September 16th update

Beantown Meltdown in progress?

• On September 3rd the Red Sox had the best record in the American League and were already looking forward to the playoffs and possibly winning their 3rd World Series since 2004. But with a 9-2 loss in the opener of a 4 game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox dropped to 3-11 in September to fall 4½ games behind the New York Yankees and into a race with the once-dismissed Rays for the wild card. The Rays (who we had basically written off in our AL East playoff preview less than a month ago) have beaten the Red Sox 6 times in a row including 4 in the past week and are only 3 games back now.
• The LA Angels are additionally only 3½ and feature Jared Weaver, who will likely finish second in the American League Cy Young award (given to the best pitcher in each league) behind Justin Verlander.
• If such a talented team were to squander such a large lead and miss the playoffs, it would likely be considered one of the most incredible and demoralizing collapses for a Boston fanbase that has infamously suffered numerous heartbreaks with their beloved Red Sox.


LSU Continue Rolling to kick off week 3

• The #3 ranked LSU Tigers won their third game in as many tries, two of which came against ranked opponents. This victory was against 25th ranked Mississippi State. An extremely stingy defense (which had 5 sacks and caused 2 turnovers) was key as the Tigers frustrated the Bulldogs all night. Experienced starter Jarrett Lee lead the LSU offense to 19 points, not an overwhelming total, but enough as his defense only allowed 6 for Mississippi State.
• Saturday Night will see the second matchup of two top-5 teams this season. Number one ranked Oklahoma will travel to Tallahassee, Florida to take on #5 Florida State. Oklahoma, led by star quarterback Landry Jones looks to keep their top ranking against the dynamic EJ Manuel and his Seminole running mates.
• There are no other matchups of two top-25 teams, but #10 South Carolina hosts the perennially pesky Naval Academy, #23 Texas hosts UCLA, and #15 Michigan State travels to Notre Dame, who suffered a heartbreaking last second loss this past weekend to Michigan.

Vick in ATL headlines NFL's Week 2

• The marquee game of the second week of the NFL season is the Philadelphia Eagles traveling to Atlanta to play the Falcons. This Sunday night game will show two teams that came into the season with sky high expectations. The Eagles won last week (against the St Louis Rams) but did not look as impressive as they would have hoped. The Falcons look to bounce back after falling short, in embarrassing fashion, against the Chicago Bears last week. It also marks the first time Michael Vick has played in Atlanta since being arrested and cut from the team before the 2007 season. When asked about his return Vick said: "That’s Matt Ryan’s (Atlanta's current quarterback) house. I’m just a visitor.”
• The other big game of the weekend features two of the best quarterbacks in football as Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers travel to New England to face off against Tom Brady's Patriots. The Patriots’ record setting performance on Monday Night Football and the Chargers impressive win against the Minnesota Vikings last weekend have raised expectations that this will be an entertaining game.
• Other games of interest this weekend include the Bears trying to win an emotional game for star LB Brian Urlacher whose mother died this week in New Orleans against the Saints, the Arizona Cardinals traveling to play the Washington Redskins (the winner of which will be a very surprising 2-0) and the Rams traveling to New York to play the Giants on Monday Night Football.