Detroit Sports and stuff

My ranting of sports, life, and whatever I feel like...but mostly sports. Now in the un-daily variety.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

What a great weekend!!!!

Boy, things don't get much better than last weekend...

Michigan led off the weekend with a come-from-behind 27-17 victory over Illinois in Champagne. Playing without leading rusher Mike Hart, and with QB Chad Henne in and out of the game with various injuries, the defense stepped up and lead the way for the Maize and Blue, and contained the explosive Illini offense. In what some were calling 'the only road block left between us and Ohio St.', we held up our end of the bargain, to stay undefeated in the conference. Next week is against Minnesota, a game that we may rest our big guns so they are healthy for MSU in 2 weeks. Here's hoping for another convincing win.

On Sunday Morning (EST time), Arsenal continued their incredible run of wins with a hard fought 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers. Bolton of course would rather kick the player than the ball, but nonetheless, Kolo Toure found the back of the net, and Tomas Rosicky followed suit shortly after, securing all 3 points for the Gunners. And as good as they looked Sunday, they looked spectacular earlier this evening, taking care of Slavia Prague in the Champions League, 7-0 Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott had 2 goals apiece, Alexsander Hleb would've followed suit, except one of his goals was changed to an own goal, and Nicklas Bendtner topped it off, after being subbed in minutes earlier. An impressive win, which almost surely sees us through to the knockout phase of the competition. Well see what this team is made of, with a trip to Liverpool coming up this weekend, and hosting Manchester United next weekend. But so far, so good!

And finally the Lions... almost singlehandedly ruining most weekends for a decade now, they are slowly coming back to respectibility. And while I am thrilled about this 23-16 win against the Bucs on Sunday, and we did win the 4th quarter, and had some success running the ball, it was a game that felt like we were going to lose it the entire way. If it wasn't for the defense coming up with two HUUUUUGGGGEEE turnovers (and it should've been 3 - FALL ON THE BALL, CORY REDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), this would've been a loss. But we did get the turnovers, and we did win the game, so you take what you can get. Hopefully, we can win a 2nd road game (I know, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself) with a victory in Chicago this weekend. Here's hoping!

Well, that's it for now. Sorry about my erratic posting.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Sorry for the delay, slow week

Well, last weekend was a slow sports week. The Lions didn't play, Arsenal didn't play, and Michigan played Pur-don't, and promptly had the game won before halftime. Hence, no post.

The Red Wings have been playing pretty good lately, although they can't seem to beat the Blackhawks. Blah. Pistons are in pre-season mode, don't really care about them quite yet. So no news.

Except for this: My friend Jackie got interviewed by another literary blog! That's fairly exciting, since I've never been interviewed for anything. Even if it is for a book blog :-p (just kidding :-) ).

This weekend will be a good one, though, as the Lions welcome Jeff Garcia and the Tampa Bay Bucs into town, and hopefully give them a lovely parting gift - a loss. Arsenal returns from international break minus 2 starters, striker Robin Van Persie, and central defender Phillipe Senderos, as they head to the NE to play Bolton. I hate Michael Bolton, I hope they kick him in the nuts... wait, it's a different Bolton? oh, well I hope they lose too. Wings continue their west coast swing Tonight in San Jose, and Michigan plays under the lights against Illinois, and put their new, shiny #25 ranking on the line as well. I think they'll be ok, but we'll have to see. And that's it!

More posting goodness for you this weekend. Oh boy, oh boy...

Monday, October 08, 2007

Decent weekend, not as good as last weekend.

Well, 2 teams held up their end of the bargain...

Michigan beat Eastern Michigan 33-22, who played Big Blue tough, and tested our reserves (who were thrust into action because of injury), but in the end, the Eagles were no match for Mike Hart, who had 214 yards and 3 TD's in the win. A game we should've won by a greater margain, but you take what you can. Purdue is up next week, and it should be an interesting game (I'm more worried about the Illinois game in 2 weeks, but that's for another blog).

Arsenal took care of business, barely, 3-2 over Sunderland at home. The hosts were up 2-0 on goals by Robin Van Persie and Phillipe Senderos, but Sunderland (currently near the bottom of the table) didn't give up without a fight, and leveled the score just after halftime. Van Persie completed the brace 10 minutes from time however, to save Arsenal's blushes. This week is an off week due to internationals, (hopefully no one gets hurt), and then we have a champion's league match against slavia praha, and are away to Bolton. So we'll have to see if we can continue this amazing run of form that we are currently on.

And then... there are the Lions... *sigh*. I was hoping we could sweep the 'old' Lions under the rug with a win at DC, but the old Lions and the new Lions are strikingly familiar. This team this year is more frustrating, because they're going good game/bad game, from week to week. They too have a bye this week, so let's hope they can fix their non-existant running game, pass rush... and maybe see if they can find their offensive line somewhere (i know, a bit of a stretch). 34-3 is just pitiful, no matter where they lose the game.

Besides that, MLB playoffs going well, if only the Yankees would've lost last night, the final four would be the teams I picked... stupid yankees. Hopefully they lose tonight...stupid yankees. (psssst - yankees suck!)

And on a brighter note, I went 12-1 yesterday picking NFL games. (Eat it, Mike!!!!!!) ok, that's all for now. Red Wings update perhaps tonight, perhaps tomorrow, just depends on when I feel like doing it. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Funny pics - sports division



There's a website with 10 'perfect timing photos' (including the one above, captioned 'Finish Him!'. I thought it was amusing. Link is here.

Michigan, Lions, Arsenal update tomorrow (possibly Red Wings, too). MLB playoffs update Monday.

Go Lions! Go Arsenal! Hoooray Michigan!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Credibility? For Detroit's NFL team? What?

Ok, I'm officially starting to get goosebumps now. People are starting to talk up the Lions. The laughingstock of the league may start to do the laughing. What's going on here? There is an article here on ESPN's NFL page singing the Lions' praises while piling on the St. Louis Rams' ineptitude. But here's the kicker from the article...

'While the Lions seem playoff bound, there was a recent column in St. Louis detailing why the Rams could finish 0-16.'

Wait, what was that p-word in there? Playoffs? (Cue Jim Mora)... I'm blown away by that. However, I haven't had enough of the Kool-aid quite yet to utter the P-word, and mean it, so we'll just take it 1 game at a time. And it would really be great if we could take out Washington. But I'll wait to see what happens on Sunday.

The Wings looked pretty good last night, beating the Stanley Cup champion Ducks of Anaheim 3-2 in a shootout, with a couple of great saves in the shootout by Hasek, and a beauty of a winning goal from Jiri Hudler. Hopefully this is the first of many goals, and hopefully the Wings can put it together when it matters most, in the Playoffs. Again, we'll have to see.

That's all for now, YouTube clip of the month was posted below. I'll try to post something either over the weekend or on Monday. :-)

Stormtroopers Gone Wild! (YouTube clip of the month)

Here it is, my YouTube clip of the month! Something tells me this wouldn't sell to actual stormtroopers, but maybe it would catch on with other Star Wars races?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

A 3-0 weekend, plus a great tuesday

First of all, I'd like to say 'CEDAR POINT, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' It was another great weekend down at 'america's rockin' roller coast'. Myself, Ilea, and 6 others went to 'the point', and had a great time. The new coaster, 'maverick', was sweet, and all the other rides were great as usual. The only bummer was that 'max air' was down all weekend. I love that ride, so that was a bummer. But everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I cannot wait to go back again!

Anywho, onto the great weekend of sports. Michigan won its 3rd in a row with a 28-16 win over Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. Since NU was up 16-7 at the half, at home, this seemed to be a pretty good win. We'll see if we can continue this streak against Eastern Michigan (hint: we will.)

Arsenal continue their amazing run of play right now with a hard fought 1-0 win over the weekend at West Ham. Robin vanPersie tallied the winner, and did so again tonight, where we won a Champions League game at Steaua Bucharest, also 1-0. That is nine consecutive wins for the Gunners, who find themselves in 1st place both in the Premier League, and in Group E of the champions league. There's still a long way to go in the season, but we are in terrific form at the moment.

And the Lions....who the hell are these guys?? They improve to 3-1 with a 37-27 win over Chicago at home, scoring an NFL record 34 points in the 4th quarter. 34 points!! Now, granted, Chicago was a little banged up, but not much, and to drop a 34 spot on them in any quarter, or in any game, for that matter, shows how much this team has improved. Now, it was still a sloppy game, and we have a loooooooong way to go to contend for anything, but we are off to one hell of a start. And it appears that head coach Rod Marinelli has his players' attention, because no one is quitting, and the hard work they put in is paying off. This week will be a great test, however, because we travel to the nation's capital, where we have not ever won a game. Good time to end that streak, eh? Here's hoping!

Anyway, U-M v EMU, Arsenal v Sunderland, Det @ Washington. Should be another great weekend of sports. Wings start their season off against the defending Stanley Cup champs Anaheim at home Wed. Night, so that should be fun too!

That's all for now, Wings recap, you tube clip of the month coming to you on Thursday!