Recap Feb. 11, 2006

WEATHER: The National Weather Service said 26.9 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, the most since record-keeping started in 1869. In Venice, where it was 75 and sunny, 26.9 fewer inches of snow fell. Cyd picked a great weekend to visit LA and play with us.

GAME: It was a classic. Dark sprinted out to a 30-12 lead, then White scored 24 consecutive points to grab a 36-30 lead. At the end, Brent's TD catch on what amounted to the final play allowed Dark to salvage a 42-42 tie (Dark missed the 1-point conversion that would have won the game). We would have played OT but we had already been out there 2 ½ hours and too many people had to go.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: A tough choice this week, but I have to lean to Patrick, who made a series of spectacular catches. His best came on a twisting, over-the-shoulder grab falling down on a pass of about 30 yards. Great stuff.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Got to give this one to Brent, who was terrific at MLB. He thinks I'm patronizing with my praise (I only patronize Zach, if you ask him), but we also know that Brent is solid. His best play came on a well-designed hook-and-lateral by White on a 2-point conversion. I threw a 5-yard pass to Matthew, with Brent guarding him. Matthew then tossed to Zach coming around the corner and it looked like a sure score. But Brent played off of Matthew and snagged the flag short of the goal.

WORST BIG BEN IMITATION: That would be me, for my diving attempt on a QB run near the goal line. My knee still hurts. Did I get in? Like Big Ben's run in the Super Bowl, who knows? I thought I got the ball over, but others said my knee came up short. Dark graciously gave me the TD (out of sympathy?). But since it was third down, I'll echo what Roethlisberger told David Letterman: "We were getting ready to go for it on fourth down anyway, so we would have found a way to get in."

KEY PLAY OF THE GAME: Zach ran a great route on a wide receiver slant, and I got the ball there on a key 4th-and-18 that keep the White rally alive. Zach had griped about being a "decoy" earlier in the game (uh, we had only run about 5 plays then), but he came up big.

NEWS FLASH: For the second week in a row, Jeremiah didn’t drop a pass. Oh, no, snow is forecast for Venice!

MY KINGDOM FOR A CONVERSION: To underscore the importance of after-touchdown conversions – White scored seven TDs (Cyd and Eric two, me, Oren and Brian Rubin) but zero conversions. Dark had six TDs (Toby, Puff Daddy, Patrick, Dave, Rodger and Brent) but made three 2-pointers.

WELCOME BACK: It was great having Cyd out from NYC this weekend and it was like old times. He made three key fourth-down catches, scored twice and did a great job rushing. His "duel" with Jeremiah was pretty much a bust, though, since J refused to play anything but left CB, while Cyd moved around on offense (White's not stupid!).

ZEBRA TIME: We instituted a new penalty system, where one team was awarded the first close call (the other team the next one, etc.) on any play where we simply couldn't agree. It worked pretty well. Dark did not use its call on my TD run, but did on a play where Cyd got a first down but Dark said he never had control of the ball. What's odd, is that Cyd DID catch the ball (he took three steps before losing it) and my play was so close it could have gone either way. Not a perfect system, but better than what we had.

LONGHORN TIME: How it is that playing in SoCal we had three Texas Longhorns (Patrick, Jeremiah and Toby) on the same team? They're everywhere, like weeds!

HIGHLIGHTS: Toby used great concentration on his TD catch on a pass that Zach got a hand on and seemed to knock away. … Puff Daddy played well at QB with many super throws and he even had a TD run. … Dave played solidly both on offense (a TD and a conversion) and defense. … Kudos to Rodger for a great block that sprung Brent on his TD. … Nice catch by Chris on a TD that was called back on a ticky-tack offsides call on a player on the opposite side of the field. Boo! … Oren may have found a new niche as a blitzer, as he regularly got good pressure on a delayed rush. … Jeremiah played great at corner all game, though we did one long pass against him with a shot downfield to Zach.

SKED: We are back next Saturday, Feb. 18.