Weekend Sports Round-Up

There were several sporting events worth commenting on this weekend, none of which I saw in their entirety. Hence, the combo recap post.

Maryland-BC The Terps got beat by Boston College in a game that I didn't realize was on TV until Kate told me about it about midway through the second half. I'm still used to thinking of Sundays as football days.

Maryland was down ten when I started watching, and made a game of it for a little while, before dropping behind by double digits again in the final two minutes. The game was pretty much consistent with what I've seen previously this season-- the Terps are very good when they can pressure the other team into turnovers, and are pretty bad in the half court set both offensively and defensively, largely because James Gist and Ekene Ibekwe play terrible fundamental basketball, and try to compensate with athletic ability. That works all right when you're playing teams from the lower echelons of Division I, but it's not going to fly in the ACC.

Giants-Panthers The Patriots were on at the same time as the Giants, so we were flipping back and forth between games all afternoon, which makes it hard to get a coherent picture of either game. It looked like a pretty workmanlike performance by the Giants: Carolina isn't that good, but the Giants aren't going to blow anybody away either, so they sort of ground out an ugly game.

I will say this, though: either Tom Coughlin or his offensive coordinator is the worst play-caller in football. Every goddamn time they get a lead in the third quarter, they go into this "prevent offense," where they just try not to turn the ball over. They make a token attempt at a run, usually a really obvious one up the middle, then attempt a couple of short passes (usually incomplete, stopping the clock), then punt. Their defense spends most of the third and fourth quarters on the field, and they keep letting teams back in it. I was half convinced that Carolina was going to come back on them, but fortunately Chris Weinke isn't Vince Young.

I really can't stand what they do in the second half, though. If you're going to go all conservative and play not to lose, at least run the ball so the clock keeps moving.

Patriots-Dolphins We appear to be back to zero-sum football in Chateau Steelypips. The less said about this game, the better.

Saints-Cowboys Finally, Dallas has to play a good team, and gets thumped. I wish the Giants could've been the ones to do it, but they're just not that good at this point.

Next up: The Giants are home against Philly next week, which will probably be another close and ugly game. The Terps get a string of patsies before they have to play another ACC game, giving them plenty of time to build up a false sense of security.