It was fun to be a football fan this weekend. From my assigned high school games at Brown County and Trinity Lutheran, to the College games, to the NFL, there was plenty to enjoy.
Brown County played in a downpour and unfortunately let a key fumble get away deep in their own territory to allow their opponent to score the lone touchdown of the game. Their coach was wishing they'd had good weather, because he felt his team's passing-oriented game would have won. They still had their share of chances to score, but just stalled in the red zone.
Trinity Lutheran played a Catholic school team from Chicago that looked bigger, stronger, and most defnitely faster. But Trinity had a strong defense and threw the ball all over the field for 6 touchdowns on their way to a blowout victory. It was surprising because their quarterback, a tall skinny kid who looked awkward just walking on the field, somehow demonstrated pretty good accuracy with his throws. Not a particularly strong arm, but more often then not, he could hit his receivers in the hands. And he had some pretty decent receivers.
My South Carolina Gamecocks blew out Georgia at home for a big victory in the SEC. Now they're undefeated and ranked #3 in the country. Likewise, Notre Dame blew out Miami (Florida) and are ranked #7. Indiana had a chance to beat Michigan State, but blew it in the fourth quarter (again), so that was a little disappointing. Also a bit of a disappointment was Ball State, who dropped their second in a row in the MAC by also blowing a lead in the fourth quarter.
Then there's the NFL. Columbus' own Stevie Brown had a great game in his first start with the New York Giants, getting his second interception of the year against the Cleveland Browns. More importantly, his interception came at an important point in the game, with the Browns up 2 touchdowns and driving toward a third score. Stevie intercepted Brandon Weeden's overthrow and returned the ball 46 yards to set up Eli Manning for the Giants' first touchdown, then he recovered a Browns fumble on the ensuing kickoff. From that point on, the Giants rolled for a 41-27 victory.
Finally, the Colts. I was on the road (as usual), but had Sirius in the rental car so I could listen to the Colts and Packers. I actually had switched to the Browns-Giants game because it sounded like the Packers were steamrolling the Colts, as they were up 21-3 in the first half. But I tuned back in in time to catch the Colt comeback and an eventful fourth quarter. The Colts finally got a lead on an impressive drive featuring the Luck-to-Wayne passing show. But the brief feeling that the Colts had hope for a win was dashed almost immediately as Aaron Rogers drove his team down the field so fast it seemed as if the Colts defense had stayed on the sideline, and regained a Packer lead late.
But the Luck-to-Wayne show resumed immediately after that Packer score. Several times it sounded like the Colts' final drive had stalled. But they kept picking up first downs, even on fourth down plays, and had a little bit of help from Packer defensive penalties. Finally Reggie Wayne caught Luck's pass on the 1 or 2 and reached the ball over the goal line as he was being tackled.
The Pack still had a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime. Rogers threw too easily down the field to get his team into field goal range, albeit a difficult 52 yard attempt. Crosby missed and the Colts celebrated.
The accolades for the rookie quarterback are certainly deserved. He was harrassed, knocked down and beaten up by the Packer defense the entire game, yet somehow hung in there to get his throws downfield. But without Reggie Wayne snaring those passes on the other end, neither the victory nor the adulation for Andrew Luck would have happened. Reggie had what I think was a career performance, and deserves at least equal billing with Luck as the star of the game.
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