NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE HAS ITS WAY WITH 'DOGS

Wait a minute, GreenV, you can't say that. What about that big win in the opener over UC Davis? Yeah, ok.

Well, there wasn't too much motivation last week when the 'Dogs lost to Boise State at home on a Friday night in front of an ESPN audience. Saying the 'Dogs lost to Boise is like saying the sun came up, the sky is blue or Kanye West is a jackass. It happens all the time, everybody knows it. Not much poetry in that.

The only noteworthy thing was that the FSU faithful went through with their brilliant "whiteout" plan, thus making it look like they were all rooting for Boise St. who was also wearing white. FSU played tough and it was a good game, but I already gave the team credit for that this year so no brownie points from the Watchdog for dropping to 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in the WAC.

Today was another kick in the balls. FSU did everything you could possibly list in a "keys to victory" segment and lost. Cincinnati averages 900 points per game, FSU held them to 28. The Bearcats give up around 65 yards per game on the ground and the Bulldogs shredded them for 290. FSU held the ball for 43:42 seconds, keeping the high-powered Cincinnati offense on the sidelines for all but 16:18 of the game.

And the result was a 28-20 loss.

That win over Division 7 school UC Davis seems like about 10 years ago.

The 'Dogs are 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the WAC and that's with them playing very well.

There was one boneheaded decision today when Pat Hill elected to go for it on 4th and two from the Cincinnati six-yard line in the third quarter. They were down 21-17 at that point and had it all going their way. They had drained the clock at the end of the first half with a time-consuming drive that ended in a touchdown. They got the ball to start the second half and were moving well before self-destructing with penalties and ended up punting.

FSU stopped Cincinnati and forced a punt and with all the momentum going their way, they embarked on another steady drive that ate up the rest of the third-quarter. When they got to fourth and two deep in Bearcat territory, they passed up the field goal that would have made it 21-20 and went for the first down. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Well, that didn't happen but the second-worst thing did. Ryan Colburn threw an interception and quickly made the tackle preventing a length-of-the-field pick six.

About 3 1/2 seconds later Cincinnati scored another touchdown and it was 28-17 (that would be an 11-point defecit rather than a 1-point defecit) and the 'Dogs weren't heard from again.

So here comes a bye and then a trip to Hawaii. They can only lose one of those.

Back For More Follies Action

Alright, where the hell was I? The Diamond Dogs got blown out of their regional so they didn't even make it to Omaha this spring. Then came the summer and it wasn't until just recently that all the BCS talk started up around here. But it was a little muted compared to previous years. The expectations didn't seem quite so unreasonably high as what we're usually subjected to around here. I don't know, maybe it was because the QB situation was unsettled, Pat Hill's still the coach, we've never won shit. Whatever.

Well, the FSU football team kicked it off last weekend against UC Davis and beat the holy piss out of them, 51-0. It was a joke game from the opening kickoff, everybody got to play and the players on UC Davis had to pick up trash in the grandstands for being the losing team. A real Little League kind of game.

I guess the Follies' expectations are a little lower as well, because I'm not really feeling the need to blast them for playing a weak sister team. The shame of it is that with only five home games this year for the season-ticket holders that pay the freight, this was one of them.

But what the hell, they should have handled Davis and they did. On to Camp Randall.

Even that went pretty well, despite a 34-31 double-overtime loss. FSU was up 21-7 in the second quarter and really had things going their way. But the Badgers scored 10 points down the stretch including a 983-yard field goal just before the gun to make it 21-17. (I think it was actually 57.)

It was a good second half but the Badgers took the lead with about five minutes to go and it was all FSU could do to get a clutch field goal from Kevin Goessling to put it into overtime. (What the fuck did I just say? Goessling.....clutch...???)

The first OT was touchdown-touchdown so they went to double OT. FSU had the ball and Ryan Colburn threw an interception in the end zone. Wisconsin got a field goal and that was that.

Pretty good reviews for Colburn, but he tends to put a lot of air under the ball. 289 yards, 4 TD's 3 INT's. Coulda been better, but he's in his second start. We won't start making fun of him just yet.

Pretty good reviews for the rushing defense, except that the play that gave Wisonsin the lead was 72-yard run right down Broadway. Oh well.

Now we can get back on our feet against.....oh shit. It's Boise State. It's Friday. By the time you get into the stadium the Broncos will be up 21-0. That national exposure....oh man, not again. Go 'Dogs!