Goal Line

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- It was the ultimate in cautious play-calling, the nadir of offensive strategy.Penn State had just covered 79 yards of prime Beaver Stadium real estate in nine plays and two pass interference penalties. Three straight runs by Mike Archie produced a first down inches from the goal line.A touchdown here would erase Michigan's 14-10 third-quarter lead and shift momentum to Penn State. The alternative, for the Nittany Lions, was utterly unthinkable.Yesterday, Penn State learned to live with the utterly unthinkable.

Weary of hearing about last season, the Maryland Terrapins managed to turn the page by winning their opening game against a potent Navy team that rushed for 412 yards but often literally dropped the ball when it mattered most. The Terrapins, who had lost their last seven games of 2009, hope their 17-14 victory over Navy in a rivalry game nicknamed the "Crab Bowl" will begin to justify the team's new marketing slogan. "I know the catchphrase -- 'Be There for the Comeback' -- and I think that's kind of how everybody feels," said punter Travis Baltz, who subbed for injured kicker Nick Ferrara and kicked the go-ahead, 24-yard field goal with 7:50 remaining.

What went right -- The Ravens' defense rose to the occasion. Safety Ed Reed made a nifty interception when Peyton Manning threw late down the middle of the field. The Ravens should have had a second interception on a Colts field-goal drive, but Ray Lewis tipped the Manning pass and it bounced off Chris McAlister's chest. What went wrong -- The Ravens' offense was unable to cash in after Jamal Lewis' two strong runs and a nicely thrown pass to Daniel Wilcox put them in scoring position.

Redshirt freshman running back D.J. Adams is being viewed by Maryland coaches as a goal-line back -- at least for now. As preseason camp opened Tuesday, Adams was third on the depth chart behind Da'Rel Scott, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2008 who ran track this spring, and Davin Meggett. Adams, 5 feet 10, 220 pounds, says being a goal-line specialist is fine with him -- anything that gets him onto the field after a season of watching and waiting. "It was different because I've never done that before, so it was a great learning experience," Adams said of redshirting last season.

The Number 777 -- Combined total yard age in Cardinals-49ers game The quote" [The hole] was so big, I could have took my daughter and my wife through there." Corey Dillon, Bengals running back, who stumbled over his blocker and was tackled inches from the goal line.

The North Carroll High gridiron Wednesday night showcased the sport that gave birth to American football.There, before some 250 chilled spectators, England's Royal Air Force Wildenrath Stags, currently touring the United States, tangled with the Westminster-based Mason-Dixon Rugby Club.The visitors won, 13-0.That might be expected. After all, thegame was invented in England, and those folks have played it a lot longer than we have.Stag team captain Chris Davis said rugby is aspopular in many parts of the United Kingdom as baseball is here, andyoungsters there start just as early.

It was nearly an hour after the game had ended, and Oakland Raiders quarterback Donald Hollas still hadn't seen the replay. And from his perspective he didn't have to, knowing exactly what happened on his second-quarter sneak, when -- with the ball extended -- he appeared to break the plane of the goal line on a second-down play from the 1-yard line."

COLLEGE PARK - Only two words were needed Wednesday to motivate Maryland's young offensive linemen as they lowered their shoulders and plowed into the red sled, pushing it near the end zone. "Goal line! Goal line! Goal line!" barked offensive line coach Tom Brattan. It's a line the Terrapins have struggled crossing in their two games, missing five touchdown opportunities in the red zone on nine chances. It also has been a focus at practice this week, as Maryland (1-1) prepares to host rival West Virginia (2-0)

River Hill's Matt Stara, who has a phenomenally long throw-in, twice stung Mount Hebron with it yesterday as the fourth-ranked Hawks defeated the No. 3 Vikings, 2-1, in Ellicott City. The Hawks (9-1, 7-1), who have won four Howard County titles and four state titles since the school opened in 1996, took a big step toward winning their fifth county title. They have two remaining league games, against Howard and Glenelg. Second-place Mount Hebron (10-1-1, 6-1-1) lost to River Hill for the sixth straight time.

With their season on the line -- the goal line to be exact -- the Ravens refused to budge. The defense delivered a vintage stand at M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens relied on a smothering performance to notch a desperately-needed first victory of the season, a 13-3 win over the New York Jets yesterday. There was no room to run for reigning NFL rushing champion Curtis Martin. There was no place to hide for first-time starting quarterback Brooks Bollinger. And there was no blinking by the Ravens' defense in the third quarter, when it was backed up against its end zone with the lead hanging in the balance.

J.R. Cipra broke a tie with a 40-yard field goal with 4:09 remaining and added one point by splitting the uprights on the ensuing kickoff and the Mariners used a last-minute goal-line stand to defeat the visiting Richmond Raiders, 49-45, and improve their American Indoor Football Association record to 4-0. Mariners defenders Adam Goloboski (Hereford) and Fearon Wright stopped a sneak by Robbie Jenkins with 54 seconds to go on fourth down and inches away from the end zone.

Last year against Southern Methodist, Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs ran for 224 yards - the 12th-highest total in program history - and scored four touchdowns to lead the Midshipmen to a 34-7 victory in a driving rainstorm. It was a breakout performance by a third-string quarterback who came into the game having taken a total of 19 snaps in his college career. What Dobbs remembers most about that day, however, is how he felt afterward. "I was as sore as I've ever been," he said. "I had 42 carries.

The noble, sportsmanlike statement to make was the one Ray Lewis made in the most somber post-game Ravens' locker room at M&T Bank Stadium this season. "That," he said, "didn't win or lose the game for us." Except "that" might have done exactly that. Deride the Ravens for allowing the Pittsburgh Steelers to march 92 yards in the final 3 1/2 minutes, with the season on the line, and the record home crowd and a supposedly impenetrable defense on their side. They sure deserve it. Ninety-one and 92 yards, however, are not the same thing.

Did the ball break the plane or not? The officiating crew ruled that it did, but many of the record 71,502 in attendance at M&T Bank Stadium and the millions who watched on television aren't so sure. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Ravens, 13-9, after a controversial 4-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver Santonio Holmes with 43 seconds left. The ball was originally ruled to be short of the goal line, but after reviewing the play, officials ruled that it crossed the plane of the end zone.

WASHINGTON - At a moment when he would otherwise be focused almost entirely on influencing the nation's decision about who succeeds him, President Bush is suddenly focused instead on doing the job himself. With his speech last night, he was sending two messages: One, to Congress and the nation, about the need to act with unprecedented alacrity on the economic bailout proposal drawn up in his name - though his hand has been barely seen in its development. And a second, to the same audience, that the coming election notwithstanding, the country has but one president at a time, and right now it is George W. Bush.

With No. 14 Perry Hall trailing No. 10 Hereford by three points with 11 seconds left, Gators quarterback Mike Lang had a decision to make. Lang rolled to his right and had to decide whether to throw or try to run it in. He chose to run, but was greeted by three Bulls defenders at the goal line, as visiting Hereford held on for a 28-25 victory. "This whole game it seemed like we were coming back from adversity," Hereford coach Steve Turnbaugh said. "[The defense] sucked it up and made the play when they had to make it."

St. Paul's Megan Del Monte had a pretty good idea what Archbishop Spalding's field hockey team would use for motivation in yesterday's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference game. "We beat them last year in the final," said Del Monte, of the A Conference championship game, "and we knew they were going to be out to get us." Del Monte and her No. 2 Gators teammates proved up to the challenge, using an early goal, superior stick skills and a little bit of luck to make sure the No. 10 Cavaliers did not get revenge.

Eddie Robinson, the record-setting football coach who turned Grambling State into a nationally recognized power, ushered 210 players into the NFL and largely realized his vision of transforming the Louisiana school into the Notre Dame of historically black colleges, has died at 88. Robinson died Tuesday night at Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, the university announced. The cause of death was not specified, but he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Starting in 1941 at age 22, Robinson coached at Grambling for 57 years and had a mark of 408-165-15 when he was forced to retire in 1997.