Game On

OK, after an unexpected week off we're jumping back into things. Hope everyone made it through the big storm Ok - pretty crazy stuff. Couple cans of food, tub of formula, ten bucks, anything like that - I'm sure it would help.

Now back to the weekend. I'll be honest, I'm finishing up day 6 of the solo-dada study at the Bearden house so to say my "routine" has been thrown off a bit may be an understatement. Nonetheless, I've pushing on - after all, we've got (on paper) a hell of a weekend of games. I will be testing the limits of my DVR this weekend. Let's start here...

Rice at Texas:
Ah the annual Rice game. Although the outcome of this match up is usually what we expect it to be, this time around will actually be good for Texas for a couple of reasons. First, Rice is putting up some pretty impressive offensive numbers, especially through the air. They're a respectable 2-1 with their loss coming at Vanderbilt - they were leading that game for most of the first half, but came out flat and didn't score again. Anyway, it will be a good test for our secondary to see how they can respond. The thing is, they'll see offenses like this all through conference, but with far better teams (Tech, OU, Missouri, Kansas) - a good showing by the secondary will do wonders for their confidence heading into a tough stretch of the schedule.

Second, no disrespect to the Owls, but I'd much rather be playing them coming off of the unexpected off week and the nature of the situation. There are a lot of players on this team from the Houston and surrounding areas and no doubt some of their friends/families were affected. That's got to be a distraction and why wouldn't it be. With that said, I'd much rather come out first game back playing Rice than playing Colorado, Missouri, or even Arkansas. (On the flip side, Arkansas gets Alabama which for them could be a good preamble to their trip to Austin.)

With that said, I think the game will be sloppy early on - it will take time for this team (both sides of the ball) to find their groove. Not sure what the spread is here, but I thought I heard it was around 30 points on the radio - I don't see them quite covering that this time around if that is in fact correct. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying it will be close or down to the last few possessions I just think it will be a sloppy 3 touchdown victory.

Texas - 40
Rice - 19

W. Virginia at Colorado:
Just have to chime in here with this - as I type this there is 4 minutes to play in the first quarter and based on what I've seen thus far, the Mountaineers are going to have to claw their way to a victory here. Colorado holds a 14-7 lead and is moving the ball quite easily. W. Virginia's offense has come down to Pat White in the first couple of series as the Buffs are doing a good job of shutting down the passing/rushing game. Two minutes and Mountaineers have a nice drive going.

Big win for both of these teams. This would be a big road win for W. Virginia and one that would no doubt boost their confidence and maybe make a run to close out the year. On the other hand, I think this would most definitely make teams raise an eyebrow if Colorado knocked off these guys. Good Thursday night match up - hope you are getting to check it out.

Florida at Tennessee:
This is one of those games where on paper it looks like it could be the game of the day. I know Tennessee lost to UCLA and that's certainly a huge tarnish, but I think this game could be pretty competitive and I give them a pretty chance in this game. I think their offense could really test the uncertain Florida defense and if Tebow and Harvin can't find any other help on offense I think they are definitely beatable. Of course even if it's just Tebow and Harvin that's still better than most. I'm taking Florida in a very close game.

Florida - 31
Tennessee - 28

LSU at Auburn:
Two of the best defenses in the country and one pretty bad offense - something's gotta give here. I think LSU's offense is better than Auburn's offense and will ultimately get more opportunities. I know the home team has dominated this series of late, but I think that trend is broken on Saturday.

LSU - 17
Auburn - 9

Georgia at Arizona State:
This very well maybe the game of the day in terms of entertainment value. I know ASU lost to UNLV last week and I know they've been a trendy pick as of late, but when they're on they can put on a show. Georgia *must* win this game. Absolutely must win this game. If you're going to be a pre-season number one (whatever the hell that means) than you have to win games like this. I'm taking Georgia in a tight one.

Georgia - 32
Arizona State - 27

Miami at Texas A&M:
The Aggies will be looking for some payback after the ass whoopin' they took in South Beach last year. McGee is questionable (I still say he's not playing) and so experience may be a question mark at the QB position. In terms of defense, I think the Aggies will have a pretty tough time stopping Miami's athletes. I don't know, I'd like to think that the Aggies can win this game and maybe they can, but I'm just not seeing it.

Miami - 28
Texas A&M - 24

One more quick update on the Colorado game - Hawkins is killing this team (the coach one) with his play calling. He's playing like Mack Brown - 3rd and 9 and they throw a 7 yard pass. He's killing all of the offensive momentum that they muster up...

NFL Notes:
Just two weeks into the season and already some good stories and drama. And just like in week 1 I'm still getting my arse handed to me in my NFL pool - I'll start including a few of my weekly picks so you all can laugh and smugly utter, "idiot" when I'm wrong. See below for this week's "more challenging/questionable" picks.

• Biggest 0-2 surprise team - gotta be the Chargers with the Jags as a very close second. I know this isn't any real consolation, but the Chargers really could/should be 2-0. Unfortunately that isn't reflected in the standings. They've got their backs against the wall and *need* to get a win - I think they get the win at home against the Jets on Monday night. As for the Jags - they go to Indianapolis this weekend which will certainly be a test. Like the Chargers they have their backs against the wall and really need to win this game having already lost a division game to the Titans. Colts have some key injuries - I say Jags take this one in a very tight, hard-fought game.
  
• Biggest 2-0 surprise team - Another toss up on this one; Buffalo and Carolina. They both beat 2 pretty good teams and both look like they could continue to get better and better. The Panthers visit the Vikings - another team with their backs against the wall in terms of expectations - and if they win that game put me down on the official list that says these guys are for real. Buffalo gets one of those suit-up bye weeks when they host the Raiders. I'm going out on a limb saying the Bills will be 3-0 after Sunday.
  
• I don't know about you, but I had forgotten what a healthy Donovan McNabb looked like. That was quite a show the Eagles and Cowboys put on this past Monday. I think I mentioned this last week, but I'm not at all surprised by the offensive output of the Cowboys - this is what we expected from them. But the Eagles looked pretty damn good on the road in a hostile environment. If McNabb can stay healthy (insert joke here) they can certainly compete for that division and in this conference, anyone can make the playoffs.
  
• Dallas at Green Bay - big, big game on Sunday night.
  
• How much longer until the veteran backbone of the Colts breaks. Another injury for Bob Sanders - he's one of those who always seems to be injured, but he's also played very well when he's returned from injury. Either way, between Sanders, Harrison (who's really on his last leg) and the offensive line this could be a tough year for the Colts.
  

My Week 3 Picks:

Buffalo at home giving up 9.5 points to Oakland - I took Buffalo here. I know it's a lot of points, but I just can't see Oakland doing much on the road. 

Washington at home giving up 3.5 points to the Cardinals - Struggled with this one the most. Arizona is looking good and Warner is playing better than ever, but I have to think that they'll come back down to earth sooner or later and Campbell looks more and more comfortable in the games. I took the Skins. 

Carolina at Minnesota and getting 9.5 points - Vikings are desperate and at home and I think they'll win, but I have to think that the Panthers won't let it get to a ten-point deficit. Steve Smith is also back for Carolina which could spell trouble for the Vikings. I took Carolina and the points. 

Now let's see if I can muster up more than 5 wins this week. 

Aaaaaaaaand a final note out of Boulder - Colorado upsets W. Virginia 17-14 in overtime. Moutaineer kicker missed a chip shot on their first possession in OT - Colorado kicker made his. Couple of things - I think Dan Hawkins needs to have a bit more confidence in his offense - I know they're young, but they're talented as hell. And second, Bill Stewart has no business being the head coach at West Virginia or anywhere else - it's blatantly clear that he is not a head coach. He led that team down a road of confusion and doubt for the final minute of regulation when they easily could have gotten into field goal range with a chance to win. It was painful to watch. 

Enjoy the weekend and enjoy the games.  

Week 3 Lessons Learned

Alright so we are, more or less, 25% of the way through the season with most teams having 3 games under their belts. So what have we learned thus far about this year's teams...

• First and foremost, in an ideal world, we would still be 2-3 weeks out from having any official polls as well as any discussion around heisman candidates (although if you put a gun to my head, Chase Daniel would probably be my pick).
  
• As of today, and based on what I've seen thus far, there are really only 2 (maybe 3) teams that stand out from the pack in such a dominating way - Oklahoma and USC (Missouri being that other "maybe 3" team). After that, it's quite vague. Not saying it will stay like this throughout the year, just as of today, these guys seem head and shoulders above the competition.
  
• Can you imagine that "perfect storm" scenario where the pollsters/system are forced to put Ohio State in the national title game? Barring that catastrophe I think there's a better than good chance that Ohio State will not be participating in this year's title game. But, if they run the table from here on out (with games against at least 2 ranked teams) anything could happen...one-loss Sooner and/or Trojan team would most certainly get the edge.
  
• I don't care how good Beanie Wells is, that was *not* the difference. Buckeyes still have games against Penn State and Wisconsin and those will not be easy.
• One more thing about Ohio State - you can't rotate quarterbacks like that and expect to be able to pick up and maintain and real momentum. Here's what I know, the only glimpses of energy and movement I saw by the Buckeye offense was when Pryor was in the game. He had 2 consecutive 11-yard runs and then came off the field. Hey, Tressell, you need to score points! Reminded me A LOT of Mack Brown.
  
• 2. That's the over/under on number of more games Greg Robinson coaches for Syracuse. I'm taking the under.
  
• It's going to be a long, LONG year for Michigan, Washington and UCLA
• The Big 12 is an offensive powerhouse - a lot of teams are throwing up a lot of offensive numbers: Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma State. I can't see anyone coming out of this conference unscathed this year.
  
• Right now, there are 2 really solid conferences: Big 12 and SEC. ACC and Big East are horrible. Even with Oregon the Pac 10 is pretty darn weak. The wild card is the Big 10 - I know their cream of the crop just got smacked by the Pac 10 kings, but they're a bit deeper than the Pac 10. Wisconsin and Penn State are legitimately good with Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue being potential upsetters on any given Saturday against any given opponent. Big 12 and SEC are very, very deep this year...at least so far.
  
• And how about those South Florida Bulls? Did you watch? Didn't I tell you to watch? Even if you only caught the second half you caught the best part. Great, great game by both teams. Reesing looked very sharp and had only one real mishap all game...of course it happened to be the game-changing play, but nonetheless he was very good. Tough loss for Kansas, but I don't think it's earth shattering for them by any means. They were driving and had they not thrown that INT I believe strongly that they would have won that game. But, they didn't. Big win for South Florida who is now firmly implanted in that "favorite" position in the Big East. Good luck with all of that.
  
• Probably one of the worst weeks for the Pac 10 in...well, forever. Let's see, Wazzu got smacked by Baylor, UCLA gets utterly humiliated by BYU, ASU loses to UNLV, Washington gets blown out to Oklahoma, Stanford loses to TCU, Arizona loses to New Mexico, and Oregon barely squeaks by Purdue. Sheesh, even with USC's dominance over OSU, still a terrible week for the Pacific teams. 
• One more thing about the S. Florida/Kansas game - it was amazing how many big 3rd downs both teams were converting. At one point in the second half Kansas had 3rd and 21 and picked up 23 yards.
• I really don't think Auburn is a top ten team.
  

Highlights from the National Football League:

• Kerry Collins looked pretty good for the Titans...I'm just saying.
• Looks like Chargers at Broncos was one hell of a game, but there's no chance that Cutler play was an incomplete pass. I was definitely routing for Denver in that one, but that was a terrible call. 
  
• Great comeback by Peyton and company, but that team just doesn't look like the same team from the past few years. They're certainly looking older.
  
• Man, what a sucker punch New England gave to the Jets - you could just feel how close that the Jets truly believed this was their chance to take the division. Of course they still can, but that hurts.
  
• Word is Lane Kiffin may be fired on Monday. I don't doubt that Lane Kiffin is NOT the man to lead the renaissance of the Raiders, but Davis hired him. Davis has hired all of the crappy coaches over the past several years. Let's look at the draft picks of late: Robert Gallery, Jamarcus Russell, Michael Huff, Phillip Buchanan, Sebastian Janikowski, and now Darren McFadden. That's quite bit a of talent. Very poorly run organization.
  
• I'm already getting killed in my NFL pick 'em game. Damn. 
• Very much looking forward to getting to watch the *entire* game tonight - kickoff is right around bedtime. Hopefully this one will be better than last night's game. Man, those were some ugly conditions. 

Have a great week - I'll be back on Friday with a preview of the big Rice game.