Gators, Cardinals and Eagles, Oh My

Before we get into everything from the weekend, try and picture this. After next year's 5-7 season, Notre Dame's Charlie Weiss will crawl back to the NFL with his tail between his legs and Urban Meyer will stroll into South Bend with an $8 million contract and 3 BCS "titles" in 4 years. I'm just saying...it's not completely out of the question.

Now, please let me get this off of my chest. How big of a disaster have the Giants been over the past 5 weeks? I just kept thinking, it was the end of the season, there wasn't a sense of urgency, etc., etc. I think this was a situation of the Giants peeking early and frankly, getting too comfortable. Eli and the offense had a completely abysmal performance today - not a single touchdown in a playoff game is inexcusable. You can't put this on the defense; twice they held the Eagles to a field goal when they started with first and goal on the one. And they were able to get to McNabb for a safety. No my friends, this was solely on the offense. And that's all I have to say about that.

BCS:
What can you say, pretty good game although a tad sloppy early. And so much for the "greatest offense of all time". I mean talk about a ridiculous let down by the Oklahoma offense, especially after all the hype. I will however give OU's defense credit as they were able to do a pretty good job of containing Tebow and company for a half or so - forcing Timmy to equal his INTs for the year in the first half. (Of course, let's be honest, those throws were TERRIBLE decisions by Tebow.) At the end of the day, Oklahoma simply doesn't know how to handle tight games where they have to claw and fight their way to a win - and they sure as hell can't play from behind.

What else can you say, Florida made big plays when they needed to most and Oklahoma didn't come close to doing that. The Sooner running back Brown had a real nice game in the absence of Murray and I give him a lot of credit for making some big runs, especially in the 2nd quarter. Some quick hit thoughts...

• Look, I know Tebow is a real great kid and a great story and most certainly one of the top 20 or so college football players of all time, but the way the talking heads and media seem to want to line up to try and make sweet love to him is a bit over the top. They act like they've never seen a team leader and player like him before. And are you kidding me with giving him player of the game? I know he made some big plays both with his feet and his arm, but Percy Harvin was by and far the player of that game. Percy absolutely saved his ass on a number of occasions and was the most explosive player on the field that night.
  
• If people (media, fans, bloggers, etc.) are going to continue to give Ohio State so much sh*t for their bowl performance over the past couple of years than they had better absolutely hammer Oklahoma. For the love of God they've lost five consecutive BCS bowl games - they haven't won one since their championship run which was, I believe, in 2000. I'm not saying they necessarily should get beat up or anything because hey, they're making these games, but I'm just saying, you can't beat up the Buckeyes and give Stoops and OU a pass.
  
• Speaking of Stoops - by and far his worst coaching performance in a long, long time. Probably up there with the Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia. Memo to "Big Game (letdown)" Bobby - style points only work if you can actually win your big games. His two biggest games of the season and he lost by 2 scores. And yet again, do you think the heisman voters would like to have that one back? I said leading up to the ceremony, Bradford was the third best player up on that stage and he proved it for the second time this year. When his team needed him to make a *play* (not a throw, a PLAY) he couldn't deliver. Meanwhile, Tebow did it on multiple occasions making plays with his feet and arm...and he came in third in voting. Yet again, should have ended McCoy, Tebow, Bradford.
  
• With that said, I heard this a few times (likely fabricated/created by the media as a good topic): anyone who actually thinks that Stoops (or Tressell) should be fired is out of their minds. Let me ask this - who would Oklahoma go and get? The absurdity of college football continues to grow out of control.
• This has nothing to do with Florida or OU, but in the final AP poll, how in the world do you move USC ahead of Texas when they haven't been anywhere near them going into the bowl games? Prove me wrong on the love affair. On top of that, there was an SI article this week that was titled, "What About Us?" and it centered around Utah and...USC! Texas was not mentioned once in the article. Unreal.
  
• Finally, here's what I think about the whole BCS system (well, honestly, you all know what I *really* think about it). If you're not going to change the system to something that is halfway fair and logical than do this: Stop calling the winner of the last bowl game the national champs. Just call Florida the Orange Bowl champs.

Looking Ahead to 2009:
So it's official, Tebow is coming back (big shock - he's got an iffy NFL career ahead of him and everyone man, woman and child in the state of Florida and in the media lining up to, as I said, make sweet love to him). What does it mean? Two things: 1) Florida will be the undisputed #1 team coming into next year with 19 of 22 starters coming back, and 2) No matter what Colt McCoy does, he can't win the heisman. I'm dead serious, Texas can go undefeated and Florida could lose half their games and the star-struck media will find away to anoint Timmy of Nazareth.

On the flip side, other than replacing their entire defensive line, Texas brings just about everyone else back which means they will be the undisputed #2 team. They've got a real good shot of running the table with no Arkansas on the schedule and with Tech losing Harrell/Crabtree, Mizzou losing Daniel and Maclin, and OU losing their RBs, offensive line and receivers. The tough game will be the trip to Stillwater with Okie State returning their primary weapons on offense.

Other notable teams to watch next year: Ole Miss, USC (duh, righ?), Alabama and LSU.

NFL Playoffs:

• I've already hit on my Giants so I'm going to skip that again. But before I move on, I think A LOT of folks out there (including me) owe the Philadelphia Eagles a big, BIG apology.
  
• Someone, please, tell me who's NOT excited about the Arizona Cardinals. Sure, Delhomme played a horrible game, but the Cardinals had to take advantage of those mistakes. Big kudos to them and I couldn't be more excited.
  
• I'd like to be the guy who, back in August, put down $100 on Arizona making the NFC conference championship game. If only that guy existed.
  
• Hey Fisher and the Titans - SHUT UP about your no call on the delay of game. You can't turn the ball over as much as you did and bitch about the refs. You just can't do it.
  
• I know a lot of people still think Ray Lewis is a piece of crap (which he's not...at all) and it amazes me. How can you not get excited about watching the Ravens play? And Joe Flacco? Forget about it. I just keep waiting on him to mess up and he doesn't. He's a game manager, pure and simple. Great, great team and a terrific job by Hardbough this year.
  
• If you didn't see the game on Sunday afternoon, let me give you San Diego's 3rd quarter stats: 1 offensive play, 0 yards, 3 seconds time of possession. I have no idea, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if this has happened before, it's only been once or twice. Unreal. Pittsburgh looked very, very good.
• My Super Bowl prediction: Baltimore over Arizona. The story here? Not Joe Flacco winning the Super Bowl, but the Arizona Cardinals making the Super Bowl. Another big story? Arizona played TWO games at home in these playoffs. If you love the NFL and you don't love parity, you don't have a pulse. I'll be rooting like crazy for the Cardinals from here on out. Like crazy. I'd like to think the Steelers will make it here because their game this weekend is at home, but they've played and beaten the Ravens twice this year already I think and I just can't see them beating the Ravens 3 times. I just can't.

Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:

• For those of you with little kids (like 2-3 years old) - when you're folding clothes out of the dryer, doesn't it seem like it doesn't end? I swear when I'm folding those little clothes it seems like I'm doing it for 2 hours and there are at least 736 outfits. Crazy.
  
• Why am I excited you ask? 24 is back after last year's hiatus (whiny writers). And boy is it great. The show has reverted back to their older form with the writing and story line. It's also obvious that they're taking the moral dilemma road of torture and interrogation. As Hoos and I were saying, as Senate committees are trying to indict Bauer on torture charges, he should carry a scorecard around with him in his back pocket: saved the President? Check. Saved the country on numerous occasions? Check. Did he have to kick a lot of ass doing it? Yep, but he gets the job done.
  
• SPOILER ALERT: For those fans out there, when you saw Tony Almeda "back from the dead", didn't you immediately think about Hasselhoff's evil twin in those old Knight Rider episodes? You know the ones where he's got the evil little triangle beard and wearing all black. It's a little funny.
  
• So in one of Bush's final press conferences he was reflecting on his administration and talking what he did well and not so well - and he had the stones to actually say he doesn't see the perceived failures with Katrina. Wha-wha-what??? Dude, we all watched it unfold on f'ng television. He said that they pulled X thousands of people off of roof tops after the storm passed. Why were there so many people stuck on roofs to begin with??? Dumb, dumb, dumb thing to say.
  
• So I saw Hancock this past weekend. I really liked the idea of the story of a superhero who's a drunken prick, but when Teen Wolf Two's wife ended up being his long, lost wife from thousands of years ago and ALSO a superhero of sorts? That's when they kind of lost me. Either way, whatever Will Smith touches turns to gold. Seriously - he's one of the most talented people in the world.
• This job market is a scary, SCARY thing right now.
  

That's what I got guys. I'll be back after next weekend's conference championship games. Have a good week and bundle up.