MARSHALL BENCHED, NO BEER AT JETS GAME & MORE SLOPPY BOWL GAMES
Broncos' wide receiver Brandon Marshall has been benched for Sunday's game with Kansas City. The Broncos are in a 5-way fight for a wildcard playoff spot, so if you're willing to bench your best offensive weapon, you must believe there's almost no way you could possibly lose to the Chiefs. Otherwise, if Kansas City were to win, knocking you out of the playoffs, there could be some serious repercussions. Josh McDaniel called Marshall in to find out if his hamstring would allow him to play on Sunday. Marshall said he would be ready to play, end of meeting. About three hours later, McDaniel tells the assembled media, he will deactivate Marshall for Sunday's game & "it's a coach's decision." Then this morning he announced tight end Tony Scheffler would also be deactivated "because of his attitude." The other tight end that gets extended playing time is Daniel Graham, who is listed as questionable on Denver's injury report. So the Broncos go into an almost must-win game without WR/KR Eddie Royal, Daniel Graham is injured & might not play, so just to even up the game, you decide to bench Marshall & Scheffler? Denver could still lose the game & still make the playoffs, provided the Steelers, Dolphins, Texans, Jags & Jets all lose. Probably happen don't you think? The Broncos made a big addition to their team in the midst of all this turmoil, former Chiefs' offensive tackle Herb Taylor, so playoffs here they come.
Two juniors that will potentially be first round draft picks next April are preparing to make the jump. Tennessee's Eric Berry, a safety with Ed Reed potential, said after last night's Chick Fil-A Bowl he was ready to leave Knoxville. I expect him to be a top-5 pick, he's really special. Brian Price of UCLA figures to be the 3rd or 4th best defensive tackle in the draft, making him a late first round talent. Price was the PAC-10 defensive player of the year, an award he richly deserved.
Boise State & coach Chris Peterson agreed to a 5-year contract extension on News Year's Eve. The Broncos are in Arizona for Monday's Fiesta Bowl game with TCU. This is a great decision by the powers that be up in Idaho. Peterson succeeded Dan Hawkins in '05 & under his leadership, the Broncos have become a consistent top-25 program. They have become such a tough out, they have difficulties scheduling non-conference opponents. Just like Mike Leach, formerly at Texas Tech & Gary Patterson at TCU, building a program in an out of the way place takes a special coach.
Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State's cornerback extrordinaire, was suspended yesterday for their Cotton Bowl game with Ole Miss this afternoon. He missed curfew Thursday night & that's that.
The final game at the Meadowlands will take place Sunday night between the Jets & Bengals. The game may or may not determine who will win the last wildcard slot in the AFC. Jets' officials feel they might have a problem on their hands if things don't go well in regards to the Jets' playoff chances. People pounding beers all afternoon tailgating can only stay drunk if they're able to buy more beer inside the stadium. The solution: don't sell any beer Sunday, that's the plan. Doesn't hardly seem right does it?
If you were parked in front of your TV, sweating out your New Year's Eve libations or just being a veg, you probably saw all or part of the five bowl games contested yesterday. A lot of sloppy weather, pretty sloppy play & they were just tough to watch. The fact that I lost money on two of them certainly didn't add to my enjoyment of watching, it was the games themselves. Like so many of the 23 bowl games I've watched so far, they haven't been that compelling. The Bowling Green-Idaho thriller was very entertaining, Nebraska's blowout of Arizona & Florida's beatdown of Cincinnati were both very impressive. Wyoming's great 4th Qtr comeback & overtime win was a shocker, SMU's total domination of Nevada after not being in a bowl game for over 25 years was certainly compelling. The Utah Utes spotted Cal 2 touchdowns & then buried them. What I've seen this bowl season is penalties, turnovers, bizarre coaching decisions & honestly, too many bad teams that simply don't deserve a bowl bid. Regardless of what the NCAA admits to, they understand that sports bars will bring in people who want to watch any sporting event, as long as they don't have to watch it alone. Then there's the degenerate gamblers who handicap the TV GUIDE. So the more the merrier for college football, let's have a bowl game every night! From December 19th to January 7th, which is 20 days, there are 34 bowl games. There are only 3 days without a bowl game in those 20 days. There's just too damn many bowl games. Even 2 years ago when the economy was much better, there were thousands, even tens of thousands of empty seats at many of these bowl games. Why buy a ticket? You can stay home & watch it on TV, this isn't the NFL, they don't blackout the bowl telecasts. I watched too many 6-6 teams look like teams with a 6-6 record. I saw teams that honestly didn't want to be away from home for the holidays. This is precisely why a playoff is needed. It's a win-win for everybody concerned, even the old geezers running these bowl committees who don't want to listen to anything new & the college presidents that go along with them. They've been in bed together for years. Please don't subject us to another game on a field like they had in Orlando yesterday. It was the second game played on it in 3 days. Add a couple of downpours & you've got a playing surface that rivals the Everglades. The Orlando convention & visitor's bureau ought to pony up a million or so & install some field turf if they want to continue booking games almost back-to-back. The Rose & Fiesta still impress me as the best run bowls & often the best games. I have two words for the bowl committees & university presidents, "March Madness". Higher volume of ticket sales, better TV ratings translating to more revenue & one more word: integrity. Your champion is real, not perceived.
Because of my sparkling performance handicapping the last 3 bowl games, I'm going to sit out today, I don't see anything I can get excited about anyway. I will definitely watch the Alamo Bowl tonight, should be interesting to see how Texas Tech handles themselves against a Michigan Sate team that has suspended 14 players since the end of the season for behavior or academics.
A lot of new information has come to light in the Texas Tech vs. Mike Leach story. I'll have it on here this afternoon.
Two juniors that will potentially be first round draft picks next April are preparing to make the jump. Tennessee's Eric Berry, a safety with Ed Reed potential, said after last night's Chick Fil-A Bowl he was ready to leave Knoxville. I expect him to be a top-5 pick, he's really special. Brian Price of UCLA figures to be the 3rd or 4th best defensive tackle in the draft, making him a late first round talent. Price was the PAC-10 defensive player of the year, an award he richly deserved.
Boise State & coach Chris Peterson agreed to a 5-year contract extension on News Year's Eve. The Broncos are in Arizona for Monday's Fiesta Bowl game with TCU. This is a great decision by the powers that be up in Idaho. Peterson succeeded Dan Hawkins in '05 & under his leadership, the Broncos have become a consistent top-25 program. They have become such a tough out, they have difficulties scheduling non-conference opponents. Just like Mike Leach, formerly at Texas Tech & Gary Patterson at TCU, building a program in an out of the way place takes a special coach.
Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State's cornerback extrordinaire, was suspended yesterday for their Cotton Bowl game with Ole Miss this afternoon. He missed curfew Thursday night & that's that.
The final game at the Meadowlands will take place Sunday night between the Jets & Bengals. The game may or may not determine who will win the last wildcard slot in the AFC. Jets' officials feel they might have a problem on their hands if things don't go well in regards to the Jets' playoff chances. People pounding beers all afternoon tailgating can only stay drunk if they're able to buy more beer inside the stadium. The solution: don't sell any beer Sunday, that's the plan. Doesn't hardly seem right does it?
If you were parked in front of your TV, sweating out your New Year's Eve libations or just being a veg, you probably saw all or part of the five bowl games contested yesterday. A lot of sloppy weather, pretty sloppy play & they were just tough to watch. The fact that I lost money on two of them certainly didn't add to my enjoyment of watching, it was the games themselves. Like so many of the 23 bowl games I've watched so far, they haven't been that compelling. The Bowling Green-Idaho thriller was very entertaining, Nebraska's blowout of Arizona & Florida's beatdown of Cincinnati were both very impressive. Wyoming's great 4th Qtr comeback & overtime win was a shocker, SMU's total domination of Nevada after not being in a bowl game for over 25 years was certainly compelling. The Utah Utes spotted Cal 2 touchdowns & then buried them. What I've seen this bowl season is penalties, turnovers, bizarre coaching decisions & honestly, too many bad teams that simply don't deserve a bowl bid. Regardless of what the NCAA admits to, they understand that sports bars will bring in people who want to watch any sporting event, as long as they don't have to watch it alone. Then there's the degenerate gamblers who handicap the TV GUIDE. So the more the merrier for college football, let's have a bowl game every night! From December 19th to January 7th, which is 20 days, there are 34 bowl games. There are only 3 days without a bowl game in those 20 days. There's just too damn many bowl games. Even 2 years ago when the economy was much better, there were thousands, even tens of thousands of empty seats at many of these bowl games. Why buy a ticket? You can stay home & watch it on TV, this isn't the NFL, they don't blackout the bowl telecasts. I watched too many 6-6 teams look like teams with a 6-6 record. I saw teams that honestly didn't want to be away from home for the holidays. This is precisely why a playoff is needed. It's a win-win for everybody concerned, even the old geezers running these bowl committees who don't want to listen to anything new & the college presidents that go along with them. They've been in bed together for years. Please don't subject us to another game on a field like they had in Orlando yesterday. It was the second game played on it in 3 days. Add a couple of downpours & you've got a playing surface that rivals the Everglades. The Orlando convention & visitor's bureau ought to pony up a million or so & install some field turf if they want to continue booking games almost back-to-back. The Rose & Fiesta still impress me as the best run bowls & often the best games. I have two words for the bowl committees & university presidents, "March Madness". Higher volume of ticket sales, better TV ratings translating to more revenue & one more word: integrity. Your champion is real, not perceived.
Because of my sparkling performance handicapping the last 3 bowl games, I'm going to sit out today, I don't see anything I can get excited about anyway. I will definitely watch the Alamo Bowl tonight, should be interesting to see how Texas Tech handles themselves against a Michigan Sate team that has suspended 14 players since the end of the season for behavior or academics.
A lot of new information has come to light in the Texas Tech vs. Mike Leach story. I'll have it on here this afternoon.
Comments