Week 3: Huh?

 The preacher asked her, and she said, "I do"

The preacher asked me, and she said, "Yes, he does too"

The preacher said, "I pronounce you 99 to life...

Dateline:  Houston, TX

I'm sorry, you think YOU''RE going to be in charge?  

This may come as little surprise to a few of you but from time to time, I have, in fact, some fairly inappropriate thoughts.

I know, shocker, right?  (It's why Defarge often says 'let me do the talking.')

Like last week at a wedding when I thought "Why don't I ever hear that Lyle Lovett song as a married couple's first dance?"  

Wouldn't it demonstrate a healthy, if somewhat irreverent (but fact-based) sense of humor -- the type that one needs to be equipped with, going into a presumed lifelong contract?

And when one shares this out-of-the-box thinking with, say, one's own spouse... it's typically met with the expected dismissiveness of anyone having a vested interest in maintaining the marital orthodoxies of an autocratic, matriarchal relationship:

"Terry, you're an idiot. Stop talking."

Yes, dear.

Well, you know who's not an idiot?  At least for one week?  Marcus Freeman, Mike Denbrock, Al Golden et al and therein lies the conundrum:

So... are we fixed?  Or are we Sybil? 

 

Quote of the Week

"Not last week."

Riley Leonard

(When asked when was the last time he had as much fun as the 1st half of the Purdue game.)

Hey, the young man may never be the Second Coming of Joe Montana -- or even Ian Book -- when it comes to throwing the football but let's give it up to him for his a) toughness (mentally and physically), b) self-awareness and c) sense of humor. 

I don't know how the rest of this year is going to turn out for him / the team... and there'll surely be septuagenarians in FL trashing him regardless... but I'm a fan. 

Word of the Week.

Used in a sentence paragraph: Young Jerrence watched the tape of the game, already knowing the score:  66-7.

Good.

Yet as he watched three starters, two O-linemen and one Edge defender, leave the game with what surely appeared to be serious season-ending injuries, he pondered 'at what cost?'

Football has always been a game of attrition and rare is the ultimate champion who can't partially attribute their success to staying uncommonly healthy.  

Yet, this game for ND felt like a pyrrhic victory where the cost of the lost personnel far outweighed the benefit of the trouncing. 

Now if it had been against Michigan or USC, Jerrence might re-think equation.  

Surely we could find another offensive lineman if if it meant hanging 60 on one of those two. 

Game 2 Thoughts  

Who's your baby now?

It's only Week 3 and I give up.  

I give up making any sweeping, 'blinding glimpses of the obvious' insight with this team.  

How can anyone say anything with any certainty about them?  Clearly, Freeman can't, much less any of us on the outside of the program.

And yet... 

1.  Leonard.  My single hottest take:  If Denbrock keeps calling his number as much as he has, I don't think there is ANY WAY he doesn't get injured this year.  (And boy, am I glad that Steve A. stayed.)

• Perhaps only interesting to me: every ND QB had a designed run called for them, even Angeli.

BTW...

Not surprising: Angeli starts the 2nd half. 

Surprising:  The expected circumstances for Angeli playing -- Leonard's presumed ineffectiveness -- aren't the reason.

Not surprising:  Angeli still throws the first (two) TD passes of the year for ND.

2.  Jeremiyah.   Heard this on the Sunday morning Sampson - Fortuna podcast:  the latter sportswriter sat next to an NFL scout and inquired as to whom he was here to see -- thinking it might be our QB or one of the studs on the ND defense.

But the guy said, "#4 -- he's the best player on the field, either team, and it's not particularly close."  

True dat.

3.  Kennedy Urlacher.  As a Packer fan, it's an unfamiliar emotion to cheer for someone with that surname... but boy, did the freshman look good.  

And yikes -- we have someone who actually form tackles.  I hate to diss the coaching staff but one has to ask, "Did you learn that from your dad?"

4.  "It's a marathon, not a sprint."  Probably very telling that ND beats a team by ~60 pts. and they move up exactly one place in the polls -- to 17th.

Clearly the NIU hangover, for everyone, is not going to be a short one. 

That said, there's 10+ weeks left in the season and if the team keeps winning, by either a little or a lot, they'll end up top 10 and BCS playoff bound.  (We just may not get that desired home game in December experience.)

Buddy's Buddy

Perhaps some of you saw the story of the NHL Hall of Fame goalie, Roberto Luongo, who substituted for a missing player in a Florida hockey beer league -- and led them to victory over the 5-time league champs. 

If you haven't, here's the story.

Pretty cool, and someone Buddy would definitely get behind for his award -- although the fact that he gave up two goals against a bunch of Bryan Gruley wannabe's suggest the rest of the team deserves some props as well for contributing to the win.

So, no -- Roberto doesn't get Buddy's full attention this week.  That recognition goes to...

I'll give you an hour to move those hands... 

Jim Belknap. While he's gone by many names over his life... 

• Jim
• Belker
• Mr. Belknap
• Grandpa

... for one, singular Birthday's Eve night, call him

Lucky Pierre.

There's winning.  And there's being a winner.

Happy birthday, Jim!  You da man. 

RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)

Post-game, one of the more interesting topics of conversation for Messrs. Sampson and Fortuna was the mindset of the ND fan.

Option A

--  I'm relieved, possibly optimistic (albeit still not wholly confident) after seeing the team play to their potential. 

Option B

--  I'm super pissed. Where the f*ck was this effort / execution last week - for a home opener, against a similarly marginal MAC team?!

Both attitudes seem valid.   And with that, a single interesting (to me) nugget from Pete's post-game takeaways -- recognizing that we don't have to keep beating the dead horse re Leonard's passing deficiencies and the O-line attrition challenge:

----------------------------------

Boubacar Traore is an absolute star in the making. Built like he grew up in SEC country instead of suburban Boston, the sophomore has flashed every week of the season. His efforts paid off with a pick six at Purdue. Marcus Freeman talked up Traore’s progress in the postgame, and he’s right: The defensive end is coming. But he was outstanding against Northern Illinois, too. And at Texas A&M.

Source: The Athletic

September16, 2024

Cocktail of the Month

When I was a wee lad, whenever I made a mistake, my brothers used to tell our parents, "It's okay, please don't punish little Terry --  he didn't mean it, you have to remember he's a bit... simple."

Thanks, guys!  (At the time, I thought it a compliment.)

Upon further reflection, perhaps not.

But I've always gravitated to the straightforward -- Occham's Razor and all that.  So when a drink called a Boilermaker turns up in your cocktail book for the Purdue blog, how do you ignore that?

You don't.

Charles Bukowski's Boilermaker

1920-1994

When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you byb the throat.  

-- Factorum, 1975

It makes sense that Charles Bukowski's stories and poems reside in back alleys, dirty dive bars, and the gritty corners of downtown Los Angeles.  Bukowski started drinking heavily at 13, and never really let up.

He unabashedly embraced the unglamorous lifestyle of vagrants and alcoholics, despite the fame and success he eventually encountered.  At the age of 35, doctors advised him against drinking:  his liver was shot, he wouldn't survive his boozy lifestyle.

Still, he maintained his fealty to the bottle, writing endlessly about the dingy bars, sexual encounters and hangovers that punctuated his days until he died nearly 40 years later.    

                                           

•  2 oz. bourbon
•  1 pint light beer

Pour bourbon into a shot glass.  Pour a pint of light beer (anything but Coors -- Bukowski's least favorite).  

Drop the shot into the pint glass.

Repeat as necessary.

Source:  How To Drink Like A Writer

Writing by Margaret Kaplan

 

Schedule 2024

August

31                @Texas A&M               W

September 

7                  Northern Illinois          L                                                    

14                @Purdue                       W                         

21                Miami (OH)                            Alumni Hall gang reunion               

28                Louisville

October  

                                                                                                     

12                Stanford                          The Brothers Corrigan game

19                @Georgia Tech                 

26                Navy

November 

 9                Florida State                               Night game - accepting couch viewing bookings

16               Virginia     

23               @Army  (Yankee Stadium)       McSorley's anyone?                        

30              @USC                                     

December

20             1st round playoff game at ND Stadium -- see you there.  (Maybe not.)

Wager 2024

He's got two strong legs to guide him

Two strong arms keep him alive

Will the wolf survive?

Survive?  At least for another week. 

Note: If I STILL have anyone's win # wrong, please let me know! 

Wins	Director - ND Equivalence	Domer
12 Christopher Nolan	The Nick Saban of the film world - Nolan is Mr. Swing For The Fences Big Idea Guy, even if every effort isn't always a home run. But they are undeniably ... epic. Just like a 12-0 season.	Kevin C,  Lini Matt L., Brian M. Jay, John L. Ray, Blair John P.
11 Martin McDonagh	Hello, he's Irish!   Solidly predictable for always being really, really good.  And as  his reputation has been burnished, the star talent in his cast has followed. Sound familiar?	Jerrence, Daryl Jim S, Tim C. Jerry C,  Mike C. Greg R., Bob S. George, Raz, Ted, Bob J. Tim S.
10 David Fincher	Pretty much a stud in both film and TV formats. Always interesting, albeit with palpably dark undertones... one is never sure how the story is going to end up.  Much like a 10 win season will feel like.	Pat B, Mike B. Bill, Jim B. Sloane, Alex Phillip, Randy Mike G., Jerry P Gutsch, Mark Jim T., Brian W
9 Yorgos Lanthimos	Do I always understand what's going on his films?  Nope. But the ride is pretty enjoyable even when you don't know where you're going or even how you got there. Ultimately, you might end up appreciating it more than you thought at the time.	Alvin, Garrett
8 Richard Linklater	Perhaps the product of recency bias - I quite liked 'Hit Man' - Linklater's films fall for this blogger  into the "nice-fun-I see an interesting insight" category.  They just don't feel especially memorable. Like we'd view an 8 win season.
7 Wes Anderson	When does quirky/idiosyncratic become tiresome? When you feel like you're watching - again - an inside joke that you're not included in. Anderson attracts an an all-star cast that no longer seems to add up to the sum of their parts. In a word, disappointing.
6 Lars Von Trier	Uncomfortable. Unpleasant.  Disturbing. Often off the rails, his films might be 'art' but it's tough to call it many people's definition of entertainment.

Schadenfreude of the Week.

When The Winds of Change occur and everyone starts winning -- even the guys you don't especially care for -- someone has to pay the price.

And so it would appear, this week, that would be Team Schadenfreude. Which, to be fair, probably should be a healthier place for one to reside. 

I mean, getting your happiness through someone else's failures and disappointments... that's kinda sinister, isn't it?

And yet, that doesn't even make the Top 10 of Jerrence's character flaws. 

Florida St.   They say that the primary characteristic of a psychopath (or is it a sociopath) is being devoid of empathy.

In which case, put me on a Watch List!

Has any team gone from the penthouse-to-the-outhouse in such a short time?  With NIL and unlimited transfers in college sports, one should probably used to it, I suppose.

BTW, coach Norvell:  I don't think you're a bad guy, just one desperately attempting to do something other than shuffle deck chairs on the Titanic... but playing 3 powerhouses?!  We're talking Georgia Tech, Memphis, and BC. 

Boston College.   Speaking of which, Fredo... so much promise being bandied about after beating FSU.  Instead you might just be merely the tallest midget in the ACC class.

Terry's Tools.

One would think this being the ramp up to the political high season, that wolrd's non-stop, off-the-rails rhetoric would inspire tomfoolery across virtually every industry -- especially the sports world where Low IQ Meets Poor Impulse Control to create a wondrous year-round alchemy of idiocy. 

But so far, not so much.  Perhaps I'm not subscribing to the correct media outlets.

In any event, find below this week's nominees...

1)  Drake London.   It's probably not accurate that all WR's in the NFL (or college, for that matter) are textbook narcissists but I'm betting it's directionally correct.

Take Mr. London, he of a USC collegiate pedigree, many of you might remember.  London caught a game tying TD pass with :34 left -- leaving only a PAT for the dramatic comeback win.

Drake celebrated by pretending to fire a gun into the air while standing right next to an official. A flag was thrown, unsportsmanlike conduct (and it should be noted:  not the first time refs in the league have called this) and that easy game-winning extra point suddenly became a somewhat less-than-no-doubt 48 yard kick.

The kicker made it - because of course he did, kickers are always bailing out their sh*t-for-brains prima donna teammates.

Kinda wish he didn't. 

2)  Sign of the Apocalypse.   When in doubt, pass the cost onto the consumer.

3).   Jalen Raegor.  Former 1st round Eagles draft choice / NE Patriots member (and soon-to-be Wendy's Drive Thru attendant) is our latest poster child for the "F*ck Around And Find Out" School of higher learning.  

Apparently, Mr. Raegor -- displeased at New England placing him on their practice squad, the football equivalent of steerage -- posted the following on Instagram... 

...the apparent gist being he is a Ferrari kept in a shanty's garage -- y'all gotta let that baby out and do its thing! 

The subsequent New England organization response being, "Yep, that's all we need to know - there's the door."

How refreshing.

Honestly, what IS it with WR's?

Name of the Month

It probably isn't right to pick on a team after they turn in such a pathetic performance -- it is akin to kicking one while they're down (and in this metaphorical instance, tripping, falling down and breaking several bones).

And yet, this Purdue athlete's name just seems to sum the day for them so aptly... 

Shitta Sillah

File this under "mom and dad did me ZERO favors when they named me."

But maybe he's simply an example of that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger -- he's (apparently) a pretty reasonable DE. 

But just one who's going to have the arrested development cohort (like me) constantly teasing him about his name.

Especially when his team loses.

Final Thought

One final wedding-related thought...