All Sports All The Time

The surprising Detroit Tiger’s have done something this year that they haven’t been able to do in nearly 20 years; made the post season playoffs. They did this by beating the Kansas City Royals and running their major league leading record to 94-62. They lead the American League Central Division by 1 ½ games going into the last week of the season and even if they were to lose the Division title; they would still make it as the Wild Card. If they were to make it as the Wild Card team, they would do that for the first time in team history.

I have been a Detroit Tiger fan for all my life and I haven’t this excited in quite a while. I have been following the box scores and keeping track of the standings from the beginning of the season and with the exception of this slide the Tiger’s were on I have been very optimistic about our chances to make the playoffs. I give a lot of the credit to this turn around of the Tiger’s to hiring of manager Jim Leyland, he was out of baseball for 5 years and yet he got our players to play as a team and to believe in themselves.

The change has been nothing short of miraculous, if you consider where we were not to long ago, in 2003 we set a American record for losses with 119 (43-119) and in 2004 and 2005 we finished subpar ; 72-90 and 70-92, respectively. Now we actually have shot at winning 100 games this season and that to me would be phenomenal.

A big part of the Tigers success has to be the maturing of young pitchers like Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya and Zach Miner, plus the off season addition of veteran Kenny Rogers. Any GM will tell you that you can have all the offense in the world, but unless you have a good to great pitching staff, you will not make it to the big show.

The next step in the process is for the Tigers to continue to build a good farm system so they can develop the talent and build a team capable of playing with the Yankee’s every year.

Jeff Burton wins his first race in over 3 years and he picked a great time to do it. He fought with Matt Kenseth for the better part of 18 laps at the end and he was able to get by kenseth for the lead. Kenseth would have finished second, except for the fact he ran out of fuel with two laps to go.

The most important thing was that with the win he took over the points lead from Matth Kenseth and Kevin Harvick.

It was a very hard to watch at times and at others it looked pretty good for OU. The lone bright spot was the play of Adrian Peterson and he played a whale of a game. He ran for 214 yards and one touchdown on 32 carries, mostly in the second half. That has been his trademark for his entire career at OU; he just gets stronger in the second half of the game.

The Sooners found themselves in big hole in the first and they managed to score with a field goal before half. The Sooners started to come alive in the second half, thanks primarily to Adrian Peterson’s running. We were able to actually build a 13 point lead with less that 3 minutes to play, but the defense couldn’t stop the Oregon offense to save their lives.

The numbers were absolutely horrible and it is no wonder why the Sooners lost the game; 501 total yards the defense gave up. I can’t remember a worse defensive by any OU team and not still win the game.

I am intentionally trying to steer away from the controversy that ended the game for the Sooners and ultimately led to the loss in Oregon. I could sit here and dwell on the loss and bad calls and failure of the replay officials to rectify the bad calls, but in my mind the real reason the Sooner slost was because they couldn’t stop the Oregon offense. The other reason was the Sooners couldn’t get into the endzone on three redzone possessions and had to settle for 3 field goals. Had we been able to punch it in on any one of those possessions it really wouldn’t have matter what happened on the onside kick or pass interference call.

The Sooners are getting ready for their next opponent (Middle Tennessee State) and they will use this game to get the bad taste out of their mouths.

The Nextel Cup Series goes to New Hampshire at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire and it kicks off the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the lucky 10 drivers. This will be a short post, but I hope to come up with a more indepth analysis of the 10 races and 10 drivers that will be competing for the trophy.

I am first and foremost a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, but I am not going to say that I honestly believe that Dale Jr. will win the Championship. However, he does have a chance just like the other 9 drivers do. I think that it will come down to two drivers in the end and neither of them drive for Hendrick Motorsports (ducking for cover). I think it will come down to Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth for the Nextel Cup Championship.

I am looking forward to some good racing for the next 10 weeks starting with Loudon today.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL CHASERS!!!

The Race for the Chase has ended with Kevin Harvick taking the checkered flag at Richmond, which gave him the weekend sweep; Busch Series racxe on Friday night and the Nextel Cup race on Saturday night. The only real surprise to me is the fact that Tony Stewart will not be apart of the 10 race "Race to the Nextel Cup" this year, he failed to make the Top 10 and Kasey Kahne was able to get into Top 10 and secure his spot in Rach for the Nextel Cup.

Tony Stewart found himself the odd man out when the final results were announced and he seemed to handle it very well, he didn’t offer any excuses for his poor finish, despite having a pretty good one in the fact that he was in a back up car. But Stewart decided to not make excuses and basically said that it was a combination of the past 26 races that lead to him and the #20 team not making the final cut.

I was a very nervous NASCAR fan last night just hoping that my favorite driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) was able to secure his spot in the Race for thge Nextel Cup. When the green flag dropped Saturday night in Richmond Dale Jr. needed to finish 16th or better to clinch his spot in the Top 10. The trouble was the brakes on his #8 Budweiser Chevy Monte Carlo SS were just about burned up (only had front brakes left) with 50 laps to go. There was constant radio communication between Tony Eury Jr. and Dale Jr. for those remaining laps, mostly it was Tony Eury trying to reassure Dale Jr. that the car was going to hold up and he just had to relax and drive. Well, the brakes held up long enough for Dale Jr. to cross the finish line in 17th and he secured the 6th place position in the points standing.

Another driver that was fighting a severe brake issue was 4 time Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon, he was able to hold his #24 Dupont Chevy Monte Carlo SS and he held on to finished 31st, but more importantly he was able to hold on to a Top 10 in points. That means he will be in the hunt for his first Nextel Cup.

Top 10 Finishers

1.	Kevin Harvick	Chevy
2.	Kyle Busch	Chevy
3.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
4.	Dave Blaney	Dodge
5.	Mark Martin	Ford
6.	Greg Biffle	Ford
7.	Ken Schrader	Ford
8.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
9.	Jeff Burton	Chevy
10.	Scott Riggs	Dodge

The lineup for the Race to the Nextel Cup

Rank		Driver	Behind
1.	–	Matt Kenseth	Leader
2.	–	Jimmie Johnson	-5
3.	–	Kevin Harvick	-10
4.	+1	Kyle Busch	-15
5.	+2	Denny Hamlin	-20
6.	–	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	-25
7.	+2	Mark Martin	-30
8.	+2	Jeff Burton	-35
9.	-5	Jeff Gordon	-40
10.	+1	Kasey Kahne	-45

Kasey Kahne won his 5th race of the 2006 Nextel Cup season, but he still remains on the outside looking in at the Top10. He came into the race 90 points behind 10th place and a place in the Chase for the Next Cup and with the win he was able to close the gap down to 30 points.

This sets a free for all to see who will fill the 3rd - 10th spots after this coming weekend at Richmond. This is because only Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson have officially locked up their inclusion in the Top10. That leaves the final 8 positions up for grabs between Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhard Jr., Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Kasey Kahne.

There will be plenty of scenario’s discussed of what needs to happen for each driver to secure their position in the Top 10, but in the end all that each driver can do is do their best with what his team gives him to drive on Sunday afternoon. The rest will depend on the other 42 cars on the track and that is variable that will drive the drama next Sunday at Richmond.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. picked a great time to figure out that he really can have success at California’s Fontana Raceway. He and the rest of the #8 Budweiser Chevy team put together one heck of a package and together they were able to take the checkered flag in second place and he moved up 3 spot to #6 in points and more importantly he is 77 points ahead of Kasey Kahne in 11th.

I really felt sorry for rookie Reed Sorenson, he was in first place with two laps to go and looking like he was going to pick up his first win in the Nextel Cup Series, that is until he ran out of gas. He was forced to coast into the pits and fillup on fuel and he ended up 19th.

Top 10 Finishers

Fin.	No.	Driver
1	9	Kasey Kahne
2	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3	07	Clint Bowyer
4	99	Carl Edwards
5	24	Jeff Gordon
6	11	Denny Hamlin
7	17	Matt Kenseth
8	5	Kyle Busch
9	20	Tony Stewart
10	88	Dale Jarrett

It was a great day for football in Norman, Ok; cool and overcast for the opener of the 2006 college football season. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the Sooner fans that were in stands at Memorial Stadium on the University of Oklahoma campus. The Sooners should have easily taken care of the UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Blazers, but it was anything but easy for the Sooners on Saturday.

The game started with both defenses forcing punts and on the Sooners second drive, QB Paul Thompson only needed to passes to get the Sooners on the scoreboard. With passes of 25 and 21 yard, respectively, both catches were made by TE Joe Jon Finley. It looked like the Sooners were off to the races, but UAB had other plans for the Sooners. They replaced their starting QB in the second quarter ad they were able to jump start their offense. While the Sooners offense really didn’t do a whole lot in the second quarter. UAB was able to get on the scoreboard thanks to a 15 play nearly 8 minute drive to tie the score at 7.

The second half was when Sooners super star runningback Adrian Peterson got on track and put Sooners ahead 14 -7 early in the second half. He carried the ball all six times on the 39 yard scoring drive including a 19 yard run and capped it off with a 4 yard touchdown run. On the following possession, the UAB Blazers tied the score with a 24 yard touchdown pass from Sam Hunt to Cory White. UAB broke the tie with a field goal, it was made possible when the ball was knocked out of the hands of Peterson by a defender that was lying on the ground after being blocked.

Fortunately for the Sooners Adrian Peterson quickly forgot about the fumble on his last carry, because on the very next play the Sooners had the ball, Peterson made them pay. He took a swing pass from Paul Thompson and turned it into a spectacular 69 yard touchdown run. He ended up with 139 yards rushing and 69 yards receiving, with 2 TD (1 receiving and 1 rushing).

Senior QB Paul Thompson has a decent game with only a couple of bad throws that ended up being picked off. He was only making his second start at the college level and he did pretty well. The biggest problem in the game for the Sooners was on the defensive side of the ball, they couldn’t seem to get a really good read on what UAB was going to do from play to play. Fortunately, our defensive coaches are very good at what they do and they were able to get our players to bend but not quite break when it really counted.

I believe the Sooners will have plenty to build on when they sit in the film room and watch the tapes of the game on Saturday.

The Detroit Lions made there final cuts to get down to the manditory 54 players on their roster for the start of the season. One of those cuts included WR Charles Rogers, the former #2 pick in the 2003 NFL Draft.

One of the biggest reasons he was cut by the new Lion’s coaching staff was because they weren’t happy with his work ethic. Rod Marinelli, the Detroit Lions head coach made the only logical choice with the Lion’s having a decent stable of wideouts. The recievers are lead by second year standout Roy Williams, who should be even better in his second year.

Charles Rogers really never got to show his ability in his first two seasons with the Lions, both of them  were cut short by broken collar bones. Last season was very disappointing, in the few games he played he wasn’t able to contribute very much and finished the season with 14 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown. Prt of the reason his season wasn’t very productive last year was because we was suspended by the NFL for violating the leagues drug policy and had to sit out 4 games.

 

I will start this off by saying I am Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan and he is one of a handful of driver that are vying for the last remaining spots in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Since Dale Jr. fall from 3rd in points a few races ago, he was able to recover and move back into the Top 10 in points (9^th, to be exact). That is due in large part by finishing in the Top 10 in the last 3 races, with a Top 3 last week at Bristol.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for Kasey Kahne, he is still fighting to get back into the Top 10 in points and now he finds himself 90 points behind 10^th place Mark Martin with two races (California and Richmond) to go before the cutoff.

I have a lot of respect for Kahne’s driving ability, but he has had a bit of bad luck this season. He has been in the wrong place at the wrong time on numerous occasions that have lead to race ending wrecks and he has also been involved in a couple of last lap wrecks that took him out of the race, despite having a Top 10 car.

What I find amazing is that Kasey Kahne has four wins this season and he might be left out of the Chase for the Nextel Cup and a driver like Jeff Burton hasn’t won a single race this season and he looks solidly in the Chase. Some believe that a driver should be required to have at least one win to even qualify for the Chase for the Cup, but because the way the points are awarded, the system actually rewards consistency over number of wins.

It is all going to come down to the last two races for Kahne and unless he gets some help, he isn’t going to make the Chase this year.