Sunday, November 30, 2008

Oregon 65 Oregon State 38 : Rose Bowl Hopes Trampled Underfoot








Okay, there is still a slim chance the Beavers could go the granddaddy of them all if somehow the UCLA Bruins find a way to defeat USC this coming weekend, but the pummeling that the Oregon Ducks gave the Beavers yesterday was about as sweet as it gets.



Consider some of the staggering numbers: 694 yards of total offense for the Ducks, an average of over 10 yards per play, 385 yards rushing against one of the top defenses in the country, with Jeremiah Johnson getting over 200 yards of that total in the first half alone. 12 completed passes for 309 yards, including a terrifically defended effort on a pass from freshman Darron Thomas that set up one Duck score.


The name of the game was breaks, and all of them went Oregon's way. A blown interception attempt on the second Duck drive, a couple of Beaver drives into the red zone that ended with just a field goal or no points at all in addition to some athletic offensive plays that certainly took the wind out of the Beaver defense in situations when they were defending well, the best example of that would certainly have to be the pass that Jeremiah Masoli made as he was going out of bounds early in the fourth quarter, finding tight end Ed Dickson for a spectacular 45 yard gain. This play was made even sweeter by the blocking of receiver Jaison Williams, who took out two Beavers at the same time in the play. I have to say that this play will certainly be ranked in my top ten Duck plays of all time.


Sure, there was a lot to nitpick about: abysmal third down defense, especially in the first half, some shoddy kick off and coverage efforts, and a ton of penalties. But, a Civil War victory is always something to appreciate, one that is made immeasurably better by severely damaging their hopes for a Rose Bowl appearance.



It was great driving around town early this morning to buy the papers, it certainly seemed to be that only Duck fans were about, we all waved, signaled, and honked our horns to each other at the recognition.



I do feel sorry for a large number of Beaver fans, the good kind who can keep the rivalry in its proper perspective, but for the large number of "beaver" "nation" "citizens" around here, it will be smiles and laughter all the way round for a long, long time to come. Plus spontaneous rounds of singing the chorus of Dead Flowers by the Rolling Stones. Get yer ya-yas out indeed!



REGISTER-GUARD , GAZETTE TIMES , ESPN


Let's Go Ducks!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Don't Do That, Can't You Read The Sign?


Helpful hints in a Hyderabad (India) restaurant. I just wonder what happened before to cause the owners to act to put up such warnings. The link to the original posts are HERE .

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Will The Beavers Beat Arizona?



Being a little bleary from an all-day viewing extravaganza (some excellent EPL action in which Chelsea/Newcastle and Aston Villa/Man United both drew 0-0, as did Liverpool/Fulham, while Arsenal got thrashed 3-0 to Man City.......ha ha ha....along with some college gridiron action as the Buckeyes got on track to steamroll Michigan with a strong second half, Notre Dame loses to Syracuse on a late touchdown and the Cougars beat Washington in 2OT 16-13 as the Dawgs coug-it to let a late lead slip away to finish the season winless at 0-12), it is time to take a break and save a little time to concentrate on the Texas Tech at Oklahoma game starting in a little over an hour. The question remains is whether or not the Rodents will beat the Arizona Wildcats down in Tucson in a game that starts in a few minutes. We've taken the liberty to ask the always reliable Magic 8-Ball "will the Beavers win?" The highly scientific results speak for themselves, and for added support, BEAR DOWN ARIZONA.......BEAR DOWN RED AND BLUE!



7 p.m. edit: Congrats to the Beavs on a thrilling come from behind victory, my Beaver brother in Los Angeles is very very happy, but he knows next week will be a challenge indeed. In other related news, the aforementioned magic eight ball has been "decommissioned" in replace of a newer one that will give a more accurate forecast. :P

Monday, November 17, 2008

Wallace And Gromit New Short Update


Just noticed the interview with W+G creator Nick Park in today's Guardian, updating the story announced a little bit over a year ago about how Park preferred making short films as opposed to making feature Hollywood pictures. No word yet as to when this new short will show up on these shores, but I will certainly be on the lookout for it.


The pic is a still from the new short entitled A Matter of Loaf and Death , which finds the duo the proprietors of a bakery. A couple of more small details can be found HERE ; the notion that the short has been hailed as "life affirming" (noted in the article) is something that gives me a bit of cheer in these dark days.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Taleban On WHYS



So today the BBC's WORLD HAVE YOUR SAY aired a Taleban spokesman answering questions from a number of listeners around the world concerning a number of issues, the feeling I got from listening to the answers reminded me of the feeling I got sitting in the theaters watching the last episode of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Return Of The King, when the assembled armies of the West gathered before the gates of Mordor in their final effort to buy time for Frodo and Samwise to accomplish their task. The Mouth of Sauron then makes his appearance to deliver his empty lies to those gathered before him in the darkland.


In both instances I found myself not able to believe a single word that either of them said, with the vague promises of "we'll see what happens when we're in power" from the Taleban spokesman regarding Afghanistan issues as a prelude to really strike back at those who do not agree with their world views. ( Have to say I did not listen to the whole show, I did have to get out of the truck to do my work, so I'll be checking out the podcast from the whole show this weekend.)



WORLD HAVE YOUR SAY BLOG



Coincidence or not? Now playing on Winamp as I write this, it's Born With A Tail by the Supersuckers.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Man City 1 Spurs 2: Resurgence Continues

Quite a nice come-from-behind victory for Harry Redknapp and Spurs today as they overcome an early goal from Robinho goal to claim the three points behind two Darren Bent goals at the City of Manchester Stadium.



Followed this one by gametracker early on, knowing that there'd be a replay on FSC at 1:30 p.m., but the recent Spurs renaissance had me glued to the computer early this morning (okay, I would've been doing that even if they hadn't been taking points lately!).


This really was a bit of an oddity of a game, given that there were three red cards handed out and that there wasn't any nasty stuff going on between the two sides from what I could see, it's just that the precedent of what was going to be allowed was set early on and after that there could be no deviation.


Robinho got his goal in the 16th minute on a rebound shot, but City's Gelson Fernandes received two yellows in the first 26 minutes, leaving the home side with 10 men for the balance of the match.........until much later. Spurs leveled just a couple of minutes later when Richard Dunne made an error on a clearance, allowing Bent enough space and time to race forward to drive the ball past a jumble of City defenders and goalie Joe Hart.


Bent got his second goal and gave Spurs a deserved lead in the 64th minute, but City managed a couple of attempts on goal that Heurelho Gomes did well to deflect, particularly shots from Stephen Ireland and Robinho that were impressive in their own right. I must say that the uneasiness I'd felt earlier this season watching Gomes wasn't to be found today.


Dunne got sent off in the 83rd minute for a tackle on David Bentley, leaving City with just nine, but Spurs didn't capitalize on that advantage, and just a few minutes later, the game was reduced to 10 on 9 when Benoit Assou-Ekotto for Spurs was given the red card for a hard tackle on Pablo Zabaleta.


At the end of the day, Spurs were certainly deserving of all three points, Luka Modric in particular being active on the front end of things early on in establishing offensive movement.


Up next Saturday is a visit to Craven Cottage and Fulham, who were victors over a hapless Newcastle side as well today 2-1; it should be a good battle between two London clubs that deserve to stay in the EPL. Come on you Spurs!!!






BBC , GUARDIAN

Oregon 35 Stanford 28: Rally In The Rain

First things first: I don't think I was as soggy at the end of the 2001 Civil War as I was at the end of this game; my Timberland boots didn't offer nearly enough protection as I thought they might, and my socks were a sodden mess by the end of the day. By the time the third quarter rolled around, I might as well have been wearing shorts instead of pants for the amount of moisture that article of clothing had absorbed by then. By the end of the game, I certainly felt as if I had taken a three hour shower in my clothes, I could not wait to get to get to my car and change my clothes.


At any rate, it was , umm, an interesting game to say the least in terms of sloppy play and turnovers, with Oregon doing providing most of those with more continuing adventures of playing football in a driving rainstorm, the lessons from last week in Berkeley not completely learned it seems.


The final score might show that it seemed like the Ducks tallied five touchdowns and Stanford scored four, with all extra points made, but the Ducks actually got four, two from LaGarrete Blount, including the game winner with six seconds left, while Stanford made three. Field goals, missed two point conversions and a safety where the ball was hiked out of the back of the endzone were the reasons for the score ending as it did.



Oregon lost the ball on fumbles four times, the reason that Stanford had possession of the ball for nearly 40 minutes. The Duck defense did a pretty good job in limiting the amount of damage in such short field situations (special teams did them no favors in that regard either a couple of times).


The Ducks ran the ball very, very well (307 yards total) and quarterback Jeremiah Masoli did better in the passing game than in his last couple of games(not good enough for a vocal minority though, more on that later) to complement that aspect enough to keep Stanford off-balance. Oregon also had Morgan Flint take over the field goal and extra point duties from Matt Evenson, and Flint did well, though his two attempts, both successful, were from 37 and 26 yards. We'll see later if he is able to take on the 50+ yard attempts that Evenson had a good percentage making. Evenson did play as the kicker on kickoffs, and had a so-so day, having one kick go out of bound and short kicking another to the ten yard line. That kick led to a return to midfield and set up the first Stanford touchdown.


Jeremiah Johnson had another great day running the ball, and the second Duck touchdown came via a spectacular 41-yard run late in the first quarter where he refused to hit the ground after being corralled by a couple of Stanford tacklers. He finished the game with 135 yards on 15 carries (Blount had 90 yards on 10 carries for the game).


Masoli did a better job in not being so 'run-happy' in the pocket and looking for receivers quicker; unfortunately for him, on a few wide open attempts, he threw the ball a few yards into the ground in front of the receiver, earning a chorus of disgruntlement from the aformentioned vocal minority. (In my section, 13, none of the people around me were booing, they were just a bit exasperated by the growing process going on in front of our eyes; we certainly don't forget that with the running part of his game, Masoli has done a lot to make his case for playing time. Also, where in the world would Oregon be if Masoli hadn't wanted to come play at Oregon? The kid is playing his heart out there and to boo him for a bad play is not something I'd ever do; I'm know damn well he feels bad for his erratic play at times).


I thought the defense did a good job on getting pressure on the Stanford quarterbacks, but gave up too many third and long situations that helped the Cardinal get back in the game after trailing 17-3 (the Duck fumbles after that helped keep the Cardinal in it). The worst aspect of the defense was letting Anthony Kimble get a ton of yards up the middle, but for the most part the defense did not let the big play beat them. It did, however, get suckered badly on a fake field goal early on in the second half, when holder Bo McNally took the snap and ran uncontested eight yards up the middle to tie the score at 17.


It had briefly crossed my mind in the first quarter to watch part of the second half from the Moshofsky center ( I wasn't feeling particularly well to begin the day with at any rate), but I found myself rooted to my seat watching the ebb and flow of the dynamics of the game grab hold of my senses and keep me nailed there, the end result being the wet mess I ended up in (I'm no worse for the wear and tear, thankfully, I'd kicked myself today had I left). Arizona is up next Saturday in the last home game of the year, there's nothing I'd like better than to give one of the Stoops brothers something to cry about. Let's go Ducks!!!!






REGISTER-GUARD , ESPN

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Obama Not Perfect: He's A Hammer!

In the avalanche of information about Barack Obama from the last couple of years, I somehow missed this bit of info that the half-sister of the President-elect, who lives in England, is a fan of West Ham. With the news of his election this past Tuesday, the club have now offered him the chance to visit the grounds of the club whenever he makes his first trip to Britain.


Maybe he can somehow manage to view the movie Green Street Hooligans and get Osama bin Laden over to watch Arsenal at a London derby in East London, take out the bin Laden crew with some help from the ICF, and many wrongs in the world might be suddenly righted. In a similar vein of reality stretching, it's been announced that I've become engaged to Yamila Diaz Rahi.


In other Obama-related news, there is touchingly now a craze in Kenya, the land of Obama's father, for parents of newborns to name their children either Barack or Michelle, after Obama's wife, in the wake of Obama's historic win.



OBAMA THE HAMMER , NAMES

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Spurs 2 Liverpool 1: Stand By Your Jamie Carragher


So what if the final score doesn't tell the tale of the game? The only thing that matters is the final score, and on a soaking wet night in north London, Spurs had two go into the net for them, whilst the visiting scousers were limited to just one. Even though Spurs were outplayed for large stretches of the match, they got their goals when they needed them most against the league leaders.


Liverpool got on the board early, and fairly easily, in just the third minute as Dirk Kuyt slipped in a close shot amidst a loose Spurs defense and just like that, all of the momentum that had been created in the past week with the win versus Bolton and the dramatic tie against the Arse had been subdued.



It's no secret that Spurs hardly ever challenged to score in the first half, but more than held their own on the defensive end, sometimes by good fortune, to keep the score at 0-1.



Things improved in the second half in terms of offensive movement for Spurs in the second half, but it took an own goal from Liverpool's Jamie Carragher (his third that he's scored for Spurs) to get Spurs level at the 70 minute mark. From that point on, belief that the three points were there for the taking grew amongst Spurs fans and players, and Spurs certainly were the more aggressive team over the last quarter of the match.


It took a shot from Roman Pavlyuchenko on a cross from Darren Bent at the beginning of extra time to give Spurs the lead, causing much enthusiasm amongst the faithful crowd who had endured a long wet night in London, whilst Liverpool certainly looked a bit shellshocked from that point on. After a bit more than four minutes, the final whistle sounded and the Spurs fans rejoiced about their new found luck that has coincided with the appointment of Harry Redknapp, seeing that Spurs have grabbed seven out of a possible nine points to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.



Always pleased to use the "pic" of "scousers" above, twas a great win today. Come on you Spurs!



BBC , GUARDIAN