Aerie Report, December 5, 2009

I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM, ate breakfast, got geared up and headed out to the woods. It was dead calm at 6:45 AM as I went out and the temperature had dropped down to 28 degrees. The sky was overcast and snow flurries were promised for the afternoon.

I took my seat and waited. And waited. And waited. The temperatures fell through the morning but there would be no new venison falling to the turf.

At 11 AM--after seeing nothing but one other hunter crossing the top of my property--I headed back to the Aerie.

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Why return to the Aerie by noon? Two reasons really: Pitt vs Cincinnati and Rutgers vs West Virginia.

The first was a high scoring affair with Cincinnati eventually prevailing by virtue of a Pitt missed extra point 45-44. Not much defense there!

The second was a heart breaker if you're an RU fan. The Knights lost to WVU for the 15th consecutive year. The final was 24-21 and there was a lot of defense in this one. Each team had to punt nine times. RU returned one kickoff for a TD. WVU returned one of two interceptions for a TD. Neither team got more than 280 yards of offense. Noel Devine got 65 yards rushing for the Mountaineers--the same amount as the entire RU running squad. Tom Savage got sacked five times for minus 33 yards on the ground.

Both games were played on sloppy fields with rain, sleet and snow falling throughout.

West Virginia will be going to the Gator Bowl to be played on January 1st. Rutgers is also bowl-bound but we'll probably have to wait until Sunday night to find out where.

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Speaking of snow.... We got our third measurable amount of snow here at the Aerie. It started son after I got back to the house after my morning hunt. A fine, light snow fell all afternoon yielding one to two inches by dark. It looks like it's stopped now, but it continues from a short distance east of here to the eastern seaboard. All afternoon, the temperatures fell slowly so that it is now 25 degrees.

Some one pointed out on TV today, that Houston, TX had two inches of snow before Syracuse, NY. Then again, there are towns on the shores of Lake Erie that have had over a foot of lake effect snow. Go figure.