Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Boys Bounce Back
Dallas 35 - Carolina 14
From: ESPN.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Tony Romo found a way to put a smile back on Dallas coach Bill Parcells' face.
Romo rallied the Cowboys from a 14-point first-quarter deficit, throwing for 270 yards and a touchdown, and Julius Jones ran for 94 yards and a score to help the Cowboys beat the Carolina Panthers 35-14 Sunday night. The Cowboys set a team record with 25 fourth-quarter points.
"He's a guy who's been miserable all week," said receiver Terrell Owens, Romo's top target with nine catches for 107 yards. "I asked him coming off the field on Friday, I asked him how it was going and he said he doesn't like to get his butt kicked. As a team, we're tired of losing, we know we have a decent team. We just have to go out and play like it."
Romo, starting in place of the benched Drew Bledsoe, showed poise in slowly leading the Cowboys (4-3) back, using a variety of short passes to different receivers.
Early in the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-12 from the Carolina 21, Romo sidestepped pressure and fired a 16-yard pass to Jason Witten. But the drive stalled when Romo misfired to Witten in the end zone on third down, and Mike Vanderjagt kicked a 24-yard field goal to cut the Panthers' lead to 14-13.
On the ensuing kickoff, Sam Hurd ripped the ball from Brad Hoover and recovered the fumble at the Carolina 14. On the next play, Jones ran untouched up the middle for the touchdown. The Cowboys added the 2-point conversion when Romo faked a draw and threw a pass to Owens to make it 21-14.
"It's been tough, you never know, the change that we made at quarterback," Romo said. "You never know what you're going to get ... with a new starter who is untested. I was anxious just like Bill was to see what we were going to do out their tonight."
Owens was impressed by Romo's poise.
"Tony gives us a different change of pace," Owens said. "He gets the ball out quick and he gave us some chances. Everybody came up with some big plays today. Jason Witten played tremendous over the middle."
Dallas sealed the win when Roy Williams intercepted Jake Delhomme's throw on Carolina's possession after Jones' touchdown. Delhomme lost another fumble with under 2 minutes to go, Carolina's third turnover in the fourth quarter.
"This is about as poor of a performance in the fourth quarter that I have been associated with," coach John Fox said. "I apologize for all the people who paid for tickets."
Marion Barber had touchdown runs of 3 and 14 yards late as Parcells won a game after trailing by 14 points in the first quarter for only the second time in his career. The victory justified his decision to sit Bledsoe and end his streak of 70 consecutive starts. Bledsoe paced the sideline for most of the game, wearing a visor and occasionally glancing down at the play chart on his wrist, while applauding Romo's performance.
"Drew actually came up to me before the game [and] said he was rooting for me," Romo said. "Drew's a really, really class act. He's a very pleasant guy, and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Drew."
Romo completed 24 of 36 passes and had one interception, which led to Steve Smith's 24-yard touchdown run that made it 14-0 in the second quarter.
But the Panthers (4-4) were plagued by mistakes as they lost their second straight, blowing double-digit leads in both. Instead of Romo struggling in his first NFL start, it was Delhomme, making his 62nd straight start, who had problems. He was 17-of-31 for 149 yards and an interception.
Smith, Michael Gaines, DeShaun Foster and Keyshawn Johnson all dropped passes. Johnson's might have been a touchdown in the third quarter, spoiling his first game against Dallas since he was released in a salary cap move so the Cowboys could sign Owens.
"It's a team game. We all didn't get it done. We need to get better," Delhomme said.
Smith was angered when asked about his two drops, and his fumble of a punt return as the Panthers' once promising season has taken a turn for the worse.
"Just keep keeping your stats," Smith said. The Panthers were even plagued by a coaching miscue. Fox called a timeout late in the first half that wiped out Richard Marshall's blocked field goal. Given a second chance, Vanderjagt kicked a 38-yarder to make it 14-10 at halftime.
"Hopefully with the bye coming that will give us a chance to get healthy and maybe find some guys who can finish games," Fox said.
Foster rushed for 50 yards and a touchdown for Carolina, which lost starting cornerback Ken Lucas to a groin injury in the first quarter, forcing rookie Richard Marshall to alternate coverage on Owens and Terry Glenn.
In a season filled with controversy, Parcells left the field with a grin.
"We haven't been having a lot of fun around here. They're having fun right now," Parcells said. "That's the thing that I enjoy the most. When I see the faces of those players."
From: ESPN.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Tony Romo found a way to put a smile back on Dallas coach Bill Parcells' face.
Romo rallied the Cowboys from a 14-point first-quarter deficit, throwing for 270 yards and a touchdown, and Julius Jones ran for 94 yards and a score to help the Cowboys beat the Carolina Panthers 35-14 Sunday night. The Cowboys set a team record with 25 fourth-quarter points.
"He's a guy who's been miserable all week," said receiver Terrell Owens, Romo's top target with nine catches for 107 yards. "I asked him coming off the field on Friday, I asked him how it was going and he said he doesn't like to get his butt kicked. As a team, we're tired of losing, we know we have a decent team. We just have to go out and play like it."
Romo, starting in place of the benched Drew Bledsoe, showed poise in slowly leading the Cowboys (4-3) back, using a variety of short passes to different receivers.
Early in the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-12 from the Carolina 21, Romo sidestepped pressure and fired a 16-yard pass to Jason Witten. But the drive stalled when Romo misfired to Witten in the end zone on third down, and Mike Vanderjagt kicked a 24-yard field goal to cut the Panthers' lead to 14-13.
On the ensuing kickoff, Sam Hurd ripped the ball from Brad Hoover and recovered the fumble at the Carolina 14. On the next play, Jones ran untouched up the middle for the touchdown. The Cowboys added the 2-point conversion when Romo faked a draw and threw a pass to Owens to make it 21-14.
"It's been tough, you never know, the change that we made at quarterback," Romo said. "You never know what you're going to get ... with a new starter who is untested. I was anxious just like Bill was to see what we were going to do out their tonight."
Owens was impressed by Romo's poise.
"Tony gives us a different change of pace," Owens said. "He gets the ball out quick and he gave us some chances. Everybody came up with some big plays today. Jason Witten played tremendous over the middle."
Dallas sealed the win when Roy Williams intercepted Jake Delhomme's throw on Carolina's possession after Jones' touchdown. Delhomme lost another fumble with under 2 minutes to go, Carolina's third turnover in the fourth quarter.
"This is about as poor of a performance in the fourth quarter that I have been associated with," coach John Fox said. "I apologize for all the people who paid for tickets."
Marion Barber had touchdown runs of 3 and 14 yards late as Parcells won a game after trailing by 14 points in the first quarter for only the second time in his career. The victory justified his decision to sit Bledsoe and end his streak of 70 consecutive starts. Bledsoe paced the sideline for most of the game, wearing a visor and occasionally glancing down at the play chart on his wrist, while applauding Romo's performance.
"Drew actually came up to me before the game [and] said he was rooting for me," Romo said. "Drew's a really, really class act. He's a very pleasant guy, and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Drew."
Romo completed 24 of 36 passes and had one interception, which led to Steve Smith's 24-yard touchdown run that made it 14-0 in the second quarter.
But the Panthers (4-4) were plagued by mistakes as they lost their second straight, blowing double-digit leads in both. Instead of Romo struggling in his first NFL start, it was Delhomme, making his 62nd straight start, who had problems. He was 17-of-31 for 149 yards and an interception.
Smith, Michael Gaines, DeShaun Foster and Keyshawn Johnson all dropped passes. Johnson's might have been a touchdown in the third quarter, spoiling his first game against Dallas since he was released in a salary cap move so the Cowboys could sign Owens.
"It's a team game. We all didn't get it done. We need to get better," Delhomme said.
Smith was angered when asked about his two drops, and his fumble of a punt return as the Panthers' once promising season has taken a turn for the worse.
"Just keep keeping your stats," Smith said. The Panthers were even plagued by a coaching miscue. Fox called a timeout late in the first half that wiped out Richard Marshall's blocked field goal. Given a second chance, Vanderjagt kicked a 38-yarder to make it 14-10 at halftime.
"Hopefully with the bye coming that will give us a chance to get healthy and maybe find some guys who can finish games," Fox said.
Foster rushed for 50 yards and a touchdown for Carolina, which lost starting cornerback Ken Lucas to a groin injury in the first quarter, forcing rookie Richard Marshall to alternate coverage on Owens and Terry Glenn.
In a season filled with controversy, Parcells left the field with a grin.
"We haven't been having a lot of fun around here. They're having fun right now," Parcells said. "That's the thing that I enjoy the most. When I see the faces of those players."
DC United Win - Move On
From: ESPN.com
Gomez's late goal eases United past Red Bulls
WASHINGTON -- The scoreboard should have read Christian Gomez 2, New York Red Bulls 1.
As for the rest of D.C. United? The team played so poorly that it could very well not be the favorite at home in next week's Eastern Conference final.
Gomez bailed out his team with a goal in the 86th minute Sunday to give United a 1-1 tie with the Red Bulls. Combined with last week's 1-0 victory at Giants Stadium, the score was enough to clinch the home-and-home, total-goals series and secure a date at RFK Stadium with the New England Revolution in the one-game conference final next Sunday.
''We did not play well. I think that was one of the worst games we've played since I've been a part of D.C. United,'' forward Freddy Adu said. ''We've played better losing than we did today. We got in the locker room and we were talking about, 'It was horrendous.' We might have gotten away with it this time, but we just can't keep doing this.''
The Red Bulls played like a team with nothing to lose, pressing forward from the opening whistle and winning most of the 50-50 balls in midfield. New York outshot United 5-1 in the opening half and 13-6 for the game.
''Maybe it's the good thing to go into the conference final as an underdog,'' coach Peter Nowak said. ''We didn't play like we wanted to play.''
Does he really think the club with the league's best regular-season record will be the underdog?
''After tonight's game? Yes,'' Nowak replied.
After Jozy Altidore's goal in the 70th minute put New York up 1-0 and tied the series goal total, it was left to Gomez to score United's only goal for the second straight week to avoid overtime and possible penalty kicks.
Gomez, a leading candidate to earn league MVP honors, gathered a long cross from Josh Gros and put a left-footed 10-yard shot inside the near post. Gros' pass nearly hit United defender Bobby Boswell, who appeared to slip but instead provided a great decoy to give Gomez space to make the shot.
''He didn't play your typical Christian Gomez game, but he finds ways to be in the right spots at the right time to score goals,'' Adu said. ''Once again, Christian to the rescue.''
Altidore, who turns 17 next month, became the youngest player to score in an MLS playoff game, placing an 11-yard header just inside the left post off of Amado Guevara's free kick. Altidore also hit the left post in the 61st minute.
The Red Bulls played without forward Youri Djorkaeff, who strained his Achilles tendon during practice Thursday. Midfielder Markus Schopp left the game in the 43rd minute with a strained muscle in his lower abdomen.
The game ends the season for Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena, who took over late in the season after leading the U.S. national team at the World Cup. New York played relatively well for Arena, considering how little time he had to put his stamp on the team.
''We made progress. I tell you, the last six weeks have been a blast,'' Arena said. ''I've enjoyed working with the guys. They've shown a lot of improvement.''
Saturday, October 28, 2006
UT 31 - SC 24
From: ESPN.com
Vols hold strong against Gamecocks,
stay in BCS title hunt
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Tennessee didn't give Steve Spurrier anything to joke about Saturday night.
Erik Ainge threw two touchdown passes to Bret Smith and the eighth-ranked Vols ended a year of ugly memories from last year's loss to South Carolina with a 31-24 victory.
Spurrier has largely had his way with Tennessee (7-1, 3-1) through the years. The coach won at Neyland Stadium with Duke in 1988, then took eight of 12 games from the Vols as Gators coach from 1990-2001. And when Rocky Top supporters gleefully planned for revenge after the ball coach took over at South Carolina, he led the Gamecocks to their first win in Knoxville last fall.
That last defeat was particularly embarrassing to the Big Orange. The Vols had retired the jersey of star quarterback Peyton Manning, then outplayed South Carolina throughout, falling on Josh Brown's improbable 49-yard field goal -- a victory even Spurrier described as a "miracle."
It looked like Spurrier's hex was in effect again at Williams-Brice Stadium after South Carolina (5-3, 3-3) overcame a two-touchdown deficit to lead 17-14 after three quarters.
But Ainge found Smith on a 12-yard TD pass to put the Vols (7-1, 3-1) ahead for good with 13:10 left. After forcing South Carolina to punt on its next possession, Jonathan Hefney had a 65-yard punt return to South Carolina's 5 and Arian Foster had a touchdown run on the next play.
The Gamecocks closed to 31-24 on Syvelle Newton's 1-yard TD run with 2:24 to go. Tennessee was forced to punt -- Ainge was out with a bad ankle on the series -- and South Carolina had one final chance. However, Newton's desperation heave was intercepted by Demetrice Morley as time ran out.
Spurrier's always loved picking at Tennessee. He once quipped, "You can't spell Citrus without U-T," and this week couldn't keep himself from again having a little fun at the Vols expense.
He was explaining how since the winners are usually the ones who tell such jokes and how Tennessee didn't win too many of its matchups with Spurrier's Gators, "maybe they weren't telling too many up" in Knoxville.
Now, it's the Vols and coach Phillip Fulmer who can laugh it up -- at least for this year. The victory pushed Fulmer one ahead of the ball coach in SEC wins after the two came in tied at 134 each.
The Vols road to the SEC championship game doesn't get much easier the next two weeks. They take on No. 14 LSU and No. 13 Arkansas before closing the SEC against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Even if Tennessee wins out, it would need help from an SEC team to knock off Florida -- perhaps Spurrier's Gamecocks who go to Gainesville on Nov. 11? -- to represent the Eastern Division.
Tennessee looked like it would make quick work of the Gamecocks.
Marvin Mitchell picked off Newton's pass on the second play of the game and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown.
Then after the Vols ended a long drive by South Carolina with Jonathan Wade's interception in the end zone, Ainge took them 80 yards for a touchdown of their own.
Ainge found Smith with a 5-yard scoring pass that caromed off South Carolina defenders Emanuel Cook and Stoney Woodson before Smith grabbed it for the TD and a 14-0 lead.
South Carolina rallied on Ryan Succop's 50-yard field goal -- his third of at least 49 yards or longer this year -- and an 18-yard touchdown pass from Newton to Mike West.
R.I.P. - Red Auerbach
From: ESPN.com
WASHINGTON -- Red Auerbach, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships in the 1950s and 1960s, died Saturday. He was 89.
Auerbach won 938 games with the Celtics and was the winningest coach in NBA history until Lenny Wilkens overtook him in the 1994-95 season. As general manager, the straight-talking Auerbach, who celebrated victories with a postgame cigar, was also the architect of Celtics teams that won seven more titles in the 1970s and 1980s.
He died of a heart attack near his home in Washington, according to an NBA official, who didn't want to be identified. His last public appearance was on Wednesday, when he received the U.S. Navy's Lone Sailor Award in front of family and friends in ceremonies in Washington.
"Red was a guy who always introduced new things," Steve Pagliuca, a Celtics managing partner, told The Associated Press in an interview this month. "He had some of the first black players in the league and some people didn't like that, but you've got to do what's right for the fans. So I think we tried to do things thoughtfully. We didn't come in here and change everything overnight."
Auerbach's death was announced by the Celtics, for whom he still served as team president. The team said the upcoming season would be dedicated in his honor.
"I never thought he'd die," said author John Feinstein, who last year collaborated on a book with Auerbach on the coach's reflections of more than 70 years in basketball. "He was a unique personality, a combination of toughness and great, great caring about people. He cared about people much more than it showed in his public face, and that's why people cared about him."
Born Arnold Auerbach in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Sept. 20, 1917, Auerbach was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.
With the Celtics, he made deals that brought Bill Russell, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale to Boston. He drafted Larry Bird a year early when the Indiana State star was a junior to make sure Bird would come to Boston. The jersey No. 2 was retired in Auerbach's honor during the 1984-85 season.
He coached championship teams that featured players such as Russell, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Bill Sharman, K.C. Jones and Sam Jones, all inducted into the Hall of Fame.
After stepping down as general manager in 1984, Auerbach served as president of the Celtics and occasionally attended team practices into the mid-1990s, although his role in the draft and personnel decisions had diminished.
When Rick Pitino became coach in 1997, he also took the president's title and Auerbach became vice chairman of the board. After Pitino resigned on Jan. 8, 2001, Auerbach regained the title of president and remained vice chairman.
The team was sold on Dec. 31, 2002, to a group headed by Wyc Grousbeck and Auerbach stayed on as president.
Through all those titles, Auerbach didn't lose his direct manner of speaking, such as when he discussed the parquet floor of the Boston Garden shortly before the Celtics' longtime home closed in September 1995.
"The whole thing was a myth," Auerbach said. "People thought not only that there were dead spots, but that we knew where every one was and we could play accordingly.
"Now, did you ever watch a ballplayer go up and down the court at that speed and pick out a dead spot?" he asked. "If our players worried about that, thinking that's going to help them win, they're out of their cotton-picking mind. But if the other team thought that: Hey, good for us."
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The Dash sprints through the one-loss teams
By Pat Forde
ESPN.com
One-Loss Wonders
Comeback Saturday did very little to clear the massive logjam that runs from the top five to the tail end of the Top 25. After Texas, California, Notre Dame and Tennessee all survived being pushed to the brink of defeat, we're still left with a surplus of one-loss teams still in the national title chase -- and we have no solid idea how to rank them.
Enter the ever-helpful Dash, here to provide a pecking order and predict how it might all sort out:
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Florida Gators (4)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: sixth (ninth in Harris Poll, eighth in USA Today Poll, fourth with the computers).
Loss: 27-17 at Auburn.
Excuses: Key call on a Chris Leak fumble and subsequent review weirdly went against the Gators. Game was closer than the score, which was inflated by a fluke Auburn touchdown on the last play. Florida players saw all the orange and blue in the stands and thought they were playing in front of a home crowd; subsequent boos threw them off their game.
Case for: No other one-loss team has two better victories than the Gators' wins over Tennessee (in Knoxville) and LSU.
Case against: Florida has been good in every game and dazzling in none. Gators haven't scored more than 28 points in an SEC game since Nov. 5, 2005.
Big games ahead: Traditional late-season games against Georgia and Florida State are big, but won't pack the usual strength-of-schedule wallop with both the Bulldogs and Seminoles tanking. And there is the small matter of taking care of Steve Spurrier in The Swamp Nov. 11. That will be a pressure game for Urban Meyer.
The Dash Predicts: 11-1 heading into the SEC championship game, and very much in the fight for a BCS title berth.
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Auburn Tigers (5)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: fifth (seventh in both polls, sixth with the computers).
Loss: 27-10 to Arkansas.
Excuse: Got caught looking ahead to Florida in a league that gouges your eyes out for looking ahead. And, uh, that's about it. There are no good excuses for losing at home by 17 to what was then an unranked team when you're in the top five.
Case for: Second-half shutouts of LSU and Florida show how strong the Tigers are on defense. The season-opening thumping of Washington State looks more impressive with each passing week.
Cast against: Hard to minimize a 17-point home loss as a solid favorite, especially when Auburn was outrushed by more than 200 yards. Questions remain about whether this team has championship-level offensive talent.
Big games ahead: The Tigers close by hosting Georgia Nov. 11 and visiting Alabama Nov. 18. On paper, neither should be nail-biters. In reality, both rivalry games probably will be.
The Dash Predicts: 11-1 and pointed toward a rematch with Florida in the SEC title game.
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Tennessee Volunteers (6)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 11th (eighth in Harris Poll, ninth in USA Today Poll, 11th with the computers).
Loss: 21-20 at home to Florida.
Excuses: Tennessee hadn't yet tapped into the potential of freshman running back LaMarcus Coker (zero carries for zero yards vs. Florida, 360 rushing yards since then); if Tim Tebow doesn't muscle out a fourth-and-1 run in the fourth quarter, Vols are still unbeaten. Smokey the blue-tick hound got hold of some bad Kal Kan the night before.
Case for: A single loss by a single point to a high-powered opponent. Vols absolutely owned California in the opener, and the Bears are unbeaten since. The Vols have won their two road games by a combined 52 points.
Case against: Beat Air Force by a point when Fisher DeBerry went for two at the end of regulation instead of going for the tie and playing overtime. Trailed almost all game against Alabama. Were statistically dominated by Florida. Beating Georgia doesn't mean as much when Vanderbilt does it, too.
Big games ahead: Three in a row, at South Carolina Saturday (and we all know how Phil Fulmer has fared against Steve Spurrier over the years); home against LSU Nov. 4; and at Arkansas Nov. 11.
The Dash Predicts: There is another loss out there with Tennessee's name on it. The Volunteers will land outside of the BCS bowls but can take 10-2 as a pretty fair bounce-back from 5-6 in 2005.
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Texas Longhorns (7)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: seventh (fifth in both polls, 13th with the computers).
Loss: 24-7 at home to Ohio State.
Excuses: The Longhorns' lone loss was to the best team in the country, and nobody else has come any closer; Colt McCoy was a baby then and has grown up since; if Billy Pittman doesn't fumble near the Ohio State goal line in the first half, the game could have turned out much differently. Matthew McConaughey's histrionics behind the Texas bench did more harm than good.
Case for: With an authoritative neutral-field victory over one ranked team (Oklahoma) and a victory over another ranked team in a true road setting (no matter how touch-and-go it was at Nebraska Saturday), the Horns have re-established themselves as the dominant team in the Big 12.
Case against: You want to play the iffin' game with Pittman's fumble against Ohio State? How about the fumble by Nebraska's Terrence Nunn that turned a certain Cornhuskers victory into one last chance for the Longhorns? If Nunn holds on to the ball, Texas is out of this discussion.
Big games ahead: Not many. Texas Tech (Saturday) doesn't look like a threat. Looks like the last hurdle before the Big 12 title game is Texas A&M in Austin Nov. 24.
The Dash Predicts: Texas will be 11-1 and in the BCS title-game argument going to Kansas City on Dec. 2.
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California Golden Bears(8)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 10th (11th in Harris Poll, 12th in USA Today Poll, fifth with the computers).
Loss: 35-18 at Tennessee.
Excuses: Quarterback Nate Longshore was making his second career start after sitting out almost all of 2005, and it showed. Starting cornerback Tim Mixon suffered a season-ending injury shortly before the Tennessee game, and his replacement couldn't tackle or cover Vols wideout Robert Meachem (five catches, 182 yards, two touchdowns). Incessant renditions of "Rocky Top" from the Tennessee band fried Cal's composure.
Case for: Dropped 42 points on then-No. 19 Arizona State and 45 on then-No. 11 Oregon. Hadn't even been threatened for six weeks until the Washington scare Saturday. Has won two Pac-10 road games by a combined 46 points.
Case against: Cal trailed Tennessee 35-3 before the Vols let up. Bears easily could have lost to the Huskies. Haven't beaten anyone still considered a BCS contender.
Big games ahead: Cal hosts UCLA Nov. 4 and plays at USC Nov. 18. Beating the Trojans could vault the Bears to the top of the one-loss class.
The Dash Predicts: Playing nine league games certainly helps the strength of schedule -- if you can win them all. The Dash sees a loss for the Bears in L.A. Coliseum.
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Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: ninth (10th in both polls, eighth with the computers).
Loss: 47-21 to Michigan.
Excuses: The pass that went through tight end John Carlson's hands and was returned for six on the opening series inflated Michigan's confidence. Last Wolverines touchdown -- another defensive TD -- was a fluke that made the score look worse than it was. Leprechaun didn't bring his A game.
Case for: Nobody else on this list has played a schedule exclusively against opponents from the Big Six conferences to date. Nobody else has two comeback wins as dramatic as Notre Dame's. Irish's first five opponents all were undefeated at kickoff. Losing to Michigan is clearly not a sin.
Case against: Losing at home by 26 -- even to Michigan -- is at least a venial sin. Needing minor miracles to beat Michigan State and UCLA is borderline sinful.
Big games ahead: The Irish play USC in Los Angeles Nov. 25. Maybe you've heard about it. Prior to that, trips to play Navy in Baltimore and Air Force in Colorado Springs at least have the potential to be interesting.
The Dash Predicts: Still simmering from last year, Notre Dame turns USC game into a crusade and wins on a last-second Brady Quinn sneak, with a push from Darius Walker. Irish go 11-1 and throw the BCS Standings into complete chaos.
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Clemson Tigers (10)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 12th (12th in Harris Poll, 11th in USA Today Poll, 15th with the computers).
Loss: 34-33 in two overtimes at Boston College.
Excuses: Clemson dominated from scrimmage and let it get away in the kicking game. Fans' New England accents completely threw the Southern boys off their game.
Case for: How much can you penalize a team for losing on a blocked PAT on the road against what is now a Top 25 opponent? Average margin of victory in seven wins is 34 points. Nobody's come within single digits of the Tigers since Sept. 16.
Case against: "Quality win" over Florida State not looking so high-quality right now. Blowing out Florida Atlantic, North Carolina, Temple and Louisiana Tech impresses no one. It took a 66-yard, fourth-quarter fumble return touchdown by defensive end Gaines Adams to turn around Clemson's game against Wake Forest.
Big games ahead: At Virginia Tech Thursday and home against South Carolina Nov. 25 might be the last serious tests -- and neither of those is like climbing Everest. This year, the ACC is a succession of mole hills.
The Dash Predicts: Look for Clemson to be 11-1 heading into the ACC championship game -- either for a rematch with Georgia Tech or a matchup with Miami.
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Boston College Eagles (11)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 17th (17th in both polls, tied for 16th with the computers).
Loss: 17-15 at NC State.
Excuses: Kicker error and a fluke 34-yard touchdown pass with five seconds left are to blame. And who among us can figure out the Wolfpack?
Case for: Victories over Clemson, Virginia Tech and Florida State officially stamp the Eagles as a success story in their second ACC season. All five wins over I-A opponents came against teams that currently own winning records.
Case against: Akron beat NC State. Southern Mississippi beat NC State -- by 20. Maryland beat NC State. How did BC lose to NC State?
Big games ahead: Remaining road games against Wake Forest (Nov. 4) and Miami (Nov. 23) will be tricky.
The Dash Predicts: The Eagles will lose one of those two games to wind up 10-2 and just miss a berth in the ACC title game. But at least they won't have to go bowling in Boise again this season.
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Wisconsin Badgers (12)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 18th (18th in both polls, tied for 16th with the computers).
Loss: 27-13 at Michigan.
Excuses: Average Wolverines scoring drive went all of 31 yards. Ask Penn State and Iowa how much easier it is playing Michigan without Mario Manningham than with him.
Case for: Badgers have won four straight Big Ten games by an average of 31 points, and have only allowed more than 17 points to the Wolverines. At age 36, rookie head coach Bret Bielema has done his job like a veteran. Running back P.J. Hill isn't just the best freshman in the country, the Wisconsin Winnebago also has the best nickname of any player.
Case against: Badgers haven't beaten anyone currently in the Sagarin top 40. And that band is nothing but trouble.
Big games ahead: Not many, with Ohio State off the schedule. Consecutive games against Penn State and Iowa look like the last hurdles.
The Dash Predicts: Wisconsin splits games against the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes to finish 10-2. Unfortunately for Bucky, they do it in the same year when the Ohio State-Michigan loser looks like a lock for the Rose Bowl.
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Texas A&M Aggies (13)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 21st (23rd in Harris Poll, 22nd in USA Today Poll, tied for 21st with the computers).
Loss: 31-27 to Texas Tech.
Excuses: Brainlock blitz call gave Red Raiders a gift-wrapped shot at a game-winning bomb in the final minute. Aggies had taken over the game prior to that. Mike Leach sold his soul to the devil for the chance to own this rivalry.
Case for: Aggies are 30 seconds short of undefeated.
Case against: Aggies have played a stay-puft schedule -- and are closer to two or three losses than they are to undefeated. They have four victories by six points or less, including slipping past the uninspiring likes of Army, Kansas and Oklahoma State by a combined eight points.
Big games ahead: A&M closes with Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas. Time to hunker down.
The Dash Predicts: Texas A&M would be fortunate to split its last four. Three losses seems more likely, for an 8-4 record.
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Missouri Tigers (14)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 20th (21st in Harris Poll, 23rd in USA Today Poll, 19th with the computers).
Loss: 25-19 at Texas A&M.
Excuses: Three first-half Missouri fumbles -- including one into the A&M end zone on the first possession -- gave the Aggies the game. Being stopped on the Aggies' 6-yard line in the fourth didn't help. If you woke up in College Station on game day, you'd be uninspired, too.
Case for: Quarterback Chase Daniel might be the No. 1 revelation in college football. All seven Missouri wins have been by double digits.
Case against: None of those seven wins has come against a ranked opponent. Missouri lost star defensive end Brian Smith for the season with a broken hip against Kansas State. That will severely inhibit the Tigers' productive pass rush.
Big games ahead: The Tigers haven't beaten Oklahoma and Nebraska in the same season since 1969. They have that opportunity over the next two Saturdays.
The Dash Predicts: Without Smith, look for a split in those two games and a scare from rival Kansas. But Mizzou will gladly take 10-2, even if it means losing the Big 12 North at Nebraska Nov. 4.
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons (15)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: Not in the BCS top 25.
Loss: 27-17 to Clemson.
Excuses: Two fumbles -- one on the first possession inside the Clemson 5, the other in the fourth quarter at the Clemson 34 -- turned a sure victory into an agonizing defeat. Wake simply had no idea how to act when it found itself 5-0 and up two touchdowns in the fourth.
Case for: Aside from the fact that Jim Grobe is the national coach of the year at this stage, cracking the AP Top 25 despite major injuries, there is no logical or compelling argument to make for Wake ahead of the other schools on this list.
Case against: Every Wake Forest victory has come against a team having a disappointing season: Syracuse, Duke, Connecticut, Liberty, Mississippi and North Carolina State.
Big games ahead: Boston College, Florida State and Virginia Tech on successive November Saturdays.
The Dash Predicts: Three more losses. But, hey, the Demon Deacons will take 8-4 and smile broadly.
Arkansas Razorbacks (3)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 13th. (14th in the Harris and USA Today Coaches' polls, 10 with the computers). Until the Razorbacks lose again, they're underrated in comparison to their SEC brethren.
Loss: 50-14 to USC.
Excuses: The Razorbacks hadn't yet turned the offense over to freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain. Star tailback Darren McFadden was not 100 percent recovered from a dislocated toe. Since when is losing to USC an indictment? Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn thought this was the Arkansas high school state finals.
Case for: Arkansas handed the only loss so far to Auburn, which handed the only loss so far to Florida, which handed the only loss so far to Tennessee. Ergo ipso facto, the Hogs (4-0 in SEC play) have proven the most so far in the nation's toughest conference.
Case against: A 36-point home loss cannot be shrugged off, no matter the opposition and no matter who started at quarterback for Arkansas. Razorbacks needed kicking-game gag jobs to beat Alabama by a point and Vanderbilt by two.
Big games ahead: at South Carolina Nov. 4, home against Tennessee Nov. 11, home against LSU Nov. 24. The Hogs' strength of schedule should rise in the final month of the regular season.
The Dash Predicts: Two more losses are in store for Houston Nutt's team, effectively dropping it from national title and SEC West title contention. Arkansas has built its resume almost solely on walloping Auburn. The rest of the body of work isn't that impressive.
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ESPN.com
One-Loss Wonders
Comeback Saturday did very little to clear the massive logjam that runs from the top five to the tail end of the Top 25. After Texas, California, Notre Dame and Tennessee all survived being pushed to the brink of defeat, we're still left with a surplus of one-loss teams still in the national title chase -- and we have no solid idea how to rank them.
Enter the ever-helpful Dash, here to provide a pecking order and predict how it might all sort out:
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Florida Gators (4)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: sixth (ninth in Harris Poll, eighth in USA Today Poll, fourth with the computers).
Loss: 27-17 at Auburn.
Excuses: Key call on a Chris Leak fumble and subsequent review weirdly went against the Gators. Game was closer than the score, which was inflated by a fluke Auburn touchdown on the last play. Florida players saw all the orange and blue in the stands and thought they were playing in front of a home crowd; subsequent boos threw them off their game.
Case for: No other one-loss team has two better victories than the Gators' wins over Tennessee (in Knoxville) and LSU.
Case against: Florida has been good in every game and dazzling in none. Gators haven't scored more than 28 points in an SEC game since Nov. 5, 2005.
Big games ahead: Traditional late-season games against Georgia and Florida State are big, but won't pack the usual strength-of-schedule wallop with both the Bulldogs and Seminoles tanking. And there is the small matter of taking care of Steve Spurrier in The Swamp Nov. 11. That will be a pressure game for Urban Meyer.
The Dash Predicts: 11-1 heading into the SEC championship game, and very much in the fight for a BCS title berth.
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Auburn Tigers (5)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: fifth (seventh in both polls, sixth with the computers).
Loss: 27-10 to Arkansas.
Excuse: Got caught looking ahead to Florida in a league that gouges your eyes out for looking ahead. And, uh, that's about it. There are no good excuses for losing at home by 17 to what was then an unranked team when you're in the top five.
Case for: Second-half shutouts of LSU and Florida show how strong the Tigers are on defense. The season-opening thumping of Washington State looks more impressive with each passing week.
Cast against: Hard to minimize a 17-point home loss as a solid favorite, especially when Auburn was outrushed by more than 200 yards. Questions remain about whether this team has championship-level offensive talent.
Big games ahead: The Tigers close by hosting Georgia Nov. 11 and visiting Alabama Nov. 18. On paper, neither should be nail-biters. In reality, both rivalry games probably will be.
The Dash Predicts: 11-1 and pointed toward a rematch with Florida in the SEC title game.
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Tennessee Volunteers (6)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 11th (eighth in Harris Poll, ninth in USA Today Poll, 11th with the computers).
Loss: 21-20 at home to Florida.
Excuses: Tennessee hadn't yet tapped into the potential of freshman running back LaMarcus Coker (zero carries for zero yards vs. Florida, 360 rushing yards since then); if Tim Tebow doesn't muscle out a fourth-and-1 run in the fourth quarter, Vols are still unbeaten. Smokey the blue-tick hound got hold of some bad Kal Kan the night before.
Case for: A single loss by a single point to a high-powered opponent. Vols absolutely owned California in the opener, and the Bears are unbeaten since. The Vols have won their two road games by a combined 52 points.
Case against: Beat Air Force by a point when Fisher DeBerry went for two at the end of regulation instead of going for the tie and playing overtime. Trailed almost all game against Alabama. Were statistically dominated by Florida. Beating Georgia doesn't mean as much when Vanderbilt does it, too.
Big games ahead: Three in a row, at South Carolina Saturday (and we all know how Phil Fulmer has fared against Steve Spurrier over the years); home against LSU Nov. 4; and at Arkansas Nov. 11.
The Dash Predicts: There is another loss out there with Tennessee's name on it. The Volunteers will land outside of the BCS bowls but can take 10-2 as a pretty fair bounce-back from 5-6 in 2005.
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Texas Longhorns (7)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: seventh (fifth in both polls, 13th with the computers).
Loss: 24-7 at home to Ohio State.
Excuses: The Longhorns' lone loss was to the best team in the country, and nobody else has come any closer; Colt McCoy was a baby then and has grown up since; if Billy Pittman doesn't fumble near the Ohio State goal line in the first half, the game could have turned out much differently. Matthew McConaughey's histrionics behind the Texas bench did more harm than good.
Case for: With an authoritative neutral-field victory over one ranked team (Oklahoma) and a victory over another ranked team in a true road setting (no matter how touch-and-go it was at Nebraska Saturday), the Horns have re-established themselves as the dominant team in the Big 12.
Case against: You want to play the iffin' game with Pittman's fumble against Ohio State? How about the fumble by Nebraska's Terrence Nunn that turned a certain Cornhuskers victory into one last chance for the Longhorns? If Nunn holds on to the ball, Texas is out of this discussion.
Big games ahead: Not many. Texas Tech (Saturday) doesn't look like a threat. Looks like the last hurdle before the Big 12 title game is Texas A&M in Austin Nov. 24.
The Dash Predicts: Texas will be 11-1 and in the BCS title-game argument going to Kansas City on Dec. 2.
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California Golden Bears(8)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 10th (11th in Harris Poll, 12th in USA Today Poll, fifth with the computers).
Loss: 35-18 at Tennessee.
Excuses: Quarterback Nate Longshore was making his second career start after sitting out almost all of 2005, and it showed. Starting cornerback Tim Mixon suffered a season-ending injury shortly before the Tennessee game, and his replacement couldn't tackle or cover Vols wideout Robert Meachem (five catches, 182 yards, two touchdowns). Incessant renditions of "Rocky Top" from the Tennessee band fried Cal's composure.
Case for: Dropped 42 points on then-No. 19 Arizona State and 45 on then-No. 11 Oregon. Hadn't even been threatened for six weeks until the Washington scare Saturday. Has won two Pac-10 road games by a combined 46 points.
Case against: Cal trailed Tennessee 35-3 before the Vols let up. Bears easily could have lost to the Huskies. Haven't beaten anyone still considered a BCS contender.
Big games ahead: Cal hosts UCLA Nov. 4 and plays at USC Nov. 18. Beating the Trojans could vault the Bears to the top of the one-loss class.
The Dash Predicts: Playing nine league games certainly helps the strength of schedule -- if you can win them all. The Dash sees a loss for the Bears in L.A. Coliseum.
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Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: ninth (10th in both polls, eighth with the computers).
Loss: 47-21 to Michigan.
Excuses: The pass that went through tight end John Carlson's hands and was returned for six on the opening series inflated Michigan's confidence. Last Wolverines touchdown -- another defensive TD -- was a fluke that made the score look worse than it was. Leprechaun didn't bring his A game.
Case for: Nobody else on this list has played a schedule exclusively against opponents from the Big Six conferences to date. Nobody else has two comeback wins as dramatic as Notre Dame's. Irish's first five opponents all were undefeated at kickoff. Losing to Michigan is clearly not a sin.
Case against: Losing at home by 26 -- even to Michigan -- is at least a venial sin. Needing minor miracles to beat Michigan State and UCLA is borderline sinful.
Big games ahead: The Irish play USC in Los Angeles Nov. 25. Maybe you've heard about it. Prior to that, trips to play Navy in Baltimore and Air Force in Colorado Springs at least have the potential to be interesting.
The Dash Predicts: Still simmering from last year, Notre Dame turns USC game into a crusade and wins on a last-second Brady Quinn sneak, with a push from Darius Walker. Irish go 11-1 and throw the BCS Standings into complete chaos.
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Clemson Tigers (10)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 12th (12th in Harris Poll, 11th in USA Today Poll, 15th with the computers).
Loss: 34-33 in two overtimes at Boston College.
Excuses: Clemson dominated from scrimmage and let it get away in the kicking game. Fans' New England accents completely threw the Southern boys off their game.
Case for: How much can you penalize a team for losing on a blocked PAT on the road against what is now a Top 25 opponent? Average margin of victory in seven wins is 34 points. Nobody's come within single digits of the Tigers since Sept. 16.
Case against: "Quality win" over Florida State not looking so high-quality right now. Blowing out Florida Atlantic, North Carolina, Temple and Louisiana Tech impresses no one. It took a 66-yard, fourth-quarter fumble return touchdown by defensive end Gaines Adams to turn around Clemson's game against Wake Forest.
Big games ahead: At Virginia Tech Thursday and home against South Carolina Nov. 25 might be the last serious tests -- and neither of those is like climbing Everest. This year, the ACC is a succession of mole hills.
The Dash Predicts: Look for Clemson to be 11-1 heading into the ACC championship game -- either for a rematch with Georgia Tech or a matchup with Miami.
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Boston College Eagles (11)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 17th (17th in both polls, tied for 16th with the computers).
Loss: 17-15 at NC State.
Excuses: Kicker error and a fluke 34-yard touchdown pass with five seconds left are to blame. And who among us can figure out the Wolfpack?
Case for: Victories over Clemson, Virginia Tech and Florida State officially stamp the Eagles as a success story in their second ACC season. All five wins over I-A opponents came against teams that currently own winning records.
Case against: Akron beat NC State. Southern Mississippi beat NC State -- by 20. Maryland beat NC State. How did BC lose to NC State?
Big games ahead: Remaining road games against Wake Forest (Nov. 4) and Miami (Nov. 23) will be tricky.
The Dash Predicts: The Eagles will lose one of those two games to wind up 10-2 and just miss a berth in the ACC title game. But at least they won't have to go bowling in Boise again this season.
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Wisconsin Badgers (12)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 18th (18th in both polls, tied for 16th with the computers).
Loss: 27-13 at Michigan.
Excuses: Average Wolverines scoring drive went all of 31 yards. Ask Penn State and Iowa how much easier it is playing Michigan without Mario Manningham than with him.
Case for: Badgers have won four straight Big Ten games by an average of 31 points, and have only allowed more than 17 points to the Wolverines. At age 36, rookie head coach Bret Bielema has done his job like a veteran. Running back P.J. Hill isn't just the best freshman in the country, the Wisconsin Winnebago also has the best nickname of any player.
Case against: Badgers haven't beaten anyone currently in the Sagarin top 40. And that band is nothing but trouble.
Big games ahead: Not many, with Ohio State off the schedule. Consecutive games against Penn State and Iowa look like the last hurdles.
The Dash Predicts: Wisconsin splits games against the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes to finish 10-2. Unfortunately for Bucky, they do it in the same year when the Ohio State-Michigan loser looks like a lock for the Rose Bowl.
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Texas A&M Aggies (13)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 21st (23rd in Harris Poll, 22nd in USA Today Poll, tied for 21st with the computers).
Loss: 31-27 to Texas Tech.
Excuses: Brainlock blitz call gave Red Raiders a gift-wrapped shot at a game-winning bomb in the final minute. Aggies had taken over the game prior to that. Mike Leach sold his soul to the devil for the chance to own this rivalry.
Case for: Aggies are 30 seconds short of undefeated.
Case against: Aggies have played a stay-puft schedule -- and are closer to two or three losses than they are to undefeated. They have four victories by six points or less, including slipping past the uninspiring likes of Army, Kansas and Oklahoma State by a combined eight points.
Big games ahead: A&M closes with Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas. Time to hunker down.
The Dash Predicts: Texas A&M would be fortunate to split its last four. Three losses seems more likely, for an 8-4 record.
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Missouri Tigers (14)
Record: 7-1.
BCS rank: 20th (21st in Harris Poll, 23rd in USA Today Poll, 19th with the computers).
Loss: 25-19 at Texas A&M.
Excuses: Three first-half Missouri fumbles -- including one into the A&M end zone on the first possession -- gave the Aggies the game. Being stopped on the Aggies' 6-yard line in the fourth didn't help. If you woke up in College Station on game day, you'd be uninspired, too.
Case for: Quarterback Chase Daniel might be the No. 1 revelation in college football. All seven Missouri wins have been by double digits.
Case against: None of those seven wins has come against a ranked opponent. Missouri lost star defensive end Brian Smith for the season with a broken hip against Kansas State. That will severely inhibit the Tigers' productive pass rush.
Big games ahead: The Tigers haven't beaten Oklahoma and Nebraska in the same season since 1969. They have that opportunity over the next two Saturdays.
The Dash Predicts: Without Smith, look for a split in those two games and a scare from rival Kansas. But Mizzou will gladly take 10-2, even if it means losing the Big 12 North at Nebraska Nov. 4.
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons (15)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: Not in the BCS top 25.
Loss: 27-17 to Clemson.
Excuses: Two fumbles -- one on the first possession inside the Clemson 5, the other in the fourth quarter at the Clemson 34 -- turned a sure victory into an agonizing defeat. Wake simply had no idea how to act when it found itself 5-0 and up two touchdowns in the fourth.
Case for: Aside from the fact that Jim Grobe is the national coach of the year at this stage, cracking the AP Top 25 despite major injuries, there is no logical or compelling argument to make for Wake ahead of the other schools on this list.
Case against: Every Wake Forest victory has come against a team having a disappointing season: Syracuse, Duke, Connecticut, Liberty, Mississippi and North Carolina State.
Big games ahead: Boston College, Florida State and Virginia Tech on successive November Saturdays.
The Dash Predicts: Three more losses. But, hey, the Demon Deacons will take 8-4 and smile broadly.
Arkansas Razorbacks (3)
Record: 6-1.
BCS rank: 13th. (14th in the Harris and USA Today Coaches' polls, 10 with the computers). Until the Razorbacks lose again, they're underrated in comparison to their SEC brethren.
Loss: 50-14 to USC.
Excuses: The Razorbacks hadn't yet turned the offense over to freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain. Star tailback Darren McFadden was not 100 percent recovered from a dislocated toe. Since when is losing to USC an indictment? Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn thought this was the Arkansas high school state finals.
Case for: Arkansas handed the only loss so far to Auburn, which handed the only loss so far to Florida, which handed the only loss so far to Tennessee. Ergo ipso facto, the Hogs (4-0 in SEC play) have proven the most so far in the nation's toughest conference.
Case against: A 36-point home loss cannot be shrugged off, no matter the opposition and no matter who started at quarterback for Arkansas. Razorbacks needed kicking-game gag jobs to beat Alabama by a point and Vanderbilt by two.
Big games ahead: at South Carolina Nov. 4, home against Tennessee Nov. 11, home against LSU Nov. 24. The Hogs' strength of schedule should rise in the final month of the regular season.
The Dash Predicts: Two more losses are in store for Houston Nutt's team, effectively dropping it from national title and SEC West title contention. Arkansas has built its resume almost solely on walloping Auburn. The rest of the body of work isn't that impressive.
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Not Pretty
Giants 36 - Dallas 22
By:By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com
IRVING, Texas -- At halftime Monday night, representatives from the Hall of Fame presented quarterback Troy Aikman and offensive tackle Rayfield Wright with the gaudy rings that signify the induction of the two former Dallas Cowboys stars into football's most honored fraternity.
It might have been better for the Cowboys' fortunes had Wright and Aikman been handed headgear instead of hardware.
Put the two new Hall of Fame members in uniform? Hey, in a game where the Cowboys looked absolutely dismal in an ignoble 36-22 loss to the New York Giants, it might have been a silly idea -- but one still superior to anything that Bill Parcells and his coaching staff summoned. Because on a night in which Dallas honored a part of its glorious football past, the overriding questions by the end of a contest in which the Cowboys performed ingloriously were all about the team's future.
"I don't know where it leaves us," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said. "We played so badly. I mean, what can you say? We've got a lot of talent but, let's face it, we didn't play a good football game. Talent alone doesn't win football games and we're finding that out. Now we're going to have to dig deep and find out just what we've got inside of us. But we sure didn't find any answers here tonight.
"We're leaving with a lot of questions and we'll find out next week which way we're headed."
Once again the shortcomings that had been symptomatic of Dallas' uneven start to the season -- the inability to protect the immobile Drew Bledsoe in the pocket and the quarterback's often dubious decision-making -- were manifested. At halftime, despite trailing by a 12-7 count and playing at home, Parcells had seen enough and yanked Bledsoe.
It seemed like a panic move at the time but, clearly, Parcells felt it was a switch he had to make.
The Texas Stadium crowd, which lustily booed Bledsoe after the 14-year veteran was sacked twice on the first two series -- one for a safety -- got its first look at backup Tony Romo. And it probably won't be the last.
Parcells and owner Jerry Jones were noncommittal about which quarterback will get the nod next Sunday night when Dallas plays at Carolina, but both men hinted pretty broadly that Romo will get the first start of his four-year career.
Romo completed 14 of 25 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown in the six possessions he worked, and was sacked twice. The crowd that chanted "Romo!" when he entered the game could have screamed "Oh, no!" at some junctures of his most extended regular-season appearance. But it seemed that Parcells was looking for an excuse to make a change, and when Bledsoe threw a horrible interception in the red zone with Dallas poised to take the lead before halftime, he had more than sufficient justification for the switch.
"It was too many mistakes," Parcells said of Bledsoe's performance. "Too much improvising."
Parcells and several Cowboys players acknowledged that on the killer interception -- on second-and-goal from the Giants' 4-yard line -- Bledsoe threw to the wrong side. Dallas had a strong formation to the right side, with wide receiver Terry Glenn flanked to the left. Bledsoe never looked off defender Sam Madison, turned and threw for Glenn, and the Giants' veteran cornerback made an easy pick.
"Same recipe for disaster [as in past games]," Parcells said, sighing deeply.
Indeed, it was a combustible mix -- with Bledsoe harassed and sacked four times, blitzing Giants defenders left totally unblocked, and the Cowboys unable to move the football. And it might have been that ugly combination that ended Bledsoe's tenure as Big D's starter. He wasn't around in a deserted Dallas locker room and Parcells conceded that Bledsoe wasn't happy about being benched after completing 7 of 12 passes for 111 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
Unless the Cowboys' offensive line improves dramatically in pass protection, particularly at the interior positions, it might not matter who is playing quarterback. Opponents continue to send blitzers between the center and the guard, as if the quickest route to the Dallas quarterback is a paved highway. On Dallas' first offensive series, the Giants faked an inside blitz, the Cowboys overreacted and New York end Michael Strahan was never touched as he sacked Bledsoe for a five-yard loss.
"We just knew there were some things we could do to their line, some stuff they were very susceptible to, and we broke it all out tonight," Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "We brought pressure and they couldn't handle it. Not at all."
Indeed, the second Cowboys offensive series ended when strongside linebacker LaVar Arrington, who later suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the second quarter, sacked Bledsoe for a safety. Arrington came free on a delayed blitz between center Andre Gurode and right guard Marco Rivera, and no one impeded his burst into Dallas' backfield.
"We've got a lot more problems than just at quarterback," the ever-candid Witten said.
Noted wide receiver Terrell Owens, who finished with six catches for 98 yards and one touchdown, but also dropped a key fourth-down pass when it appeared the Cowboys were gaining some pulse in the third quarter: "We stunk it up in every facet of the game."
But the odor that wafted over Texas Stadium as Monday became Tuesday here was the undeniable scent of uncertainty. If the offensive line can't protect the pocket, the decision to go with the more mobile Romo seems a justifiable one. But this was a team built to win this season, not sometime down the road, when Romo emerges as a viable NFL starter.
Jones allowed that Romo "will make some exceptional plays and will make some bad ones, too," and that pretty much summed up his performance. But any decision to turn the ball over to Romo presupposes the Dallas brass is prepared to live with that reality. And, truth be told, no one really knows yet how good, or bad, the former undrafted free agent really is, or will be.
"Six games [into the season] and we're still struggling to find an identity," tailback Julius Jones said. "That isn't good. I mean, I think [Parcells] was just looking for some kind of spark."
What was created, instead, was an inferno of uncertainty for the final 10 games of the season.
If his body language was indicative of anything, Bledsoe, who looked lost and bitter on the sideline, is done. There will be no way, once the die is cast with Romo, for the Cowboys to go back again to Bledsoe to rescue them if things go poorly for his replacement. And there is this question: Will Parcells even be around to oversee Romo's nurturing beyond this season? That may be the most critical question for the not-too-distant future.
Make no mistake: The Giants, who finished the game without Arrington and starting right defensive end Osi Umenyiora (hip flexor), clearly established themselves as the team to beat in a tough NFC East. And the Cowboys, who are supposed to be a playoff contender -- and maybe even a Super Bowl candidate -- are a team undefined for the present and uncertain about the future.
"I'm ashamed," Parcells said, "to put a team out there that played like that. I apologize to the people who came out to watch that."
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
By:By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com
IRVING, Texas -- At halftime Monday night, representatives from the Hall of Fame presented quarterback Troy Aikman and offensive tackle Rayfield Wright with the gaudy rings that signify the induction of the two former Dallas Cowboys stars into football's most honored fraternity.
It might have been better for the Cowboys' fortunes had Wright and Aikman been handed headgear instead of hardware.
Put the two new Hall of Fame members in uniform? Hey, in a game where the Cowboys looked absolutely dismal in an ignoble 36-22 loss to the New York Giants, it might have been a silly idea -- but one still superior to anything that Bill Parcells and his coaching staff summoned. Because on a night in which Dallas honored a part of its glorious football past, the overriding questions by the end of a contest in which the Cowboys performed ingloriously were all about the team's future.
"I don't know where it leaves us," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said. "We played so badly. I mean, what can you say? We've got a lot of talent but, let's face it, we didn't play a good football game. Talent alone doesn't win football games and we're finding that out. Now we're going to have to dig deep and find out just what we've got inside of us. But we sure didn't find any answers here tonight.
"We're leaving with a lot of questions and we'll find out next week which way we're headed."
Once again the shortcomings that had been symptomatic of Dallas' uneven start to the season -- the inability to protect the immobile Drew Bledsoe in the pocket and the quarterback's often dubious decision-making -- were manifested. At halftime, despite trailing by a 12-7 count and playing at home, Parcells had seen enough and yanked Bledsoe.
It seemed like a panic move at the time but, clearly, Parcells felt it was a switch he had to make.
The Texas Stadium crowd, which lustily booed Bledsoe after the 14-year veteran was sacked twice on the first two series -- one for a safety -- got its first look at backup Tony Romo. And it probably won't be the last.
Parcells and owner Jerry Jones were noncommittal about which quarterback will get the nod next Sunday night when Dallas plays at Carolina, but both men hinted pretty broadly that Romo will get the first start of his four-year career.
Romo completed 14 of 25 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown in the six possessions he worked, and was sacked twice. The crowd that chanted "Romo!" when he entered the game could have screamed "Oh, no!" at some junctures of his most extended regular-season appearance. But it seemed that Parcells was looking for an excuse to make a change, and when Bledsoe threw a horrible interception in the red zone with Dallas poised to take the lead before halftime, he had more than sufficient justification for the switch.
"It was too many mistakes," Parcells said of Bledsoe's performance. "Too much improvising."
Parcells and several Cowboys players acknowledged that on the killer interception -- on second-and-goal from the Giants' 4-yard line -- Bledsoe threw to the wrong side. Dallas had a strong formation to the right side, with wide receiver Terry Glenn flanked to the left. Bledsoe never looked off defender Sam Madison, turned and threw for Glenn, and the Giants' veteran cornerback made an easy pick.
"Same recipe for disaster [as in past games]," Parcells said, sighing deeply.
Indeed, it was a combustible mix -- with Bledsoe harassed and sacked four times, blitzing Giants defenders left totally unblocked, and the Cowboys unable to move the football. And it might have been that ugly combination that ended Bledsoe's tenure as Big D's starter. He wasn't around in a deserted Dallas locker room and Parcells conceded that Bledsoe wasn't happy about being benched after completing 7 of 12 passes for 111 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
Unless the Cowboys' offensive line improves dramatically in pass protection, particularly at the interior positions, it might not matter who is playing quarterback. Opponents continue to send blitzers between the center and the guard, as if the quickest route to the Dallas quarterback is a paved highway. On Dallas' first offensive series, the Giants faked an inside blitz, the Cowboys overreacted and New York end Michael Strahan was never touched as he sacked Bledsoe for a five-yard loss.
"We just knew there were some things we could do to their line, some stuff they were very susceptible to, and we broke it all out tonight," Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "We brought pressure and they couldn't handle it. Not at all."
Indeed, the second Cowboys offensive series ended when strongside linebacker LaVar Arrington, who later suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the second quarter, sacked Bledsoe for a safety. Arrington came free on a delayed blitz between center Andre Gurode and right guard Marco Rivera, and no one impeded his burst into Dallas' backfield.
"We've got a lot more problems than just at quarterback," the ever-candid Witten said.
Noted wide receiver Terrell Owens, who finished with six catches for 98 yards and one touchdown, but also dropped a key fourth-down pass when it appeared the Cowboys were gaining some pulse in the third quarter: "We stunk it up in every facet of the game."
But the odor that wafted over Texas Stadium as Monday became Tuesday here was the undeniable scent of uncertainty. If the offensive line can't protect the pocket, the decision to go with the more mobile Romo seems a justifiable one. But this was a team built to win this season, not sometime down the road, when Romo emerges as a viable NFL starter.
Jones allowed that Romo "will make some exceptional plays and will make some bad ones, too," and that pretty much summed up his performance. But any decision to turn the ball over to Romo presupposes the Dallas brass is prepared to live with that reality. And, truth be told, no one really knows yet how good, or bad, the former undrafted free agent really is, or will be.
"Six games [into the season] and we're still struggling to find an identity," tailback Julius Jones said. "That isn't good. I mean, I think [Parcells] was just looking for some kind of spark."
What was created, instead, was an inferno of uncertainty for the final 10 games of the season.
If his body language was indicative of anything, Bledsoe, who looked lost and bitter on the sideline, is done. There will be no way, once the die is cast with Romo, for the Cowboys to go back again to Bledsoe to rescue them if things go poorly for his replacement. And there is this question: Will Parcells even be around to oversee Romo's nurturing beyond this season? That may be the most critical question for the not-too-distant future.
Make no mistake: The Giants, who finished the game without Arrington and starting right defensive end Osi Umenyiora (hip flexor), clearly established themselves as the team to beat in a tough NFC East. And the Cowboys, who are supposed to be a playoff contender -- and maybe even a Super Bowl candidate -- are a team undefined for the present and uncertain about the future.
"I'm ashamed," Parcells said, "to put a team out there that played like that. I apologize to the people who came out to watch that."
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Gomez puts United a leg up on N.Y.
From: dcunited.com
E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Christian Gomez's 77th-minute goal lifted D.C. United to a 1-0 win against the New York Red Bulls in the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series on Saturday afternoon at Giants Stadium, firmly planting D.C. in the driver's seat to advance to the conference finals.
To advance, the Red Bulls would have to win on the road, something they've done just once in the 32-game regular season, and win at RFK Stadium, something they've done just twice since 2003. New York would need to win by two goals in a place where D.C. has only lost three times this year to ensure advancement; a one-goal win would send the second game into extra time and a possible penalty shootout. The second leg is next Sunday at 6 p.m. ET (ESPN2).
On a give-and-go with Jaime Moreno, Gomez split New York defender Carlos Mendes and midfielder Amado Guevara and chipped the ball over Red Bulls goalkeeper Jon Conway from 12 yards out, sending the traveling support behind the net into a frenzy.
The Red Bulls nearly tied the game in the first minute of stoppage time when Jeff Parke sent a looping header from a Youri Djorkaeff free kick off the crossbar.
United, which would have been content with a scoreless draw, pushed their numbers behind the ball after the goal and the Red Bulls pushed forward as head coach Bruce Arena brought on John Wolyniec for Mendes in the 82nd minute.
United nearly went in front just two minutes into the game but Conway tapped Facundo Erpen's flicked header over the crossbar for a corner kick. One minute later, Alecko Eskandarian's attempt from the top of the 18-yard box was saved by Conway.
Eskandarian's pressure on Conway in the 16th minute nearly resulted in a gift goal for D.C. when he blocked the keeper's attempted clearance from a back pass. But the ball deflected over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Freddy Adu's lob from the right side of the box landed on the netting on top of the goal.
Parke had the Red Bulls' first opportunity but he didn't get much on his header off a Guevara free kick and United goalkeeper Troy Perkins made the easy save in the 12th minute.
The Red Bulls' best chances came from combination work between Todd Dunivant and Dema Kovalenko on the left side. Kovalenko's quick restart found Dunivant, who crossed to Markus Schopp at the far post. But Schopp's header -- when he was completely unmarked and with the entire goal at his mercy -- went high and wide of the net in the 21st minute.
It was a tight, playoff affair, with few chances for either team over the middle half hour of the game. Eskandarian had another scoring chance in the 64th minute, but he bounced Josh Gros' pass wide to Conway's right.
In the 72nd minute, Kovalenko found Dunivant, who burst into the box but his attempt missed the far post.
Gomez picked up the game's first yellow card, pulling down Schopp in the 73rd minute. But Djorkaeff's free kick was well wide to Perkins' right. Perkins, the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, made just three saves to earn the clean sheet in his first career playoff start.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
D.C. United (1-0-0) vs. New York Red Bulls (0-1-0)
October 21, 2006 -- Giants Stadium
The Man Show Boy
I miss this show...
Beerstand
Girlscout Cookies
Trying to get laid
Fake ID
At the beach
Help crossing the street
How to pick-up chicks
Buy me some beer
Beerstand
Girlscout Cookies
Trying to get laid
Fake ID
At the beach
Help crossing the street
How to pick-up chicks
Buy me some beer
Sweet emotion for Fulmer, Volunteers
From: ESPN.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Of all the highly ranked teams that avoided upsets Saturday, none had a more emotional victory than No. 7 Tennessee's 16-13 win over Alabama.
No. 5 Texas came back in the snow at Nebraska. No. 10 Notre Dame escaped against UCLA. No. 11 California took a Hail Mary punch from Washington and came back to win in overtime.
But they don't write books about the rivalry between Longhorns and the Huskers. The Irish and the Bruins are still better known for basketball games. The Golden Bears and the Huskies don't have a rivalry that caught fire in the Coolidge Administration and never cooled.
Alabama and Tennessee may be in different divisions of the SEC, but there's no other game in the conference where the winners play for victory cigars.
This one meant a little more. It meant more for the history, back when Alabama end Bear Bryant played on a broken leg in the Crimson Tide's 25-0 victory in 1935, or when Tennessee defensive end Mike Terry made an end zone interception in 1982 to preserve a 35-28 victory and stop the Vols' 11-game losing streak to the Tide.
This one meant a little more, which is how Vol quarterback Erik Ainge did his greatest Carl Lewis imitation and ran down Tide corner Simeon Castille in the second quarter. Castille raced down the sideline with an interception that Ainge threw him at the Alabama 32. Ainge, starting from near midfield, angled toward the pylon and got just enough of Castille to nudge him out of bounds at the Tennessee 8.
Asked what he thought as Castille took off, Ainge said, "No way I'm gonna catch him. But I'm gonna try … I knew I was going to go as hard as I could."
Ainge overcame three first-half interceptions and came back to complete 17-of-25 passes in the second half. He finished with 302 yards and led the offense to 10 fourth-quarter points.
But the biggest play Ainge made was a tackle. Alabama pushed the ball to the 1, but Crimson Tide coach Mike Shula chose to kick the field goal on fourth down. Those four points loomed large in a three-point loss.
"Did I make too big an emphasis on these games?" offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, a Birmingham native, wondered. "Regardless of what happens, he'll sit down with his children and he'll remember this. We had a fourth-quarter comeback to beat Alabama in Neyland Stadium before 100,000-plus people. I talked to him a little bit about that before the game. Maybe too much," Cutcliffe said with a chuckle. "I think maybe I just need to coach him."
Twice in the first half, Alabama had a first-and-goal, and the Crimson Tide came away with field goals on both drives. Alabama scored its only touchdown late in the third quarter when sophomore quarterback John Parker Wilson threw deep into triple coverage. Somehow, wide receiver D.J. Hall came down with the pass for a 40-yard gain to the Tennessee 12.
This is how tough the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry is: when Alabama scored a touchdown with :58 left in the third quarter to go ahead, 13-6, it was the first time either team had reached the end zone since the second quarter of the 2004 game, a span of nearly 141 game minutes.
That would be it for Alabama. In the fourth quarter, the Tennessee defense held Alabama to 34 total yards and prevented the Tide from moving past its own 41.
The Volunteers moved their record to 6-1, 2-1, and kept the heat on SEC East leader Florida. A year ago, when Tennessee went 5-6, the most painful of those losses came in Tuscaloosa, where the Vols fell 6-3. Coach Phillip Fulmer revamped his staff and challenged his players.
"This is a sweet victory," Fulmer said. "We fought back to respectability. We're back in the top 10. We're playing good, solid football. We won two big games against top 10 opponents [California and Georgia] at the time. We lost a heartbreaker here to a fine Florida team. We earned respectability. Now, could we handle success?"
The Crimson Tide fell to 5-3, 2-3, and took themselves out of the SEC West race. Alabama likely returns to Tennessee in December, either to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis or the Music City Bowl in Nashville. You can bet that the memory of this trip to the Volunteer State will remain with the Tide until December and beyond.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
'Bama 13 - Vols 16, whew...
From: ESPN.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Quarterback Erik Ainge's best play may have been a tackle.
That's the kind of game it was for seventh-ranked Tennessee.
Despite the Volunteers' struggles, their defense kept the game close, and one touchdown put them ahead for good in a 16-13 win over Alabama on Saturday.
Arian Foster dived into the end zone with 3:28 left to complete Tennessee's rally.
"In the second half, the guts and toughness that this team showed to finish and get a win was just what we needed actually," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. "I told them there's not anybody on our schedule that we play where the game won't be like this. We'll get the best effort from everybody will play."
The Third Saturday in October, a border-state rivalry dating to 1901, has become a defensive struggle the last two years.
The Crimson Tide (5-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) went ahead 13-6 at the end of the third quarter on Tim Castille's 2-yard run, which was the first touchdown scored in this series in two years.
But Alabama couldn't score again.
Alabama frustrated the normally high-scoring Vols (6-1, 2-1) for the most part, but Tennessee scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for the victory and stayed alive in its chase of Florida for the SEC East division title.
Tennessee came into the game with the best offense in the SEC, averaging 421.5 yards a game and 35.2 points a game. The Vols had a week off after their 51-33 win at Georgia, but the Tide frustrated Tennessee and Ainge nearly the entire game.
Ainge, one of the most efficient QBs in the country before Saturday, finished 28-of-46 for 302 yards and had three passes intercepted, two by Simeon Castille. Ainge's biggest play came after Castille's second pick, which the Alabama cornerback returned 60 yards to the Tennessee 8. He was forced out of bounds by Ainge, and Alabama eventually had to settle for Jamie Christensen's 18-yard field goal.
"The greatest thing is when you don't play well and can still win in the end, he helps us win the ballgame," Fulmer said.
Said Ainge: "It feels good to win. Anytime you can win the Tennessee-Alabama game, however you get it done, winning is what's important."
Alabama won 6-3 last year, and this game looked headed for a similar result until the fourth quarter.
James Wilhoit kicked a 27-yard field goal with 8:18 remaining after Tennessee stalled at the Alabama 10 to cut the lead to 13-9.
The Tide had to punt after getting only one first down on its next possession, and Tennessee got the ball back at its 30.
Aided by a pass interference call, the Vols drove into scoring position and it appeared they might have taken the lead when Bret Smith made a catch near the goal line but landed outside the end zone. There was no TD signaled, though the officials reviewed the play to see if the ball broke the plane. After looking at a replay, they spotted the ball at the 1 for a 5-yard gain.
Foster leaped over the pile on the next play for the touchdown.
The Tide had to punt on its next possession, but got the ball back at its own 13 with 1:19 left. John Parker Wilson was sacked twice, however, and time ran out.
"Heartbreaking loss for our team. We thought we had done what it takes to win the game, and we played 3½ quarters of pretty good football," Alabama coach Mike Shula said.
In addition to his 18-yard field goal, Christensen also had a 24-yarder earlier.
"That team was not better than us. No form or fashion, no way possible," Alabama defensive end Wallace Gilberry said. "If they were better than us and we had lost by 30, it still would have hurt but not so bad."
Wilhoit had field goals of 27 and 47 for the Vols.
Wilson was 13-of-29 for 158 yards, and the Tide was held to 53 yards rushing.
Tim Castille's TD was the first touchdown scored in the series since the second quarter of the game in 2004, which Tennessee won 17-13 in Knoxville. Castille, Simeon's brother, scored on a 2-yard run in the first quarter of that game, the Tide's previous TD against the Vols.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Florida 17 - Auburn 27
from espn.com
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- That merciless Southeastern Conference claimed another victim: No. 2 Florida.
Auburn scored on a blocked punt, a last-play fumble and a safety to beat the Gators 27-17 on Saturday night and leave the powerhouse conference without an unbeaten team.
The Tigers (6-1, 4-1) failed to score an offensive touchdown. Instead, they turned in a dominant defensive performance in the second half and benefited from Leak's fumble deep in Auburn territory that killed a chance for at least a go-ahead field goal.
Florida coach Urban Meyer challenged the call arguing that it was an incomplete pass but replay officials let the play stand -- and it turned the game around.
Eric Brock's late interception of Leak's pass set up the last of John Vaughn's four field goals, a 39-yarder with 31 seconds left after missing a 45-yard attempt on the previous possession.
It was just another chapter in the topsy-turvy saga of SEC front-runners this season, with Auburn beating LSU, Arkansas beating then-No. 2 Auburn last week and Florida (6-1, 4-1) toppling Tennessee. The internal battering has threatened to leave the league without a strong national championship contender.
Auburn hardly looked like the same team that was physically whipped in that 27-10 loss to the Razorbacks -- at least in the second half
SEC stunner: Dawgs fall to Vandy
From espn.com
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- Vanderbilt celebrated wildly, cheered on by sprinkling of gold-and-black-clad fans amid the sea of red. Georgia and its 92,000 backers trudged out of Sanford Stadium in stunned silence. The scoreboard went blank as soon as it was over, a feeble attempt to erase what everyone had just seen.
A stunner between the hedges.
Bryant Hahnfeldt kicked a 33-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining Saturday to give Vanderbilt a 24-22 upset of the 16th-ranked Bulldogs, who lost to an unranked team for the first time since 2002.
The Commodores (3-4, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) had not beaten Georgia since 1994, and this was only their fourth win in the series in the last 43 meetings. In all likelihood, it ended any hopes the Bulldogs (5-2, 2-2) had of winning their third SEC title in five years.
"We're not mathematically out of it because there's so many games remaining," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "But I'm not going to make it my main point to get back to the SEC championship game. I'm going to talk about to be getting back to playing winning football. That's what I'm going to stress the most."
It seemed the Bulldogs would manage a lackluster victory when Tony Taylor returned an interception 24 yards for a touchdown with just under 9½ minutes remaining for a 22-21 lead.
"We were hoping that would be the spark we needed to finish off Vandy," Taylor said. "But they finished it off better than we did."
Georgia failed on a 2-point conversion, and Andy Bailey missed a 37-yard field goal with about 5 minutes left that would have forced Vanderbilt to go for a touchdown on its final possession.
As it was, the Commodores only needed a field goal. Chris Nickson, who threw a pair of crucial interceptions in the second half, methodically drove them down the field on a 15-play, 65-yard drive.
Vanderbilt passed up a 52-yard field goal attempt, converting on fourth-and-5 when Nickson hooked up with Sean Walker for a 6-yard gain. Cassen Jackson-Garrison ran for another first down inside the Georgia 20.
The Commodores set up the ball in the middle of the field for Hahnfeldt, who was just 4-of-8 on the season and had missed two the previous week in a 17-10 loss to Mississippi. This time, his kick was right down the middle. Hahnfeldt charged toward the sideline with his right fist in the air and was mobbed by his teammates.
"It was unbelievable," Hahnfeldt said. "I just start running around."
The Bulldogs tried a couple of laterals on the ensuing kickoff, but the ball was knocked out of bounds short of midfield to end the game.
Vanderbilt, which hasn't had a winning season since 1982, lost its first three SEC games by a combined 12 points.
"We feel like we are better," coach Bobby Johnson said. "But when you don't get it done, you begin to question yourself. That is human nature."
Georgia is the team questioning itself now. The Bulldogs lost their second in a row, having squandered a 17-point lead the previous week in a 51-33 setback to Tennessee.
This one followed a similar theme. Georgia went up 10-0 in the first half on Bailey's 23-yard field goal and Joe Tereshinski's 23-yard scoring pass to Martrez Milner, but couldn't hold the lead.
After Milner's TD, Alex Washington sparked the Commodores with a 43-yard kickoff return, and Earl Bennett put them on the board by hauling in a 13-yard touchdown pass from Nickson.
Bailey added another field goal, this one from 20 yards out, on the final play of the first half to give Georgia a tenuous 13-7 lead going to locker room.
Just as they did against Tennessee, the Bulldogs started the third quarter with a turnover. Kregg Lumpkin fumbled on the second play of the half, D.J. Moore recovered at the Georgia 25 and Jackson-Garrison punched it over from the 3 to put Vanderbilt ahead for the first time.
The Commodores missed a chance to extend the lead when Nickson was picked off in the end zone by Tra Battle, but that was merely a reprieve for the Bulldogs. Georgia went three-and-out, Vanderbilt got the ball back and quickly drove for another TD.
Nickson scrambled for a 24-yard gain, then went to Walker on a 35-yard touchdown down the right sideline.
Nickson was 15-of-29 for 190 yards and led the Commodores in rushing with 59 yards. Georgia had 373 yards but failed to score a touchdown on four trips inside the Vanderbilt 20, settling for three short field goals by Bailey.
The Bulldogs used two quarterbacks. Tereshinski started and was 11-of-17 for 151 yards. Freshman Matthew Stafford was in at the end of the game, going 9-of-13 for 86 yards. No matter who was in the game, the Bulldogs failed to capitalize on their scoring chances.
"If we could have put some touchdowns on the board instead of trying for field goals, I'm confident we would have won," running back Danny Ware said. "I don't blame anybody. We lost this one as a team."
Georgia may have suffered a key injury, as well. Starting tailback Thomas Brown hurt a knee returning the second-half kickoff.
"He won't be playing anytime soon," Richt said. "He hurt it pretty bad, I think."
R.I.P. Freddy Fender
Vaya con Dios . . .
Tex-Mex singer Freddy Fender dies at 69
10/14/2006 8:52 PM, AP
Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died Saturday. He was 69.
Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.
Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant.
Fender hit it big in 1975 after some regional success, years of struggling — and a stint in prison — when "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" climbed to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.
"Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" rose to No. 1 on the country chart and top 10 on the pop chart that same year, while "Secret Love" and "You'll Lose a Good Thing" also hit No. 1 in the country charts.
Born Baldemar Huerta, Fender was proud of his Mexican-American heritage and frequently sung verses or whole songs in Spanish. "Teardrop" had a verse in Spanish.
"Whenever I run into prejudice," he told The Washington Post in 1977, "I smile and feel sorry for them, and I say to myself, `There's one more argument for birth control.'"
"The Old Man upstairs rolled a seven on me," he told The Associated Press in 1975. "I hope he keeps it up."
More recently, he played with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez and others in two Tex-Mex all-star combos, the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven.
He won a Grammy of Best Latin Pop Album in 2002 for "La Musica de Baldemar Huerta." He also shared in two Grammys: with the Texas Tornados, which won in 1990 for best Mexican-American performance for "Soy de San Luis," and with Los Super Seven in the same category in 1998 for "Los Super Seven."
Among his other achievements, Fender appeared in the 1987 motion picture "The Milagro Beanfield War," directed by Robert Redford.
In February 1999, Fender was awarded a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame after then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush wrote to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce endorsing him.
He said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press that one thing would make his musical career complete — induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
"Hopefully I'll be the first Mexican-American going into Hillbilly Heaven," he said.
Fender was born in 1937 in San Benito, the South Texas border town credited for spawning the Mexican-polka sound of conjunto. The son of migrant workers who did his own share of picking crops, he also was exposed to the blues sung by blacks alongside the Mexicans in the fields.
Always a performer, he sang on the radio as a boy and won contests for his singing — one prize included a tub full of about $10 worth of food.
But his career really began in the late '50s, when he returned from serving in the Marines and recorded Spanish-language versions of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell." The recordings were hits in Mexico and South America.
He signed with Imperial Records in 1959, renaming himself "Fender" after the brand of his electric guitar, "Freddy" because it sounded good with Fender.
Fender initially recorded "Wasted Days" in 1960. But his career was put on hold shortly after that when he and his bass player ended up spending almost three years in prison in Angola, La., for marijuana possession.
After prison came a few years in New Orleans and a then an everyday life taking college classes, working as a mechanic and playing an occasional local gig. He once said he sang in bars so dingy he performed with his eyes shut "dreaming I was on `The Ed Sullivan Show.'"
"I felt there's no great American dream for this ex-Chicano migrant farm worker," he told the AP. "I'd picked too many crops and too many strings."
But his second break came when he was persuaded to record "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" on an independent label in 1974 and it was picked up by a major label. With its success, he won the Academy of Country Music's best new artist award in 1975. He re-released "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and it climbed to the top of the charts as well.
Cristina Balli, spokeswoman for the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito, said Fender illustrated the diversity of Mexican-American and Latino musicians.
"We have our feet in different worlds and different cultures," she said. "We have our roots music ... but then we branch out to other things, pick up different styles. I think he was the precursor to Los Lonely Boys."
Fender's later years were marred by health problems resulting in a kidney transplant from his daughter, Marla Huerta Garcia, in January 2002 and a liver transplant in 2004. Fender was to have lung surgery in early 2006 until surgeons found tumors.
"I feel very comfortable in my life," Fender told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in August. "I'm one year away from 70 and I've had a good run. I really believe I'm OK. In my mind and in my heart, I feel OK. I cannot complain that I haven't lived long enough, but I'd like to live longer."
Rogers said Fender will be brought back to San Benito for a funeral and memorial services. Details on the arrangements were pending.
Tex-Mex singer Freddy Fender dies at 69
10/14/2006 8:52 PM, AP
Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died Saturday. He was 69.
Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.
Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant.
Fender hit it big in 1975 after some regional success, years of struggling — and a stint in prison — when "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" climbed to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.
"Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" rose to No. 1 on the country chart and top 10 on the pop chart that same year, while "Secret Love" and "You'll Lose a Good Thing" also hit No. 1 in the country charts.
Born Baldemar Huerta, Fender was proud of his Mexican-American heritage and frequently sung verses or whole songs in Spanish. "Teardrop" had a verse in Spanish.
"Whenever I run into prejudice," he told The Washington Post in 1977, "I smile and feel sorry for them, and I say to myself, `There's one more argument for birth control.'"
"The Old Man upstairs rolled a seven on me," he told The Associated Press in 1975. "I hope he keeps it up."
More recently, he played with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez and others in two Tex-Mex all-star combos, the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven.
He won a Grammy of Best Latin Pop Album in 2002 for "La Musica de Baldemar Huerta." He also shared in two Grammys: with the Texas Tornados, which won in 1990 for best Mexican-American performance for "Soy de San Luis," and with Los Super Seven in the same category in 1998 for "Los Super Seven."
Among his other achievements, Fender appeared in the 1987 motion picture "The Milagro Beanfield War," directed by Robert Redford.
In February 1999, Fender was awarded a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame after then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush wrote to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce endorsing him.
He said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press that one thing would make his musical career complete — induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
"Hopefully I'll be the first Mexican-American going into Hillbilly Heaven," he said.
Fender was born in 1937 in San Benito, the South Texas border town credited for spawning the Mexican-polka sound of conjunto. The son of migrant workers who did his own share of picking crops, he also was exposed to the blues sung by blacks alongside the Mexicans in the fields.
Always a performer, he sang on the radio as a boy and won contests for his singing — one prize included a tub full of about $10 worth of food.
But his career really began in the late '50s, when he returned from serving in the Marines and recorded Spanish-language versions of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell." The recordings were hits in Mexico and South America.
He signed with Imperial Records in 1959, renaming himself "Fender" after the brand of his electric guitar, "Freddy" because it sounded good with Fender.
Fender initially recorded "Wasted Days" in 1960. But his career was put on hold shortly after that when he and his bass player ended up spending almost three years in prison in Angola, La., for marijuana possession.
After prison came a few years in New Orleans and a then an everyday life taking college classes, working as a mechanic and playing an occasional local gig. He once said he sang in bars so dingy he performed with his eyes shut "dreaming I was on `The Ed Sullivan Show.'"
"I felt there's no great American dream for this ex-Chicano migrant farm worker," he told the AP. "I'd picked too many crops and too many strings."
But his second break came when he was persuaded to record "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" on an independent label in 1974 and it was picked up by a major label. With its success, he won the Academy of Country Music's best new artist award in 1975. He re-released "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and it climbed to the top of the charts as well.
Cristina Balli, spokeswoman for the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito, said Fender illustrated the diversity of Mexican-American and Latino musicians.
"We have our feet in different worlds and different cultures," she said. "We have our roots music ... but then we branch out to other things, pick up different styles. I think he was the precursor to Los Lonely Boys."
Fender's later years were marred by health problems resulting in a kidney transplant from his daughter, Marla Huerta Garcia, in January 2002 and a liver transplant in 2004. Fender was to have lung surgery in early 2006 until surgeons found tumors.
"I feel very comfortable in my life," Fender told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in August. "I'm one year away from 70 and I've had a good run. I really believe I'm OK. In my mind and in my heart, I feel OK. I cannot complain that I haven't lived long enough, but I'd like to live longer."
Rogers said Fender will be brought back to San Benito for a funeral and memorial services. Details on the arrangements were pending.
Serious Saturday in the SEC
By Mark Schlabach - ESPN.com
Two weeks after Separation Saturday, things get downright serious in the SEC this weekend.
Three games featuring five teams ranked No. 13 or better in the Associated Press Top 25 poll could go a long way in determining which two teams will play in the Dec. 2 SEC championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.
No. 5 Florida hosts No. 9 LSU at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla., in what could be an elimination game for the Tigers. Having already lost to Auburn 7-3 two weeks ago, LSU (4-1, 1-1 SEC) can't afford to lose another conference game. If the Gators (5-0, 3-0 SEC) prevail, Auburn would then have to lose at least three times in SEC play for LSU to win the SEC West.
"It's a big SEC game," Gators quarterback Chris Leak said. "This is why you go to school at places like Florida and LSU. You want to play in big games like this."
The Gators' offense has performed much better in its second season under coach Urban Meyer, leading the SEC in total offense and averaging more than 30 points per game. But Florida hasn't faced a defense as menacing as LSU's, which leads Division I-A in total defense (193.4 yards per game) and is second in scoring defense (7.4 points per game).
"LSU is obviously known for having a great defense," Leak said. "They've got a lot of veterans. They're a very disciplined defense. You can tell just by watching them on film that they're very well coached. They run to the football and cover their areas very well."
The Gators might be without senior tailback DeShawn Wynn, who sprained his knee in last week's 28-13 victory over Alabama. Wynn's absence would put even more pressure on Leak, who has thrown an SEC-high 14 touchdowns with four interceptions. The Tigers have allowed only one touchdown pass in five games.
"They have changed some in their offensive scheme it appears -- a little bit more traditional, a little bit more two-back," LSU coach Les Miles said. "I think [Leak] has a strong arm. He can move his feet. He is very competitive. You have to keep him corralled."
If Florida falters, No. 13 Tennessee (4-1, 0-1 SEC) could climb back into the SEC East race with a win at No. 10 Georgia on Saturday night. The Volunteers lost to Florida 21-20 in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 16, so a loss to the Bulldogs (5-0, 2-0 SEC) would put them two games behind Georgia and possibly three behind the Gators in the league standings.
Tennessee has won its last two games against Marshall and Memphis by a combined score of 74-14.
"Pounding it against a team like Memphis is a lot different than pounding it against Georgia or Florida's front," Vols coach Phillip Fulmer told reporters on Sunday. "When we get to where we can do that a little bit better, then I'll put the stamp of approval on our guys up front. We're a little banged up and still trying like heck to get better. They did a good job this past week, so I'm not going to spoil their party. But we've still got a ways to go."
Georgia, which has struggled the last two weeks in wins over Colorado and Ole Miss, has won five of its last six games against Tennessee. The Volunteers won at Sanford Stadium 19-14 in 2004, when Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge was a freshman.
"There's a lot of things we've got to get better at, probably in a hurry," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. "If we don't, we won't stay undefeated very long."
No. 2 Auburn hosts unranked Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., the beginning of a stretch in which the Tigers (5-0, 3-0 SEC) will play five of their last seven games at home. The Razorbacks (3-1, 2-0 SEC) have lost their last three games against the Tigers, and haven't beaten a top-five ranked team since upsetting No. 5 Texas 38-28 on Sept. 13, 2003.
Auburn has won 20 of its last 21 games against SEC opponents, after escaping with a 24-17 win at South Carolina on Thursday night.
The Razorbacks are 2-0 in SEC play for the first time since 1998. They lead the SEC in rushing offense with 187.8 yards per game, and sophomore Darren McFadden has two 100-yard games this season after dislocating his toe during a fight before the preseason.
"It's a typical Arkansas offense," Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. "They're very physical up front. What I see is what I've seen for a long time at Arkansas. They're tough. They've added some things from a formation standpoint in the throwing game. They're doing a few different things."
Two weeks after Separation Saturday, things get downright serious in the SEC this weekend.
Three games featuring five teams ranked No. 13 or better in the Associated Press Top 25 poll could go a long way in determining which two teams will play in the Dec. 2 SEC championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.
No. 5 Florida hosts No. 9 LSU at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla., in what could be an elimination game for the Tigers. Having already lost to Auburn 7-3 two weeks ago, LSU (4-1, 1-1 SEC) can't afford to lose another conference game. If the Gators (5-0, 3-0 SEC) prevail, Auburn would then have to lose at least three times in SEC play for LSU to win the SEC West.
"It's a big SEC game," Gators quarterback Chris Leak said. "This is why you go to school at places like Florida and LSU. You want to play in big games like this."
The Gators' offense has performed much better in its second season under coach Urban Meyer, leading the SEC in total offense and averaging more than 30 points per game. But Florida hasn't faced a defense as menacing as LSU's, which leads Division I-A in total defense (193.4 yards per game) and is second in scoring defense (7.4 points per game).
"LSU is obviously known for having a great defense," Leak said. "They've got a lot of veterans. They're a very disciplined defense. You can tell just by watching them on film that they're very well coached. They run to the football and cover their areas very well."
The Gators might be without senior tailback DeShawn Wynn, who sprained his knee in last week's 28-13 victory over Alabama. Wynn's absence would put even more pressure on Leak, who has thrown an SEC-high 14 touchdowns with four interceptions. The Tigers have allowed only one touchdown pass in five games.
"They have changed some in their offensive scheme it appears -- a little bit more traditional, a little bit more two-back," LSU coach Les Miles said. "I think [Leak] has a strong arm. He can move his feet. He is very competitive. You have to keep him corralled."
If Florida falters, No. 13 Tennessee (4-1, 0-1 SEC) could climb back into the SEC East race with a win at No. 10 Georgia on Saturday night. The Volunteers lost to Florida 21-20 in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 16, so a loss to the Bulldogs (5-0, 2-0 SEC) would put them two games behind Georgia and possibly three behind the Gators in the league standings.
Tennessee has won its last two games against Marshall and Memphis by a combined score of 74-14.
"Pounding it against a team like Memphis is a lot different than pounding it against Georgia or Florida's front," Vols coach Phillip Fulmer told reporters on Sunday. "When we get to where we can do that a little bit better, then I'll put the stamp of approval on our guys up front. We're a little banged up and still trying like heck to get better. They did a good job this past week, so I'm not going to spoil their party. But we've still got a ways to go."
Georgia, which has struggled the last two weeks in wins over Colorado and Ole Miss, has won five of its last six games against Tennessee. The Volunteers won at Sanford Stadium 19-14 in 2004, when Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge was a freshman.
"There's a lot of things we've got to get better at, probably in a hurry," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. "If we don't, we won't stay undefeated very long."
No. 2 Auburn hosts unranked Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., the beginning of a stretch in which the Tigers (5-0, 3-0 SEC) will play five of their last seven games at home. The Razorbacks (3-1, 2-0 SEC) have lost their last three games against the Tigers, and haven't beaten a top-five ranked team since upsetting No. 5 Texas 38-28 on Sept. 13, 2003.
Auburn has won 20 of its last 21 games against SEC opponents, after escaping with a 24-17 win at South Carolina on Thursday night.
The Razorbacks are 2-0 in SEC play for the first time since 1998. They lead the SEC in rushing offense with 187.8 yards per game, and sophomore Darren McFadden has two 100-yard games this season after dislocating his toe during a fight before the preseason.
"It's a typical Arkansas offense," Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. "They're very physical up front. What I see is what I've seen for a long time at Arkansas. They're tough. They've added some things from a formation standpoint in the throwing game. They're doing a few different things."
ESPN Must SE-See
On ESPN Full Circle Tonight, FLA vs Auburn
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Stunning upsets. Thrilling comebacks. Heisman Trophy moments. Even a 24-year jinx.
The Florida-Auburn rivalry has had it all.
There were famous kicks by Steve Spurrier -- yes, that Steve Spurrier -- and Damon Duval. There was the Gators stuffing Bo Jackson in 1985 and rising to No. 1 for the first time.
And what about the so-called Cliff Hare Stadium jinx, when Florida failed to win at Auburn's place from 1949-72? The entire time the stadium held that name, in fact.
But you don't have to go back nearly that far to appreciate the rivalry that will be renewed Saturday night, when No. 2 Florida (6-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) and No. 11 Auburn (5-1, 3-1) meet in another high-stakes showdown.
Just consider, for starters, the last two meetings:
• In 2001, an unranked Auburn team knocked off Spurrier and No. 1 Florida 23-20 on Damon Duval's 44-yard field goal with 10 seconds left. The kick was set up by the passing of backup quarterback Daniel Cobb, who replaced a struggling Jason Campbell.
• The next season, Auburn scored two touchdowns and converted a pair of 2-point conversions in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Duval had another chance to win it, but Bobby McCray blocked his 23-yarder with 30 seconds left. Then Rex Grossman hit Taylor Jacobs on a 25-yard, third-down touchdown pass in overtime for a 30-23 victory.
Current Auburn defensive back Patrick Lee watched that one on television.
"I was like, 'That's a big game and I'd love to be in it,"' Lee, a Miami native, said. "I can't wait for this one. It's going to be lovely out there."
It sure could be, judging by history.
The teams haven't played since that 2002 game. The annual rivalry was a casualty of an SEC scheduling change that rotated non-divisional opponents, to the dismay of David Housel and Norm Carlson. They're the resident football historians at their respective schools.
"To me that's kind of like Oklahoma and Nebraska not playing every year," said Housel, retired from posts as Auburn's athletic and sports information director. "There are some rivalries that should just be played."
"There have just been so many great games over the years," echoed Carlson, Florida's former SID. "I really miss it."
Georgia and Georgia Tech are the only teams Auburn has faced more often than the Gators, and the Tigers lead the series by a not-so-commanding 40-38-2. Florida has played only Georgia more often.
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Stunning upsets. Thrilling comebacks. Heisman Trophy moments. Even a 24-year jinx.
The Florida-Auburn rivalry has had it all.
There were famous kicks by Steve Spurrier -- yes, that Steve Spurrier -- and Damon Duval. There was the Gators stuffing Bo Jackson in 1985 and rising to No. 1 for the first time.
And what about the so-called Cliff Hare Stadium jinx, when Florida failed to win at Auburn's place from 1949-72? The entire time the stadium held that name, in fact.
But you don't have to go back nearly that far to appreciate the rivalry that will be renewed Saturday night, when No. 2 Florida (6-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) and No. 11 Auburn (5-1, 3-1) meet in another high-stakes showdown.
Just consider, for starters, the last two meetings:
• In 2001, an unranked Auburn team knocked off Spurrier and No. 1 Florida 23-20 on Damon Duval's 44-yard field goal with 10 seconds left. The kick was set up by the passing of backup quarterback Daniel Cobb, who replaced a struggling Jason Campbell.
• The next season, Auburn scored two touchdowns and converted a pair of 2-point conversions in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Duval had another chance to win it, but Bobby McCray blocked his 23-yarder with 30 seconds left. Then Rex Grossman hit Taylor Jacobs on a 25-yard, third-down touchdown pass in overtime for a 30-23 victory.
Current Auburn defensive back Patrick Lee watched that one on television.
"I was like, 'That's a big game and I'd love to be in it,"' Lee, a Miami native, said. "I can't wait for this one. It's going to be lovely out there."
It sure could be, judging by history.
The teams haven't played since that 2002 game. The annual rivalry was a casualty of an SEC scheduling change that rotated non-divisional opponents, to the dismay of David Housel and Norm Carlson. They're the resident football historians at their respective schools.
"To me that's kind of like Oklahoma and Nebraska not playing every year," said Housel, retired from posts as Auburn's athletic and sports information director. "There are some rivalries that should just be played."
"There have just been so many great games over the years," echoed Carlson, Florida's former SID. "I really miss it."
Georgia and Georgia Tech are the only teams Auburn has faced more often than the Gators, and the Tigers lead the series by a not-so-commanding 40-38-2. Florida has played only Georgia more often.
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