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Sportswriters covering the Cubs in Arizona had to be thrilled as Game 1 unfolded. Lou Piniella made their jobs a while lot easier by making sure they had a obvious story line. Carlos Zambrano was nearly unhittable thru 6 innings. He faced 4 batters or fewer in all 6 innings. Yet Piniella decided the non-existent, if-necessary Game 4 on Sunday was more important than the final 3 innings of the always important Game 1, tied at 1-1. He pulled him after 85 pitches, this after allowing Zambrano to hit for himself in the top of the 6th with the bases loaded after 3 straight Cubs reached base on the nearly-flawless Brandon Webb. I know Z is a great hitting pitcher and he already had a double (1 of just 4 hits of Webb), but that immediately struck me as dumb. You had exactly 1 opportunity to score in the game and Piniella decided not to take advantage of it so he could get 3 more outs from Big Z. Not to smart. Enjoy your offseason, Lou. Here's what they're saying in Chicago.
Piniella's plan foiled.
Quick start out of the question for Cubs.
Yanking Z, a losing call.
One bad gut move, and it's doom in the desert
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The Rice Owls had the national TV spotlight and deliver their first victory of the season (31-29) and first at Rice for new head coach David Bailiff. After exchanging TDs to open the game Rice had the next 4 scores until the 4th qtr, thanks to a boatload of So. Miss turnovers to take a 31-7 lead. Luckily after allowing 3 4th Qtr Tds and successful 2-pt tries on the first 2 TDs, Rice batted down a 2-pt conversion that would have tied the game.
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Reading between the lines, Randy Galloway in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram essentially says win or get fired for Coach Fran. Naturally as an opinionated paper-selling columnist, there's a lot of other interesting stuff leading to that ultimate point.
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SI is trying to pretend that Matt Ryan deserves to be among the top QBs in the nation. He may be a top NFL prospect but he does not deserve to be mentioned for the Heisman, nor is he among the best QBs statistically either even though SI published a chart suggesting otherwise. Their comparison was thru 4 wks, I updated the numbers for this week and keep in mind, Brennan (5), Brohm(1), Tebow(1), & Woodson(1) threw 8 INTs this weekend and the NUMBERS STILL AREN'T CLOSE.
G. Harrell-----192-267 (71.9%), 2302 yds, 24 td, 2 INT
C. Brennan---133-182 (73.1%), 1631 yds, 15 td, 6 INT
B. Brohm----134-201 (66.7%), 1948 yds, 16 td, 4 INT
T. Tebow----85-122 (69.7%), 1297 yds, 11 td, 2 INT
A.Woodson--112-167 (67.1%), 1309 yds, 16 td, 1 INT
M. Ryan------136-223 (61.0%), 1545 yds, 11 td, 5 INT
Tebow (3), Harrell (6), Brohm (7), Brennan (9), & Woodson (14) are rated in the top 14 nationally in passer efficiency. Ryan is 51st, right behind Penn State's Anthony Morelli and both UH QB's!!
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------more throughout the day---------WEX
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