#2 Auburn, 41-point favorites over hapless Buffalo, only led 10-0 at halftime, but they’ve now pulled away, and the Tigers lead the Bulls 31-7 in the fourth quarter. Still, that’s only a 24-point lead. Say it with me, UB fans: “BEAT! THE! SPREAD!   BEAT! THE! SPREAD!”

Meanwhile, it appears that #24 Penn State and #1 Ohio State are under the mistaken impression that they play in the SEC :), as neither team managed 100 yards in the first half, and they came within a stupid penalty of a scoreless first half. Penn State leads 3-0 at halftime at the Horseshoe, thanks to a roughing-the-kicker penalty with no time left in the first half that allowed the Nittany Lions a second shot at a field goal after a godawful first kick that wasn’t even close.

Elsewhere, UConn leads Indiana 7-0 late in the second quarter. Go Huskies!

In the undefeated watch, Navy joined Wisconsin and Kansas State as teams that suffered their first loss today… and the Midshipmen are the first previously undefeated team to lose a game where it wasn’t inevitable that somebody would fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. But it looks like they won’t be the last. Arizona State is well on its way to its first loss, as the Sun Devils are getting crushed by 2-1 Cal, 35-7 late in the second quarter.

UPDATE: Now it’s 42-14 Cal, still in the first half. LOL! Now that’s a Pac-10 game! :)

UPDATE 2: Auburn 38, Buffalo 7, final. The Bulls beat the spread! Woohoo!

P.S. I suppose the reason Auburn scored fewer points against Buffalo in the entire game than Cal scored against ASU in the first half is because of the Bulls’ powerhouse defense… heh. It’s definitely NOT because Auburn’s offense, like so many SEC offenses, leaves something to be desired. Nope, can’t be that. (Is there any doubt that USC would have hung 70 on Buffalo… probably by the end of third quarter? Any doubt at all?)

Well I don’t know what Brendan’s excuse is, the Notre Dame game is away so its not like he’s out tailgating, yet we have gone a whole Saturday morning without a single football post. For shame Brendan, for shame. [UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Jinx!]

The morning’s action has concluded and the second round of games are underway, so what have we seen so far?

It’s been a good day for ranked teams, who are 6-0 so far againt their unranked opponents, although #9 Georgia barely survived against Colorado (but more on that later) and Virginia Tech had to make a 4th quarter comeback against Cincinnati for their win. Biggest win of the day so far? #19 Clemson’s slaughter of North Carolina 52-7.

Michigan beat Wisconsin to remain undefeated, and fellow undefeateds Iowa, VT, Louisville, Purdue, and Georgia all won today, so we have at least 5 leaving today, with more to come certainly.

So what was that about Georgia and Colorado? Well, going into the 4th quarter, the unbeaten Bulldogs were trailing the, well, beaten Buffaloes of Colorado, who were 0-3 going into the game, and had lost 7 straight dating back to last season. Well Georgia came back and scored two in the 4th, their second coming with 46 seconds left on the clock. Colorado had no timeouts left. Georgia kicks it into the endzone. So what do you do? Do you:

A) take a knee and save precious time
B) try and run teh ball out of the endzone

Yep, the Colorado reciever ran it out, milking about 8-10 seconds off the clock. Colorado proceeded to blow the game and Georgia escaped with a win. Dan Hawkins is probably wishing he had stayed at Boise State right now.

Falling from the ranks of the unbeaten:
• Wisconsin (lost 27-13 to Michigan)
• Kansas State (lost 24-6 to Louisville)

Surprises:
• Buffalo’s only down by 10 to Auburn at halftime. (The Tigers are 42.5-point favorites.)
• Georgia almost lost to Colorado.

Also:
• Purdue will arrive at Notre Dame Stadium on a 7-game winning streak.
• UConn and Indiana are scoreless early.

There are some reports to that effect, anyway. (Hat tip: Glenn, who says, “Dying of typhoid in a cave doesn’t sound very heroic.”) More here, here and here, via Drudge.) Also here.

P.S. Andrew Sullivan wonders if this is Karl Rove’s promised October Surprise, leaked a few days early. Er, did Rove infect Osama with typhoid? That guy is amazing!

After weakening to a tropical storm last night, Helene has made a mighty comeback, and is again a hurricane — with 90 mph winds! It probably won’t last too long, however; “SLOW WEAKENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS AS HELENE GRADUALLY LOSES TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS.” Margie Kieper has the scoop.

Maybe Helene is just trying to stick around long enough to welcome proto-Isaac into the world.

CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com.

I really can’t think of anything to say about this, except to repeat what I just said.

CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com.

Heh.

(Hat tip: Recycled Sip.)

Today, September 22, is the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, according to the Lord of the Rings calendar. So everyone raise your glass of the Gaffer’s Home Brew (or whatever drink is handy) and wish those excellent and admirable hobbits a happy birthday!

Er, and it’s also the Jewish New Year, as of sundown tonight. So, Happy Rosh Hashanah and Happy Hobbit Day! Perhaps we should all dance the Hora while humming “The Road Goes Ever On”… or something.

And only a 33-minute wait.

We're in a somewhat more reasonable length line at Chipotle, waiting for (non-free) burritos.

Cardiac surgeon “Bud” Frazier and his team at the Texas Heart Institute (come on, what other state did you think you’d find a cardiac surgeon named Bud in??) are busy working on the next version of the artificial heart, only this one is going to be a little different. You’ll have no pulse. Thats right, no pulse.

The way our hearts work now is just like a squeeze bulb, the muscles continously squeezing oxygenated blood through your body. Previous artificial hearts have attempted to simulate this behavior, but complications such as size and wear and tear on the mechanical parts have limited their usefulness and lifetime. So Frazier and his team decided to do away with the pulse mechanism all together and instead create a device that would provide a contious flow of blood throughout your body. About the size of an adult human thumb and consisting of only a single moving part (a rotor) their device can adjust for increased and decreased activity and oxygen demand by flowing slower and faster, but its all a continous stream rather than a periodic flow as in normal people.

The device has been tested for over two years in cattle and has succesfully extended the life of otherwise terminal bovine patients. But the long term affects of a pulseless blood flow are still up in the air. With our bodies designed around a pulse mechanism what added complications might there be from such a device. On top of that is the practical concern. What is a paramedic supposed to do when they come across someone with one of these devices? Checking for a pulse they will find nothing and presumably start unnessecary chest compressions and even defibrulation. Not to mention how freaky it would be yourself to not have a pulse. (Does not having a pulse make you a zombie? mmmmm brains…)

Will it work? Will they add an artificial pulsing to the system (speeding and slowing the rotor at regular percievable intervals perhaps? Or addding some sort of pulsing light ala ET to the persons chest cavity? (pimp my torso!) Only time will tell…

Okay, I’m as anti-Chavez as the next guy, but seriously dude, don’t mess with the freakin’ Citgo sign. (Hat tip: Coach Leahy.) As if Red Sox fans haven’t already suffered enough this season!

This made me laugh.

God bless the Onion.

Is Bush merely lying through his teeth, or is he really “taken aback” by the “news” that his own administration allegedly threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” in the immediate aftermath of 9/11?

Which would be worse? I think I’d actually prefer that he be lying. Because if he’s really that incompetent…

P.S. I guess there is a vastly preferable Option C: that Musharraf is lying (or the intelligence official who told him what Armitage supposedly said was lying).

Space shuttle Atlantis astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed twice during a welcome home ceremony, The Associated Press reports. Visit CNN for the latest.

Has anyone else seen the Alltel commercial where Lee Corso declares that Sparty is his favorite mascot?

Yuck. Further proof that…

Heh.

Sparty sucks. That is all.

P.S. Her Loyal Sons has a roundup of other pre-MSU posts from around the Domersphere.

Meanwhile, The Wizard of Odds thinks the rainbow that I photographed over the Golden Dome on Wednesday is a good omen for the Irish. He’s picking a 38-31 Notre Dame win.