Are You Ready for Some Football?

Ok, so I’m not exactly a Swami/Dali Lama/Elijah and I tanked pretty hard on some predictions (well, not so hard, I only went 2-1 this week), but there was plenty of good watching this weekend in the world of football. The NFL kicked off with some pretty fun match-ups and a slow week in the college game ended up with some interesting outcomes.

On the NFL front, pretty much everything went according to plan. The good teams won and the not-so-good teams lost (with the minor exception of the trash bath of Denver vs. Cincinnati). The best match-up of the week was the first, which I covered last week. Steelers/Titans were by far the most evenly matched teams. New Orleans/Lions, Seattle/St. Louis, and tonight’s New England/Buffalo are the most lop-sided matches of the week. All you fanatasy fans had better have started Drew Brees, throwing for 6 touchdowns and 358 yards, he had the biggest opening game in NFL history and tied a Saints' in game record. In the Patriots/Bills game tonight, expect T.O. to have a couple of catches tonight and not much else from the Bills. Tom Brady’s first regular season game back will have a few bumps, but for the most part will be overwhelming for the Bills’ underwhelming secondary. Other than the Kansas City Chief’s surprising decent offense, the 49ers upset over the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals, and Indiana’s lack of scoring, the rest was pretty much a normal day at the office.

While anticipating the 2009 NFL season, the drama of college football was inciting a bang. The two big punches came from Ann Arbor and Stillwater, Oklahoma. The 18th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish came into Michigan’s “Big House” in Ann Arbor thinking that this Wolverine squad was the same team that lost to Appalachian St. last year only to find a 2nd year coach starting to turn his program around. Several experts (including Lou Holtz and Beano Cook) thought Notre Dame was returning to their former glory just because they aren’t in the stink pot this year and predicted an undefeated, national championship season. Even though they don’t have any ranked team on their schedule besides USC, there’s no way this team will even make it to a BCS game now. We definitively learned that Notre Dame is not the national championship team so many would have loved to believe.

Stillwater, OK. 5th ranked Oklahoma State hosts heavy underdog Houston. The Houston Cougars got out early and it was just too much for the Cowboys to catch up to until they finally took the lead in the 3rd quarter. The fourth quarter became a quick shooting match until the Cougars pulled away in the last 7 minutes of the game. This game was as loud of a wake up call as you can get. Oklahoma State's defense needs some serious work. When it comes time to face Texas, Oklahoma, and even Mike Leach's newly renovated Texas Tech offense, they'll be in serious need to fix some holes. This loss is surely a devastating blow to the Cowboys, but it's also a major blow to the Big 12. With two top 5 losses in the first two weeks for the Big 12, it will take several weeks to bring back legitimacy to their strength of schedules.

As far as the USC/Ohio State game goes, I either drastically overrated USC’s offense, or gave no credit whatsoever to Ohio State’s defense. I haven’t decided yet which is which. Admittedly I put no weight on the power of the 12th man on the field for Ohio State: the crowd. With the Horseshoe filled to capacity at over 102,000, I greatly underrated their influence. USC’s top offensive line was completely neutralized, evening out the mighty Trojan running game. Whether USC’s front five just didn’t show up to play or Ohio State’s defensive line was really that good is difficult to say. One thing’s for sure though, USC did everything they wanted to do the last drive of the 1st half and the last drive of the 2nd half (thanks to Joe McKnight [left]). As far as Ohio State’s offense was concerned, their match up with USC’s spectacular defense was pretty close to what I expected. With the exception of a fluke safety, Ohio State only scores one more field goal than anticipated.

So we’re officially underway. NFL and NCAA are both in full swing and as the top teams try to keep their eyes on the prize, we all keep our eyes open for upsets. We’ve been blessed so far with 3 or 4 big ones in the first few weeks, but don’t get too excited. The best teams always rise to the top. Well… usually.

College Football is BACK!!

Welcome back College Football, we missed you dearly. What a weekend! No matter what university you associate yourself with; this was a great opening weekend.

Highlights of the Week:

-Top ranked Florida thumps the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 62-3. They looked good doing exactly what everyone expected them to do, which is probably the hardest thing to do in sports.
-No. 2 Texas beats University of Louisiana Monroe 59-20, which infers that the Big 12 will be following last year’s pattern of a lot of offense and little-to-no-defense. Even with the large margin of victory, ULM Warhawks should not score 20 points against a 2nd rank Longhorn team.
-No. 23 Notre Dame defeats Nevada 35-0. Even though it was Nevada and not a top 25 team, holding anyone to a shut out is impressive, just ask the 2008 USC defense.
-Then No. 3 Oklahoma loses a stunning heartbreaker to BYU. Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford goes down with a sprained his throwing shoulder. Bradford will be out approximately 4 weeks. To add insult to injury, OU’s star Tight End, Jermaine Gresham will be out for the remainder of the season after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. It may be a long couple of weeks for Sooner fans.
-No. 14 Boise St. vs. No. 16 Oregon: Boise domination from the get-go, 19-8 Boise St. final, Blount punch, embarrassment for PAC-10, USC national championship hopes get a little harder.
-No. 4 USC’s true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley, surprised many by having a near perfect game in their 56-3 victory over San Jose St. There may also be some real promise in John Morton, USC’s new offensive coordinator. In comparison to Steve Sarkisian’s Trojan offense, Morton’s play calling was innovative and eclectic, allowing USC to pretty much do whatever it wanted.
-No. 6 Ohio State barely squeaked by Navy with a score of 31-27. It took an interception from Ohio State on a late 2-point conversion attempt to secure the victory, but for some reason, many experts still think the Buckeyes are going to beat USC this Saturday. Hmmm…
-Miami vs Florida St.: by far the best game of the week. It all came down to one last play, but Florida St. couldn’t quite convert after having 6 chances to get into the end zone from within the 5 yard line. 38-34 Final.

LOOKING FORWARD (Can’t Miss Games of the Week):

No 18. Notre Dame @ Michigan 3:30PM ET (on ABC): Finally Notre Dame seems to be out of their 10 year funk, but winning one game decidedly doesn’t mean that they’re going to the National Championship Game, even though that’s what the Notre Dame radio station and the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel (otherwise known as NBC) would have you believe. Michigan had a relatively impressive win last week over Western Michigan. Maybe the Wolverines are back on a track to playing like the “winningest” team in College Football. Prediction: Notre Dame 24-13 over Michigan.

No. 3 USC @ No. 8 Ohio State 8:00PM ET (on ESPN): As the only AP Top 25 match-up of the week, this game is clearly the most intriguing game of the week. Unfortunately, it will also probably be the most disappointing. After finding their groove in the first week, this won’t even be a contest for USC. Ohio State has been deemed a national championship contender for the last 8 years and each year has been proven to not even be in the same stratosphere. This year won’t be any different. Terrelle Pryor will put up a good fight and is worth 6 points, but they don’t have the horses to keep up with the Trojans. Prediction: USC 37, Ohio State 10.

Idaho State @ No. 13 Oklahoma 7:00PM ET: Maybe not a “can’t miss” game, but certainly one you might want to keep your eye on. Idaho State got crushed by Arizona State last week, 50-3. While this game may be near unwatchable football-wise, what will be interesting to see is how OU deals with the loss of two of their best players. This may be a great chance for them to rebound and get their feet settled. Their defense still has some issues though. Prediction: OU 41-10.