü
4th and goal. I’m of two minds here. In a
situation like that, you never take your best player (Clausen) off the field,
right? That said, Hughes scores – fairly easily – if the BC guy doesn’t lay an
illegal and dangerous head-to-head hit. Yet players do it all the time…
the amount of head hunting that goes on every week (see Mays, Taylor) is
remarkable. The NCAA better get a grip on this soon – dare to dream –
someone’s going to get paralyzed or worse.
ü
BC
should lose 2 scholarship / year for the use of an exceedingly irritating – and
headache inducing – jersey font. I have a neck ache for having to
bend my head to read their numerals.
ü
Jay Leno. Back in the day, I saw leno at a local
Chicago comedy club before he was Mr. Talk Show Host. Perhaps a few of you were
with me. I’m typically horrific about remembering jokes but he told one I’ve
never forgotten. He said, “Why do they call dead people ‘late’? They’re
not late, they’re not coming!” That’s pretty much how I feel about our
DB’s, literally and figuratively. I think we’re kidding ourselves if we
think it’s going to get fixed during the season. My prediction: at least
3-4 more shoot outs this year.
ü Rod Serling’s familiar words went
something like this: "There
is a dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as
vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between
light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit
of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge... This is the dimension of
imagination. It is the area BETWEEN THE HASH MARKS, the Twilight Zone.” Okay, perhaps I’m
taking some creative license but you get the point. Nice to see this got a
little better in the WSU game.
ü Brian Smith. You’re good, you play
with a lot emotion. I get it. But could you please get your head out of
your ass AFTER you make The Big Play?
ü Planet Claire. A great B-52’s
song (“Some say she's from Mars, Or one of the seven
stars”) but for those of us sitting in Uncle Jerry’s seats, it was the
little girl from Wyoming sitting in front of us, making the game
palatable. Let me ask any one of you this: would you smile like that if
you had Mark / Matt / Terry right behind you? I think not.
WSU
ü
So
this is what the Defense was supposed to look like. (Why couldn’t we
play these guys, like, once a month?)
ü
I
can’t help shake the feeling we’ve got some really, really good athletes among
the Front Seven. We’re just not very big - so how do you make that work
for you? I’d like to think that athleticism will come in really handy against a
traditionally irksome Navy offense.
ü
O-line. They’ve gotten much better, no doubt. But
they have to be the most football-dumb / undisciplined group… how many really
big plays have we had called back this year where one of the group has done
something totally dumbass that had zero effect on the outcome of the play?
More than once.
ü
Nick Tausch. Absolutely love him – when was the last
time we had a K this automatic but someone needs to tell him on extra points,
immediate elevation over distance. It’s only gotta go 20 yds. He may end up
with a higher kicking percentage on his FG’s than his PAT’s.
ü
Punting. “We are Not Good!
We are… Not Good!” Unlike place kicking (where
perhaps accuracy matters more), maybe we can at least hold out hope that a year
in the weight room will help Mr. Turk. The field position issue was huge
in the BC game and putting our defense in short field situations is a recipe
for disaster.
ü
Ragone’s got some wheels. It’d be nice to see
it on an actual offensive play.
ü
Dayne. Bummer about the knee, especially after the terrific
deep post pattern to John Goodman (my favorite play of the game (see early
Twilight Zone reference). That ball travelled 45 yards on a line. But
the probable reality is that he wouldn’t have played much the rest of the year…
maybe next week (ironically).
ü
MVP! MVP! Jimmy may be the best player on this team but
if you take the concept of ‘most valuable’ literally, Golden Tate would get my
vote.
ü
Michael Floyd. This week is the important MRI (I
think) for him getting back on the field. The sooner the better. Over the
last two weeks I must’ve seen at least four catches of the ‘jump ball’ variety
that you know he would’ve caught easily that weren’t.
ü
Pat Haden. “That is not a costume…”
comment after the camera pans the leprechaun. I like the guy. A
lot. And how prescient was his opening remark about Tate’s ability to go
up for balls?
See the violence inherent in the system... |
ü Lady of the Lake. “Strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords is no basis for a system of government…”
But it does seem to be okay when it comes to prognostication. She said 41-17; final outcome, 40-14.
Jimmy. It’s a testimony to
his excellence that when his stats end up, as they have the last two weeks, ≈
250 yds passing, 70% completion, 2 TD’s and 0 INT’s, people yawn. He
probably won’t win the Heisman but no one will convince me there’s anyone
better this year. Boy, I hope he comes back.
Schadenfruede
winner.
It’s a tie! USC – just getting drilled by Oregon - and Michigan –
losing to a horrific Illinois team. Two precocious freshman QB’s,
two-less-than-prodigious days. News alert: Barkley’s hair is still
peroxide blonde and Tate still isn’t nervous (‘though is really, really sore
from getting the bejesus knocked out of him).
ND
Alumni of the Week.
Brady Quinn; how much must Eric Mangini hate him if he won’t play him even as
Derek Anderson stinks it up every single week.
Favre-aggedon. 3:15pm (CDT) today,
I’ll be in front of the TV and I’ll be booing the shit of #4 and feeling
really, really good about myself.
Over
and out.
No comments:
Post a Comment