Dot the "I" In Idiotic

It was a busy weekend, sportswise, with the NFL opening weekend, MLB pennant races getting down to the last couple of weeks, and college football's second weekend. And with having lots of sports on TV comes lots of bad announcing on TV!

Take Ohio St. vs. Ohio U. on Saturday. Ohio State came from behind to win 26-14 in a game in which it was a 33 1/2 point favorite. ESPN sideline reporter Rob Simmelkjaer, when asked if Ohio State's lackluster performance against Ohio was a bad sign for the upcoming Ohio State/USC game next week:

"I don't want to take anything away from Ohio today, but Ohio State played down to the level of its competition. The Buckeyes were horrible today...again, I don't want to take anything away from Ohio, but Ohio State plays down to the level of its competition when it faces bad teams. Against a good team like USC next week, Ohio State always rises to the level of its competition, so I expect the Buckeyes will be ready." (emphasis mine)

You don't want to take anything away from Ohio, huh? Do you think that perhaps not giving them any credit for nearly beating a top 5 team takes anything away from their performance? Is it possible that Ohio had something to do with making it a close game?

Oh, and Ohio State always rises to the level of its competition, eh? Like this game? Or maybe this one?

Yeah, that seems about right.