Another Great Weekend In October Sports

This weekend did not pass without its share of chills and thrills as we draw closer to Halloween. The Patriots are seemingly unstoppable. The usual Notre Dame vs. USC bonanza was overshadowed by two big SEC matchups, LSU vs. Auburn and Florida vs. Kentucky. And the Red Sox staged a surprising comeback to clinch the ALCS in Game 7. Let's start from the top:

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick seemed incensed at being accused of running up the score in the 49-28 smack-down of their long time division rival the Miami Dolphins, who are still without a win this season. Belichick had apparently reached his mercy point four minutes into the fourth quarter when he pulled his starting QB, and current team hero, Tom Brady from the line, and replaced him with second stringer Matt Cassel. However, when Cassel was picked off on his third snap by Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, who returned the interception for a 36-yard run and touchdown, Belichick hustled Brady right back in, taking no chances on an upset. Perhaps it was smart. Perhaps a bit overkill, as Brady promptly returned the lead to 28 points in a four-play drive.

Brady leads the way for the Patriots with a whopping 27 TD passes in seven games, eleven of which happened in the last eight quarters. He is right on target to break Peyton Manning's single-season mark by 13 TDs, or one more touchdown pass per game. Backing him up are arguably the best offensive and defensive lines in the NFL, who are one point short of averaging 40 points per game. The Patriots are on pace to score 638 points this season, shattering the old league record of 556, which is held by the 1998 Minnesota Vikings. Also, the league record for touchdowns in a season is held at 70 by the 1984 Dolphins, but the Patriots are charging ahead to put up 82.

But enough about pro-football, lets take it down to the NCAA, where upsets have become the norm. I like the way Pat Forde puts it:

“Stranger things have not happened, at least not since 1960. That's the last time a two-loss team claimed any share of a National Title, when Minnesota was crowned No. 1 by the AP..... That also was the only other time when Notre Dame started a season 1-7. So we could officially be in the midst of the weirdest season in 47 years. And in no place is it weirder than the Bloody South.”

The Florida Gators were off last week, giving them a chance to watch then No.1 LSU fall to the dominating powerhouse that is Kentucky. “The Gators are part of a preposterous pileup atop the SEC East – and if the nationwide epidemic of upset losses continues, two-loss Florida would love a shot at a title defense,” said Forde. Florida's preparation paid off as they outscored Kentucky 45-37 this past GameDay Saturday in a true QB heisman-candidate battle for the ages. Florida's sophomore Tim Tebow and Kentucky's senior Andre Woodson dueled it out in front of a rowdy Lexington audience. Woodson had 415 passing yards and five touchdowns against the defending national champs, which is not to go unnoticed, but was overshadowed by Tebow's prowess of the football field. Tebow worked out 334 yards of total offense and accounted for five touchdowns, four throwing and one running. All in all, Tebow has accounted for 27 TDs in seven games, more than the past six quarterbacks to win the Heisman through the same point in the season, which includes Carson Palmer, Jason White, Matt Leinart, and Troy Smith to name a few.

You are reading correctly: Tim Tebow has the same number of TDs in the same number of games currently in the NCAA as Tom Brady does currently in the NFL. I am looking forward to great things from this young QB.

And now to turn to the MLB. The Red Sox clinched the ALCS in Game 7 last night at Fenway Park after being down 1-3 at Jacob's Field, and are set to face the Cinderella story of the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. The Rockies have had an unprecedented eight days off after bolting by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 4-0 NLCS win, but their defense, which in this season earned the highest fielding percentage of any baseball team in history, needs to remain strong. Some believe that this extended rest will hurt the Rockies in the long-run by taking all the momentum out from under them. The Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games but their next opponent is not one to be underestimated. Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett is one of the hottest pitchers in the league, who has the lowest postseason ERA in the last 70 years. Out of the 297 postseason pitches he has thrown, 210 have been strikes. It should be a good match-up between Beckett and the Rockies batting line-up, which has the highest ERA in the league during the second half of the season. They also led the NL in runs scored. When Beckett and the Red Sox last met the Rockies in Fenway, Colorado took two out of three in the series and outscored Boston 20-5. In my opinion, this series will be a rocky road for both teams, most likely resulting in six or seven games, and I honestly cannot choose an easy winner from all of the stats. It may be left up to who simply wants it more.

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