Displaced Cleveland Fan

These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting.

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We had a wild game last night in Indy.

In a much anticipated game that lived up to all the hype, the Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots in the final seconds, 35-34. With the win, the Colts improve to 9-0 and are two games ahead of the next closest team in the AFC in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs.

It looked like the Patriots were going to hand the Colts their first loss of the season. Early in the 4th quarter they scored a touchdown to go up 31-14. Peyton Manning led the Colts back and cut the lead to six points after a touchdown with 2:23 remaining. The Patriots next possession defies all logic.

The Colts, by holding the Patriots offense and using their time outs, left New England with a 4th and 2 on the Colts’ 28 yard line with 2:08 to play. Common sense says you punt in this situation. Inexplicably, Patriots coach Bill Belichick decides to go for it. On the 4th down play, Tom Brady completed the pass, but his receiver was tackled just short of the first down line. This gave the Colts the ball inside the 30 yard line. It took Manning just four plays to get into the end zone, connecting with Reggie Wayne for the winning score with 13 seconds left.

For as much of a football genius Belichick is supposed to be, he sure made a bonehead call here that cost New England the game.
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The Buckeyes are still the best in the Big Ten. They proved that today and punched their ticket to Pasadena.

Playing Iowa in a de facto Big Ten championship game, Ohio State pulled out a victory in overtime off the leg of former professional soccer player, Devin Barclay.

I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed last week when the Hawkeyes’ starting QB Ricky Stanzi went down and wouldn’t be available for this game. Sure, having freshman James Vandenberg under center should have favored the Buckeyes, but I wanted Ohio State to win against the best team possible.

As it turns out, Vandenberg did a more than adequate job filling in for Stanzi. He rallied his team to a comeback against a tough Ohio State defense and force overtime. He was 20 for 33 passing (60.6%) for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have 3 interceptions, but one was a tipped ball and another was on a desperation 40+ yard pass to the end zone in overtime. Overall, a good game for the freshman. (Though I got very tired of commentator Matt Millen saying he looked like a 5th year senior out there.)
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Former Cleveland Browns head coach and Western Kentucky University alumni Romeo Crennel was honored last week, being inducted into WKU’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni as part of the school’s homecoming weekend activities.

In the Homecoming game, the Hilltoppers lost to Troy, 40-20. The loss puts the team at 0-9 for the season and winless in their last 17 games - the longest losing streak in the country. On Monday, head coach David Elson was fired. He will remain with the team through their final 3 games.

So now WKU begins the search for a new head coach. My first thought: What about Romeo Crennel?

Sure, he didn’t have a lot of success as head coach with the Browns. But that was the NFL. With this job, he could go back to a college program where he’s probably better suited. He would be at his alma mater. And he would surely improve the Hilltopper football team while improving his head coaching skills at the same time.

Turns out my first thought wasn’t that far-fetched. WKU Athletic Director Wood Selig told WBKO in an interview that Crennel was approached about the possiblity of coaching for his alma mater.

“Romeo was our first call,” said Selig. “We owed it to ourselves, owed it to our fan base, owed it to WKU to touch base with Romeo. We did that yesterday and he indicated he wasn’t interested in being a candidate but was willing to help in any way possible.

“He’ll play a very vital role in the process.”

Who knows what that other role in the process might be. But it looks like Romeo Crennel is not interested in coaching at WKU. Too bad. Could have been a good fit.

-dcf

The Orlando Magic was the team that ended the Cavaliers season last year in the Eastern Conference Finals. They gave the Cavs too many match-up problems. So Danny Ferry set out this offseason to add the missing pieces needed to be able to beat the Magic in a 7-game series.

The most notable of these additions was Shaquille O’Neal. The former Magic center’s role would be to cause problems for current Magic center Dwight Howard - make it difficult for him to score, get him into foul trouble.
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. No Browns update this week. Thankfully, they weren’t playing.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came into this week’s game against Green Bay as the league’s only remaining winless team (0-7). Desperate times call for desperate measures. So the Bucs made a bold move to try to turn things around.

Old school uniforms.

Call me crazy, but I like the retro uniforms we’ve seen this year. Even the creamsicle jerseys.

Rookie quarterback Josh Freeman, in his first career start, led the Bucs to a 38-28 win over the Packers. He threw for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns. The win was also the first for 33 year old head coach Raheem Morris.

The loss drops Green Bay to 4-4, making their playoff chances much more difficult. They still have Dallas, Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Arizona remaining on their schedule.
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The first of three big games at the end of the season that will determine how successful this year was ended with #16 Ohio State solidly beating #11 Penn State on their home field.

Buckeye quarterback Terrelle Pryor, a native of Jeannette, PA, came into Happy Valley and led his team to victory over the university that tried so hard to recruit him. He had 3 touchdowns in the game today (2 passing, 1 rushing).

Once again, the victory came in large part from the play of Ohio State’s defense. The Buckeyes held the Nittany Lions’ offense to just 7 points (none in the second half), 201 total yards. They came inches away from shutting out Penn State. The one touchdown came after the Nittany Lions got a first down on the Buckeyes’ 2 yard line. The defense made three stops to get to fourth down. Joe Paterno chose to go for it. QB Daryll Clark dove forward on a quarterback sneak. It was ruled a touchdown, though the replays made it look like the referees were being a little generous. Regardless, the defense played well again, helping Ohio State to a comfortable win over a tough opponent.
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With the help of ex-Indian Cy Young award winner, CC Sabathia, the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series title.

As it turned out, the playoffs were quite predictable from the perspective of a cynical Cleveland fan. When I made my playoff predictions a month ago, my picks were not based on the strength of the team, but on the players on their rosters that left the Indians in either 2008 or 2009. The result? All but one of the picks was correct (I picked the Red Sox with Victor Martinez to beat the Angels).

So in a World Series that began with a pitching match-up of CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee (who both won the Cy Young award in consecutive years while in Cleveland), Sabathia and the Evil Empire prevailed.
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