More Football

Something weird's going on with Blogger. I dunno what.

2:06 pm - Michigan State is making a furious comeback against Purdue. They lead 35-31 with 4:24 left in the game after a blocked punt and recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. It's a game of inches.

2:15 pm - Michigan State escapes with a 35-31 win over Purdue, and with Wisconsin's win, they are guaranteed to lead the Big Ten for at least another week. And it was a great game - upset potential, Rose Bowl implications, a comeback, blocked punt, turnovers, and finally a defensive stand to win the game. Is it bad taste to call them the Heart Attack Kids? Probably, yes. Win at Penn State next week, and they'll be going to some BCS bowl, but not necessarily the Rose.

As for Purdue, they've lost their fifth in a row, and are now ineligible for a bowl game. Tough break, Boilermakers.

2:32 pm - Final: Harvard 28, Yale 21. This game was on the Versus Network. I would've watched it if I had known.

2:39 pm - Holy shit! They're playing football in Wrigley Field! Illinois 7, Northwestern 0. "There will be no wind advantage in this game." And I have to watch the game on my laptop, because ABC had Ohio State-Iowa on. In Urbana, Illinois. Douchebags.

Recovery Illinois! Go Illini!

Some friends from work are at this game. I thought about going for a minute, but then was like,"What? Wear my Oregon shirt and White Sox cap? Don't need a blackeye today, thank you kindly."

2:50 pm - Illinois 14, Northwestern 0. Win, and the Illini get a bowl bid. They're playing like it, too. In other news, Stanford 3, Cal 0. Big Game. A Cal win guarantees the Ducks win the Pac-10. Go Cal.

3:07 pm - Illinois 21, Northwestern 7. I am loving this game. I hope that they can figure out more ways to have games at Wrigley. This may not have any importance or impact outside of Chicagoland, but inside, this is cool. And where did this dominant Illini o-line come from?

4:02 pm - Stanford 31, Cal 0. Ouch - sorry Bears. Their schizophrenia continues; after playing Oregon tough, they're getting crushed at home in the Big Game. Barring an historic second half comeback - and this is the Big Game, so I'm not ready to rule anything out yet - California will need a big win against Washington in order to become bowl eligible. If I were the Huskies, I would be very nervous.

Illinois 27, Northwestern 24, Halftime. It's messy, sloppy, bad defense, lots of mistakes. But damn, this game is exciting! In the first half, the two teams have combined for 51 points, 514 total yards, and 5 interceptions. Big Ten football!

4:33 pm - On ESPN.com, there's this little statistic: "The Illinois-Northwestern game featured 35 points in the first quarter alone. It took the Chicago Cubs nine games to get to 35 runs this season." Yes. Because football and baseball are different games.

We're watching The Fifth Element on TV right now. I love this movie.

4:56 pm - Iowa 17, Ohio St. 10. 4th Quarter. Lots of time left.

5:15 pm - How are we supposed to rank the one-loss teams?

#7 Wisconsin: W @ Michigan, 48-28
#6 Stanford: Leading @ California, 48-7, 4th Q
#5 LSU: Trailing vs. Mississippi 23-24, 3rd Q

Just being in the SEC should not give your team an automatic edge in the rankings.

5:45 pm - Speaking of one-loss teams... #9 Ohio State just came back to beat #20 Iowa 20-17. I really like Jim Tressel and his no-nonsense, no drama style. On the other hand, LSU just took a 35-30 lead over Ole Miss. How much do you wanna bet that Les Miles pulls out the win in a much more mad-cap style then Tressel did?

Final: Illinois 48- Northwestern 27. Big game for the Illini, even though it came with NU's starting quarterback hurt. Illinois is now bowl eligible - they could be headed to the Texas Bowl against a Big 12 team, or possibly take one of the Pac-10's unfulfilled bowls, like the Maaco Bowl or the Kraft Hungry Bowl.