ND vs BC

I was going to post something about the latest chapter of the Holy War yesterday but I was kind of busy. You knew last night's game was going to be special starting with yesterday's beautiful sunrise over Fenway.

There were a lot of storylines attached to this game starting with the death of Doug Flutie's parents just an hour apart after 56 years of marriage and Flutie's decision to still call the game for NBC. A moment of silence were held for the elder Flutie's prior to the game. There was the return of native son Brian Kelly who got his football coaching start in nearby Assumption College in Worcester. How about Torii Hunter's son getting to use David Ortiz' locker? There was the story of the Irish trying to remain in the hunt for a berth in the college football playoffs. Then there was the very idea of a college football game at Fenway Park where Boston College had a record of 75-21-5 in 101 previous games at Fenway but were the "visiting team".

All the storylines seemed related and seemed to weave in and out of each other. The last time Boston College payed at Fenway was a 7-0 loss to Holy Cross in 1956. Decades later it was the dominance of Doug Flutie's Eagles team that led Holy Cross to end the Crusaders rivalry against the Eagles. And now another team with a Worcester connection was about to make Boston College 0-2 in their last two Fenway tilts.

You had to know that this was going to be a close game though. Sure the Eagles offense is anemic but their defense is one of the top 5 in the country. Besides this game has historically been close. The last two times these teams met the Irish were 20 and 24 point favorites but the final scores were 21-6 in 2012 and 16-14 in 2011. Boston College was getting 15.5 points last night.

Hope you enjoyed the game as much as I did.

 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting connection between Bill Belichick and Bran Kelley at Notre Dame. Should point out that article neglects to mention that Brian Kelley coached at Assumption College in Worcester.

- I seriously may go to this concert. I loved those Zelda games.

- A Game of Thrones sigil for every NFL team.

- Cool photo of Great White Shark breaching against a dusk backdrop.

- A list of the "best" shows on Netflix

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Weird stat - Tony Romo is 21-3 as a starting QB in the month of November. Too bad playoffs are not played before Thanksgiving... I see wild turkeys all the time. I had no idea that they were re-introduced to Massachusetts after I was born... Notre Dame haters will point out that Brian Kelley is lucky he inherited Charlie Weiss' decided schematic advantage on defense... Speaking of the big Notre Dame / USC game - has any other team started as a pre-season number 1 in the polls only to finished unranked? USC looks like they are about to accomplish this dubious feat... Would Reach-Around Elmo be a good fantasy football or band name?... Who knew? There are 293 different ways to make change for a dollar... Fact that really makes you think. Every human originally spent about half an hour as a single cell. If you murder that single cell - do you murder the human?...