Hey, Thanks Navy! James Harrison, You Are Excused.

Two items from the weekend's foot-ball games.

1) Jesus Christ, Navy. I take my four-year old son to his first football game with my father-in-law in tow, sit through ridiculous amounts of driving rain, and you don't have the decency to make one fucking pass attempt the entire game? I am oh-so-glad I got to witness the first time that this happened in college football in 10 years. Navy ran on 3rd-and-11 (twice), 3rd-and-10, and 3rd-and-9. I don't care if you were down to your third-string QB. If James Harrison can attempt to long-snap the ball, your 3rd string QB could pretend to attempt a forward lateral. What, was Dr. Z coaching this thing? He's probably ordered the audio so he can listen on a constant loop as he types out his columns on an antique Remington. Negative bonus points go to SMU, who gave up a long run after biting on a pump-fake. Yeah, they haven't thrown all game -- better make sure you've got double-coverage down the field. There's a reason you've won only one game all year, SMU.

2) Much ado is being made about the Steelers' James Harrison's valiant-yet-awfully-errant long snap over injured-to-begin-with punter Mitch Berger's head for a safety. Obviously, the Pro Bowler linebacker contributes much more to the team than one errant snap could ever take away. But, I have seen little over what was my favorite play of the game, Harrison's pass interference penalty in the 4th quarter. Manning was being pressured to his left by Woodley, and he put up an opposite-handed, lobby lame duck to Brandon Jacobs that was barely going to make it to the line of scrimmage if it was to be caught at all. As Jacobs was half-jogging for the pass that he didn't really want to catch, Harrison ran up behind him and shoved him down. A more obvious pass-interference penalty there could not be. I assume Harrison thought the ball had been tipped. Reminded me of the first round playoff game the Giants had against the 49ers a few years ago, when the errant long snap (!) on the game-ending FG was botched, but then scooped up by the holder for a desperation pass, but the receiver was blatantly shoved before he could catch it.

Side Note: for the errant long snap play, the entry in the box score reads "M. Berger Aborted."