Over the next two days we’re going to look at the best and the worst of the impending college bowl season. Today I will touch on the six bowl games that I am most interested in watching, then tomorrow we’ll look at the five that I will quite likely take a pass on. Without further ado, the top six (in order):
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Here’s what’s crossing my mind as I get ready for a day of football action:
1. The Saints are favored by 10.5 in Atlanta. Can you imagine how crazy you would have thought I was if I had told you that that was going to be the spread back in July. Crazy, crazy stat – In the last eight years every team in the NFC South has gone from last one year to first the next – including New Orleans this year.
There is only one college football game this weekend as we are stuck in between the regular season and the start of the bowl season. We’ve spent time for the last 15 Saturday’s looking at the day’s action, so there is no reason to stop that even though we only have one game. Here, then, is a collection of 10 facts and figures you may or may not need to know to prepare for today’s Army-Navy game:
Something is very rotten in Pittsburgh. There is really no way to explain how the Steelers managed to lose to the Browns last night. The stats are just staggering. They lost to a team that has a quarterback who completed six of 19 passes for 90 yards. The Browns’ leading rusher was Josh Cribbs – a wide receiver. Cribbs only had 87 yards, but he outgained the entire Steelers team by 12 yards. Big Ben was sacked eight times. This was as bad as a legitimate team can possibly play. The offensive line was offensive, the defense didn’t care, receivers were quitting on routes – absolutely nothing went well. The defending Super Bowl champs have now dropped five in a row, and you really have to wonder what Mike Tomlin is going to do about this, and maybe even f he is going to survive it. Injuries – Troy Polamalu chief among them – are a big part of the story, but that’s not an excuse. It could be an excuse for not winning the division, but it’s not an excuse for a five game slide and a loss to the freaking Browns. Now they have nine days to sit and stew in their own misery before their next game. It will be very interesting to watch what goes on in Pittsburgh over the next few weeks.
It’s too early to fully decide for now, but I think it’s safe to say that Richard Jefferson in San Antonio isn’t working as well it seemed like it would. He has seen the same basic amount of playing time that he has in the past, but his production has dropped by seven points from last year, and is his lowest since he was a rookie in 2001. Three of the last four years he has averaged about 20 points or more per game. This year he has only topped 20 points three times. The Spurs have limped out of the gate at just 10-9 after a win last night, and they have been mostly lousy on the road and against good competition. It doesn’t really matter how he does now as long as the team makes the playoffs, but clearly the chemistry isn’t working yet.
Andrew Bogut perplexes me. He has the look at times of what he is – a number one overall pick. Other times, though, he can look like the most common, uninspiring player on the planet. The reason I thought of this today was I caught part of Milwaukee’s game against the Celtics. Boston won fairly easily to drop Milwaukee for the eighth time in their last nine game.Bogut, though, was prett y special. He had 25 points and 14 boards, and he shot the lights out. In short, he played pretty much entirely up to his potential. He did that the othernight , too – on November 30the against the Bulls he had 22 and 15. The problem, though, is that sandwiched between those two all-star caliber performances were three absolutely stinky duds. He had a total of just 23 points and 20 rebounds combined in those three games, and he shot .323 from the field. I could understand this kind of maddening inconsistency if the guy was a rookie or even a sophomore, but given that he’s in his fifth year it’s frustrating, and it’s one of several reasons why the Bucks are a hard team to handicap these days.
Continue reading “Two NBA Notes, and One From College Football”
I’m a big Pudge Rodriguez guy – he’s my favorite non-pitcher of all time, I think. That being said, I was really surprised by the news that he will be joining the Nationals. He has reportedly signed a two year, $6 million contract. I’m surprised that at this time in his career he’d be interested in playing in such a hopeless situation. Or at least that’s what I thought until I considered it more and came up with one big consideration in their favor – Stephen Strasburg. Pudge gets to spend likely his last two years in the league catching for the most exciting prospect in baseball in a long, long time. The Nats get to be sure that their prize star is well-handled, and they get to benefit from the veteran leadership and instant credibility he brings to the table.
I decided to write about this today because I was very pleased to see that Kansas reportedly interviewed Turner Gill from Buffalo yesterday. Gill was a celebrated player at Nebraska, so he is very familiar with the Big 12 and respectful of the history and tradition. Gill is a guy on the rise, and he definitely appears ready for the big time, so I think he would be a very good fit. His offense at Buffalo also looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in the Big 12, so it would be very fun to see what he could do with access to better talent. I also think Gill deserves the chance because he took a risk last year that I wish more coaches would take. He was very hot last year after winning the MAC unexpectedly, but instead of jumping at a job, including potentially hisalma mater, he chose to stay loyal for another year at Buffalo. That risk didn’t pay off for him because Buffalo fell out of contention and out of the public eye, but it’s not like he forgot how to coach so he shouldn’t be punished for an inevitable element of college football. Maybe him getting a prime job this year would encourage more rising coaches to exercise patience and show more loyalty to their stepping stone programs.
Continue reading “College Football Coaching Changes – My Two Cents”
1. I don’t think that we should read too much into how the Saints won today. It wasn’t pretty, and it probably shouldn’t have happened, but there was a lot to take from that. First, Washington was the best passing defense in the league coming into the game but the Saints managed 419 passing yards against them, and they made the winning TD look as easy as it can possibly look. Next, the Redskins were at home and were fired up by trying to save their season and all that so it made sense that they were stout. Finally, the Saints were missing three cornerbacks , so I’m not concerned by their ability to stop Jason Campbell. The Saints almost lost to a bad team, but they found a way to get the win in the end, and that’s all that matters.
The 2010 World Cup Draw took place today in South Africa, aided by the incredibly beautiful Charlize Theron. This is when we can really start to get serious about thinking about how this tournament is going to play out. Here’s five initial thoughts on the draw:
Continue reading “2010 World Cup Draw – Initial Impressions”
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