6B
SPORTS
NFL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
Patriots win game, lose Brady
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) has his leg buckled by Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard, bottom, during the first quarter of a football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Sunday. Brady left the game and was taken to the locker room.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chiefs stay close lose first game of season
BY HOWARD ULMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FOXBOROUGH. Mass. Tom Brady screamed. The fans went quiet.
The seemingly indestructible star of the New England Patriots lay on the ground clutching his left knee. The NFLs reigning MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion was done for the day — at least.
"He was in a lot of pain. When you hear a scream, you know that," Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard said after hitting Brady on the left leg midway through the first quarter.
Untested Matt Cassel took over, and played well as the Patriots beat the Chiefs 17-10 in Sunday's opener. But they needed a last minute defensive stand to do it.
There was no word on the extent of Brady's injury — "I am not sure what we are dealing with," coach Bill Belichick said — or how long he would be out. But his 128-game starting streak, third-longest in NFL history, is in jeopardy.
"It it kind of looked bad," Randy Moss said. "I know the show must go on and, hopefully, Matt Cassel is ready to step in."
He was Sunday. That came as somewhat of a surprise after he failed to produce a touchdown in 17 exhibition series, leading many to wonder if he would even make the team on which he backed up Brady the past three seasons.
"He did a good job coming in and, obviously, made some big plays for us" tackle Matt Light said. "That guy's had a lot of criticism cast down on him and I felt like he stepped up and played like
a professional."
Still, the Patriots plummeted from an exclamation point of an unbeaten 2007 regular season to a huge question mark in 2008. They lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants 17-14 then went 0-4 in the exhibition season while Brady had a right foot injury and missed all four games.
But for the first time in 57 games, Brady wasn't listed on the Patriots' injury report for Sunday's game. He completed seven of 11
passes for 76 yards.
Cassel, who had thrown just 39 passes in his first three seasons, went 13-for-18 for 152 yards and one touchdown.
"This is something I've been preparing for [for] a long time. It's not something that we expected to come up on opening day," he said. "Since I've been here and been around Tom, he's always popped back up."
Not this time. And Kansas City also had its own quarterback
woes.
Damon Huard, playing after Brodie Croyle left with a bruised shoulder late in the third quarter, completed a 68-yard pass to Devard Darling, who cornerback Deltha O'Neal ran down and tackled at the Patriots 5 with 53 seconds left.
MEN'S GOLF Team looks to get off to a good start in new season
"It was a gut check. Go get him," said O'Neal, a two-time Pro Bowler who signed early last week.
"That's what my whole mentality was."
After a sixth place finish in the Big 12 Championship last season, the men's
golf team will compete in one of its four scheduled tournaments for the fall season today in the Nebraska Fairway Club Invitational.
Koelbel
The event is at ArborLinks Golf Course (par-72, 7,158 total yards) in Nebraska City, Neb.
"We have a lot of young players this year, but we will be a better team than we were last season," said coach Kit Grove.
Seniors Walt Koelbel and Andrew Storm, junior Patrick Roth and sophomore Nate Barbee return from last year's team. Freshman lan Anson and redshirt freshman Blake Giroux will make their debut for the Jawhawks.
"Ian has been playing very well," said Grove. "I expect him to be a bit contributor this year."
The 54-hole event will be held for the first time since 2005 and Kansas' last victory came in 1999, in the tournament's inaugural year.
Bryan Wheeler
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Overlooked team jumps into Top 25
BY RALPH D. RUSSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — East Carolina can't play the underdog role anymore.
After opening the season by upsetting two ranked teams, the Pirates earned themselves a place in the AP Top 25 for the first time in nine years.
East Carolina was No. 14 in the media poll released Sunday. Southern California remained No. 1 and Georgia was No. 2. Ohio State's sluggish 26-14 victory against Ohio, without star tailback Chris Wells, on Saturday cost the Buckeyes two spots in the rankings. They fell to No. 5 behind No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 4 Florida.
The Buckeyes will have a chance to move back up when they visit USC on Saturday.
USC received 33 of a possible 65 first-place votes and 1,577 points. Georgia got 23 first-place votes and 1,525 points. Oklahoma (two), Florida (four), Ohio State (one), No. 6 Missouri (one) and No. 7 LSU (one) also received first-place
votes. The Buckeyes had 15 first-place votes last week.
Texas, Auburn and Wisconsin round out the top 10.
East Carolina's latest big win was its third straight against a ranked opponent, dating to last season's Hawaii Bowl victory against Boise State.
"I think it went a long way to help build confidence in this team," coach Skip Holtz, the son of Hall Fame coach Lou Holtz, said Sunday during a conference call. "Two years ago the main goal the team wanted to accomplish was to get to a bowl game. Last season, they not only wanted to get to a bowl game, but win one. Now we want to build on that."
East Carolina manhandled previously No. 8 West Virginia 24-3 Saturday, shuttling down Pat White and the Mountaineers' speedy spread offense. That came a week after the Pirates took out Virginia Tech.
West Virginia dropped all the way to No. 25.
The second 10 in this week's poll starts with Alabama, followed by Texas Tech, Kansas, and the Pirates.