Monday, November 19, 2007

Weekend of surprises and nonchalantness…

Let’s start with the early weekend surprise. Oregon loses to Arizona, but that’s not the surprise considering how it happened. The surprise is that Dixon had apparently torn the ACL two weeks ago. With all that goes into college football, how was this not discovered 2 weeks ago? He was wearing a brace, prescribed by somebody, how was the torn ACL not discovered; and if it was why was he playing?

Hawai’i again needs last minute play to beat another average team…

And now the team that is showing it will be a BCS contender for years to come: The Fighting Illini! Inspired but also smart football, which is what makes a consistent winner. The difference between this and Florida, is Illinois understands the time it takes to develop a team.

Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing should lead the popularity contest trophy (Heisman) not Tim Tebow who succeeds in running up the score against Florida Atlantic. This week’s match up, however, I think we showcase something that’s been underappreciated by the media: the KU defense.

Where is LSU’s Defense? And while he’s struggling to walk and is too nice a guy to say it how has nothing ever been done to Auburn or the 2 players who deliberately tried to break Glenn Dorsey’s leg in a game.

And now for the predictable media: DID YOU HEAR LLOYD CARR RETIRED AND WE THINK LES MILES WOULD WANT THIS JOB EVEN THOUGH HE SAID HE DOESN’T AND THAT WOULD BE DISTRACTING TO HIM AND HIS PLAYERS WOULD BE DISTRACTED… DISTRACTION!!!!!
In other new about 20 other coaches will also not return to their teams in collegiate football.

The most shocking thing of the College Football weekend however: I have the same thought right now that I had watching the entire game: How was Oklahoma Not prepared for Texas Tech? TT passes 90% of the time for at least the past decade or two. How was Oklahoma not prepared for pass defense?

And now for some historical significance: Jimmy Johnson is now only the tenth person to win NASCAR’s main series back to back, and the first since Jeff Gordon in ‘97-’98. With the second one in the bag Hendrick Motorsports is looking to get Johnson into a lifetime contract; Johnsons’ 6-year career so far: 34 wins 134 top ten’s, 2 championships… lifetime contract sounds like a good idea to me.

More history: While the media wants to talk about Boston's sports dominance, they will all conveniently forget the New England Revolution lost their 4th MLS Cup in 6 years and (Buffalo Bills-esque) 3rd in a row now. And in that same breath the Houston Dynamo are the first MLS team to win back-to-back title since D.C. United did it in ‘96-’97. And if you want to speak dynasty, even though we’re supposed to treat the Dynamo as a expansion team even though it is all the same players from San Jose (just like the Browns move to Baltimore), 4 titles in 7 seasons is certainly worth a mention.

Also worth a mention is Major League Soccer’s growth: the MLS has already announced new teams in Seattle and San Jose, but now they have also announced 9 cities with a very large interest and the league’s intent to have 18 teams by 2010. For those not familiar with the league, that’s at least 1 or 2 expansion teams each year. The MLS is definitely on its way to becoming one of the major North American sports leagues.

More History: in NFL history 17 teams have gone 10-0 before so we haven’t hit the big part just yet, but New England is still alive to be the second member of the undefeated club.

And now some quick NFL anecdotes:

Arizona beats Cincinnati with its defense and special teams: Doesn’t prove too much about Arizona but does continue to show just how bad the Bengals are. Controversy in Baltimore? Only if you are an idiot. I don’t understand why using the replay is supposedly controversial; they simply used a camera to make the correct call. The Bears seem to have lost their defense, or better yet, they can’t continue to have 2-3 guys hold it up anymore. Seattle escaped from a game that shouldn’t have been close, their offense looks as convincing as ever. Tampa Bay handles Atlanta: Why does Atlanta even have Joey Harrington on the roster if they don’t care how well he does? Jeff Garcia continues quietly leading his team without attention, and for the 5th consecutive season it looks as though the previous worst team in the NFC South will win it the following year.

Detroit defeats itself, credit win to N.Y. Giants: I’m not sure if this game proved anything. Green Bay easily beats another opponent: outside of the one "remnant of last year" in the loss to Chicago, Green Bay looks like the team to beat in the NFC, not Dallas. Indy is still recovering from the game with New England: Kansas City is still recovering from lack of leadership and effort. Minnesota beat Oakland: so was it Adrian Peterson that was awesome or Minnesota’s blocking? Dallas should have lost to Washington: “Hey you think we should cover that T.O. guy?” ..." No thats ok Dallas doesn't much care for that whole Defense thing" Not a surprise that once the Rams recover from injuries, they start looking convincingly good (especially against 2 of the worst defenses in a row)

Miami continues run towards history: Just remember that this team had Wes Welker and Chris Chambers. Philly once again proving that they don’t need to overpay for a makes-no-difference Donavan McNabb. Pittsburg tried to mail it in vs. the Jets, not a good idea. Jacksonville starting to really show its cohesiveness, San Diego proving that firing Shottenheimer was a great idea.

And lastly, New Orleans is exactly the same as San Diego: talent and greatness… when they feel like it. And while Jason David is trying to set the record for times being burned I simply don’t understand how the media continues to tell us the Saints woes are simply because their defense stinks, yet here is the Saints offense by drive: FG, fumble, Int, Punt, TD, Punt, turnover downs, Punt, Int, turnover downs, time runs out.
I give you: the Saints need to fix that damn defense.

No comments: