By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Rockies win, Braves lose; Colorado’s magic number is 1, could clinch wild card in final home game tomorrow

By Brendan Loy

Vail resident Sally Rebehn, master of the apt analogy, describes her experience discovering a bear in her bedroom: “I turned around and it was so odd, your brain takes a while to register. No way I thought there would be bear in the bedroom. It’s kind of like when you think you’re about to drink a glass of water and it’s a glass of milk.”

What?!?!

P.S. Hammerito helpfully converts Ms. Rebehn’s statement to SAT-analogy format:

Water:Milk::No Bear:Bear

Heh. Meanwhile, here’s a longer story with the same quote, but more details.

P.P.S. Someone needs to book this woman on Colbert, stat!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @slmandel Scoreboard: Oregon 42, Cal 3. AP poll: Oregon #16, Cal #24. Coaches poll: Cal #19, Oregon #25. | Ugh. More: http://bit.ly/lKn3z

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

ND almost lost to MSU & Purdue, ranked #59 and #67 by Sagarin. Their remaining non-USC, non-Navy/Wazzu opponents are #s 38, 41, 42, 44, 48.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Quote of the day: “Did it taste like the ideal global economy?” –NPR @planetmoney’s Adam Davidson, referring to a beer http://bit.ly/1qb9VB

By Brendan Loy

In the immediate aftermath of Notre Dame’s dramatic win over Purdue on Saturday, I tweeted, “And Purdue saves Charlie Weis’s job by calling a terrible timeout that probably cost them the game. Irish win!” Stewart Mandel expands on this thought:

If Notre Dame, now 3-1, winds up reaching the BCS promised land, affording Charlie Weis many more years of his $4 million salary, he should personally cut a check to his Purdue counterpart, who committed one of the all-time clock management blunders Saturday night.

With the Boilers leading 21-17, 37 seconds remaining and Notre Dame out of timeouts, Irish running back Robert Hughes was stopped at the Purdue two-yard line on second-and-goal. Weis was fully planning to have quarterback Jimmy Clausen spike the ball to stop the clock — but [Purdue coach Danny] Hope did it for them. He called time out, preserving third down for the Irish.

“That helped us out a little bit right there,” Weis said.

You think? Following an incompletion, Clausen hit tight end Kyle Rudolph on fourth-and-goal for the game-winning score. Season saved, crisis averted.

“I just wanted to have enough time to run a couple of plays [after Notre Dame scored],” said Hope, apparently not a huge believer in his defense. “If I looked at the situation again maybe it wasn’t a great idea.”

Indeed not. But the result was great for the Irish. And if it leads to even greater things — well, it wouldn’t be the first time in recent years that an opposing team’s poor coaching saved Notre Dame’s season and propelled Weis & co. to a BCS bowl.

Remember the monsoon game at Michigan State in 2006? If John L. Smith & co. don’t “ask Drew Stanton to run the option in Hurricane Katrina,” Notre Dame doesn’t win that game, doesn’t arrive at the Coliseum 10-1 (with an obviously, predictably inflated #6 ranking), and doesn’t finish 10-2 and earn a Sugar Bowl berth even after the ritual drubbing by USC.

Indeed, to put it even more starkly: if Slappy wasn’t such a bad coach, Charlie Weis wouldn’t have that all-important “took the Irish to two BCS bowls” line on his resumé as a counterweight to the immense crappiness of the 2007 and 2008 seasons, and therefore might conceivably not have a job right now.

Here’s hoping Purdue’s blunder proves as significant to ND’s fortunes as Michigan State’s did. GO IRISH! BEAT HUSKIES! (And then LOSE TO TROJANS! And then WIN ALL THE REST OF YOUR GAMES! But let’s just beat the Huskies, and then we’ll get to all that in due course…)

By Brendan Loy

Via the Huffington Post.

But… where’s the Numa Numa Guy?

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

USC-Cal and OU-Miami to air simultaneously on ABC, which inevitably means Denver will get the Sooners game. Ugh. Srsly? http://bit.ly/183JGl

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Boise State is young, and next year, they host Oregon St and play VaTech on a neutral field. If they don’t reach the title game this year…

By David K.

USC running back Stafon Johnson was injured today in a weight room accident while bench pressing when the bar slipped from his hands and landed on his throat. According to the trainer, a spotter was on hand at the time. Johnson was taken to the hospital and into emergency surgery. No word yet on the extent of the injury or any idea on how long he will be out.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Would it be sacrilege to predict that USC will go 3-2 in its next five games? (at Cal, at ND, vs. Oregon State, at Oregon, at ASU)

By Brendan Loy

I didn’t realize that ACORN, the Teamsters, and/or the Chicago Daley Machine had the ability to rig International Olympic Committee elections, but National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru apparently thinks they do:

Does anyone seriously believe that the president would take a quick trip to Copenhagen with the possibility of coming back empty-handed? If the president is going, it’s because he knows that Chicago has already won. He’s going.

In all seriousness, I had the same thought as Ponnuru. I just wonder how Obama could actually “know” such a thing. Maybe he had a flash forward? Or Nancy Reagan told him?

(Hat tip: Joe Mama.)

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Year of the Upset II? Last year, 11 of the AP’s preseason top 13 were still undefeated at this point; this year, just 4. http://bit.ly/40NUI

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

AP voters this season are much better than coaches at paying attention to events, adjusting votes accordingly. Oregon at #25 is a disgrace.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

AP top 9 same as coaches, but Va Tech much closer to Boise & further from USC/OU/OSU trio. Cincy 10, TCU 11, Houston 12, Iowa 13, Oregon 16.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Coaches poll: UF, UT, Bama, LSU, Boise. Then Va Tech, USC, OU, tOSU all close together. TCU 10, Cincy 11. Houston 15, Iowa 17, Oregon 25.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

USC 27, Wazzu 6. Notre Dame 24, Purdue 21. Not terribly impressive, in either case, but hey: Ws. Up next, Bears & Huskies. Then: each other.