Hurricane Irma Comes to Florida; Damage is Massive But Storm Lost Power on Final Approach; Sports: Ravens Humble Bengals; Orioles Fall 3 Back in Wild Card After Being Swept in Cleveland; Burnley Shuts Out Crystal Palace But Loses Keeper Heaton; Maryland Draws With Indiana; Football: Terps Rout Towson, 63-17

TOWSON, Maryland, Monday, September 11, 2017 - On this 16th Anniversary of one of the most fearsome days in the entire history of These United States, allow me to quickly report the events of recent days so that everyone will be on 'all fours' going forward.  

While Texas continues the awesome task of recovering from Hurricane Harvey, Florida now begins the 'digging out' phase of recovery from Hurricane Irma.  Irma struck the Florida Keys as it crossed over them, and then, after another brief spell over the ocean, struck again near Naples, Florida.  But in truth, the massive size of the Hurricane, coupled with the reality that Florida is nothing more than a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean north of the Equator, means that what really happened is that Hurricane Irma made a single massive hit on the entire state of Florida.  From the southern tip of the Florida Keys to Miami to Jacksonville, floods, destruction, untold power outages and other sequelae of the massive storm played out to bewildered witnesses hunkered down in public shelters and other places where residents sought respite from the storm.  There has been news of casualties, but the numbers have yet to be collected and processed.  There is massive damage to all kinds of transportation systems, including roads and highways, airports, railroad tracks and railroad stations, and, of course, marine traffic that travels over the high seas.  There is damage to the power grid that will necessitate repairs that are far more complicated than merely patching together some downed lines.  Industries - even those not actually flooded to the point of non-existence - will be out of commission for many days and even weeks as owners and employees seek ways to become viable after such a massive storm. 

But with all of that having been said, some witnesses, including on-site government officials, are admitting that the damage was not nearly as awful as was expected.  One reason for this is that Irma quickly lost much of its destructive power as it wandered over land.  By late last night the storm had been downgraded to a Category 2 Hurricane after spending much of its run up to the impact with the Florida Coast as a Category 5 storm. But before Irma could throw itself at the Florida mainland, it impacted the edge of Cuba, then the Florida Keys.  Both of these slide bys cost Irma power and destructiveness.  By this morning, word came that Irma wasn't even a hurricane anymore, but instead was now a Tropical Storm, lacking hurricane-force winds.

In Miami, Sarasota, Naples and other Florida cities, the massive clean up required to put this nightmare behind them is already underway.  One of the first tasks for rescue workers is canvassing flood-ravaged neighborhoods to make sure no one is trapped or otherwise unaccounted for.  It is this attempt to muster the citizens that will inform authorities how bad the storm was in terms of loss of human life.

Even Sunday night was full of discussions among local authorities about certain die-hard citizens who attempted to ride the storm out without evacuating.  Unofficial efforts to stay in touch with these certain citizens allowed locals to know in advance of official head counts who had survived and who had not.  These efforts at canvassing local residents also allows first responders to know where to go first as access to inundated areas is re-established.

Major resort destinations across Florida had announced last Friday that they would be closed through today.  Places like Disneyworld and Universal Studios have already made it known that they intend to re-open tomorrow around 9 am.

SPORTS: Ravens Humiliate Bengals, 20-0; Orioles Swept in Cleveland; Maryland and Indiana Play to Scoreless Draw While Burnley Defeats Crystal Palace, 1-0, On Second Goal From Chris Wood In As Many Matches; Terps Crush Towson, 63-14
Joe Flacco threw 48-yards to newcomer Jeremy Macklin, and Terrence West scored on a three-yard plunge, and Baltimore's swarming and determined defense intercepted Andy Dalton four times, and also recovered a Dalton fumble, as the Ravens Shut Out the hapless Bengals in Cincinnati, 20-0.

The Ravens prevailed despite losing starting running back Danny Woodhead on their first scoring drive, and starting linebacker Zadarius Smith later in the first half.  Justin Tucker kicked two field goals and two conversion scores, and West and Buck Allen combined for 151 rushing yards for the Ravens, who dominated the home standing Bengals for the full 60 minutes,  Flacco, who missed the entire preseason with an injured back, threw only 12 passes, but completed 9 as the Ravens raced to a 17-0 halftime lead.  After Flacco hit Macklin to put the Ravens ahead, 10-0, Ladarius Webb intercepted a deflected Dalton pass and returned it to the Bengal 3 yard line, setting up West's TD run.  The Ravens scored both of their touchdowns in a crucial 24 second span.

But the story of the game was the smothering Raven defense.  Dalton was intercepted four times, and his fumble deep in Ravens territory eliminated a golden opportunity for the Bengals to get back in the game.  On that play, Terrell Suggs, who had two sacks and a number of pass deflections and other fine plays, swatted Dalton's arm as the Bengal QB tried to throw a pass.  The ball squirted free and was recovered by the Ravens' Defensive Lineman, Michael Pierce. 

Besides the five turnovers the Ravens caused, they limited the Bengal running game to less than 100 yards.  No Bengal runner gained more than 40 yards for the game.

After the Ravens recovered the Dalton fumble early in the third quarter, they went on a long sustained march down the field that took nearly ten minutes off the clock.  The drive culminated in Tucker's second field goal of the game, a score that put Baltimore ahead by the game's final score, 20-0.  

Baseball: Cleveland Completes Three Game Sweep of Orioles, Winning its 18th Straight Game in the Process; Orioles 3 back in race for final Wild Card Playoff Berth
Trevor Bauer scattered six hits over 6 and one-third innings to improve his record to 16-8, and the Indians used back-to-back home runs by Roberto Perez and Francisco Lindor to edge the Orioles, 3-2, winning their 18th straight game in the process.  

After falling behind, 1-0, the Orioles struck for a run in the 6th inning to tie the Indians, 1-1.  Manny Machado doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Jonathon Schoop's single.  The Indians put their two home runs on the board in the bottom of the inning.  Chris Davis hit a home run for Baltimore in the seventh to end the scoring. 

Now three games behind Minnesota in the race for the last wild card berth, the Orioles begin a 3 game set in Toronto tonight.  The three game sweep the Indians put on the Orioles over this past weekend allowed several teams to squeeze past them in the standings.  Now, in addition to the Twins, there are three other teams the Orioles will need to pass to get into the MLB playoffs.  The Angels trail the Twins by one game, and Kansas City and Texas trail Minnesota by two and one-half games.  The Orioles are 71-72 with 19 games left to play.

They must begin a run to the playoffs immediately if the season is to end in or after the playoffs.

Soccer: Burnley makes early score by Chris Wood stand up in 1-0 win over Crystal Palace
The record-setting investment in Chris Wood has paid off for the second straight match for Burnley.  The New Zealander scored in the third minute at Turf Moor, and the Claret defense took over from there, holding off snake-bit Crystal Palace, 1-0.

Burnley improved to 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat, while Crystal Palace fell to 0 wins, 0 draws and 4 defeats.  Burnley now stands 7th on the Premier Table, tied with five other teams with 7 points apiece.  

But the win may be extremely costly for the Claret.  Their Team England Keeper, Tom Heaton, fell awkwardly on his shoulder in the 36th minute, an injury preliminarily diagnosed as a dislocation.  The BBC says Heaton could be out for "months."  Nick Pope took over for Heaton and kept Palace off the board for the remainder.  Palace has failed to score this season.. Pope will be backed up by Burnley's third keeper, Adam Legzdins.  Actually, it is a bit unusual for a team to have such an experienced keeper on their roster as a third reserve.  Legzdins is 31 years old and has made countless appearances over the years for Burnley rivals like Derby County, Leyton Orient, Birmingham City and Halifax Town. This is his first season under contract to the Claret. 

No. 3 Maryland and No. 4 Indiana battle to scoreless draw in College Park
In a tense struggle in front of nearly 7,000 in College Park, it was Maryland's Keeper, Dayne St. Clair, who came up huge in overtime to preserve the draw and earn the Terrapins a critical point in their first Big Ten Conference Match of the 2017 season.  

Indiana took two shots in the first overtime that looked for all the world like certain scores.  Each time, St. Clair dove head long to block the shots.  One of those shots was deflected just before it got to the goal, and St. Clair still stopped it.  Even though both saves resulted in corner kicks for Indiana, his Maryland mates came back to congratulate him before play resumed.

St. Clair also made two spectacular saves during regulation time.  Maryland had several good shots, but none ended up being on goal.

The Terps return to the pitch tomorrow against Rutgers in a match to be televised nationwide on BTN.  Maryland will be under great pressure to win and garner three points, otherwise an opportunity to gain six home points in four days will have been squandered.

NCAA Football: Maryland improves to 2-0 with 63-17 drubbing of Towson
Freshman Kasim Hill, making his first college start, completed 13 of 16 passes for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Maryland to a 63-17 drubbing of Towson.  Maryland, which upset then No. 23 Texas in Austin last week, improved to 2-0.  Towson fell to 1-1.

Hill stepped in last week when Maryland starter Tyrrell Pigrome torn his ACL.  Pigrome has been declared out for the season.  Hill ran for one touchdown against Texas and set up that score with a crucial 40-yard completion on third down.  That TD busted a budding Texas comeback in Maryland's 51-41 win.  The Terps have now scored 114 points in two games.

The Terps host Central Florida next week in College Park, before going to Minnesota the following week to open their Big Ten Season.