BLSS weekly NFL pick breakdown

Things that caught my eye during week 3 of the NFL season

• That bs call against Shawntae Spencer for taunting- Really? Don’t they do that every play? What a Joke!

• Percy Harvin- 101 yd td. Kid has a td in every game of his young career. Write it down… Stud

• Brett Favre- Arm looked impeccable. Did you see that drive? A little more than a minute left and no timeouts… No biggy for Favre.

• Vernon Davis- All the potential in the world, and it showed on Sunday. 7 receptions, 96 yards and 2 td’s…. Stud

• Patriots- Dominated against the Falcons. Brought the heavy run as I predicted. Don’t doubt the Pat’s… Stud

• Chris Johnson- Had 22 carries and was held to 97 yards. This will be one of the best lines against the Jets all year long. Jets are for real!

• Kolb- Might make a play to take the starting job from McNabb. Another great performance. 24/34 for 327 yards and 2 td’s. Kid had 391 yards last week, and is the only Qb in NFL history to start a career with back to back 300 yard games. A former 1st rder... Stud

• Ravens- Wow...These guys are for real. Write it down. Pats vs. Ravens next week is going to be the game of the year.

Side note- Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter became the first 2b/SS combo since the 1880’s to both get 200 hits in the same season. Take that DJ doubters!

By: Morgan Spokny

Open up a can from Spokester's three pack

1).Oregon defeats  # 6 California 42-3

Where did this come from? QB Jeremiah Masoli, 253 yards and 3 touchdowns. Last week the kid had 4 completions for 95 yards and a pick. Ducks posted a studly 524 yards of total offense, which was a huge reversal from the team that lost so badly to Boise State opening week. The Ducks held Jahvid Best to 55 yards. Coming into the game he was averaging 137.5 yards per game.

2.) #9 Miami loses to #11 Virginia Tech. 31-7

A wet and sloppy game in Blacksburg that ended in a rout. Qb’s were the story in this one as Jacory Harris went 9/25 with 150 yards and a costly pick. His counterpart Tyrod Taylor was an efficient 4/9 with 98 yards and one td. Tyrod ran the ball at will and posted an impressive 10 carries for 75 yards. Both of these Qb’s had about the same overall yards in the game but there was a huge difference on the field. The Hoakies moved the ball whenever they wanted to, whereas the Canes offense was completely stagnant. The Canes were 1/11 on 3rd down. The Canes converted TE Graham is a physical specimen at 6’8, and was a 4 year starter for the basketball program but he had two crucial drops that killed drives. The Canes were quite simply dominated on the field. The Hoakies posted 272 yards of rushing, while the Canes put up a paltry 59 yards of rushing.

3.) Iowa knocks off #5 Penn St. 21-10

For the second year in a row Iowa has upset Penn St. They have now won 7/8 ball games. The Iowa special teams and defense stepped up big in this one, with a blocked punt for a touchdown and a safety. Also of note, Qb Darryl Clark essentially took himself out of the Heisman running. Clark came into the game with 8 td’s and 3 picks. Verse Iowa Clark threw 3 picks and only 1 td. Clark started the game hot going 5/5 and tossing a td on his first drive. However, he finished up the game going 7/27 the rest of the way and looked lost and overmatched on the field.

By: Morgan Spokny

Featured on the September 17th, 2009 show: The Carl Banks poker/blackjack tournament

The man himself, none other than.... insert drumroll.....followed by a standing ovation.... a NY Giant legend...... Carl Banks dropped in to show the BLSS some love tonight. If you call yourself a football fan, than you had better checkout the interview. Carl let's us know how he feels about this years Jets/Giants squads, and let's just say that he's very happy to be living in NY this year.

Also be sure to check out the Carl Banks poker/blackjack tournament. For all those ladies out there who don't want to play card games, fear not, Carl has taken care of you and there will be plenty of fun and games to keep you happy and occupied as well. We're talking about a full martini bar, and pedicures. Sounds like Carl knows how to get those ladies out to an event!

http://www.marinersbk.com/CarlBanks_MarinersBankCelebrityGolfPokerTourn.html

Featured on the September 10th, 2009 show: NJ HS Sports Network website

http://www.njhssportsnetwork.com/



A topic of discussion featured on the BLSS:

Chris Olsen, veteran head football coach at Wayne Hills High, doesn't like his team playing in a new conference.

His quarterback, senior Mike Quinn, thinks it's a good thing.

But no matter what anyone thinks, the conference realignment, which affected everything north of Middlesex County, is here to stay for all scholastic sports. And perhaps no team in any sport will be quite as affected as the Wayne Hills football team.

Wayne Hills has won five consecutive sectional titles and 52 straight games -- the third-longest winning streak in state football history. Should the Patriots go 12-0 for the fifth straight year, they would break the all-time state record of 63 consecutive victories set by Paulsboro from 1992-98. Randolph is second on the state list with a streak of 54 triumphs, which ended in 1991.
But this season, thanks to the realignment that moved Wayne Hills from the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League to the North Jersey Tri-County League's Division 3, the Passaic County power will have to go up against nine unfamiliar opponents -- including a couple of state powers in their own right."The new schedule is good for everyone," Quinn said. "It will show everyone how good our team really is. I look forward to the challenge."

That challenge will include facing West Essex on the road in North Caldwell in the season opener Friday night and perennial state powerhouse St. Joseph of Montvale in Week 4. West Essex reached the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 2 championship game last season and St. Joseph won the Non-Public, Group 3 title."The new schedule won't really affect us," Quinn said. "It's just a different level of play. I think our team is good enough to play with any team in the state, but we will really be tested from the first game against West Essex. We just play whoever they put in front of us. Do the same things, which means do whatever it takes to get the win."
Wayne Hills will get to face rival Wayne Valley in a rare cross-town contest on Sept. 25, but Olsen is irritated by the fact that Wayne Hills will lose traditional rivalry games against Ramapo, Old Tappan and Pascack Valley under the new conference alignment.

"The last 15 years we've had one of the greatest rivalries in the state with Ramapo, and to not be playing them anymore makes no sense," said Olsen, whose team has not lost since a 24-20 defeat to Ramapo on Oct. 29, 2004. "Those rivalries are what high school sports are all about. It was one of the worst days in the history of sports in New Jersey when the state sent out those guidelines saying they were going to realign."

Wayne Hills isn't the only school whose schedule has undergone a complete overhaul.
The realignment has thrown teams together from different parts of the state as the new football leagues fight through growing pains in their inaugural season.

Consider:
Last season there were 72 football games pitting a team from Essex County against a team from neighboring Morris. With the advent of the Super Essex Conference and the Northwest Jersey Conference, there will be only five Essex/Morris crossover games this season.

The Greater Middlesex Conference remains intact, but smaller schools lost games with Union County members of the Mountain Valley Conference. The GMC forged an alliance with the Shore Conference, and that set up a non-conference matchup at 11 a.m. Sunday at Rutgers Stadium, where Piscataway will face Howell. Piscataway also will play Toms River North this season and Howell is scheduled to face Woodbridge and Sayreville.

The Thanksgiving Day game between East Orange Campus and Barringer will be revived after a 15-year absence. It was one of the oldest continuously run public school holiday rivalries (97 straight through 1993) in the country. The game is set for 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving at East Orange. Barringer won the last meeting, 42-0, but East Orange leads the series, 49-39-9.
The formation of the Super Essex Conference means West Essex and Newark Central can finally start playing Essex County teams again. West Essex, long a member of the Iron Hills Conference-Hills Division, has played only four Essex schools since 1988. Central has played only one Essex opponent -- Verona, in 2002 -- since the Newark City League disbanded after the 1988 season.

Pope John, a parochial school in rural Sussex County, will face urban Essex County power Irvington tomorrow in Sparta. Both schools are filling an open date in their schedule caused by the realignment.

Whether or not the realignment derails Wayne Hills on its way to making state history remains to be seen. But with Quinn at quarterback, junior standout Brian Dowling in the backfield and star linemen Chris Fonti, Ryan Salerno and Nick Tumminello, Olsen said the schedule shouldn't make a difference.

"St. Joseph will be tough, but as far as the schedule goes, it's always tough," he said. "Our first goal is always to get to the championship game and our second goal is to win it. Winning every game is third. I'm not naive, I know we're not going to win every game in the history of Wayne Hills football. That's just not going to happen."

Quinn agreed that the streak is secondary to winning another state title. But losing a game, no matter what team Wayne Hills plays, is not an option, he said.
"It would be catastrophic," he said. "I'd be very upset just thinking about the people who played here before us, the kids who played on undefeated teams who worked so hard to make a name for the program. I would be upset and the team would be upset. I think it would destroy me.

"Then I think we would get back up and rip apart our next opponent."


By: Ed Murray

http://www.njhssportsnetwork.com/

D-Wade:Feautred guest September the 8th, 2009

Profile


Dwyane Tyrone Wade is a member of the Miami Heat. He was selected with the 5th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. From unheralded draft pick to fast evolving NBA star, Dwyane Wade has experienced a whirlwind career in fewer than two years. Perhaps this might have been expected of a player widely known as “Flash”.

In his first season (2003-04), the Chicago-area native who also flashed his athletic brilliance for Marquette University, achieved NBA All-Rookie Team status with the Miami Heat. Before he knew it, Dwyane was an Olympian, representing the United States in the 2004 Athens Summer Games. Now he’s a major catalyst behind the Heat’s current NBA campaign with a new teammate and admirer, former L.A. Laker Shaquille O’Neal.

O’Neal is on the record saying that Dwyane is the most phenomenal second-year player he has seen since himself, and has praised his young teammate for possessing “fire” and “heart”, and all of the qualities of a great competitor as the Heat have emerged as the team to beat in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Dwyane joined the Heat as the fifth pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. In 56 starts, Dwyane averaged a solid 16.2 points in 35 minutes per game, and was one of the reasons the Heat emerged as an unlikely #4seed in the 2004 playoffs.

Yet it was Dwyane’s all-world showing in the playoffs that solidified his spot as one of the NBA’s brightest young performers. Wade led the Heat in scoring in seven of the team’s 13 playoff games. Dwyane’s heroics in Games Five and Six of the opening round led the Heat past the New Orleans Hornets and into the Conference semifinals against the top-seeded Indiana Pacers. While the Heat could not subdue the powerful Pacers, Dwyane left his mark on the series with monster dunks and an average of 21 points per game.

There was little time afforded Dwyane to reflect on all of that. In the summer of 2004, he averaged 7.3 points, playing 17.5 minutes in the eight games played by Team USA on its eventful journey in Athens to an Olympic bronze medal last August. Dwyane was the No. 2 rated team member in registering steals against Olympic opponents, averaging slightly more than two per game.

With a similar meteoric rise in college, Dwyane catapulted Marquette to the 2003 Final Four. In two years at Marquette he became one of the most decorated players in school history where he averaged 19.7 points per game, had 150 steals and 79 blocked shots. That was upstaged only by Dwyane’s history making NCAA Tournament triple-double (against No. 1 ranked Kentucky) to take the Golden Eagles to the Final Four for the first time since 1977.

The first Marquette player since 1978 to earn Associated Press First Team All-America, a United States Basketball Writers First Team All-American and a National Association of Basketball Coaches Second Team All-American, Wade was a finalist for the Wooden, Naismith and Oscar Robertson awards. He burst onto the national radar when ESPN The Magazine nominated him in 2002 as Shooting Guard of the Year. Wade was the Conference USA 2003 Player, and Defensive Player of the Year for what would be his last season in college.

It was all a fast ride for Wade who concentrated on academics his freshman year at MU as a partial qualifier from Richards High in Oak Lawn, Ill. His senior year the team was 24-5 and gained a berth in the title game of the Illinois Class AA tournament.