Heart, Hustle, and Hysterics, Between the Hedges and Elsewhere

If today’s early college football games were marked by their contributions to chaos, the afternoon’s slate was defined by drama. Oh, and there was a great baseball game, too.LSU 20, Georgia 13. Through 57:07 of this game, the two teams combined for 13 points; in the last 2:53, they scored 20 and combined for 11 plays, 111 yards, and two patently absurd excessive celebration penalties, after a magnificent A.J. Green touchdown catch and a thundering Charles Scott TD run, respectively. Expect to hear more about those penalties than the game itself in the coming day or two, which is a shame: After three quarters of offensive ineptitude, Athens came alive as LSU scored on the goal line, Green answered back with his man-sized, plucked-from-in-front-of-the-defender catch, and Scott broke away for his score. For three minutes of game clock, this was a classic, and that point will be drowned out by bloviation about unnecessary flags, which will be twice as wearisome as the flags themselves.

Notre Dame 37, Washington 30. In overtime, the Irish win when two separate Washington receivers cannot pull in catchable balls from Jake Locker. This came after the Irish and Huskies traded scoring drives in the last 1:20 of regulation to get it to the extra frame. Notre Dame continues to gut out dramatic winners on the backs of individual supremely talented players (Jimmy Clausen threw for 422 yards; Golden Tate had nine catches for a staggering 244 yards), but the Golden Domers need to fix their leaky defense if they want any part of the BCS this year.

Also, best wishes to Washington wideout D’Andre Goodwin, who took a scary helmet-to-helmet shot on the final play.

Boston College 28, Florida State 21. After a miserable first half that only got them to six points as time expired, the Seminoles rallied back to tie at 21 early in the fourth quarter, then recovered a fumble on a squibbed kickoff. But, in what was presumably a nod to their program’s storied history, FSU kicker Dustin Hopkins missed his fifth field goal of the year -- how else? -- wide right. BC took the ball down the field and scored, then stopped FSU to preserve the win. BC is still a marginal ACC team, but these baffling ‘Noles (the Schizonoles?) are 2-3, with two ACC losses, and staring down another wasted season.

Twins 5, Royals 4. Zack Greinke was superb for five innings. Then Joe Mauer knocked in a run with a single and Delmon Young, of all people, smacked a three-run double, giving the Twins a 4-0 lead. Then the Royals fought back with a run in the seventh and three in the eight, tying the game on a double play with runners on the corners. Then Michael Cuddyer hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth, Joe Nathan came on in the ninth, and Denard Span contributed a brilliant sliding catch to a 1-2-3 inning that sealed the win and brought the Twins to within a half game of the Tigers in the AL Central.

Basically, this was a great afternoon to be a sports fan.

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