Caps with a solid 2-0 win against the Sabres

So I'm back home from school for Thanksgiving break - VERY crazy but finally no work or classes to concern myself with. This means that not only do I get to eat a whole lot tomorrow and watch football, but I can finally watch Caps games live on my television! No radio; don't have to go anywhere; don't have to
watch some bootleg version... LIVE AT HOME!

This meant that I was able to sit down and focus and see for myself what this team does well and what it needs to work on. Granted, I've been visualizing through radio broadcasts, reading post game reports, and watching just to see the team win at bars and restaurants. So now I can see it from a truly analytical perspective.

The Caps played the Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Verizon Center, and they ended up winning 2-0 after a series of epic events. We'll get there though.

The Capitals began the game as they normally would, spending quality time with the opposing team's zone, but not getting too many quality chances. he first goal of the game was scored 6 minutes in by Alex Ovechkin from a nasty wrister, where Ryan Miller couldn't do anything to stop it. After that, however, the scoring chances in the first period were 5-1 in the Sabres' favor.

Aside from the number of scoring chances, the Caps seemed to keep the Sabres with minimal opportunities and shots following the first period. The Caps themselves seemed to posses the puck more at the same time.

Through 2 periods there were no penalties, until about halfway through the 3rd period:

Scenerio #1: *through my eyes* Alex Ovechkin, a typically hard hitting player, went to the much smaller Patrick Kaleta on the Sabres, and did quite a hard body check on the side into the glass, but nonetheless it was a great hard hit on a player that didn't brace himself properly.

Scenerio #2 (the one that matters):*through the officials' eyes* Ovechkin recieves a boarding major penalty, a game misconduct; thus, he was kicked out of the game.

So this puts the Caps in a particularly interesting situation: A team that has problems on the penalty kill, a 1-goal lead, and no more Ovechkin, this was quite the nerve-wrecker. However, the Capitals didn't even allow a shot by the Sabres the whole 5 minute power play, and also managed to kill off one more penalty toward the end of the 3rd period.

Eric Fehr then gave the Caps some insurance, and the team held off a last stand by the Sabres to win 2-0.

What I noted

As I mentioned before, I was able to follow the Caps more closely tonight, and actually be able to truly scrutinize the team's play. In doing so, found a few points that contributed to tonight's win,and that the team did differently from previous matches.

Me with my analytical face to watch the Caps game - in my bed lol

• The team seemed to sacrifice massive offensive power and shots in exchange for a more solid defensive presence. Saw multiple blocked shots, a more aggrssive defense, and quick disposal of rebounds.
  
• Related to defense, The 4th foward, Mike Green, reset himself in time from offensive plays to return back to his post on defense.
• The Caps took the penalty kill seriously tonight. A team traditionally with PK problems, especially this season, it was nice to see a strong effort being perfect on the kill.
  
• The team played a full-60 minute game; contrary to the normal 40-minute offensive outburst and then defensively collapsing, killing their leads. Mind you, the Caps have had a lead in EVERY game this season (25 games), only to lose it in devastating fashion.
  
• When Alex Ovechkin was taken out of the game, the other lines stepped up and continued to produce.
• When Alex Ovechkin was in the game, he was constantly out there creating chances and kept his legs moving.
• Dumb penalties were kept to a minimum (the killer in the 3rd period of the Senators loss), and by minimum, I mean we had one dumb penalty (the one on Ovie was questionable).
• Caps have hella injuries. Good rotation of lines, especially on defense. People will come back soon, but we're deep in Hershey, so it's not soooo bad.
  
• Simeyon Varlamov is reliable. The saves he was making were borderline miraculous. Congrats on his first regular season shutout by the way.
  
• All of this occurs after Bruce Boudreau accusedthe team of quitting on him, and questioning the capability of the Caps to hold a lead, saying that during the 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators, he had a feeling the Caps would lose the lead and didn't want to pull the "hate to say I told you so".
  

Hopefully the Caps don't need that type of encouragement ALL the time if they want to win. They have an opportunity now to redeem themselves against the Montreal Canadiens.

Allen Iverson - Retired?

Okay, I'm hearing conflicting reports. Comcast Sportsnet says that Iverson has not really retired. He is seriously considering it, but he will have further communication with his former head coach at Georgetown, John Thompson, to discuss whether he should or should not retire.

However, ESPN is all talking about "Iverson's legacy" and it's on their bottomline.

This Iverson situation, being a local-story of sorts, I think I'm going to stick with the Comcast reports; considering he hasn't even officially filed the papers.

So don't fuss yet you ladies who only watched basketball to watch Allen Iverson, it's not QUITE over; just yet. And you'll see him on TV somewhere anyway.

Turkey Day/Weekend Football Picks

Thursday:
Green Bay over Detriot
Dallas over Oakland
Giants over Broncos

Sunday:
Tennesee over Arizona
Philadelphia over Redskins
Tampa Bay over Atlanta
Miami over Buffalo
St. Louis over Seattle <-- Just for kicks Carolina over Jets Indianapolis over Houston San Diego over Kansas City San Francisco over Jacksonville Minnesota over Chicago Steelers over Baltimore

Monday:
My heart says New Orleans, mind says New England
*prove me wrong please!*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, R.I.P. to D.C. icon Abe Pollin, former Caps' owner and now-former Wizards' owner...

Hopefully everyone has a great Thanksgiving break, and throughout the rest of the holidays. Umm.. I know I keep saying I'm going all incognito and stuff, and I am. Trust me. I am. But I will keep appearing every now and then. But until my huge story is out, don't expect to see me. LOL.

What makes a REAL fan?

So today I joined my friend and colleague Jake Russell from thehogs.net to watch the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys match up at the bar. We began the day meeting up in McDonald's, me in my Cowboys jersey and Jake featuring his famed Sean Taylor Redskins jersey.

Needless to say, we caused quite a ruckus on the way to the bar with passing cars honking their allegiances and people stopping telling Jake that, "She's in the wrong colors." Granted, when you're a Skins fan hooking arms with a Cowboys fan, people will feel the need to correct you. My response: "Oh... Well, 'DC' stands for 'Dallas Cowboys'... Seeing as we own this city.

Once we reached the bar, Jake keeps calling out all the Cowboys fans not wearing jerseys, claiming they're "not real fans", including one in the bar I was sitting next to. He claimed to have been a Cowboys fan since the '70s. He just wasn't wearing a Cowboys jersey or shouting and screaming the whole game.

I then remembered this commercial that asks, "What's a real fan?" and then went on to suggest if it was the clothes they wear, or if it was how loud they shout it. The commercial concludes with the statement that "it's what's on the inside that matters..."

So I had to really think, what DOES make a real fan?

I mean we all know that I'm the Washington Capitals fan who has a thousand things to show the world that I'm a Caps fan. I've got jerseys, shirts, posters, rally towels, blankets, autographs, pictures with players, autographs, and the notorious Washington Capitals tattoo on my back.

At the Washington Nationals game in September with Jake

Thus, the question arises: "does that make me a real down-ass fan"?

I personally would say that having "things" from your team alone doesn't signify TRUE fanship. Because of course, one could just hide all those things or give them away once the team goes down the drain. So there must be more than things.

It's not just how loud they shout it either, because that can go away when the team goes down the pooper as well. Continuing with the Washington Capitals, the team built a really nice fanbase over past couple of seasons. They won the Southeast Division in consecutive years, and changed their jerseys in the 2007 season. Those things and a couple of other factors led the fanbase to grow in the DC area and now even outside the DMV area.

Now, imagine if the Caps played poorly (heck, even if they continued the season the way they play now) for the rest of the season... People, regardless whether they have paraphernalia, will shout a little bit less every portion of the season where their team does worse.

So I guess there must be more than saying you're a fan and wearing things that say that. It must be what's inside then. So what is inside that should count?

I may have A LOT of Capitals gear at home and in my room at AU, the car, my computer, etc. But think about it: I have accumulated all of those things over a number of years. For example, I have para from the 30th season in the franchise's history. That was about 5 years ago. I acquired my first jersey in the 1999-2000 season and then went up from there. Therefore, time following a team is factored into being a fan.

I also believe that knowledge about the team that you are following is important. While one may know every player on the team now, and know all the stats from the past 2 or 3 seasons, you have the lack of time following the team.

I think a bigger fan would know the past events of their team, featuring information like the founding date of their franchise, playoff appearances, championship history (if applicable - in my case it's just appearances lol), real rivals and the history behind the rivalries, division history, former players (at least the major ones), major stat leaders, and maybe miscellaneous facts here and there.

A real fan would also know the game that they are a supposed fan of; meaning that they would know the rules, know the current state of the team, and be able to participate in group discussions regarding their favorite team (if the situation calls for it - I mean I was silent for a minute during today's drudgery match).

Now granted, this is all a mon avi - in my opinion - but I hardly find reason to disagree with this criteria for knowing a real fan from a bandwagoner or a fake fan.

So at the bar I would say that the guy who Jake decided to question his Dallas fanship fits this criteria of fanship, even though he was not wearing Dallas Cowboy colors or a jersey. Hence, Jake just looks like a hater :P

~~~~~~

Just to conclude the story, nobody was hurt watching this game. However, the atrocious 7-6 win over the Redskins by the Cowboys was certianly emotionally painful on both ends. Even though my team won, I became upset that the Cowboys only seemed to play with real emotion in the last 5 minutes.

Along with the fact that Dallas played an awful game, especially offensively and the defense gave up too many passing yards, everybody was irriated at the 500000000 minute hiatus between Jason Campbell's "out of bounds toss" and the missed field goal by Redskins' kicker Shaun Suisham*. I mean, I was happy that after all those shenanigans going over the play over and over again, the Skins missed a kick from 39 yards; but I was also mad that it took SO LONG, only to see a missed FG.

It was a rough game to watch, but oh well: a win's a win, and I can be upset right now that Dallas played poorly for 55 minutes, but I can only hope that my concerns will be quelled by Thurday so I don't spoil my Thanksgiving dinner.

Side note

I just have to state that today was cardiac-Sunday for a lot of fans in the early games - including Lions and Browns fans. As I saw someone tweet today, this was the battle for the "Loserweight title" LOL! But for real, it seemed really entertaining, and congrats to the Lions for the shootout win: 38-37.

I'm also going to congratulate Real Salt Lake for winning the MLS Cup tonight against the LA Landon Donovan-David Beckham Galaxy.

And yes, I know. I blogged today, even though I'm extremely busy, and I probably should be working on something else. But I had to keep the masses entertained! Hope you all enjoyed, and if you have any comments regarding what constitutes someone as a real fan, feel free to comment below and put your input.

Oh well, after this loooong post, I must say a tout a leur until I finish this project, or if something pops in my mind for an easy post. Stay fresh!

*** Somtimes I type too fast and make mistakes lol.

Hard at work...

Hey yall! Hope you've been loving the blog so far.

I'm going to be working on one big project for the next month, so my posts will be fewer than usual in the coming weeks. But not to worry! Definitely catch up on older posts you never read, or re-read a favorite or two.

This project is going to be big, as it is partially for a class, but I'm doing more work than needed as I really want to know the answers to the questions I'm asking, and I'm making it a bigger story to expand upon outside of the class...

... What was that?

No!!!!! I can't tell you what the project is! It's a surprise! Because when it's all finished, it's most likely going to show up on here as one huge post that I'm going to want you to read and pass along to everyone that you know.

What I CAN tell you though is that it's going to be interesting, and even though you may have heard of the issue, or have thought about it, it's much more complex that one may think it is, and it's going to be from a perspective that is not heard often.

So all I can say is to be patient with me. If I have the time to post periodically, then I will. But my focus will be in this assignment.

Ha! Now I got you all excited for my big project! Well, stay close and you'll get to read it soon. Trust me.

Thanks,
Angie

College sports day :)

So I decided to change it up today and bring it to college sports, an not just college football, but an issue that affects many sports, but specifically women's basketball. This was because I was chatting with American University's ladies' team and I heard a lot about the lack of defensive knowledge going into the college game from the head coach and the players. Then I thought about it, and realized that society’s focus is rarely, if ever, on defense and less scoring.

Our culture likes to focus on high scoring in sports. The NHL tried to change the rules in its game to allow for more goal-scoring in order to attract fans. Soccer is considered a boring sport because their games usually end with a score no higher than 2-1, but in contrast, we are highly entertained by a 121-119 NBA basketball game.

This culture of high-scoring has permeated sports so much that people tend to forget the other important aspect of a game: defense. People have admired strong defensive teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers and their “Steel Curtain” days, but typically, defense is not the sexiest part of a sport.

The issue of the lack of defensive knowledge seemed to affect the AU women’s basketball team, so I spoke with two players, Raven Harris and Ashley Yencho, and their head coach Matt Corkery. In discussing their upcoming season, I tried to find out where they were when they came in terms of defensive talent and knowledge.

Sophomore point guard Raven Harris is certainly one of the better players on the team, coming from a strong high school basketball program at Princess Anne High School, who were champions every year she was on the team. Harris was also able to score over 1000 points during her high school career. She clearly had the type of offensive talent that can win games.

However, once she got on the AU team, Harris had difficulty adjusting to basketball at the college level.

“I was a couple steps behind,” Harris said about her struggles learning defense. When I asked her what she had to work on, she gave me a look and laughed, saying, “A lot.”

Junior point and shooting guard Ashley Yencho gave a similar response when asked what she needed to improve on defensively. She further explained that high schools (just like us sometimes) do not particularly care for defensive concepts.

“In high school,” said Yencho, “you only play a 2-3 zone or you play man.”

Nonetheless, both players feel as though they have improved immensely between the beginning of last season and this season. “Getting yelled at and reinforced really helped me out a lot,” Yencho said with regards to Corkery’s influence on her play.

Harris also added that she was getting better at defense, as Corkery has worked with her.

According to what I found then, players go through years of playing basketball, and no matter how well their program did, a player is still unprepared for the defensive responsibilities at the next level. That seems a little unfair. Of course, Coach Corkery agreed.

“Without sound defense, a team’s chances to win are greatly diminished. They don’t know when to be and where to be. They don’t know ‘come here’ from ‘sick ‘em.’”

Corkery seems baffled at the fact that high school coaches do not demand enough from their players on defense. I was too. So I asked him why he thought that was the case.

“A lot of coaches aren’t well-versed in defensive fundamentals of the game.” Corkery said. “It may be because they themselves just weren’t exposed to it, or it may be that they’re not taking the time to study the game.”

However, as previously mentioned, the issue is being dealt with, as players feel more confident in their defensive skills going into this season with Corkery as their head coach for now a second season. We will see how well the players have improved then, as Corkery implemented a stronger and more aggressive defensive style for this season.

Other aspects of the team should also be able to help them in their quest to top the Patriot League. The Lady Eagles’ players are riding on much improved team chemistry, and as the season goes on, they feel like that will carry them to better skill development through working together.

If the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal for the season for the Eagles, developing a strong defense might be their best bet in winning. After all, Drake says it best, "You gotta take that D!"

*horrible I know LOL!*...

And big ups to The U, Swagger U, the University of Miami, or however you'd like to address them for the 52-17 crushing of UVA. Made me quite pleased...

I refuse to make mention of the Capitals as well. I'm going to let that one ride out until they consistently perform the way they played last night against the Panthers, winning last night against the division opponent 4-1

I concede...

Fine, fine... So the Yankees win in 6 games. Go out and party. You won Game six 7-3 and you played better in that game than the Phillies. Congratulations. Be happy... BUT...

This just means that ALL teams can erase all of their records, and if you didn't win or were in the World Series, you can pretend it never happened and start all over again! It's about to be a brand new season and we are all 0-0 now. In a Kansas City Royal's fan's mind, they are technically in first place in the division at this point! Milwaukee Brewer's fans are in the running for an actual playoff spot for the 2nd time in 3 years! And the Red Sox... well, they can believe they're back to reappearing in the World Series again ;-).

The fact is, is that the end of a season in any sport can be seen as a relief period. I definitely enjoyed watching the World Series games this season, and playoff periods in your favorite sports can be super entertaining. And of course, for instance, when hockey season is over, I'm really sad - that's my favorite sport of all time to watch. But when it's all said and done - no pun was originally intended - You can get back to believing that your team has a chance to make it. After all, we all have the same record now.

So I'm not mad at the Yankees at all for winning the World Series. In fact, what World Series? My mind is on the future, considering the Red Sox made move #1 this offseason already, acquiring Jeremy Hermida from the Florida Marlins for a couple of minor league pitchers (Jose Alvarez and Hunter Jones) today. Clearly, Angie and the Red Sox are on the same page.

I do not concede however...

That Anze Kopitar is better than Alex Ovechkin. But he's really really REALLY good. I'm going to go out on a limb actually, and say I think he's slightly better than Sidney Crosby. I'll save that discussion for The Hockey Blog, my second blog site where I write with a team of other hockey fans. For right now though, he's overtaking Ovie the Gr8 in points as Ovie is sidelined for a couple weeks.

Unfortunately though for Ovie's team, the Capitals are going to need to prove their true talent and the true depth that we have in scoring. Because the thing is, the Caps HAVE the ability to score and to get goals from other sources that Ovechkin. It just needs to show. That secondary scoring that is.

Losing 3-2 to the Devils on a usual day may not be THAT big of a deal, considering that's usually how the Caps fare against the NJ hockey team. I mean, the Devils have always been known to sink teams down in the ice with defense enough to bore a team from trying to penetrate with inability to get through. Worse yet, they still have Martin Brodeur in goal.

The issue here is that the Caps have been struggling BEFORE Ovechkin went down with the upper body strain, and THAT'S where my concern stems from... Hence, my urgent message for Washington to step it up in these times so that when Ovie does return to the lineup (hopefully in a week or so), the Caps will return to unstoppable status (from last year).

I have difficulty enjoying the cardiac manner in which the team has played against teams they are better than this season though. The Caps started all right, but increasingly played more games under tight circumstances and playing well for only about 30 minutes. Not a good look Washington if you're trying to win the Cup.

Hmm... the C-high Young Winner? LOL! (I know, I know, awful)

Tim Lincecum... I have nothing to say on the matter. Not saying that I have any affiliation with the issue, but that substance should be legal by now. If Michael Phelps and Tim Lincecum are avid users of the substance, and you see the type of crazy-good talent they can STILL produce, I can't imagine how awful it could be. Just sayin'... And why the surprise?!? Call it profiling, but I'm not surprised at all.

Roy Williams, is a #1 Receiver...

Hahahahahhaha! Roy Williams still calls himself a #1 receiver! Hahahahaha! Phew... Okay, I'm done...

Really though? REALLY?!? HOW is that so? Seeing as he doesn't receive the 2nd most passes on the Dallas Cowboys behind Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton, that doesn't look like a #1 receiver to me.

Not only is that a reason that's keeping me from believing that, but clearly, his performace over this season hasn't been any better than last season with the Cowboys. His inability to get open for Romo, and then Romo just finding guys that will, has just made Roy Williams look like a fool for saying that.

What to do with him! I guess if he really thinks that, as long as he's going to stay quiet about it until the Cowboys win the Sup... I mean, finish the season, then I can live with it (yeah, I know, shameless plug).


And finally thoughts and prayers go out to those killed and wounded (and their families) in the Fort Hood shooting that took place today at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

Philly, New York, and Mad Football

In this Sunday in sports, the Philadelphia Eagles demolished the New York Giants and the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies. I was hoping that Philly would sweep NY, but I guess you can't have it all.

In Game 4 of the World Series, the Phillies had Joe Blanton on the mound and the Yankees put on CC Sabathia on short rest. The Yankees immediately took control, getting 2 runs in the 1st inning.

It wasn't until the 4th inning when the Phillies came back and tied the game. The second run was questionable, however, as Ryan Howard coming from 2nd base ran and dove to touch home plate, but he never made contact with it.

What I found funny was just by how much he missed it,considering not only his hand missing the plate, but the fact that even his leg could have touched it and it flew right over.

At 2-2, the Yankees fired right back, scoring two more runs to go up 4-2 in the 5th inning, and recieve the 4th run on a sort of "soft" play. Nonetheless, the Phillies were back down.

The Phillies seemed sluggish for the rest of the game until the 7th inning when Chase Utley reminded Sabathia of the 2-homer performance he had in Game 1 by crushing the ball, putting the Phillies down by only 1 run.

Pedro Feliz followed suit by homering in the 8th inning, tying the game at 4. Unfortunately for the Phillies, the top of the 9th was their worst inning yet as they put Brad Lidge in the game. Lidge gave up 3 runs after allowing Johnny Damon to literally run around the bases.

Lidge started off smoothly, causing Hedeki Matsui to pop out and then struck out Derek Jeter. Then after Johnny Damon's single, he stole 2nd base, got up from his slide and continued on to 3rd base, which the Phillies seemed to forget about.

After the defensive mental lapse by Philadelphia, the Yankees took 3 runs in the 9th, and took out the Phillies 1-2-3 to win 7-4. They now have a comanding 3-1 series lead on the Phillies.

I wouldn't completely count out the Phillies yet, but of course, this doesn't look good for Philadelphia fans/residents/those who hate the Yankees. It would be absolutely epic if the Philles were to come back from being down 3-1 in a series, but it would be difficult.

It would be nice if Big-Mouth Jimmy Rollins would have backed up his pretentious prediction on the series, but he hasn't done much for the Phillies to win. And if they want a chance to win, he will have to get things going for their offense so that people like Howard and Utley have more to work with. I mean, a 2-run shot is better than a solo shot...

Game 5 will be tomorrow, same time, 7:57... still haven't recieved an answer as to what that's about. Stay tuned for a pitching matchup between Cliff Lee and A.J. Burnette.

NFL Week 8

The halfway point of the NFL season has been one of the more interesting weeks all season.

Rams 17, Lions 10

I would like to start off that I am shocked that the Lions couldn't pull the win against the St. Louis Rams, considering they were FAVORITED to take it! But they ended up losing (as they always do) 17-10. I'm even more shocked that the score was a lot higher than I had expected. I predicted somewhere between 6-3 to 9-7. But nope! Freakin' 17-10! lol...

Ravens 30, Broncos 7

It was delightful to see the Ravens play well again, defeating the Denver Broncos 30-7. Denver is now no longer undefeated, leaving only the New Orleans Saints as the only undefeated team left. The Broncos did play more subpar teams than quality teams, except for Dallas and New England (or have they really changed their names to the Boston Patriots now?). However, 30-7 was a prime victory for the Ravens, who have suffered from 3 straight of hard losses against the Bengals, Patriots, and Minnesota.

Vikings 38, Packers 26

Minnesota and Green Bay faced off today - yes, yes, Brett Favre's first game back to Green Bay as a non-Packer. When FOX went to the broadcast of the Packers game, all I heard was hostility. It was kind of hilarious to hear the massive amounts of boos, and to see all the Favre bashing signs in large contrast to the "We still love you" and "We miss you" signs for Favre.

The first half was awful for Green Bay. The Packers' offensive line gave Aaron Rodgers NO time. When he did have time, he was subject to being diven to the ground by 300 men. So there was little success, if any, for the Packers in the first half.

With the Vikings up 17-3 going into the 2nd half, however, the Packers had a hightened sense of awareness. They decided to pick themselves up and score 17 points in the 3rd quarter, and with just over 10 minutes to go, they were only down 31-26...

...And then Brett Favre comes in and destroys Green Bay's dreams of an epic comeback as Minnesota did on their own turf. After the Packers failed on the 2 pt conversion after their touchdown and missed the 51-yard field goal, Minnesota got a touchdown with 3:09 to run the game. Green Bay was unable to get anywhere, as they reverted back to 1st half form, and then Minnesota took the ball away, and won the game. The End.

Cowboys 38, Seahawks 17

In other games, Dallas played the way they should, defeating the Seahawks 38-17. The Cowboys have usually played poorly and have had to cut it close in the end of games against lower teams, but this game, they clearly looked superior. Good look for the team as they play the Eagles next week.

Eagles 40, Giants 17

Speaking of the Eagles, they destroyed the Giants 40-17 at home. With the number of turnovers throughout the whole game and the lack of concern by the Giants, I feel like they deserved to lose like that. Plus it humbles the NY fans/people.

And Tennesee beat Jacksonville 30-13... Congratz on the win today, Titans. You are now no longer winless. Vince Young was the QB today... think about that.

Phew! A lot of typing today. But a lot happened lately! I had to update y'all! Thanks for reading!

Catholic University vs. Emory and Henry

So yesterday I had to travel with a few others all the way from American University to Catholic University to cover a football game. Catholic played this school I had never heard of, Emory and Henry University in a close game, but ended up losing 13-1o.

I went in, and it was, an... interesting set of hours spent there. This was my first experience at a Division 3 football game, and it is VERY obvious of the difference in a D1 football program and a D3 program.

First of all, nobody knew where the stadium was! These were students who had NO IDEA how to get there. Now I understand that not everybody can enjoy the beauties of football, but as a student on YOUR OWN CAMPUS, I feel like you should at least know the buildings and landmarks on your campus at this point of the year - freshman or not.

Secondly, after the trek (oh man was it a trek) to the stadium, it was not much of a "stadium", but a field - akin to the field at my small, private former high school: there was one side of bleachers of about 10 rows, and the field. At least there was a small press box though on the top.

Mind you, this whole time, there was only one guy in charged of ALL the athletics on Catholic's campus, and he was EXTREMELY helpful in our research and access to the team and its stats. *shout out to him* But he really wa over at the cross-country event, then had to run over to the football game to help us out a little bit.

And in the game itself, the playcalling wasn't very diverse. Both teams stuck with the quarterback draw, along with a couple more running plays. Any passes didn't go for more than 10 yards, if they ever passed. Even the "Hail Mary" at the end of the game by Catholic only reached mid-field, instead of hauling it to the endzone.

Nonetheless, it wasn't awful. Big ups to D3 programs for even having football... unlike SOME campuses in the country.............. (no names).

When I returned home, I sat down and wrote the corresponding article for the game to beat the deadline (there will be a video explaining the behind-the-scenes action). For your viewing pleasure, I have posted it with this blog:

Despite Catholic University's best defensive effort all season long, they were unable to capitalize on multiple offensive opportunities, causing Catholic to lose 13-10 to Emory and Henry University.

Contrary to the final score and other offensive mishaps though, Catholic did not play poorly either.

Although Catholic gave up the first touchdown of the game, they blocked the extra point and were able to score the next 10 points through one field goal and a touchdown run in by John O'Brien.

The Cardinals then were able to stop Emory and Henry's offense for another drive, and seemed to have the momentum to keep their opponent down.

Early into the third quarter though, the Wasps came out strong and were able to score a touchdown. But even with the lead, Emory and Henry could not penetrate the Catholic defense for the rest of the game.

Catholic actually led in time of possession in the second and third quarter, and was able to march down the field into Emory and Henry territory up to the redzone.

However, the mistakes made in the Cardinals' inability to create opportunities deep in the Wasps' territory and ultimately to score points kept them down and eventually gave them a difficult loss.

One of the most outstanding mistake for the Cardinals was the field goal kicking. Catholic kicker Brendan Deluca missed four field goals, including three from very short distances and one with 1:09 left in the game from 40 yards.

Nonetheless, teammates seemed to be sympathetic towards Deluca's failed field goal attempts. Receiver Mike Smith, who had four catches for 58 yards, said that the missed field goals were not as much of a factor in the way the rest of the team played.

"Not at all; we still played hard," Smith said. "If you're not on the field goal team, there's nothing you can do about it. You can just watch and hope he makes it. It was just a bad day for him."

Regardless of the tough season, the team continues to have confidence, especially in the coach. When asked about whether head coach Dave Dunn deserves the bad rap he received from the fans today, Smith commented, saying their coach "puts everybody in the best position to win." Smith continued, "When you look at the yards, we dominated on offense and defense, and everybody makes a mistake. You're coaching on the fly."

Catholic focused on the positives from the game, and noted that it was just an "off-day" for the team today in reaching their full potential to win against Emory and Henry.

"It went really well for us actually," Smith said about the game. "We played hard on every aspect of the game. It's just that it came down to little mistakes, and when we got down to the endzone, we couldn't capitalize, and out kicking game wasn't at our best."

Dunn further elaborated on the things that catholic did to give themselves a chance to win.

We followed the game plan up until we got to the redzone. We outgained them to up to double their yardage and didn't turn the ball over." Dunn also did not forget to mention that Cardinals held the number one player in rushing yards in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), Caleb Jennings, to under 100 yards.

Their biggest faults in today's game according to the coach were "mental mistakes."

Catholic's next game is against Guilford University at home. When asked about what could be changed, Dunn said, "We're just young in the skilled spots on the offense." Dunn also added that they lost many players from last year on defense as well; thus, making the Cardinals an "inexperienced team" versus a young team."

Smith said simply, "We just have to want it in the end."

However, Dunn isn't going to focus on the four botched field goald, the missed opportunities in the redzone, the fans' displeasure, or even next weekends's game or next season. "My goal is to have a good practice tomorrow."

2009 World Series Game 3

The offensive floodgates finally opened last night as the Yankees defeated the Phillies 8-5 at Citizens Bank Park. (No I didn't catch the game because I went out for Halloween).

However, I am watching toniight, as the Phillies try to even up the series at home in Game 4. Joe Blanton will pitch for the Phillies, resting Cliff Lee, and CC Sabathia on short rest will be on the mound for the Yankees.

I mean, for my prediction to be correct, the Phillies would have to win the next 3 games in a row... To be honest, I don't see that happening. But I can see them winning in 7 games. I think in order for either team to win actually, it will have to go to 7 games.

Both teams are just so evenly matched in good pitching and offense (numbers wise) that it will have to be a punch-for-punch series. I think the Phillies are better though in base running and hitting anything other than home runs than the Yankees; hence, why I picked them to win.

Side Note...

THE EAGLES ARE GOIN INNNNN!!!!! Like, I don't even like the Eagles, and usually, I hate anything affiliated with Philadelphia, but I do enjoy a good football game. The Eagles at the end of the first half are up 30-7 agaisnt the New York Giants with mad takeaways and passing it down the field.

Then again, I might just be excited because I'm pulling for the Phillies against the Yankees.

I'll cut the Redskins fans some slack today... they have a bye week. LOL!

At the same time, my team, the Cowboys just went up 21-10 by the end of the first half against the Seattle Seahawks. Which makes me happier.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.

*Posted at 2:50pm

Back in Action! New World Series Order

So after helping to construct another blog, The Hockey Blog, and getting through midterms and all of that junk, I'm back!

Tonight was Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies - just stating in case you've been under a rock lately.

The battle between the two prideful cities is what I think will be one of the most exciting World Series in recent times. As much as I dislike the Yankees, you can't say that the World Series matchups they've played in have been boring and uneventful, from a neutral fan's perspective.

Philadelphia definitely proved themselves to be the top of the National League, running over all theri opponents this playoff season. New York did the same until the last series, however, it seemed like as if the Yankees were only giving the Angels a "mercy game," as they clearly looked like the better team throughout the whole series.

Tonight's game featured two of the best pitchers in this postseason thus far: former Cleveland Indians CC Sabathia (and ALCS MVP) for the Yankees and Cliff Lee for the Phillies. Aside from the pitching matchup, the offenses of both teams are comparable, despite the lack of acknowledgment of the Phillies' offensive power.

...

However, this game didn't speak of the pre-game notions of what was expected. The Phillies ended up handing it to the Yankees, defeating them 6-1! . From early on in the game, Chase Utley gave Philadelphia the leading offense through 2 solo home runs. Later in the game though, the base running of the Phillies provided the final 4 runs to put away the Yankees.

Cliff Lee was ultimately superior in the supposedly-spectacular matchup between him and Sabathia. He pitched through 8 innings, but the of course, the Yankees had to spoil the shutout in the bottom of the 9th with 1 out. Nonetheless, Lee pitched exceedingly well.

Sabathia on the other hand did a decent job until he gave up the first home run to Utley in the 3rd and actually pitched through 7 full innings. The Yankees bullpen, however, screwed it up for New York, putting them down by more runs; thus, the game ended 6-1.

I'm excited for Game 2 now, not only because the Yankees are going in down 1-0 in the series and I'm reading all of these stats that now favor the Phillies, but I still think this will be an exciting series. Yes, even if the Phillies beat the Yankees in 5 as Mr. Rollins stated (which I won't lie, I don't think will happen).

Pedro Martinez and AJ Burnette are projected to start tomorrow night at 8pm (listed as 7:57?????) for Game 2 in New York. So I'll see you at the barrrrr... or if you're not there, enjoy where ever you're watching!

*Oh! I forgot! I never predicted anything! Phillies in 6 games.
And if anybody has any way that my frat Ryan Howard can meet his soror here in DC, please let me know! :)

Side Note:

Washington Capitals play against the Atlanta Thrashers Thursday night as well, and guess who traveled with the team - Tomas Fleischmann! He was out with an injury due to a blood clot in his leg, and should be back on the ice soon. It's definitely promising, and it's good to know since there are ample things Fleischmann can bring to the team's offense and defense... err, power play maybe?

It's about time: The Caps' season has officially started!

The Washington Capitals came out dominant and showed signs of a complete hockey team in their 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins.

The opener in Boston began with some quick offense as Brooks Laich scored just under 3 minutes in the game. This showed to be a good omen, as in the 2nd period, Alex Ovechkin follows up on a sick wrist shot to score a goal delivered by Alex Semin.

Washington was not finished in the 3rd period, scoring two goals, again from Laich and Ovechkin before the period was 2 minutes old.

Patrice Bergeron was the only goal scorer for the Bruins, scoring late in the 3rd period.

The Caps were able to do a number of things right. Taking advantage of opportunities such as power plays, taking only minimal number of penalties (minus John Erskine's dumb holding the stick penalty), the defense and goaltending remaining in unison throughout the entire game, and the main offensive players doing what they were supposed to do.

What surprised me was that Jose Theodore made 19 out of 20 saves, considering every game he started in the preseason, the Capitals lost. Although it does make sense - the Caps never really allowed that many goals when he started either. They just never felt like playing that hard for him I guess...

But that was preseason, and hey, as long as there's a goaltender in net who's giving the Washington a chance to win, then I'm going to be happy.

Finally, as a side note, Alex Ovechkin leads the league in the most multi-goal games in the past 2 seasons with 14 games, and also leads in the most 3-point performances with 15, over Crosby and Malkin.

MLB Playoff Picture

So the Tigers/Twins "saga" continues. The Twins decided to win today of all days, and to stave off their elimination for a few days. Seeing as how no team has come back from being 3 games back in the last... forever actually, the Twins have an extememly slim chance of making the playoffs now.

But, they do close out the season in a 3-game set with the Kansas City Royals, who the Twins have defeated 9 times in 15 games thus far this season. So there it CAN happen, if the Tigers just lose 3 straight against the Chicago White Sox...

As far as the National League goes, the Colorado Rockies have made the playoffs for the first time in 3 years (it's been that long since the Red Sox swept them for a 2nd World Series championship??? I know - jerk move, I'm sorry lol).

On the other hand, the LA Dodgers, the Rockies' next opponent for the final 3 games of the season, have had a magic number of only 1 for almost a week. Needless to say, they have not gotten past that.

So the battle between these two teams are now to see who wins the NL West division title and who takes the NL Wild Card position. Should be interesting....

Shout out...

To the Calgary Flames for winning their first season opener in 7 years!

To Marion Barber III - stop being injured.

And to Jay Morgan. if you're reading this, I'll explain it Friday over dinner? Out or at home, it's up to you :)

HOCKEY'S BACK!!!!!

The Red Sox have clinched the AL Wild Card!

So I have been mad all weekend because my Twitter and Facebook were spammed with mass statuses regarding the Yankees and this past weekend in their series against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees spent their time clinching the AL East Division, a playoff berth and obtaining their 100th win for this season. You would think they won the World Series already with the ruckus about their weekend.

At the same time, I had figured that the Red Sox would also make the playoffs - it would only be a little matter of time before it happened, and I could celebrate, too.

The Red Sox got lucky tonight, clinching the AL Wild Card spot with the Texas Rangers' 5-2 loss to the LA Angels despite losing their own game to the Toronto Blue Jays 8-7. The loss today counted as Boston's 5th straight.

This situation now sets the Red Sox in a playoff series with the LA Angels, again. In 6 years, the two teams have met 4 times, and this meeting would mark the 3rd consecutive year the Angels and Red Sox square off. Seeing that Boston has dominated the playoff series between the two teams, this looks like an easy write-off for the Sox.

Well...

Right now, the Red Sox are struggling mightily, especially for the calibur of their team. With the 5 straight losses, and 5 more games left this year, one can hope that the Sox get everything together. In 9 games against the Angels this year Boston has also ended up 4-5.

However, Boston hasn't always been particularly telling in the regular season of how well they play teams in the playoffs though. Also in favor of the Sox, key players like Josh Beckett, who have been out with injuries lately, will be returning soon.

So while this series will NOT be an easy sweep in my eyes, I have pretty good faith that the Red Sox can create a positive result by the end. Alas, note that I'm neither confirming nor denying a particular playoff result. I will say though that 2004 occurred on a Wild Card year. I'm just saying...

Ojo del Twins???

On a more exciting note, I am closely following the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins series, which should define who is going to play the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs.

I'm pulling for the Twins, because I'm a Joe Mauer fan, and I'll face it; the Twins have put in so much work to get this division, especially without Justin Morneau in the lineup, that it would really suck for them not to make it.

My main issue though is that I won't be mad at whoever wins the division, because that team just better beat the Yankees, and we'll all be in good standing!

NFL Week 3 Personal Highlights

Before I finish (it's late here on the East side of the States!), I would like to give a high and mighty shout out to the Dallas Cowboys for winning our first game in the new house. I thank Carolina Panthers' QB Jake Delhomme for the late interception and the total revival of the Dallas defense in the 4th quarter.

However, I'm not a fan of the play calling at the 1-yard line in that drive where Dallas only got a field goal; TWO passes at the 1-yard line? Really?!?! Really could have avoided the field goal situation - because you also could have gone for it on that 4th down! But what do I know - I'm not an NFL coach.

But Wade Phillips made up for it by calling for the 2-point conversion on the extra point oppoortunity after the interception-for-the-touchdown, calling a nice run play. Thanks buddy.

And one more shout out to the Detroit Lions. This one is for you. I haven't been able to blog for a few days due to time constraints, but I'm putting this one out here for the Lions. Your 19-game losing streak has been snapped.

They must thank the Washington Redskins for failing to have any sort of offense in the game. Their defense didn't even do the usually decent job either in this game. So Detriot can rest in peace knowing that they have won, while the Redskins must live with the loss. I'm sure they've "put it in the past" by now (cliche statement - you know they're still mad).



*Finally, please put my cousin in your prayers and your thoughts. He was shot on Monday. He is alive and in the hospital, but the family wants a full recovery. Thank you.

No Penguins for Me

This may be a sports blog, but, mind you, sports sometimes intersects with our outside lives as well...

*I know that over half the population that reads this has been through this at least once in their lives.

So let's say you see that gorgeous man/woman of your dreams. He/she is fine, they dress well, and they've got that swag. You get the guts to go up to him/her and introduce yourself (or whatever you do to strike a conversation). To your surprise, he/she actually acknowledges your presence and they seem to be equally as interested in what you're saying, how you look, etc.

Then suppose you get into sports - you mention you love [insert sport]. Their eyes get big at the mention of your favorite sport, and as the conversation unfolds, you believe that you have found love...

Until you mention that you are (for example) a Washington Capitals fan, and he/she states that they root for the... Pittsburgh Penguins.

For me, the conversation ends right there, unless you're looking to pick a fight with me. I love to discuss hockey, talk about my team, or even take part healthy debate over hockey topics. But sometimes, I am NOT in the mood for a discussion as to why "Sidney Crosby is better than Alex Ovechkin" and "which team is better," especially in this situation.

A. I have already exhausted myself arguing to the death for Alex Ovechkin being a better marketing tool for the NHL and B. I would never want to do this on a date.

As a fan of other sports though, personally, I feel like somethings are passable: As a Cowboys fan, I am open to Eagles fans, Giants fans, and because of my location Redskins fans can be accepted. I mean, it's only twice a year when we are head to head anyway so it can't be that bad.

In baseball, I've even been open to Yankees fans despite my strong disdain for them and being a Red Sox fan.

But best believe, you say the wrong thing in our first meeting and it's over. I mean, it is OVER. No chance. No shot. You lose.

If I hear you're an Eagles fan, I don't want to hear about the last game of last season against the Cowboys all night. We can joke about it for a second, but it better be dropped real quick...

The only sport though I get really touchy about the most though is hockey. You've got to be REALLY attractive to root for the Philadelphia Flyers and hold my hand at games. I can't even think about what it takes to be a Pittsburgh Penguins fan and be around me though. I certainly have some friends that are Penguins fans, but dating is another realm to cover.

I do have a little bit of tolerance, however, in other situations. In the past, a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, named Greg, was an interest. And he was really nice, funny, cute - basically all that is good. His only flaw; he was a Lightning fan. As a Caps fan, I don't know what it is (I do, but that's another post), but ever since the 2003 NHL playoffs, I have hated the Lightning, even though they have been non-contenders for a couple of years.

Nonetheless, I would fight for hours with Greg over whether that goal in the Calgary Flames/Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Finals in 2005 scored by Marty Gelinas really crossed the line or not - thus, justifying whether the Bolts really deserved the Cup or not.

Me, being the one who hated the Lightning, could have been blinded by hate for the team. But I have always believed that the Flames were cheated out of a Cup, and hated that the Lightning got a championship title before the Caps did. I would obviously claim that the goal should have counted. Greg, being a Lightning fan, argued the contrary.

Now, this relationship was not defined by the two of us cheering for two different teams in the same division, but you can't tell me that it was easy with that factor. Every game is added with extra anxiety, so that you don't have to hear the trash-talking - that's your job, right? And losses suck even more when they're againt your significant other's team.

Luckily though, Greg wasn't a jerk (like I was) about games, and was a rather mild-mannered man. He never called me right after a game that the Caps lost to the Lightning (rare as it was) to brag. We also went hand-in-hand to a Caps/Flyers game last season; both intensley cheering for the Capitals because we despised the Flyers considerably more than each others' teams, respectively.

Which has, in the end, allowed me to give leeway to those who are not a fan of my team, or pledge alleigances to teams that I absolutely can't stand - well, besides the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So it's not necessarily true that I will disreagrd one's presence solely because they are a fan of a rivalry/disliked team. Just make sure that the team you cheer for isn't named after a flightless bird that lives in Antartica and the lower tips of Australia, South America, and Africa.

*Feel free to dispel your experiences with the decision to go through talking to someone who avidly follows your rival team. I know some have got to be funny.

NHL Preseason - Caps vs. Sabres!

OMG IF YOU THOUGHT I WAS REALLY EXCITED FOR NFL PRESEASON AND THE BEGINNING OF THE NFL SEASON, WATCH OUT BECAUSE THE CAPS JUST BEGAN PRESEASON!

So basically, hockey is back, and the Washington Capitals start off looking pretty good in a 4-3 OT win against the Buffalo Sabres. The Caps already seem better than last season, scoring on an overtime two-man advantage; something the Caps could never capitalize on in previous years.

The often-injured defenseman, Brian Pothier netted the team's game-winning goal. Other goal scorers included Alexander Giroux, who scored 60 goals with the Hershey Bears and is hoping to get a more permanent role on the Capitals; former Flyers' pain-in-the-ass Mike Knuble, who was signed during the offseason to add a gritty and experienced offensive touch; and Jay Beagle, who also will be spending more time with the Capitals between Washington and Hershey.

The Caps looked good to start the game. They held a 1-0 lead from the 1st period until 2:56 into the 3rd period where Sabres' Jason Pominville scored. About 4 minutes later, the Sabres scored again on a goal from Clark MacArthur.

The Caps tied the game at 2, but shortly thereafter, the Sabres regained the lead from Tim Kennedy's deflection.

Not giving up though, 23 seconds later, Washington tied the game again at 3-apiece, and ultimately winning in overtime, 4-3.

While the offense seems to be the main story for the game, Simeon Varlamov played an important role as well for the first part of the game, making multiple saves to maintain the 1-0 lead for the Capitals on Buffalo's odd-man rushes and scoring attempts.

Needless to say, I'm extra happy because the Caps won, and the fact that there was a variety in scoring, as well as a strong comeback effort that proved to be successful. Granted, I know that it's preseason, so I'm not tripping too much over one preseason win, but a win like this in the regular season would look good.

This win can possibly show that Varlamov can hold games for the Caps and keep them in until the end, that Mike Knuble has settled in to the Capitals' system, and that some new players can become the unsung heroes and make a roster spot by October 1st, opening night.

"The U" is BACK!!!

So had I not gone to American University, one school I was really hoping to get into was the University of Miami. Provided, I probably am doing really well at AU and I love it there, but man, had I gone to the Univ. of Miami, I would be covering their Hurricanes football team all the time - forget classes!

However, if I was at The U for the past couple of years, I wouldn't have enjoyed the games a whole lot, considering they've been struggling for a good minute, mostly since 2006, one of their most disappointing seasons. They just barely missed a losing season that year.

After the Hurricanes fired their coach and hired Randy Shannon as their new coach, they had an even worse performance, actually completing the campaign with a 5-7 record, missing a bowl game. In 2008, Miami lost to teams they usually beat, such as Georgia Tech; and much hated rivals, University of Florida, and Florida State University.

This season though, the Hurricanes have begun the season with vengance: Miami has won their first 2 games, including the opener against Florida State in a 38-34 thriller, and a dominant 33-17 performance against Georgia Tech.

Like I had mentioned about the Washington Capitals, it's early to make written-in-stone statements about the Hurricanes, but it's difficult to ignore their early season success, especially after the woes of the past few seasons.

Hate it or love it; whether you like it or not, The U is back.

NFL Week 1

Of course I'm happy that the Cowboys won, and the Redskins lost, but tell me why I'm still blown at the Bill and Patriots game? LOL!

The complete weekend/weekday opening football is over. I can say with confidence that this has been an entertaining first week for the NFL.

Cowboys 34, Buccaneers 21

To begin, the first game I watched was the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (because the Cowboys won, they deserve the "boys" back in the name versus the typical Cow[boy]s). Dallas ended up winning 34-21, but they could have won by more. I was displeased with the Cowboys first half performance. The offense did absolutely nothing, and was not helped by a missed pass interference that should have been called on Ronde Barber.

Dallas' defense wasn't doing much better in the first half as well, with Cadillac Williams on the Bucs giving them hell.

The second half was much better for the Cowboys though. Tony Romo turned out to have a pretty nice day with 344 yards passing and all of his passes for touchdowns went deep - over 40 yards... Imagine the winning score for Dallas, had they a better first half and didn't give up 14 points in the 4th quarter...

For the Bucs though, Williams was real nice out there, and Byron Leftwich had a pretty good showing as well, especially for being Byron Leftwich.

Giants 23, Redskins 17

Just about the Washington Redskins game, the New York Giants won 23-17, but the game was not as close as the score suggested.

By the 2nd quarter, the Giants ended up with a 17-0 lead, with the latest touchdown coming from a fumble recovery by the Giants.

The Redskins had a slightly better showing in the second half, but could not create any sort of rhythm on offense against the Giants' defense.

Point in case: after a 35-yard run by Clinton Portis on the Redskins, the Skins could only follow up with 50 more rushing yards the whole game.

Of course, the reaction suggests that Jason Campbell still can't get the Skins over the hump, but aside from the fact that a small (REALLY small) part of me actually hopes he succeeds in a way, I think he did all right with what he was faced with.

The Skins are not the team to beat in the NFC East in my eyes. They were facing a team that could very well take the division. After this, the Skins go on to play a stretch of games where they play teams that have failed at being any kind of good the past few seasons. The Giants will move on the the Cowboys.

Patriots 25, Bills 24

Most people are going to say the New England/Boston Patriots won this game in dramatic fashion 25-24, but I'm going to go out on a limb, and say the Buffalo Bills lost this one in ultimate screw-up fashion.

I'll admit, I missed the first part of the game because of the Juan Martin Del Potro and Roger Federer's tennis match where Federer lost in 5 sets was on where I was eating dinner. Granted, it was the US Open final, and the underdog ended up winning in a long match, but I still feel as though NFL football should have been on the TV.

Nonetheless, technology proved to be a savior, and I got first half stats before being able to return to my place of living to watch the second half. The Bills were leading 14-10 at halftime, and when I finally got back to my room, they were up 17-10.

Terrell Owens only had one catch at this point as well. Which led me to believe that the Bills could really win this game since they were able to utilize their other parts of the offense. It really looked good there.

It looked even better when Buffalo got the 24-13 lead and it was about 2 minutes to go in the game.

Until they gave up another touchdown and fumbled the ball deep in their territory after the kickoff, giving the Pats excellent field position to get the last and final touchdown... all of a sudden, it was 25-24 Patriots.

It wasn't quite over as the Bills began their final drive with about 50 seconds to go. That is ample time to create a situation to at least get into decent field goal position.

However, poor time management and multiple sacks proved costly for Buffalo.

Therefore, the Patriots did not win the game (also provided that Tom Brady wasn't as great as he normally is), but the Bills CHOKED. Somebody please perform the Heimlech Manuever - the Bills keep chocking. This is now the 12th straight time the Patriots defeated the Bills.

Tsk tsk... And I was really pulling for Buffalo...

Chargers 24, Raiders 20

This game was another situation where there was an underdog team winning, had the lead way late into the game, and then lost it even later to lose. The Oakland Raiders also choked to lose 24-20 to the San Diego Chargers.

Despite the score at the end of the first half, the Raiders seemed to dominate on defense early on, creating multiple turnovers and only allowing the Chargers 77 rushing yards. New addition Richard Seymour ended up with 2 sacks and 6 tackles, showing that he was ready to play and improve the Oakland defense.

Oakland lost the lead in the 4th quarter, but regained it, scoring a late touchdown with about 2:40 to go in the game. All they had to do was to continue their showing on defense that they had in the beginning of the 1st quarter.

Yet, the Raiders failed when it mattered, giving the Chargers 14 points in the 4th quarter and allowing Phillip Rivers to complete 6 out of 7 passes on the game-winning 84-yard drive.

The winning drive for San Diego left only 18 seconds on the clock, with which Oakland had to work. JaMarcus Russell threw a desperation pass, only to have it intercepted.

Oakland not only choked like Buffalo, but they ALSO have been defeated by their opponent 12 times in a row. The hell is THAT about?!

Side(line) Notes - haha!

Some other notes about the weekend/weekday...

Donovan McNabb got injured, which, to be honest, is no surprise to me. He is one of the more fragile quarterbacks; as good as he is and as much as I would pick McNabb over a lot of quarterbacks.

In response, the Philadelphia Eagles quickly sign Jeff Garcia and try to make roster space for him. Garcia knows the offense, having been in Philadelphia before and his last time with the Eagles, he led them to the playoffs. So it would be a good move to have him around.

Just to note though, there's another guy who, by Week 3, could play a little bit, and his name is Mike Vick. However, the choice to sign Garcia clearly states that the Eagles are not ready to have Vick play - I don't blame them after his unsatisfying performaces in the preseason, and the fact that he does need re-adjustment time to the NFL.

But if Vick could play for the Eagles, and actually be successful with them, that would be a pretty nice comeback story for the ages. I believe that regardless of other people's opinions about that...

...Props to the Green Bay Packers though for the comeback win. I couldn't write about it (Come on now! I already did four games and I'm only human!), but that was a REALLY fun game to watch. As for the Bears; step your game up. In fact, all these teams playing and choking - step your game up!..

... And of course, congrats to Juan Martin del Potro on his first US Open win, and on defeating the guy who won the last 5 US Opens... I think his name is something like Roger Federer. You might have heard of him. It is an amazing accomplishment for del Potro - just too bad it competed with Monday Night Football on my end.

... Finally, Mark Sanchez played pretty well Sunday. The End (watch ESPN for the rest of that, they'll be all up on the Sanchez coverage, trust me).


*RIP Patrick Swayze... To Wong Foo (Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar) - most underrated movie ever - sooo funny.

I Fell in Love With A Volleyball Match

Yesterday, I had the privilege of covering one of the most exciting games in American University Volleyball history. That event was volleyball coach Barry Goldberg's 500th career win in a nail-biting 4-set victory.

AU has had an uncharacteristic beginning to their volleyball season, especially after being projected to be #1 in the Patriot League Coaches Poll. They lost their first 5 games, won last Saturday at Portland for their first win, and then lost again last night to Yale. Before this game, the Eagles were only 1-6.

For those who don't know, I am a student broadcaster for American University, covering AU sports on Eagle Vision TV. The Eagles were to play the NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) Highlanders at 1pm; which meant that I needed to be there just before noon.

I wasn't feeling good about the day already (my swag was off and I was REALLY tired). Then, I started thinking that my statistics and research are not good enough for the pre-game segment of the broadcast, I tried to get myself at least in some kind of focus to be ready to cover the match.

Once I had finally gotten comfortable with my pre-game analysis of the Eagles, my partner, Rachel DeMita, and I sat down and watched the game, looking for things to note in our appearances during break and our possible post-game segments.

The game was somewhat entertaining; however, with my frustration at the team's poor early season performance and the fact that AU couldn't maintain a lead in a set, I wasn't as invested into the game as I normally would. Not to mention, nobody but parents were at this 1 o'clock volleyball match where the head coach could be a part of history.

And then the 4th set came around with AU leading 2 sets to 1 after winning the last set. It was a very close set, seeing multiple lead changes and while AU seemed to have the upper hand in some parts of the 4th set, NJIT would come back into the game.

With the trouble AU has had all season with closing out sets, Rachel and I were quite nervous for the team. At this point, we started to realize that the Eagles were very close to winning.

The Eagles nearing in on the 25th and final point of set #4 was not only signs of a possible win, but then that Rachel and I would cover the historic event the AU community had been waiting for all this season - coach Goldberg's 500th win.

AU finally had reached the 24th point, and the Eagles were looking to get just one more point to win the set and the match. However, it would not be easy, as NJIT tied the set at 24 points apiece - just as Rachel had predicted.

When a set is tied at 24 points in women's college volleyball, in order for a team to get the final 25th set-winning point, there needs to be a tie-breaker, like there is in tennis in a deuce situation - one team needs two more consecutive points to win the set. Nonetheless, AU served, won the first tie-breaker point, and then Sophomore Angelina Waterman spiked the ball on NJIT's side of the net for the game-winning kill.

During the last 4 points, I found myself standing up, ready with my notes to head down to the court after the match was over to handle the interview with coach Goldberg and if need be, a player. When Waterman spiked the ball though, I lost all objectivity when I leaped in the air and yelled, "Yes!" and ran down the stairs to the court. Needless to say, I would have been pretty blown had AU played one more set.

Yeah, I know, I won't do that when I go pro in broadcast, but come on - your school's volleyball team just won an extremely close match, and the win brings about a historic occurrence, and you're covering the game.

I just thought it was a pretty cool experience, considering that I could possibly be covering pro games of that nature in the future. I certainly hope that AU wins some more games though to give me more fun games to analyze.

NHL or the Olympics? And Opening Night for the NFL!

NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin made a profound statement Wednesday to ESPN.com about going to the Olympics: "I don't care... I'll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me, 'You can't play,' see ya."

The skilled Washington Capitals winger is referring to the NHL's proposal to suspend players for going to play for their respective countries in the 2014 Olympics, which will be in Sochi, Russia in order to discourage NHL players from interrupting their seasons with the NHL to go to the Olympics.

One reason many owners and NHL exceutives are concerned about their players and the possibility of injuries that affect their playing status when they return to the League. The risk of injury in the Olympics is possible and it has occurred before.

The most recent and crucial injury suffered in the Olympics by an NHL player was former goaltender Dominik Hasek when he was with the Senators. Of course, as NHL followers know, Hasek never really recovered from that injury and the goaltending duties were eventually handed to Ray Emery, while Hasek left the team and retired.

However, major injuries from the Olympics are not common, and players often come back and after a game or two get back to regular season action. As for Alex Ovechkin, tough as he is, he would probably come back to the Capitals first game back.

The other concern is the break that the NHL takes in the middle of the season. Games are stopped for about two weeks in February for the Winter Olympics and teams are concerned about the mindset of teams after that break. Also of course, is the concern over time lost in gaining money from games.

But if players, especially at the caliber and celebrity status of Alex Ovechkin, want to play for their country, and make statements like Ovechkin did, it would not be wise for the NHL to go through with suspending players for wanting to represent their country of origin. Considering the next Olympics take place in Russia, and the number of players that are originally from there, it would be a BAD look for the NHL to do that.

If the NHL were to seriously suspend or discourage players in anyway for wanting to win their country a medal in 2014, I see it happening like this: Alex Ovechkin could very well go ahead and play in the Olympics. The NHL will suspend him, along with a couple of other players. What happens then is that not only do fans get angry, but players get angry. It's also a possiblity that other leagues will take note, and all those international players the NHL get will transfer to those leagues for more personal freedom.

Therefore, the NHL needs to be smart about this one. Do they really want to lose fans and players over a couple of weeks in the season? The NHL already suffers from poor decisions made by executives and the commisioner Gary Bettman. They do not like to focus on the correct way to make business. But if they want to remain a league, they will have to refrain from suspending players for being patriotic. You don't want Ovie to ruin you. The loss from suspension is greater than the gain.

Note to NHL: get it together.

Notes...

NFL Opening Night

Today was the opening day for NFL football. I was very excited to come back from a long hard day and a fire drill to kick back and watch some football.

It turned out to be a really exciting game. The Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to have the upper-hand most of the time, with the Tennesee Titans showing up on bursts of energy and skillful performance. And despite the fact that it was low-scoring all night, there was much intensity and aggresiveness from both teams - remained action-packed. The only thing is, that it's games like this where you wish that they could play more overtime instead of the anti-climactic first possession ender on a field goal.

What I'm concerned about though is this Madden Curse that is oh-so true... Troy Pololamlu... And you want to tell me that him being out 3-6 weeks possibly has nothing to do with being on the cover of Madden 10? Those who don't believe in it are in denial...

Now for Sunday, I'm going to go out and enjoy a full-fledged day of football, and watch my team, the Cowboys, play :)

Still not the Hamilton Coyotes?

Jim Ballsillie (I saw someone joke around and call it Balls-silly - which made my day).... I'm getting REALLY tired of seeing text after text every day from my NHL notifications that tell me the NHL has denied the Phoenix Coyotes from moving to Hamilton, Ontario.

My issue is that WHO CARES ABOUT THE COYOTES?! For real though? Who does!? People are not really fighting to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix, so why not make more money with the team and move them to a market that ACTUALLY CARES about a hockey team? Try again in Phoenix when the NHL is a major sport again. This may be continued at a later date.

The Caps' starting goalie is...

And finally, I'm happy to see Simeon Varlamov loving Arturs Irbe, his new goalie coach, and his new mask. Although coach Bruce Boudreau has stated that Jose Theodore is the official starter, he also claims that if Varlamov ends up playing better than Theodore, then he could very well then be the starter over Theodore at a later date. I'm pulling for Varly, but whoever starts needs to get my hockey team to a Stanley Cup!

FOOTBALL TOMORROW!!!!!!

OK, so I can't even pretend anymore - as much as I basically hate my Thursdays because of my schedule, I MUST be excited for tomorrow's opening NFL games.

Usually, Thursdays are my worst days. Yeah, I may be able to wake up at noon if I wish because I don't have my first class until 2:10pm, but after that, I'm stuck in classes until 8:00pm. My weeks always end up being extremely busy all the way through regardless of what day it is, but Thursday's are NO fun... until tomorrow!

In one of my earlier posts, I expressed excitement at the beginning of the NFL preseason... Yes - the preseason. But now tomorrow is the real deal, the regular season. I feel like a celebration should occur because it just seems like we should actually get the day off... but that's another issue.

I am curious to see how long Brady Quinn is the definite starter for the Browns and if he really is the starter, then how well he does after sitting for a minute. I want to see my Cowboys surprise me and actually have a productive offense without T.O... And I wonder - does that random guy at the AU women's soccer game right? Could the Bills beat the Patriots?

So I figure that maybe, possibly, after my crazy busy day tomorrow, I'll find my crew and hit up somewhere and catch the opening Titans and the Steelers game - hopefully with that guy I went out with on Monday to watch the Miami and Florida St. game. If I'm this excited for NFL season, just wait till October 1st when the Caps play the Bruins on national television...

...

And on a side note, congrats to Derek Jeter for tying Lou Gehrig's record for the most hits as a Yankee, which he's surely going to surpass. Yea, yea, he's on the Yankees. So I can't give him TOO much congratulations, but it is a great feat nonetheless.

I Actually Had to Go to Hooters!

I doubt that most people went through what I did the past couple weeks to the point where they felt that it was imperative that they went to a bar to watch a game.

As I've mentioned before, I have had no laptop for a couple of weeks because the one I had crashed. As if that already didn't drive me crazy, I also have been running around without any television. And my phone (as usual) was being crappy and really didn't want to work even more in these past few weeks. So not only was my contact with the world limited, but I was unable to even think about much without having watched a game or received game results and sports news fast enough to have a relevant post.

The latter statement was the most pressing issue of my recent days - I haven't watched sports for DAYS, much less the news or Law & Order: SVU in that same period of time. And being the sports fanatic that I am, reading a couple of stories on a few teams and looking for various scores in the newspaper doesn't quite do it for me...

Well, I woke up today not only excited that I have an extra day this weekend to party, sleep late, and procrastinate work, but it was also the actual first day of the college football season! I figured that I'd take advantage of the fact that tonight I had the opportunity to go out for dinner with my friend, Anthony, in China Town in Washington, DC. We got to the Ruby Tuesdays there and I asked the host lady if we could have a seat by a TV. Of course though, my request was denied as there were no seats by TVs and the bar was full (they weren't even showing any games). So I thought whatever and moved on. The purpose of this dinner anyway was to catch up with Anthony about our summer stories.

The night was still young after we finished eating at Ruby Tuesdays, so we decided to walk around China Town a bit and continue to tell stories. While we were deciding in which direction to continue walking, something came over me where, again, I realized that today was the first day of college football, and I exclaimed, "Anthony! Let's go to Hooters! It's down that way!" Heading that direction, we finally reach Hooters and we walk in - it was live! It was really busy, and so many games were on every television in there! And lucky me, we got a table next to the TV.

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, USA vs. El Salvador, and probably one more game I couldn't see... I felt like as if I had been in withdrawal, with an overwhelming happiness with all of these games on at once and watching every single one of them. I even ordered wings and coke to fully enjoy my experience! It was totally worth the randomness and walking in my uncomfortable heels all the way down to Hooters just to recapture the feeling of watching sports (and watching television all together). And needless to say, Anthony didn't complain about going to Hooters.

Most probably think I'm nuts for having a desire to go to Hooters to catch some sports (and eat some more because I'm a fat ass). But I don't care - I couldn't go today without having seen one game, whether it was football or futbol (already missed Brazil beat Argentina 3-1 at that point). If you loved sports like I do you'd do whatever it took to watch it too.

Notes...

I finally have a laptop top now, and I should be getting my television cable soon enough, although I'm still trying to configure the internet for my Mac and it's not going through so successfully. Nonetheless, I should be back to regular action very soon.

Shout out to Anthony - thanks for letting me "drag" you into Hooters to watch games and the night out and also one to our waitress, Nikki... dying about southern mothers, shoes, hair, and haters... only in DC...

NEW POST! Tired of Being Red Lined by Microsoft Word?

Ever just wished that Microsoft Word would just accept some words and move on?

Well, I've been having a particular issue with Word for quite some time now with this one word. Maybe I'm the one making the mistake: I'm probably spelling the word wrong, I'm adding an "s" to it when there doesn't need to be one,or it's probably not even a real word. Nonetheless, the word has been giving me a headache, and it just was reaffirmed today, September 9th, 2009...

Offsides.

I'm writing a game report on yesterday's women's soccer match between the American University Eagles and the Richmond Spiders for my Sportswriting class. I'm stating how the Eagles won 1-0 to improve to 3-1 on the season - a significant improvement from last seasons team and giving the facts from the game. Then I try to describe how the Spiders were called for "offsides multiple times..."

...And then came the red line.

Really, Word? Really!!? Is that how you feel? After all these years and you still pull that nonsense? I remember being really young; probably around 11 or something, and using Microsoft Word back then to write about hockey games. The Caps would need to fix constant whistles for being "offisides," and then I get the red line! I'd try it again every year, and I just added it into the dictionary because I got so sick of the foolishness that Word would try to pull on my work.

So here's the question: Am I doing something wrong? Is "offsides" supposed to be "offside" or "off-sides?" I really don't know. And it's a shame to admit as someone who has written about sports their whole lives, has been a die-hard hockey fan for so long, and has career plans to be a sports journalist/personality. But I really need to know whether A.) "Offsides" is just going to be an unaccepted word by Microsoft Word or not, and if B.) Am I just blatantly spelling "offsides" wrong?

And of course, I must express anger at Microsoft Word for even causing me to question my writing and my spelling skills.

Word, get it together.

...On a side note, I have not had a laptop for about 2 weeks, so I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I know, I know, I'm slacking on my game here, and I know everyone can think of ways I could have kept it up, but time constraints to affect people, and it's not easy to post when you have no personal computer after a long day of classes, work, and then the occasional American Eagles sports broadcast on Eagle Vision TV (http://aueagles.tv/)... actually, on that link you can archive it and see my broadcasts! I do studio analysis every game and it's quite fun. Oh, but if you don't want to pay to see the Eagles (or watch me broadcast), you can ask me to put a link of my copy of the game and I will be glad to let the world see my work!

And I have to say, I feel for those Redskins fans being sued by the Skins for wanting to pull out of their contracts. As much as I hate the Redskins football team, it sucks for regular everyday people to be sued by a large corporation or organization. The picture on the front of the Washington Post by the way was great photo journalism I have to say.

I'll try to be more regular again, but hope you enjoyed and welcome back! Take part in the new poll too!

The Natinals Game

I was originally going to blog about the Natinals game yesterday against the Brewers, and I still am, but then I realized that there was another component to this game that may not have been as obvious

The last post was about how a man came up to me and tried to put me down for being a woman and liking sports. Well, this post is about those people who appreciate the fact that you like sports, find you credible, and go to games with you to share what you both love the most.

Yesterday I was invited to go with a good friend of mine, Jake Russell from the Hogs.net, to see the Washington Nationals (the Natinals) and the Milwaukee Brewers play in Washington, DC. I had not seen Jake in a while, and he did have a "care package" for me that he's been meaning to give to me for the longest time. But I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to see a lot of people before I went back to school and even since I got back with moving in and settling before my classes start next week. And I mean, who would turn down $3 in tickets to a baseball game at a beautiful stadium - regardless of who was playing? So I decided to go...

The game was preceeded with first, a private press conference with the Washington Nationals' newly signed draft pick, Stephen Strasburg, and then a public conference with the fans in the stadium afterwards. Of course, Strasburg was well-recieved by the Washington fans, who are more than eager to see him pitch soon.

Surprisingly, the game wasn't delayed despite the previous rain showers and ominious clouds overhead the stadium. Eventually it started raining and people left their seats, but the grounds crew didn't put the tarp over the field the first time.

J.D. Martin, old head pitcher for the Nats, pitched last night and gave up 2 early runs in the first inning, but the Nats (of course after Jake put on the early rally cap) got the 2 runs back in the following 2 innings. The Brewers, however, got 2 more runs through the 4th inning. At 4-2 in the top of the 8th inning, Brewers lead, the rain started up again, and murmurs in the crowd began, suggesting that the game was going to be called as the grounds crew finally put the tarp on the field. Fortunately for us, the game wasn't called so we got to spend more time at the game but for the Nats, it was much less fortunate. They ended up allowing 3 more runs and only scoring one more run from a Ryan Zimmerman home run in the bottom of the 9th inning. The final score: 7-3, Brewers, followed by post-game fireworks.

Before the actual game started, Jake and I went to go get food and then sat down by the dugout to watch some of the players in batting practice. We sat down in time to see the Brewers players practice hitting. While watching, we took pictures of them, ourselves, and just chatted about random sports topics: Prince Fielder and his short-but-heavy build, Tony Plush a.k.a. Nyjer Morgan of the Nationals, the Sports Junkies, pointing out sports personalities from various local stations, making fun of me not understanding that he was actually ASKING me if I knew who "#42" was (but of course, I knew that he knew, that I knew it was Jackie Robinson), since I just sat there and didn't respond for like 5 minutes...

Throughout the game, Jake and I kept cracking random jokes about the Brewers (i.e. Hey, Prince! Your name should be "Bad," because you're a bad Fielder - I think I died after hearing that one), hurling insults to the umpires for bad calls (i.e. One more eye and you're gonna become a cyclops - also dead after that one), and taking random pictures of ourselves at the game.

Aside from the game...

Jake has been one of my favorite people to go to games with; we ALWAYS end up having a good time. We met at a mutual friend's birthday party, where we went to a bar and watched the Washington Capitals play the Atlanta Thrashers. After that, as I interned with Crystal Palace USA (USL Division II soccer team in Baltimore, MD), he took me to a game I had to work and I got him in the press box with me while I was taking down notes for the game. I definitely plan to travel to bars and games with him during more sporting events.

Oh yea, and about that "care package" I mentioned earlier on... I never really got a chance to sit down and really take everything out until a couple hours ago. Jake already told me what was in there, but when I took the stuff out, it certainly made me smile a whole lot. In it were stats, daily clippings, game notes, roster lists, and programs from the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup playoff run last season. Being the die-hard Caps fan that I am, this was like a whole "more than I could ask for" kind of Christmas gift thing over a "care package." Also thrown in there was an "Inside Pitch" (Nationals program/magazine) with of course "Tony Plush" on the cover and an... umm... a CD from an old boy group, LFO... you might have heard of them, but I wanted it really badly, so now I have it! It just completely made my day and it also reminded me that I've got some awesome friends.

It's always nice to know that there's someone that can appreciate your knowledge enough, and consider you a fun person to accompany them on sporting events. Jake is an awesome friend, but especially after that fool fromt he other night, it definitely made me feel better knowing that my sports knowledge is welcomed and such.

So special shout out to you, buddy! Had an awesome time last night!