Replacing Sideshow Matt

A sample...

Jon Dielber's 3 point shooting in a handful of games...


11/12
vs. Wisconsin-Green Bay 0-5

11/23
vs. Texas A&M 0-7

11/25
vs. VMI 0-4

12/01
vs. Butler 0-4

12/10
vs. Coppin State 0-3

4 games since 1/9 0-18

Grand total 0-41

But what about the games he made just one 3 pointer? 3 for 11.

He's not much better at the shorter shots either. Overall he's shooting 35-125. Apparently these gymnasiums are tougher to shoot in. Does he need a background with a stage full of geeky clarinet players from Bucyrus in order to make a shot? We have no depth so I think Thad believe he has to play him. Kufos and the boys should all come back next year and play without sucking. We could actually put him out at power forward where he belongs.

(Wow, this was insightful Dur)
Shut up, I know.

We're not going anywhere

Good lord we suck tonight. I've seen Bears games with better offense, BEARS GAMES! (Plays Lisa, plaa-aays!)

Butler does nothing but dribble it half way in and then kick it out to someone waiting 5 feet behind the NBA 3 point line. Then there's this stiff. We're on pace to match SLU's 20 points! Thanks for waiting until a nationally televised game to get your asses kicked. We're not going to make the tournament. Diebler sucks, hell, they all suck. And what's sad is they almost have a really good defense. Let's hope we can score 29 points in the last 24 minutes of regulation, otherwise we look like a high school girl's score. The Big Ten must suck. Somehow the entire conference other than 1st and 2nd place will end up under .500. Mathematically impossible? We'll find a way. Until then, enjoy Butler not even looking at the basket and the ghost of Treg Lee running around and bricking 15 footers.

Turning my attention to less painful things

At least, in theory. Back by quasi-popular non-demand.

By the way, my sister now writes about movies with a bunch of pinkos. It's like reading my stuff, except arguably better written and inarguably containing 100% less swearing. Now, I know my sister and am familiar with her preferred word choices, so she must have one fucking fuck of a goddamn fucking editor over there. Fuck. Anyways: 90s music and the stupidity of the American public. Two things that can work me into a lather at dinner parties, work, or other times when I'm awake. *Deep breath* okay. I gotta get this shit off my TiVo.

60. Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
Okay, hour 3 is off to a good start, what with the MotownPhilly and the glaven. I remember driving in Mr. Brodie's van to basketball camp at Plymouth Salem every day in the summer of 1990 hoping that this song would come on the radio. Ubiquitous Rolling Stone journalist/TV commenter Rob Sheffield says that this song had one of the greatest lines of the 90s, and then they cut away and never come back to him. "Yo slick: blow"? "Me and the crew used to do her"? Anyway, one of them is in real estate now, one of them changed his moniker to "sporty rich" and hangs out with Puff Doodly, and the other one apparently no longer exists.

59. Weezer - Buddy Holly
This must be on here for the video, because Jimmy Eat Average Weezer Fan can pick out at least five songs from the Blue Album and Pinkerton that are better than this one. But yeah: great, iconic video, and it's still fun to watch. Hollywood Steve says that Weezer was "deep down geeky" and "not fronting." Yeah, I've seen the album cover; those guys are not faking. Obligatory discussion of Rivers Cuomo's late 90's nerd-vous breakdown ... now. Not enough music videos feature Barry Zuckercorn nowadays. He's very good.

58. Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn, I Wish I was Your Lover
I, uh .. okay. I mean, I remember this song, but ... really? A cursory search reveals that this was the 34th-ranked single of 1992. Legendary. Oh, it might have something to do with this: Host Lady calls the tune "a mating call for the incurably horny," and says that the ambiguous lyrics made some wonder if Hawkins was a lesbian or bisexual, rumors which the singer squelched by claiming that she was "omnisexual." I don't know what that means, but it makes me think of Spud Webb and Jon Konkac. Sophie had another tune in 1994 that I've never heard of. Um, if they say so. She's now a painter and has held up pretty well, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

57. Jay-Z - Can I Get A...
See, there's a certain degree of cognitive dissonance that comes along with just defining this era of music as "the 90s" and throwing everything into a big stew. I mean, seriously: Sophie B. Hawkins followed immediately by Jay-Z? And the thing that binds them together is that the particular big hit records we're talking about here were both released during a decade which began with "199." You can probably tell that I have absolutely nothing to talk about here. This video apparently featured Chris Penn, whose brother is a legendary dick.

Songs that missed the cut!
"103." Fatboy Slim - Rockafeller Skank -- I remember that the first time I ever heard this was on a car ride to Cedar Point. I know that James Tuttle was in the car, but that's all I remember. Despite the fact that I prefer this song, I remember "Praise You" being quite a bit more popular. But that might have crossed over the magic "December 31, 1999" barrier.

56. L.L. Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
Asshole Speech from Arrested Development says that this was "vintage L.L." in that it was "macho" and "confident." And because he was "largely shirtless." The guys from Blues Traveler think this song was "'p-h' phat." I consider them "irrelevant." I want to squeeze in more "quotation marks." Ooh, clips of L.L. and his massive deodorant clumps from MTV's Unplugged. Good times.

55. Fiona Apple - Criminal
Pretty teenagers in their underwears! Several compliments for Fiona's husky, sultry voice. I am in agreeance. The Nelson brothers think that she's a "naughty girl." I am skeeved out. There's so much wood panelling and pouting in this video; I think whoever made "The Ice Storm" must have watched this a bunch. Fiona Apple is 30 now, and more of my adolescence retreats away from me. Let's move on.

54. Joan Osborne - One of Us
"If God was just a stranger on the bus, I sure hope he's not that guy that's touching himself." There are times when I think that "I Love the 80s" and "Best Week Ever" were horrible, horrible mistakes that we're all going to have to pay for in the future, and then there are times where I'm wrong about things. The above quote was made by some guy, some "Best Week Ever" guy, and my teeth are clenched. Old friend Lisa Arch says that this song pissed off religious wackos because you're not supposed to use the word "God" in a song so many times. I don't think it was the quantity that bothered people, Lisa. But yeah: wackos. What a surprise, controversy helped make a song a hit. I'm gonna write a bluesy number about God performing an abortion and having sex with some displaced Hurricane Katrina victim while he's doing blow off a male prostitute's balls. And then I'll rake in the millions.

53. Naughty by Nature - O.P.P.
OMIGOD, DO U KNOW WHAT IT STANDS FOR?!?! NO WAZE!!!!1! There's a bunch of ridiculous comments about all that. Also, Treach did porn, apparently. Doesn't make me like the bassline any less.

52. Sugar Ray - Fly
I hate this song. I liked "Every Morning" better, and I can't decide if I'm ashamed of that. Can I get a ruling?

51. 2 Pac - California Love
Once again: embarrassingly, unrelentingly white. I always kind of had a sense that Dr. Dre was heavily influenced by "The Road Warrior," and this confirms it. I don't know what I'm saying. Also, 2 Pac died and still sold a shitload of records. If you were my freshman roommate Stinky John, this obviously meant that 2 Pac was not really dead, since we all know that every time a song is played, the performer has to shrink down and get magically teleported into your radio like an auditory Mike TeeVee, and then he/she/they perform(s) the song, and HOW THE HELL COULD THE SONG BE PLAYING IF HE WAS DEAD? IT MAKES NO SENSE! I blame witchcraft.

50. Alice in Chains - Man in a Box
I mean, I guess I can vaguely understand this, but I would definitely choose another 1991 AiC song if I could only take one to a desert island. Or, you know, put it on a top-100 list. Anyway, when I say I can vaguely understand it, I mean that I could probably accept it being in the top 100. The top half, though? I don't know what these people were smoking. And by "these people," I mean the American public.

49. Jewel - Who Will Save Your Soul
Jewel apparently wrote this when she was 16. I tell you what, she went through that brief period where she kind of slutted it up a little and sort of tried to be a Britney clone and acted like she could dance, but The Yodeler never looked hotter than in this video. Snaggletooth and all. Present day Jewel says that the first time she heard it on the radio she was embarrassed because she thought she sounded like Kermit the Frog. And Best Week Ever Guy is pissed off that Jewel's stealing all his best material. She's with some rodeo guy now. That seems oddly fitting.

48. Matchbox Twenty - 3 AM
Ugh. "They were the kind of band fans could bring home to mom," says Host Lady, who then calls them "nice-guy rockers." I guess half of that phrase is true, maybe. Chris Kirkpatrick from NSync thinks "these guys are so good," and Delbert Marcy Playground thinks this was a great song. Well there's all you need to know. What's the opposite of the "appeal to authority" fallacy? Rob Thomas says he wrote this song about growing up with a mother who had cancer. Well don't I feel like a fuckin' asshole. The band recently put out a song that Scooter tried endlessly to get stuck in my head over New Year's, and I still kind of hate him for it.

47. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch - Good Vibrations
Holy shit, over/under on the number of underwear mentions: 5. Jesus, Marky Mark looks, like, 12 in this video. This video that apparently consists almost entirely of him working out. "This is a fantastic song, mostly because Marky Mark is gorgeous." Maybe that makes it a fantastic video (and it SO does), but Wahlberg's looks don't really affect the quality of the track that much, unless I'm crazy. Jake Fogelnest: "It's got Marky Mark screaming at you ... It was almost like, if you didn't feel the vibrations, he was gonna come kick the shit out of you." FEEL IT! FEEL IT! Lots of talk about how Wahlberg became an actor and has really tried kind of pathetically hard to distance himself from his (snicker) "roots." Marky Mark underwear mentions: 2. I would make a bad bookie.

46. Shania Twain - You're Still the One
Full disclosure: when Adore by Smashing Pumpkins came out, I went to the Media Play in Southgate at midnight and bought that record. And, while I was there, I bought this single for 99 cents. I ... I can't defend that decision. Anyways. Mark McGrath sheds a tear when he hears this song. This song was inspired by Shania's husband, a producer named "Mutt," of whom there are apparently no pictures dated later than about 1992. FUCK ME, Lisa Arch just points out, as I'm typing it, that there's just that one picture of Mutt that they show all the time, that black-and-white one in which he looks like the keyboard player from Bon Jovi. You know the one one I'm talking about. Wait, you stopped reading after the first two sentences, didn't you?

45. Hootie & the Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
SOMEBODY CALL TODD! He's probably furious that (*spoiler alert*) this is the only Hootie song on the list. He probably thinks there should be five songs from "Cracker Rear View" in the top 20. "Let it never be forgotten that America loved Hootie & the Blowfish," says Rob Sheffield. That album sold like a quadzillion copies, Rob, I have no idea how much effort it would take to block out that memory. For a video that was ass-full of SportsCenter references, they're showing nary a one of them. Viacom and Disnergy must not be getting along (Norby!). Host Lady says that the band was the victim of a "Hootie backlash," obviously reading from a script written by Todd.

44. The Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song
Basically the Fugees took a Roberta Flack song, added a more up-tempo drumbeat, some sitar, and some "uh"s and "what"s, and they had a huge hit. Someone talks about how awesome it was to be listening to this song and go "one time" and "two times" along with Wyclef. Do I need to tell you that it was Best Week Ever guy? I didn't think so. Some guy is shocked that the Fugees broke up right after this album came out. It's called "egos," buddy. Ben Lee wins the comment of the episode award: "You can never write her off, because you know she could just come back with that killer record. Fingers crossed, we get it before Chinese Democracy."

43. En Vogue - My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)
Wow, hotness. I had completely forgotten about this song, but yeah, I remember now. Godfrey says, "The lead one, I wanted to hit. And I wanted to hit the other one, the other one, and the other one." Strangely, VH1 has to bleep out "hit" when used as a synonym for "have sex with." My personal favorite, Dawn, left the band in the mid-90s, getting replaced by ... someone. Anyway, no one really talks about the song itself, they just talk about how hot En Vogue was. I just ... sure.

42. Collective Soul - Shine
Everyone is talking about these guys being poseurs - I mean, did I miss something? "Record execs must have been handing out flannel shirts to everyone," fake Michael McDonald says. "They totally were just like looking at the pages of Spin and looking at, like, how Eddie Vedder looks," according to a random actor/comedienne. She then says "that song was still kind of good, though. I'm not gonna front." What the fuck is going on here? Mark McGrath points out, truthfully or not, that Collective Soul was "the most played 'modern rock' band of the 90s." I could probably check on that, but I'm lazy. I'd have to open up a whole new tab and everything. This song? Was good and popular and probably pretty accurately placed.

41. Spin Doctors - Two Princes
Really, America? Really? Seriously, have you thought about this? Effusive praise from a few commenters, but mostly we're told about how shocked the band was that the song became a hit and the band became successful ... come on, guys, make me work here. Did everyone else who reads this order this album with their first-ever BMG or Columbia House "10 CDs for 1 cent" account? Personally, I would have though "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" would have been the highest-ranking Spin Doctors song, but I suppose I'm not an expert on all things Spin Doctorly. Host Lady: "Album sales back-slid in the years following 'Two princes.'" That, class, is what we call an understatement.

Hour four will be forthcoming. All the time.

So...what else is going on?

In an ever so tasteful manner OSU's newspaper The Lantern published this picture about the game...Guhh. Guys? I'm not offended but was it supposed to be funny? There have been funny headlines in the past but they weren't quite as, well, firefighty. In other news we've got a few guys returning to help with things like "catching passes" and "stopping them from catching passes!" Reader Wise pointed out that the last time a good #2 returned at that position we won it all. With Notre Dame sucking I'm pretty sure we're the #1 most hated football team in America. We're the Yankees/Pistons/Patriots/Duke Blue Devils all wrapped into one. That's fine though, it means more press coverage. Our basketball team still hasn't warranted live stats on cbssportsline.com but I suspect a ranking is coming soon. Diebler still can't shoot though. Speaking of terrible, the school right down the road from me, SLU, put up 20 this week...a number equal to my total for my senior year. I didn't get 40 minutes to do it though. When I left the gym this morning I was watching UNC against NC State, it was 19-11 UNC...I got home, made some lunch and turned the TV on, it was 41-11 UNC. At the half it's 43-13, so good luck with that half time speech, coach. Their locker room is probably like the SNL Peyton Manning basketball skit right now.

Third annual thebowl.challenge: Final standings grrr argh fuck, take two

So, that happened. Again. Despite outgaining the Tigers and shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly, the media, somewhat predictably, will go for the easy story every time: Ohio State and the Big Ten is t3h suxx0rz. Please note that this is not to take anything away from LSU: they were the better team and they played the better game. When they're healthy and motivated, they're the best team in the country, and it showed. I'm just noting that people who stomp all over OSU and play the "OMG they got destroyed again" card are completely mischaracterizing a game in which the Buckeyes on a play-by-play basis actually acquitted themselves quite well, but made numerous backbreaking mistakes. Again, LSU is better. Normally I don't give a crap about the media hating on my favorite teams. The thing that worries me is that we'll never be given the benefit of the doubt again. The media feels like we've shit the bed two years in a row and they'll elevate anyone they can make an argument for ahead of us in the future. A great showing at USC in September is an absolute must.

Anyways, that's that. Good season, we had some laughs, blah blah blah. Kirk, Malcolm, Vernon, Larry, probably James, and whoever else is gone: good luck, we enjoyed watching you. Everyone else: see you in a few months.

As for The Challenge: Unofficial MGoBlog Cartoonist Joel A. Morgan was in the top 3 the entire time, unless I'm mistaken, and (thank God) passed Jesse Palmer in the end thanks to higher confidence in LSU. Reader Wise's 32 points on OSU didn't turn out so well. For anyone. Speacial congrats as well to Mike Neary, who set a new thebowl.challenge record by placing into percentile 1.1 nationally. That's one and a tenth percentiles better than no percentiles at all. Nothing that interesting happened in the standings. Congrats to Joel. I hate the world.

Rank	Team	Owner	Record	TOTAL	PCT.
1	Football in the Groin	J. Morgan	24-8	389	94.9
2	Jesse Palmer's Picks	Jesse Palmer	21-11	378	90.6
3	Chereth Cutestory	Jack	24-8	372	87.8
4	The Dur's Picks = FAIL	Reader Wise	23-9	369	86.2
5	The D	Dustin	19-13	354	77.1
6	Do me, I'm gay	Todd	19-13	351	75.0
7	Excelsior!!!!!!	Matt	21-11	347	72.2
8	The Thunder	"S. Lawrence"	19-13	343	69.3
9	Simply The Vest	Jeff	20-12	336	64.1
10	I'm kind of a big deal	"B. Gordon"	20-12	335	63.3
11	Stupid Scott	Evan	19-13	329	58.6
12	Joel defends hate crimes	The Dur	20-12	320	51.8
12	No goats, no glory	Jamz Tuttle	17-15	320	51.8
14	no entry name (lame)	My Dad	17-15	314	47.2
15	Givin' 'em da business	Kat	17-15	305	40.6

OSU @ LSU

I got out my notebook for the game last night. I figured, if we lost, I could write another painful post, if we won... so here goes.



Pregame: On Fox they show 2 famous sports alums to talk about each school's history. We have Jack...they have Shaq. By the end of Shaq's segment he's wearing a space helmet and yelling one of his stupid ass "Can you dig it?!" lines that no one ever really liked, they were just scared that if they didn't act like it was cool he would beat them up.



The National Anthem is being played by a drunk jazz band and takes longer than Bleeding Gums Murphy's version.



Tonight's theme: "Hey, remember last year?" To make sure we remember last year, Urban Meyer gets to sit there and do a poor job of being humble. Eddie George leaves his soul at the security entrance and plays along.



As the teams run out I say a little prayer that no one breaks an ankle...remember last year? Of course I do...I would have forgotten, but Fox was there for me.



Oh wonderful! Here in Missouri there are 2 dozen funnel clouds around the St. Louis area so my girlfriend's 40 inch widescreen TV is now down to 37 inches because of the stupid outline that has to go 3/4 of the way around...giant weather map taking up the III quadrant of the screen. Beautiful.



Chris Meyers seems to be sprouting a mullet for the upcoming NASCAR season.



The All-State CEO gives his little speech about good hands and to make it apparent he's never been to a sporting event. I bet his son sucks at little league but gets drafted first every year because daddy buys the team shakes afterward, really good shakes, like the half and half's at Steak-n-Shake(get back on track Dur).



Kickoff, we don't score...late hit ignored, apparently the refs are nervous too.



And the first play from scrimmage is...shrunk because now we have to see the damn lottery numbers--Fuck this cable!



Wells, 65 yards, doesn't break foot! We all know this means nothing!



Speaking of, there's a Ginn sighting. Looks like Teddy has come out to support...the White Sox? He chose that hat? I understand not wearing his Dolphins stuff but why?



LSU runs the "Notre Dame snap" and we soon get the ball back.



(1 commercial mention) New commercials! New music so hip and "commercially" even Zach Braff is asking, "What band is this?"



We return to a field goal set up by Sane's catch out of the "Eff having a backfield!" formation.



This Stelz guy has to have herpes. Other white LSU stars...Hester, seems to be better than the Northwestern white running backs we've faced over the years.

71 holds several people and they get a big gain. Wait what? (a ghost whispers) Go ahead and hold all you want this game!



(Why is it a ghost?...because I'm tired and can't think of anything better)



Flynn tries a few draw plays. Flynn is to Teabow,as what I am to Teabow. I hope they keep trying those.

A black midget (not quite as rare as an Asian one) named Holiday defers his handoff and Flynn has to eat it again.



haha More like "Douchette!"



Wow, we're looking great. Great like Super Bowl XXII's Denver Broncos who also took a 10-0 lead.



First quarter totals:



OSU: 10

LSU: 3

References to last year: 76

Chris referring to aggressive play calling: 23



LSU finally scores on a tricky little play. I'm pretty sure everyone but the center ended up being a receiver on that one. We used to run it in 4th grade at recess. Flynn threw it before we got to "10 alligator" so the pass rush was late.



Wells bitchslaps someone and seems to be running the ball well tonight. (Tressel's head: Hmm, he's running it so well, they'll probably expect that we stick to that gameplan...boy are they in for a surprise!)



Uh oh 17-10...I'm deflated.



If this fucker says, "Dialed up..." one more time...



FUCKING FUCK FUCK...SON OF A BITCH WE'RE THE FUCKING BUFFALO BILLS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL, WE HAVE TO HEAR THIS SHIT FROM THE "SOUF" FOR ANOTHER DECADE ON TOP OF THE ONE THEY STARTED LAST YEAR. FUCK.





I give up on blog pretty early. Girlfriend sees notes and says, "Honey, you're so full of rage."

Championship game: thoughts from the peanut gallery

Choice cuts from the emails today:

Coworker Ben:
... Matt Flynn strikes me as a broke-ass Todd Boeckman - only not a worthy adversary. Dorsey scares me. Not supremely confident, but we are gonna win. LSU takes too many chances and plays sloppy...

Kev:
... I feel the most worried about the game resting on Todd Boeckman's arm; if he isnt able to throw the ball with efficiency, they'll put 8 men in the box and increase the odds of stopping Beanie running the ball...if Boeckman gets off to an early start, i could see us putting 40 points in the board and hurting them in the air and on the ground...glen dorsey would scare me more if he were an end, playing defensive tackle will able us to double-team him easier ... Les Miles is an airhead who will make the wrong call at the wrong time and his luck will run out...

(JACK: seems excessively optimistic to me. 40 points? For serial?)

Reader Wise:
... I feel much more comfortable with this year's game than i did last year. For some reason, I just felt like last year the defense was exposed during The Game and that it would show in Glendale. I'm worried about our defensive ends (I think Rose is out for this game too, along with Wilson), and Lil' Animal seems to come up small some times. I think mainly i've just tempered down my expectations ... I'm absolutely petrified that Heacock is going to play base nickel all damn game. We're going to have to get pressure early and often, and if that means taking chances with the secondary, then so be it ... Not too scared of it being a road game. I think Buckeye fans will pay the outrageous ticket prices just as easily as LSU fans ... If the D-line doesn't get pressure on pass plays, and hold their ground on the run, this D is sunk. Say what you want about Lil' Animal (and he's very good), but he doesn't get off blocks. Never has. If the LSU O-Line gets to the second level with consistency, it's going to be a replay of last year ... The gameplan last year was very shaky, and honestly, nobody made any adjustments for the Illinoize game either, and that worries me. Prior to really thinking about this, I was pretty confident. Right now...confidence is...waning.

Evan:
Offensively, I'm not scared of any one particular player. They spread the ball around an awful lot so I'm more concerned with them being able to get lots of players involved effectively. I actually think that if they have to keep going back to one particular player that means we've taken them out of their gameplan. I hear they're planning (not all that surprisingly) to use both Flynn and Perriloux at QB, which does scare me a little. They've been pretty effective when they've worked Perriloux into their gameplan.
Defensively, I'm scared of Dorsey and the attention he'll require. I don't know that he'll tear things up himself but he'll demand some double-teams which should free up other defenders.
... Defensively, I think the key is to play disciplined (You racka disiprin!), assignment football. LSU plays "balls out" (thank you, Jerry Rice), emotional football which leads to some sloppiness on their part - I say we play disciplined, Tressel-like football and let LSU shoot themselves in the foot.

Jeff:
I agree with everything that Ev and Kev said for the most part ... Overall, my #1 key is whether our passing game is effective or not. Boeckman simply cannot throw INTs.

Unofficial MGoBlog cartoonist Joel A. Morgan:
As for my "relatively neutral" thoughts on the game itself? Complete and total crapshoot. All season long, I couldn’t help thinking OSU was ridiculously overrated. And, MOST weekends, I thought LSU was far and away the best team playing. But, you know what? Tonight? NONE of that matters. It could be last year all over again. It could be the Miami game all over again. Best case scenario for OSU… Hang a couple of touchdowns and a field goal on them and hold on for dear life…a totally reasonable game plan, and could quite possibly happen. If I were Kirk Herbstreit, I’d talk about the huge chip on OSU’s shoulder. But, that would be lame and would completely discount the game-planning going on for BOTH sides. OSU will no doubt come out with the better game plan. But, Les Miles will be bringing out the old Michigan game plan of "I don’t care if you know what’s coming. It’s coming…and it’s up to you to stop it." They have loads and wads of talent, so it’s up to Sweatervest to plan a way to stop it. So, I guess that’s it. My take: LSU’s talent vs. OSU’s game plan.

Todd:
I'm scared that Matt Flynn doesn't really make big mistakes. I'm also scared that LSU is primarily a running team. So LSU is a team that establishes the run, then uses a veteran QB on play-action.

I'm terrified that Glenn Dorsey might be back at full strength. However, he seemed so destroyed at the end of the season, I'm not convinced he can have all the power he had at the beginning.

However, there is Les Miles. He could decide that they'll only throw the ball. You can't predict crazy.

I want to see as much of their backup QB as possible. And I want him zone blitzed every time he's in the game. He was really effective against Tennessee b\c they weren't getting to him. So, he was throwing 5 yard passes and picking them apart.

But mostly, I want Boeckman not playing scared. Yooge.



Me? It's 7:45. Only thing going on in my mind:
O. M. G.

Third annual thebowl.challenge: we should all be ashamed of ourselves

Jesse Palmer, people. JESSE PALMER IS BEATING US ALL. JESSE PALMER IS BEATING US ALL. So, today is the game. The big game. This year, even bigger than The Game. Last year, I would have blabbed about the predictive value of appletinis and whatnot. This year, I just sit in abject terror. There will be a roundtable email 'twixt myself, Todd, Jeff, Evan, Cave, Reader Wise, and Unofficial MGoBlog Cartoonist Joel A. Morgan, just because. I will tentatively post a recap of this discussion later today, although that's relatively pointless, considering that that list makes up about 98.735(pi) percent of "our" readership. And then the game will happen. And, Christ willing, Jesse Palmer will not win our group. Please. Please.

On the even more down-side, my boys from Villa lost in the 3rd round of the FA Cup to goddamn Manchester United, so this weekend was even more shit. Speaking of other things, Season 5 of "The Wire" premiered tonight. Obviously, it was the tits. Tell me I'm not the only one who reads this blog AND watches the best show on television. Come on.

More later.

Rank	Team	Owner	Record	PPR	TOTAL
1	Jesse Palmer's Picks	Jesse Palmer	20-11	3	375
2	Football in the Groin	J. Morgan	23-8	18	371
3	The Dur's Picks = FAIL	J. Wise	23-8	32	369
4	Chereth Cutestory	Jack	23-8	12	360
5	Do me, I'm gay	Todd	19-12	7	351
6	The D	Dustin	18-13	14	340
7	I'm kind of a big deal	"B. Gordon"	20-11	2	335
8	Simply The Vest	Jeff	19-12	6	330
9	Stupid Scott	Evan	1	329	111
10	Excelsior!!!!!!	Matt	20-11	19	328
11	The Thunder	"S. Lawrence"	18-13	17	326
12	Joel defends hate crimes	The Dur	20-11	3	320
13	Moyer Entry	My Dad	17-14	5	314
14	Givin' 'em da business	Kat	17-14	17	305
15	lick my houston nutts	Kevin	20-11	24	303

What to do...

First, let's just get something posted so that the last post isn't staring us in the face every time we come here. Unfortunately I won't be traveling to New Orleans for the game. I came close but it's not happening so I'm stuck with a decision when I get back into town on Monday. Do I go and watch the game at the Bw-3's in St. Louis with the OSU 200 alums who go there every gameday? OR do I watch it at home on my 13 inch TV and possibly write a blog for the game. As fans we start up to a week before the game getting our superstitions all set up (rubbing one off makes the lord root against us). Will it be better luck since I'm not going on the trip this year? In 2002 I stayed home and watched it almost alone. However, I stayed at home and watched the Super Bowl last year and we all remember how that turned out...a week later I was in therapy. What's everyone else doing? (Remember all those Fiesta Bowls we were in? Didn't you find it ridiculous that Tostitos sold out everwhere because people had to have them for their parties. I will never attend another house party to watch a game.)


I was also wondering...how many oranges do you think would fit in Mangino? I actually know the answer so go ahead and guess.