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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Week 8 (2010): Coming Up Small


"Navy, again? Inconceivable!"

There is an oft used – and misused – expression relating to the notion that ‘size matters’.  Apparently not so much when playing football. Specifically playing football against The University of Notre Dame.  When playing that team, what seems to be more important is Discipline. Intensity.  Respect of your opponent.  Three concepts that our team doesn’t seem to yet grasp. Speaking of things I haven’t yet grasped, losing to a service academy in football has ranked right up there with (in no particular order):



i.)   Why assault weapon limitations are a controversial part of gun control.
ii.)  The allure of reality TV (except for ‘Survivor’ which is the Greatest. Social Experiment. Ever.)
iii.)  Cold fusion (isn’t that like soft ice cream?  And I don't even understand that.)
iv.)  The French - violently striking because they’re raising retirement to… 62?  Really? It’s not like they’re actually working hard at their civil service jobs to begin with…

"In this scene just pretend you're
watching a Notre Dame game..."
Luckily for me, I didn't waste my Saturday watching that farce I real time, instead going to a the movies with my wife and seeing, among other things, “Hereafter”  a not-bad Clint Eastwood directed movie which shared one commonality with The East Meadowlands debacle – both involved people who, against their will, see dead entities…



Word of the Week.  
 des•ul•to•ry /ˈdɛs əlˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i/   [des-uh l-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]
–adjective
1.  lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.

Origin:
1575–85; < L dēsultōrius  pertaining to a dēsultor  (a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), equiv. to dēsul-,  var. s. of dēsilīre  to jump down ( dē- de- + -silīre,  comb. form of salīre  to leap) + -tōrius -tory1

—Related forms
des•ul•to•ri•ly, adverb
des•ul•to•ri•ness, noun

—Synonyms
1. See haphazard.

How many ways can Terry find to describe this team’s utter lack of being anything consistent?  A lot.

Game Commentary.

         No Rudolph, Floyd or Riddick.  That can’t be good. Still it’s Navy.
         Navy’s ILB’s weigh 207 lbs and 197 lbs.  St. Ed’s inter-hall LB’s weigh more than that.
         The 4th and goal was just about the lamest effort I've ever seen.
            1)         Accountants and Engineers:  this is what one calls foreshadowing.
         Navy; 99 yards in six plays. Uh oh.
         Teo seemed to have come to play; too bad no one else did.
         Another year of playing well, offensively, between the 20’s..
         Plays that literally change games:
            1)         The first drive’s 4th and goal.
            2)         Smith’s pass interference on 2nd and 12.
            3)         Crist’s first INT, which by the way, would've been intercepted by two DB’s.
            4)         Calabrese’s inability to make the tackle on the TD at the end of the 1st half.
            5)         Grey’s lame effort on the 3rd quarter drive.
         Ian Williams. Was it really necessary for the sideline babe to report that the lad was sobbing?
         Okay, I stopped watching at the start of the 4th quarter so I never saw the Tommy Rees highlights, such as they were.
                      
Stiff armed by a munchkin.  Some cadet named Gee Gee (?!) and Carlo Calabrese, and in NJ no less. Easy tackle? Instead a touchdown. 

That surprising occurrence reminds me of the 1st time I saw PwaM:



Disturbing.







"Mommy, why did they name that horse 'Gary'?"
Weakest Effort of The Year.  Gary Gray, come on down! And you were having such a solid year to that point…

                         





Stuff My Mom* Said.

“They made us look silly…”

*still on pain killers, still won't share.

Song of the Week.
Watching Saturday’s game, we had ND with its roster of HS All Americans against a physically smaller opponent who should’ve been squashed like an insect but instead, hand us our lunch.  There is only song that can be nominated, Billy Bragg’s “A Pict Song.” 

A fast history lesson: the Picts were the predominant people in northern Scotland, circa 4th Century. Shadowy, enigmatic figures, they were regarded as savage warriors and proved to be a major pain in the arse of the Roman Empire. And they continued to be a problem for their British Isle neighbors – continually harassing them for centuries after the Roman legions abandoned Britain. Think Braveheart – except more badass and with less professional face paint. Ironic that one would liken anything related to the US military to them. Yet when it comes to college football, it seems perfectly applicable to me:

For we are the little folk -- we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can bring down the state

It’s a really great song - so enjoy while embracing the painful irony.

Terry’s Tool Time.
James Harrison.  Okay, let me understand this… you take out two players back-to-back with head shots and the NFL suggested it’ll start enforcing a rule that, by the way, will keep everyone in bling for a long, long time. You exclaim “oh the humanity!” and declare you're contemplating retirement.  To quote the philosopher Ochocinco, child please.  You went to Kent State, majored in general studies (and didn’t graduate).  So your professional skill set, other than knocking guys into next week, is what exactly?

Honorable MentionBrett Lorenzo Favre.  You finally cop to leaving, ahem, inappropriate voice mail messages but not the pictures of (allegedly) little Lorenzo.  But they have your cell phone number – and didn’t the pics come from that same source?  Oh Brett, I think this is going to get worse before it gets better.  And all you had to say was “this is how we court our women in Mississippi…”

Schadenfreude Winner of the Week.
Great week for the Big 12 credibility.

1.  Texas.  One week after taking down Nebraska, you lose to Iowa State – a team whose nickname is essentially, a strong wind and leading academic major involves barn yard animals.  Really?
2.  Oklahoma.  Easy come, easy go. 
3.  LSU.  Midnight strikes for Cinderella Les.

Recruiting Buzz
Another week, another Florida de-commitment. This time it was Clay Burton an (apparently) pretty good OLB prospect.   While the timing, post-Navy ugliness, is particularly unfortunate, this is a guy who seemingly was waiting all along for a Florida offer and he got it.

On the good news, I think there was a couple high potential recruits at the Meadowlands on Saturday.

Oh wait…

The Wager.
I don’t think any of Team 9 thought we were going to win but, speaking only for myself, I didn’t think Navy would pop the balloon.   Tulsa seems to be an offensive juggernaut, Utah puts up 59 pts…

Next up is the Ward-Ungashick-Belknap-Flaherty-Sullivan-Maher-Brunett collective.  Enjoy it while it lasts, boys.

Who wishes they would've flipped their bet?

           
On that note, until next week – Saw 3D opens this weekend and I need to get to it soon, I have a feeling I’m going to need the reference for the Utah write up.

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