I don’t have a lot of time this morning, as I’m still out of town, but there are a few things I need to get out in the RecSpecs world. Hopefully everyone had a good weekend as many important things happened this weekend:
• MSU not quite ready to make the leap: By falling 24-17 at home Saturday to South Dakota State, the hometown Bears proved just how tough the Missouri Valley Conference is, and how they don’t belong in the top half, yet.
It’s tough to see Lyndal Scranton’s grades from the game, too. He gave the rushing offense a D, and it makes you wonder if the Bears’ running back by committee approach is going to work over the long haul. With a D for the special teams, it’s no wonder the Jackrabbits built a 24-10 fourth quarter lead.
Sure, it’s frustrating not to be able to overcome a team that played its backup quarterback, but it’s just not meant to be. Missouri State has two tough road games back-to-back, before coming home for homecoming. Will the fans still be coming to games by then?
• It doesn’t matter if you have an ace (or two) if you don’t hit the ball: That perceived advantage Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright were supposed to provide in the St. Louis Cardinals’ National League Division Series was negated because of the offense’s ineptitude. I received a text from Saucethemag.com’s publisher Brett Johnston, and it was 100 percent correct: “Does this mean no acs are better than two aces?? Sorry bro.”
He’s exactly right. It doesn’t matter if you have Cy Young or Sandy Koufax pitching, if you don’t score more than six runs in a series, you’re not going to win. I’m not going to dive into much detail here, but something weird happened with the team’s chemistry over the last month – the one I tried to ignore in my playoff column. I’m not sure what happened, but it may just mean the Doyers are better than the Cards, unfortunately.
What would you do to change the Cardinals? Anything? I’m going to have a postseason wrap down the road and look ahead to the Cards offseason, but this sweep was a lot to swallow.
• The tailgate at the Florida-LSU game was insane: I took the weekend to visit a friend in Baton Rouge, La – actually, I’m still here – and we went to campus to experience an all-day tailgate on LSU’s campus. I’m going to take the flight home to break this thing down, but it was nothing short of incredible. Let’s just said it involved potential electrocution, Hulk Hogan lookalikes and zombies. I couldn’t make this up.
• Stay in touch with us: I’ve been hammering this home for a while, but you can become a fan of RecSpecsOnline at Facebook or follow us on Twitter. But if you choose to stay away from the social network, I am going to start a completely confidential e-mail blast to let readers know of new material. Send your address to allen@RecSpecsOnline.com and I promise not to sell it to annoying people.
Hope everyone had a good week and I’ll have many things to offer this week, including a breakdown of the LSU-Florida tailgate, a Q&A with SPS AD Mark Fisher and more Spring Vegas shenanigans. Thanks for reading.
