The Eagles were looking for their 7th straight win over the Fighting Irish, bowl eligibility, and their first road win of the season. But they turned the ball over 5 times in a closely fought contest in South Bend.
The BC defense was excellent, holding Notre Dame to 5 for 15 on 3rd downs, and coming up with some big stops. Combined with punter Ryan Quigley, the Eagles dominated the field possession battle, but didn't do much with that advantage.
BC wasn't supposed to win this game, but the 5 turnovers cost them what would have been a season-making win. Not only would they have secured bowl eligibility, they could have cracked the Top 25, or at least gotten themselves to the precipice of doing so.
BC comes home and plays Central Michigan on Halloween. But CMU is no pushover. The Chippewas are 7-1 (4-0 on the road, including @ Michigan State), so BC will have their work cut out for them.
The Bruins went in to Philadelphia with a lineup riddled with injuries and jet lag. Well maybe not jet lag, but they certainly weren't fresh after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Nashville on Wednesday and a flight down to Philly. Despite all this, they put in a solid effort, and nearly won 2 points.
This was the first time all season that the B's put together two respectable games in a row. If not for a touch of bad luck, they would've also had their first 2 game win streak of the season.
Two of Philly's goals were a bit fortunate. Although most hockey goals are lucky bounces that come after a series of good plays (or defensive mistakes). Philly's first score came off Mark Stuart, easily beating Tuuka Rask. Stuart was involved in the 2nd Flyer goal, too. He was hit by Steve Begin's stick in the face, went down in the slot, and Philly took full advantage.
Rask might be the best backup goalie in the NHL. He's got the skill-set, and he plays smart. He might have some regrets about Philly's 3rd goal, but he also made big positional stops on Flyer breakouts.
Derek Morris finally earned my unhate. I still don't like him, but I don't hate him. But he is on probation. He had a nice power play goal (set-up by beautiful work from Zdeno Chara) and an assist on Begin's game-tying goal.
Byron Bitz, Steve Begin, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci were all in top form.
I was a bit confused about the shootout lineup Julien put out there. Sturm, Ryder and Krejci would be my first choices. But I'll also give credit to Ray Emery, who made some game saving stops in regulation and the shootout.
Later today, the Patriots will be on their way to London. They'll be practicing at a cricket field, and playing in a soccer stadium. This is part of the NFL's latest attempt to globalize their game. And it will also be their latest failure. Outside of the US, there just simply isn't demand or even room for American football.
Remember NFL Europe? Rohan Davey does. Teams in London, Spain, Scotland, Germany, and the Netherlands. By the end of the now defunct League, 5 of the 6 teams were German, the only country that seemed to develop any sort of fan following. Even there, most of the fans in attendance were transplanted Americans who worked or studied abroad and wanted to enjoy their nation's sports in another language.
England is the wrong place to try American football. The NFL thinks the game will translate there because the language already does. But ask Finnish hockey players, Chinese basketball players and Cuban baseball players if language matters in the globalization of a sport.
The NFL will point to the popularity of rugby in the UK as a reason to market American football there. To me, that's more of a seat-taken kind of sign, rather than a seat-open sign. If British sports fans want a hard-hitting game, they'll watch rugby. In fact, most Brits consider football to be slow-paced, because of all the stoppages. Europeans are accustomed to sports that rarely stop. That's why hockey and basketball have flourished there.
If the NFL wants to market in Europe, it should play games in Germany, not Britain. The Germans showed the most interest in NFL Europe. Germans like Sebastian Vollmer are gradually becoming part of the NFL. Germans don't have a physical sport of their own like rugby to play/watch. And unlike other Europeans, Germans love things that are efficiently planned and rigidly timed. NFL games are efficiently planned and rigidly timed.
And you know what, you don't need to play a game in Britain or Germany in order to get people to notice you. With global communications today, anyone everywhere can watch any sport they want. So just pay some popular German TV station to broadcast one NFL game a week. If it catches on, the station might start to pay the NFL.
But in the end, football will never be a popular sport worldwide. It's funny how it is the dominant #1 in the US, while the rest of the Big Four sports do much better abroad (basketball in 6 continents, hockey in Eastern and Northern Europe, and baseball in the Caribbean and Pacific Rim).
The world knows about American football, and few care. And I don't care that they don't care. That is until my team has to go to England to play in a promotional game that will ultimately be a marketing failure.
The lineup that took the ice Wednesday night wasn't exactly what Coach Claude Julien and Bruins fans had envisioned at the start of the season. But the one thing the Bruins had at the start of the season, and is being tested at the moment, is depth at forward.
There were several firsts in this game. Brad Marchand's assist of Michael Ryder's goal was his first NHL point. Steve Begin's game winning goal in the 3rd was his first as a Bruin. And he was assisted by Daniel Paille, getting his first point in a Bruins uniform.
It was a nice win, and a solid win, but Nashville sucks. And the trouble with the Bruins hasn't been winning, it's been winning two games in a row. Tomorrow night in Philly will be a much tougher test.
Rookie WR Julian Edelman will not be catching passes or returning punts for some time (an undisclosed amount of time, as you may have already guessed), as the Patriots announced that he has a broken arm. Not surprisingly, there's no word as to when he broke it, how he broke it, where (in the arm) it's broken, or when he might be returning.
There's also no word on who will take his spot, as the pass-heavy Pats now have only 3 active receivers. Brandon Tate is an eventual possibility, and there are options from the practice squad. Don't be shocked to see more passing to the tight ends, and guys like Laurence Maroney or Kevin Faulk split out wide, or in the slot.
The Bruins and Sabres made their first EVER trade between each other today. The B's sent a 3rd round pick, and a conditional 4th rounder to Buffalo for winger Daniel Paille.
Paille is 25 and has been nothing short of a disappointment in Buffalo. As I said above, in 39 years, the Bruins and Sabres have never made a trade. The fact that Buffalo doesn't mind directly competing with a team that has Paille on it speaks volumes about how much they think of him out in western New York.
I'm pretty flaccid on this deal. This kid's getting $1.3 million this year for a guy who totaled 12 goals and 15 assists last year, with only 20 penalty minutes. That being said, he did score 19 the year before. And I remember hating the acquisition of Michael Ryder last year, so hopefully I'm wrong about this deal as well.
Just a few days after trading Chuck Kobasew, and placing Milan Lucic on long-term injured reserve, the Bruins lost another key forward in Marc Savard. The team announced today that the playmaking center has a broken left foot, and will miss 4 to 6 weeks. Savard scored twice in Friday's 3-0 win over Dallas.
On the bright side, it's better to endure these injuries in October than in April or May. In last year's playoffs, injuries to key players helped contribute to Carolina's 7 game series win in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Journeyman Trent Whitfield was called up from AHL Providence to take Savard's roster spot.
The Patriots came to terms with recently released linebacker Tully Banta-Cain. I think this is a great signing, as Banta-Cain should be able to learn the defense quite quickly, and be ready to play in Sunday's game against the Buccaneers.
In all seriousness, Banta-Cain, whose contract expires at the end of the season, was released then re-signed by the Pats to a deal that extends into next season, but for a lower salary. So Banta-Cain gets job security, and the Patriots get a lower cap number.
