darn cats. if they had won that game, it would have been pure theft. but, still, they should have won that.

michael robinson is the farthest thing from an actual big ten quarterback. at times, it looked like northwestern was rushing three, dropping the other eight back, and waiting for robinson to overthrow his intended receiver. most of the time, it worked. but, on the decisive play, they sent six and mcpherson blew it. sigh.

of course, the touchdown pass wouldn't have happened had northwestern been able to stop a freakin' fourth-and-15. (highlight of the awful television broadcast [they're always awful when pam ward is involved, not because she's a woman, but because she's a woman who can't identify players and makes unfunny and ill-timed jokes]: when the awful david norrie [who?] said, with penn state down two with 1:39 left and facing fourth-and-15 with one timeout, "this is a tough decision." of course it wasn't. stupid.)

credit penn state for stopping tyrell sutton. and credit - honestly - basanez for another intelligient, composed, and well-played game. but penn state's defense is quite good, and they fought through the early awful turnovers to stay in the game. and the cats defense is not good. oh well.

at least the hawkeyes lost. i'm not sure they're any good, either.

you know, earlier this week our local iowa beat writer emailed me a silly note decreeing that "the heat will be on either walker or paterno come monday morning." i don't believe it, and i don't want to see it happen. but maybe they're are stupid people with influence who believe that northwestern football can be better than five wins a year with a bowl game every four or five years. personally, i don't think the program can exceed what walker's done, simply because the tradition isn't there and because the state of illinois doesn't offer enough talent and because a day at ryan field will never overwhelm a kid like a day at the horseshoe will and because there are academic standards that the program won't and shouldn't bend (they're pretty much student athletes, and all of them graduate, and that's something to be proud of).

i think it's notable that the program will not be in a position where they're getting blown out three or four times a year. once or twice is, sadly, acceptable. it'll happen. more is not.

(it should be noted that the final four results of the barnett era in the big ten are: ohio state 36, northwestern 10; michigan state 29, northwestern 5; purdue 56, northwestern 21; and penn state 41, northwestern 10. wow - amazing he was still sought after, and amazing he still has a job.)

still, though, losses like this are highly frustrating.

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i gave my first real good listen to the new death cab for cutie album today. i think it's pretty close to a perfect major label debut for them. it's not as good as transatlanticism, mostly because there aren't any great rawk songs, but it's got a lot of pretty stuff.

only one misstep, and that's the extended two-minute outro on "different names for the same place." song should've been two minutes long, and it would have been fairly pretty. instead, it's just wankish.

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never finished cleaning the aparment. now returning to that task.

hey - dave wannstedt won!