Dilettante Football Weekend Roundup

Here are the scores that matter:

Green Bay Packers 16, Philadelphia Eagles 13
Wisconsin Badgers 20, UNLV Rebels 13
Carroll College Pioneers 35, Beloit College Bucs 6
Xavier Hawks 39, Ripon High School 34

All told, a good weekend for the teams I support. And the Brewers are now back in first place too, having dispatched the Reds 10-5 yesterday behind an early barrage of home runs, while the benighted Cubs fell to the Pirates. At least sports-wise, things are going well.

A few quick thoughts on these results:

• The Pack didn't muster much offense but they are becoming a much more fearsome looking defense. It remains to be seen how much gas Eagles QB Donovan McNabb has left in his tank following four consecutive injury-filled seasons, but the pass rush was ferocious for the short time I was able to watch. And I think Johnny Jolly goes on the short list of fun D-Linemen in Packers history, along with Gilbert Brown and Dave Roller. He was a treat to watch.
• The Badgers nearly blew it in Vegas; of course, millions of people have blown it in Vegas, so why should they be any different. Meanwhile, they are playing a FUBAR level team, the Citadel, on Saturday. The Badgers had better kick the Citadel's butt or they'll be really embarrassed. On the bright side, I'm glad that I'm not a "Go Blue" fan these days. I'm even more glad I'm not Lloyd Carr. Oregon laid waste to Michigan on Saturday and it was astonishing to watch.
• Beloit is clearly not going to be a good football team this year; Carroll is pretty good in the sorry context of the Midwest Conference, but that's two embarrassing losses in a row for my beloved alma mater. On the other hand, Macalester went out and beat the crap out of lowly Principia College on Saturday to the tune of 63-0 or something like that, so maybe Mac has improved.
• Meanwhile, a team I support has finally managed to beat Ripon. Too bad it was my beloved high school Hawks and not the Bucs against Ripon College. Sounds like it was a wild one. Still, the X is now 3-0 and is doing well in its new conference. I'll be curious how they do against hated Omro. Can't get used to these new conference rivalries.

Finally, a big shout-0ut for the Irondale Knights, who got an enormous monkey off their backs by beating Totino-Grace on Friday, 21-20. Irondale hadn't beaten Totino in a long time and its a big win for this eternally rebuilding program. Since there's a good chance that Ben will attend Irondale, I'm trying to pay some attention to these guys, who are Menasha-like in their overall athletic prowess (that's a reference for my cheesehead readership, and they'll know precisely what I mean). I'm used to rooting for historically bad teams, so Irondale is a natural.