Category: Sports

Finally – a week of meaningful games.

#6 Oregon beat #3 Penn State in OT. I didn’t watch that game, but as I reviewed the stats, I couldn’t figure out how Penn State made it that close. Oregon had more passing yards, more rushing yards, fewer turnovers, more first downs, fewer punts, and greater time of possession. They didn’t just do a little bit better, they dominated every category. Given all that, I’m glad the game went their way. A loss would have been unjust. I have been thinking that Oregon and Ohio State are the top two teams this year, but the dream match-up will not occur, at least not during the regular season. There are so many teams in these new super-conferences that the teams can’t play each other every year.

#4 LSU got bumped off by #13 Ole Miss. That’s another game where the score was close, but the stats were not. Ole Miss totally dominated, 484 yards to 256.

#5 Georgia also lost, to a resurgent Alabama. It was another close game, this time between evenly matched teams. Alabama went Full Fridge in that game. Ty Simpson threw a pass to Kadyn Proctor, who is approximately the size of Galactus. (Just your typical svelte, speedy, nearly 400-pound wide receiver!) Proctor just stomped on a few puny humans on his way to a first down, just short of a TD. The big galoot never really got tackled. He just sort of stumbled clumsily out of bounds. It goes into the books as a rushing play because the passer was ahead of the receiver, so it’s technically a lateral. (Video). By the way, Georgia mysteriously finished that game with a missing player. Most people believe that Proctor ate him.

How many headlines did I read about #8 Florida State’s “shocking” loss. Shocking? Say what? Did people think they could keep playing Kent State every week? I wasn’t expecting them to lose, but I wasn’t at all surprised. For the last two weeks I have listed Florida State among the most overrated teams o’ the week. Their #8 ranking was baffling. It wasn’t as baffling as Illinois being in the top ten for a while, or South Florida being in the top 20 for a week, but it was a case of overrating. If you really pay close attention, that game wasn’t even an upset. The bookies favored the Seminoles by 7, but Sagarin’s computer system actually had Virginia as a (very slight) favorite in that game.

With 3, 4, 5 and 8 all losing, there were opportunities for the other teams to advance in the polls. Oregon rose to #2, as expected. Ole Miss vaulted nine spots to #4. Indiana and Alabama joined the top ten.

The computer rankings

Full scoreboard

Overrated teams o’ the week:

We are now getting to the time of the year when the computers and the voters are approaching agreement. There are still two teams out of line:

Iowa State. Computers #28, polls #14. Given their schedule, Iowa State has an outside chance to finish the season undefeated, which would undoubtedly get them into the playoff. I don’t think any of the pre-season pundits predicted anything like that.

Georgia Tech. Computers #33, polls #17. Well, they’ll finish the regular season by hosting Georgia, as usual, so an undefeated season would be tough, but they always play tough against Georgia. Two years ago, when Georgia came into the game #1 in the nation and Tech was 6-5, the game was 31-23. Last year, when Georgia held the home field advantage, the Ramblin’ Wrecks dragged the game out to eight overtimes before giving up the ghost. (Tech actually beat two top ten teams last year, and also had to face Georgia and Notre Dame. Tough schedule!)

Totally irrelevant opinion: The Ramblin’ Wrecks would be the best team name ever! “Yellowjackets” is pedestrian.

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Following the Big 4 on the disappointment circuit:

Oklahoma State and UCLA lost again. It’s gonna be a long, hard year for those kids, especially for UCLA. The B Ruins are 0-4 and still have to play three teams currently among the top eight in the country. The computers now have them ranked below Troy. OUCH!

Pre-season darlings Clemson and Florida were spared further humiliation because they didn’t play this week. Florida is 1-3, with their only win coming over a punching bag team. Their remaining schedule this year is just as tough as UCLA’s. They still have to face Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee – all of them currently in the top 15 in the nation. The Gators were #15 in the pre-season polls, but will be very fortunate to avoid a losing record.

There wasn’t much going on this week. It was the final week before universal conference play, so many of the big teams were either idle or playing against one of the punching-bag teams.

Texas, for example, took on mighty Sam Houston, a school known to Texas football fans as Sam Houston Institute of Technology because of what the initials spell. The spread was 40. Texas covered with ease.

Florida State played against the ultimate punching bag, Kent State. The Seminoles scored 35 in the first quarter, then lost interest in the score and decided to give everyone a chance to play. The Seminoles finished the game with about 500 rushing yards from 12 different ball carriers. They also had nearly 300 passing yards with four passers and ten different receivers. The spread was 45 and they covered.

Kent State has not defeated an FBS team since 2022. Things will not get better for them in their next game. They play Oklahoma. Give the kids credit. You can’t say they play a pussy schedule. They also played Texas Tech earlier this year.

There were a few items to note:

I mentioned last week that Illinois’ ranking in the top ten seemed ridiculous. It was much more absurd than I imagined. How often does a top ten team lose by fifty or more? Indiana beat them 63-10. Indiana seems to be for real this year. They may rise into in the top ten this week, and they will certainly be close.

On the other hand, I also thought #17 Texas Tech was overrated, but they proved me wrong by beating #16 Utah 34-10. Or maybe they proved that Utah didn’t belong there.

Florida was ranked #13 in the pre-season polls, and is now 1-3, locked in a competition with Clemson and Oklahoma State to be the season’s biggest disappointment. The Gators managed only seven points against #4 Miami. Clemson, #4 pre-season, lost to Syracuse this week and are now 1-3. Oklahoma State suffered the ultimate indignity this week: they thought they were playing a punching-bag team (Tulsa) – and lost to them! That is the first time Tulsa has defeated Oklahoma State in 27 years.

#22 Auburn and #11 Oklahoma were evenly matched. Oklahoma won it with some impressive defense, featuring ten sacks, thus making their own case for the top ten. Those sacks were personal – Auburn’s QB was Oklahoma’s QB last year! (That transfer portal has really changed the game.)

OK, I’ll stop making fun of Vanderbilt for a while. They rose to 4-0 by scoring 70 in a game where they gave their punter the day off. (They didn’t score on every possession. They went for it on fourth down every time, and failed twice.) The last time Vandy scored 70 in a game, movies were silent, Babe Ruth was still pitching for the Red Sox, and football crowds shouted things like “boola boola” and “stoutly accomplished, lads.” I grant you that Georgia State is not a such a formidable opponent, but they beat Vandy last year, so this game was sweet revenge.

Scoreboard

Computer rankings

New AP rankings

Overrated teams o’ the week

Two teams are now at least 15 places higher in the polls than in the computer analysis:

Florida State is #8 in the poll, #23 in the computer rankings. I guess we’ll see which is correct in two weeks, when the Miami Hurricanes (top five by both measurements) come to town.

Iowa State is #14 on the poll. That makes no sense to me or the computer, which assigns it #37. That is not likely to get adjusted much very soon. Their schedule worked out well for ’em. In their big conference, they can’t play every team every year, and this year they will not have to face Utah or Texas Tech. They will still have to hold off BYU and TCU to stay undefeated.

I have written in the past that Notre Dame could go 4-6 and some sportswriters would rank them #1. I was only half kidding.

But the computers?

Despite Notre Dame’s 0-2 record, Sagarin’s system ranks them #5 in the nation. OK, they have played an ambitious schedule, hardest of anyone, I get that, but … they’re ahead of the two teams that beat them.

It can be interesting to compare the polls to the computer rankings.

Overrated teams o’ the week:

Florida State: #29 or #7

Illinois: #22 or #9

Iowa State: #34 or #12

Texas Tech: #31 or #17

BYU: #44 or #26

South Florida: #68 or #27 (#18 last week!!)

Illinois in the top ten in the polls? I don’t buy them as #9. I think that will end when conference play gets going.

I suppose it will be at least another week before Florida State’s equally unlikely #7 ranking is challenged, given that their next opponent is everyone’s favorite punching bag, Kent State.

Most of the week consisted of big-time programs whipping up on jobbers. THE Ohio State University narrowly escaped with a 70-0 victory over Grambling, for example, and that was only the 3rd biggest margin of the week. Alabama beat UL Monroe by 73, and Florida State won by 74 over East Texas A&M, whoever they are. Florida State would have had a chance to score triple figures if they had tried. They were up 49-0 at the half.

Speaking of scoring 100, Minnesota was up 59-0 against Northwestern State (an FCS team) at halftime. They literally didn’t bother to finish that game after a weather delay.

Some take-aways from the week:

Clemson was obviously WAY overrated when it was ranked #4 in the pre-season polls. They lost last week, and were supposed to win one of those 60-0 games this week against Troy. Instead they went to the locker room at halftime facing a 16-3 deficit. They did come back, but … Troy?

Whatever happened to Oklahoma State? Just two years ago they were a major powerhouse, were nationally ranked, finished second in the conference, beat Oklahoma, and won their bowl game. Then things unraveled completely, despite playing under the same coach who has been there for 20 years. They lost every single one of their conference games last year. This year is not going any better. They lost to Oregon 69-3.

Texas Tech doubled up on jobbers. Last week they ran over Arkansas Pine-Bluff. This week they actually scheduled ever-hapless Kent State. They were ahead 48-0 at the half before easing up, thus crushing Kent State’s dream of a national championship.

There were no losses among the top eleven teams, but some of the lower-ranked Top 25 teams lost: #12 Arizona State, #13 Florida , #15 Michigan, #17 SMU. Most lost to good teams, but Florida had to be concerned after a loss to South Florida. Florida was favored by 18.

Scoreboard

The new polls after week two. Clemson’s poor showing in victory dropped them out of the top ten.

The new computer rankings after week 2

Most of the contests were “jobber games,” those mismatches in which powerful teams put up big numbers against weak, hand-picked opponents. The most ridiculous example this week was the Texas Tech game, in which the nationally-ranked Red Raiders took on the mighty Golden Lions of Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Tech was ahead 47-0 at halftime, when they finally took their feet off the gas.

But the week turned out to be more than jobber games. It’s unusual to see teams ranked 1, 4, 6, and 8 all lose in week 1, so there were a few highlights this week:

First and foremost, Kent State, the lowest-ranked FBS team in the nation last year on Sagarin’s computers, entering the game with a 21-game losing streak, found somebody worse to beat up, starting off on the road to the national championship! Their opponent was Merrimack, which is not only an FCS squad, but is one of only two FCS teams in the nation without even a conference to play in. Losing to Kent State was the worst thing to happen to Merrimack since the Monitor.

Y’know, the Merrimack Ironclads would be a great team name, but they resorted to the uninspired “Warriors.”

(Historical trivia: “Merrimack ironclad” is actually a misnomer. No such ship ever existed. There was no battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. The Battle of Hampton Roads was fought between the Monitor and the Virginia. Back when the ship had been named the Merrimack, it was a steam-powered wooden frigate, and that craft was burned by the North so it could not be used by the South. The Confederacy raised it and converted it to an ironclad called the CSS Virginia.)

My Texas Longhorns managed to spend exactly no weeks as the nation’s #1 team. They lost to THE Ohio State University in their first game of the year. Of course, there’s no shame in that because THE is the defending national champion and was rated #2 or #3 in the pre-season polls. Texas, despite being #1, was actually the betting underdog in that game. But I kinda hoped the pundits knew what they were talking about when Texas topped the pre-season rankings. It turns out that punditry is an inexact science. Who knew?

It was a bad time for all of my alma maters (almae matres?? I always sucked at Latin grammar). Texas is at least a good team. The school where I got my B.A. is Fordham, which lost its first game 66-10 to Boston College, and lost the final game of last year 19-3 to fucking Merrimack (see above), managing only 31 total yards in the process. My other grad school, The University of Rochester, just stopped trying. They play D3. They haven’t played yet this year, but they lost their final four games last year to teams you never heard of. (I think some of them might be all-girls’ high schools.)

#4 Clemson also lost, to #9 LSU.

Bill Belichick’s debut at North Carolina was a disaster, a 48-14 loss to TCU. According to one commenter, it is the first time any Belichick team has allowed that many points.

It was a very good week for the Sunshine State. Unranked Florida State probably vaulted into the top 25 by beating powerful #8 Alabama, #10 Miami beat #6 Notre Dame, and #15 Florida won 55-0 over hapless Long Island University, an FCS team. Any time you beat Alabama and Notre Dame in the same week, it’s a major achievement. Beating LIU was somewhat less impressive. LIU’s 55-0 loss kept them tied for the best record in their conference, the NEC. I didn’t make that up. All nine conference teams played. All nine lost.

Kansas State, #17 in the pre-season polls, thought they were playing a jobber game and undoubtedly looked forward to crushing North Dakota, which is weak even for an FCS team. (They lost their last five games last year.) K-State finished the half with a 21-17 deficit. I’m guessing that their coach went ballistic in that locker room. K-State did manage to win, but just barely, 38-35.

Full scoreboard

In the long history of major league baseball, about 150 years, this is only the 21st time a player has hit four homers in a game. Three of those have happened this year, including one a month ago. (Eugenio Suarez did it in April; Nick Kurtz in July.)

The list of players to have accomplished it includes some of the all-time greats like Lou Gehrig, Ed Delahanty and Willie Mays. It also includes Scooter Gennett, who hit just 87 in his career, and Bobby Lowe, a 150-pound middle infielder who topped out at 71.

No player has ever done it twice.

• Schwarber was only the fourth player in history to come to bat again after hitting four homers, thus gaining a chance at a fifth. (In 2002, Mike Cameron got two more at bats after hitting four homers. That’s the only time that has happened.)
• Weirdly enough, those are Schwarber’s only four hits in his last seven games!
• Schwarber leads the majors this year with 119 RBI. His 49 homers lead the NL.

Right now, Freddie Freeman is leading the league with a .302 average. The National League has been in existence since 1876, and the lowest batting average for a league leader has been .313 (1988, Tony Gwynn).

.302 would not be the MLB record for the lowest by any league leader. Yaz led the American League with .301 in 1968. In that 1968 AL season, .274 was good enough to make the top ten. As low as current batting averages have fallen, it still takes about .290 to make the top ten.

Despite the decline of contact hitting, major league teams still score more runs (4.44 per team per game) than they did in the “second deadball era” from 1963 to 1992. Batting averages are lower now than in that era, despite the fact that pitchers no longer bat ¹, but slugging averages are higher now, and the base-stealing game is more efficient.

Footnote #1:

In that era, pitchers batted:
1963-1992 in the NL
1963-1972 in the AL