Buckeyes cruise in Happy Valley,Devils sink in Rock's opener

Well, months of worrying about the Ohio State visit to Penn State
turned out to be for nothing as the Buckeyes dominated the Nittany Lions 37-17 in a game that really was not even that close.
Todd Boeckman's three passing touchdowns kept the vaunted "white out" crowd reasonably quiet,while Chris Wells rushed for 133 yards and was able to control the ball.
Ohio State made a point of picking on corner Justin King and was able to complete passes for long gains on King's side of the field with both Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline.
Other than the first Penn State drive for a touchdown,the Buckeye defense was able to keep the Lion offense under control and once the second quarter began never allowed Penn State to feel that they were in the game.
The Buckeyes return home next week to battle the Wisconsin Badgers for the Heimberger House trophy...............

While Jim Tressel's troops were doing their best in State College,the New Jersey Devils finally returned home to drop the first puck against the Ottawa Senators.
Sadly,they brought the same weak offense to their new home in a deceiving 4-1 loss .
Deceiving because the Senators scored an un-needed empty net goal with 2 seconds to go and the game was tied at one entering the final period.
Actually,if you overlook the continuing bad offense,it was a fun game to watch and both teams played well.
The problem as I see is this,the style the Devils are playing may be more fun to watch and should shut the whiners about the Devils playing "dull" hockey up for a while,but the wins aren't there.
I would rather see the Devils win 2-1 in dull fashion than lose 5-4 in an exciting game.
Some people seem to be unable to understand that.
The only Devil goal went to Brian Gionta on a deflection off the skate of Ottawa's defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
That pretty much sums up the Devils offense night.
Brent Sutter continues to criticize the teams effort and I don't agree.
I don't think that this is as much about effort as it is about learning a new system and to be blunt
not a great amount of talent to play that system.
The Devils defensive style was made to allow them to have a chance to win against more talented teams,this style negates that edge and it is becoming apparent that the talent gap is wider than originally thought.
I am not saying dump Sutter and return to the old system,the commitment has been made and I want to see it through,but being realistic-there will be growing pains.
The Devils return to action Wednesday at the Rock vs Tampa Bay and Devil killer Vincent LeCavalier.

Bullpen Notes

The 3-3 Cleveland Browns travel to St.Louis to battle the 0-7 Rams.
This has the feel of a trap,but we will take the Browns 31-20.

From a television point of view,the Prudential Center shows up very well on TV.
The ice looks great and the lighting makes it very easy to follow the puck.
Finding the puck on TV can be difficult in some arenas.
The Rock looks like a winner.

Nice to see 134 year old Joe Paterno was able to get through the game without having a take a bathroom break this year.
Way to go,Joe !
or should it be Way to hold it,Joe???

On the topic of Penn State and their hyped "White out".
Did any of these geniuses realize that they should go all Blue?
The team wearing white was Ohio State!

Looks more and more like the Buccos are going to go after John Farrell as the new manager.
As longtime readers know I am a pitching guy,but the track record of pitching coaches becoming managers is pretty poor,but I like Farrell,so we are open minded....

Don't forget to vote in the new poll on the right...

We aren't big NASCAR fans,but one thing that has always bothered us about the Busch series (the AAA equivalent) is that they allow the top drivers to drive there and dominate.
Therefore killing off the veteran drivers on that level and ruining their career.
The reason is so that the younger Cup drivers can get extra experience.
Can you imagine the Cardinals sending Albert Pujols to play at Memphis on Cardinal off days to gain experience????

Big welcome to new reader Kevin Foster.
Glad you liked the blog enough to become a regular!

And finally,a tip of the cap to the Hagerstown Suns.
We rarely give them credit,but their trick or treat event yesterday at the Muni was a pretty nice thing to do and we like to give them credit when it is deserved.
Good idea!

Photo Credits
Buckeyes-Renee Sauer-Columbus Dispatch
The Rock-Jeff Zelevansky-Getty Images
Helmets-Helmet Project