Well, 9/9/9, came and went without the apocalypse and whatnot. That's probably a good thing. Anyone buying the hype on this 2012/Mayan calendar "I know that the threat of nuclear war and Y2K didn't quite end the world, but this one is for real" rhetoric at this point? You know that all these scares were started by the makers of Campbell's soup and Aquafina so we would stock up "just in case", right?
Anyways, I am up and at 'em on what will be my "Friday" of this week. I am taking the gf out to a nice Italian dinner and "Wicked" tomorrow night so we thought we'd take the day off together. It should be fun...
However, before we get to that I believe the NFL season is starting tonight...Steelers and Titans. Lendale White told a reporter that he would repeat the literal stomp he performed on a Steelers' Terrible Towel last season, if given the chance. I love it when dudes shoot their mouths off before games like this and not in an appreciative way. I would be willing to put my lovely LCD TV on the line in a bet waging that in games preceded by a cocky player from the other team shooting his mouth off to provide his opponent with bulletin board fodder, that the opponent wins 95+% of the time. You think James Harrison and the Steelers defense aren't jacked for this game even more now? I have never understood why NFL players give their opponents MORE reason to hit them when hitting the offense is the defense's competitive duty to begin with. Ugh, I would hate to be that former USC back (White) tonight. He's going to get smoked.
Speaking of USC, they have to deal with my Buckeyes who seemingly did not do their homework and/or were not focused on a pesky Navy team last week. I hate to say "I told you so", but I said last Saturday that this Ohio State did not warrant such a favorable ranking (#6) to start the season. That is not to say that I wasn't impressed with Terrelle Pryor in his season debut. I really disagreed with Jim Tressel's decision to insert tOSU's back-up QB in the fifth series (to get him some live action). I felt it messed with Pryor's and the offense's rhythm.
Let's be honest though, even as a blatantly biased Buckeye fan, the boys didn't finish off Navy last week when they should have. They were up 29-14 with around twelve minutes to go in the fourth quarter and should have showed some "killer instinct" and finished them. However, I'm sure that it's easy to let your next week opponent sneak into your head at that point, especially when they literally embarrassed you last year on national television. However, I think this is a telling sign of a young team early in a season. If Tressel would have had the team focused on Navy last week ALL DAY, I would be beaming with confidence going into this Saturday's contest. However, I think that tOSU has a couple X-factors here that will help them win on Saturday: playing at home and Pryor. On the other hand too, for all of you that are singing Matt Barkley's praises after his debut last Saturday, tOSU is definitely NOT San Jose State. He's coming into the HORSESHOE against a defense that, albeit, looked questionable last Saturday, but probably is going to show much more to a USC offense in terms of blitz packages than it did to a team like Navy. Now, I'm not discrediting the fact that USC is about 14 quality running backs deep and their secondary is among the best in the country, but I feel good about the Buckeyes' chances this Saturday in Columbus.
One parting comment: Nice job by the US Men's soccer team this past week. Despite playing lackluster at times in both matches, they got the six points they so desperately needed to move to the top of the qualifying table and move one win away from South Africa next summer. And I will also say, I wholeheartedly appreciated Landon Donovan's performances in both matches....three goals for the team this week- all assisted by LD. Like I said, he's the catalyst. Remember, DTRT...
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