THROWING KNIVES: BOSTON COLLEGE IS READY FOR PRIMETIME

by BD, Epic Carnival

What a night if you live in the Boston area. I, for one, do not and my opinion of the Red Sox has been, and will continue to be, negative. Not because I'm bitter, I live in the town Sporting News ranked #1, but rather because they've become the second evil empire. The rest of Boston's team's don't bother me at all, though the fans certainly do. Anyhow, as you should know the Sox won and BC put together one of the greatest comebacks I've ever seen. Mainly because of who they did it against. Absolutely nothing else happened last night ... nothing. Thus, I've got the final two division of the NBA preview and come Monday I'll have the full conference standings. To go along with that I'll be picking out the award winners that are a certifiable lock to be wrong, but I'd imagine I can at least predict the playoff teams. Today I've decided to show off Blake Lively, the hottie from Accepted who currently stars on Gossip Girl.

How Did B.C. Do It?
I ask that, because.. well quite frankly VT's D owned the Eagles all night. Matt Ryan looked like Meg for the majority of the evening. Yet, because of their defense the Eagles still had a chance to win the game, and win it they did. After throwing a perfect pass for a TD with 2:11 remaining to pull within three point B.C. managed to recover the onside kick. Now it was up to Ryan to lead his team to victory. Something I hadn't considered possible even when they scored the aforementioned TD. Especially as my buddy Chuck and I continuously yelled for Ryan to quit dropping back so far in the pocket. Despite the deep drop back, which seemed like 15 yards, Ryan alluded defenders and led his team down the field. After a holding call brought back a TD for 3rd and 20 Ryan dropped back deep again, alluded a few more defenders before throwing across the field and finding a wide open Callender for the game winning score with :11 left on the clock. Capping a truly Heisman worthy final few minutes. And making sure his team was the first #2 ranked squad to win in three weeks.

To stroke my own ego a bit, I predicted a B.C. victory while all the "experts" had them as a no doubt loser. That said, I'm more interested in hitting on the game no one wants to see: OSU-B.C. for the Championship.

The Fallout...
B.C. will remain #2, and given their remaining schedule (FSU, @MARY, @CLEM, MIA, ACC Title Game) they should hold on to play for the National Title. The question is, if they do hold on, who will they be playing? It should be Ohio State, but Michigan State proved they can be beaten. Even though MSU couldn't finish the comeback.

Matt Ryan should be #1 on everyone's Heisman list this week after leading his team on those two final drives. But, even if B.C. goes undefeated can he hold off Tebow and Woodson who will certainly have far better number at season's end? I'd say yes, but if B.C. loses he's out of contention.

Red Sox Take 2-0 Series Lead
This is hardly surprising, but it looked like Colorado might just steal one as Jimenez was dominant early. The wheels predictably came off and Boston managed to scrape across 2 runs for a 2-1 victory. Nevermind the 2-0 hole for Colorado though, it's the offense they should be concerned about right now. Matt Holliday is living up to the hype on the biggest of stages, but the rest of his team? Not so much. Holliday accounted for 4 of his team's 5 hits last night and he's going to need a whole lot more from them if this team has any chance to win a game. Let alone the series.

The Red Sox bullpen was nasty, but when all that comes out of it are Papelbon and Okajima, nasty is what you'd expect. I can't help but wonder if Gagne will pitch again this post-season? If he does, I'd image it won't be unless Boston is sitting on a 3-0 series lead and the Sox have a decent lead. That way Gagne can give up a mammoth shot (or three..) into the thin air of Coors and it won't make any difference.

Finally, I'm not buying all of this Holliday as a goat bullshit that's being discussed. The guy was 4-4, I understand he got picked off, but their were 2 outs and they weren't scoring there anyway. He really couldn't have done any more tonight. If your looking for a goat how about the rest of the Rockies lineup?

NBA Preview Part Trey
Southeast Division Projected Order of Finish
Washington
Miami
Orlando
Atlanta
Charlotte
Possible Playoff Teams: 3
Expected: 2

Why do I have Washington winning the division? D-Wade's going to miss a little time and even when he comes back it'll take a while for him to get accumulated. In the meantime Ricky Davis is not D-Wade, though he'll try to be. Plus, Shaq is old and he can't carry a team like he once did. The Heat won't be much of a contender at all until D-Wade gets somewhere near full health. Washington will have a solid divisional lead by the time Miami starts chipping away at it. Unlike last season though, Miami won't catch up. Orlando has an absolute beast in Dwight Howard, and they added a solid sidekick in Rashard Lewis, but their too small. Lewis is slotted to lineup at the 4 to start the season, are you kidding me? That's not going to work, Lewis belongs at the 3 where he free to roam both offensively and defensively. I hate to say it, but they should have resigned Darko. Atlanta has far to many busts on one roster to count. Billy Knight flat-out cannot draft. Sure, Horford should be a solid player, but can Acie Law become the play maker they need him to be? I don't know, but I liken his offensive and defensive skills to Chauncey Billups. But, he's a long way from that right now. If you need an example of how bad the Hawks are: They may be the only team (Minnesota, Charlotte and Seattle excluded) that would still consistently play Shelden Williams and Marvin Lewis. Two guys who look like huge busts. To be honest though, Williams wasn't a top-10 pick last year, but of course Billy Knight runs the team. As for Charlotte, they'll improve, but with the lack of size now that Sean May is out for the year I can't see them hanging in a lot of their games. Walter Hermann is a nice player, but he's not a banger. Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor can't do it alone inside. Also, doesn't Raymond Felton look like a bust? Consider where he was drafted (#5 Overall) before you answer that.

Southwest Division Projected Order of Finish
Dallas
San Antonio
Houston
New Orleans
Memphis
Possible Playoff Teams: 4
Expected: 3-4

This could be the toughest division in basketball this year as all five can be considered playoff contenders. Though I just don't see the Grizz putting it together to make the playoffs out west. Dallas will once again pile up the wins as their core of Howard, Dirk, and Terry continue to gel together. If Devin Harris starts to live up to his potential they could be even better, but none of it matter if they don't return to the Finals. San Antonio will coast until the All-Star break before turning it on. They'll dominate the 2nd half and once again be a force in the playoffs. Houston is an interesting team, they have as much talent as any team, but can Yao play the Webber role in Adelman's offense? And will T-Mac be as successful playing off the ball? If Adelman's style fits, it's hard to imagine a roster including Yao,T-Mac, Francis, Wells, Scola, James, Alston, Battier etc. not making some noise come playoff time. The Hornets have the talent around one of the league's top 5 Point Guards to get to the playoffs, but can Peja stay healthy? If David West enough in the post? How much will Morris Peterson contribute? Lot's of question, if they all roll yes you're looking at a playoff team. If not, then the Lakers take the 8th spot and CP3 waits yet another year. Memphis has Pau and a whole lot of youth. I really like the young, long, athletic duo of Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick moving forward, but I'm not sure their ready yet. On top of that who the hell if their PG? Stoudamire will start the season their, but after a pre-season triple double Kyle Lowery's breathing down his neck and they did spend a high pick on Conley. I've heard a lot about Navarro, and he's got Pau happy to be in Memphis again. But, he's going to have to be a lot more than that if Memphis is cracking the playoffs.

Weekend Expectations
New England Doesn't Cover the 16.5.
The Bears get their revenge on the Lions.
Oregon beats USC relatively easily.
Penn State shocks Ohio State.
The Dolphins and Rams both lose again.
The Rockies win a game.
Rutgers knocks of WVU.
Cal loses again.

Television
The Office was solid once again with Micheal providing most of the episode highlights. The biggest of which was when he called Ryan a "little bitch" to their boss only to have Ryan announce he was also on the phone. Amusing stuff. I, for one, thought Micheal's commercial was the better one, but it didn't make sense in a few parts and I'd imagine it wasn't quite as cost efficient. The Dwight-Angela-Andy quarrel remains amusing as Andy finds it necessary to share he and Angela's out of work exploits with Dwight. His explanation of necking in during their initial conversation was hilarious. The best part of was easily the fact that Angela called him D. A clear reference to Dwight though Andy isn't catch it. To be fair to Andy though, he had no idea Angela and Dwight were dating in the first place. Not everyone is as observant as Jim and Pam. And finally the best part of the episode was Dwight playing Second Life. A game I have no knowledge of, but Dwight explaining his character and then adding "...but I can fly" was classic Shrute. Another Second Life highlight was when Jim showed his character to Pam and she flirtatiously dissected it. It had Jim listed as a "philly sportswriter" and he was carrying a guitar. Something Pam said she didn't know about him, only to have him acknowledge he cannot play the guitar. Given Pam's art aspirations and Jim's general distaste for everything Scranton outside of Pam. Their may just be something to cause a conflict between the two outside of Karen or Roy returning. Overall, the episode was hilarious and outside of small things was more about the humor than the story lines. Which is something I love about the show as these are the kind of episodes new viewers can just watch without any prior knowledge and enjoy.
Rating: 9/10

Scoreboard - October 25th - 2007

NCAA Football
(2) Boston College 14, (8) Virgina Tech 10

MLB
Boston 2, Colorado 1
Lead Series 2-0