The Benefits of a Late Game

So, every sporting event that I was anxious to see this weekend (Celtics/Hawks, Celtics/Pacers, Notre Dame/Pittsburgh, Patriots/Colts) were late games. None of them started before 8 o'clock at night, which normally drives me crazy. However, this weekend I had no plans and no intention of making any so I was free to just hang out before the games. I found the late starts to actually be beneficial because I could work on projects all day, get a bunch of stupid little nagging things done and still not miss any of the games. Had there not been a hurricane on Saturday I could have even got a second round of raking in. And, as an added bonus, when every single game went the opposite of the way I wanted them to (more on two of them in a second), it didn't ruin the rest of my day, because my day was already pretty much over.

-The loss to Pittsburgh should pretty much signal the end of the Charlie Weis era in South Bend. Barring him winning out (unlikely) and then winning a descent bowl game, I think his time as Notre Dame Head Coach is over. Frankly, it's his own fault because he didn't spend enough time recruiting on defense. Bringing in a bunch of 4 and 5 star guys on offense is great, but you need some guys on defense or else you're in shootouts every week. I will say this, the program is in much better shape than when he found it and should prove attractive to some big-name coaches out there. I just hope they stick to the college ranks and don't go looking to bring in a guy like Mike Shanahan, who will just be looking to rebuild his reputation before going back to the pros. Don't bother with the Urban Meyer talk, cause he's not leaving Florida. A guy like Bob Stoops is intriguing, though.

-Now that I've had some time to think about it, I get what Belichick was doing going for it on 4th and 2 from his own 30 last night. He was making a statement; and that statement was, "I don't believe in my defense." Given the way Manning was moving the ball on the defense last night, Belichick clearly though there was no way the Patriot's secondary was stopping him - it didn't matter if he had to go 70 yards or 30 yards. He figured the only chance to win the game was to keep it out of Peyton's hands, so he went for it. If anything, the problem was the play-calling. Faulk should have not be running a 2 yard out on 4th and 2. He should have gone at least 5 yards so it wasn't such a close spot. But, I get what Bill was doing. (Still, I would have punted it. There are lots of freaky things that can happen on a punt.)