Kenny Roda from WKNR SportsTalk 850 will be writing a weekly blog on Cleveland Scores covering the sports world both locally and nationally. Check back often for his updates!
BCS Surprise?
It was no surprise to me that the Ohio State Buckeyes will play the Florida Gators for the National Championship on January 8, 2007 in Glendale, Arizona. As a Harris Poll voter for the last two seasons, I’ve watched more college football than I ever have in the past and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I took my job seriously as a voter and tried to provide myself with as much information as humanly possible to help me make my decisions each week, including purchasing the college football package from DirecTV. Also attending the Ohio State-Michigan game in person gave me a better feel for those two teams and seeing Florida play at least five times on TV helped me in accessing their squad.
For me, when it was all said and done I voted this way in the final Harris Poll:
1) Ohio State 2) Florida and 3) Michigan and here’s why. Since there is no playoff system in college football (that’s a topic for another day), you have to take what you’ve watched, what you’ve read and what you’ve heard and put all that together in determining your choice. Having seen OSU and Michigan up close, to me the final score of that game (42-39) made the game seem more close than it was. Ohio State controlled the contest throughout, even though they turned the ball over three times and led by 11 late in the 4th quarter. Then the Buckeyes went into a somewhat prevent defense which allowed Michigan to score their final touchdown to make it a three point game. So to me Ohio State was more impressive than the final score indicated and the Buckeyes won the Big Ten title and Michiagn didn’t.
Florida, like Michigan, ended the season with one loss, but played in the toughest conference in the country and ended up winning their conference, the SEC. Also add in that the Gators beat nine bowl teams against the Wolverines’ six. Florida finished 3-1 versus ranked teams, while Michigan went 1-1. And throw in my gut feeling and what my brain was telling me after watching over parts of more than a hundred games this year and that’s why I voted the way I did. Florida’s total body of work over the entire season was more impressive to me than Michigan’s. One other note in case your interested, prior to this past weekend’s games I had Ohio St. #1, USC #2, Florida #3 and Michigan #4. So for me Florida didn’t have to leapfrog Michigan, they were already ahead of them in my voting, and when USC lost and Florida won that sealed the deal for me.
An Early Christmas Present For Browns Fans
While I wasn’t surprised that the Gators ended up being the Buckeyes opponent, I was surprised that the Browns rallied for an exciting 31-28 victory over the Chiefs. I thought for sure the Browns were on their way to loss #9 when they trailed Kansas City 28-14 in the 4th quarter on Sunday. With everything that transpired this past week it looked like more doom and gloom for the fans of Cleveland and then out of nowhere the Browns failed to die and came back for a much needed victory. Give credit to Romeo Crennel, his entire staff and most importantly the players for showing the guts and courage that this town has been looking for in a football team for a long time. Derek Anderson stepped in for the injured Charlie Frye and got the job done, along with the rest of his teamates on offense, defense and special teams. It was a total team victory. The big question now is, was it a one time thing, or can they actually build off of it to help turn this season around? The Browns haven’t won back-to-back games since 2003 and the opportunity presents itself this week, on Thursday night, in Pittsburgh to accomplish that feat. By Friday morning we’ll know if they’ve really made progress, or if it was just one lucky afternoon on the Lakefront.
Dolan’s Discounts are at it again
Go get your Indians playoff tickets now. Don’t wait, or you’ll get shut out. Are you kidding me with the moves the Tribe has made so far this off-season. David Delucci in left field? Forty-two year old relief pitcher Roberto Hernandez? Left-handed reliever Aaron Fultz? And maybe Joe Borowski, who flunked a physical for Philadelphia last week as the possible closer?
What a joke. The trade for 2nd baseman Josh Barfield has some promise, but these other moves are insulting to the fans of Cleveland who want and will support a winning baseballteam (455 straight sellouts-a major league record).
