What We Learned Last Weekend 9.23.11

Well the first thing we learned was that I went way out on a limb and snapped the branch while crashing to the ground. Florida State, you are outta here! Thank god anyway, to have to root on the inside for FSU to make the BCS Championship game just so I can say I was right, kind of killed my soul a little. Now I can go back to hating FSU with every ounce of passion I have.

That being said I think "Big Game Bob" has a little bit of trouble on his hands. There are a few powerful teams still left in the Big 12 (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma St.) and I still stand by my thoughts that Oklahoma does not make the title game. The following picture explains everything. That leaves it open to Pac-12 champion Stanford or Big 10 champion Nebraska.


The Oklahoma/FSU game wasn't a complete disaster for FSU. Their defense came in a stepped up big and despite losing EJ Manual for essentially the entire second half, the offense still moved the ball well. Two turnovers in the red zone were the difference. When you play the top ranked team you have to be flawless to beat them and FSU just couldn't avoid the untimely mistake. Reminds me of a certain NFL game I'm going to discuss.

In further developments, LSU may now have the best odds to represent the SEC in the BCS title game. That defense, and especially that seconday minus Patrick Peterson, is easily the best in the country. I watched them take a very potent Miss. St. offense and turn it into the 7th best offense in the Sun Belt conference. They were that dominating. Considering that Arkansas, Auburn, and Alabama are a little more offensively challenged than they have been the past few years, LSU may actually survive with Jarrett Lee at QB. Besides, if you have the eye of the tiger at midfield its pretty hard to lose. Definitely the coolest midfield logo in college and pro football.


The rest of this weekend was fairly boring from a title chase standpoint. I thought Toledo would give Boise State a run for its money, but it did not as they committed costly turnovers as well. Alabama, OK St, Texas A&M, Stanford, Wisconsin all took care of business against worthless foes. But, I am deeply concerned about South Carolina. I was high on this team to start the season, but they seem intent on being the cardiac kids. Of course, Auburn was king of the cardiac kids last year and the year turned out fine. I worry that a lack of focus and a rough start could end their title hopes in the flash of 2 quarters of football.

Nebraska is also concerning me. They are giving up way too many points. If they get involved in a shootout with Wisconsin I fear they'll lose that game. The offense continues to roll under Taylor Martinez and the young kid may have found himself some consistency now.

And don't look now but the Gators are poised to go 4-0 before their brutal midseason stretch. Muschamp has them playing well, maybe thye can knock of LSU or 'Bama....or both.

This weekend offers up a ridiculously good slate of games. LSU travels AGAIN, this time to Morgantown to take on West Virginia. Geno Smith and the Mountaineers have a decent team, and homefield advantage is much more meaningful in college than pros, but that LSU defense looks absolutely savage. I think LSU escapes this game and gets another huge feather in its cap for the computer rankings because this may be WVU's only loss this year.

Staying in the SEC, 'Bama gets to welcome Arkansas into the Crimson jungle. I'm starting to have a sneaking suspicion that 'Bama might be a little overrated. Their defense is doing everything I expected but the offense just isn't clicking like I thought it would. Im sure it's related to the QB shuffling going on there, but it's SEC time and 'Bama might get caught sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, after demolishing its first two opponents, Petrino's Hogs played pretty poorly down the stretch against Troy. Maybe, they were looking ahead to this game, but Arkansas is a real unknown right now and this game will serve to show what the Hogs really have.

Moving to my favorite game this week: Texas A&M and OK State. Texas A&M, on its way out to the SEC, finally gets to take one last crack at its Big 12 opponents. Or maybe, its the other way around. I feel like OK State is going to give Texas A&M a butt-smacking. I hate Tannehill and I have an irrational man-crush on Brandon Weedon and Justin Blackmon. We may be in line for a 41-38 game but if you are only going to watch one game this saturday, this is the one. The winner of this one sits in pole position to get to the BCS title game should they knock off Oklahoma.

In the NFL we actually did learn something this week. Kansas City and Indianapolis are in a fight to the death to win the Suck for Luck sweepstakes. For Andrew Luck's sake I really hope Indy wins. Hes a solid football player and the chance to learn behind Manning is invaluable, as opposed to being thrown to the wolves in Kansas City.

The problem is, I'm 100% confident that if Indy and Kansas City played this Sunday, Indy would probably wipe the floor with them. They are that bad. While Buffalo and Detroit are improved, they arent the Packers, Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Saints, Chargers, Jets, well you get the idea. Getting 40 dropped on you two weeks in a row by those two teams and then failing to break double digits in either game yourself means you are probably the worst team in the league.

Speaking of Buffalo and Detroit, I think Detroit has really shown more to me than Buffalo. Buffalo and Detroit's demolitions of Kansas City can be thrown out. Detroit had an impressive basically wire to wire victory against Tampa Bay, whereas Buffalo was generally outplayed by Oakland. I still stand by my prediction that neither team makes the playoffs, but at least the future is brighter for both teams. It's been a long time.

The St. Louis Rams aren't ready to win yet. I said that at the start of the season and two straight games have proved it. Neither the offense or the defense has enough star power to take that next step. If you are complaining about your lack of a passing game because you don't have Danny Amendola, well I think you see where your priorities lie. Bradford needs a big time target. The defense needs more help for Chris Long. Still a year or so away.

Staying in the West, San Francisco showed me something on Sunday. I wrote the off the win against Seattle as merely a combination of poor special teams and poor NFL team. But they really showed up against the Cowboys and made that game especially frustrating for the Cowboys fans. The NFC West is now a two-team race and congrats Niner fans your team is in the hunt.

Speaking of the Cowboys, I think it's time to hang up the criticisms of Tony Romo. Yes he fumbled the snap in Seattle in 2006. Yes it took him awhile to win a playoff game. But just chew on these stats for a minute and actually reflect on what they mean for Tony Romo the QB. He has a career passer rating higher than that of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Drew Brees and Joe Montana and etc...Even better, he has the highest QB rating in the 4th quarter of games with point differentials of 7 or less points outside of Peyton Manning. The whole he's not clutch argument is dumb. For crying out loud, he came back with a broken rib and punctured lung and brought a team back from down 10 in the 4th quarter and then essentially ended the game with one throw in OT.

Others says he has too much Brett Favre in him. You know what? If Tony Romo can do half of what Brett Favre did in his career I will be happy. Favre went to two Super Bowls, won 3 NFL MVP awards, is the career leader in just about every passing category (yes, including interceptions), and is generally regarded as one of the best players in his generation. Favre threw bad picks (see NFC Championship game against New Orleans Saints two years ago) but its the price you pay for the type of player he is. And if I have a choice between a player that has too much Brett Favre in him and Jason Campbell, Alex Smith, Rex Grossman, Luke McCown, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Cassel, Kyle Orton, or Jay Cutler I'm taking the guy who shares the good and the bad of Brett Favre every day of the week and twice on Sundays. So let's just give this guy a break.


Things we didn't learn. How good the Ravens and Steelers really are. The Ravens got beat by the Titans, who got beat week one by the McCown Jaguars, who got nearly shut out by the Jets. That circuitous logic tells me nothing. Meanwhile, the Steelers have had to deal with every talking head lamenting about how old the defense is, went on to shut out the Seahawks. Sure the Seahawks more closely resemble a UFL team like my hometown Sacramento Mountain Lion, but for all intents and purposes they are an NFL team and shutting out an NFL offense means you still have a very good defense.

Hmmm. Cam Newton. I (and about 50 million other people) are starting to look silly for lambasting the Panthers for taking this guy. 400 yards against the Cardinals was one thing. No one thought he would pass that much, plus the Cardinals defense isn't very good. But 400 yards the very next week against the Super Bowl Champions who knew he could throw for that much and in fact had 10 days to prepare? Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Of course we can't expect 400 yards every game, but he's clearly much better than anticipated. But, look at his head, I still think he's on a bunch of HGH. His head makes Bonds' head look tiny.

Meanwhile, the Jets, Packers, Eagles, Falcons, Saints, and Texans all are playing well enough to satisfy me that picking them to go to the playoffs was right.

The last game to review was that god awful Chargers Patriots game. On first glance, I was ready to start talking about the Patriots offense in those hushed tones that surrounded the 2007 undefeated season. This offense looks just like one. A big time passing orgy. On further inspection, the Patriots can't expect to go 16-0 or even 15-1. The defense is just way too terrible. Even if they did somehow go 16-0 again, they wouldn't get far in the playoffs. The Chargers shot themselves in both feet and in their own balls with 4 turnovers in the red zone. Yet, still scored 21 points. The Chargers are as good as advertised, a lot of talent on offense, and yet still find fun and creative ways to lose winnable ball games, especially in September. The Patriots are definitely high powered, but I don't know how good they'll be come playoff time when the worst defense they might face is San Diego's and they definitely will have to go through some combination of Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and the J-E-T-S.

Not too many compelling games this week. The Bills get to show their mettle against the Patriots, luckily at home to what will probably be the most raucous crowd in Buffalo since the 90s. The Lions also get to take an important step in the right directions but stepping on the Vikings' throat and sending a message the Lions are no longer the doormat of the NFC North. Texans-Saints has the makings of a college football scoreboard (read: 48-41) and of course we can never forget the traditional Monday night football game between Washington and Dallas. I hate Washington more than any other team and even if you don't you can at least dislike them because their fans dress like this:


With that last image burned into your brain I wish everyone a happy weekend and good hunting ahead for you players of the fantasy and the pick 'em!