October 13, 2015

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 16 comments

The Steelers lost 18 seconds for their final drive because the clock operator kept it running after the kickoff ended, then didn't tell anyone after finally stopping the clock.

posted by rcade at 11:17 AM on October 13, 2015

Jaguars running back Bernard Pierce became a blocker covering a kickoff Sunday instead of trying to tackle the returner. This baffling move was explained later when he developed concussion symptoms.

posted by rcade at 11:22 AM on October 13, 2015

That was a pretty bad three days for Texas professional sports teams:

Saturday:
Dallas Stars - lost 6-3 to Avalanche

Sunday:
Houston Texans - lost 27-20 to Colts
Dallas Cowboys - lost 30-6 to Patriots
Houston Astros - won 4-2 over Royals
Texas Rangers - lost 5-1 to Blue Jays
Houston Rockets - lost 123-119 to Magic

Monday:
Houston Astros - lost 9-6 to Royals
Texas Rangers - lost 8-4 to Blue Jays
San Antonio Spurs - lost 97-94 to Heat

They went 1-8.

Their college football teams were a little better, with 5 wins (Baylor, TCU,Rice, Texas, Texas Tech) and only 4 losses (North Texas, Texas State, UTEP, UTSA).

posted by grum@work at 11:30 AM on October 13, 2015

Colts-Texans was not in the past three days -- it was played on Thursday night (although obviously should be lumped into the same "game week" as Sunday's and Monday's NFL games). But yeah, rough couple of days.

posted by holden at 12:29 PM on October 13, 2015

The UNT loss was the worst by a FBS team to an FCS team ever, 66-7. At Homecoming. To a team paid $425,000 to play the game.

posted by rcade at 12:40 PM on October 13, 2015

Ack. I completely glossed over the game date for the Texans/Colts game.

posted by grum@work at 01:08 PM on October 13, 2015

The UNT loss was the worst by a FBS team to an FCS team ever, 66-7. At Homecoming. To a team paid $425,000 to play the game.

I honestly don't see how that happens. Sure, UNT is barely FBS, but jeez, you're at least getting I-A talent, right? Seems like you should be able to just let them go out there and call plays themselves and at least be competitive with a Big Sky school that hasn't had consecutive winning seasons in a decade.

posted by Etrigan at 01:26 PM on October 13, 2015

The Steelers lost 18 seconds for their final drive because the clock operator kept it running after the kickoff ended, then didn't tell anyone after finally stopping the clock.

As a Steelers "watcher" Tomlin has had some of the worst clock mgt. since he got here. They blow the clock every week.

posted by Debo270 at 01:57 PM on October 13, 2015

UNT isn't barely FBS any more. We're one tier above that in CUSA, built a stadium four years ago and paid our head coach $725,000 a year (around 80th out of 120, roughly). I'd call us bottom-third FBS now.

This makes Saturday's result even more galling. The team put up only token resistance to Portland State. It was 45-0 at the half and PSU put backups in not long into the third.

I can only conclude that the players gave up completely. Even a bad bottom-10 FBS team should be competitive against the No. 25 FCS team at home.

posted by rcade at 04:15 PM on October 13, 2015

Yay Cubs. First ever series winning game at home. Baseball is weird.

posted by NoMich at 08:09 PM on October 13, 2015

I got to a TV just in time to see the top of the ninth at Wrigley. Lucky to be a momentary witness to history. And glad the Cubs were able to dispatch the Cards.

Matheny's profile as he stared out of his dugout at the Cubs' celebration is remarkably close to LaRussa's in almost every detail. Frightening similarity. The stoic LaRussa found himself in that pose several times in his career.

Madden looks so different from when he was with the Rays. He went from being a Dick Tracy character with the X Ray specs to being a grizzled Iditarod musher.

If the Cubs end up facing the Mets, I'm going to end up involuntarily reliving 1969. A summer so unspeakable, surreal, and magical all at the same time. I wept for the Cubs I so admired and clung to astonishment over the Mets. Moon landing, Mets, and mud (Woodstock). Something that no one had ever seen before happened damn near every day.

posted by beaverboard at 08:33 PM on October 13, 2015

The Cubs are going to the NLCS?

That sort of thing might just blow your mind:

posted by grum@work at 11:32 PM on October 13, 2015

I saw that guy. Terrifying. He has a GIFt.

posted by rcade at 12:39 AM on October 14, 2015

Joe Maddon throws down a lot of looks. This was one of his best.

posted by rcade at 12:41 AM on October 14, 2015

Well, the Cubs have a long way to go. But taking out the Cardinals? Yep, we're officially on notice now.

posted by NerfballPro at 10:27 AM on October 14, 2015

So if the impossible happens, and the Cubs win the World Series, I guess Theo Epstein becomes the greatest GM in the history of the sport, right?

I mean, being the GM that assembles the team that ends the Red Sox drought, and then immediately moving over to the Cubs and building a World Series winner for them? That's legendary.

posted by grum@work at 11:34 AM on October 14, 2015

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