Tuesday Morning Cornerback: Week 12
November 24th, 2009 | By boadurichard
What’s going on everybody. This past weekend was great for pro and boring for college as usual. Here are my quick cuts and jukes from the weekend. I did this on Tuesday and not Monday because people don’t look at the big picture on Mondays. They are too irate, emotional, etc. I want to talk to my calm readers with clear heads on a Tuesday.
College
To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to talk about college football. No more college football talk until the bowl season. I just can’t take it. The games are boring, there no stars, no dominant teams. The only excitement is if Charlie Weis will get fired or not. But since I have to, here we go.
Mike Gundy might need to be in the running for Big 12 Coach of the Year given all the injuries he’s had to face and losing this best player, Dez Bryant, to stupid over zealous rules by the NCAA. He’s only lost two games. If he can be the Sooners this weekend then the Cowboys will be in their first ever BCS game.
Shot out Dan Hawkins for not starting his son for the past couple of weeks. The Colorado Buffaloes are actually being competitive these past few games.
Florida, Alabama, Texas, TCU, and Boise State all won in boring routs not worth talking about. Only thing relevant worth talking about is why in the world is Florida and Alabama playing non-conference games this late in the season?
The LSU vs. Ole Miss game was a great game. Houston Nutt admitted he wished he played Dexter McCluster at running back all season. It certainly has helped calm down Jevan Snead. I have no clue what McCluster was doing at the end of the game. He didn’t even try to recover the ball, he short armed it. I can’t call his gangster into question because this guy is already half the size of the people he is playing with who are trying to kill him and he runs with a reckless abandon. But still, what was he thinking?
Les Miles, what was he thinking. I’ve never seen a top tier program, have such a melt down in the final minute as LSU did. He says he called the timeout but the refs didn’t hear it. If I’m the head coach and I’m NOT playing at home, my head is up watching that clock until I see that it stops running. Well, he didn’t and he lost 17 seconds. They completed a hail mary pass inside the five yard line, but they were out of timeouts, they weren’t prepared etc. If you know you are going to throw a hailmary pass, they when not have your field goal team ready? Why not tell your offense that if the pass is completed, haul your asses off the field because we’re going to kick the field goal for the win. But Les didn’t do that.
Michigan is 5-7. Oh boy. Rich Rodriguez, I need you to do better homie, Michigan does not go 5-7 point blank.
Each week Terrelle Pryor is getting better. I hope you haters are all taking notice. Look for him to have a Vince Young type Junior season next year.
The Oregon and Arizona game was the best game of the week. Chip Kelly deserves some coach of the year votes. After the meltdown at Boise State, ripping off seven straight wins, and bombing USC and now controlling his own destiny to a BCS game. Arizona’s Mike Stoops finally has his program where he wants it. They are 6-4 right now with a very realistic shot at nine wins facing, Arizona State, USC and their bowl game.
How fast has the football world outside of Iowa forgot about the Hawkeyes. They are 10-2 and still in the BCS hunt for an at large bid.
Penn State drilled Michigan State to keep them more in the hunt for a BCS at large bid. Word on the street is that Orange Bowl representatives were at Saturday’s game. If they don’t get into the BCS, Penn State will either be playing in the Capital One Bowl or the Outback Bowl.
Dion Lewis, LaMichael James, or Ryan Williams? Who is the best freshman running back. You guys tell me. Because I have no clue. Ryan Williams went 32 for 120 and 4TDs against the NC State Wolfpack to help his Virginia Tech Hokies win the game. Speaking of the Wolfpack, I would love to see Russell Wilson playing on a team with teammates of his caliber. This guy is a sold QB stuck on a bad team.
Northwestern head coach, Pat Fitzgerald needs some love. This man is 3-0 in November and 8-4 overall as they upset #16 ranked Wisconsin at home on Senior Day.
“The Big Game” was a good one this weekend. Standford and Cal dueled it out over the weekend. Jeff Tedford, the offensive guru head coach, and Andrew Luck, the freshman sensation quarterback for Stanford were set aside by the rushing game. Toby Gerhart of Stanford rushed 20 times for 136 yards and 4 TDs. Filing in for an injured Jahvid Best, Shane Vereen went ape shit, complete and total ape shit. Jeff Tedford rode him all the way to the win with Vereen toting the rock 42 times for 193 yards. Andrew Luck finally had his first bad game of his freshman season. It sucks that it came during The Big Game, but Luck went a paltry 10 for 30 for 157 yards and a pick in the final potentially game winning drive for the Cardinal.
In keeping with the trend of Freshman quarterbacks, having bad games, we can’t leave out Tom Savage of Rutgers, who went 7 for 17 for only 66 yards and 2 picks in a loss to Syracuse. Syracuse totally dominated the ball holding the ball for 40 minutes to Rutgers’ 20 minutes. Greg Paulus had one of his better games as an Orangemen going 13 for 16 and 142 yards a with a touchdown, and it was fitting that it all happened on Senior Day.
My beloved Oklahoma Sooners are worse than the economy. Okay maybe they are not that bad, but we got embarrassed in Lubbock when they faced the Texas Tech Red Raiders this past weekend. It’s just an off year for us, what else can I say.
In keeping up with the Nike Pro Combat Uniforms, OU, Florida State and Ohio State all unveiled their jerseys and they all looked great.
Florida State Seminoles – Fear the Spear
Ohio State Buckeyes – Earned
Oklahoma Sooners – Claim Our Stake
NFL
I said it last week and I’ll say it again. Miami will make the playoffs this season! Did anyone see that catch by Steve Smith?
Baltimore had every opportunity to win the game last weekend over the Colts and they couldn’t pull it out. They need to draft some corners ASAP.
The Dallas Cowboys are the worst 7-3 team in the league. Yes, they have a winning record, but if you are a Cowboys fan you have to be concerned with a team only being able to put up 7 points against the Redskins.
I love it when I’m proven right. I said it last week that the Browns vs. Lions game would be the best game, because both teams re evenly matched and neither has any defense. I was right. I will say the pass interference call was the worst thing I saw since the Lions went 0-16 last year. The call was the equivalent to an NBA referee calling a touch foul in the final seconds of the game. As a ref, you cannot make that call. Browns got robbed.
There was a T.O. sighting in Jacksonville this past weekend. He got a 98 yard touchdown reception, the longest of his career. The Bills still lost to the Jaguars 18-15 though.
A few weeks ago, I said the Steelers were the best team in the league, but they’ve been reading the press clippings and the problem hasn’t been their offense, but their money maker, the defense, has been letting them down in recent weeks.
When I heard the Brett Favre MVP talk, I scoffed. Partly because I don’t think Drew Brees gets enough love, but Favre has to be mentioned. 21 TDs and 3Ints, yeah with numbers like that he has to be mentioned.
The Giants are in the same boat as the Cowboys. You have to be concerned if you are a Giant fan. You can’t hold on to a 14 point lead in the second half at home? Cause for concern aka red flag. I know Matt Ryan wasn’t expecting a sophomore slump like this.
Before the New Orleans Saints played the Bucs this past weekend they were 9-0. After the game they are 10-0. I’m sure you knew that was coming.
The Cardinals beat the Rams. But in more important news, Kurt Warner threw two TDs to help my fantasy team before he left the game with a head injury.
Josh McDaniels, head coach of the Broncos, was seen yelling at the Chargers players in pre-game warm ups. What was he saying? “We own you, we own you!” The Chargers got the message and their emancipation by winning 32-3.
The Jets who were once so hot are now in a rut. I feel bad for my boy Mark Sanchez, he’s forcing things when he doesn’t need too. Thomas Jones is right behind you and he’s the real deal. Just give him the ball. The 2009 Randy Moss vs. Darrelle Revis edition ends in a tie with Randy claiming the most recent victory with 5 catches for 34 yards and a td, the touchdown being the deal breaker in this one.
The Oakland Raiders won a game. Not only did they win, but they beat a winning team in the Cincinnati Bengals. My Raiders are back!
Jay Cutler is killing the Bears. That’s all I can say. On three occasions he missed wide open receivers who would have caught touchdown passes. We can’t blame coaches, new receivers, none of that, the blame has to be directly placed on Cutler. I know yall saw that 34 yard Mike Vick run. (I’m grinning wide on the other side of this computer screen.)
As I said earlier, Brett Favre needs to be mentioned in the MVP talk. If Brett is getting love then we have to give love to Chris Johnson as well. He’s the leading rusher in the league on a losing team. Does Barry Sanders sound familiar to you guys. He has 1,242 yards and is averaging 6.2 yards per carry on a 4-6 team. Those numbers are Sanders-esque. He’s not on pace for 2,000 yards, he’s just shy at 1,987, but he’s due a super 200 yard game which could get him over mark and I am hoping he does go over 2,000 yards. Vince Young has been playing brilliant Vince Young ball. For all of you old school drop back QB lovers, I’m sorry, but Vince will never be that so just accept him for what he is and watch in just win baby! Please don’t give Jeff Fisher all of this praise for starting Vince Young. I no doubt think that he would have played Kerry Collins for the rest of the year and not thought twice about playing Vince Young. Thank the owner, Bud Adams, for Vince Young playing, not Jeff Fisher.
