The Weekend's Football

I was concentrating far more on baseball this past weekend than football, as I do every year in October (and especially these last five years when the Red Sox have made deep postseason runs). I generally don't get back in football wholeheartedly until after the World Series is done. But I don't ignore the pigskin results totally.

I stayed at home on Sunday, after the two exhausting late nights watching the Red Sox-Tampa Bay ALCS games. (Thank goodness we have one earlier start today.) I didn't get a chance to see the Vikings-Lions game from Minnesota, but I did catch some the Jets game, the Dallas-Arizona game (great finish) and the Pats game in San Diego (Pats sure looked lethargic).

The Vikings game worried me, as the Lions maybe one of the NFL's worst teams, but after the exciting win over the Saints last Monday night, I feared a letdown. It seemed to have happened, as the Vikings were down 3-2 to Detroit at the half, and trailed for almost the entire second half, too. The Vikings offense continues to struggle, and managed just an 86-yard pass from Gus Frerotte to Bernard Berrian as the lone TD in the game. It took a 26-yard field goal in the final seconds by Ryan Longwell to win it, and that was off a questionable pass interference call against Detroit that set it up.

It wasn't a game for the time capsule, but a win is a win. The Vikings are now 3-3 and tied at the top of the NFC North with Green Bay and Chicago. Next week is a big game, against the Bears in Chicago, while Green Bay hosts Indianapolis.

I also caught a little of the Notre Dame-North Carolina game on Saturday. (I was travelling into Manhattan for the Red Sox game and missed a good part of the second half.) ND had a 17-9 lead at halftime, but second half mistakes cost them dearly. Jimmy Clausen had yet another career game, but two interceptions in the second half proved fatal, as favored North Carolina converted them into points, and went on to a 29-24 win.

Notre Dame is now 4-2, and has a bye week this week. They return on October 25th to play at Washington.