Labor Day Takes

Not entirely unlike watching Brady Quinn tear up second- or third-tier defenses in the preseason and saying "well, he could have sucked against them, so it's a good sign," I was pretty impressed by Boeckman's performance against Youngstown State yesterday. A couple very nice passes, including a needle-threading touchdown to super-name-on-the-back frosh Dane Sanzenbacher. Who would have seen three true freshmen (Sanzenbacher, Saine, and Washington) all scoring touchdowns in Jim Tressel's system?!? Of course, as the PD points out with its "F" grade, the OSU goal-line offense left much to be desired. (Chris Wells called his performance "trash.") Bright spots, obviously, were Brian Robiskie's great game, and Brandon Saine showing fantastic potential on a few runs. I know, it's only a I-AA team (or whatever the NCAA is calling that division now), but it could have been worse! (Ha!) OSU 38-YSU 6. Next up...Akron. Whoopie.

Had to trek to a bar to watch the Big Ten network. Not too bad coverage, but noticed pretty much no on-screen graphics where they show the player's name and stats. Same thing in the studio, beside Dave Revsine, I didn't know who anyone was. Only one time during the game do I remember seeing a player's stats superimposed on the video of him. Wonder why? At least they have a first down line on-screen though.

Two weeks ago, nearly every Tribe fan in town was seriously gripping over the team's recent performance. Now, after a fantastic (and thrilling) week, they look to be in solid control. Now if Pronk could only start hitting like he can... Right now (Sunday), the prediction site CoolStandings.com has the Tribe with a 94.3% chance of making the postseason. BaseballProspectus has the Tribe's chances at 91.7%. CoolStandings also has run the first 14 games of the NFL season based on last year's stats, and have the Browns with a 6-8 record (after running off 3 straight wins). Of course, also have them eliminated from any postseason chances. And, of course, if they are truly 3-10 after 13 weeks, I think Romeo will be counting his money at home during the week instead of running the team's practices.

North	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	EW	EL	ET	DIV	WC	POFF
Baltimore	9	5	0	.643	18.7	11.1	9.6	6.4	0.0	61.2	3.2	64.4
Pittsburgh	7	7	0	.500	23.2	20.9	8.4	7.6	0.0	36.0	5.2	41.2
Cincinnati	7	7	0	.500	20.3	20.2	8.1	7.9	0.0	2.8	2.6	5.5
Cleveland	6	8	0	.429	16.9	24.1	6.7	9.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

Terry Pluto debuted with the Plain Dealer on Sunday. Although I could have done without his column explaining why more people should have gone to Cleveland Browns Stadium to watch Akron battle Army, I liked the "Terry's Talking" page.