Dear EFAs,
Another solid victory sends the Mountaineers onto 5-1 with the only worry in mind that we don’t get complacent while on cruise control through the Big East. However, the 14 point victory of USF inevitably has the Stew Bashers out in full force on how we got “conservative” in the second half and played not to lose by running the ball. Never mind the fact that it is only the second time we have ever scored 20 or more points against USF. Don’t tell anyone, but personally I thought the play calling, albeit more run oriented, was still pretty good. Heaven forbid we pitch the ball around in the second half, Geno throws a pick-six, and all of a sudden Oliver Luck has an overloaded email inbox complaining about how our coach can’t follow conventional wisdom of running the ball with a lead, good field position, and a stout defense.
I get criticism from people for wasting my time and money to my football devotion by writing these long winded tirades, blog posts, buying season tickets, traveling to way away games etc., but at least at the end of the day, I have the sanity to sit back and actually enjoy it. I could probably donate an ice cold keg of beer to half our fanbase and they would simply reply that they prefer their beer warm and skunked. The frustrating thing to me is that you cannot have a reasonable conversation about the pro’s and con’s of our football team because defending Bill Stewart has become similar to voting for either Obama or Mccain where you have to be fervently on one side or the other. I’ll end my rant with this: Rich Rod (that dude you all hate, remember) is gone, he left on his own accord, and he ain’t coming back. We are 5-1, our defense is the best defense that we have had in over a decade, is terrific to watch (how many yrs did we bitch about not having one?), has been ranked in the top ten all year, and after this weekend the whole team will likely be ranked in the mid teens with an easy path to a BCS bowl. Have a beer, have some food that will clog four arteries at once, and enjoy the ride.
Homecoming Tailgate
I regret to say that the BeerZooka will be retired for at least one tailgate. When the great creator gave forth the frothy refreshment known as beer, he intended for it to be consumed in a modest time span of 3-8 seconds. Recent experiments with the BeerZooka, or Paint Stick, have pushed time frames down to a point that we are flirting with sub 2 seconds. Clearly we are on a slippery slope that the creator did not intend for, similar to cloning. If we don’t watch out, sooner or later we are going to have a whole flock of hammered Dolly’s running around Morgantown, puking grass balls up everywhere and while that is amusing, that is one hell of a cleanup mess. The BeerZooka could well tear a hole in the time space continuum and launch the tailgate straight into LOST. It would take Doc Brown to get us back safely before Biff Tannen gets his sports almanac and dominates the Blog Betting. This leads us to a deep question, if the tailgate were relegated to LOST, would the Brown Lot be “The Others”?
The Paint Stick is currently under review from the NASCAR competition committee and we should hear back by next week (they like fast things, but try to put in that safety bull shit). Hopefully getting Paint Sticked won’t become a restrictor plate event and we can settle for the Hans Device.
By the way, feel free to stop by this weekend and participate as a judge in the great pulled pork cookoff. It’s great because I’m cooking and I do good things with Swine.
Talking about homecoming, I’ve never really got all that fired up for homecoming. All the shenanigans on the field before the game are lame and a bad excuse to leave the tailgate early for, but I guess I go to every game so it’s a bit different. Alas there are always a lot of people in town, so undoubtedly by the end of it I will feel like Amy Winehouse by Sunday morning.
Just What the Doctor Ordered?
I don’t think any reasonable person thought Marshall was going to be worth their weight in toilet paper this year, but can we take down the billboards already? I mean seriously, for all the shit talk about stealing recruits and the renaissance of Marshall football, how does it feel to be 1-5 and outscored 212-110? Here is some free advice, if you are going to peg your season around beating one and one team only for the entire season, try beating them once. The only team they beat, Ohio, at least got their lickings in on the Buckeye when they played team Sweater Vest. What do you have to say for yourselves? They should just go ahead and play Memphis, so they can get a 2nd win of the season and just throw in the towel. Hell with the fan support they get, they have to be running in the negatives for just turning lights on at Joan Jett stadium.
Random Musings
How terrible is Rutgers? They get beat at home by Tulane and have to stage a major 4th quarter comeback to beat Army. Seriously? Rumor is that Schiano took down all the Keep Chopping wood signs in the locker room in favor of keep whittling twigs.
On a serious note, for all following the paralyzed Rutgers player from last weekend, here is a good story documenting the comeback of former Penn State player Adam Taliaferro who was given a 3% chance of walking after his spinal injury.
Something has to come to a head this weekend when undefeated Auburn meets undefeated LSU. Both teams have had extremely close games this year and came out unscathed on the other end, but certainly have not had the same publicity. The Mad Hatter at LSU has been vilified by winning in ridiculous scenarios and seemingly all WVU fans want them to lose, cause we lost to them . . . other than bitterness, someone please explain to me the logic there. Chizik’s crew has been powered by JUCO transfer Cam Newton who is in fact a distant cousin to Cam Thoroughman, which means he is certifiably bad ass. I’m picking the Auburn tiger to break out of his cage, intercept the ball, get tripped by a streaking Auburn chick (yes!), and then picking up a fumble, Jarrett Lee scampers for a TD for the win. Geaux Les Miles!
Another great 3:30 lineup: LSU/Auburn, Nebraska v undefeated Ok St., Wisconsin/Iowa, and Uconn/Ville for us BE freaks. There are ten undefeated teams left in the country, 7 in the BCS conferences, two of which must lose (mizzou v Oklahoma are both undefeated), and Ok state and Michigan state both have tricky matchups. Some may snicker at MSU prediction, but I think they will get tripped up by a random team, and NW could certainly do it.
I had one of my best weekends betting ever. I went 5-1 over on the blog, and in weekly pool went 15-5, losing a tiebreaker to come in second for the week in heartbreaking fashion. Came down to a pick-em in the Oregon State v Washington game. I have Oregon State, who is down 21-0, we come back to tie it in a fury, then have a 2 qtr stalemate. Miss the 2 pt conversion in double overtime for the win at 2 in the morning and 43.5 beers in. I was crushed, but quickly passed away into the night. Ah well perfection is always one cover away.
Taking a lot of Big East games this week; I like Cincy and Louisville to cover coming out of their home run derby of last week and with all the shit I talk on Rutgers, which is well deserved, Pitt is pretty terrible as well. I like the 12 points RU is getting there.
Much Love,
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment