Bowl games and outdoor hockey!

I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve and a nice day to start of 2009. We had a great time on NYE with friends and we paid for it yesterday. But I can’t think of a better way to spend the first day of the New Year, lying around watching the college football bowl games including a big win by the Georgia Bulldogs!

The Dawgs won the Capital One Bowl against Michigan St by the score of 24-12. The Dawgs started off sluggish and just couldn’t seem to get the offense rolling. The defense, who had not played very well in the last 4 games of the season, finally stepped it up and played to their capabilities. Michigan St. spent most of the first half in Georgia’s end of the field, but could only mustard up 6 points. If the Dawgs “D” played like that against Alabama, Florida and Georgia Tech, then we would be playing in the BCS game next week. Oh well, back to the game we did play in. I am not sure what Coach Richt said to the team at halftime, but they came out firing on all cylinders. Quarterback, Matthew Stafford, completed 14 of 17 for 179 in the second. He engineered a 10-play, 96-yard drive that gave Georgia the lead for good in the third quarter. From that point they never looked back. It was another great game by Stafford, who was named the MVP, and Knowshon Moreno who had 62 yards rushing and 63 yards in receiving. Hopefully that was not the last time we see those two guys in a Georgia uniform. But if they are guaranteed to be picked early in the first round, maybe even the first pick (Stafford), I can’t blame them! But if they both come back next year, we could be preseason #1 again next season.

As for the other bowl games, most of them have been horrible! It has been hard to find a good bowl game this season. Most of them are pretty lopsided and end up in blowouts. There have been a couple of close games that have gone down to the wire, like; the Meineke Car Care bowl between West Virginia and UNC, or the Poinsettia bowl between Boise St. and TCU. But for the most part, the bowl games have been a total disappointment. The BCS games that have been played have not been compelling at all. USC rolled Penn St. and Virginia Tech took care of the Cinderella Cincinnati Bearcats. There are more games to come and there are a couple of intriguing matchups. Like Ohio St. vs. Texas in the Fiesta bowl and of course the Florida Gators taking on the Oklahoma Sooners. But the other games left aren’t nearly as interesting. Alabama should roll over Utah in the Sugar bowl tonight and then who really cares about the other remaining games? There are entirely too many bowls that don’t mean anything. I think it is time for an 8-team playoff, but I am not holding my breath since it is all about $$$!

Another New Years day tradition, well it has only happed a couple of times but I hope it becomes a tradition, is the NHL Winter Classic. That is when there is a hockey game played outside in a stadium. Last year the game was played in Buffalo between Pittsburgh and Buffalo. That was a great game that went to OT and then to a shoot out. This year the game was played in Wrigley Field in Chicago between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Redwings. Even though it didn’t snow this year like it did last year, it was still a fun game to watch. It was still cold and windy (18 degree wind chill at the drop of the puck) but I don’t think bothered the players nearly as much as the fans! Detroit is one of the best teams in the league and even though they were behind at the end of the 1st period, they came back and took control of the game winning it 6-4. It is a cool thing that the NHL does, but don’t look for a Winter Classic to be held here in Atlanta ever!

Happy New Year!