Sunday Evening Notebook

Read some Hegel, watched some football. That was Saturday. Read some more Hegel, watched some more football, fried perhaps the last green tomatoes of summer. That's been Sunday so far. But good ones, both of them. Thoughts from what I watched:

- Kentucky took home the coveted Governor's Cup for a third straight year with a sloppy, but still edge-of-the-seat win over the Loo-eee-vill (watched with five Kentuckians who couldn't stand hearing him butcher the pronunciation. As one of them said, "It's like pronouncing Versailles "Ver-sigh", for all of you who know better). The team really let the clock malfunction at the end of the half get to them and the third quarter was just abysmal. Worse, though, was our tackling, particularly that of Winston Guy, who somehow bumbled his way into 7.5 tackles. But special teams made enough big plays (lucky or otherwise) to get us the 31-27 win. With that, the Cats move to 2-0 with #1 Florida coming to Commonwealth Stadium next Saturday. Do I like our chances? Not at all, especially after Lane Kiffin's boys frustrated the hell out of them at the Swamp yesterday...

-...and speaking of the UT-Florida game, Florida looked fine. Tennessee gave them their absolute best shot but the Gators were never really stretched. Not spectacular at all, but who cares? It doesn't really matter who Texas beats by how much -- no one is going to vote them out of #1 if they keep rolling in the SEC.

- Oregon deserves credit for the way they scheduled this year. Opening AT Boise State, getting Purdue at home, and then Utah. Purdue may not be great, but those are three decent games when most schools are busy shaming Charleston Southern or Saint Scholastica or something. And Virginia Tech taking on Bama and Nebraska -- in this day and age, that's bold and deserves a lot of credit. As a fan who doesn't really care about either of those teams, I certainly appreciate the effort.

- That said, V.P.I. (as my uncles still call their alma mater) are not that great. Miami looks good, FSU got a nice win at BYU (since when does Florida State travel to play Brigham Young?), but man...the ACC is a terrible conference. The bottom of that league is about as bottom as it gets. What's the worst part about living in DC? Having to watch Maryland and Virginia play on a regular basis.

- Wow, the Redskins know how to frustrate. I'll give it up for the defense -- those guys look good and are hitting hard and seem to be developing good chemistry. I'm very happy with Haynesworth so far. I'm going to ask Judy tomorrow if London Fletcher can be our first born child's godfather. Even my boy J. Jarmon got a few snaps today. On the other side of the ball, Chris Cooley came to play. The let-downs? Santana Moss, who has been worse than awful so far this year; Clinton Portis, who looks tired and sluggish; Jim Zorn, who should never, ever, under any circumstances, gone for it with 2 minutes remaining on the 3 yard line with a 2 point lead against a team that had no timeouts left; Dan Snyder, who is the worst owner in professional sports. I guess we'll take the win though. I do NOT like heading to Detroit with them on a 19 game losing streak. Smells like a trap.

- I need some consultation here, rules-wise: on Santana's fumble at the end of the first half, the whistle CLEARLY blew before a Rams player had possession of the ball. Yes, he definitely fumbled, but the play is DEAD when the whistle blows, right? This is the Jay Cutler-San Diego play from last year. The ref blew it dead, but the review showed he had fumbled. Shouldn't matter -- play's over as soon as he makes that call. Someone please confirm.

- Ravens seem like the team to beat after two weeks. Steelers can't run the ball to save their lives, the Giants (despite last week's domination of the Skins) look worse than last year and not better, the Pats look a little flawed, and I'm not rushing to judgement on Brett Favre yet.

- I heard Jerry Jones has a really bad cold. Yeah... try not to let him sleaze on you.