Earlier this evening, it looked like there wasn't going to be a post tonight. There was a big upset brewing in the top 25. It looked like an unranked Michigan St. team was going to blow out the Fighting Irish. It also looked like the BC Eagles were going to cement their status as best of the rest in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But funny things happen sometimes in football.

Notre Dame scored 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter on 3 TDs in a 5:25 span. For those who wrote off Charlie Weis after last week's debacle, it might be time to back off a bit. The team looked shaky (to say the least) in the first quarter. Weis looked fairly foolish when his call to go for it on 4th and 8 just past midfield backfired and Michigan State scored a big TD. Of course, there is also John L. Smith, the man, the myth, legend.

How many times in college and professional football do we see a coach take the air out of the ball when they get a big lead in the second half? I can see some of the logic, not wanting to risk the big turnover. And Michigan State was killing Notre Dame on the ground for the first three quarters, especially with Jehuu Caulcrick, the big 260 pound tailback. Thank God John L. Smith went to the power running formation and stopped running out of the spread formation, which has killed Notre Dame since Joe Tiller brought that attack to Purdue in 1997.

And then there was BC. A blocked extra point helped them beat Clemson, now a missed extra point cost them this game against NC State. Once you miss a kick, you chase that point all day. Then you have to go for two when you want to make it a seven point game. If you miss the two, then it goes from a TD to tie, to a loss situation. Damn shame it had to happen like that.

Of course, there is the theory that you have to take care of business when you have the chance. BC had the ball on third down with short yardage to go. They fumble the quarterback-center exchange, but they were lucky. Matt Ryan fell on the ball, and they only wasted one down. It set the stage perfectly for the most overhyped short yardage specialist in recent memory. I imagine that the CHB had an easy story, and angle all set up. Alas, NC State did not get the memo, and they stopped Brian Toal for a loss on fourth down. That set up their winning TD drive. Under a minute to go, and no time outs. But they took care of business. Good times.

One thing that drove me crazy during the Notre Dame game was the constant game breaks from the studio. I can understand when they have news or scores to update. I appreciate finding out what's going on in games I'm not watching, especially when I can't check the score during a commercial because a particular game isn't on in the area. But if they updated me on the Ohio State game one more time 3 hours after it ended, I was going to start hopping up and down and hooting like Woody Woodpecker.

On a totally unrelated note, what is the point of the Nike Gridiron/Briscoe High spots? I can see where it is somewhat cool to envision a high school where Jimmy Johnson teaches history and Brian Urlacher, LaDanian Tomlinson, Michael Vick and Matt Leinart play football under George Seifert. It's also funny to see Urlacher and the other captains tower over their rivals in the big game. I'm guessing that the point is that with Nike equipment anyone can play with the big boys, unless that Ryan kid is somebody I should know but can't place.

I think the real point is one of those beautiful accidental moments that occur in commercials. A classic example is the Michael Strahan Chunky Soup ad from about 6 or 7 years ago, where he's handing out soup to commuters on the New York subway. As the ad ends, there is a shot where his head is framed by one of the windows in the sliding door. Right below his big goofy smile is a sign that says: "Mind the gap." There is no way that was deliberate, but it's still funny.

To make a long story short, the moment like that from the Briscoe High ad is the unintentional referendum on Michael Vick as quarterback. With a fourth down and time for one play, what does George Seifert run? A tailback option pass play, which is almost assured to fail in that situation because it is the run threat that leaves the wide receiver open down field. On fourth and long there is no way you'd ever run with time about to expire. You'd think the quarterback should be dropping back to throw it deep. But when your passing threat is Michael Vick, maybe you do want Tomlinson throwing the do or die pass.

I hate Michael Vick because he tried to kill my fantasy team a couple of years ago. I also hate him because he is a big whiner. Every time the Falcons fall short, it's a coaching failure, never the QB. Then there was his unilateral demand that media stop questioning his pocket passing ability in the wake of the single most impressive passing performance of the modern era when he threw for 250 yards against the Dolphins last season.

Well, Notre Dame took a savage beating at home this Saturday. Inevitably, the national media is now tearing down the monster that they built. Notre Dame was overrated. Who would have thought that, if the ones doing the rating didn't? I don't know whether the Irish are a worse football team than the Wolverines. Obviously on Saturday, an inspired and well prepared Michigan squad entered Notre Dame Stadium and embarrassed a flat, uninspired team.

Whether Notre Dame could have beaten Michigan if they played with the same emotion they showed against Penn St. or not, and whether Notre Dame had a hangover from the home opener or not are questions that might be worth discussing, but I am not in the frame of mind for that speculation tonight. I'm interested to see how Michigan comes out to play this week. If they come out flat and lay an egg, what will their recent victory tell us. Will Notre Dame look worse, or will Michigan be regarded as a good team that caught ND at the right time? Time will tell.

I had intended to write at length about the questions in the paragraph above, but then a friend (a cynical Penn St. fan) emailed me this story. After one season and two games, apparently it's RIP Charlie Weis. His legend has been declared legally dead. Obviously, if you read the piece, you'll get the impression that the author is a Tyrone Willingham fan. I liked Tyrone Willingham. I think he's a good guy with a strong commitment to the high academic standards the University of Notre Dame has for its student athletes. He was not a wartime consigliere, though.

Among some of my personal favorite Ty moments: the green jersey game against mighty Boston College, the hit or miss emphasis on regionalization and the look on his face when the breaks beat the boys and the game slipped away. First and foremost, unless you are a BC fan or a moron (and alas, the two conditions often flow together like the Allegheny and Monongahela to form an Ohio of ignorance with Chestnut Hill as its Steel City), you know that Notre Dame and Boston College are not rivals. Notre Dame's rivals are USC, Michigan, Michigan St and Purdue. BC sold out the Big East to go from Big East 3 to ACC 5. But they maintained the illustrious position in the Come To Boise And See Our Blue Field Bowl. Notre Dame wears green jerseys for USC or Michigan, not middle of the pack ACC teams. Good call on the green jerseys, Ty. Way to make an average game into a huge victory for BC. No wonder the echoes stayed asleep and no thunder shook down.

Then there was his emphasis on regionalization. Ty thought that since ND recruited on a national stage, players from the area in which they played road games would play better closer to their homes. It worked against Tennessee, when he started little used WR and Tennessee native Matt Shelton who caught 2 touchdowns. It blew up on him when he started Mike Richardson, a little used cornerback against USC in LA, his hometown. USC's receivers beat poor Mike like the CHB beat the Curse of the Bambino. In case you care, Mike Richardson has earned his way back into the starting lineup, and was not victimized for any of Mario Manningham's long TD receptions this past week.

Finally, there was the look of utter mystification that would descend on his face when Tyler Palko set a record by throwing 5 TD passes against the Irish. Or the Gator Bowl, when NC State crushed the Irish. Or when Pat Dillingham threw a TD pass to a BC linebacker in the infamous green jersey game I mentioned.

I linked to the article because I found it fascinating and maddening. The tone of the article suggests that Charlie Weis has been overrated and overhyped because he did little more than surprise some overrated teams with Ty Willingham's recruits. Maybe Tyrone Willingham should have been given a 5 years to succeed like his predecessor, Bob Davies. Maybe it was racial, maybe it had to do with the fact that he was never the first choice, but he was stable and his resume was honest (in short, not George O'Leary of the 13 days). I personally think the latter option led to the short window. If he'd won more consistently, he'd still be at Notre Dame. And it's not like Washington is contending in the PAC 10.

As for Charlie Weis winning with a team largely recruited by Tyrone Willingham, consider this. When Tyrone Willingham signed on to coach Notre Dame, he took over a program with no players and built a winner. Or he had the best start since Ara with Bob Davies players, but there is no mention of that in Charlie Weis' requiem. And this was a 26 point loss to Michigan, but that still puts him 4 26 point losses behind Ty for his career. Bob Davies only had one such loss in his career.

Another interesting point raised in the article is that Charlie Weis beat Navy and Washington last season. So he did, but Navy was a bowl team last year. And if we look back at Tyrone Willingham's record, he was undefeated against Navy and Washington, but Pittsburgh and BYU gave him fits. Weis is undefeated against those teams too. And last October, Weis put his team in a position they haven't been in since the Bob Davies era. They fought the number one team to the brink, and USC needed a TD on the game's final play to win. Ty managed to lose to USC all three times in his tenure. And they weren't close losses, either. And he dropped all three games to the not so mighty Eagles of BC.

It might not sound like it from what I've written above, but I liked Ty Willingham. I really did. But I thought he needed to go. He brought class and stability to the program when they needed it after the George O'Leary mess. But he didn't win, and as Herm Edwards says, you play the games to win. Charlie Weis has brought the Irish to more BCS bowls than Ty Willingham. I think he can weather at least one more loss like this before he gets the gate.

I realize I'm somewhat late to the party, talking about the FIBA World Championship basketball tournament two weeks after it ended. Other things have intruded. But I have a few things to say and a few minutes to say them now.

First things first. This edition of Team USA had no business coming in third. This team should have won, plain and simple. Yes, it wasn't perfect. Yes, a pure shooter might have been a nice complement to Wade, James and Anthony. A player like Bruce Bowen might have provided a more dependable perimeter defender than some of the team members. But there is no way that there was another team that was as talented, and as deep as the US.

Our old friend Bob Ryan was determined to let those of us who were not sufficiently initiated into the mysteries of Dr. Naismith's sport and so deemed this third place finish a disaster know that he was right and we were wrong. The phenomenon of basketball globalization is to blame for Team USA's recent lack of success in international competition. In short, players all across the world are better now than they ever were in the past.

Of course, it is widely acknowledged that Pau Gasol is 18 to 20 times better than the best American playing in the NBA, which accounts for the amazing run of success his teams have enjoyed in their postseason forays. To date, they have yet to win a single game. And I was just one of many who pointed out that Dirk Nowitzki came up small in the biggest moments of this season's NBA Finals. Foreign players are better than the teams that the US squashed in 1992 and 1996 and beat in 2000. But are they better than Americans? I don't think so.

We know that there was one key decision that set the US up for failure. They didn't include one pure shooter on the roster. There is a little known fact that only men like Bob Ryan know. A pure shooter can never go cold. A guy like Reggie Miller or Michael Redd would never have had a game where they shot 0-10 or 1-11 when the team needed him. Reggie Miller would have shot 11-10 or 13-8 or some other percentage which is patently impossible for the other 6 billion or so individuals who are bound in space and time by the laws of physics and nature.

Of course there are those who know how to fix things. Mark Cuban revealed his a ten point plan in an interview which he reprinted on blogMaverick. His first point is that one set of rules should prevail in basketball, either play American basketball by international rules or international basketball by NBA rules. That makes some sense, but athletes like the ones who made up this team should be able to adapt in short order. It's not exactly like the officials and the other teams made up the rules as they went along.

Another point is that the US sent its first Dream Team into a vacuum, following the implosion of the Soviet Union. I would be willing to bet that that team would have devastated any team of professionals from any country, even if they were forced to play shorthanded. That team had incredible talent, incredible competitiveness and incredible leadership. They would have found a way to beat anybody.

One guy who has gotten a pass in this disaster is the legendary coach. Where was Coach K when we needed him? This team seemed like they were well prepared for every eventuality but one. They weren't ready for some team to weather their run, and they come back swinging like the Greeks did, hitting their first 10 shots of the third quarter. And here's an idea...if your team isn't shooting well from three point land, maybe you could tell them not to take so many three point shots. Believe it or not, there are other ways to score in basketball.

I thought Elton Brand did a nice job summing up what the US team needs going forward. Particularly because he discounts the value of the designated savior (take your pick from Kobe, KG, Ray Allen, Gilbert Arenas or Player X). If there is one guy who needs to go, it's Battier. Without Duke getting calls by reputation, he (and Coach K) aren't the dominant forces that some believed they might be. Bruce Bowen is a better defender. Not much of an offensive player, but he might know a bit about the pick and roll.

More zone is a good idea. More size to counter the pick and roll is also a good plan. But it doesn't necessarily mean bringing in new people. Maybe Elton Brand could have played more minutes, and less center. Of course, one can easily forgive Coach K for not utilizing Brand as effectively as he could have. After all, with the healthy culture that pervades youth basketball and college recruiting, it's not like Coach K saw the balance of Brand's high school games. Oh wait, he did. Instead of adding more weapons, it might be a good idea to use the ones you have. And a halftime adjustment or timely timeout might not hurt.

It's been a long time, again, since my last post. But as I said earlier, it's hard to maintain the motivation to attack the Red Sox when they seem so snake bitten this season. I mentioned in one of the first few posts that I do hate the Patriots, but it's not a very strong emotion. They weren't very good when I was a kid, and I had the good manners not to join the press to jump on the bandwagon in the Parcells era. Yes, a lot of people have been going to games for years, but I still remember a lot of weeks where the Patriots were blacked out in the local TV market when I was a kid.

Patriots' fans can't be too thrilled about today's news. For those few who haven't heard 100 times, Deion Branch will not be joining us for the rest of his career. With the loss of David Givens to free agency, that means bad news for Tom Brady. Unless rookie Chad Jackson plays lights out, Troy Brown and Reche Caldwell will be the main outside receiving options. Of course, this might have been the scenario envisioned by the Pats personnel wizards when they drafted tight end after tight end in the last few years.

But what are we missing after all? Obviously, as a Pats hater, I'm not missing anything. But leaving that sentiment aside for a moment, what did the team lose? In four seasons, Deion Branch managed to score 14 TDs and caught 213 passes. Since practical skills like basic arithmetic seem to elude New England residents where their teams are concerned, let me put that in perspective. 50 catches and almost 4 TDs a season.

Think about that for a second, those of you who play fantasy football. Do those numbers scream "Draft Me!" to you. They don't to me. Deion Branch had one "big" game in the Super Bowl against Philly. Yes, he tied the Super Bowl record for receptions in a game, which he shares with Jerry Rice. However, Super Bowl records and career success sometimes run north and south. Just ask Timmy Smith, who set the single game rushing record in Super Bowl XXI. By 1990, he was out of football.

I realize, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, that fantasy is an illusion and fantasy football doubly so. It places so much emphasis on stats, at the expense of little things that receivers have to do to help a team win, like block downfield. But does Deion Branch have the reputation for doing the little things that don't show up in the stat sheets that Hines Ward and Keyshawn Johnson have earned? I would say no.

If your anticipated number one receiver put up half the numbers of Larry Fitzgerald, then you don't have a number one receiver. One can say that the Arizona receiver is not an apt comparison because of the respective offensive systems and the level of competitiveness of each team. Also, at 6'3" and 230 pounds, he's considerably bigger than Branch. However, Fitzgerald plays opposite Anquan Boldin, who would be the number one receiver on half the teams in the NFL.

So will Deion Branch be missed? Probably, but not as much as you might think. Don't dwell too much on that Super Bowl MVP award he won. Think back on the game. If you can tell me that Branch was the best WR on the field that day, then you're either a shameless homer or a moron. TO had a better game. Not as many catches to be sure, but pretty good for a guy on a broken leg with no running game to speak of and a quarterback with the walking pneumonia or whatever was wrong with him.

Of course, I like TO. Even with all of the foolishness from last season, I haven't given up on him yet. But more will be written about TO in the coming weeks. I still have to throw in my two cents on the disaster that was the US team's bronze medal "performance." Plus, I have a lot of things to say about college football. Since I grew up in a the only region without a major college football powerhouse, I am a Notre Dame fan. I suffered through the bad years, so I intend to enjoy the Charlie Weis era. And you're going to hear about it.

To leave on what I hope will be a more positive note, there may be a silver lining in the Branch trade. It's not the first round pick from next year's draft. It is that with the Branch situation resolved, the CHB will (knock on wood) stop referring to him as the "Receiver Who Must Not Be Named." There was a time when a sportswriter would think twice before making a hacky, hokey allusion to Harry Potter.

Yes. I know a bit about Harry Potter. What separates me from the CHB is that my references to pop culture are funnier and show more thought on the part of the writer. Plus I don't look like Harpo Marx with the wit and humor of Dr. Who (who wasn't funny). I don't want to keep criticizing him, but when he gives his "effort" on the Patriots this title: "Quarterback was receiver -- of hits" what can I do? He brings it on himself.

As a bonus, the Douglas Adams quote I paraphrased reads: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." If I'm not mistaken it comes from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but I'm too lazy to track down my copy of The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Ladies and Gentlemen, times have been tough for me, which is weird when the Red Sox are collapsing in front of our eyes. All of the optimism born from the improbable comeback in 2004 seems dead. The Red Sox gave up on the season, according to the anchor fraud in the Globe Sports section, when they traded David Wells. There were those who expected very little from Wells this season, which makes it very funny that his departure marks the moment where some in the media queue up the Crowded House (they sang the song Don't Dream It's Over in the 1980s).

And will next year be any better? Curt Schilling will be a year older. Josh Beckett might get it together, then again he might not. And after that, there is no one left in the rotation. Tim Wakefield should be coming back from injury, but if you think that will be enough to fix their current woes, I have some real estate I'd like to sell you. And then there's Matt Clement. Some day people will look back on the 1st half of last season as an aberration on par with season one of the Chapelle Show. There is no next year for which to wait.

I have been somewhat quiet for the last week, even though I wanted to gloat because I felt bad. As much as I wanted to do a victory lap, only a total tool would do that with the health problems faced by David Ortiz and Jon Lester. Especially now that Lester has lymphoma. It makes me feel like a jackass even typing what I've typed to this point.

But I can't keep silent about something. Poor Carl Yaztremski. Baseball Hall of Famer, Triple Crown Winner and a guy who shares a name with a new birth control medication. Not that I have a particular problem with contraception. That's just one of many subjects where we'd all be better off if we kept silent.

As if Carl doesn't have enough problems. Dan Shaughnessy has to be circling around him, as the oldest really recognizable Red Sox alumnus (Johnny Pesky lacks the eminence, nice guy, nice player but not a star), the CHB has to be hovering over him, just like the CHB hovered over Ted Williams in his declining years. That is another angle to generate columns with a minimum of effort that the CHB has perfected.

In case those of you who read this were wondering, I have some things to rail against in the coming fall. I hadn't prepared any formal lines of attack, which explains this "post," but there will be pieces coming in the next few days. I cannot let the Danny Ainge impression conducted by Coach K and Jerry Collangelo pulled in this year's world championship pass without comment. And I'm sure this season's edition of the Celtics will find new ways to disappoint. And the rest of my plans for this fall's Festivus can wait for another day.