#0: Vikings (Last Week: 0). I thought they were going to beat the Packers by a two-score margin, but at least they covered the spread. I call bullshit on Brett Favre not going into this game against his former team with more emotional interest than any other, not with the way he was slingling the ball with omniscient control. Great to see the team at not just 4-0 but a very confident 4-0. Two things prevent me from pushing these guys up to Positive Numbers: general pessimism because these are the Vikes we're talking about, and the second anonymous performance of Adrian Peterson. Favre said this is Peterson's team, and it should be. But with the way #4 is playing now, is it Favre's? Should it? And is A.D. jealous? And should he? And will there be any drama if this gap widens this Sunday at the Bastard Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams?
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!). I didn't know Syracuse had a women's hockey team. Well, they do, and it's only in its second year of varsity existence. I guess that makes the Gophers beating them only by a score of 4-3 Friday night a little more palatable -- I mean, it's not like the Orange are in their first year. I guess I'm looking at ways to trash this team after riding high most weeks on the WMNSS only to pud out in the Women's Frozen Four. But so far, they are undefeated and once again one of the top teams in the country. Maybe they'll be able to close the deal this time, even though they lost both Lamoureux twins to North Dakota. Chelsey Jones is WCHA Offensive Player Of The Week, so congrats to her. The team visits Ohio St. this weekend.
#-2: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -1). F Katie Bethke is the Big Ten Offensive Player Of The Week for having a simply fucking unreal two games. On Thursday at Madison, her penalty kick was the difference in the Gophers' 2-1 overtime win over Wisconsin. And on Sunday afternoon Bethke had four goals and two assists in a 9-0 biblical ass-kicking of South Dakota. They are undefeated in their last six games, and yet this team doesn't even receive votes in either women's soccer college poll? The Gophs have only one game this week, but it's a tall test: Sunday afternoon at Purdue, which is either the ninth- or the eighteenth-best team in the country. Soccer polls are weird.
#-3: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -3). The U. volleyball team is in virtual lockstep with the soccer team: They too won a pair of games this past week, they too are undefeated in their last six (although you can't have ties in volleybal -- they've won six in a row), and one of their players has also been lauded by the conference (LIB Christine Tan, reigning Defensive Player Of The Week). On Monday the team moved up three places to #5 in the AVCA Top 25, their highest ranking in over four years. I put them behind the soccer team because I've seen enough from this team to be able to see the ceiling, and they are going to hit their heads hard on it, I'm afraid, Sunday afternoon. Then, they host the top-ranked team in the country, Penn St. I just cannot see them winning this game. Sadly, I can't see them even hanging with the Lady Lions. At least they will give the Homecoming fans a win tomorrow night, as they should be able to defeat Ohio St. at the Pavilion as the parade goes down University Ave. (By the way, don't do what I did with the So You Think You Can Dance Show and fuck up the time; because of the parade, the match against the Buckeyes will start at 6, one hour earlier than usual.)
#-4: Twins (Last Week: -4). As I said yesterday, Wow, what a fucking game. I guess they were so elated to come back from way back in the division to beat Detroit in Quite Possibly The Greatest Game I've Ever Seen that they allowed themselves to lose the first game of their Div. Series against the fucking Yankees. I can see no other excuse for their putrid 7-2 loss to them yesterday ... well, other than the unfair wealth distribution that allows an ocean-wide chasm between the payrolls of the teams playing. It was a tension-filled game, and some celebration is understandable after working so hard to come back from seven games down in early September. But if these guys are just happy to make the playoffs (as they seem to be, judging from the amount of bubbly they were spraying each other Tuesday night, less than a goddamn day before they have to play on the East Coast), they won't be in the playoffs for long. And the Metrodome will see its last game Sunday night. They've shown enough gumption that they could win three straight. But it's much better to win tomorrow against A.J. Burnett, especially since they should have enough rest and be over their hangovers by then.
#-5: Wild (Re-Entry!). Did you notice that, like the Twins, the Wild were down early in their game Tuesday 3-0 and came back to win in extra time by one? Maybe the hockey team noticed what the baseball team across the river was doing and finally fucking grew a pair against Anaheim. Look, this is the NHL with a fairly hard salary cap, so no team is truly that far away from making the playoffs and, once there, making some noise. But the Wild have a new General Manager and Coach, so I'll bet this team isn't going anywhere this year. So it's surprisingly good whenever they win, especially in come-from-behind fashion, something that this team rarely if ever did last year. Are they going to carry that momentum forward on their road trip? Doesn't look like it; as I type this, they're down 3-0 at Los Angeles after one period. Lovely. They continue out west this week with games at San Jose Saturday and Anaheim Wednesday.
#-6: Gopher football (Last Week: -2). Will not possess Paul Bunyan's Axe for a sixth consecutive year as they lose to Wisconsin, 31-28. And this game, close and competitive as it is, should be evidence that just having a new stadium won't make your program a winner. My extremely early and uninformed opinion is that this team will stay just right where they are now: Will have an occasional success, but will not compete at all against Ohio St., Penn St., and Michigan unless Coach Tim Brewster pulls something out of some orifice and creates some serious magic. I do expect, however, that they will win comfortably in the Homecoming game Saturday afternoon against Purdue because they are probably worse than people think this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment