Greg de'Ville

...and in lieu of 7 DolFelon turnovers, the pictures in Monday's edition may be blacked out for proper effect. Where can you get a Bills broom down there?

...and he did it against the Dieami DolFelons, merely the mortal enemies of Our Heroes. How many is that...3 KRs to the house this season for McGee?

...need help today from the Bolts to knock off Denver. Provided the Bills beat the Browns next week, the game in Cinci in two weeks will have the feel of a playoff game. Winner stays in the hunt, loser can fuggetaboutit.

...ah, life is good when the Fish get BROOMED! Finally, the Bills have a coach who can make halftime adjustments. MM and his cohorts have stayed the course and the wins are starting to come. Quite a game by Lee Evans and Terrence McGee today. Now, get OVER .500 and make the last four weeks interesting. GO BILLS!

...this just in: life isn't fair. In the world of D-I/A football, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Would have loved a 1 v 4 (USC/Utah), 2 v 3 (OU/Auburn) playdown for #1. But that's not how it's done. USC-OU in the Orange Bowl? I'd make the Sooners an early favorite based on their defense. The last three weeks, they have been in shutdown mode. Combine that with how they totally smothered Texas earlier in the season, that unit may make the difference.

...from one (ex-) Oleander to another: Happy Birthday, Cindy!

...if I had a Heisman vote: Reggie Bush of USC. He is something special and showed again today against upset-minded UCLA why he should be in the mix: 277 all-purpose yards (204 rushing) and TD runs of 65 and 81 yards. There are only a few guys out there who are bonafide game-breakers. This kid is one of them--he has the burners and the shiftiness to take it to the house from anywhere on the field. Running, pass receiving, returns--I've seen him at least 4-5 games this fall and he's made a bigtime play in every one.

It's neck & neck to see which D-I AD is the worst--ND's White or Nebraska's Pederson. Pederson saddled NU with Callahan. The result? The first losing season in Lincoln in 43 years. Beet red embarassment for Big Red. Lord knows who White will find to "rescue" the Irish from oblivion.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/foot...n.ap/index.html j-e-t-s, DOG-ASS JETS!

Read this comment--pretty damning, wouldn't you say? The Palm Beach Post said Meyer's father, Bud, talked to his son about picking Florida over Notre Dame. "I told him, if he wants to win, go to Florida." Meyer's father told the Post. "The probability of winning at Florida immediately is higher. Unless he's still drawn to the aura of Notre Dame, the better job is Florida. ... It's just a football coaching job, going wherever he can win. If you go where you can't win, you won't be coaching long." Looks like father knows best, eh?

Because being an independent no longer cuts it, not in this day and age. ND would have been a great add to the Big Ten a few years back, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Memo to ND: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Wasn't the "They beat the hell out of us" game a 27-0 shellacking of the little fishies at Ralphie's a few years back? What a job the Bills' D did that day--took Danny Boy to the woodshed, that was priceless.

...what a buffoon this guy is. His "Sunday through Friday" comment when he fired Willingham was classless. Why would Meyer go to Florida? Mebbe because the Gators play in a CONFERENCE (and a real good one at that), a concept foreign to ND football. Wake up the echoes? ND needs to WAKE UP--period. And get in touch with the 21st century rather than continuing to dwell in the Rockne/Leahy glory days.

...we can only hope the Bills will whip Mr. McFeeley's ass as beet red as can be Sunday. Hey, it's probable his honey, the hot Heather Mitts from the US Olympic soccer team, can "treat" his backside affliction.

...this will be the "bottom-out" season for the Bonnies in the wake of the scandal and NCAA sanctions. They'll be lucky to win five games this season--or any in the A-10 for that matter. Those assclowns Wickenheiser and VBK set the program back at least a decade. Solomon's a good guy trying to do his best with what little talent he has to work with. But how much losing will he tolerate? This year's Bona team is 0-4, worst start in 85 seasons. Unfortunately, the wins will be hard to come by. I give Coach B credit for calling the dogs off early and giving his reserves ample p.t. Had he left Warrick/G-Mac/Pace in for say 30-35 minutes, the margin of victory would have been 40 or more. Yeah, it's gonna be a LONG, cold winter in Olean these next three months.

Their hc is older than Mount Nittany. Decent defense, but horrid offense and STs. If PSU wants JoePa to retire on his terms, the Nits will continue their backslide into oblivion. Spanier's gotta have the brass to say, "Joe, regardless of what you think, it's time." He's 78 years old, for gosh sake. Can't stay in the game forever. Frankly, their dc, Tom Bradley, should get a shot at the head job because his guys play their butts off every week. Posluzny and Connor are two stud LBs, and Zemaitis is a playmaker in the secondary. Hali isn't half bad either in the front four. But that offense is downright, you know...

Iceman, it doesn't solely happen on a PAT. It can happen on a punt return, kickoff return, or even an interception return. If a guy runs it out of his EZ, fumbles, ball goes back into the EZ and he or a teammate recover and is tackled, that's a one-point safety as well.

...it's been what, six or seven years since the Browns were "reborn" and they still seem to be in expansion mode. Some dubious drafts, inhouse infighting and injuries to key players have set them adrift.

Todd Sauerbrun, when he was with the Bears. That was priceless.

...I called him Quitt Early. Was OK, nothin' special as a Bill.

A buddy of mine told me about the time he saw the rarest scoring play in NCAA college football: the one-point safety. It happened again last Friday in Austin at the UT-A&M game. I believe the rule states that if a player from team A recovers the ball in his end zone, advances it across the goal line, fumbles back into the end zone and the team A player or teammate recovers the ball, a one-point safety is awarded to team B. Here is info I gleaned from a blog that has some more info about this rare play, along with the CFL "rouge" or single rule interpretations. To my knowledge, the NFL does not have a one-point safety in its rulebook. --------------------------------------------- About that Longhorn one-point safety I don't do a lot of sports blogging as a rule. I'm a fan, but in moderation, and don't bring any particular knowledge or skills base to my sports blogging. But today's Texas A&M versus Texas game may be an exception — one in which the game officials needed a lawyer on the spot to help persuade the ABC Sports commentators that the officials knew whereof they spoke. As best I could tell, here's what happened: Early in the second half, Texas blocked an Aggie punt, recovered it, and advanced it for a touchdown. Texas' regular placekicking holder was out with an injury; the backup holder bobbled the snap and Texas' placekicker muffed the Point-After-Touchdown kick, booting it through the offensive and defensive line into (but not all the way out of) the end zone. One of the Aggie defenders recovered the live ball — took possession of it, and advanced it out of the end-zone (trying for a two-point counter-conversion) — and then fumbled it back into the end-zone. [update (Sat Nov 27 @ 2:40am): But see the update below: The AP says the ball never quite made it to the A&M end-zone before being recovered by the A&M player who fumbled it into the end-zone.] Thereupon it was recovered, either by himself or by another Aggie, who was immediately tackled in the end-zone. The officials' ruling — to the complete perplexity of the ABC Sports broadcasters — was to award Texas a one-point safety, tying the score at 13-all. A one-point safety?!? Now if that's not enough to send a lawyer-fan to his web browser, I dunno what is! And of course the place to go is the official NCAA website, specifically to the .pdf file containing the 2004 football rules. There, on the 101st page of the .pdf file (internal numbering FR-100), we find Rule 8, entitled "Scoring," in which section 1 decrees: Scoring Plays ARTICLE 1. The point value of scoring plays shall be: Touchdown 6 Points Field Goal 3 Points Safety (points awarded to opponent) 2 Points Successful Try Touchdown 2 Points Field Goal or Safety 1 Point A "regular" PAT would be a "Field Goal" during the "Try Down" that comes after a touchdown (per Rule 8, Section 3), and a two-point conversion would be a "Touchdown" during the "Try Down." The one-point safety (which I've highlighted in red print in the table above) is an example of a "rouge" that occurs during the "Try Down." Football.com helpfully explains about "rouges" in general: A rouge is scored if the ball can not be returned out of the endzone. Fieldgoals are live and can be returned for a touchdown. Should the defending team not return the missed field goal out the end zone a single point is awarded to the kicking team. For example: The first team kicks to the second team. A player on the second team attempts to catch the ball in his team's endzone, but fumbles the ball and is subsequently tackled. The other team scores a rouge, as the ball became dead in possession of a player in his own goal area. (CFL Rulebook) If the ball is kicked into the goal area by an opponent, a single point or rouge is scored when the ball becomes dead in possession of a team in its own goal area or when the ball touches or crosses the deadline, or a side-line-in-goal, and touches the ground, a player, or some object beyond these lines; it is worth 1 point. Although rouge remains an official term, it is rarely used, and this score is almost always called a single. The term "rouge" ("red") is a holdover from the time many years ago in which a point was deducted from the score of the team failing to advance the ball from the end zone rather than being added to the score of the other team; if a team had no points this could result in their going "in the red" with a negative score.

Come to think of it, if ND lands Meyer, they will join a conference: The Urban League!

Sadly, Notre Dame's time as a college grid power has come and gone, a la Penn State (and now, Nebraska). They can't get the blue-chippers anymore. And not belonging to a football conference does not help, not in this day and age. It's too bad because for one day this fall--against Michigan--they put it together. But they stumbled badly against the likes of BYU and Purdue, and Fredo and company at SC have whipped the Irish like rented mules the last three years and Saturday night's debacle was the straw that broke Ty Willingham's back. That sorry effort showed the difference between a one-quarter team (like ND) and a four-quarter club (like SC).

...the loser of the NFC Worst chase--either Martz or Holmgren--should get the gate. But at the rate they're playing lately, both might be shown the door regardless. What a crappy division.

...must have been a shipment of mighty bad crack into Habana Norte. Don't you know the dangers of hallucinogens? Ask Dicky.