If the whole world moved to their favorite vacation spots, then the whole world would live in Hawaii, and Italy, and Cleveland: Is it still a big deal to not have the NFL Network?  We have Verizon Fios in the apartment, and get it on here, and my parents get it on DirecTV, and we got it on Comcast last year at school.  If you don't have it, then you missed a pretty entertaining game between two incredibly bad football teams, the Broncos and Browns.  Brandon Marshall and Braylon Edwards were in a race to see who could drop more balls, while both back sevens on defense competed to see who could turn eight-yard out routes into massive games by not tackling.  It seemed for a moment that Brady Quinn had revitalized the career of Kellen Winslow, Jr., but the solider melted down on the final three drives, giving up a dumb penalty, a dumber fumble and an inexcusable fourth down drop.

How did Our Fair Brady play?  Very well, I think.  The Browns offense sort of limited him - he didn't take many shots down field at all - but he made the correct reads, gracefully avoided some sacks in the pocket to extend drives and connected on two touchdown throws and no interceptions.  It was more game manager than gun slinger, but it would have been good enough for the win if the Browns weren't horrendous and Romeo Crennel wasn't a stoic loser who needs fired as soon as possible.  The general consensus scanning the web this morning is that the second-year QB turned in a solid performance, and I would certainly sign off on that.

via assets.espn.go.com

Brady has a few more weeks to learn the ropes against average-to-good competition (Buffao, Houston, Indianapolis) before things get really tough (trips to Nashville, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in three of the final four weeks).  I don't see anything in Quinn's performance last night to make me think Derek Anderson will get a hint of starting against the Bills, but these are the Browns, so who knows.

I is in your bowlz, busting your BCS - Against a very good TCU team last night, the Utah Utes lived to fight another day, scoring with under a minute left to keep their BCS busting hopes alive 13-10.  This team isn't nearly as good as the 2004 juggernaut that always gets left out of the conversation of teams that got screwed over by the BCS, but they're a trip to San Diego State and a wild home date against BYU from perfection.  They could even end up routing Pitt again in the Fiesta Bowl, but that's still a few weeks and dozens of games away.

(Ball State also won on Wednesday night, but they don't have the scheduling juice to creep into BCS talk.  They do play two very good teams in the coming weeks, Central and Western Michigan, but that won't be enough to bump them up, since nobody is aware of how good Dan LeFevour is.)

Rob Kurz > Your Lottery Pick: Per the San Francisco Chronicle and a probably very wasted Don Nelson:

Nelson might be the only person in basketball, let alone the NBA, who would value Rob Kurz, the undrafted forward out of Notre Dame, over Randolph, the No. 1 draft pick from LSU - at least at this early stage for both rookies. "Kurz is more NBA-ready than Randolph," Nelson insisted. "He's not as talented, but I'm talking about right now, the ability to play in the system without error. It just takes a while, that's all. Randolph has to earn his way onto the court in practice."

Kurz hasn't played yet, but we're a Warriors blowout away from him stepping onto a NBA floor for real.  Fingers crossed.  And now your gratuitous 2007 Warriors highlight of the day, which almost makes me cry due to its extreme awesomeness:

Shaq Evans To Commit At Noon: If this is something that might interest you, he should be donning an Irish cap unless things go horribly awry.  The way the last few weeks have gone, I'm bracing for "horribly awry."

Holy War 2008, or Saturday Night's Alright: My official stance on Saturday night's game - which can be seen on ESPN, with Cal/Southern Cal or Oklahoma State/Texas Tech on ABC depending on where you are - is that absolutely nothing would surprise me.  If Boston College jumped out to a 17-3 lead, I'd expect it just as much as if Weis brought the team out in the spread, no-huddle and Clausen just blew them away.  Chris Crane is not a great quarterback, nor is the Eagle running game dominant, but they have some talent in their defensive front seven that could cause some trouble for the Irish offense.

As with previewing most games this season, a high-scoring contest seems to favor the Irish, a low-scoring contest their opponent.  I'm not too concerned about the crowd, as the stadium isn't that large, Irish fans will represent and a lot of the real Eagle fans might have been outpriced, but I am worried that a dinged-up Jimmy Clausen who hasn't been sharp since the North Carolina game.  A lot of Irish fans have drawn a line in the sand with Weis regarding this game (5-4 Isn't Good Enough), but I'll reserve ultimatums and pink slip handing out until at least after the game.