WEIS WHINING, BOWDEN MIGHT BE OUT & JUST HOW BAD ARE THE RAIDERS?
As a loyal viewer of "College Football Final" every Saturday night on ESPN, I've had to let all of Lou Holtz's pro-Notre Dame rantings go in one ear & out the other. Lou coached at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina & even had one season at the helm of the New York Jets. But it was his stop in Notre Dame where he won his only National Championship & Lou is an Irish supporter thru & thru. He's said some really outrageous things regarding Charlie Weis & Jimmy Clausen. Saturday night he said Jimmy Clausen was the leader in this year's Heisman Trophy race. Now Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis has chimed in whining about the Irish not being ranked in the polls. O.K. Charlie, let's examine your 2009 Irish. You've beaten Nevada(1-3), Washington(2-3), Purdue(1-4) & Michigan State(2-3). Notre Dame was beaten by Michigan, which actually has a winning record. They beat Michigan State at South Bend by 3 when they were favored by 10. They beat Washington at South Bend by 7 in overtime when they were favored by 13. They were favored by 6 1/2 at Purdue & thanks to Purdue's rookie head coach, Danny Hope, calling the worst timeout I've seen lately, they won by 3. Is Notre Dame better than some of the ranked teams, yes, but when your team has truly had "the luck of the Irish" posting a 4-1 record, chill Charlie. If you continue to win, regardless of how you win, you'll be ranked & probably higher than you should be. You have a week off & then you have a 'statement game' with an overrated USC team. Win that & you'll vault into the top-15. On the Heisman front, yes Jimmy Clausen is in the mix, the junior has played pretty well behind a good offensive line. Losing WR Michael Floyd was a major blow to the Irish, he was in my top-5 wideouts in the country even though he's only a sophomore. WR Golden Tate & TE Kyle Rudolph are great targets & play makers. They have a pack of stiffs remaining on the schedule except for USC & Stanford. I think at worst, they'll win 9 games, best case scenario would be beating USC & winning 11 games. Now they're in the National Championship picture, regardless of how many undefeated BCS busters remain.
Oklahoma's injury troubles continue as their leading wide receiver, Ryan Broyles, suffered a broken shoulder blade in their loss to Miami Saturday night. He will be lost for 3-4 weeks & it's a major loss. Broyles had 23 receptions for 346 yards & 7 touchdowns. You just can't plug-in a replacement capable of that kind of production.
Southern Mississippi QB, Austin Davis tore a ligament in his left foot Thursday night in their loss to UAB. The very productive sophomore will be missed in what was a very wide open offense.
Florida State's chairman of the board of trustees, Jim Smith, has expressed his wishes in regard to legendary coach Bobby Bowden's future with the Seminoles. He wants him out, plain & simple. He believes their coach "in waiting", offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher & Bowden aren't on the same page & it's hurting their chances to win games. The Seminoles are off to a terrible start at 2-3. The win against Jacksonville State was a joke, trailing for 58:30 at home to a bad DIV I program. Their 54-28 beatdown versus BYU was the only game they looked like a typical Bowden edition of the Seminoles. He has said he wants to coach next year, he may not get that opportunity.
The rest of AFC should take notice, the Steelers rediscovered their running game last night. Yes, the Chargers are banged up on the defensive line & yes, Shawne Merriman has had zero impact this season, but the Steelers exploited that, backup Rashard Mendenhall ran for 165 yards & 2 TD's. Almost all the yardage was off the right side, behind center Justin Hartwig & guard Chris Kemoeatu. The NBC cameras kept isolating on these 2 as they blew guys off the ball, down after down. Spotting a weakness is one thing, properly exploiting it is another. Ben Roethlisberger was scary good too, 26 for 33 for 333 yards & 2 touchdowns. The Pittsburgh defense held San Diego to 16 yards rushing on 8 carries, pretty pathetic. The defending champs tendency to allow 4th quarter comebacks will have to be examined, they lost 2 games in the 4th quarter & last night the Chargers scored 21 points in the 4th period.
It would seem to me that Tennessee's Kerry Collins has reached the end of the line as the Titan's starting quarterback unless he can beat the Indianapolis Colts next Sunday night. If not I can see Vince Young being elevated to the starting spot. A major part of the Titans demise this season is on the defensive side of the ball. They've given up 34, 24 & 37 points in the last 3 games. The 2008 Titans gave up 24 or more points in a game only once during the regular season. They lost Albert Haynesworth & he's the best defensive tackle in football, but there's more to the defense's ills than Albert's departure.
Football loving Missouri residents should thank their lucky stars for the Mizzou Tigers. Since the beginning of the 2007 season, the Chiefs & Rams are a combined 11-61 while the Tigers are 26-6. As a Chiefs & Tigers fan, I say 'thank you Gary Pinkel, thank you Chase Daniel, thank you Jeremy Macklin, thank you Tigers'.
Just how bad are the Oakland Raiders? I have to preface my comments with the facts, I'm a Chiefs fan & the Raiders beat the Chiefs. That said, I'll continue. Let's start with the first overall player picked in the 2007 draft, quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who has taken the quarterback position to a new level of mediocrity. He has 43 completions on 108 attempts with 1 measly touchdown pass. If this guy is an NFL starting quarterback, I'm an astronaut. His fundamentals are so far below the level needed to play in the NFL, it's almost laughable the Raider keep trotting this guy out there. It's also well known he's the last guy to show up at the training facility & the first one to leave, hardly setting a leadership example to the rest of the team. Darren McFadden, the 4th overall pick in the 2008 draft, has also been a huge disappointment. He fumbles too often, a tendency he had at Arkansas & if he's not in the game, he sits on the bench, he's not standing on the sideline encouraging his teammates. Yesterday in Houston he had only 6 carries for minus-3 yards, pretty impressive. Darius Heyward-Bey, the 7th overall pick in the 2009 draft & the 5th ranked WR on most expert's lists, has 2 receptions this season for 36 yards & no scores. The Raiders haven't had a runner with 70 yards so far in '09. For all the premium draft picks they've expended on offensive talent, the results are dismal to be sure. I didn't like any of these guys coming out of college, so I'm not the least bit surprised with their lack of production. As long as Al Davis has so much input on personnel, this team will continue to disappoint their fans. They can change the name of endzone seating section from the "Black Hole" to the "Blackout", because this team may never be on local TV again.
After looking at the ailing Green Bay offensive line & their inability to protect Aaron Rogers, I threw a small laydown on the Vikes -3 1/2. I hate the hook, but I don't think it's going to be that close.
Oklahoma's injury troubles continue as their leading wide receiver, Ryan Broyles, suffered a broken shoulder blade in their loss to Miami Saturday night. He will be lost for 3-4 weeks & it's a major loss. Broyles had 23 receptions for 346 yards & 7 touchdowns. You just can't plug-in a replacement capable of that kind of production.
Southern Mississippi QB, Austin Davis tore a ligament in his left foot Thursday night in their loss to UAB. The very productive sophomore will be missed in what was a very wide open offense.
Florida State's chairman of the board of trustees, Jim Smith, has expressed his wishes in regard to legendary coach Bobby Bowden's future with the Seminoles. He wants him out, plain & simple. He believes their coach "in waiting", offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher & Bowden aren't on the same page & it's hurting their chances to win games. The Seminoles are off to a terrible start at 2-3. The win against Jacksonville State was a joke, trailing for 58:30 at home to a bad DIV I program. Their 54-28 beatdown versus BYU was the only game they looked like a typical Bowden edition of the Seminoles. He has said he wants to coach next year, he may not get that opportunity.
The rest of AFC should take notice, the Steelers rediscovered their running game last night. Yes, the Chargers are banged up on the defensive line & yes, Shawne Merriman has had zero impact this season, but the Steelers exploited that, backup Rashard Mendenhall ran for 165 yards & 2 TD's. Almost all the yardage was off the right side, behind center Justin Hartwig & guard Chris Kemoeatu. The NBC cameras kept isolating on these 2 as they blew guys off the ball, down after down. Spotting a weakness is one thing, properly exploiting it is another. Ben Roethlisberger was scary good too, 26 for 33 for 333 yards & 2 touchdowns. The Pittsburgh defense held San Diego to 16 yards rushing on 8 carries, pretty pathetic. The defending champs tendency to allow 4th quarter comebacks will have to be examined, they lost 2 games in the 4th quarter & last night the Chargers scored 21 points in the 4th period.
It would seem to me that Tennessee's Kerry Collins has reached the end of the line as the Titan's starting quarterback unless he can beat the Indianapolis Colts next Sunday night. If not I can see Vince Young being elevated to the starting spot. A major part of the Titans demise this season is on the defensive side of the ball. They've given up 34, 24 & 37 points in the last 3 games. The 2008 Titans gave up 24 or more points in a game only once during the regular season. They lost Albert Haynesworth & he's the best defensive tackle in football, but there's more to the defense's ills than Albert's departure.
Football loving Missouri residents should thank their lucky stars for the Mizzou Tigers. Since the beginning of the 2007 season, the Chiefs & Rams are a combined 11-61 while the Tigers are 26-6. As a Chiefs & Tigers fan, I say 'thank you Gary Pinkel, thank you Chase Daniel, thank you Jeremy Macklin, thank you Tigers'.
Just how bad are the Oakland Raiders? I have to preface my comments with the facts, I'm a Chiefs fan & the Raiders beat the Chiefs. That said, I'll continue. Let's start with the first overall player picked in the 2007 draft, quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who has taken the quarterback position to a new level of mediocrity. He has 43 completions on 108 attempts with 1 measly touchdown pass. If this guy is an NFL starting quarterback, I'm an astronaut. His fundamentals are so far below the level needed to play in the NFL, it's almost laughable the Raider keep trotting this guy out there. It's also well known he's the last guy to show up at the training facility & the first one to leave, hardly setting a leadership example to the rest of the team. Darren McFadden, the 4th overall pick in the 2008 draft, has also been a huge disappointment. He fumbles too often, a tendency he had at Arkansas & if he's not in the game, he sits on the bench, he's not standing on the sideline encouraging his teammates. Yesterday in Houston he had only 6 carries for minus-3 yards, pretty impressive. Darius Heyward-Bey, the 7th overall pick in the 2009 draft & the 5th ranked WR on most expert's lists, has 2 receptions this season for 36 yards & no scores. The Raiders haven't had a runner with 70 yards so far in '09. For all the premium draft picks they've expended on offensive talent, the results are dismal to be sure. I didn't like any of these guys coming out of college, so I'm not the least bit surprised with their lack of production. As long as Al Davis has so much input on personnel, this team will continue to disappoint their fans. They can change the name of endzone seating section from the "Black Hole" to the "Blackout", because this team may never be on local TV again.
After looking at the ailing Green Bay offensive line & their inability to protect Aaron Rogers, I threw a small laydown on the Vikes -3 1/2. I hate the hook, but I don't think it's going to be that close.
Comments