CHIEFS FACE A MUST-WIN GAME, 70 BOWL TEAMS NEEDED-WILL THERE BE ENOUGH ELIGIBLE TEAMS?
The Chiefs had better win Sunday when the Arizona Cardinals come to Arrowhead. I see it as a must-win game. If they are to be a playoff team, beating inferior teams on your home turf qualifies as a must-win. It's possible that nine wins will win the AFC West, but the Chiefs had better not count on it. They better win 10, if they can. Remaining home games after Sunday include Denver, Tennessee & Oakland. Roads games in Seattle, San Diego & St. Louis where two wins would be nice. If the Chiefs can win 1o games, the Chargers would have to 6 of 7 to get to 10. They have games at Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Denver plus home games vs. K.C., Oakland & Frisco. I could see them going 6-1 with that schedule. The Raiders have the toughest road ahead beginning with a trip to Pittsburgh, other road games include San Diego, Jacksonville & Kansas City. They have home games with Miami, Denver & Indianapolis. Other than Denver, the other 6 should prove very tough.
Tony Moeaki was not at practice on Wednesday, he reportedly sustained a concussion last Sunday. Brian Waters was in attendance, but he didn't participate in drills. Kendrick Lewis & Jon McGraw were limited as was Dexter McCluster. newly signed linebacker, Mark Simoneau was placed on I.R. after just one game with the Chiefs.
Other NFL injury news would include Cincinnati offensive tackle Andre Smith, who was placed on I.R. with a broken foot. The same foot he broke last season after reporting late, missing training camp & being grossly overweight. As the 7th player picked in last year's draft, he has been a major disappointment on a team that has been a major disappointment.
Two teams changed kickers, Pittsburgh cut long time placekicker Jeff Reed. He was on borrowed time, several off-field incidents coupled with diminishing results kicking at home sent him on to the free market. Someone will sign him. The Steelers replaced him with Shaun Suisham, formerly of the Redskins. He was cut loose after blowing a 24-yard attempt with a minute to go in New Orleans, it would have won the game. The Bengals put kicker Mike Nugent on I.R. No replacement has been signed. The Forty-Niners will be without kicker Joe Nedney for at least this weekend. His sub hasn't been announced.
I've ridiculed these knuckleheads who continually use the social networks, Twitter & Facebook, to prove they are knuckleheads. Tuesday & Wednesday were no exception. After Philly's 59-28 blowout on Monday night, Terrell Owens Tweeted "How do you justify a $78 million contract with this type of performance?" Owens was referring to his former teammate Donovan McNabb, God this guy is a cancer. Then there was Cardinal defensive tackle Darnell Dockett who Tweeted "Vick's doing so good, he's got dogs cheering for him." No comment. last but not least, Buffalo RB C.J. Spiller used his Facebook page to slur his former Clemson teammate Ricky Sapp with "Keep my name out of your mouth fag." All three of these geniuses have had to delete the messages & apologize for what they said. But you can't un-ring the bell, it's out there. Will they ever learn? I doubt it.
With two college games this Saturday that will be played on hallowed baseball ground, I wanted to show you a picture of just how cramped one of these venues will be for the collegians. Notre Dame will play Army in Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame needs the game to become bowl eligible(see below) & the Golden Knights would like a victory to insure all three service academies have a winning record. Illinois travels to the Windy City to play Northwestern at Wrigley Field. Think squeezing a football field in Wrigley wasn't difficult?
The 2" padding over the Ivy-covered brick wall is a mere 6" from the back line of over half the endzone. On the opposite end of the field, the same type of padding covers the 3rd base dugout, which is 6" from the back line of the endzone. One sideline is just 6' from the front row of seats. This game should be interesting to watch, if only for the logistics. You can see at 2:30 PM on ESPNU.
Sadly, the FOX network signed a deal with the BIG TEN to broadcast the first six conference championship games starting next year. If they used some of their regional FOXSports network crews & broadcast teams, this wouldn't be a problem with yours truly, but they'll use Joe Buck/Troy Aikman & a camera crew/director that only does pro football. FOX did the last 4 years of BCS bowl games & the telecasts were awful.
How awkward is this? Colorado cans Dan Hawkins, his son Cody is handed the starting QB job....again & he responds in a big way, throwing for 266-yards & 3 touchdowns beating Iowa State 34-14. Saturday the Buffaloes face Kansas State in Boulder on Senior Day & young Hawkins said he doesn't know if his parents will be on the field for him. This kid has been yo-yo'd up & down for 4 years, what a finish.
I told you the other day of the three Southern Miss players who were shot out side a club in Hattiesburg. I told you they were in stable condition, which they are, but two of these kids' lives were horribly changed for life. Martez Smith suffered a bullet wound to his spinal cord & is paralyzed below the waist & Tim Green suffered two gunshot wounds to his throat, severing his vocal cords. Well I guess the hero that shot them made his point huh?
So we have 35 bowl games, which means we'll need 70 bowl eligible teams right? To be bowl eligible you have to have won 6 games or 7 if you traveled to Hawaii(gets you an extra home game for spending the $$$ to get to Hawaii). We have 53 teams that qualify right now. Between now & bowl season, 17 teams will have to make themselves bowl eligible, it's no problem right? Well........after looking at the candidates, I'm beginning to have my doubts. Too many of them play each other, knocking too many teams out of the race to 6 wins. But what makes this task tougher is when these 5-5 or 4-6 teams have to play Boise, Oregon, USC, Michigan State or the like.
Let's look at the Big-12 where we have seven teams already bowl eligible, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas A&M & Kansas State. Four more teams could make it if they win out, 5-6 Iowa State(Mizzou on Saturday), Colorado(K-State & Nebraska), Texas Tech(Weber State & Houston) & Texas(Florida Atlantic & A&M). I think Tech will easily make it, the other three, I kinda doubt it.
Every conference is just about the same way, more losers than winners. Oregon State is 4-5 with USC, Stanford & Oregon remaining on the schedule, think they'll make it? The Sun Belt conference has eight teams, each with a losing record. The MAC won't add another team to the list. neither will the WAC.
The BIG EAST, with nary a top-25 team in their entire conference & an automatic BCS bowl bid already in the bag, have one bowl eligible team right now. The teams who could become eligible, play nearly a round-robin the last three weeks of the season which makes it very hard to see more than two teams emerging from this conference for bowl bid consideration. Same goes for the PAC-10, who could field their smallest bowl group in years. Excluding USC because of their probation, the 10-team conference has just 3 teams bowl eligible now.
So what happens if we end up 4 or 5 teams short of the 70 required to fill the lamest bowl games? The lamest will have the opportunity to offer bids to 5-7 teams, so Texas, Iowa State & other with losing records could be considered for a trip to the post season. And you thought the big bowl mystery was going to be how they could screw TCU & Boise State? Nope, it could very well be how do you market your bowl game when one of your teams has a losing record?
Tony Moeaki was not at practice on Wednesday, he reportedly sustained a concussion last Sunday. Brian Waters was in attendance, but he didn't participate in drills. Kendrick Lewis & Jon McGraw were limited as was Dexter McCluster. newly signed linebacker, Mark Simoneau was placed on I.R. after just one game with the Chiefs.
Other NFL injury news would include Cincinnati offensive tackle Andre Smith, who was placed on I.R. with a broken foot. The same foot he broke last season after reporting late, missing training camp & being grossly overweight. As the 7th player picked in last year's draft, he has been a major disappointment on a team that has been a major disappointment.
Two teams changed kickers, Pittsburgh cut long time placekicker Jeff Reed. He was on borrowed time, several off-field incidents coupled with diminishing results kicking at home sent him on to the free market. Someone will sign him. The Steelers replaced him with Shaun Suisham, formerly of the Redskins. He was cut loose after blowing a 24-yard attempt with a minute to go in New Orleans, it would have won the game. The Bengals put kicker Mike Nugent on I.R. No replacement has been signed. The Forty-Niners will be without kicker Joe Nedney for at least this weekend. His sub hasn't been announced.
I've ridiculed these knuckleheads who continually use the social networks, Twitter & Facebook, to prove they are knuckleheads. Tuesday & Wednesday were no exception. After Philly's 59-28 blowout on Monday night, Terrell Owens Tweeted "How do you justify a $78 million contract with this type of performance?" Owens was referring to his former teammate Donovan McNabb, God this guy is a cancer. Then there was Cardinal defensive tackle Darnell Dockett who Tweeted "Vick's doing so good, he's got dogs cheering for him." No comment. last but not least, Buffalo RB C.J. Spiller used his Facebook page to slur his former Clemson teammate Ricky Sapp with "Keep my name out of your mouth fag." All three of these geniuses have had to delete the messages & apologize for what they said. But you can't un-ring the bell, it's out there. Will they ever learn? I doubt it.
With two college games this Saturday that will be played on hallowed baseball ground, I wanted to show you a picture of just how cramped one of these venues will be for the collegians. Notre Dame will play Army in Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame needs the game to become bowl eligible(see below) & the Golden Knights would like a victory to insure all three service academies have a winning record. Illinois travels to the Windy City to play Northwestern at Wrigley Field. Think squeezing a football field in Wrigley wasn't difficult?
The 2" padding over the Ivy-covered brick wall is a mere 6" from the back line of over half the endzone. On the opposite end of the field, the same type of padding covers the 3rd base dugout, which is 6" from the back line of the endzone. One sideline is just 6' from the front row of seats. This game should be interesting to watch, if only for the logistics. You can see at 2:30 PM on ESPNU.
Sadly, the FOX network signed a deal with the BIG TEN to broadcast the first six conference championship games starting next year. If they used some of their regional FOXSports network crews & broadcast teams, this wouldn't be a problem with yours truly, but they'll use Joe Buck/Troy Aikman & a camera crew/director that only does pro football. FOX did the last 4 years of BCS bowl games & the telecasts were awful.
How awkward is this? Colorado cans Dan Hawkins, his son Cody is handed the starting QB job....again & he responds in a big way, throwing for 266-yards & 3 touchdowns beating Iowa State 34-14. Saturday the Buffaloes face Kansas State in Boulder on Senior Day & young Hawkins said he doesn't know if his parents will be on the field for him. This kid has been yo-yo'd up & down for 4 years, what a finish.
I told you the other day of the three Southern Miss players who were shot out side a club in Hattiesburg. I told you they were in stable condition, which they are, but two of these kids' lives were horribly changed for life. Martez Smith suffered a bullet wound to his spinal cord & is paralyzed below the waist & Tim Green suffered two gunshot wounds to his throat, severing his vocal cords. Well I guess the hero that shot them made his point huh?
So we have 35 bowl games, which means we'll need 70 bowl eligible teams right? To be bowl eligible you have to have won 6 games or 7 if you traveled to Hawaii(gets you an extra home game for spending the $$$ to get to Hawaii). We have 53 teams that qualify right now. Between now & bowl season, 17 teams will have to make themselves bowl eligible, it's no problem right? Well........after looking at the candidates, I'm beginning to have my doubts. Too many of them play each other, knocking too many teams out of the race to 6 wins. But what makes this task tougher is when these 5-5 or 4-6 teams have to play Boise, Oregon, USC, Michigan State or the like.
Let's look at the Big-12 where we have seven teams already bowl eligible, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas A&M & Kansas State. Four more teams could make it if they win out, 5-6 Iowa State(Mizzou on Saturday), Colorado(K-State & Nebraska), Texas Tech(Weber State & Houston) & Texas(Florida Atlantic & A&M). I think Tech will easily make it, the other three, I kinda doubt it.
Every conference is just about the same way, more losers than winners. Oregon State is 4-5 with USC, Stanford & Oregon remaining on the schedule, think they'll make it? The Sun Belt conference has eight teams, each with a losing record. The MAC won't add another team to the list. neither will the WAC.
The BIG EAST, with nary a top-25 team in their entire conference & an automatic BCS bowl bid already in the bag, have one bowl eligible team right now. The teams who could become eligible, play nearly a round-robin the last three weeks of the season which makes it very hard to see more than two teams emerging from this conference for bowl bid consideration. Same goes for the PAC-10, who could field their smallest bowl group in years. Excluding USC because of their probation, the 10-team conference has just 3 teams bowl eligible now.
So what happens if we end up 4 or 5 teams short of the 70 required to fill the lamest bowl games? The lamest will have the opportunity to offer bids to 5-7 teams, so Texas, Iowa State & other with losing records could be considered for a trip to the post season. And you thought the big bowl mystery was going to be how they could screw TCU & Boise State? Nope, it could very well be how do you market your bowl game when one of your teams has a losing record?
Comments