ScotSports.com Blog

A reminder that those of you with cable or satellite TV can catch Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions on the NFL Network on Saturday. Detroit hosts Indianapolis at noon. Stafford remains in a "still wide open" starting quarterback competition with veteran Daunte Culpepper, who will get the start against Indy. Stafford is expected to come in somewhere around the start of the second quarter and finish the third quarter.

We add this from a Detroit Free Press story:

(Detroit head coach Jim) Schwartz said the rotation means nothing in terms of who will start the regular-season opener Sept. 13 at New Orleans.

“Try to read tea leaves, get your tarot cards out, Ouija boards, whatever it is,” Schwartz said. “The only thing we’ve done so far is try to equal reps out. We’ve done it in practice. We’ve done it in preseason games.”

Schwartz said the coaches had tried to put Culpepper and Stafford in similar situations with similar personnel “to be able to make a fair evaluation. It’s a rotational thing, and there’s nothing to read into it.”

Now there's a coach who knows how to say a whole lot while saying nothing.

Clayton Kershaw's back on the mound tonight but in a stadium where he's had little success in his one-plus year in the majors. Kershaw takes on Colorado at Coors Field in Denver, where he is 2-2 but has a career 8.64 ERA. Translation - he's received a lot of hitting help at Colorado in the past. The Dodgers' lineup has been quiet of late, scoring more than two runs in just two of their past six games but also going 2-2 in those games because of the LA pitching staff that has yielded only three runs in its last three games.

Kershaw hopes to extend that streak Tuesday.

Gwen Ricco took third and Maddy Ricco was 12th in the heptathlon at the USA Track and Field Junior National Championships earlier this month. Both sisters competed in the Greensboro, N.C. meet representing the Texas Express Track Club. The twin sisters begin their college careers as freshmen at Wake Forest University this fall and will compete in multiple events on the Demon Deacons' track and field team in the spring.

ScotSports.com published a feature story on the pair upon their signing with Wake Forest.

Gwen scored 4,290 points and had a high finish of second in the 200-meter dash. She also placed in the top-10 in the shot put (3rd), long jump (5th), 800 (7th) and 100 high hurdles (9th). Maddy was 12th with 3,900 points and took fifth in the 200, 800 and javelin, and also had top-10 finishes in the shot put (7th) and long jump (tied for 9th).

Alexandra Weber, better known in the Park Cities as Alex Weber and arguably the best female athlete to come out of HPHS this decade and beyond, has done it again.

Weber, a sophomore at Texas A&M, won the sprint race at last month's Capital of Texas Triathlon, a feat that qualifies her for the ITU Triathlon World Championships next month in Australia. Two weeks later, Weber again won the Danskin Triathlon in Austin ahead of nearly 2,000 women.

The back-to-back wins earned a mention in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd feature in its Aug. 10 edition. I'll steal a smidgeon of SI's thunder by saying at the Capital of Texas race, Weber placed ahead of 306 women and all but five of the 477 men in the race.

Weber was a state-champion swimmer at HPHS and also ran on the cross country and track and field teams. She first took up triathlon as a hobby in high school.

The World Championships are Sept. 9 on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Here are some links for Matthew Stafford fans to read what the Detroit papers are saying about him after two exhibition performances. As of Sunday, the starting QB for Detroit is still up in the air. 

Stafford struggles in first start - Detroit Free Press

Drew Sharp column - Detroit Free Press

Just missed the NFL Network's first replay of the Lions-Browns preseason game this morning. Good thing they're going to play it again. Mark the calendars or the TiVo for 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, when Matthew Stafford makes his first start for Detroit.

Hint - it's not a great outing for Stafford, who throws an interception on Detroit's own 9-yard line on his first pass attempt. But he's learning, and he's our local boy. So tune in. You probably already checked that Cleveland won, 27-10.

Detroit hosts Indianapolis at Noon Saturday, Aug. 29, in the next preseason game. NFL Network will carry that one live from Ford Field. No word yet on who will start.

Matthew Stafford had a rough game in Cleveland tonight. Here's the short version, which I will expand upon tomorrow:

Stafford started the game but threw an interception on his first pass attempt. He missed a wide-open receiver on what would have been a sure touchdown pass. He also fumbled a handoff. The No. 1 pick finished 5-of-13 passing for 34 yards playing on six series.

Meanwhile, Daunte Culpepper was 10-of-16 for 86 yards and was much steadier in the pocket according to published reports. Cleveland won, 27-10.

The lead to Ken Gurnick's story on MLB.com tells it all on Wednesday night's start for Clayton Kershaw:

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers' slide resumed Wednesday night, and not just because Clayton Kershaw couldn't get out of the fourth inning or Jonathan Broxton gave it up again in the ninth or the offense sputtered pretty much from start to finish.

Kershaw battled the flu on Tuesday, yet made the start on Wednesday in the middle of a depleted starting rotation for LA. St. Louis ran up his pitch count by fouling off dozens of pitches, and earned five walks. Two of the walks were to Albert Pujols, who reached base four times without putting a ball in play.

Kershaw still drew praise from another Hall of Fame manager despite another rough outing that left him without a win in his last six starts.

"This young man is as good as anybody and getting better and better," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa in the MLB.com story. "And we were just fouling them off. Nobody centered hardly anything against him. But when everybody fights, fights, fights, there are no easy at-bats for him. And sometimes you can get up there where it's dangerous to keep him in."

Kershaw left having thrown 97 pitches to get the 11 outs.

Clayton Kershaw returns to the mound at Dodger Stadium tonight at LA hosts the St. Louis Cardinals. The ex-HP pitcher is anxious to get his previous start behind him, one in which he gave up four earned runs in the second inning, the most he's given up in a game this year and one of his shortest outings of the season.

Kershaw is now 8-7 with a 2.91 ERA but was 5-1 with a 1.08 ERA in his previous 10 starts. The four runs he gave up to Arizona were the most he had given up since May 12. The Dodgers rookie had some success the last time he faced St. Louis, not giving up an earned run with seven strikeouts in an eight-inning start, his longest of the season.

I just watched the broadcast of the Detroit-Atlanta game. Stafford was greeted by a nice applause when he entered in the second quarter, but it sounded low because the stadium was only half full - maybe.

Stafford never saw the linebacker breaking on the ball on his interception. The announcers, who were doing the Atlanta broadcast, failed to mention Stafford came back from the interception by leading the Lions on an 80-yard touchdown drive.

The key play on that drive was Stafford's third-down scramble up the middle for a first down. It didn't appear to be a designed draw, but Stafford quickly bolted through the pocket for the five-yard gain. He got hammered by the off-side lineman a few yards past the line of scrimmage, but displayed a first-down signal on the ground while the 300-pound lineman rolled over him while getting up.

Stafford's TD pass came during the announcers' interview with the Falcons owner (it was the Atlanta broadcast the NFL Network showed). But it still drew some praise for its zip into the corner to Derrick Williams.

Detroit plays at Cleveland in another preseason game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.