26.10.03
Pro Football: Thoughts about the early games:
- And then there was one. According to Scott Wetzel, the last team to lose a regular season game has gone on to the playoffs 11 of the last 12 years. The exception was the '93 Saints. Now we'll find if that trend holds with the Chiefs, as the Vikings lost. As a side note, what a bad couple of minutes between the interception of Culpepper and the touchdown by Hilliard.
- Cleveland - New England: Yawn. I'm glad I didn't catch this one.
- I didn't see it, but at least Carolina won. It wasn't particularly impressive, but a win is a win, and is much better than a loss. To be honest, I expected a blowout.
- I don't care what anyone says, Tampa beat the everliving crap out of Dallas. It was the first shutout of the Cowboys since Christmas Day 2000, and it didn't seem as close as 16 points (but shutouts will do that, I guess).
- Jacksonville kept it closer than I thought they would, but it was in Jax, and two touchdowns isn't as close as they would have liked, I'm guessing.
- Baltimore may as well have shut Denver out. They held them to 6 points, and, althought not forcing a turnover before the 4th quarter, forced 3 (2 picks and a fumble). Jamal Lewis also rushed for more than 100 for the sixth straight game.
- As Mitch Albom said last week, even Marty Mohrninweg can go 1-6 with the Lions.
- If Seattle can't win in Cincinnati, what happens when they travel to San Francisco and St. Louis?
- A good St. Louis team beat a mediocre Pittsburgh team. Big shock. As a side note, the AFC North is, perhaps, the worst division in the league, having exactly one team (Baltimore) which doesn't have a losing record.
More (ill-informed) commentary on the late games later.
College Football: Thoughts:
- Oklahoma took care of business, even if it wasn't the blowout everyone expected.
- How does Wisconsin lose to Northwestern? I understand that Sorgi is injured, but how in the world does Wisconsin lose that game? The last time Northwestern coach Randy Walker beat a ranked team? Apparently it was in 1997, when he coached for Miami of Ohio. He came into Blacksburg on homecoming and, after spotting Tech the first quarter, proceeded to pound them in the second, third and fourth quarters. I was so sure that Tech would blow them out that I bet my father (both of my parents are Miami alumni) $5: $1 for the game score, and $1 for the score each quarter. He had recently remarried a Tech alumna (and fine woman), and he had a Miami ballcap perched in the corner of his windshield. He humoured me and let me hold his bet. When all was said and done, I owed him $8, which he graciously refused to accept.
- I heard, before the game Saturday, that Purdue hadn't won at Michigan Stadium since 1966. They still haven't.
- Georgia struggles for the second straight week, beating UAB by 3 at Georgia's homecoming. I'm tempted to lay a heavy bet that Florida will lead by more than a touchdown after 3 quarters. In the 4th, though, all bets are off.
- Navy lost to Delaware. Delaware is still undefeated, but they're also a I-AA team. Navy took a 2 touchdown lead then, on the ensuing Delaware drive, forced Delaware to punt. Delaware faked the punt and Navy was never really in the game again.
- Florida State doubled up Wake Forest though, to be fair, after FSU's touchdown late in the first half (matching a Wake TD moments earlier), Wake never had a chance.
- Tennessee beat Alabama after 5 overtimes; to get to overtime in the first place they had to drive 85 yards in a span of about 90 seconds. Good thing that UT doesn't have a particularly taxing opponent next Saturday - or even a conference opponent (they have Duke, for homecoming in Neyland).
- Tech slipped to 10th in the writers' poll, 11th in the coaches' poll. Every expert I've seen suggested that Tech doesn't have a shot of getting to N'Awlins, but that the best that they can hope for is to grab the league crown. Maybe. But, ever the optimist, I see several opportunities for Tech to move up (provided they win out), starting with Saturday:
- Michigan @ Michigan St.
- Georgia vs. Florida
- Oklahoma St. @ Oklahoma
- Nebraska @ Texas
- Washington St. @ Southern Cal
Now, were all the favourites to be upset, and were Tech to win big (and, let's be honest, Tech needs to win big against not only Miami - to prove that they're better than they were on Wednesday - but they need to win big at Pittsburgh, to prove that they can win on the road), then they could move, conceiveably into about 5th or 6th. All speculation about poll slot is predicated on one unstated thing: that Tech wins. That, more than anything, needs to happen in order for this to become reality.
On 8 Nov, Michigan St. travels to Ohio St. One of those will fall below Tech. On 15 Nov, Kansas State travels to Nebraska, which may be the game in the regular season in which Nebraska is most vulnerable to a loss. Michigan St. also travels to Wisconsin on that date, which may be a trap, much like it was for Ohio St.
On 22 Nov, three games of interest take place:- Ohio St at Michigan
- LSU travels to Ole Miss: Ole Miss is, at this point, the only team undefeated in conference play in the SEC
- Oklahoma at Texas Tech: can B.J. Symons throw on Oklahoma? The answer may determine Tech's bowl placement
On 29 Nov, three games of interest take place:- Florida St travels to Florida: which UF team will show? The one which beat Miami through 3 quarters, or the one which lost to Mississippi at home?
- Arkansas @ LSU: Question is whether Arkansas can run without much in the way of a passing game.
- Miami @ Pittsburgh: This could serve to knock Miami out of the race, if losing to Tech doesn't knock them behind the Hokies.
Plus, the conference championship games on 6 Dec in the Big 12 for (potentially) Nebraska and Oklahoma, and in the SEC for (again, potentially) Georgia and LSU.
But we'll see how things turn out.
More on the pie-in-the-sky "superconference" scheme I talked about in this space a couple of days ago: A quick note on any postseason. Right now there are 25 postseason bowl games. Now, I would schedule a 16 team single elimination playoff, with the first round at the higher seed, and the subsequent rounds at bowl sites (I would suggest the 4 BCS bowls, the Cotton, Citrus and either Holiday or Gator or, if you wish to run a consolation, I would suggest that the Cotton, Citrus, Holiday and Gator run the second round, and the third and fourth rounds rotate between the BCS bowls). Now, note that I'm not precluding other bowls from playing meaningless games. They can play to their heart's content. Now, if we preclude a playoff team from playing in a bowl, then 8 teams play no more games than before. 4 teams, then, play one more game than they would otherwise (the quarterfinal). If there is no consolation game, 2 teams play 2 more games than they would right now, and 2 play 3 more. If there is a consolation game, then all 4 teams play 3 more games than they would under the current system. I would constitute the playoff from the 10 conference champions and from 6 at-large teams, picked (much like in basketball) by a panel of athletic directors.
More later - R.
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