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The Greatest Sports Weekend

4th and 26 follows five teams very closely. And all five can be identified easily by simply observing the logo in the top left corner of this very page: Phillies, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers, and Nittany Lions. Four of those teams were in significant action this weekend. Four of them emerged victorious.

The weekend started innocently enough. The Flyers were winless, the Nittany Lions were in the precarious postion of battling a top ten opponent in an environment where they hadn't won in the past three decades, the Eagles were languishing at a middling 3-3 against an unusually fiesty 4-2 Falcons squad primed for an upset, and the Phillies had recently ceded their 1-0 lead with a sloppy 4-2 defeat in St. Petersburg.

But we should all be reminded: the Flyers were still playing with house money after the magical run to the Conference Finals last year, the Nittany Lions were top three and undefeated with an absolutely LOADED roster, the Eagles should count their lucky stars that they weren't skeeving around below .500 after the pitiful performances they've put forth this season, and the Phillies? Well, the Phillies were in the World Series.

I repeat: THE PHILLIES. IN THE WORLD SERIES. The losingest franchise in sports. I can't write or say that enough times to believe this isn't a dream.

My friends and I had a barbeque on Saturday. Needless to say, there was corousing and imbibing beginning early in the day. By the time kickoff rolled around in Columbus, there was not a soul around with the ability to operate heavy machinery. Why is this relevant? Well, I was born and raised in eastern PA. I am NOT used to seeing my teams succeed. We in the east are used to a team that has the potential to win it all, but yet consistently comes up short. We're used to the '94 PSU team that was denied the chance to even play for a title, to the late 90's Eric Lindros/John Leclair teams that always seemed to get shut down in the clutch, to the Allen Iverson led squads that played hard, yeah, but could never seal the deal, to the Donovan/Dawkins Eagles NFC-Championship-Game-losing-professionals, and of course, to Joe EFFING Carter.

So I was a little sauced, and a little pessimistic. The #3 Lions were losing 6-3 as Kevin Kelly squared up to kick what would be a tying field goal against the hated #9 Buckeys in the third quarter. The room we were sitting in fell silent, as his kick errantly sailed wide.

And I pronounced the Lions dead.

It's as if Penn State was a favorite sitcom. I had seen this episode before; this was the one where we choked against Ohio State. It's been a staple of my childhood, as reoccuring as the passing seasons. No matter what my friends told me, I assured them that this game was lost, and we'd better start preparing ourselves for another Outback/Capital One/ Alamo Bowl trip.

But then something happened. Terrelle Pryor faced a third and one at midfield. And Mark Rubin charged at him and punched the ball out. As the ball graced the turf, the momentum shifted completely from scarlet to navy blue. Navarro Bowman jumped on the ball and the Lions never looked back. Pat Devlin put away the Bucks with a well-timed quarterback sneak to put the nail in the coffin. Burgers were cooked, beers were raised, phone calls were made, and there was plenty of WE ARE with a resounding PENN STATE in return all around the house. Spirits were high. And to top if off, the inclement weather forced a late start to the Phillies game-meaning we could catch all the action.

From first pitch to last pitch, Jamie Moyer sure made good use of his first World Series start in what seems like a century-long career. The man was a professional when most of the Rays roster was in diapers. After two disgustingly horrific starts in the NLDS and NLCS, nobody, save nobody, expected him to play well. But the old man did his job stupendously, and even though the Phightins surrendered the lead completely by the ninth, CARLOS RUIZ of all people stepped up and hit the walkoff game winner. We raised one hell of a ruckus after that run came in; I have the bodily injuries to prove it. Am I sorry? Snowball's chance in hell. I wouldn't trade that night for anything, and we celebrated in style the rest of the evening.

By the time the referees completely blew the "muffed punt" call by the Falcons against the Eagles the next day, I knew there were forces beyond my understanding at work. Brian Westbrook went off and straight demolished the Atlanta defense, and my boy Donovan got a standing O for RUNNING in a touchdown. (!) Yes, you read right, Donnie got a round of applause, and he did it the old fashioned McNabb way. The birds are above .500 and right back in the playoff hunt.

In all the excitement with the Iggles, Nits and Phightins, I had completely neglected the Flyers for the weekend. And with good reason; their winless record was a testament to their underwhelming start. But I assume the mojo from all the other area teams got the Flyer's heads on straight; two straight wins over the rival Devils! No better way to kickstart a run than by drubbing your least favorite division foes.

To top off the weekend, The Phillies utterly obliterated the Tampa Bay Rays Sunday night, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead. In a fantastic turn of events, Ryan Howard ripped two home runs and even Joe Blanton (who, earlier in the game, a knowledgeable baseball fan/friend of mine remarked, "He's the worst hitter I've ever seen in the bigs)" even cracked a homer. You can't make this stuff up.

So, in summation: sports are a crazy thing. For all I know, the Phils can blow three straight, the Birds could go 8-8, the Flyers miss the playoffs, and PSU could go undefeated and still be held out of the BCS championship. Conversely, the Phils could finish off the Rays tonight, the Eagles could catch fire, the Flyers could bring Lord Stanley home and JoePa can retire with another shiny National Championship trophy on his mantle. I hope for the latter.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. But we didn't get everything we wanted in sports. The damn Cowboys still won. Oh well, there's always next week.

Predictions and Some Tim Talk

What's good? 4and26sports is back for a little venting. First of all, though:
Phils over Dodgers in 6, Eagles over Niners 21-12, PSU over Wisconson 27-21.

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  If someone had asked me who has the top offense, yards wise, I would have guessed Texas Tech, Mizzou, Penn State, or Oklahoma. Well, they're ranked 2, 3, 9 and 5, respectively. Who's number one? Why, Tulsa of course, with mighty Houston sitting at four. Just goes to show you can't put too much stock in statistics in college, unlike the NFL; the level of competition is so varied as opposed to parity.
    Case in point- while an average Big XII team has to go through Texas, OU, Mizzou, OKST, Kansas, et al, while Tulsa has the pleasure of playing such patsies as Rice, U Texas El Paso, U Alabama-Birmingham, and Southern Methodist, yet when you measure who possesses the best offense in CFB, the stats point to Tulsa.
    Something esle to ponder: the yardage and TD's are horrificly skewed due to gimmick offenses and one man offenses. Seriously, are Mike Leach's "Let's throw 80 times a game" Texas Tech team and June Jones's old "Hey, Le'ts see if we can throw 90 times a game" Hawaii teams really that much better and more athletic than, say, a Pete Carroll pro-style USC team or a Bob Stoops conservative Oklahoma? No way, and if you disagree, you're kidding yourself- but the numbers suggest otherwise. Gimmick offenses work in CFB. Another thing that may skew totals, as noted above, is a one man offense.
    While pro football is dominated by a platoon system, i.e. Barber/Jones, McFadden/Bush/Fargas, Jackson/Grant, college football can be dominated by a good enough athlete. It's simple, really- in the pros, it's a lot more equal footing, and someone carrying the ball every play would be beaten down and out of the league well before they should be.
    Which brings me to my point- if you have an elite athlete (let's call him "Tim") against a large amount of good and above average athletes, and Tim's team is filled with just plain average athletes, there's no reason not to give Tim the ball every play. Since Tim gets the ball every play, he gets his numbers, but his team still isn't really that good because the opposing defense knows exactly what's coming and can stop it. And just because Tim scores a lot doesn't mean he's a great football player or a great leader. So even though Timmy can score 55 touchdowns by getting the ball every play and running QB draws by the goal line, Timmy has never had a 4th quarter comeback. Tim blew it against an inferior team on its last legs in his bowl game. Tim's team went 9-4 after winning a national championship where he was the backup, and got entirely too much credit for what he did on that squad.
    And Tim's going to realize that when he gets to the NFL he's not going to be able to truck overmatched defenders en route to another easy score in Urban Meyer's vaunted spread- he's going to get laid out, concussed and tossed aside like a taller, more religious Ryan Leaf. Go and ask Alex Smith how it feels to be the highly-touted, awesome Urban Meyer-spread Quarterback in the pros. Might be able to give Tim some good advice.
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