Jan. 9-10, 2010—Wild card playoffs.
Jan. 16-17—Divisional playoffs.
Jan. 24—Conference championships.
Jan. 31—Pro Bowl, Miami.
Feb. 7—Super Bowl, Miami.
Feb. 24-March 2—NFL combine, Indianapolis.
March 5—Free agency begins.
March 21-24—Annual owners meeting, Orlando, Fla.
April 22-24—NFL draft.
The Fighting Irish are 4-1 but aren’t ranked in any major poll. The only winning team they’ve played, Michigan, they were able to beat on a touchdown, while their last three victories have come on the final minute.
Is this team any good, or does it just play to the level of its competition?
If you look at some of the other teams that are playing and look at how their games have gone, you will see that they can go right up to the top ten and work right on down.
What team has never had troubles in their schedule? Almost everybody has.
The Fighting Irish have had one loss by four points on the road with eleven seconds to go in the game. Looking at the flip side of it, only eleven seconds away from being undefeated right now, puts them right with everybody else.
Notre Dame will get its chance at victory in its next game, when USC comes to South Bend on the seventeenth of October. For now, they would be healing injuries, followed by a long weekend break so players can go home. All things considered, a lot of improvement has to be done before the Irish can even hope to knock off the Trojans, which should tackling in the list of items they need to develop.
Honestly, did anyone have doubts that Clausen would lead a touchdown drive on Saturday against Washington when Notre Dame got the ball back with a little under three minutes left?
While you could argue that games against Michigan State, Purdue and Washington didn’t need to go down to the final play, the team found a way to win those in the end. That’s the biggest difference between this year and last year, when Notre Dame also started 4-1. Nothing defined the season more than Saturday’s three goal-line stands, in which the defense allowed just three total points.
If they keep playing games like these, however, the Irish may cause a lot of heart attacks. After all, with coaches who are a bit older, these several blood-pumping final moments may be more distressing.
The Cincinnati Bengals finally won over the Pittsburgh Steelers this time with a score of 23-20 during their match last Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. This win gives the Bengals with a 2-1 advantage for the early part of the preseason.
This victory over the Steelers is just one of the surprises that the Bengals had shown so far. After eight years of being humbled in their own stadium, the team finally made it against their opponent that defeated them consecutively for these past years. The fans and players are even anticipating for more surprises to come from the team.
Eight years had passed since Cincinnati last defeated Pittsburgh. This gives extra boost in the confidence of their players. They also pronounced through this game that they are a competitive team as Andre Caldwell has mentioned.
Marvin Lewis, the coach of Cincinnati Bengals, admitted that the surprises performed by the team had something to do with their quarterback playing again this season. Carson Palmer is back with Bengals after missing many games during the previous season because of his elbow injury.
During the game with Steelers, Palmer made a 16-play touchdown which ended with the winning pass to Caldwell with only 14 seconds left. The clutch drive serves as the reminder that the Bengals are at its best with Palmer around.
With their game against Denver, Palmer made a 91-yard touchdown which gave the team a 7-6 lead with only 38 seconds left. But still, the Broncos, with Brandon Stokley, made a touchdown before the game ended which led to a 12-7 score in favor Denver.
With the plays that the Bengals showed during their previous matches, they made a lot of improvements compared to their performance last season with only four wins. They really have great improvements by the time they finally defeated Pittsburgh. Reggie Kelly, one of the Bengals, said that he is thrilled for his teammates.
The Bengals will play with Cleveland on Sunday and will be followed by a match with the leading Ravens in Baltimore. The Bengals, after that, would need to play against Pittsburgh and Baltimore in a back-to-back game by November.
