Jeremy: Unfortunately...

*You gotta feel for Johan Santana and Boof Bonser. Both men pitched well enough to win the Twins first two playoff games, but unfortunately they got absolutely no run support. If you're like me you kept expecting the bats to come alive in game one, you were waiting to "smell those runs." But it just never happened. We saw a very short glimpse of it in game two with back to back homers from Cuddy and Morneauzy... but after that nothing.

*Nobody wants to blame the Game 2 loss on Torii, and really, they shouldn't. It's true, Torii botched the play, but you really can't blame him for his aggressive nature in the field on that play, because his aggressiveness is the very thing that has made him a Gold Glover for most of his career. Nope, Torii didn't lose the game for the Twinks. Like I said before, lack of run support for two great pitching outings lost these games. It's just unfortunate that Torii's error took the wind out of the proverbial sails.

*Lost in the Twins lack of offense and a couple of mistakes in the field has been the fact that the A's, baseball's best team in the second half of the season, is playing ridiculously solid ball. The reality is that the A's, in the first two games, have been beating the Twins at their own game. Solid starting pitching, good relief efforts, a little bit of power, and a little bit of small ball. Those are Twins trademarks, but this week they have so far been the Twins undoing.

*I'm fearful that with Brad Johnson at the head of the Vikings offense that they will continue to sputter throughout the year. I'm not blaming BJ for the Vikings woes, but it seems to me that with such mediocre talent at all of the offensive skill positions, a quarterback who can create some opportunities for people would be very valueable to Brad Childress. Brad Johnson is not that guy.

*The Gophers kept it close against Michigan last weekend, losing 28-14, and I have no idea how they did it. For the third time this season, in as many losses, the phrase "the score was not representative of how lopsided the game really was" applied beautifully. Just how the Gophers lost by just two touchdowns while the Wolverines had almost 200 yards more offense, and the Gophers converted only 3 of 12 third downs, I'll never know. The fact is that Michigan did exactly what it wanted to do with the ball all night long. The Wolverines came out on their first drive and ran six strait times, all to the left side, asserting their will on the Gophers, before they threw a pass. They then ran two more times to the left, before throwing into the endzone for a touchdown. It was as if they were saying to the Gophers "this is what we are going to do... try to stop us." They then came out on their second possession and I turned to Jeffrick and said "watch them run to the right every play this drive." Michigan proved me to be prophetic as they ran 4 strait times to the right. Although Michigan did not score on that drive, they still continued to run all night long, and run where they wanted, racking up 234 yards on the ground to go with 284 through the air.

*An interesting fact that I was not aware of came out while I was reading a Star Tribune article this week about the possibility that Glen Mason's staff may have used improper tactics after Gary Russell was dismissed from the U. To quote the article: "Mason's football program brings in more athletes with low standardized national college entrance exam scores than four other programs in the Big Ten, including Wisconsin and defending champion Ohio State."