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You can’t start the season much better than the Boilermakers have, taking down their first two opponents a combined 110-7.

Kyle Orton threw for a career-high five touchdowns and ran for another to lead No. 25 Purdue to a 59-7 win over Ball State today.

Orton completed his first 15 passes and threw for 329 yards in just over two quarters of work for Purdue (2-0), which posted its second straight dominating performance to open the season.

Taylor Stubblefield had five catches for 88 yards and three touchdowns for the Boilermakers, who routed Syracuse 51-0 last week.

This one was equally one-sided. The Boilermakers scored touchdowns on six of their seven possessions in the first half, kicking a field goal on the other, to take a 45-0 lead at the break.

The Boilers get next week off before beginning the Big 10 season against Illinois, who are 1-1 after losing today to UCLA.

Hunter at Daily Kos has done a brilliant debunking of the so-called “forged” documents obtained by CBS News for their story on Bush’s National Guard Service. The coverage of this has been absolutely pitiful by some in the media. Leaping to their own conclusions, which cannot be proven. Now, the expert who was cited by everyone on the conspiracy side of this issue has retracted his earlier analysis.

to sum up, the original document expert the “forgery” brigades were quoting checked the document typeface with Interpol, and now believes that these documents were consistent with an IBM Selectric Composer; that the Air Force had indeed purchased such devices as early as 1969; and that typeheads were indeed available with the ‘th’ keys in question. (I will further point out that it appears any IBM typeface available for the Selectric was also available for the Executive, but that is a likely irrelevant detail.)

This is as close as we’re going to get to a final say on this story, not that the average citizen will pay attention to the real facts and not the media hype.

I have to agree with this piece in this morning’s Indianapolis Star. What the Colts displayed on Thursday night was not Dungyball, in fact it was the exact antithesis of how Coach Dungy wants the game played,

Not littering the field with turnovers, especially in the red zone.

Not allowing a 12-yard sack on third down with less than a minute to play, turning a potential game-tying 36-yard field goal into a 48-yarder.

Not wasting a robust ground game.

Not suffering one defensive breakdown after another.

Not allowing a drive to a field goal just before halftime in what wound up being a three-point game.

Not squandering the opportunity to ruin defending Super Bowl champion New England’s rousing send-off into the 2004 season Thursday night at Gillette Stadium by taking inefficiency to the extreme in a 27-24 loss to the Patriots.

On Friday, Dungy praised the Colts for their energy and effort.

It was wasted, though, by “non-production,” he quickly added. “It was one of those nights where we self-destructed.”

Yes, yes, yes. Now, let’s see if we can keep it from happening again against the Titans next Sunday.

**Crossposted at Sportsblog

Former Governor Don Siegelman got some key decisions in his favor yesterday in federal court

A federal judge on Friday threw out a key charge against former Gov. Don Siegelman and two others, cited prosecutors for contempt and agreed with defense lawyers that the criminal cases should be tried separately.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge U.W. Clemon dismissed a federal theft charge accusing Siegelman, former aide Paul Hamrick and Tuscaloosa Dr. Phillip Bobo of diverting $550,000 of state education money to a bid-rigging scheme. Siegelman and Hamrick still face conspiracy and fraud charges, while Bobo faces those counts and other charges of perjury and witness tampering relating to the Medicaid contract case.

This has not shaken the zeal of the prosecutors, but there is no doubt that these decisions are a big win for Siegelman’s team.