Insighs, Observations and General Ranting

Interesting and noteworthy weekend, culminating in yet another dominating performance by those seemingly unstoppable Packers on Monday night. But before we jump into the NFL, let's take a look at the past weekend in the college game.

• Easily one of the most frustrating Texas performances I've seen in a year or more. I know, I know, we were down to our fourth string running back following Fozzy's injury. But my beef isn't with the running game. It's with the fact that we have nothing but a running game. That was as bad of an offensive performance as I've seen in a long time. My optimism is quite low heading into the final 3 weeks of the season - my prediction of 8-4 is likely out of the question. I just don't see where 2 more wins come from. One more...maybe, but not 2.
  
• I hear a lot of concern from Texas fans about coveted running back Jonathan Gray opting to go somewhere else given how many young and talented running backs currently on the team. My take on that - WHO CARES! I don't care one bit if Jonathan Gray opts to go somewhere else - we don't need a RB. We need a quarterback. I have seen nothing out of Ash or McCoy that makes me believe that we have a future with these guys. Go get the best QB you can find (not necessarily the top rated QB...we saw how that worked with Gilbert. Go get the best guy for this team) and tell him you want him to come in and compete/play RIGHT NOW.
• I have to wonder - were all of those mindless 30-yard pass plays by Ash called plays, or was that just him going for a home run? I hope to God it was just him making those decisions - I can't fathom why the coaches would continue to call on him to make a pass that he clearly couldn't make.
  
• And you had better figure out how to teach this O-line to pass block. They have absolutely no idea what they're doing right now.
  
• I think we can all now agree that the Kansas and Tech games were cases of Texas playing VERY bad teams. Tech and Kansas may be the two worst BCS conference teams in the country. Or at least damn close to it.
  
• However, I am quite pleased with the progress of the defense. As was the case all of last year, the defense played well enough to win the game, but was simply let down by the offense.
• What a game in the Little Apple Saturday night. Tough loss for Aggies. It begs the question - are the Aggies quietly becoming a mess? Although I like Coach Sherman a lot (very smart football mind), I've never liked him for this job. And frankly, I've not met an Aggie who disagrees. I don't think there's a general hatred or anger towards him, just a feeling of uncertainty with him at the helm. Here's a team who was ranked in the top 10 pre-season and has 4 losses - all in gut-wrenching fashion. And the worst ones have been at home. Heading into the SEC next year, where in the world is Aggie fan's head looking ahead? I still say they beat Texas though. Their defense is horrible, but not as bad as Texas' offense.
  
• For the record - I still think Boise, Bama, Oklahoma, Stanford and Oregon are among the best teams in the country. And OH MY GOSH, they have all lost a game....
• I was quite surprised at the Oregon/Stanford outcome on Saturday, but I learned this - Oregon is a completely different team than we saw in that first week against LSU. And to remind everyone, Oregon handed the Tigers 21 points on ridiculously stupid plays. But this team is more polished and they looked like everyone on that team runs about a 4.2 40. The speed was unreal. This team deserves a hell of a lot more respect than they've received of late. They can hang with anyone. Personally would love to see them play LSU again - or Bama, OU, etc.
  
• I still proclaim that Stanford is a tough, tough team that ran into a red-hot Oregon team that played a damn near flawless game. More times than not the team with the best QB is going to win and there is (still) none better than Andrew Luck.
  
• Funny (and very smart) point made by Stewart Mandel in his mailbag this week regarding Big 10 fans not having a clue how conference championship games work - and more importantly, how negatively it can impact bowl selection for the loser. Many think that "oh, we went to the conference championship game and lost so we're the number 2 team in the conference". In a way, yes, you are. However, when you read the details on bowl selection and when you see that X bowl gets the number 4 Big 10 team, what that really means is that they get the fourth selection. Biiiiig difference. Welcome to a new world Big 10 and Pac 12 fans. For those fans who's team loses the conference championship game, the result can be quite painful and frustrating....as Michigan State will likely learn this year. Of course on the flip side you can also fall ass backwards into the national title game without even playing in the conference championship game (anyone remember Nebraska???).
• Go look at the Pac 12 South division and tell me what you think. That's a bad, bad division.
• You know what, I think we've heard enough of the Penn State thing for a while...
  

NFL Observations:

• Anyone else get the feeling we're about to experience the great collapse of the Detroit Lions?
  
• I just don't see the Packers losing a whole lot of games between now and January. I'm not sure who's going to be at them.
  
• Is there a more schizophrenic team than the Bears? Man, they've looked damn good the last couple of weeks. That defensive front is very, very impressive. But who knows with this team.
  
• Say what you will Romosexuals, he's still a mediocre quarterback.
  
• Same thing goes for Mark Sanchez.
  
• As much as I hate the Niners, this is no longer a fluke. This team is playing a ridiculous level and that win over a very good Giants team sealed the deal. Remember when Alex Smith was almost left for dead? Oh, and right on time, Frank Gore leaves the game with an injury.
  
• Oh my, what in the world has happened to those Chargers? Can't pin this one on Norv Turner, but I suspect they will - Phillip Rivers has been just awful this year. VERY tough game coming up in Chicago this weekend - talk about a desperate team. Here's when playing in the AFC West can pay off - a win in Chi-town puts them at .500 and very much in the division race.
  

That's what I got - listen to this week's podcast to get my predictions for the coming weekend. Here's a hint - I'm not optimistic about the Horns. Shh....it's a secret.