Big Game Rivalry Weekend Trash Talk

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I hope one and all survived and had a glorious Thanksgiving. As you may recall, it did not go so well for us Cheeseheads. Ouch, the Kitties put a licking on. Just goes to prove, if you want to win a football game, it helps to have a quarterback. But, here we are and the Big Game between the Wolverweenies and the Artists Formerly Known As The Sweatervests is underway. And multiple players have been ejected already! Big Blue has a 21-14 lead in the second quarter. I’ll be rooting for the Michigan Men, but not gonna bet any money on them.

The big game here is, of course, Arizona State hosting the dreaded Wildcats of Arizona. This is as bitter a rivalry as there exists in sports, bar none. For the last four years, the away team has won. Let’s hope that does not hold tonight. Rich Rodriquez has the Cats gelling and looking very good in their last game, a huge whipping of the then fifth ranked Oregon Ducks. The Cats’ running back, Ka’Deem Carey almost went to ASU out of high school, and now he is a beast and Arizona’s all time leading rusher; he went off for 205 against the Quackers. Their QB, BJ Denker is a competent manager, and very good on short and mid range passes, and he runs pretty well in Rich Rod’s spread offense too. The Devils will likely be without leading rusher, and touchdown machine, Marion Grice, who has a tender knee. But Taylor Kelly has really solidified into a decent QB, and the Devils have explosive capabilities at all the skill positions. On defense, ASU is more experienced and more capable on paper. With the game being played on Frank Kush Field, the Devils should have the clear edge; but that never works against the Cats, this is a must watch game and a pick em.

Other rivalry games today include Alabama at Auburn; take the Tide to roll. Clemson at South Carolina pits the number 6 versus the number 10 team and should be a bloodbath. Clemson has too much firepower though, and the ‘Cocks defense has not been as good as expected this year. Texas A&M at Mizzou should also be a great game. Johnny Football stunk up the joint against LSU last week and will be looking for redemption. Tough road against the next set of Tigers. Notre Domers go to visit the Trees, and that won’t go well for the Irish. Lastly, the Trojans and the Bruins square off in the battle of LA. Hard to not see USC having the edge here, they are playing very well since dumping Lane Kiffen on the tarmac at LA International Airport. Also, I owe Kevin Drum a huge one for rooting for the Devils against UCLA, so I am returning the favor here. Go Tommy Trojan!

In the pros, the big game is, as it was a couple of weeks ago, the Broncos and Chefs. This time, however, the game in in the BBQ pit of Arrowhead, and man that is every bit as tough a forum as Mile high is. I still don’t think KC has enough offense to hang with the Peytons, but this should be a lot closer. Rams at Niners may be a pretty darn good game, but take SF at home. Kellen clemens has done great filling in for Sam Bradford, but Kaepernick and the Niners have their groove back. Dolphins at Jets might be very interesting, I’ll take the Jets Jets Jets in an upset (no idea why, the Fish are probably better). Saints at Squawks is the Sunday Night game on NBC, and it should be a barnburner. No way I will pick against Seattle at home though, even though they have had some turmoil from drug suspensions.

Lastly, there will be another pretty big, and good, game here in the Valley of the Sun – the Eagles coming to visit the Cardinals. And Valley of the Sun is right, the weather has been to die for lately; should be 75° and clear blue sky here both weekend days. Both teams are really coming together late in the season, and both QBs, young Nick Foles and Carson Palmer have been in grooves. This game is another pick em….except the Cards are really tough at homw, so the slightest edge goes to Arizona.

Well, that is it, hoop it up! Music this week is Saint James’ Infirmary by Dr. John and Eric Clapton, and it is superb.

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100 replies
  1. Peterr says:

    I’m more worried about the Chefs’ defense than I am their offense. They held the Bolts to 3 points into the second quarter last week, then lost both their Pro Bowl outside linebackers to injuries for the rest of the game, and the Bolts took them apart. Tamba Hali looks to be back tomorrow, but not Justin Houston, so the defense is much more suspect than it was two weeks ago.

  3. emptywheel says:

    @bmaz: Well, we’ll see whether noodle armed cold weather Peyton or laser armed indoor career Peyton shows up.

    That said, Big Red doesn’t quite have the knack against Peyton that BillBel has, so given the defensive injuries I think the Broncos can do it. I’ll be rooting for the Chefs, mind you.

    But you knew that.

  5. dakine01 says:

    Da Kentucky Mild Cats will be hosting the o’ Rocky Toppers in the battle for the bottom of the SEC Least. This is the final year of this game ending the regular season as starting next year, there will be a new edition to the SEC/ACC rivalry challenge with Kentucky/Louisville moving to the end

  6. emptywheel says:

    Say this for the Weenies: They’ve been less shitty than Jim’s team in the “can the rivalry thwart a BCS bid” category.

  7. bmaz says:

    @emptywheel: Man, no shit, Jim and Armando’s Gators were NO HELP whatsoever.

    Hey now, few seconds ago, I looked up and the Weenies had tied it at 35. Look up just now and some fucking Buckeye is running free down the field. That’s no way to win Michigan Men!

  8. emptywheel says:

    @bmaz: Weenies should have on side kicked it after the last TD. They can’t stop these guys unless htey stop themselves.

    Sadly, their kicker is a backup. They should have brought me in to kick onside kicks. I’ve got NSAA eligibility.

  9. Peterr says:

    Going for two and the win . . . and throwing an INT for the loss.

    They’re going to be talking about this one for a long time in Wolvereenieland.

  16. GulfCoastPirate says:

    UA got a good win last night in basketball against the Dukies. Looks like they have a legitimate shot this year with that freshman. Helluva defensive player.

  17. bmaz says:

    @GulfCoastPirate: Cats are always solid in hoops, appear to be even more so this year. And Sean Miller is a very good coach.

    Arrrrrr Pirate, will ye be rootin for Johnny and the Aggies shortly?

    Okay, you will at least cheer the Devils, right??

  19. Peterr says:

    And the Fighting Journalists pull off their first conference win of the season!

    ’13 has definitely been an unlucky number for the FJs.

  27. Phoenix Woman says:

    Meanwhile, the Gophers, who were punching way above their weight for much of October and November, have done ten consecutive quarters without an offensive TD and to no one’s surprise lost their second consecutive game as a result. The defense, however, can hold their heads high: They kept Michigan State to two touchdowns. Normally State would have had at least five on the Gophs.

    I suspect Jerry Kill has a pretty good idea of what he needs to tweak for next year.

  28. Phoenix Woman says:

    @bmaz: That was, hands down, the best college football game ending I have ever seen.

    Thing is, ‘Bama made the right call. It’s exactly the move to make in that situation. But this time, it didn’t work and Chris Davis, who looked as shocked as did everyone else afterwards, ran it back for a touchdown.

  29. bmaz says:

    @Anonsters: My condolences. For what it’s worth, I will probably be in the same depths of depression in a few hours as Arizona always manages to upset ASU when there is something huge on the line. Hell of an Iron Bowl today though.

  30. CTuttle says:

    @bmaz: MadMommy is beside herself from Bama’s ignimonious loss…!

    That’s the second game in a row, that Auburn pulled off miraculous victories in the waning second(s)…! ;-)

  33. Peterr says:

    In the local sports coverage here in KC, they are grieving the Bama loss, as they believe Mizzou needed to not only win tonight against LSU to get into the SEC title game, but then beat an undefeated Alabama to earn a spot in the national title game. Without an undefeated Bama as an opponent (so the thinking goes), an SEC championship win over Auburn won’t be enough to get them past either FSU or the Sweatervests in the BCS rankings.

  37. Del Fonik says:

    @Phoenix Woman: It’s down to this one in today’s Iron Bowl, or the one with the Hail Mary in 1984 that won the game for the BUgles against the Canes, and the Heisman for Flutie.

  39. Anonsters says:

    Saban said in his press conference that he had never been beaten that way before and that he had never seen anyone beaten that way before. Right before we tried the field goal, I said, “Of course, the danger is that they return it when it’s short.”

    The NY Giants are my pro team. The Eagles beat the Giants that way a few years ago. Oy.

  40. Del Fonik says:

    @bmaz: I go by the Clair Bee Rule: if Bee offered it for publication, would it get rejected for straining credulity too much? Off that measure, today’s Iron Bowl finish takes it.

  48. CTuttle says:

    My sympathies to Jim for the Nole blowout, my pathetic ‘Bows are desperately trying to win over Army, to win at least one game this Season…! Go Army…! *gah*

  60. GulfCoastPirate says:

    @bmaz: I never root for the Aggies – under any circumstances. I was glad to see them get their arses kicked.

    That was a good win for ASU last night. It was kind of weird because 4 or 5 times this year they’ve been one of the late games on TV down here so I’ve seen them play a number of times. Last night in their big rivalry game – nothing. Found a couple of MWC games but no ASU.

    I think top to bottom the PAC12 may have been the best league this year. Quite a few very good teams but no one dominant team unfortunately so they may not get the recognition. I still find it hilarious that a couple of perennial Big XII also rans suddenly become ‘powers’ in the supposedly dominant SEC.

  61. GulfCoastPirate says:

    @Peterr: An FSU-OSU national championship game? Boring – a fitting death for the BCS. I hope at least one of them loses next week to throw the whole thing into turmoil.

  62. JohnT says:

    Just goes to prove, if you want to win a football game, it helps to have a quarterback.

    Paging Leslie Frazier. Paging Rick Spielman. You kinda might want to read the sentence above, because Christian Ponder’s not gonna cut it; he’s David Carr 2.0

  63. bmaz says:

    @GulfCoastPirate: I agree about the Pac-12 this year. And, yes, I have no idea how the ASU/AZ game was not on a national big feed. It was only on the Pac-12 Network. Hilariously, only one cable provider even her carries it – Cox. Both Dish and Direct seem to have some kind of war going on with the Pac-12 Network over fees and won’t carry it. Even most of the bars here couldn’t get it. Luckily, I have Cox.

  64. GulfCoastPirate says:

    @bmaz: Direct and Dish aren’t after the PAC12 network only. You may know the Rockets and Astros haven’t been on most of the TV’s down here for a couple of years as Direct and Dish (along with other carriers) are fighting with the teams over the fees they’ll pay to carry the games. There has been quite a bit in the papers down here on the subject and the general opinion of Direct and Dish seems to be that fees are too high to put these sports networks on basic cable and they are going to have to be moved to upper level tiers in the the future. Of course, the teams are balking at that.

    Here is what was in the Chronicle yesterday on the court fight. A quick search will find the past articles.

    http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2013/11/30/comcast-nbc-universal-wish-to-take-crane-lawsuit-to-federal-court/

  66. bmaz says:

    Oooops! Thought Iggles and Cards game was here; it is not and in in Philly. Cards on the road are a far lesser team. And it shows, Iggles quickly out to a 7-0 lead.

  68. Duncan Hare says:

    There are no good America Football Games, just bad and worse.

    Order Your Copy Of Play Hard, Die young!
    http://www.bennetomalu.com/

    http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/report-nfl-head-injuries-led-drastic-youth-football-171008309–nfl.html

    Please reconsider your “love” of football. May I suggest Rugby Football – More running less impacts, or soccer, low scoring with an amazing display of athleticism and team skill?

    Or are you a fan of big business backed brain injury?

  69. Bay State Librul says:

    Let’s me honest — Belichick should bench Arrington, and reactivate Ridley.
    Arrington sucks

  71. klynn says:

    @emptywheel:

    Hey, I can’t win on trash talk. I tend to lurk. Not even a one worded comment can even work.

    MI played their best game of the season.

    SO, EW, I have a question. Did my one worded comment void the Cinci meet up? What day were you heading to Cinci?

  72. Peterr says:

    @klynn: OTOH, you can’t lose with trash talk, either. There’s always next week, next month, next year . . .

    (Yes, I’m a Cubs fan. Why do you ask?)

  73. Peterr says:

    The Chefs are playing like a team possessed. They picked off Manning, and the offense turned it into 7. The Donks had a nice drive and scored their own TD, but the Chefs ran the kickoff back 107 yards to match it. Then Payton threw another INT, which the Chefs returned about 25 yards before being stopped. A few plays later, and it’s another Chefs TD.

    My, my, my.

  77. Peterr says:

    @bmaz: Hi yourself.

    Alas, the Chef’s D is imploding. Peyton is picking on one of the replacements for an injured starter, and the results aren’t pretty on the KC end of things.

  79. Peterr says:

    @JohnT: That’s been a problem all year.

    KC urban legend has it that the receivers tried BBQ sauce to make their hands sticky and found it works well, but then they started licking their fingers because of the taste and the stickiness disappeared.

  80. Peterr says:

    @Peterr: Non-urban legend story . . .

    Last week, Sporting KC hosted the Houston Dynamo for the MLS semifinals, and the temps were in the 30s. One of the SKC defenders, Matt Besler, was worried that his ordinary cloth gloves wouldn’t keep the wind out, and was talking with a friend on the Chiefs. His friend arranged for him and some of the other SKC defenders to borrow some of their gloves with rubber tips on the fingers, and he loved them because he could make the throw-ins much better. Alas, the gloves had the Chiefs logo on them, and when the refs noticed this at halftime, they made them take them off for the second half.

    SKC still won, and is in the MLS finals next Saturday!

  82. bmaz says:

    @GulfCoastPirate: Yep. Still think the perfect solution is to bring back Charlie Weiss for a few million. Surely Kansas is done with him by now. Make a fantastic tandem with Muschamp.

    Speaking of firings, I also really hope Mack Brown hangs on.

  83. Peterr says:

    @bmaz: Kansas was done with him after the first two games of his time in Lawrence.

    At KU, if the ball ain’t round and don’t bounce nicely on a hardwood floor, they don’t give a damn.

  85. JohnT says:

    @Del Fonik:

    They’ve made critical mistakes that have compounded the issue for years. They can’t evaluate college QB’s, and only catch lightning in a bottle when they get some other teams sloppy seconds

    Just go back to when Zygi Wilf first bought the team and let Mike Tice go (which was prolly a good thing). Zygi had a chance to hire Sean Payton, but hired Colonel Klink instead. Then, a short time later Drew Brees was available, and they passed, because they thought Dante Culpepper would develop. Then they traded him to Miami anyway. Huh?

    Then, Colonel Klink thought he had some kind of magic QB mojo that he could work on Tarvaris Jackson. Yea, right. So, they wasted 3 or so years on that bumbling experiment.

    Then they lucked into Favruh because he wanted to stick it to Ted Thompson, and there was one year of magic. But even that didn’t last the entire year because after Klink got his midseason contract extension he went all Captain Blye, or Lt. Cmdr. Morton on the team.

    Then they had to draft a QB, so they reached for Christian Ponder, when Andy Dalton was available. Not that Dalton is a savior, but even I could see he was a better prospect then Ponder. And I’m not trying to run Ponder down, but he’s not being utilized very well. He should be in an offense that runs the Pistol, or some kind of Read Option. But in those kind of offenses he’d be even more injury prone than he is now

    And unless they’re able to luck into a QB in this year’s draft they’ll continue to have a clown car show at QB for the next 5 or 6, or 10 or 12 years

  86. bmaz says:

    Not so sure “Precise and powerful, like Eli Manning” is either an accurate or good way to sell you watches.

  87. bmaz says:

    @JohnT: Also, in some fairness, the Vike’s QBs get consistently mauled because of offensive line woes. Even in the great Favre year, anybody but him would have gotten decimated that year too.

  89. GulfCoastPirate says:

    @bmaz:
    ‘Speaking of firings, I also really hope Mack Brown hangs on.’

    Why?

    Is Collingsworth dissin RGIII about his running?

  91. Peterr says:

    @bmaz: Part of why Snyder does well is because high school football players in the state of Kansas who want to stay close to home know that K State actually cares about the sport, as opposed to those folks at the University of Kansas.

    The other part of why Snyder does well is because he’s a football genius, who gets more out of his players than most coaches.

  96. bmaz says:

    @Del Fonik: Heh heh, say this, Finebaum is right to mention the Stanford Band ending. Too many people talked about the Flutie hail mary, the band scene was awesome.

  97. Jim White says:

    Dang, but it was cold in North Carolina this weekend. Gonna take all week for me to thaw out.

    I’m really bummed that Foley is going to let Pease take the hit for the Gators’ woes this year with the oblong ball. Muschamp is clearly the problem. This means next year is going to be truly ugly and it will cut even more into recruiting as the train wreck plays out. Look for at least two more losing seasons before new talent can come in and turn things around.

    I’m reverting to my KU roots and getting excited about the roundball, as Peterr has documented we Jayhawks do. [And I won’t respond to bmaz’s trolling about Weis since he can’t even get the spelling right…] Gators have an interesting road test at UConn this evening. They still are most likely without freshman PG Kasey Hill but at least have Wilbekin back on the team. Next week, KU comes for a visit, so I will be quite conflicted.

    It sounds like the Gators also will get Chris Walker in January. If they do, they should be quite formidable as the season goes along. It’s looking unlikely that Damontre Harris will work his way back onto the team. Whatever he did to piss off BillyD must have been pretty bad.

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