For past two seasons, the once-mighty Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry has been mighty crappy. There was ND’s 35-17 wipeout of the Wolverines in South Bend last season, and then there was UM’s 38-0 a$$-whooping of the Irish in Ann Arbor the season before that. So you’d figure that today’s matchup in the Big House would be a big bore.
Big mistake to assume that. Like two aging heavyweights whose glory days appeared to have been behind them, Michigan & Notre Dame traded punches all afternoon (figurative, not literal) as the score see-sawed back & forth. But it was the Maize & Blue who managed the final knockout blow, as Tate Forcier tossed a 5-yard TD pass to Greg Matthews with 11 seconds left. So Hail to the Victors in a 38-34 thriller.
(Time to get those Charlie Weis-bashing billboards back up.)
Speaking of knockouts, another top-5 team from the Sooner state took another tumble on the field in an upset loss.
5th-ranked Oklahoma State was still flying high over obliterating Georgia last weekend, and today looked to keep the home winning streak alive against Houston. But the Cougars from the C-USA turned out to be rude guests. After taking a 24-7 halftime lead, Houston out-hustled the Cowboys and slid out of Stillwater with a 45-35 shocker - the backbreaker coming courtesy of the Coogs’ Jamal Robinson intercepting a tipped pass & racing 26 yards for the capper TD.
Another big-name team trying to make another strong statement at home was Tennessee. Lane Kiffin made a successful debut last week as his Vols vanquished Western Kentucky 63-7. This week, the former USC assistant was hoping to do it again against visiting UCLA. But Rick Neuheisel was tired of hearing how his squad & the rest of the Pac-10 was “soft”, and his Bruins laid a bruising on UT with a hard-fought 19-15 triumph.
So Lane gets tagged with his first loss. On the plus side, he doesn’t have to answer to Al Davis, just to Tennessee boosters. And they’re certainly not as insane as ol’ Al, right?
Speaking of former USC assistants, congrats to Steve Sarkisian for leading the Washington Huskies to a 42-23 win over Idaho, putting an end to a 15-game losing streak. Granted it was against Idaho, but when you haven’t tasted victory since 2007, you take what you can get.
11:36 am on September 13th, 2009
Exciting? That’s an interesting choice of words. One-sided? Way more fitting. As a fan of a Big-10 team, I’m still beyond baffled as to the way the officials called the ND/Michigan game.
That was the most BIASED officiating I’ve ever witnessed. Now, I’m no ND fan, but I’m a fan of fair football and good sportsmanship. That game, while intense, showed neither one of those values.
That little yellow flag killed every effort that ND made and, to their chagrin, cost them a game. The ratio of violations was hands-down uneven. Where was the personal foul when the Michigan player PUSHED Michael Floyd to the ground RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OFFICIAL? His damn cleat and sock were in the shot! It was shown twice on air so obviously the world saw it. That damn bias must have gotten in the official’s eyes again…
And what about the “mysterious” seconds that disappeared from the clock, not once, but twice during the final drive? Even the announcers made a comment about that, but was anything fixed? NO! The clock went from 11 seconds to 10. At that point, Clausen brought that to the official’s attention. The second was put back ON the clock, but then seconds before the snap an additional TWO seconds disappeared leaving 9 seconds left in the game.
Now, like I said. I’m no ND fan, I’m a fan of FAIR, HONEST football. So would someone care to explain this little mishap to me and the thousands of disheartened fans who also witnessed this catastrophe?
11:49 am on September 13th, 2009
Get a Life Douche!