Stealing the Spotlight
The SEC refs continue to put themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to explain (yet again) why they missed a blatant call that thoroughly helped their precious Crimson Tide. You never want to harp on that kind of stuff, but this is like 4 out of the last 5 weeks where a missed call late in the game certainly affected things. These guys really need a good high-profile game.
Ho-hum year for the SEC - here we are with 3 games remaining in the year and our conference title match up is already set. As everyone in the free world expected, Florida and Bama are your teams. This can get very dangerous for these teams as it's going to be hard for both coaches to keep the guys focused and motivated. Both teams have one potential hiccup on their respective schedules, but for the most part, the toughest games are behind them.
I've said this before and I'll say it again - I just don't know how one can say that one of these teams is any better than another. They both have very good defenses and both have suspect offenses. Hell, Florida only converted like 4 of 13 third downs against Vandy on Saturday. That's....not good. Regardless of what happens, these guys are facing off in the conference title - the question is, will they be playing for a Sugar bowl birth or for the big Rose bowl birth. We shall see.
How does he do it? I just don't know, but yet again, I look at Colt's stats after the game and find myself questioning just how in the world he was able to put up those kinds of numbers. Same for Shipley this week. HUGE game for Jordan (record setting in fact). It's hard to get pumped up about these games the rest of the way as I just don't see anyone coming within 4-5 touchdowns of the Horns. I talked about being most scared about the Aggies, but not so much anymore (really? Colorado?). Let's face it, the Big 12 is waaaaay down this year. Of course, you could say the same for the SEC as well if you look at expectations vs. performance.
Nevertheless, I just don't see these guys being challenged the rest of the way. And the Big 12 title game, you ask? I think the game between Kansas State and Nebraska (this may be next week) will decide who will lose to Texas by 20 points during that first weekend of December.
This Texas defense looks more and more like the most consistent defense in the country week in and week out. I would feel confident with this defense against any offense in the country right now. Tebow, Ingram, Keenum - any of those guys would have a tough time facing Texas right now. A real tough time.
What a mess. I'm talking about the Big 12. I mean, what a complete mess this conference is this year. Kansas - underachievers; Oklahoma - decimated by injuries; Nebraska - zero offense. Right now, it's pretty much Texas and Okie State and that's it. Texas is going to likely go into the conference championship game facing an unranked Kansas State or Nebraska team.
And how is it possible that the Sooners are only able to muster up 3 points in Lincoln on Saturday night. Sheesh, what a horrible, horrible outing for Stoops and company. I think it's safe to say that this team has mailed it in this year. And let's not forget Baylor's upset of Mizzou in Columbia. Talk about a rough day for Tiger fans in Missouri.
Bottom line is this - the Big 12 is laughable this year and I think it's safe to say that they are the low men on the totem pole of conference strength. They have an elite team in Texas and an upper tier team in Okie State, but that's really it.
Other College Football Observations...
Ho-hum year for the SEC - here we are with 3 games remaining in the year and our conference title match up is already set. As everyone in the free world expected, Florida and Bama are your teams. This can get very dangerous for these teams as it's going to be hard for both coaches to keep the guys focused and motivated. Both teams have one potential hiccup on their respective schedules, but for the most part, the toughest games are behind them.
I've said this before and I'll say it again - I just don't know how one can say that one of these teams is any better than another. They both have very good defenses and both have suspect offenses. Hell, Florida only converted like 4 of 13 third downs against Vandy on Saturday. That's....not good. Regardless of what happens, these guys are facing off in the conference title - the question is, will they be playing for a Sugar bowl birth or for the big Rose bowl birth. We shall see.
How does he do it? I just don't know, but yet again, I look at Colt's stats after the game and find myself questioning just how in the world he was able to put up those kinds of numbers. Same for Shipley this week. HUGE game for Jordan (record setting in fact). It's hard to get pumped up about these games the rest of the way as I just don't see anyone coming within 4-5 touchdowns of the Horns. I talked about being most scared about the Aggies, but not so much anymore (really? Colorado?). Let's face it, the Big 12 is waaaaay down this year. Of course, you could say the same for the SEC as well if you look at expectations vs. performance.
Nevertheless, I just don't see these guys being challenged the rest of the way. And the Big 12 title game, you ask? I think the game between Kansas State and Nebraska (this may be next week) will decide who will lose to Texas by 20 points during that first weekend of December.
This Texas defense looks more and more like the most consistent defense in the country week in and week out. I would feel confident with this defense against any offense in the country right now. Tebow, Ingram, Keenum - any of those guys would have a tough time facing Texas right now. A real tough time.
What a mess. I'm talking about the Big 12. I mean, what a complete mess this conference is this year. Kansas - underachievers; Oklahoma - decimated by injuries; Nebraska - zero offense. Right now, it's pretty much Texas and Okie State and that's it. Texas is going to likely go into the conference championship game facing an unranked Kansas State or Nebraska team.
And how is it possible that the Sooners are only able to muster up 3 points in Lincoln on Saturday night. Sheesh, what a horrible, horrible outing for Stoops and company. I think it's safe to say that this team has mailed it in this year. And let's not forget Baylor's upset of Mizzou in Columbia. Talk about a rough day for Tiger fans in Missouri.
Bottom line is this - the Big 12 is laughable this year and I think it's safe to say that they are the low men on the totem pole of conference strength. They have an elite team in Texas and an upper tier team in Okie State, but that's really it.
Other College Football Observations...
- What did I tell you about Stanford? All you Pac 10 haters out there may not like hearing this, but this conference is deep this year. They don't have the usual big, bad USC, but they've got a lot of pretty tough teams.
- OUCH Hawkeye fans. Looks like next week's game in Columbus will likely determine who's going to the Rose Bowl. Only so long you can carry a comeback streak like that Ferentz.
- When you're wrong, you're wrong - and I was certainly wrong about the Buckeyes and Penn State. Big, big road win for OSU who sorely needed a victory like that. Mr. Pryor just may have exercised some demons in that one. Next week's game against Iowa should be interesting.
- My heisman picks at this point: Case Keenum, Mark Ingram or Dion Lewis. I know Lewis is a freshman, but when you're playing as well as he is, you can't NOT be included in the conversation. The last freshman to come close was Peterson who came in second....although he should have run away with it. Colt may crawl back up into the discussion, but he just turns the damn ball over too much. Yet another terrible pick on Saturday.
- And there goes the Weiss era in Notre Dame. They went like 30 years without losing to Navy and now they've lost something like 2 straight? Not good Chuck, not good at all. They get to visit Pitt next weekend in what will be a very, very tough game.
- Weird stat of the weekend - Nebraska had 180 total yards compared with OU's 325 total yards....and they won. Like I said above, Big 12 is no es bueno this year.
- Don't look now folks, but TCU is number 4 in the BCS. And here come the Horned Frogs. Where are the job offers for Gary Patterson I wonder. The Frog fans will have a good shot of redemption (i.e. actually show up to the games) next weekend as Game Day visits Fort Worth for the Utah/TCU match up.
- Brian Kelly or Urban Meyer for Notre Dame's next coach? Hmm......
- My Giants have some real issues that they need to get figured out if they're going to make a serious run for the playoffs. The Chargers are not all that good and that was in New York. They head into a bye week coming up and it's a good thing. Seriously, win your first 5 and then lose 4 straight? Unreal.
- How's that Jay Cutler thing working out Bears' fans? Actually, to be perfectly fair, Cutler is the least of the Bears' issues - their defense is a shell of what they used to be. They were humiliated in the first half at home against the Cardinals on Sunday. I mean, just embarrassed.
- Paging Green Bay's defense....paging any defense at all in Green Bay. Simply can't lose that game to the Bucs...you just can't. Rogers utterly imploded towards the end of that one.
- FANTASY UPDATE: Man, they had Westbrook listed as probably so I went with him over Sproles and McGahee - neither had any points so it doesn't matter, but still. Maddening. HUGE day for Fitzgerald which helped tremendously. Also picked up Olsen (Bears' tight end) this week and he promptly catches 3 TD passes today. Very nice. But what's really going to help me this week is the fact that Seiders has 2 holes in his lineup for the week.....nice. Seiders, it takes like 2 minutes. Literally.
- It's official. The Bengals are bad ass and most definitely for real. They've now beaten the Raves twice in 5 weeks and are 4-0 in division play. The Steelers visit Denver on Monday night which will be interesting to Cincy, but they will visit Pittsburgh next weekend in what will likely be for control of the division. Halfway through the season and Baltimore is left to fight for a wild card. Bengals are fighting the Broncos for the league's biggest surprise team of the first half of the year.
- Speaking of first half of the year - let's give out some make-believe, half-season hardware: MVP has got to be a toss up between Brees and Manning; Offensive POhalfY is most Desean Jackson; Defensive POhalfY is Demarcus Ware; Coach of the halfYear, Josh McDaniels gets the nod.
- Man, I can't deny it, I really freaking hate Phillip Rivers. I just do. I have no explanation for it really.
- Hold on to your hats you blinded, irrational "Texas" Vince Young fans - those Titans are now 2-0 with his dumb ass in the lineup. And he is playing smarter, more efficient these days. It's like he's realized he has one of the best 4 or 5 backs in the league behind him. We'll see, but it's been a really solid couple of games.
- And speaking of Longhorns, Cedric Benson just keeps pumping his legs and racking up 100+ yard games....and by the way, he's had 2 of them against Baltimore this year. I don't know what happened to him (probably grew up a little), but he's playing big time football.
posted by The Bearden Wonder at 5:43 PM
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