Everybody fights

So this weekend was apparently a weekend for fights. There was the anticipated fights (Ricky Hatton just dominating an outclassed Paulie Malignaggi to reclaim his place as the dominant junior welterweight in the world) and then there were the unanticipated ones.

Though it has not been chronicled much here in the Rant, Nick Petrecki of the BC Eagles has been a one man wreaking crew this season. It has led to many the thunderous (and often crowd pleasing for the Conte faithful) hits but has also led to many penalties. There are very few (if any) games that Petrecki has not headed to the sin bin for couple minutes of "me" time for laying the lumber a little too heavy. At times his team has suffered for his sins. He also seems to want to hit people not matter where they may be on the ice. I have routinely seen him chasing people deep into their own zone and getting caught deep allowing the other team to break with only forwards back on defense. Again, sometimes his team has paid for these mistakes in judgement. Apparently on Saturday, his tendencies brought on a little bad blood and after completely levelling a UMass player who came in a little too hard on John Muse, he started a melee which led to 8 players spending 10 minutes each in the penalty box (Nick got an extra two for his hit). Luckily, no one actually dropped their gloves so there were no game DQ's that would have cost BC players participation in this Friday's tilt against Harvard. I don't know if the fight made a difference in the game but it alomst certainly kicked up the physicality level and BC eventually fell 4-3 in overtime.

Let's move to the gridiron. In a classic unpleasant contest down in Miami, the Patriots pulled away in the second half to defeat the Dolphins 48-28. But the unpleasantness was not restricted to the normal division rival bad feelings. Midway through the 4th quarter, Matt Light got a little too pushy with Channing Crowder and they decided to trade some fisticuffs resulting in Crowder losing his helmet and both men losing out on participating in the remainder of the game. I've got to admit that I like seeing that toughness in the Pats offensive line. I think this team is starting to come together a little and with just a little bit of luck (and maybe some better decision making) they would currently be 9-2 instead of 7-4. But that's OK. They are still on track to make the playoffs, considering their toughest remaining opponents are Pittsburgh (11/30) and Arizona (12/21) and both of those games are at Gillette.

Keeping with the fighting theme, I move back to the ice and the AHL. Though I was not present for this event, my co-worker this morning informed me that he attended a Providence Bruins game against the Portland Pirates this weekend. For those of you who have never attended an AHL game, understand that there are more fights in the AHL than in the NHL. Guys are trying to earn their spot on the big team or sometimes they are simply too physical for the NHL and thus get to take out their aggression down at the lower level. There are fights in almost every AHL game. That there was a fight is not the story. The fighters, in this instance, are what make it noteworthy. Apparently, Nathan Gerbe took on Vladimir Sobotka. Gerbe v. Sobotka!!! Not exactly Klitchko v. Peter. Gerbe is 5' 6" (on a good day) and 160 pounds. Sobotka is 5' 10" and 183 pounds. Gerbe does play with a chip on his shoulder and I have no doubt that his pestering style aggravated Sobotka until they just decided to go at it. Both are goal scorers and not known for their fighting. Sobotka has 24 penalty minutes in 48 games with Boston last year. That's one MINOR penalty every two games (not exactly a fighter's PIM total). According to my co-worker, the normal pugilists on the teams were standing around almost laughing and pointing with a "Can you believe this!" look on their face. That Gerbe would take on a man 4 inches taller and 23 pounds heavy should not surprise anyone, after all he spent three years at BC taking on all comers and proving his worth. I'm sure he put on quite a show.

Let's move on to some weekend observations:

- The BCS is ready to be a mess again. As it stands right now, Alabama would face Texas for the national title. This makes sense right now but the results of Thanksgiving weekend could create quite a stir. Should Oklahoma State manage to beat Oklahoma we run the risk of one of the teams in the national championship not even winning their own conference. It Oklahoma State wins, then Texas Tech (currently #7 in the BCS) gets to play Missouri for the Big 12 title (provided they don't have a massive let down and lose to Baylor licking their wounds from that thrashing at the hands of Oklahoma) but Texas (beating up on A&M this weekend looking for "style points") would probably remain #2 even if Tech is able to beat Missouri in the Big 12 title game. Should Alabama defeat Florida in the SEC title game (and thus silence all the people who think Florida is the #1 team in the nation right now), then you could make the case that USC should make the national title game - BUT if Oregon State beats Oregon then USC would be in the national title game without having won its own conference either. I know, I know, it makes me dizzy too. In a just world, if Oklahoma State defeats Oklahoma and Tech beats Missouri, then Tech should be playing the winner of the SEC for the national title. The Big 12 and the SEC have been the two best conferences all season and the winner between them is rightfully the best team in the nation. But should the carnage continue and say FSU beats Florida, Auburn beats Alabama, and (though I hate the thought) Notre Dame beats USC, does Utah deserve a title shot? Food for thought. Or we can just follow our new President and have a playoff already!!

- For the second year in a row, BC football has a chance to win its conference. They never won the Big East. The closest they came was their final season when the watered down version of the league (because VTech and Miami had already departed for the ACC) came down to a game against a very terrible Syracuse team and they allowed a 3rd string converted corner back to run up, over, down, and sideways on them for an excess of 200 yards and lost their chance at a BCS bowl (maybe for the best as Alex Smith and Utah demolished the Pitt Panthers that year). Last year with one of the best teams in BC history, they were unable to put together a great performance in the ACC title game and fell to VTech. Now this year, with a battered, bruised, and largely mediocre team with no real quarterback to speak of, we once again have a shot at a BCS bowl. Beat Maryland on Saturday and its back to an ACC title game. Or do they lay an egg on Saturday like they did against the 'Cuse not so long ago. Check back next week for that.

Three teams - three stories

Friday night was the rematch from last season's national championship game between BC and ND on the ice. This time Notre Dame came out on top with the 4-1 victory (oddly the same margin as last April). Notre Dame dominated this game at times and a couple of costly errors by the usually steadfast Carl Sneep cost the Eagles two goals and probably the game. Unfortunately, that malaise they showed Friday night carried over to an afternoon tilt on Sunday against Maine. In both games, they were getting outworked and beaten to pucks. The power play was a power outage and unless Ferreiro-Gibbons-Bradford was on the ice the offense was in trouble. The five man forward power play looks more worried about giving up another shorty than about scoring. When they get aggressive and make smart plays they score (as they did for the lone goals both nights) but they weren't doing it consistently enough to take over a game. They have to right the ship quickly, as they return to Merrimack (sight of a tough 4-3 OT win on the 31st) only to return home to a similarly stagnant UNH team looking for a big win.

After the pain of Friday night, Saturday brought some much needed excitement and joy to the Rant. Mrs. Pike and I took in a Bruins contest against the Sabres (when the tickets were bought we hoped Gerbe and his 10 AHL goals might get called up and we didn't realize that the BC game was going to get moved to 8pm). The B's brought another stunning victory to the fans in attendance and it makes their sixth win in their past seven games. This team is winning with speed and toughness. I posted in this blog back during NHL free agent period that the signing of Blake Wheeler was going to be a good one for this team and so far he has proven to be as good as advertised. He may not be a superstar but the kid has size, speed, and a nice touch (see his 2nd goal against Toronto and look at the patience to wait out Toskala). He adds another nice boost to a good young core with Kobasew, Kessel, Krejci, & Lucic. It did my BC heart good to see Kobasew out there thrown his weight around and picking up a goal and assist as well. There is excitement around this team that has carried over nicely from last year and if they can stay healthy they can make some serious noise in the league this year.

Though I was not able to watch the entire contest, after the B's game I was able to get home to catch the end of the BC/ND football game (as well as catch some of Texas Tech v. OSU - damn Graham Harrell & Michael Crabtree are good!). For the sixth straight time, Notre Dame has lost to BC and it has now pulled the series even at 9 wins a piece. In a rivalry that was decidedly one-sided until 1993, BC has twice beaten the Irish when they were undefeated late in the year and beaten them both in Chestnut Hill and in South Bend. Maybe Irish fans didn't care so much in the past but one would think they might start caring now. Poor Jimmy Clausen looked like Ron Paulus in 1994 when Mike Mamula and Stephen Boyd decided to make him very familiar with the turf at Alumni Stadium. This time it was the pressure of BJ Raji and Ron Brace which eliminated the rushing game and caused Clausen to make poor decisions which lead to 4 interceptions. The Eagles came away with their third shut out of the season, a solid victory against a rival opponent, and bowl eligibility. I think they need one more win to lock up their 9th straight bowl invitation and with remaining games against Florida State, Wake Forest, & Maryland there is a victory or two to be had. If they can just get a decent kicker and some consistent offense they might even win that bowl game.

Miscalculation

Chalk up the Patriots loss last night to mental errors. Both from the players and from the coaching staff (something that one does not say often about Bill Belichick's staff). The Patriots lost to the Colts last night 18-15 but it should have been a 20-17 victory. They moved the ball well and with the exception of only a couple of series did a good job defensively on Peyton Manning.

The errors really began when Belichick challenged the 12-men on the field play early in the 3rd quarter. It seems silly to challenge a play that would have only gained him 5 yards and in the end made no difference as the Pats scored a touchdown on the drive anyway. Challenges should be for something meaningful like a key first down on a 4th down play or a touchdown not a 5-yard penalty call. This cost him a valuable time out that the Pats would need later but we'll get to that in a moment.

The next poor decision came after the Pats scored their lone touchdown of the contest when they went for 2. Granted, the two point conversion would have put them up by 7 points but it was still early in the 3rd and they were not desperately trying to make up ground. I have always been of the theory that unless it is late in the game or you are trying to cut down the number of scores it would take to make a come back, you always go with the sure thing and put the points on the board. The extra point would have made the game 13-7 and when the Colts scored their next touchdown they would not have gone for two making it a 14-13 game. This is a big difference from 15-12 in my opinion. Now you play looking to take a lead by simply scoring and not just to tie the game with a field goal.

We move on to late in the third where Jabbar Gaffney dropped what would have been a sure-fire touchdown and a 19-15 lead for the Pats. This directly lead to the next mistake of calling the time out on 4th down when they actually would have converted. Instead, we have yet another field goal that because of prior mistakes now only makes the game 15-15. If they had kicked the original extra point and either allow the 4th down play to run on Jabbar Gaffney makes that catch, suddenly the game is 20-14 (and maybe you go for two in this case looking to have that late 7 point advantage where it didn't make as much sense on the first touchdown, but for these purposes lets assume the "put up points when you can" philosophy).

But the worst error was yet to come as a rookie mistake was compounded by a veteran error and the earlier coaching decision to effectively end the game. Now trailing 18-15, on a second down and short, Green-Ellis inexplicably attempts to push the run to the outside when he had a clear path to a 1 or 2 yard gain that would have given the Pats the first down. He gets stopped short and David Thomas shoves a Colt defender after the whistle for a 15-yard personal foul call. Even if Thomas still commits the foul, if Green-Ellis gets the first at least the Pats are operating on 1st and 10 and with some momentum to try and tie the game to at least force overtime. Instead, its 3rd and 16 and because of the failed challenge on the penalty call the Pats are without timeouts and they have to rush a play to beat the play clock and the pass is intercepted to end the drive.

Mental errors and coaching mistakes. These are things not often seen with the Patriots over the past few seasons. They have a wealth of talent but due to injuries much of that talent is young and inexperienced. Green-Ellis has played well after 3 running backs have gone down with injury and made some good plays last night. Cassel is really starting to settle in as the leader of the offense. Jarod Mayo and Gary Guyton have brought some much needed youth and energy to the linebacking core. But last night showed that the Pats still have a way to go if they want to make the playoffs and compete at a championship level in the year without Brady. They have the schedule to still make the push. They just need to minimize the errors and finish when they are in the position to win which they did not do last night and 20-17 became 18-15.