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Rashawn Slater heading to the Pro Bowl

I bought the NFL Ticket just to see the Chargers & Lions games. I watch Slater on every offensive play. His footwork and technique are exceptional.

I saw on one site, he was rated #2 in NFL , behind Trent Williams but in another he was # 9 OT , even behind Penei Sewell , who plays right tackle

Without the package, I would be stuck with Jaguars, Falcons or Panthers
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Travel question

I've been curious about the long distance games and their impact on performance. The Cats play Washington on March 8 and Oregon the 11th. Do you think they will just stay on the west coast?
I believe this will be the case.

I don't recall where I read it, but I do recall reading that the B1G intends to schedule the colleges games such that the teams (especially the coastal teams) only have one major travel week per season in order to accommodate that whole 'college student' thing.

Travel question

I've been curious about the long distance games and their impact on performance. The Cats play Washington on March 8 and Oregon the 11th. Do you think they will just stay on the west coast?
I don't know for sure but would be very surprised if they don't plan to stay on the west coast in between those two games. It's not coincidence that the road games were scheduled back to back. The Washington game looks to be at 9:30pm central on Saturday, February 8 (not March). If they flew back after that one, even on charter, they wouldn't get home until late morning on Sunday. Then they'd need to fly back to Oregon the next day. No reason to do that.

On the other hand, I'm guessing that NU will fly home late tonight after the game at Penn State and will then fly (or bus) to Purdue on Saturday in preparation for Sunday's game there.

Travel question

I think they do, and looking at other schools, the schedulemakers were nice enough to the "original" (cough, cough) 14 teams in a similar way:

Michigan is at USC on 1/4 and UCLA on 1/7
Illinois is at Oregon tonight and Washington on Saturday
Maryland is at Washington tonight and Oregon on Saturday (so a reverse of Illinois)
Michigan State is at USC on 2/1 and UCLA on 2/4.
Purdue does Washington and Oregon later this month
Iowa does USC/UCLA later this month

and so on. Seems that game are always two or three days apart

The west coast teams are not as fortunate as they have more trips, but at least they usually put two together (for example, USC is at Maryland on 2/20 and Rutgers on 2/23 - I'd imagine those guys don't get to hang out in DC or New York much so they'll get a day off in between for sightseeing in addition to practice).
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Maybe the bye in the playoffs isn't an advantage.

I am skeptical the Irish can hang with Georgia if Georgia plays reasonably well. The Irish D is elite but Georgia is has elite talent on both sides of the ball and the Irish offense just isn’t at that level.

That said, Beck can get erratic and ND is definitely good enough to win if Georgia isn’t sharp.
Beck is not playing, which has been known for quite a while. Plus, Riley Leonard is good. ND wins easily.
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Maybe the bye in the playoffs isn't an advantage.

That pass attempt by Georgia from deep in their own territory that resulted in the Irish taking command of the game at halftime reminded me eerily of the braincramp call in the Wisconsin game that turned a 7-0 deficit into a 14-0 halftime deficit right before the end of the first half.
Two disaster turnovers by Georgia - one in the red zone and one that put Notre Dame in the red zone - plus the disaster sideline penalty about qualifies as not being sharp.

Notes from my first trip to the "new" WRA

Heartwarming story and a reminder to everyone here on the importance of keeping your wallet chained to your belt loop.

I always pegged you as a Chain Wallet Guy, @Purple Pile Driver.

A classy one for you:
Thanks for the tip 320.
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Penn State

The Lions are #6 in the nation in scoring at 88 ppg. They have played at easy non-con schedule against schools like Maryland-Baltimore County, Buffalo, Coppin St., and Binghamton. They blitzed Purdue, but lost by 12 to Clemson and by 4 to Rutgers. They are not Goliath by any stretch.

The story of the Purdue game was 24 turnovers produced by the press. Purdue actually outshot the Lions, but the turnovers and a big advantage at the FT line (32-19) gave PSU an easy win. PSU had less luck turning over Rutgers (14), and saw Rutgers hold the huge advantage in FT (25-9).

I think we have a real shot. PSU is long and athletic (as evidenced by the press), but they are not a great 3 point shooting team (35.8%). They shoot much better inside (58%) thanks to guys like G Nick Kern, G Puff Johnson and F/C Yanic Niederhauser. G Zach Hicks is their only guy getting more than 10 mpg shooting over 40% from 3.

Ace Baldwin is the catalyst on offense, averaging 8.6 assists (and 3.6 turnovers). He only shoots 40% overall. He was held in check by Clemson (20 pts on 14 shots with 5 tov) and Rutgers (8 pts, 3 tov), and did most of his damage vs. Purdue at the FT line (12/12).

I am hoping Mullins spends a lot of time defending Baldwin. I think that would slow down his dribble-penetration. Niederhauser mostly works inside, and Big Matt can handle him, leaving Brooks, Ty and Nick to handle those long wings.

I think Nick is due for a big game.
I think tempo is going to be very important tonight. Penn State is one of the Top 10 scoring teams in the country. They're going to want to push the pace, and I'm sure they will use the press at points in the game. NU, on the other hand, ranks 208th in scoring and will want to slow things down.

Lots of opposites in this game. Penn State has five guys who average in double figures, while NU is the only team in the country with two guys averaging 20 points. Martinelli and Barnhizer together account for more than half of NU's points per game.

Notes from my first trip to the "new" WRA

I go to about a dozen games a year. Most compliments of my buddy Uber and his ticket brokerage conglomerate for unused tickets. On Sunday, I was in Ubers own seat and after I returned home discovered I didn’t have my wallet. I cancelled my credit/debit cards and began the journey of tracing my steps.

There were about 4 potential numbers to call. As you can imagine, getting anyone to pick up the phone on a holiday week wasn’t easy. However, the old standby NU Police are 24 x 7 and they were great. Navigating me to the WR lost and found and eventually following up with them 2 days later ( after they opened) and calling me on NYE that they did in fact find the wallet.

WR opened for a Women’s game yesterday and they told me to get there before it ended. The student ticket taker knew I was going to be there and after asking me my name handed me my wallet in 30 seconds. Apparently, there was another sap who also lost his wallet. I have no idea who turned in the wallet to lost and found, fan, security, custodian, but it was returned and all $228 in it was still there. Very thankful for all the NU personnel involved. There are good people associated with this University.
Heartwarming story and a reminder to everyone here on the importance of keeping your wallet chained to your belt loop.

I always pegged you as a Chain Wallet Guy, @Purple Pile Driver.

A classy one for you:
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