A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The USC Trojans (5-1) travel to South Bend to play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-2) for the much-prized Jeweled Shillelagh.
This marks the 83rd time these two teams have played each other, and it’s always one of the most important games of the season, regardless of how each team is playing beforehand.
Chicago Blackhawks season is right around the corner. Do you know why I know this? Because Blackhawks fans are lighting up my Twitter feed with nothing but jokes, attacking the Vancouver Canucks.
And if you don’t know about the Vancouver/Chicago rivalry by now, you need to…ASAP.
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While it is no longer a rivalry that inspires curiosity around the country, IU-Purdue will always be one of the most important games on the calendar for Hoosier and Boilermaker fans.
This evening the two schools face eachother for the first time this season. Matt Painter brings his 8th-ranked Boilermakers down to Bloomington for a 6:00 CT meeting with Tom Crean and Indiana. (The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.)
We can safely assume that Crean’s young Hoosier squad will go a second straight season with no dancing in March. Painter and the Boilers, on the other hand, are actually inspiring something rarely heard around West Lafayette: legitimate Final Four talk.
The Blackhawks, once again, beat their rival Detroit Red Wings, but this time it was a much more excited and intense game.
This game had a playoff feel to it. Both teams played like the Cup was on the line, and because of that it earned its title as Game of the Week.
The Hawks came busting out of the gate and quickly took a 2-0 lead gaining all the momentum in the 1st period, but the momentum would rapidly shift throughout the whole game.
This is just icing on the cake for the Blackhawks.
The Hawks proved they could play earlier this year when they dismantled San Jose and beat Pittsburgh in OT, but nobody could have predicted such a dominant performance against their most hated rival, a rival that plays the Hawks so well that it often looks like they are sometimes bullying them.
But this game the Hawks were the bully. Not only did the Hawks beat the Red Wings, they shut them out. Never have the Hawks been do dominant against Detroit.
Will Notre Dame’s offense still be able to produce after losing Michael Floyd for the season?
What!? Purdue lost to Northern Illinois!? Are they really that bad?
These are some very good questions, questions that need to be answered and that will be answered — at least in part — this coming Saturday.
Notre Dame at Purdue
Notre Dame took a heavy blow after learning that their #1 receiver, Michael Floyd, will miss the rest of the season due to a broken left collarbone. Floyd was near the top in the nation, averaging 160 yards per game, before getting injured. This now means Golden Tate will get double covered every game for the rest of the season.
Jimmy Clausen, who might not even start on Saturday due to turf toe, will have to look for Duval Kamara, Robby Parris, or some other receiver to step it up and make some catches.
Otherwise the Irish’s offense is in for a long day.
As for the Irish’s defense, it has been terrible the last two weeks. If they play on Saturday like they have played the last two weeks, there will be trouble for Notre Dame and head coach Charlie Weis. The offense won’t be as productive because of the loss of Floyd, and because of Clausen’s injured toe. Clausen wants to play Saturday and Weis beleives he will, but even if Clausen does play, he will have to adjust his ball delivery. Clausen has stated that the toe hurts, and that he had to make an adjustment.
All that could mean bad news for the BCS hopeful Irish. They desperately need the defense to play a good game because the offense won’t be as good as in previous weeks.
One thing for the Irish to be positive about is that their opponent lost to Northern Illinois last weekend.
Surprising as it might seem, Purdue did lose to Northern Illinois 28-21. Purdue, a semi-mediocre team, looked like a D-II team last Saturday. Purdue isn’t a great team by any means, but no one expected them to lose that game either. Their passing game was non-existent, throwing for only 188 yards. They did rush for a little over 120 yards with 2 TDs, but that will hardly cover up the fact that Purdue just isn’t that good of a team this year.
Don’t expect a Purdue upset Saturday night. Even though the Irish are without Floyd, and Heisman hopeful Clausen is injured with turf toe, Notre Dame will be able to move the ball down the field and easily beat the Boilermakers on their home turf.
Guess what kids? It’s that time again! The NFL season kicked off tonight with the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Tennessee Titans.
Finally.
Life seems to have such a void without football, especially considering that all people like me have done for the last six or seven months is talk about football. Now…finally…we can stop just talking and watch.
The Indianapolis Colts kick off their season against division rival Jacksonville Sunday at 1:00pm EST in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Changes have occurred throughout the roster and on the coaching staff, and these changes have been the focus of the Colts off-season. The exit of long time head coach Tony Dungy was the headliner, but the changes were felt all the way down to a change in punters from longtime Colt veteran Hunter Smith to rookie punter Pat McAffe. And there were plenty of other changes in between.
Jacksonville and Indy have what has become quite an intense rivalry, regardless of the year-by-year success of each team. The Colts hold the overall series advantage with a 12-4 head-to-head record, but in recent years they have struggled against Jacksonville’s running game.
Here’s all the info on the game according to MSF’s NFL Week 1 Preview and TV Schedule:
Jacksonville Jaguars (0-0) at Indianapolis Colts (0-0)
Like I said earlier, the Jags have dominated the Colts on the ground in recent years led by with their two-headed monster of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. The monster was cut in half this past off-season, however, when Taylor left Jacksonville and signed with the New England Patriots.
That being said, MJD is one of the league’s toughest backs, although this past preseason was somewhat unkind to Jones-Drew. The Philadelphia Eagles went Tonya Harding on MJD’s leg in their preseason bout. Luckily for Jones-Drew and the Jags, the injury wasn’t serious and turned out to be only a contusion. There’s a chance that it may still be somewhat tender come Sunday, but I expect MJD to be usual battering ram self.
The Jags also added one of the NFL’s premium route runners during the off-season: Torry Holt. Holt had a sub-par season last year with the Rams, but do not count him out. Look for David Garrard to hit Holt on third down every chance he can get, and Holt will convert.
Indy’s defense has also changed significantly. Safety standout Bob Sanders will most likely not play, and will be replaced by Melvin Bullitt, who subbed very well for Sanders most of last season. The biggest place the Colts have tried to bolster is in the middle as they drafted two defensive tackles and brought back the troubled Ed Johnson. Jacksonville will provide a great test to see if the Colts’ defense has truly moved past the “bend but don’t break” mantra they have held for so long.
New head coach Jim Caldwell didn’t get a lot of looks at his new defense as Marlin Jackson, Kelvin Hayden, as well as many of the other defensive starters did not play much in the preseason due to nagging injuries. Thus, there is a possibility that continuity — or, more specifically, a lack thereof — may perhaps be a bigger issue than any Colts fan or coach would like to admit.
I could sit and talk about Peyton Manning and the Colts offense for hours upon hours, but in order to be brief we’ll talk about the changes and the question marks.
Joseph Addai looks like he is back at 100%, and the addition of 2008 NCAA leading rusher Donald Brown will hopefully improve on what was quite a dismal 2008 rushing season.
The departure of future Hall-of-Famer Marvin Harrison leaves a lot of question marks in the WR corps, with 3rd-year player Anthony Gonzalez expected to step into Marvin’s shoes. Rookie Austin Collie locked up the 3rd WR spot on the roster, and no doubt TE Dallas Clark will find himself in the slot.
The biggest advantage the Colts have on Sunday is that they are playing at home in the very impressive Lucas Oil Stadium. They will be in front of a sold-out crowd and one that has been deemed as one of the loudest crowds in the NFL.
The key to the game is for the Colts is either to handcuff MJD or establish an early lead and make David Garrard have to beat them through the air. If this is the case, Pro Bowlers Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis can “pin their ears back” and put pressure on the Jags QB.
The Jags must establish the run to be successful, as well as get pressure on the three-time MVP Peyton Manning. Zone coverages and blitz schemes will force Peyton into quick decisions and, if the Jags are lucky, flush him out of the pocket. The Jags will likely take their chances letting the Colts beat them on the ground rather than giving way to Peyton and the Colts always dangerous aerial assault.
My Colts-Jaguars prediction is to take the Colts minus the points, with the final score of this game being somewhere in the realm of 27-13.
Jacksonville is not the team they used to be and with the emergence of the upstart Texans, the Jags may very well find themselves in the cellar of the AFC’s toughest division in 2009.
I do, however, anticipate this game to “feel” closer than the score shows. I expect a tough, hard-fought game throughout, with the Colts dominating the 4th quarter to pull away and seal the victory late, led by one of the NFL’s best pass rushing tandems.
As usual Colts v Jaguars will be a great watch.
Thank God football has returned to us! Gone are the Sunday Honey-Do lists. Gone are the awkward Lifetime movies and Family Guy repeats.
The NFL is back boys and girls! Viva la Sunday!
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