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Friday TIME: US | UK WEATHER: US | UK HOME THE NEIGHBORHOOD "Life in the UK" American Groups Essential Contacts Money Education Driving WHAT'S ON US Group Events Diary Dates Music Live FEATURES Politics blog SPORTS Features Sideline blog NFL Draft THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE ONLINE |
SIDELINE ARCHIVE Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? And now the season really begins. There's 26 unbeaten teams, but USC isn't one of them. In case you didn't stay up until 5.30am (ah, you lightweights), the mighty Trojans were humbled last night by unranked Oregon State, as diminutive Beavers back Jacquizz Rodgers danced a hobbity jig through the USC defense, turning QB Mark Sanchez into a sideline statue en route to a 21–0 halftime lead. The USC passer broke out in the second half, but just too late. Back when the Trojans rolled Ohio State in an early season laugher, it seemed the Men of Troy might march unchallenged to a championship. Nobody expected much from their Pac–10 opposition, but last night USC tripped over an unranked conference foe for the third year running. Unlike when they lost to Stanford in 2007 or Oregon State in 2006, there just might be enough weeks left to overcome this latest setback. And boy, is it going to be fun watching them try (their next opponent, the Oregon Ducks, should be very afraid). In the meantime, the allocation of first place votes should be interesting. USC held 62 of 65 first–place ballots in last week's AP Poll, and 56 of 61 in USA Today. With the exception of USC, who fell at Oregon State's Reser Stadium, the other contenders are all at home this week: Oklahoma had zero No.1 votes in last week's polls, despite being the consensus No.2 team, but have an opportunity to grab the lion's share now. They play ranked TCU, who have been slapping lesser folk silly for four weeks (a combined score of 172–31). They last met in 2005, when the Horned Frogs upset the Sooners 17–10. This Oklahoma squad is a world better than '05, but nobody should be taking a Mountain West team for granted these days. Georgia hosts Alabama. A win could push Georgia back towards the top slot they vacated after the first poll, but Nick Saban's Alabama are looking potent again. The Bulldogs better make sure black shirts don't become black armbands by Sunday morning — Alabama could use this game to catapult themselves into national contention instead. In the SEC, LSU hosts Mississippi State, and is starting to remind people they're still the national champs, while Florida hosts Mississippi with more to lose than gain. Given the chance, do you suppose the Gators would run up the score? Silly question. With voters reshuffling their board, Missouri picked a bad week to be idle. The Heisman race needs similar re–assessment. It was shaping up to be a battle between Missouri QB Chase Daniel, Georgia RB Knowshon Moreno and Sanchez, had the winning continued. I never did like the idea that Sanchez was in the mix with such a short resumé. While Sanchez played a great second half, his fourth–quarter interception was a killer. If the Sanchez bubble has now burst, a host of other names come into sharp focus — Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford, Michigan State RB Javon Ringer, BYU QB Max Hall and Texas QB Colt McCoy among them. Heisman attention must surely shift to the Big 12 now, where Bradford and McCoy might have been lagging behind Sanchez in the non–East Coast hype, Chase Daniel will continue atop the early Heisman projections, and Texas Tech have a couple of their own to offer in passer Graham Harrell and receiver Michael Crabtree. Apparently, Chris Wells will suit up against Minnesota. Wow, how far off the radar is that, suddenly? |
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