USA vs Belgium Live Stream Free, Start Time: Watch World Cup 2014 Last 16 Soccer Online (ESPN TV Schedule)

USA vs Belgium takes place on Tuesday as Jurgen Klinsmann's men look to cause a huge upset and progress to the World Cup 2014 quarter-finals. This Last 16 tie will be a fiercely contested affair, and although Belgium will be favorites to win this one, the United States have done fantastically well to progress from the so-called "Group of Death" and they will not be overwhelmed by the task at hand. The game will start at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ESPN network, or online through free live stream (details below).

(PHOTO: REUTERS / TORU HANAI)

Clint Dempsey of the U.S. celebrates after scoring their first goal during their 2014 World Cup Group G soccer match against Ghana at the Dunas arena in Natal June 16, 2014.

In team news, the United States will have Jozy Altidore back after two matches out with a hamstring injury. However, manager Jurgen Klinsmann may opt for an unchanged side.

Belgium meanwhile have a number of defensive injuries, with Vincent Kompany and Thomas Vermaelen both doubtful for today's big game. Laurent Ciman and Anthony Vanden Borre have both also been ruled out of the Last 16 tie, where as midfielder Steven Defour is suspended for today's game having been sent off against South Korea in Belgium's final group game.

The United States will be looking to win today to reach the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 2002. Belgium though will be looking to make the last 8 for the first time since way back in 1986.

(PHOTO: REUTERS/SERGIO PEREZ)

Belgium's national team head coach Marc Wilmots (R) watches his players during a training session at Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte June 16, 2014.

Belgium have been hotly tipped as the dark horses of this year's World Cup. Although they are not being touted among the favorites for the title, they have a host of talent and top players in their squad, and on their day they would be a test for any team in the competition.

But despite being favorites for today's game, Belgium head coach Marc Wilmots understands that the United States will be difficult to defeat, and he says that his team are ready for war.

He has said ahead of the game, "Physically they are very strong, we are preparing for a war."

He has spoken of the need for his team to raise their game even more: "I am convinced that our level is going to be better. We are fresh and now we have reached the second round, we can play freely."

Meanwhile, USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann has said ahead of the game, "We have enough confidence now going into this game - a very special one, a knockout game. We have absolutely no fear at all. We feel like we are in a position now to challenge. We believe we have built a foundation in our team that we are able to beat them."

The United States' success so far has not gone unnoticed back home, and millions have been tuning in to watch their team navigate their way through the Group of Death – a group that included Germany, Portugal, as well as the USA's bogey team Ghana.

USA's Clint Dempsey has scored four goals in his nine World Cup appearances, and he needs just one more to equal Landon Donovan as the USA's all-time World Cup top scorer with five goals. USA fans will be hoping he can achieve that today, and if possible even surpass Donovan's total.

The USA against Belgium will kick off at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ESPN network. The game can also be watched online through free live stream by clicking here.

Severe Weather Hits Chicago Area

CHICAGO (CBS) – A line of severe thunderstorms hit the Chicago area Monday, causing power outages, flight cancellations and delays and other problems. By late Monday, a second wave of storms was expected.

A tornado warning was issued for Southwest Cook County and Northwest Will County late Monday.

The storm systems that came in from the west around 5 p.m. brought high winds, rain and lightning. At one point, a ground stop was issued for planes arriving at O’Hare Airport, where hundreds of flights were canceled. Both O’Hare and Midway experienced delays of up to two hours.

The White Sox-Angels game was washed out at U.S. Cellular Field (a doubleheader was scheduled for Tuesday with the Los Angeles Angels), and 23,000 customers of ComEd were without power across the Chicago region. Flooding was a concern for some areas.

West suburban Aurora clocked winds of 61 mph – tropical storm force – said CBS 2 Meteorologist Steve Baskerville, who predicted a second wave of storms to sweep through the area late Monday.

On the positive side, the storms were expected to cool off the hot and muggy conditions the Chicago area has seen the past few days, with temperatures dropping to the low 70s overnight.

After Tuesday, the high temperature might not get above 80 degrees the rest of the week, with a high of only about 73 on Tuesday, and lows in the low 60s or upper 50s each night this week.

Robert Downey Jr.'s son Indio arrested on drug charges

.-- Robert Downey Jr.'s son Indio is in trouble with the law.Indio Falconer Downey, 20, was arrested Sunday on drug possession charges. He's since been released on bail."Indio Downey was a passenger in a vehicle stopped around 2 p.m. Sunday," according to West Hollywood Sheriff's Station Sgt. Dave Valentine. "Downey was found to be in possession of what officers believed to be cocaine as well as a smoking pipe. Downey was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and posted bail around 9 p.m. that same evening."

Robert Downey Jr.'s representative released a statement saying that

Downey was "grateful to the Sheriff's department for their intervention."

"Unfortunately there's a genetic component to addiction and Indio has likely inherited it," the rep said.

"Also, there is a lot of family support and understanding, and we're all determined to rally behind him and help him become the man he's capable of being. We're grateful to the Sheriff's department for their intervention, and believe Indio can be another recovery success story instead of a cautionary tale."

The elder Downey had several well-publicized issues with drug addiction in the 1990s. He went through treatment a number of times, including a year in the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, before finally getting clean in 2001.

Indio Downey is the son of Downey and his first wife, Deborah Falconer. Downey and Falconer divorced in 2004 after almost 12 years of marriage.

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Under The Dome Has A Villain Problem

Stephen King's mammoth 2009 novel Under the Dome features two killer antagonists. One is, well, the dome itself; the other is "Big Jim" Rennie, a bully of a local politician who seizes the dome's sudden appearance as a chance to affirm his fiefdom. Too bad only the inanimate bad guy made the transition to the small screen.

Season two of CBS' prime-time Under the Dome adaptation kicks off tonight. It's a killer premise: A giant dome magically drops from the sky, covering the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine; cut off from society, possibly for good, the predictable anarchic wackiness ensues. (Not as wacky as The Simpsons Movie, but wacky enough.) On the page, this is propulsive, pulpy stuff. On TV, it's an immensely silly mess.

Verily, season one was rife with problems. The townspeople's collective intelligence makes the wayward roving humans that populate The Walking Dead seem like a backwoods Mensa gathering—they go long stretches seeming to have forgotten the GIANT DOME that has trapped them in town. One whole episode out of 13 centered on a secret fight club/rave venue in an abandoned cement factory, a puzzling creation absent from the book and quickly bounced from the show. Sheesh, isn't the GIANT DOME enough of an issue?

I'd accuse the writers of spinning their wheels, were it not clear that the wheels fell off long ago. Still, nothing galls me like the treatment of the show's human villain, Big Jim. In King's hands, he's is a detestable force from the start. You plow through 1,000-odd pages (yes, the book is mammoth even by King's standards) as much to see him get his comeuppance as to finally figure out what the heck is up with the dome. He's selfish and manipulative, a parochial political nightmare. There is no gray to be found.

Turn on the TV, though, and, well, "soft" isn't quite the right word. Big Jim is still the villain—he lies, not to mention kills—but the show takes odd sidelines to round off his edges, at times showing him to be a mournful husband, caring father, and even worthy town leader. To be fair, it also shows him to be the exact opposite of all those things, but that inconsistent characterization plagues the entire show, not just its antagonist: The show's nominal hero, Dale "Barbie" Barbara (ugh, those names) gets an unnecessarily darker backstory for balance. King's novel is great entertainment without aspiring to be one of our Great Books; I don't think the television version aspires for greatness, either, but if the goal is some ridiculous fun, why even try to muddy the characters' waters?

As such, Under the Dome's first season played out as a half-assed Big Jim origin story—a long, ridiculous, and unnecessary origin story—for a character ready-made for evil scheming. Was this a flubbed attempt at pandering to our insatiable thirst for "Difficult Men" TV, where good guys and bad guys alike are slathered in shades of grey? Was the softening of Big Jim part of the plan all along, or was it the byproduct of casting the great Dean Norris, then just wrapping things up over at Breaking Bad? True, in that case, he took the one-note meathead caricature of Hank Schrader and morphed him over five seasons into one of the show's only good and likable characters. But there's a difference between turning a flat character into a round one and turning an unabashed bad guy into a gradual, somewhat ambiguous one. Sometimes it's okay for bad to just be bad.

This is not to say that the source material here should be held sacred—Under the Domespecifically or books in general. (Uncle Stevie himself has already suggested that the novel's disappointing ending won't be regurgitated here, and I'm all for it.) But too much of the book's pulpy, trashy fun is being ruined by all these muddled motivations. Still, we press on: As season one wrapped, Big Jim is running the town, and Barbie is in a noose set for a public execution, with Big Jim playing the hangman. Suddenly, the pink stars appear (I don't have time to explain, and it probably won't make any sense), and the dome flashes to bright white—another creation for the show, but at least one that works onscreen. Will it be a distraction that leads to Barbie's escape? Will it trigger a short-lived epiphany for an evil-at-the-moment Big Jim? Will it lead to some other unforeseeable whackadoo happening? If there's one thing going for this show, it's that even as a book-reader, I don't have the slightest clue, but on the flip side, I don't think the show's creators do, either.

Violent storms, possible derecho could strike Chicago region this evening

UPDATE, 4:45 p.m. ET (3:45 p.m. CT): The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has issued a “Particularly Dangerous Situation Severe Thunderstorm Watch” for southeast Wisconsin, northeast Illinois, northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan until 9 p.m. central. This includes Chicago and Milwaukee.

Widespread damaging winds to 80 mph, large hail, and one or two tornadoes are possible in this area. SPC says the thunderstorm system is producing a derecho in eastern Iowa which is expected to sweep through this region around between roughly 6 and 9 p.m. central. Significant numbers of downed trees and power outages are likely to occur.

Area under particularly dangerous situation watch outlined in blue. Radar view shown captured at 3:35 p.m. CT

Original, post from 3:10 p.m. ET (2:10 p.m. CT): A complex of thunderstorms erupting over Iowa this afternoon may consolidate into a powerful squall line or derecho that rips through the Upper Midwest this evening.

Storm over Iowa as of 1:45 p.m. ET (NASA)

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) forecasts has highlighted a broad region as having a 45 percent chance of experiencing destructive winds (within 25 miles of any point) over 70 mph. Des Moines, Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago all lie within this zone of elevated risk, which affects almost 19 million people.

Risk of damaging winds. Hatched area indicates elevated likelihood of destructive winds over 70 mph. (NWS SPC)

“Numerous severe thunderstorms capable of large hail, tornadoes and swaths of damaging wind are expected today into tonight over much of the Corn Belt and Midwest,” SPC says.

GM recalls 7.6M more cars as costs balloon

General Motors recalled another 6.8 million vehicles on June 30 in the U.S. for ignition switch flaws. How GM's number compares with all recalls for U.S. vehicles in past decades:
General Motors announced six new safety recalls Monday — including its single largest this year — involving a total of about 7.55 million vehicles in the U.S.

The company also announced that it would increase its second-quarter charges to pay for recalls to $1.2 billion, up from the previous announced $700 million.

With the latest recalls, GM now has called back 25.68 million vehicles in the U.S. this year for safety-related repairs — a record for GM and, equal to more than two years of the company's total output. It's also close to the annual average total recalls for all automakers in recent years — though well of the industry's one-year recall record of 58.43 million vehicles in 1999.

The cavalcade has come as GM set about cleaning house on pending safety issue after the recalls for a deadly switch defect in February and March. GM is under a federal regulatory microscope because of those recalls, which are linked to 13 deaths.

"They are expanding (the recalls) now that there is more scrutiny" from safety authorities and Congress, says Sean Kane of Safety Research & Strategies. "Even after the recall barrage, however, there are many, many GM vehicles made over the years that have somehow dodged all the recalls.

Most of the vehicles in the latest announcement, more than 6.8 million in the U.S., are covered by a single new recall that extends the small-car ignition switch issue — "unintended ignition key rotation" that can shut off the engine while underway — to more midsize and full-size GM cars.

GM spokesman Alan Adler says although the latest recall's ignition switches met GM's specifications, there are fears that if they are bumped or jarred, they can pop into "accessory," disabling the car's airbags.

The company says it has identified seven crashes involving eight injuries and three fatalities that could be tied to the latest ignition-switch recall, although it adds there is "no conclusive evidence" of a link.

In the small cars, GM has been replacing ignition switches. In the latest batch, the fix will likely be a replacement key with a hole rather than a slot. Adler says owners of the vehicles are urged to drive only with a single key and nothing attached until they get the fix.

Models included in Monday's switch recall include the 1997 to 2005 Chevrolet Malibu, 1998 to 2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue, 1999 to 2004 Oldsmobile Alero; 1999 to 2005 Pontiac Grand Am; 2000 to 2005 Pontiac Grand Am; 2000 to 2005 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo and 2004 to 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix. A separate U.S. recall covers 554,328 vehicles: the 2003 to 2014 Cadillac CTS and 2004 to 2006 Cadillac SRX.

Trading in GM stock was halted at 2:30 p.m. ET and resumed by 3 p.m., once the GM recall news and new charges were announced. The stock closed at $36.30, down 32 cents, or 0.87%, on the day.

Also on Monday, details of a compensation fund for victims of the small-car switch recalls were disclosed by fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg. He said GM has agreed to pay, without individual case or total fund limit, anyone Feinberg believes is entitled to compensation for death or injury. Feinberg noted that claims can be filed not only by people riding in any seat in the GM cars with the bad switches, but by pedestrians and people in other cars involved in wrecks with those GM cars.

Besides switch-related recalls, GM also announced recalls of:

181,984 SUVs to fix a glitch that could lead to electrical shorts in driver's doors that could disable power door locks and window switches. Included are 2005 to 2007 Buick Rainier, Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Isuzu Ascender, Saab 9-7x, 2006 Chevrolet TrailBlazer EXT and GMC Envoy XL.
9,271 heavy-duty pickup trucks to fix a fuse issue that could lead to electrical overload, and possible fires. Being recalled is the 2007 to 2011 Chevrolet Silverado HD, GMC Sierra HD when equipped with an auxiliary battery.
2,990 smaller vehicles for insulation on engine blocks that can be damaged in cold weather. Included are the 2011 to 2014 Chevrolet Cruze, 2012 to 2014 Chevrolet Sonic, 2013 to 2014 Chevrolet Trax, Buick Encore and Verano.

106 cars for a joint fastener that may not have been tightened properly. Included are 2014 Chevrolet Camaro and Impala, Buick Regal and Cadillac XTS.

Robin Thicke Debuts Emotional Ballad ‘Forever Love’ At The BET Awards

At the 2014 BET Awards, Robin Thicke performed an emotional ballad — ‘Forever Love’ — in an attempt to, you guessed it, win back estranged wife Paula Patton.

Robin Thicke, 37, debuted “Forever Love” off of his upcoming album Paula to the crowd at the BET Awards on June 29, and it was pretty emotional. As you might have guessed, Robin sang the song in tribute to his estranged wife, Paula Patton.

Robin Thicke’s BET Awards Performance: Debuts ‘Forever Love’

“Good evening, my name is Robin Thicke,” Robin told the crowd. “I’d like to dedicate this song to my wife, and say, ‘I miss you, and I’m sorry.’ This is called ‘Forever Love.’”

“Forever Love” is a soft, emotional piano ballad, which had Robin up on that Nokia Theater stage solo, with a little manufactured smoke wafting around him for dramatic effect. It’s difficult to feel bad for the guy at this point, as he’s not really given Paula a chance to consider his various proposals; he’s made his position pretty clear and he just needs to chiiill.

Miley Cyrus Causes Robin Thicke & Paula Patton Split

Robin Thicke and wife Paula Patton have split after 22 years together and 9 years of marriage. Starring Katrina Mitzeliotis

“I know that you and I have tried so very hard to find a different result,” he sings, and, “Any time you need a friend, baby, I will be the one that you want,” which seems doubtful.

Cris Cab 'Liar Liar' Live Acoustic Performance

Cris Cab, Pharrell Williams protégé, performs his hit 'Liar Liar' live acoustic in our Times Square studio and talks wanting a date with...

“If you ever doubt it now, baby, I will be there picking you up. You can lean on me any time, baby, for anything you want and need. Yeah, see, I don’t need any reason, memory, or a season. Every day I will believe that you and I are meant to be,” he sings. “You’re my forever love.”

At the end of the performance, an old picture of Robin and Paula flashed on the big screen behind Robin and his piano, with “PAULA” written in huge letters above. Yikes.

Host Chris Rock summed it up best, following Robin’s performance: “He’s singing like she don’t know him. I miss the other song, ["Blurred Lines"], the one that sounded like Marvin Gaye.” Bless.

Robin Thicke Needs To Chill Out On The Public Declarations; Paula Patton Is Not Into It

Robin and Paula split in Feb. 2014 after 9 years of marriage, and a 22-year relationship. While their mutual statement claimed that their split was mutual, Robin was not shy in telling the world not long after that it certainly wasn’t — that he wanted her back.

Ever since their separation, Paula has been seemingly unmoved by his various public declarations, and many have criticized Robin for placing undue pressure on his estranged wife. After all, it seems like Robin ignores “Blurred Lines” as well as clear, solid ones. Furthermore, it’s getting a little creepy – in his video for “Get Her Back,” he can be seen bleeding and crying as a Paula lookalike strokes and caresses him.

No pressure, Paula! Robin seems pretty keen to give you all the space you need to decide. Or, rather, he seems like he really respects the decision you’ve already made.

Robin Thicke ignites discussion with ‘Paula,’ but these songs aren’t worth talking about

Robin Thicke performs at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest 2013 at Merriweather Post Pavilion. (Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post)

There’s at least one Remy Martin delivery truck that rolls through the streets of the District displaying Robin Thicke’s handsome face, blown up 15 times larger than real life, a static photograph that winks. On the side of the truck is the cognac company’s slogan: “Things are getting interesting.”

That’s true. Things are constantly getting interesting for Thicke, but never for his music, which is both incredibly dull and incredibly popular. The disparity might make him the leading hack of his generation, but if he stays on course, Thicke won’t be remembered for his songs. He’ll be remembered for all of those interesting things.

Such as: the hard-to-explain popularity of his just-okay mega-hit “Blurred Lines.” Such as: the controversy over whether the lyrics to “Blurred Lines” were about non-consensual sex. Such as: that time Miley Cyrus danced a little too close to Thicke’s pants on MTV. Such as: a snapshot that surfacedof Thicke grabbing a body part that did not belong to Paula Patton, his wife of nine years. Such as: the couple’s galactically publicized separation this year. Such as: Thicke’s attempt to win her back by naming his new album “Paula.”

So here comes the grown-up Lloyd Dobler in his rumpled Rat Pack tux, not crawling so much as sauntering. (Things are getting interesting.) As far as mea culpas go, this one is inexplicably smug, bawdy and incoherent — as if Thicke figured out how to transpose an Anthony Weiner selfie into R&B.

The latent desire for self-
humiliation lurks in the heart of every performer, but the 37-year-old Thicke is taking it into new terrain. And whether he’s doing it out of complete obliviousness or pure opportunism, he’s also humiliating Patton. That’s just one of the reasons that the singer’s critics took to their laptops when the track list to “Paula” was announced, asserting that songs titled “Lock the Door” and “Still Madly Crazy” were romanticizing stalking.

Few had heard the album, but that didn’t slow the conversation. In the
social-media age, pop culture has become a safe place to talk about the most difficult subjects. We might flinch at reading about rape on our college campuses or in our military, but we’re eager to talk about it through the lens of “Game of Thrones” or a Lady Gaga video.

In pop music, those tough discussions seem to take place more frequently around race — such as when country alpha-male Brad Paisley pens a song called “Accidental Racist,” or when rapper Kanye West puts a Confederate flag on a T-shirt, or when pop singer Lily Allen makes a feminist music video that viewers deem racist. The messages sent out can end up mutating into very different conversations.

Artists are struggling to catch up to this reality, often flustered by their inability to control the debate while frequently failing to grasp the tremendous impact their work has on shaping our collective cultural life. When the entertainment industry douses the world with your art, it’s the world that gets to sort out what your art means.

Thicke’s new album seems to have been made with only a half awareness of this. It asks to be taken seriously, but exclusively as a plea to “get her back,” as Thicke croons on the album’s tepid first single. And while his lyrics feel as lazy and careless as ever, Thicke is also shrewd enough to defuse his most provocative lines with silliness.

“Lock the Door” is the biggest
eyebrow-raiser, a gospel-ish tune about being locked out of the house in which Thicke eventually pleads, “At least open the doggie door, throw a friend a juicy bone!” On the minimal funk of “Black Tar Cloud,” he blames himself for his broken home with quirky metaphors: “I was licking your wounds/I thought we were straight/I thought everyone was gonna eat the chips/Turns out I’m the only one who double dipped.”

But there’s little humor to be found in the piano-driven blues of “Love Can Grow Back,” which opens with a skeevy line — “You’re way too young to dance like that in front of a man like me” — then devolves into come-ons that feel baffling and gross.

Just plain baffling is the peppy bravado of “Time of Your Life,” “Tippy Toes” and “Living in New York City,” three ditties that may or may not be catering to the “Jersey Boys” demographic.

Throughout, Thicke fails to sell whatever it is he’s trying to sell. And because this album’s production is so tame and thin, he often sounds like a man finessing his Marvin Gaye impression while the Weather Channel drones in the next room.

And while the guy obviously knows how to push buttons, it seems that because of the mediocrity of his music, Thicke will eventually escape the controversies that have followed him. He’s inviting us to gawk at a spectacular celebrity split, but he doesn’t have a “Blurred Lines 2” in his back pocket.

If he isn’t on the radio, he isn’t in the discussion. That’s when things finally stop getting interesting.

Robin Thicke to Paula Patton at the 2014 BET Awards: "I Miss You and I'm Sorry"

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Interscope

Robin Thicke is taking his lovesickness to the stage yet again!

The crooner performed a ballad off of his latest album dubbed Paula—which, of course, is dedicated to his estranged wife Paula Patton.

Shortly before taking the mic, Thicke told the crowd, "I'd like to dedicate this to my wife. I miss you and I'm sorry."

But this isn't exactly the first time we've seen him get emotional about his personal life onstage.

In fact, he first debuted the single "Get Her Back" at the Billboard Music Awards in May. And if that wasn't enough, he's also publicly pleaded with the actress to take him back and has dedicated various love songs to her in concert during his spring tour.

VIDEO: How Robin Thicke tried to save his marriage to Paula Patton

Paula features 14 songs all written and produced by the "Blurred Lines" singer and is scheduled for a July 1 release date.

The album opens up with "You're My Fantasy" and features a few soon-to-be-hits like "Love Can Grow Back" and "Too Little Too Late."

And yes, those are the actual names of the songs.

It's been several months since the couple announced that they were separating after nine years of marriage.

At the time, the two released the following statement: "We will always love each other and be best friends; however, we have mutually decided to separate."

Former Auburn tight end Phil Lutzenkirchen killed in wreck near LaGrange, Georgia

AUBURN, Ala. — Toomer’s Corner has always been a gathering place for Auburn fans to celebrate the successes of the Tigers’ athletic program. Sunday, it was a place to celebrate the life of Philip Lutzenkirchen.

A former tight end for the Tigers and one of the most popular Auburn players in recent history, Lutzenkirchen died in a one-vehicle wreck early Sunday morning outside of LaGrange, Ga.

He was 23.

Gene Chizik’s time as Auburn’s coach from 2009-12 coincided with Lutzenkirchen’s four years on the Plains. Chizik called Lutzenkirchen the type of person “every parent aspires their son to be.”

"He was compassionate, determined, honorable and full of love, integrity and respect. In 27 years of coaching, I have come across what I would consider to be a few ‘rare’ young men. Phillip was certainly one of those ‘rare’ ones," Chizik said in a statement. "He truly, lived his life for other people and always found time to give to others. His family values taught him to be a great friend and teammate of everyone he came in contact with. My deepest sympathy is extended to his parents Mike and Mary, his sisters, and all of his extended family. We should all begin by honoring his life because he lived a life worthy of that. In his 23 short years, he has certainly left an impactful legacy to everyone he touched. I will miss him deeply."

Lutzenkirchen’s fatal accident occurred in Troup County, just southeast of LaGrange, at approximately 3:06 a.m. Sunday, according to Master Trooper B.N. Talley of the Georgia State Patrol, who responded to the scene.

“It happened at the intersection of Upper Big Springs Road and Lower Big Springs Road,” Talley said. “The vehicle was a 2006 Chevy Tahoe and the driver missed a stop sign at the intersection of those two roads, which is more or less a ‘T-intersection.’ They traveled through the intersection off into a churchyard. They were out of control for about 450 feet.”

At that point, Talley said, the vehicle overturned, flipping several times and ejecting three of the four passengers.

“Philip was one of them,” Talley said,” and he was killed at the scene.”

The driver of the vehicle, Joseph Davis, was also killed. According to the official police report, blood was drawn from Davis “to determine if alcohol impairment was a contributing factor” in the accident.

Lutzenkirchen, who was seated behind Davis, was not wearing his seat belt. Talley said they “are still looking into” how fast the vehicle was traveling when it ran through the stop sign.

The other person killed in the wreck was Davis, 22, who went by his middle name, “Ian.” Davis, a catcher, tried out for the Georgia baseball team last fall during open tryouts. He did not make the team, however, getting cut when the Bulldogs had to set their final roster at the end of fall practice.

Nonetheless, his loss was felt by Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin.

"Heartbroken to hear that Ian Davis has passed away. Just a great kid that had so much ahead of him," Stricklin tweeted from his personal Twitter account. "Thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

The two other passengers in the vehicle — Elizabeth Ann Seaton Craig, 22, of Eatonton, Ga., and Christian Tanner Case, 20, of Dadeville, Ala. — were taken to the West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange. Case, sitting in the front passenger seat, was wearing his seat belt. He was treated and released from the medical center. No update was available on Craig's condition. She was sitting in the back seat and not wearing her seat belt when she was ejected from the vehicle.

Iron Bowl hero

Lutzenkirchen caught 59 passes for 628 yards and 14 touchdowns in his career. His 14 touchdowns are the most in school history for a tight end, while his seven scores in 2011 set a single-season school record for the position.

But it is the pass he caught from Cam Newton in the 2010 Iron Bowl that fans remember the most. It capped a furious rally from 24 points down as the Tigers upended their rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

“I’m deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Philip Lutzenkirchen. He was a great young man who touched the lives of everyone he knew in a positive way,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in an official university release Sunday. “On the field, Philip was a great player and competitor, but more importantly, he was a great teammate and friend off the field. My thoughts and prayers are with Philip’s parents, Mike and Mary, and all of his family and friends who are grieving his passing. This is a sad day for the entire Auburn family. I find peace knowing that even though Philip was taken from us too soon, that he lived his life to the fullest, leaving a lifetime of great memories for his family and friends to cherish forever."

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs also extended his condolences.

“Philip’s death is a devastating tragedy for his family, the Auburn family and his countless friends. Today is also a profoundly sad day for the Auburn Athletics family, who loved and respected Philip not only as a great player but more importantly as a friend and the epitome of an Auburn man,” Jacobs said in a statement. “I came to know Philip well and I admired everything about who he was and the way he lived his life. He had a strong faith, a big heart and a burning desire to help others. Philip was a bright light this world desperately needed, and his death leaves a void that can’t possibly be filled. My prayers, my thoughts and my heart go out to his wonderful parents, Mike and Mary, their entire family and his many grieving friends."

Lutzenkirchen’s passing reached the NFL as well. After Lutzenkirchen’s career at Auburn came to an abrupt end in 2012 due to a hip injury, he entered the NFL, signing with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent last year. He was released by the team in August.

But his death hit particularly close to home for Rams general manager Les Snead, who played tight end at Auburn in the 1990s and was a member of the Tigers’ undefeated team in 1993.

“During his brief time with the Rams, Philip was a consummate pro,” Snead said in a statement. “On behalf of the St. Louis Rams organization, we would like to send our condolences to his family. As an Auburn alum myself and with (St. Louis head) Coach (Jeff) Fisher’s ties to the university through his son Trent and daughter Tara, we join the Tigers in grieving this tragic loss.”

After being cut by the Rams, Lutzenkirchen returned to Alabama, where he had been working at a wealth management company in Montgomery. In May, he began lending his services as a volunteer assistant coach at St. James School in Montgomery.

"They're running what (Gus) Malzahn runs, so I'm helping out with the tight ends and fullbacks,"Lutzenkirchen told AL.com earlier this month. "It's good, I'm really enjoying it. We have a great group of kids at St. James. There's not a whole lot to do in Montgomery and I wanted to get back involved with sports."

Ironically enough, one of the players he had been working with — tight end Jalen Harris, a prospect in the Class of 2015 — committed to Auburn on Tuesday.

Sunday afternoon, Harris took to his Instagram account, posting a picture he had taken with Lutzenkirchen after giving his commitment on Tuesday. Alongside the picture, Harris provided a message, giving insight on all the things Lutzenkirchen had taught him, whether it was football, life or just “being a man.”

“These past couple of months have just been a blessing, it’s like God sent me an angel and now you can really watch over me. I will do everything in my ability to carry on your legacy on and off the field,” Harris’ post read. “Just thank you for everything from being my coach, mentor, and a brother to me. It’s killing me right now knowing you’re gone, but (I) will push through because I now that is what you would want. Thank you again coach, everything. You are the definition of a true ‘Auburn Man’. There are not too many people like you in the world. You are my hero and I love you.”

Below is the official police report, first obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Troup County Fatal Crash

The Georgia State Patrol in LaGrange was called to investigate a one-vehicle crash this morning in Troup County that resulted in two fatalities and two injuries. The crash occurred around 3:05 a.m. at the intersection of Upper Big Springs Road and Lower Big Springs Road, just south of LaGrange.

A 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling on Upper Big Springs Road and failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Lower Big Springs Road. The vehicle traveled approximately 451 feet out of control through a church yard and overturned several times before coming to rest on its roof.

Killed in the crash were:

Driver: Joseph Ian Davis, age 22, from Atlanta....partially ejected Back seat passenger: Philip Lutzenkirchen, 23, from Marietta...ejected.

Injured were:

Back seat passenger: Elizabeth Ann Seaton Craig, age 22, from Eatonton, GA....ejected and taken to West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange; Front seat passenger: Christian Tanner Case, age 20, from Dadeville, AL.....restrained, and treated and released from West Georgia Medical.

Blood was drawn from the driver to determine if alcohol impairment was a contributing factor.

‘The Leftovers’ Recap: Trying to Explain What Cannot Be Explained

Paul Schiraldi/HBO“Dogs are just animals, man. They see something like that, and they just snap. All bets are off right there. No more chasing sticks. …They just go primal, man. Same thing’s going to happen to us, it’s just taking longer.”

These words come halfway through the premiere of HBO’s “The Leftovers,” and they feel like an overture for the series itself, a grim, occasionally goofy melodrama about the funny and very-not-funny ways that people respond to trauma and loss. A teenager burying a dead dog notes that his town’s canine population “went nuts” after the Rapture-like events that serve as this show’s theology-tinged backdrop. The humans, we are not surprised to learn, are going nuts, too.

One day, 2 percent of the Earth’s population abruptly disappears. Spouses and children are gone; so are the pope, Shaquille O’Neal and, peculiarly, Gary Busey, along with unknown millions of everyday sinners whose worthiness for being summoned by God seems suspect.

This is “The Twilight Zone” by way of J. J. Abrams: a morally provocative, fantastical premise played out through a well-coiffed cast of actors with “Gossip Girl”-caliber good looks. The setting is an Anytown, U.S.A., by the name of Mapleton, N.Y., and I found myself thinking of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” a “Twilight Zone” episode where law-abiding citizens turn violently against one another after unexplained phenomena — flashing lights, self-starting cars – bedevil their neighborhood. The clear lesson, of course, was that the monsters are in ourselves. Faced with the unexplainable, the characters in “The Leftovers” waste little time proving that premise, though as the Times television critic Alessandra Stanley says in her review, “The premiere withholds as much as it reveals.”

The series is based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, who specializes in skewering suburbanites’ unhappy lives. Squint, and you can see Kevin Garvey, the protagonist, as a Cheever-esque victim of middle-age ennui; his estranged wife, Laurie, as a castaway from a mediocre marriage; their troubled daughter, Jill, as the latchkey kid gone to seed.

That the domestic drama unfolds on a supernatural stage amps up the stakes and injects an eeriness into the proceedings. No one knows how or why the Sudden Departure happened; a glimpse of a congressional hearing shows scientists and politicians alike at a loss. “God sat this one out,” one grouses.

The vanishing itself is glimpsed only at the episode’s start, mostly in the form of frightened 911 calls against a black screen. The device resembles the opening of “Zero Dark Thirty” — emergency workers calling in the World Trade Center attacks — and I doubt it’s unintentional; another scene features two people falling from a building, one of several callbacks to the cataclysm we faced in our own world.

Unmoored, the characters look for solace. Garvey, played by Justin Theroux, is yet another HBO paterfamilias with a soft spot for animals, reserving his deepest ire for the strange man who keeps shooting Mapleton’s dogs. Garvey’s son, Tom (Chris Zylka), has run off with a survivalist-style cult, led by a snake-oil healer named Wayne who charges premium rates to comfort the troubled. A congressman seeking Wayne’s counsel hands Tom an envelope filled with cash — even after the Rapture, it seems, the wealthy and well-connected still want to buy their way to happiness.

Mapleton’s teenagers, including Tom’s sister Jill (Margaret Qualley), seem more sullen than the usual specimen, indulging in hedonistic games that involve branding skin with a red-hot fork. Jill claims to be untroubled by the Sudden Departure, although a poster on her bedroom door features a band called the Evaporators.

Laurie, played by Amy Brenneman, has taken a vow of silence to join up with an ascetic cult, whose members wear white, smoke cigarettes, and silently stalk the people of Mapleton, watching them like smug existentialists dragging on Gauloises. (It’s no surprise that Garvey is spotted at one point perusing a paperback of Camus’ “The Stranger.”)

When the mayor plans a parade for the anniversary of the vanishing, dubbing it Heroes’ Day, Garvey warns that Laurie’s cult, the Guilty Remnant, will disrupt and cause trouble. “Everybody’s ready to feel better,” the mayor insists.

It’s hard, of course, to sweep this sort of thing under the rug. The parade is earnest but insufficient, a community’s feeble attempt to cope with forces beyond its grasp. The Guilty Remnant arrives with signs that read, “Stop Wasting Your Breath.” Garvey, injured in the ensuing riot, pleads with Laurie the next day to return to him and their children. She turns away.

“The Leftovers” puts rational people in irrational circumstances, and lets the layers of civilization slowly unpeel. At episode’s end, Garvey, the only character who has not snapped, has his trigger moment: on a moonlit street, drunk and bloodied from the riot, he watches a deer being torn apart by wild dogs. A man appears, the dog-killer Garvey had been chasing. This time, Garvey grabs his gun and starts firing, too.

“They go primal, man.”
This series could be one long, strange trip.

Were you intrigued or put off by the episode’s grim plot and unrelenting piano soundtrack? The sprawling cast and sci-fi backdrop promises many narrative possibilities, but are you prepared to devote 10 hours to a study in extreme grief? I am curious if the show will add more playful elements or move deeper into the dark worlds portended by the premiere.

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