Flag Recap: Dec. 3, 2005

WEATHER: A tad blustery with some strong winds, but otherwise a beautiful 65 and sunny.

GAME: For all of those who stayed home to watch that thrilling, down-to-the wire, nail-biting USC-UCLA game, at least at Penmar, both teams showed up unlike at the Coliseum.

HIGHLIGHTS

WELCOME: A big welcome to Brian (loved him saying “merde” when his team would do something wrong), and to Blad. Of course, Blad is too difficult for Brent to remember, so he called him “Armani” in honor of his wearing a snazzy Under Armor jacket.

PLAY OF THE DAY: It actually occurred after a play when Anthony and JP were kidding around after JP made a catch and a first down. JP’s plan was to playfully toss the ball at Anthony’s chest. However, given JP’s aim, the ball wound up traveling harder and lower at Anthony, causing him to double over and talk like a Munchkin. It prompted this e-mail from Anthony:

“HEY MR. HIT-YOUNG-GUY-IN-THE-NUTS:

WELL, IT WAS FUN PLAYING FOOTBALL … EVEN THOUGH YOU HIT ME IN THE NUTS. BY THE WAY, THEY STILL HURT LIKE HELL. HOPE YOUR BF HITS YOU IN THE NUTS OR SOMETHING. (editor’s note: that would be more action than JP got all week).

PAYBACK’S A BITCH: Later in the game, JP caught a pass and was heading out of bounds when Anthony gave him a love tap from behind, causing JP to go sprawling. I was asked by someone whether it was legal to push someone out of bounds. Normally no, I said, but in this case the court ruled justifiable retaliation. No jury would convict Anthony.

GO DEEP: Best long passes were David’s (Marino) to Anthony on a deep post, and my long bomb to Zach, who ran a nice stop-and-go route and got by his defender.

BALL HAWKS: Anthony had two nice picks, and Brian (Puff Daddy) had one on a tip. The best was Blad, who baited me and jumped the route (went after the rookie once too much). Of course, if Blad had worn cleats he would have scored instead of tripping on his runback.

A STYLE ALL HIS OWN: Every pass thrown to Brent is an adventure. On one, we couldn’t determine whether he had possession when David wound up with the ball (a strip is illegal, but it would be an interception if Brent had possession). On several others, Brent would catch the pass, extend the ball past the first-down marker and stop, even though his flags were still on.

CATCHES ‘O THE DAY: Oren had several nice grabs, but none better than the one he held onto in the end zone on fourth down with David playing great coverage. …

Marc has great body control and had one especially great catch down the middle for a TD. …

Zach made a great inside fake move that he took outside in the deep corner of the end zone, catching the pass and getting his feet inbounds.

JP, in the shocker of the day, beat Anthony for a TD. The funny thing was, I saw JP had a step and threw it up. JP, of course, wasn’t looking and his eyes got big when he saw the ball, but he held on. …

Peter had a couple of nifty grabs coming across the middle, and uses his body well to shield the defender.

NEXT: We are back Dec. 10 and 17. We are off Dec. 24, but back Dec. 31.