Game of the Week: Saturday update

Lee Corso had to rain on our parade and pick the same team as our football expert Brandi. Everyone is in agreement that Cal will beat ASU. Hopefully Brandi can still stay undefeated. Voting is still open on the NFL Game of the Week: Cincy at Pitt.

Fantasy Report

by staff reporter Itell Fibbs

Fibbs here, that’s Mr. Fibbs to you dumbasses. I’m back again to talk some Fantasy Football, because reality sucks. What’s wrong with the Eagles? How do you blow a 17 point lead in the fourth quarter? Pathetic. Speaking of disasters, what pee wee league did Houston pilfer to get their defense? Manning twisted the Texans like a potato through a curly fry maker, and I love curly fries. Let’s get to business.

Biggest Fantasy Surprises

Rex Grossman QB CHI – Donovan McNabb would occupy this spot if it were not for the meltdown in the forth quarter against the Giants, everyone is to blame in that loss. Check the waiver wire, I’ll bet Grossman is still there. With 551 yards and 5 touchdowns, Grossman is making geeks that drafted him look like Fantasy Gods. Depending on your scoring system, Grossman has almost as many points as Peyton the shredder. His emergence will open up Chicago’s running game because defensive coordinators can’t cheat anymore, and no one likes a cheat.

Frank Gore RB SF – Just like his name, what’s left of defenses after Frank gets done is nothing fun to look at. Gore has more yards then Larry Johnson and LaDainian Tomlinson along with three TD’s. I’ll bet someone in your league is beating their head off the wall because this guy’s sitting on their bench. Smack them in the back of the head once for me.

Laveranues Coles WR NYJ – Quick, which receiver has the most yards in the NFL? Harrison? No. Fitzgerald? Forget it. Owens? WAAAAAA my finger! No. It’s Coles. This guy has been brilliant and what makes me laugh is Galen has him sitting on his bench the last two games. Nice job, retard. Guess I have to beat you over the head until you get the message. Hello?! Throwing you a bone here, wake up.

Biggest Fantasy Disappointments

Hines Ward WR PIT – 7 catches 82 yards receiving might be ok on an off day for a top wide receiver but it’s garbage for a two game stretch. Wonder how many Fantasy games this guy has blown for owners. If stinking up the place and riding the short bus to the game is on Ward’s objectives this year, mission accomplished.

J.P. Losman QB BUF – Where’s your Quarterback from? Bet you didn’t say Tulane, but Buffalo did. They need to add and extra ‘s’ in the middle of his name for obvious reasons. If it was not for playing the hapless Dolphins in week 2, Buffalo would be winless. What did Loss-man contribute to the win Sunday? An eye-popping 83 yards, hell McGahee had more rushing yards. Year to date stats: 247 yards passing and one TD. Manning has that in one quarter, fruitcake. Even his picture looks disheveled as his play.

Hair care products: Lard and an a hand held mixer

Cadillac Williams RB TB – Cadillac? More like Chevette! Someone wake Williams up, he has a game Sunday. After 1100 yards and change last year, fantasy ding dongs were thinking this guy will kick ass. Well after 2 games he has a total of 59 yards and no touchdowns. There are backups with far more yards. It doesn’t help that Simms is having a terrible year at quarterback as well, but when you only score 3 points in the first two games, you’ve got offensive trouble. With Chevette Williams plugging along at 2.6 yards a clip, don’t look for a scoring explosion anytime soon.

ZOOOOOOMMM!

Until next time ying-yangs: Fibbs has left the building.

Former Foes

Akron lost to Central Michigan 24 – 21 giving up an 100 yard interception return for a touchdown. After a scoreless first quarter, Chippewas quarterback Dan LeFevour threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to take the 7 – 0 lead. It appeared Akron was going to tie things up but quarterback Luke Getsy was intercepted in the endzone by Josh Gordy who returned the pick 100 yards for the score with 4 seconds left in the half to give CM the 14 – 0 lead at halftime. Both teams exchanged scores in the third but Central Michigan put on an 71-yard drive that burned 5:52 off the clock in the fourth quarter that ended with a 28-yard field goal for a 24-13 lead. Akron came within a field goal when Getsy threw a 14 yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds left to make it 24-21, but Akron was unable to get the onside kick. Getsy threw for 375 yards but he tossed three costly interceptions, two of which were turned into Chippewas touchdowns.

Notre Dame

College football is a fickle mistress, satiating your every desire one week and leaving you sick and depressed the next. A week after having every break go their way Notre Dame was on the receiving end of misfortune. Notre Dame mistakes included a pass that sailed through the hands of tight end John Carlson that was intercepted by Burgess, who returned it 31 yards for a touchdown, a blown coverage on Manningham for a 69-yard touchdown catch and a David Grimes fumble on a kickoff return that set up a 2-yard TD run. Michigan was ahead 26-7 before the Irish had their initial first down. This game was over before Jeff Samardzija or Rhema McKnight had a catch. Quinn was 24 of 48 for 234 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. This game was summed up on one specific play: with 3:23 left in the game Quinn dropped to pass and fumbled the ball in the middle of his throwing motion without anyone touching him. The fumble was scooped up by Lamarr Woodley and returned for a touchdown. It was Notre Dame’s day in a nutshell. Final score Michigan 47 – Notre Dame 21. For the Michigan fans that want to see Llyod Carr gone, he is now 4-1 against No. 2 teams and 16-6 against top 10 teams. That’s damn impressive.

Game of the Week update

Our football experts have made their picks for the week now that Aikman has made his NFL choice. This week’s NFL game of the week is the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a close one as the Bengals are only getting one point.



The NFL game of the week is now available for you the TNL reader to vote on. There is still time to vote on the College Game of the Week as well. Good luck.

Penn State Fan Advisory System revealed

We at The Nittany Line have our thumbs firmly placed on the pulse of the Nittany Nation due to our close proximity of our beloved Lions, and as such we are here to serve those displaced Penn State fans that may not be in the know. With that in mind we are unveiling the Penn State Fan Advisory System.

...brought to you by the Department of Nittany Lion Homeland Security

This system is a chance for people to understand the feelings of Penn State fans as the season progresses. As the level of anxiety and concern changes, rest assured we will be here to serve you and keep you informed. We are sure that the threat level will have to be changed after Saturday, despite the outcome but the current level is yellow or ELEVATED because of the game against Ohio State. Luckily you are still allowed liquids and gels in Beaver Stadium.

Anatomy of a victory

In talking to fellow Penn State fans this week it’s apparent that confidence is at an all time low, so as a public service we at TNL give you the recipe for success: how Penn State can beat Ohio State.

Coaching
-it all starts and ends here. If Penn State uses the same coaching philosophies it did against Notre Dame the will lose by 700 or more points (that’s not a typo). Sitting back on defense and letting Ted Ginn and Tony Gonzalez run around until they are open is just plain stupid.
-Derrick Williams is a wide receiver, Anthony Morelli is a quarterback; I know you guys get confused sometimes.
-A.J. Wallace is not a free ticket to run the reverse, good teams will see this. Hell, I called the reverse last week when he came in and I’ve coached a total of 0 football games.
-For further rants see Black Shoe Diaries.

Defense
-Ted Ginn is not the only receiver on the field. It’s my personal belief that Tony Gonzalez is the more complete receiver of the two and it seems Ohio State is relying heavily on him – he has 17 receptions (2 more the Ginn) and 280 yards (27 more then Ginn). Limiting the big plays from these guys is crucial, force the Buckeyes to earn their score. Last year Penn State did a great job of doing just that, but this is a different year.
-Troy Smith is always a threat to run, but hasn’t been doing much of that this season. Penn State will have to bring more then 4 guys to get pressure but an all out blitz could spell doom if Smith gets past the blitz: containment is key. The Ohio State offensive line is really solid and pressure from the front four isn’t a realistic hope.

Offense
-I know very little about the Ohio State defense after replacing 9 starter and I’ve only been able to catch a portion of one game (Texas) and the entire unit looked great, so I can’t begin to come up with a weakness. I can say this much: use the new moronic clock rules to your advantage. Play ball control and shorten the game. Anytime you go up against a team with an explosive offense, the best defense is to limit the number of chances that offense has.
-You have a Tight End, use him. Exploit the inexperience of the linebackers, they’re talented but they may be overanxious. If Penn State can establish the run, play-action to the tight end will be open.
-No stupid turnovers. You don’t need a game of perfection, just don’t do anything stupid.

Special Teams
-I can’t stress the importance of special teams in any game, but especially in this one. Penn State has been able to produce at least one good return in each of their first three games, but most have been called back on penalties.
-On the flip side, Ginn is great you might try kicking away from him, and for the love of God, if someone fumbles the ball to you: JUMP ON IT! Don’t scoop and score.
-Unlike the offense, this unit MUST play absolutely perfect, and that hasn’t happened yet.

On a related topic as our friend over at Buckeye Commentary points out: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. THEosu is calling for a "Sea of Scarlet" and Michigan is asking their fans to “Maize Out” Wisconsin. Charlatans!

Taliaferro to meet Gentry this weekend

BuckeyeExtra.com has a great story on Tyson Gentry the Ohio State football player that suffered a fractured vertebra in practice, an injury very similar to Adam Taliaferro’s. Days after Gentry’s injury, while he was recovering from surgery in the same Ohio hospital Taliaferro was taken to after his injury, Adam called to show support.

"I was nervous, I wasn’t sure how he would sound," Taliaferro said. "But he sounded remarkably well."

Taliaferro’s father, Andre visited Tyson several times in the months that followed but Adam has yet to meet him. That will change this weekend when Penn State comes to town and Tyson gets a chance to see the remarkable progress Adam has made. Although Taliaferro can never play football again, he has no long-term effects from the injury. Tyson is still in a wheelchair with no lower-body movement and limited use of his arms, but he’s making small strides.

"It’s going OK, getting a little better," Gentry said. "Nothing really that major with movement or anything. But strength is coming along a lot better, just tolerance; being able to sit upright better and everything like that."

"I just tell him it’s going to be a marathon," Taliaferro said. "Anything he gets back is better than before. It’s a long process."

There has been a lot of bad things written about Ohio State fans both in the Blogosphere and in conventional media, but personally I was amazed at the support and caring they showed when Adam suffered his injury at the Shoe in 2000. Hopefully, Adam can repay that consideration in some small way by showing his support to one of the Buckeye’s own. We at the Nittany Line wish Tyson a speedy recovery.

Game of the week

Week 3 is over and the results are in, our NFL expert is lagging behind having picked the wrong team for the second consecutive week. We feel confident though, Aikman will rebound in the next few weeks. As for Corso... we're not holding our breath. The ever omnipotent TNL reader is ahead of the curve and looking good going into week 4.

Our College football expert doesn't want to rest on her laurels (she prefers a comfy spot on the living room floor), so moving on; week 4 college football game of the week is Arizona State at California. Without further ado, here is Brandi the wonder dog's pick:

Mark it down: Cal. It's your turn to keep ahead of Lee and vote for the winner of this week's game of the week on the sidebar. The NFL game of the week will be posted later, stay tuned.

Programming notes

GameDay at Columbus
ESPN’s College GameDay will be at Columbus, Ohio for Penn State’s Big Ten opener against the top ranked Buckeyes. Last year GameDay at Happy Valley before the Penn State – Ohio State game was the most-viewed Saturday morning edition of the program viewed by 1.86 million homes.

Northwestern kickoff announced
Penn State continues it’s midday games as the Northwestern kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on September 30, which can be seen on ABC. It will mark the 5th game in a row that Penn State starts at 3:30.

Pac 10 gets it right

Note to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany: Pay attention! For those of you that missed the Oklahoma – Oregon game; the outcome was directly affected by two ridiculous calls by Pac 10 officials. The first was an onside kick erroneously awarded to Oregon even though a Ducks player touched it before the required 10 yards and even though video replay showed that an Oklahoma player actually recovered the ball. The second call in question came later when a Pass Interference call against Oklahoma set up the Oregon winning score. Sooner coaches argued the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage thereby abolishing the Interference call. Again video replay showed the call to be incorrect but the replay officials saw otherwise claiming a lack of “indisputable evidence.”

It took Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen one day to review and make reparations. Hansen wasted no time in his attempt to right wrongs and suspended the officiating crew and the instant replay officials that worked Saturday's game for one game.

"The fact that the errors on the onside kick altered the outcome of the game is most unfortunate and unsettling," Hansen said in a statement. "We had a solid veteran crew assigned, and the instant replay official had a fine career as a referee in the Pac-10. We believe in the ability and integrity of each individual involved. It should be noted that not all of the seven officials were directly involved in the play in question, but the entire crew bears responsibility for every play. [emphasis mine] Game officials and replay officials have positions of great responsibility and must be accountable for their actions.”

"Errors clearly were made and not corrected, and for that we apologize to the University of Oklahoma, coach Bob Stoops and his players. They played an outstanding college football game, as did Oregon, and it is regrettable that the outcome of the contest was affected by the officiating."

Bravo! Brav-F’in-o!!!

It takes a very big man to stand up, admit mistakes and try to rectify them, especially in such a short time period. Hansen could have drug this out hoping people would forget, ignored it because there is nothing anyone can really do anyway, or taken the Big Ten approach and come out with some blanket bullshit response claiming their officials are “on par” with other conferences (that’s why the Big Ten was the first to institute replay, because they were “on par”). But Hansen should be given the thumbs up for swift, decisive action involving the entire crew. A clearer message could not have been sent. This kind of accountability will never be seen in the Big Ten until the current regime is gone and we get people with some backbone. I’m sure none of this makes Oklahoma feel any better, but it’s a step in the right direction. Make lousy officials pay for obvious mistakes, intentional or otherwise.

Youngstown Game Review

Note to Penn State football team: a performance like the one Saturday will get you killed at Ohio State next week. Now that I have that out of the way, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Defense
The defense did what it should’ve been doing all year long and completely shut down Youngstown’s offense. YSU managed just 184 total offensive yards and 3 total points. Penn State blitzed quite a bit and was able to put ample pressure on Penguin quarterback Tom Zetts, which leads me to the obvious question: Why was it ok to bring extra guys to pressure Youngstown, but so taboo to do the same against Notre Dame? If Penn State employs the same defensive scheme against Ohio State they did against Notre Dame, Troy Smith and Ted Ginn will light up the scoreboard like the Griswold’s house at Christmas.

Not what your looking for in a defense

Jim Shaw was injured again and was unable to continue but on the bright side, true freshmen Maurice Evans and Jared Odrick both got significant playing time because of the injury. Evans registered 3 tackles including one for a 5 yard loss, Odrick didn’t show up in the official stats but looked good. Paul Posluszny seemed back to his old self recording a team high 8 tackles. The defensive line will have their biggest test Saturday as they will be facing quite possibly the best offensive line they will face all season. Couple that with a quarterback that can run like gazelle and you have a huge task at hand.

Hopefully we will see more of this

Offense
The offensive line continues to improve as a unit, giving Morelli ample time to throw and the running backs holes to run through. The offense continues to move the ball but still has a propensity to stall out, turning the team’s scoring likelihood over to the shaky special teams unit. Long sustained drives will be key if the Nits are going to have any chance at beating the number one team in the land. Anthony Morelli had a pretty pedestrian day and will have to play significantly better now that the Big Ten schedule is starting. There is no need to push the panic button yet, and I think Morelli will get better with time, but unfortunately time is not something Penn State has the luxury of. Tony Hunt had his best day to date rushing for 151 yards, but more then that, he seemed to run downhill and was fighting for extra yards.

The Lion wide receivers didn’t help Morelli out much, as Matt Hahn was Penn State’s leading receiver. This unit is supposed to be the strength of the team but have yet to produce like everyone would hope. Last week it was Derrick Williams dropping a ball that should have been caught; this week it was Deon Butler’s turn. The receivers will have to be much better in Big Ten play.

Special Teams
Talk about Jekyll and Hyde, this unit continues to struggle. The coaches changed the snapper and holder, but the first field goal was still botched. Derrick Williams had two long returns called back on penalties. The return game could be a game changer, but stupid penalties and botched field goal attempts could negatively change the outcome of a game. Whatever changes were made coming into the game, they didn’t help matters much. This unit will have to do much better. A pleasant surprise was the leg displayed by Kevin Kelly as every kickoff went into the endzone. The best way to neutralize a stellar return game is to not allow a return at all, hopefully Kelly will be able to continue that trend.

Overall
Paterno said it best in his press conference:

I think we were sloppy, but I think we made some progress in some areas. We were a little erratic in some areas and we need to improve on that, naturally, but I think overall we made some progress. We’re certainly not good enough yet

Penn State will have to play a complete game and hope for some help from Ohio State if they are going to win this Saturday. More then that, they will have to correct the problems on special teams if they want to win their share of Big Ten games because they aren’t going to get much slack from their conference foes. Michigan looked about as good as anyone when they completely destroyed Notre Dame, the team that just got done beating up on the Lions. It doesn’t get any easier and the correctable problems will need solved sooner rather then later.

Game Of The Week: Sunday morning update

This week's game of the week is over for college as Auburn held on to beat LSU 7 - 3 validating Brandi's title of wonder dog and Lee Corso's reputation of ineptitude. Corso went against Brandi's pick for the third week in a row and is wrong for the third time going 0-3 overall. When we started this little experiment, we never thought in our wildest dreams that the football Gods would smile on us with such great luck. It's making us look like evil Geniuses.

hmm... it says here Corso picked LSU... muhahahahahahahh!

Brandi's prognostication skills have proven so spot-on that we are contemplating a premium section to the The Nittany Line where you have to pay to get her "inside info" like scout.com or any other worthless recruiting service, but we could never do that to our loyal readers. Speaking of which, for the first time our readers went away from our expert and took LSU by a slim margin of 55% for your first loss. Not to worry, you're still way ahead of Lee. In the NFL matchup of Washington at Dallas, our expert Aikman has chosen Washington, while Hank Goldberg has chosen Dallas. 67% of you agree with our NFL expert and chose Washington (+6).