What I found most important about the weekend in football

Things I drew from the weekend of action:

Packers Win, Bears Lose, Vikings Lose (Finally)

There's not much that can be drawn from the Packers win today. The fact that the Packers blew out the Browns 31-3, Rodgers had a good game, Ryan Grant got 148 yards but they were playing the Browns so that was to be expected. The Packers now sit at 4-2 but playing the Lions and Browns aren't the best barometers for whether this team is a contender or pretender. We'll get a better answer when the Packers have their highly anticipated rematch against the Vikings.

Coming into Sunday's Bears-Bengals game there was the sub-plot of Cedric Benson alleging that he was blackballed by the Bears and that this caused it to take longer for him to get his second chance. Regardless of whether or not these allegations are true, Benson made the Bears pay by racking up 189 yards and helping the Bengals blow out the Bears 45-10

Well....it was a matter of when...the Vikings finally lost to the Steelers. Brett Favre started to show signs of being in last-season form by throwing a 4th quarter-pick six to close out the game.

49ers QB Controversy Brewing:

Going into today, it was a given that Shaun Hill had a grip on the 49ers QB job and Alex Smith was penciled in as one of the biggest draft busts in the past few years. Well, thats not how things looked today. After a terrible first half, Hill was benched and Alex Smith was given a chance to see what he could do. While he didn't bring the Niners all the way back...he threw 3 second half TDs turned a sure-fire blowout into a game that was interesting up until the final minute.......

Withe the 49ers struggling, it should be interesting to see how this affects the rest of their season. Does Shaun Hill get another chance to make something out of the football season or does Alex Smith get a shot of redemption?

Saints keep on keeping on:

For a while, it looked like the Dolphins were going to pull off a major upset against the undefeated Saints. However, the Saints demonstrated an ability to play through adversity and from behind to keep their record unblemished.

College Football Thoughts:

TCU won yesterdays only game between two top-20 teams by destroying BYU yesterday. They were (somewhat) awarded by the BCS rankings by bypassing Boise State to get to 6th in the BCS rankings.......also their victory over Clemson looks better after Clemson upset the Hurricanes

Still the BCS rankings weren't good to the TCUs/Boise's of the world. TCU is ranked behind an Iowa team (that squeaked by a perennially average Michigan State team) and a 1-loss USC team that lost to an improving but still mediocre Washington Squad......Boise took care of business and they were "awarded" by being dropped to 7th...............much of this talk is probably counter-productive as the championship game is likely to be Texas vs. Alabama/Florida

Well......Game 6 of the ALCS is about to start..........here's to a good game and the Angels forcing a 7th game

The Friday Night Rundown....ALCS, Mountain West Showdown and ACC Thursday Nighters

Sports-Related Things In my Mind

We could be two games away from another Yankee Collapse:

This would be good for baseball. While the Phils and the Angels don't even come close to being small market teams....the Yankees are the poster children of why salaries, tickets, etc. get progressively more expensive and a lot of other things wrong with baseball. The way Yesterday's game went suggests that the Yankees aren't automatically going to punch their World Series ticket. 1) The way they lost last night: They were shut down for six innings....exploded for 6 runs in the 7th to take the lead and can't even hold that lead for half an inning 2) The Angels seem to have a penchant for sending the Yankees home early....

Mountain West Showdown.......

To think tomorrow, the best game (based on National Ranking) is the showdown between TCU-BYU. For those that don't have Versus......they wont be able to see the best of the Mountain West on display.....I do have Versus so theres a good chance I will tune in to see these teams in Action.......if TCU wins.....it helps bolster their argument for a BCS Bowl Berth......if BYU wins it will likely be another year until the Mountain West Conference gets its due.....

Christian Ponder and FSU coming from behind

This comment has element of real life/my fantasy college team blended ...........while it can get too passe talking about fantasy teams......the one good thing about it is you know more about other teams and are more interested in games that you otherwise wouldn't.

Last nights Florida State-UNC game is a perfect example. If it weren't for the fact that I started Ponder and picked him off the waiver wire a few weeks back...I couldn't have cared less about a Thursday night ACC game (seriously this conference gets an automatic BCS bid and the MWC is snubbed) against two teams going nowhere and performing below expectations. Florida State's season to me boiled down to two things 1) Being a spoiler to BYUs BCS Bid 2) Making headlines more for the contentious head coaching system and when/if Bobby Bowden was going to retire 3) Wow FSU has fallen HARD

Thanks to my team the Cheddar Squad.....i'll add another thing to the list 4) Christian Ponder exploding for 300-plus yards 34 points and giving me a better chance to snap out of 1-3 funk im in.............

College Football (with one exception) and movies

Yesterday, I was watching Old School on tv (during/in-between college football games). It got my thinking a little bit. I was surfing the web and stumbled across Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies list which was graced by Old School's presence.. Instead of the normal College Football recap post......that's right it's time for another sports/non-sports list crossover posting.

7- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective- Penn St. Nittany Lions

After Penn St's 4th quarter melt down against Big 11 conference mate Iowa, these Nittany Lions have their BCS hopes severely wounded. It would have been one thing to lose to an elite conference team but losing to Iowa.....thank's for showing up and nurse yourselves up to better health next year.

16- Old School- Alabama

I've seen this movie many times and it never gets old. Involving starting a fraternity made up of adults who had reached their peak only to fade into adulthood for several years only to come back strong with a vengeance............. FRANK THE TANK!!!!!!

Well Alabama's football history has been the same way. They built up a strong tradition won lots of national championships (not to mention having some of the coolest helmets in college football---something about the numbers and helmets is appealing)....all was good and well until the mid-90s......they faded into irrelevance and obscurity (similar to Notre Dame).....and they looked to be every bit as irrelevant and mediocre as the "Fighting" Irish.

Then, they caught the 2 o'clock home, separated from their mediocrity and had their Mitch-A-Palooza. They hired Nick Saban (so he's not the most honest person, or a great person and he's inevitably going to leave Alabama for a higher paycheck) but he has made Alabama relevant again. He got them within minutes from a BCS title game this year and they've looked really strong this year and have a reasonable chance of winning the title this year.

20- The Jerk- LaGarrete Blount

Punching an opposing player in the head after losing to said team.....definitely Jerk-like behavior. Suspending him for the year seems to have worked out so far as they've gotten a couple of good wins against Cal and Utah since the punch and the suspension.

39-Best In Show- Virginia Tech/South Carolina/Iowa

They might not be the best teams overall, but they were the best in this week's set of College Football games as these teams all scored victories over Top-10 teams.

42-Austin Powers-Int'l man of Mystery (the exception) Bus Cook---Brett Favre---Jay Cutler

I came up with this analogy a couple weeks ago spontaneously and decided to mention it here. Bus Cook obviously is Brett Favre's agent. Cook, like Favre obviously wants to stick it to the Packers. After trying for a couple of years, they finally managed to sleaze their way to the Minnesota Vikings. Favre has become a villain, a hated rival, just embodies lots of negative traits against humanity. He is the Dr. Evil.

During the off season, another one of Cook's clients, Jay Cutler had a fit because Josh McDaniels was thinking about trading for Matt Cassell. Even though this didn't happen Cutler was still acting like a 5-year old (like Favre). Like Favre, Cutler has the same agent. Like Favre, Cutler got traded to a team that is arch-rivals with the Packers (Bears). Like Favre, Cutler has a strong arm, huge ego, acts childish, is a "gunslinger" and throws lots of interceptions. Basically, Cutler is a younger, less talented, equally childish version of Favre, I shall call him mini-me.

51-Ferris Bueller's Day Off- California

So the Cal Bears didn't literally take the day off to explore Chicago and instead played their scheduled game against Oregon. Still, with the way they played they might of well taken the day off. Thanks for showing up for the BCS contention these few weeks and we'll see you again in 2010.

75-Dumb and Dumber- Poll Voters/Ole Miss

Really, Mississippi in the top 5. A 9-win season, an upset over Florida (last year) and a bowl win over a Texas Tech team going through the motions makes a top five team? It would be one thing if they lost to an elite team such as Florida or Alabama. They couldn't even beat a South Carolina team that never has and never will be elite. Even though South Carolina won, they didn't even look good while winning. They max out at 7-5, they commit dumb penalties, they don't completely capitalize on opportunities. Pretty much, they're the SEC equivalent to Michigan State (NOT a good thing).........despite their inherent mediocrity they still didn't find a way to lose to this alleged #4 team.

77-Flirting with Disaster--LSU/Michigan

For struggling to/needing to pull a win out of nowhere against inferior teams that they should of blown out (by halftime). [Mississippi State and Indiana respectively] Still these two teams did well in the one area that ultimately matters (not losing), are still undefeated and could still run the table and get to the top of the BCS pecking order.

87-Kentucky Fried Movie- Kentucky

To not showing up against Florida. Sure, Kentucky is never going to be good at football and nobody is expecting them to beat Florida. But to be down 31-0 after the first quarter. That's the type of things that happens to a division 1-AA not an SEC team (albeit a bad one).

91-Revenge of the Nerds Boise State/TCU/Houston

The Non-BCS/BCS school debate has taken on the Jocks vs. Nerds setup depicted in this movie. The BCS schools (and their advocates such as David Whitley) want to do everything possible to discredit the rest of these teams and to hog all the money and glory for themselves.

The Boise's, TCUs and Houston's of this world just want their chance to show they are just as good (if not better) than some of these BCS teams and to have a chance to play for the BCS title game and be recognized for the teams they are fielding.

So far, there is reasonable hope that it could happen this year. Boise State has cracked the top 5 and has a win over a solid Oregon team to their credit. TCU just went on the road and beat Clemson. Last but definitely not least Houston and their success against the Big 12. They followed up their win over Oklahoma State with a thrilling come-from behind victory over Texas Tech. Point being...there are three undefeated teams that are ready and capable of beating BCS-caliber teams regardless of how much others don't want it to happen.

The College Football Review: Bad Day For Mid-Majors

Well, a third week of college football is in the books. Didn't seem as exciting as the first two weeks, but it did serve the purpose of thinning out the ranks of the unbeaten It still raises some interesting questions such as

Does USC's loss to Washington take them out of the national title chase?

If it were just about any other school, yes. While USC won't be in the discussion (for now)....once the ranks of the undefeated thins out to 2 or less (and assuming USC wins the rest of their games) we will be hearing about them again (rolls eyes).....they've become the New York Yankees of college football and since they get the benefit of a doubt that has evaded undefeated teams of the past such as Boise State/Hawaii/Utah, etc....we will be hearing about them more come November

I still hold firm on my statement that the Mountain West is a great football conference but they didn't help their case yesterday.

Between Utah losing on the road to an Oregon team that showed signs of fight during the game and NOT after the game and BYU getting upset and manhandled at home by Florida St., it looks like there is a void to fill in the BCS party-crasher/going undefeated and getting shut out of the title game slot filled by Utah last year.

Despite yesterday, BYU and Utah are still great teams that will at least be Top 25 but their status as non-BCS schools leaves them zero margin for error. It looks like TCU is the conference's last hope of being the Mountain West school to run the table, be deserving at a national title shot only to be snubbed in favor of a 1 (or 2 loss) team.

All sarcasm aside, yesterday should NOT be an excuse for the Mountain West to be written off. The two teams just didn't do enough to win on their games but they will be back with a vengeance for the rest of the season.

Who becomes the non-BCS darling now?

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, TCU is the last undefeated elite standing in the Mountain West. They were in the mix last year finished in the top-10 but were atrociously relegated to the Poinsettia Bowl against an equally deserving Boise State Team.

So that leaves us with three non-BCS options.. a) Boise State--the hook and ladder darlings of the 2006 season--the only team to play on blue turf that looks extra creepy on HD---and most importantly coached by UC Davis alum Chris Petersen---they look to have the best chance to run the table but the weakness of the WAC works against them

b)TCU--If they can run the gauntlet of their MWC schedule they're probably the best hope or

c)Houston--Can they overcome most people not knowing about them to crash the party. Unlike Boise State and TCU who have gotten themselves high profile wins and have national profiles higher than the conference they play in, Houston hasn't been prominent in the national scene since the early 1990s.

However, they do have an impressive high profile win (AT Oklahoma State) and an explosive offense that should run circles around their Conference USA Schedule. While Conference USA will hurt Houston in the strength of schedule, if they're able to run up the score enough they could raise their profile quickly within the next couple months.