Sports - NFL - Dallas Cowboys

I want to start of by saying, Hi my name is Heath and I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan.   Hardest part in having a problem is admitting it. 

The Dallas Cowboys lost 34 - 18 to the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.

Now that that is out of the way, the Cowboys were a easy pick to go to the Super Bowl this year.  They finally addressed defensive problems in the secondary with Claiborne and Carr.  However they didn't address the problems with the offensive line they have had for 3 years.  I hope everybody remembers the season Romo broke his collarbone.  The Dallas offensive line is in my opinion over paid for the productivity they are showing week to week this season. Romo is one of the most sacked and pressured quarterbacks in the league and a majority of his interceptions were tipped by the defensive lines or his own receivers into the opposing players hands.  After watching most of last nights game I have really made up my mind that Romo isn't the problem.  Put him on any other team in the league and he's a Super Bowl QB.  I think the problem is his offensive line, his receivers and his owner/GM.  I watched Ogletree and Bryant drop numerous passes last night that would have changed the tempo of the game in Dallas's favor. Romo threw 31 of 43 for 307 yards and 1 touchdown with 5 interceptions.  Now 3 of those interceptions were not his fault.  They were touched or tipped or bobbled by his receivers and then intercepted.  I watched 2 passes I know of that his Bryant in the hands perfectly but he dropped them. 

I have not given up on Romo.  He just passed Roger Staubach on the Cowboys All-time Passing Yards list and if you look at his career stats, he has a higher QB Rating and a Higher TD/Int ratio than Staubach and Aikman.  Those 2 QBs had legends on thier teams, Stauback had Drew Pearson, Tony Dorsett, Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, Randy White, and Cliff Harris.  Aikman had Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Jay Novacek, Daryl Johnston, Larry Allen, Nate Newton, Erik WIlliams, Tony Tolbert, Mark Stepnoski, Darren Woodson, Deion Sanders, Charles Haley, Bill Bates, Ken Norton, Jim Jeffcoat, Kevin Smith, Mark Tuinei, Leon Lett, Tony Casillas, and Larry Brown just to name a few.  Romo has Miles Austin, Jason Witten, and Demarcus Ware, half of his offensive weapons and defensive players have changed every season Romo has been the Starting quarterback.  Also the fact that he has had 3 different offenses to learn in his career and he still is a Pro Bowler and is in the top tier of QBs and the end of every season. 

So cut Romo a break and yell at Jerry Jones, the offensive line, Bryant, and Ogletree, they are the ones who screwed up.

Sports - College Football

First I'm gonna start off by saying...WOW!  Did you see the West Virginia / Baylor game?  Geno Smith pretty much locked the Heisman Trophy as long as he has good games for the rest of the year.  I don't even think he needs to win the Big 12, though it would help.  OK just in case you didn't see it Geno Smith of West Virginia went 45 of 51 for 656 yards and 8 touchdowns against Baylor Saturday.  Final score was 70-63 West Virginia.

For the rest of College football, LSU a FBS school struggled, I mean struggled against Towson, a FCS school.  LSU eventually would win 38 - 22, however it was a lot closer than the score looks.  Washington upset #8 Stanford in a nail biter final score 17-13.  #1 Alabama beat Ol' Miss but they didn't roll over Ol' Miss final score was 33-14.  #2 Oregon rolled by Leach's Washington State 51-26.  #4 Florida State beat South Florida by a couple scores to continue to be undefeated and help their spot in a National Title.  #5 Georgia struggled against Tennessee but pulled out the victory 51-44.  #6 South Carolina just stepped over Kentucky, and Penn State locked up a solid win over Illinois.  Now Middle Tennessee just manhandled Georgia Tech 49-28.  Cincinnati surprised Virginia Tech and beat them 27-24.  Finally the last game I think that matters in the big schools, Iowa handed Minnesota their first loss.

 Now to the teams that matter to me.  Starting off with #9 FCS Sam Houston State University was facing Texas Southern, a Division 3A team in Houston, TX at BBVA Compass Stadium, home of the Houston Dynamo soccer team.  Sam Houston made a statement after the loss to Central Arkansas, Crushing Texas Southern 50-6.  Next was Texas A&M facing Arkansas at Kyle Field.  In the first quarter A&M and Arkansas were back and forth and I thought it was gonna be a defensive game.  Then something happened in the second quarter that just sucked the air out of Arkansas, because they got the yards to have a good game but couldn't finish.  Manziel just had a heck of a game against the Arkansas defense throwing for 453 and 3 touchdowns.  Next was the #12 Texas vs the unranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater Oklahoma.  I know I have a soft spot for Texas, I grew up a Texas fan, and most of my family are Texas fans.  My dad was even offered a scholarship to play there for 1 year.  I was even accepted there, just couldn't afford the tuition.  So I went to Sam Houston State.  the game started out fast with Okie State scoring first, then continued to answer every score that Texas made, but the game really began in the fourth quarter, when the clock was winding down.  David Ash made several incredible throws that he couldn't have made a year ago.  The whole game came down to the last minute when Bergeron dove for the end zone to put Texas in the lead with 29 seconds left.  Now he fumbled, I'm not arguing that.  However when the ball was seen after the play a Okie State player pulled it from someone's hands at the bottom of the pile.  There was not enough evidence to overturn the Touchdown and it stood.  So Texas won 41-36.  David Ash had a incredible game throwing 30 of 37 for 304 yards and 3 touchdowns., and made some very clutch throws.

After the weekend ended it looks like the only solid teams in the SEC are Florida, Texas A&M and Alabama.  The Big 12 is turning into the Touchdown Conference with West Virginia, Texas, Kansas State and Texas Tech the only undefeated teams.  The Big 10 has just collapsed and the PAC 12 is gonna have a champion from 1 of 2 Oregon schools.  It was a wild weekend but I think the best 3 players of the weekend were Geno Smith of West Virginia obviously, Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M, and David Ash of the University of Texas.

Sports - College Football

All I can say after a long off season is.... COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS FINALLY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna start with the big stories of the day.  ESPN's College Gameday was in College Station, TX.  First Texas A&M makes it's SEC debut against the #24 ranked Florida Gators at Kyle Field.  Now there has been a lot of back and forth between the 2 schools due to the fact for 2 years Florida's Head Coach, Will Muschamp, was the defensive coordinator at the University of Texas and so due to the attitude of a small portion of Aggies saying they represent the whole, and I say that gingerly, this makes him an enemy of Texas A&M forever. Muschamp made a comment about about Kyle Field having an SEC atmosphere and "Have you ever been to College Station? You'll never wanna go back.".  I'll be honest if I was a University of Texas coach more than likely the Aggie student body of fans were rude, obnoxious, and profound to him every time he coached against them.  Seeing as how College Station is a majority Aggie based, more than likely the citizens of College Station were obnoxious to him too.  I have personally seen some of the things Aggies fans and students say and/or do to University of Texas students and fans.  They are not very nice.  Not gonna mention names but I watched an Aggie take someone's UT chair, urinate on it then cover it in lighter fluid and burn it. Now this does represent a very small group of Aggies in this community. There are a lot of great people at A&M. Most Aggies are polite and generous when you give them a chance. College Station is very diverse as well in it's citizenry and Texas A&M is just part of the package.

Anyway, someone put a billboard in Gainesville, Florida saying they were part of the "Aggie Nation Annexation".  A&M denied putting it there, however they didn't help their case by placing more than 10 billboards, all in college towns/cities, all over Texas and Louisiana bragging how this was now SEC country.  But forget the sign for now, A&M actually went into this game as a favorite after Florida's poor showing week one against Bowling Green.  It was a close game but in the end Florida's SEC speed was just too much for the Aggies, final score 20 - 17 Florida.

Next is Missouri, they were making their SEC debut as well.  They were facing the Georgia Bulldogs at Missouri.  Most everybody picked Missouri to actually upset Georgia because Georgia was severely weakened with injury and suspension on defense.  Missouri started strong but finished poorly with Georgia romping Missouri 41 - 20.  Looks as if they weren't quit ready for the SEC in year one but it might get better for them in future years. 


Now the University of Texas gave New Mexico a beating today 45 - 0, and my alma mater, Sam Houston State, gave a severe beating to Incarnate Word University of San Antonio 54 - 7.  Flanders the star running-back at Sam Houston State had 117 yards with 2 touchdowns then they rested him toward the end of the game so he would be ready for Baylor next week.  They signed up for a rematch of  2 years ago when Baylor gave Sam Houston State a beating in Waco RGIII's sophomore year.  Since then Sam Houston State went undefeated and won 3 playoff games then lost in the National Title.  Sam Houston is the #2 ranked team in FCS this year, behind only North Dakota State who beat Sam Houston State in the National Title last year, and North Dakota State beat Colorado State today.

Now to the big news of the day, Wisconsin lost to Oregon State 10 - 7, and Arkansas lost to Louisiana-Monroe 34 - 31 in OT.  Wisconsin just couldn't get the ball moving against Oregon State and Arkansas was literally getting beat by Louisiana-Monroe's defense. Penn State lost again to Virginia by one score.  Kansas State demolished Miami(FL) 52 - 13.  Michigan survived Air Force 31 - 25, and Florida State shellacked Savannah State 55 - 0 or should I say $$ - 0.  Syracuse exposed holes in the USC's defense but still lost 42 - 29, and UCLA beat #16 Nebraska 36 - 30.  Another surprise of the day was Oklahoma State getting beat by Arizona 45 - 31.

Overall it was a good College Football Saturday.  Texas A&M made national news for the first time since the Bonfire accident but couldn't hold it together against Florida.  There were several upsets and Missouri was put in their place by Georgia.  Sam Houston State was unstoppable today.  Come on Bearkats keep it rollin' next week against the Baylor Bears.

 Eat 'em Up Kats!!!!!!!!!

Movie - The Dark Knight Rises (Aurora, CO shooting)

Shooting - Aurora, CO

I'll be honest, after the the shooting in Aurora, Colorado I didn't think the crowd would still flock to the theater to see this movie.  I want to start off by saying the shooting in Aurora, CO was a tragedy.  The news is reporting 12 people were killed and over 50 people injured during the shooting.  Incidents like this tends to make me wonder, what was going through his head before he does a thing like this.  Supposedly he had dyed his hair red and was calling himself "the Joker".  He flung 2 tear gas canisters into the theater and then started shooting.  

I feel sorry for what happened but I just hope this doesn't led to a outcry that video games, movies, and comics are too violent.  No offense to anyone, but there have been murderers and psychopaths long before movies, video games, and comics were thought of.  

Warner Bros., Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, and anyone tied to the movie have released statements condemning the shooting and "thoughts and prayers" to friends and families of the victims.  I feel bad this happened and no one wants stuff like this to happen.  I would hope something like this would never happen again but I can't promise that.

Movie - (Slight spoiler in my review)

Now the movie made $30.6 million on the midnight release, almost double of the Dark Knight's $18.5 million.  The movie is projected to do over $150 million, comparable to the Avengers.  

The movie was shot on such a large scale it was interesting to keep up with what was going on.  There was a slow but steady increase in action and story that then just erupts into one of the most outstanding scenes I had ever seen.  Now after seeing the movie and reading all the pre-release information on the movie I figured out they combined the Batman story arcs "Knightfall" and "No Man's Land" with a few modifications of course.  I really had a hard time processing all the information during the movie.  I literally had to think on it for a full day to realize all I had seen.  After thinking on it I have deduced that the movie was just "AMAZING". 

The acting by all the actors was outstanding.  Christian Bale once again gave a great performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Anne Hathaway gave a very convincing performance as a "cat burglar", I don't feel she was more prominent performance but a great one as Selina Kyle. One reviewer said she stole the show but I didn't see it. Tom Hardy as Bane was awesome.  He was not hard to understand with the mask.  There was only one or two words I didn't hear but could understand because of the context clues and the scene.  Michael Caine was just Michael Caine... a legend.  Morgan Freeman was great as usual.  The rest of the cast did an amazing job as well.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was a bit confusing to me.  He eventually had a purpose but I still wasn't sure what was going on with him.  

The action and fight scenes were outstanding.  I was on the edge of my seat for over half the movie.  I thought the action was on such a grand scale that I was in awe at what was going on.  I felt the story had a lot of twists and turns, some expected and some that weren't.   Overall an very interesting script and directing style as usual for Nolan.

The Dark Knight Rises was an awesome movie with incredible acting, amazing action scenes, and an great end to a trilogy that was legendary.  Hollywood will never look at Comic book movies the same again. I think we will start seeing more comic book characters being nominated for Oscars.  Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale made spectacular Batman movie that have set the bar extremely high for future comic book movies.

Movie - The Amazing Spiderman

I haven't "blogged" in a while so bear with me.  Tonight my girlfriend and I went to see "The Amazing Spiderman"  and I will be honest, I didn't want to see it when I first heard about it.  I am an old school Spiderman fan ever since I started to read comics, my first comic book was Spiderman.  So I was wow'd by Sam Raimi when he got Tobey MaGuire to play Spiderman right after 9/11.  I think everyone just wanted a hero.  Someone or something to cheer for, be happy and excited about.  When Sony decided to pull the Twin Tower scene due to not wanting to offend anyone.  That was crap, it would have inspired and amazed people seeing a hero using what was destroyed to help many people.  Now after the dust settled, the Sam Raimi Spiderman Trilogy was almost tragic.  The first one was good, the second was OK, and the third was just laughable.  The I heard about what Stan Lee was trying to do with Marvel Studios and getting back the characters for awesome epic movies.  I was excited. Fox and Sony held out 3 characters; X-Men, Fantastic 4, and Spiderman.

Now I get to "The Amazing Spiderman",  Sony pushed the release date up because they forgot when the contract was signed, oddly enough on the 4th (Allegedly).  If Spiderman had been released on the 4th of July like it was supposed to, Marvel would now have Spiderman back.  So I was very suspicious about seeing it.

However, I think this time they did it better.  There is NO, I repeat NO, "wow" factor this time because it is too close to Spiderman 3 which made a lot of money but to fans, was a disaster.   "The Amazing Spiderman" was a much better movie, with a better script and plot than the first movie.  Andrew Garfield is a better actor than Tobey MaGuire.  The mechanical web shooters is an awesome improvement over a weird spot on his wrist that shoots webbing, helps the story a little to know he is mechanically smart too.  I think Sony did it better this time.  Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to see Spiderman fighting with Iron-Man or the Iron-Spider Suit but we have to wait a longer for that.  I think the acting was a whole lot better and I think Marc Webb is better at directing heroes than Sam Raimi.  Lets be honest Sam Raimi directed Evil Dead I, II, and Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell...Epic B-lister films and cult classics but not Marvel Studios caliber.  "The Amazing Spiderman" was worth seeing in theaters and I will be buying on Blu-Ray after "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises" of course.

Sports - The NFL Saints Bounty Issue

Okay I get it you shouldn't go out and intentionally injure a player and have financial bonuses for it. 

However if memory serves me right, every NFL player on the defensive side of the ball is getting paid to hit players, tackle running-backs and receivers, sack quarterbacks, and make big plays that can change the tempo of the game.  Now I played a little football in school and I heard my coaches say some pretty violent things to us about the other teams; "we're gonna kill them", "lets put them in the ground", "send them crying", "lets punish them".  Now when the NFL started and players were getting paid to play you are now getting paid to potentially hurt other players.  Lawrence Taylor wasn't getting a bounty as far as I know but when he ended Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann's career by sacking him and snapping his leg he was intentionally going after him as hard as he could the hit him, and getting paid to do it.  Possibly unknown to the public but well known to the NFL there are "incentives" in most NFL contracts.  Say a player rushes for 1400 yards and his contract gets him a $200,000 bonus if he gets 1500 yards he is gonna do whatever it takes to get the bonus.  A running-back not drawing the picture for you how about a defensive lineman, say Michael Strahan has it in his contract the if he breaks the single season sack record he gets a $1,000,000 bonus he will even convince a certain Green bay Quarterback to take a "fall" so he can get the record and bonus.  There are incentives in almost every contract in the NFL especially Defensive players.  Which will makes players do whatever they have to to get the stats and make them smile about it.  If a player gets a bonus if he causes 10 fumbles a season he is gonna go head hunting to get to that stat and make the bonus and that is getting paid the potentially injure players. 

I listened to an interview with Warren Sapp about the Saint's bounty system and he was totally against it and he said it was wrong and does not belong in football, however Warren Sapp played college football at "the U" Miami University, and they had a bounty system for years there.  The rapper Luther Campbell was part of 2 Live Crew and even wrote a song about "the U".  He payed defensive players $50 here $100 there for knocking players out of games, injuring players and all kinds of statistical milestones. 

Which is hypocritical.  I am tired of here all these players that are appalled by this, and saying that it doesn't belong in the game when it is part of the game and will always be part of it.  Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, fined players for blindsiding hits, late hits, defenseless hits and now this bounty system however the NFL is selling pictures and videos of all these hits on their websites, and how much money has the NFL made of the press coverage of the bounty system.  The hypocrisy that is Roger Goodell will continue even after he is no longer the commissioner. 

Sean Payton was suspended for 1 season, the GM Mickey Loomis was suspended for half the season, and Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, and it's not over more suspensions are coming for the players. 

Sports in general

I realized I hadn't written in my blog in awhile so he it goes.  The College Bowl season was crazy.  Most of a the teams I expected to win did, Texas, Oklahoma State, SMU, etc.  However I didn't expect Texas A&M to win over Northwestern with no head coach (Sherman fired) and the interim head coach/def. coordinator was leaving for the Fresno State head coaching job. 
Then of course Alabama stomping LSU into the ground 21-0 in the National Title Game.  I've got nothing to say....I'm speechless. 
Moving on to something nearer to my heart Sam Houston State University made it the Division 1 National Championship game versus North Dakota State.  All I have to say we are a young team and we made to the National Championship game.   Sam Houston State lost to North Dakota St, however we have a bright few years ahead with a lot of underclassmen in starting positions. 
Well the Dallas Cowboys didn't make the playoffs with a shaky defense yet again, and the Texans actually won a playoff game then lost to the Ravens.  Green Bay got knocked out by the New York Giants who today face the 49ers in the NFC championship game.  When the season started I predicted 49ers/Ravens Super Bowl.  All Harbaugh Super Bowl.   Will I be right?