This weekend in review

I’m enjoying a day off today by checking in on various news sources, catching up with my daily rounds of reading and, of course, writing about it. Is there anything better to do? I mean, school hasn’t started yet, so why not get ready by testing my reading and writing skills.

A few big things happened this weekend—in case you haven’t heard. The UC Bearcats rolled over the overmatched Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) Redhawks by a score of 70-3. The NASCAR Sprint Cup boys made the most of the race at Richmond and finalized the “Chase” field. And the kickoff of the NFL season began yesterday, and amongst other games, included the hometown Bengals losing on a last second “fluke” play.

Bearcats run away with one
As I stated above, the Bearcats of UC rolled by their Division-1 FCS opponent SEMO on Saturday night by a tidy margin of 70-3. It wasn’t close. Mardy Gilyard, the Bearcat wideout and kick returner had a punt return for a touchdown, a rushing touchdown and caught two passes for scores. He accounted for nearly 200 Bearcat yards by himself and won the Big East Special Teams Player of the Week Award.

Next week the ‘Cats travel to Corvalis, Oregon to take on Oregon State, who came to visit Cincinnati in 2007. More on that game later this week.

ESPN.com Big East blogger Brian Bennett brought up some fun stats to kick around this morning. He mentioned that the Bearcats have scored one less point than the number one team in the nation, the Florida Gators, and rank second in average points scored per game to Florida. Ain’t that awesome?

And, this question was posed to Rivals/Yahoo.com’s Tom Dienhart on his live chat this afternoon: “Is the Big East so bad that even an undefeated season from West Virginia or Cincinnati might not be enough to get them in the BCS title game? I could see them getting passed over in favor of 12-1 Oklahoma or something.”

Here’s his response: “I think an unbeaten Big East team may have a shot to get to the title game, but so much also depends on what teams in the power leagues do. If there are no unbeatens or just one unbeaten from leagues like the SEC, Pac-10, Big 12 and Big Ten, then I think an unbeaten Big East champ may have a shot to play for the title. Remember: WVU was right on the edge of doing so in 2007 before losing to Pitt.”

And over the next two weeks the Big East plays ten non conference games that could put the Big East back in the national spotlight. We’ll see how all of that plays out before September ends. Oh, and kudos to the guy who asked that question and put the Bearcats in consideration to run the table! I’d enjoy a trip to Pasadena for the National Title game.

“Chase” field set, Martin leading points
I shouldn’t have to write more than that, but I will expand, just to kick around some thoughts. Twelve drivers now have a shot at winning the Cup, and most drivers seem to think that three time defending champ Jimmie Johnson is the guy to beat.
Even after the race the new points leader said, “Make no mistake, Alan Gustafson is the reason we have had all of the success that we have had this year; I am not. It's Alan.”

Ryan Newman quickly broke in and commented, “Maybe a little bit, Mark.”

There are so many story lines for this “Chase” season as the folks on the NASCAR radio station on Sirius/XM Radio have pointed out (and I’m enjoying the free trial of NASCAR radio that I’ve got, just not wnough to pay money for it):
-Mark Martin at age 50 gunning for his first title after finishing second four times.
-Jimmie Johnson going for four in a row, and breaking Cale Yarborough’s record.
-Juan Pablo Montoya trying to become the first foreign born driver to win a title
-Jeff Gordon’s “Drive for Five” titles (And if anyone is still using the “Drive for Five” moniker they may need to drop it, it’s been used for way too many years now)
-Brian Vickers’s amazing run to get in could vault him to the top
-Tony Stewart could become the first driver-owner to win a points title since 1992 (Alan Kulwicki)

And on and on and on we could go, but then I wouldn’t be able to write about anything for a good number of weeks, so why waste that time now? We all know who I’m pulling for, and we’ll all see how it all gets started next Sunday at New Hampshire.

Bengals lose, again
As a kid who grew up during the “Golden Years” of Cincinnati Bengal football, I gained a special appreciation for the worst team in the NFL. I heard all the jokes, and constantly repeated them.

“Where’s the safest place in Cincinnati during a tornado?” Paul Brown Stadium, there’s never a touchdown there! Except in the closing seconds of a game that many people thought was over.

I missed it live, but every TV station in Cincinnati ran replay after replay of the fateful play when Broncos wideout Brandon Stokley caught a tipped pass and ran it 87 yards into the endzone for a game winning score.

It’s really sad when the Bengals losing makes my day better, but I’m just happy to hear Bengals fans still trying to justify their possibilities at a trip to the Super Bowl this year. Don’t worry Bengal fans—every year is your year*.

*It’s like they’re fans from Oak Hills thinking they’re going to beat Elder…every year. And when was the last time Oak Hills beat Elder? 1986, when the Oak Hills boys beat Elder 18-0. And that’s why the Highlanders no longer play the Panthers.

Hope you enjoyed your Monday. Check back later this week for thoughts on NASCAR and UC football.