October 17, 2007
Strange Football Doings …
There certainly were some unusual football happenings over the last weekend to include losses by LSU and Cal in college football and the announcement that South Florida is now the #2 team in the BCS rankings. Tomorrow night, South Florida plays Rutgers on national TV; Rutgers was last year’s Cinderella team in college football. Three years ago, if anyone had told you that a South Florida/Rutgers game on national TV would have potential major impact on the BCS Championship Game, you would quietly have taken steps to have that person restrained and sedated before he could hurt himself. But it’s gonna happen later this week…
The Boise State/Nevada game put 136 points on the scoreboard. There will likely be college basketball games this season that fall short of that total.
I have a problem with the ranking of Ohio State as the #1 team in the first BCS poll. In the week that they made their big move to the top spot, they took on the mighty team from Kent State. That’s a game that should not have been scheduled in the first place. It would have sent a real message to football coaches and ADs everywhere if Ohio State had not moved up at all this week.
Navy is now 4-2 on the season and stands an excellent chance to go to a bowl game this year. They’ve won 2 games in OT and another by a field goal, but they look to have an inside track to six wins - - and that’s the magic number to be bowl eligible. Still on their schedule are Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Delaware, North Texas, Northern Illinois and Army. For a team that leads the nation in rushing offense, there ought to be two wins in that mix somewhere…
Recently, I asked rhetorically if Wisconsin might be the worst 5-1 team in the history of NCAA football. Well after the Badgers were absolutely dismantled by a less than awesome Penn State team by 31 points, you should be severely tempted to answer that question in the affirmative.
In the wake of a less than spectacular season in Lincoln Nebraska, the University of Nebraska did something unusual. They didn’t fire their coach; they fired their athletic director - - who happens to be the guy who hired the current football coach. Two weeks ago, Nebraska lost to Missouri by 5 TDs; last weekend, they lost to Oklahoma State by 31 points. You’d really have to be a cockeyed optimist to see those results as the mark of an “improving team”. Oh, in the history of the Nebraska football program, they had never allowed opponents to score 40 or more points four times in a season. Well, they’ve done that this year and they have a bunch more games to play. I’d say that Bill Callahan needs to win every game from here to December to have an even-money shot at coming back next year.
In NFL action last weekend, the Panthers beat the Cardinals. That may not be particularly newsworthy except that the Panthers’ QB was Vinny Testaverde because the top two QBs were injured and could not play and the Cards’ QB was Tim Rattay because their top two QBs were injured and could not play. I wonder how many fantasy owners rushed to acquire Testaverde when he was signed last Wednesday. I wonder how many fantasy owners will be scrambling to pick up Tim Rattay this week with visions of Earl Morral dancing in their heads.
The Baltimore Ravens beat the St. Louis Rams handily last weekend. But the Ravens offense has to be a point of great concern to the coaching staff. The Ravens intercepted Gus Frerotte five times and recovered a fumble in that game; those six turnovers plus the normal offensive possessions yielded a total of 22 points. That’s pathetic.
What is equally pathetic is the showing of the Eagles in their win over the Jets. The Eagles had 413 yards of offense and managed to score all of 16 points. And no one can blame the officials for stifling the offenses here; the Eagles had two penalties assessed during the game for all of 14 yards; the Jets were not flagged all game long.
LaDanian Tomlinson seems to love to play against the Raiders. On Sunday, he carried 24 times for 198 yards; that’s an average of 8.25 yards per carry for those of you who are math-phobic. For his career, Tomlinson has played 13 games against the Raiders and has a total of 21 TDs in those games. No truth to the rumor that Al Davis is contemplating filing suit against Tomlinson for damaging the value of the Raiders’ franchise…
The Bears have a dominating defense – or so we thought as the season began. The Vikings have a dominating defense – and they damned well need one because their offense is so meek. So, when these teams got together last weekend the final score was 34-31 and there were 902 yards of combined offense produced on the field. How’d that happen?
In the world of golf, Michele Wie’s agent has resigned from that job. He’s the second person to bail out on her in less than a year. Wie played in 8 LPGA events this year and only made the cut twice in the ladies events; in fact she only had two rounds under par in all of those 8 events. Of course, she also made celebrity appearances in a few men’s events this year and didn’t do squadoosh in any of them either. What we have here is a huge squandering of talent…
Finally, here is an item from syndicated columnist Norman Chad:
“Q: After Rebekkah Brunson of the Sacramento Monarchs was arrested on DUI charges, she apologized to her fans. Do you think she did this individually? (Joe McCann; Pittsburgh)
“A: Pay this fella on the sly, Shirley – don’t want to get WNBA types stirred up.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
