Diego's Evening Ramblings...

First off, I know Big Snack already recapped the Ice Bowl/Winter Classic results but I figured I would throw in my two cents as well. Man this game was awesome, actually with all of the rowdy drunken fans, pyro, and patriotism it kinda felt more like a WWE wrestling match then it did an actual hockey game, but I am pretty sure that is a good thing.

PNA associate White Marcus was in attendance yesterday, and was kind enough to text me some pictures he took during and after the game. Word from Marcus was that the game was a great time and huge success. He said the game looked to be about 30% Pens fans, but he also told me that, “if I have to hear Sidney Crosby is a (homo) one more time I’m going to stab somebody.” Well played Marcus, I’ve been to Ralph Wilson for a Bills Steelers game and you are definitely right those Buffalo residents are some real scumbags.

The game play itself wouldn’t be described as top-notch hockey, but it was more about the ambiance for this one. Those Pens jerseys were ill and that mask Conklin was wearing was simply ruthless, way more serious then that gay little sock Miller wore on his head during the game. It kicked ass seeing these players skating around playing in the snow, and the crowd was simply unreal standing up for most of the game.

This game led me to thinking that maybe the Pens should try to incorporate some type of roof that opens up in their new arena. Now I’m sure this will be more expensive and time consuming, but just think about how bad ass it would be to have an arena where you could open the roof. (one that actually works that is) I dunno just a thought I guess; lets get you started with Diego’s first links of the New Year…

Here's a recap how yesterday’s Ice Bowl was for some of the fans in attendance.

Sid the Kid mighta got most of the admiration for the Pens win yesterday, but Ty Conklin also played a hell of a game. (not to mention wore a bad ass mask)

(Pic from nytimes.com)

Not sure which was prettier that mask or Conk’s lightning quick glove hand...

The Pens home game this Saturday has has been moved from 7:30 to 3:00 due to the Steeler game kicking off at 8 Saturday night. So now some maniacs can actually attend both games.

Steelers end season for Starks and Kriedwalt, and also sign a couple more fat bodies and a guy who is best known for his skiing.

(Pic from towelroad.typepad.com)

Hang on, is this guy a kicker, a skier, or an underwear model? Either way he can still probably return kicks better then Willie “Most Useless WR Ever” Reid...

The Philly newspaper calls for a WHAAmbulance for Freddy Taylor in response to his diss of Heinz Field.

Looks like everyone is jumping on the Jags bandwagon. They are the media’s sexy pick as underdog Super Bowl contender in the AFC.

With the team depleted by injuries, can can Big Ben be the difference maker this Saturday night for the Lers?

Adrian Peterson, aka Cash Register, aka Purple Jesus, aka Diego’s fantasy MVP has won rookie of the year honors. Too bad he couldn’t pass LT to win the rushing title too, this kid gives everyone a reason to watch the Vikings he’s simply that good.

Former Yankee is in some real hot water to start out 2008. Hope he still has some of that Steinbrenner money to pay for a lawyer.

Check out USA Today for a recap of yesterday's bowl game action.

Rumors are swirling that Reggie Bush has asked his girlfriend, and homemade porn star, Kim Kardashian to marry him.

(Pic from blackvoices.com)

She is smoking hot, but definitely more booty call hot then wife material. Wake up Reggie she’s just a semi-famous groupie!

Until lata...

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Monday Morning Hangover...(Part 1)

Well folks, today is truly the Monday morning hangover, as I attended the Steelers Bungals game at Heinz field last night. Waking up sucked this morning so forgive me if my writing is a little uninspiring, I didn’t get too much sleep last night. Enough crying from me though lets get into this weekend's sports action in the Burgh.

This was a big sports weekend for college football; there were conference championships, BCS implications, and of course the 100th anniversary of the Backyard Brawl. There were some pretty good games on during the day, but the highlight of the day was obviously the rivalry game for Pitt with our hated, cousin-loving neighbors, West Virginia. The table was set for WV, all they had to do was beat a lowly Pitt team and they were off to play in the national championship, in the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friends.

Pitt was ready for this game, they were fired up on defense, and they were geared up to play in a hostile environment in Morgantown. Pitt played like they had a chip on their shoulder, and with good reason. Pitt was 28.5 point underdogs Saturday night, they used this as incentive to get fired up for the game. The doubters were evident and no one was giving Pitt a chance to win this one, but that is why they play the game folks.

Even though they started out slow, Pitt’s game plan proved to work well against the Mountaineers; limit Pat White and make him throw, play stout defense, convert on third downs and give Shady the damn ball. Pat White went down in the second quarter with a thumb injury on his non-throwing hand, but he was still a non-factor when he was actually in the game. Panthers defense silenced the rowdy crowd of nearly 60,000 by holding White to only 40 yards rushing and 50 passing in an impressive effort by their front seven. (not to mention they held Steve Slaton to 11 yards on 9 carries) Although QB Pat Bostick threw a couple INT’s the defense held strong and WV was forced to attempt a couple early field goal’s that they missed (that kicker should be put on suicide watch) In all, the defense did a good job of staying in their lanes and containing WV high powered offense all night long. It was also big that they had some sacks and that they forced a couple of turnovers, which ended up leading to points on the scoreboard.

As for the offense, lets just say they are what we thought they were… Bostick made some bad decisions early and the ‘stache decided to go conservative so Bostick wouldn’t blow the game by committing turnovers. This meant it was time for the Shady show, and man was this kid entertaining carrying the ball a whopping 38 times for 148 yards. (why wasn’t he getting the ball this many times every game) On one play he gave a WV linebacker the uh oh’s on one the nastiest dick moves I’ve seen in some time, but unfortunately the TD run was called back on a phantom holding call on Oderrick Turner. There was an interesting story about Shady circulating through Pittsburgh this weekend. He was confused as to why Pitt hates WV so bad. That is, up until the bus carrying the team rolled into Morgantown and proceeded to be pelted with rocks, bricks, and other objects. Word on the street is that this fired up Shady so much that he gave the team a pep talk right there on the bus, and judging by his play and the play of the rest of the team it must have worked. This kid is only a freshman, but its pretty clear that he doesn’t play or act like one, as he has stepped up to be one of the leader’s of this young team.

Pitt’s offense was by no means a juggernaut on Saturday night, but they were relatively efficient. Six for eighteen on third downs is nothing to write home about, but they were an impressive 2 for 3 on 4th down conversions. The biggest one coming on Pitt’s TD drive where the stache called a fake punt, lining up former Central Catholic QB and Pitt outside linebacker (and Hazelwood native) Shane Murray under center to sneak for 3 yards on 4th and 1. Bostick also converted a third down, later in the drive. Keeping the WV offense off the field was essential to Pitt getting this upset win.

All in all this has got to be one of, if not the, biggest win in the history of Pitt football history. I mean the look on the faces of the WV fans was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…. Priceless simply priceless and the camera kept showing them I loved it. I bet WV campus was a ghost town that night as the hands of their most bitter rival crushed their dreams of a national championship on their home field. While WV fans cried themselves to sleep, we partied like rock stars on Pitt’s campus in Oakland. (link the video of the Pitt couch burning) Pitt couldn’t be stopped that Saturday night not by rocks and bricks, not by horrendous penalty calls, and certainly not by a half-assed effort by a team who has never won the national championship.

I am so happy it happened especially cuz I hate that scumbag coach Rich Rodriguez. That d-bag didn’t even give Pitt any credit during his press conference (where he looked like he was about to cry also) all he did was talk about how WV didn’t execute and stick to the game plan. Listen up Rich you got outplayed, out-coached, and beaten by a team you were supposed to roll over. Have fun in the Fiesta bowl you jagoff. GO PITT!

Monday Morning Hangover...

Alright, well after sobering up from the weekend festivities, it's none other than Diego the great here stopping in to write his first weekend recap for pierogis n’at hereby titled the Monday Morning Hangover. In this segment I’ll recap this weekend’s sports action, the stuff I care about at least, and give you some insights and observations I made while I was watching the games, greazing, and drinking some Irons…

The weekend in sports started off pretty f’n weak, as they didn’t even give as a World Series game on Friday night. I mean I am as sick of baseball as the next guy, but there wasn’t even a college football game on Friday night. So if you were looking for any sports action your best bet would have been to go to a high school football game and hit on some “mature looking” high school students. To quote Matthew McConaughey’s Wooderson from Dazed and Confused, “That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

Speaking of high school football did anyone else see that Jeanette Greesburg CC game Thursday night on FSN? Ya, I didn’t either, but while tuning in before the start of the Pens game they showed one highlight of the two TD’s Jeanette had already scored. It involved All-Everything QB Terrell Pryor aka Superboy faking a handoff right and running a naked boot left, scoring about a 10 yard TD, and along the way just about decapitating a poor Greensburg CC linebacker… and not only did he just about knock this kid into next week but this kid was also rewarded with Pryor giving him the longest "f you buddy I’m sure you’ll remember this when your watching me play starting for Ohio St. next year in both football and basketball stares that I’d ever seen in my life". It looks like Pryor is already a pro at bruising both bodies and egos alike. If you don’t know about this kid check out and crawl out from whatever rock you’ve been living under.

I was looking forward to Saturday because its finally that time of the year when we are getting past all the BS in college football now that the Penn St.’s and OSU’s of the world are done playing teams the likes of Florida International and Kent St we can finally see some real ball and some rivalry games. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending how you look at it, I had tickets to the Pens game that evening, so I couldn’t watch highly touted OSU-Penn St match up at 8:00, I had to settle for a little Pitt-Louisville action at high noon.

My first thought after watching a few series from this Pitt game is the same thought I had after watching every Pitt game so far this year… these guys are hard to watch. With such a young group of players Pitt just looks disorganized and they have trouble executing, constantly starting out the game going three and out. Once again Pitt offense underperforms gaining only 270 yards on a team that hasn’t been able to stop anyone all year long. Pitt did do a good job of holding future NFL QB Brian Brohm to well under his season average in passing yards.

Still, the story of the game was Shady McCoy getting a case of fumbilitis on the one yard line, just as we were about to tie the game up. Although it’s easy to point fingers at Wannstache (shout out to Mondesi’s house) or Cavanaugh for the disappointing season, the bottom line is they are doing the best with a depleted roster due to injury, and with the young talent they have. After all, it’s not easy to win games when starting three true freshmen on offense in any conference, let alone the Big East.

On a positive note, the last two weeks have shown that Pitt isn’t giving up. After coming back to upset 23rd ranked Cinci, and this week almost completing a comeback against Louisville, Pitt showed that they have a solid core of young players led by freshmen starters McCoy and Pat Bostick. Hopefully Pitt can finish the season strong with a few more wins to have momentum built up for next year because after this disappointing season Pitt fans are just counting down the days till hoops starts. The Trib’s take on it

JoePA craps his pants again (figuratively) and Happy Valley is left dejected as #1 OSU silences critics and Penn St fans alike. Penn St. Sucks

West Virginia keeps their win streak alive and stays in contention for the Big East Title and BCS bowl birth. WVU Sucks

Uconn proves to skeptics they are for real taking out South Florida and staying at the top of the Big East standings. UConn Sucks Too

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