The events of the last few days in Adrian Peterson's life made football seem very, very small. It's never right to lose a child. There should be some physical law that prevents a 2-year old child from being taken like this. Through this ordeal, we've discovered how important football is to Adrian Peterson. It's his way of coping. It's his release. It so often has been. His decision to play a football game so soon after losing his son is his decision. He's experienced enough heartache in his life to know the right path for himself. I've seen him crucified for his decision to play a game on all of the various social networking avenues. It's pretty damn selfish for anyone to think that their opinion on this tragic matter is the opinion that Peterson should have. It's his life. It's his decision.
Football is so much easier than life. It's often good to get away. From life.
I was watching the Georgia-Missouri game until I discovered that the Eastern Michigan-Army game was available for viewing. Army football. Blaik Field. Michie Stadium. West Point. So beautiful. I've run pass routes on that field. Not so beautiful.
Army running back Terry Baggett had a gigantic day on that beautiful field. 18 carries for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns! His touchdowns accounted for 201 of those yards (4,67,34,96). I found this game as it was coming out of halftime. Army was leading 22-18. It was 43-18 at the end of the third. With today's hyperactive passing attacks, it can be shocking to see a team like Army that can be explosive on the ground. Yesterday's explosion started with Baggett. He had one of those special games where he seemed to playing on a whole other plane from others on the field. He did whatever he wanted. At one point he had the easy math stats of 10 carries for 250 yards. In that light, he was a mere mortal on his final eight carries. Baggett's fellow backs weren't too bad either. Army had 513 yards on the ground. Most impressive.
What is it with Boston athletes and beards? There's some Boston College football players sporting beards that would make the Red Sox proud.
There were several slappies that were pretty vocal about South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney sitting out the season to avoid risking a career-jeopardizing injury. Some of those slappies are the very same slappies that are critical of Clowney's effort and possible injury this season.
Terrific game in Happy Valley. Penn St. upset Michigan 43-40 after four quarters and four overtimes. Penn St. had a last minute touchdown drive to force overtime, a blocked field goal to extend overtime, a bold fourth down conversion led to the winning touchdown. Great game.
It's hard to not cheer for Penn St. So many are trying to crawl out of a hell. Bill O'Brien seems to be the perfect coach to lead this team. He's likely going to have NFL offers coming his way this offseason. For the sake of Penn St., I hope that he stays.
It sure is strange to see Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner wear #98. He's wearing that number for the season to honor Michigan legend Tom Harmon. Nice gesture. It's just strange seeing a #98 under center.
Utah 27 Stanford 21. That's why they play the games.
Alabama 0 Kentucky 0 after the first quarter was a true surprise. Alabama 24 Kentucky 0 at the half was more like it.
Washington looked like they had something going against Oregon when they were down a touchdown, 31-24, at the end of the third. Oregon stepped on the gas and put up two fourth quarter touchdowns. The defense kept Washington out of the end zone and the Ducks had a deceptively comfortable 45-24 win.
It's a tad disconcerting that Cal's defense played their best game of the year and still gave up 37 points. UCLA dropped the Golden Bears to 1-5 with the 37-10 loss. It was actually a pretty heroic effort by Cal's defense. They were down to 3rd and 4th team players in some spots. The only promising thing about this difficult season is that the schedule lightens some from here. Cal has played ranked teams Northwestern, Ohio St., Oregon, and UCLA in their first six games. Every game is rough for Cal right now but at least the defense has now shown some signs of life. If they can string a couple of wins together maybe they can gain some momentum. It starts with Oregon St. next week.
Cleveland Browns receiver/returner Travis Benjamin claims that he got his speed from chasing rabbits. There's a bunch of fast football players that have come out of Belle Glade, Florida. There's a bunch of rabbits to chase. A Belle Glade tradition brings out a crowd to chase the rabbits scattering from the burning of the sugar cane fields. 27 NFL players have come out of the muck of Belle Glade since 1985.
Speaking of speedy, I sure hope that the Vikings find a way of getting the ball into the hands of rookie receiver Cordarrelle Patterson on offense. He's too talented to keep on the sideline.
Hopefully, Matt Cassel will get the ball into the hands of Patterson. Cassel gets the start while former franchise quarterback Christian Ponder carries a clip board. Both might be on the bench in a week or two when Josh Freeman is ready to play some Vikings football. The Vikings just need to find their quarterback.
Football Sunday!
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