Well we are now four weeks into the college football season and three into the NFL, and as a result, one is able to now get a good gauge on what type of team each team is. Granted there is still a lot of pigskin to be played, but by now one should be able to know who the contenders and pretenders are.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL:
In college football it appears the traditional powers of USC, LSU, Florida and Oklahoma seem to be ahead of the pack, as all have both looked very strong thus far. USC and LSU were many pundits favorites going into the season, and so far they have lived up to their billings. Florida and Oklahoma on the other hand people figured would be strong, but many were skeptical about them because they would be starting young quarterbacks. After four weeks however Florida's Tim Tebow, who basically single handily beat Ole Miss this past weekend, and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, who it seems has yet to throw an incompletion, not only have their teams off to tremendous starts, but now they are at the top of many people's Heisman ballots.
Despite USC, LSU, Florida and Oklahoma being the class of college football after the first quarter of the season, there are still many reasons why these teams will have trouble making it to the BCS National Title game. For one, either Florida or LSU should drop out of contention since they both play each other in the regular season, meaning one team will have at least one loss by season's end, and if both end up winning their respective SEC divisions, they will meet again in the SEC Championship game. USC on the other hand still has to go to both Cal and Oregon, who appear to be the two teams in the Pac 10 who could dethrone the Trojans from their recent conference dominance. Finally, of the four contenders Oklahoma appears to have the easiest road to New Orleans for the BCS National Title game. The only real tough game Oklahoma has left on their regular season slate is against Texas in the annual Red River Shootout, but Texas appears to be struggling so far this season despite their 4-0 record.
If either of these teams stumble, there does however appear to be a handful of teams that are able and willing to "Seize the moment" as Coach Probst of Hoover High says, and propel themselves forward into National Title contention. In the Pac 10 Oregon and Cal appear to be very strong. Cal, with play makers such as DeSean Jackson, is able to play with the best the country has to offer, as was seen in their game against Tennessee. Quarterback Dennis Dixon on the other hand has exceeded everyone's expectations for Oregon and has them rolling right now. With Michigan's last two victories over Notre Dame and the upset of Penn State, it appears that the Ducks thumping of the Wolverines in week two is a lot more impressive than many originally thought. The fun part about these two teams is that they will face each other this weekend in Eugene, in what should be one of the great shootouts of the college football season, with the winner being in the driver's seat to have the opportunity to knock off USC for a chance to win the Pac 10.
Cal and Oregon are not the only two teams who have a chance to make National Title runs as the season goes on, but there are a few other teams that are worthy of discussion. These teams are West Virginia, Ohio State, and Boston College/Clemson. West Virginia in my mind is the fastest team in college football. Steve Slaton, Pat White and Noel Devine are as as fast, if not faster, than any other backfield in the country, and so far they have been very successful in running over their opponents. My one knock on them has always been that they have been one dimensional, but coach Rich Rodriguez has opened up his play book this year a bit more and has given White more opportunities to pass the ball, and so far he has shown that he not only has strong legs, but also a very underrated arm as well. The Mountaineers will face their toughest opponent this weekend when they head down to Tampa and try to avenge last years loss to the South Florida Bulls. Early on many thought West Virginia and Louisville would be the class of the Big East, but with the Cardinals losing two straight games and showing no signs of a defense, it appears it could be a two team race between WVU and USF. I am also still not entirely sold on Rutgers as they have played absolutely no one thus far.
Ohio State, who many considered would also have a somewhat down year for their standards, since they lost their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Troy Smith and speedster Ted Ginn Jr., have slowly but surly started to creep up on the National Title screen. The main reason for this is their defense, led by linebacker James Laurinaitis. Through the first four games the defense has only allowed 29 points, and it appears that quarterback Todd Boeckman has started to develop a great relationship with his receiving corps. The Buckeyes will face their first true Big 10 test next week when they travel to Purdue, but the fate of the Buckeyes won't be known until the final month of the season when they have to travel Penn State, host Wisconsin and then travel to the Big House to play arch-rival Michigan.
My final two picks to make a National Title run are Boston College and Clemson. Both these teams are off to 4-0 starts, and the main reason for this is their stellar quarterback play. Matt Ryan was expected to have a big season this year, especially in the pass happy system that new offense coordinator Steve Logan has implemented, but Cullen Harper of Clemson has been just as impressive. Harper has not thrown for the yards that Ryan has, but Harper through four games has completed nearly 70% of his passes and thrown for 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Harper also has a great running game behind him led by C.J. Spiller and James Davis. The Eagles next big challenge comes on October 25th when they take on Virginia Tech, and Clemson has to take go to Atlanta this weekend to take on Georgia Tech, but if these teams can get through those hurdles, there is a very good chance that both teams could be undefeated going into their November 17th showdown. The one thing holding these two teams back from making a real run for the National Title is that the ACC has received a very bad reputation thus far, and there is a very good chance a one loss Pac 10 or SEC team would get the BCS National Title bid over them, even if BC or Clemson goes undefeated. Well that's about it for my college football talk, but here are my top 5 games to keep an eye on this week:
1) West Virginia vs South Florida
2) Auburn vs Florida
3) Cal vs Oregon
4) Michigan State vs Wisconsin
5) Alabama vs Florida State
NFL:
Now Moving onto the Pro Ranks. The Patriots continue to show that their magic number this year is "38" as they scored 38 points for the third straight week. And for a third straight week Tom Brady and Randy Moss have proven that the draft day trade for Moss was the best off season acquisition in all of the NFL. Both players are putting up MVP type numbers. Through three games Brady has thrown for 887 yards, 10 touchdowns and a microscopic 18 incompletions.
The Patriots and Colts from week 1 have shown that they are the clear cut favorites in the NFL to be one of the teams in the Super Bowl, but the Cowboys have also been making a case for themselves thus far to be the favorite to come out of the NFC. Coming into the season people were saying the NFC title race would be between the Bears, Saints and Cowboys. So far the Bears are 1-2, they have a heap of injuries on defense and now Lovie Smith no longer believes that "Crazy" Rex Grossman is the right quarterback to lead the team has he announced Wednesday that Brian Griese will takeover the reins. The Saints on the other hand are off to an 0-3 start, and their once potent offense is no where to be found, and to make matters worse they have now lost their powerful running back Deuce McAllister for the season. The Cowboys however are off to a 3-0 start after their thumping of the Bears this past weekend. Tony Romo is looking like an MVP candidate, TO is making more noise on the field than off it, and the defense, despite a lapse in week 1 against the Giants, has really stepped up their game. With the NFC looking to be down again this year, the Cowboys should have a pretty easy road to Glendale, AZ.
Moving on, last week I mentioned how the Texans have been my surprise team so far this year, and even though they lost to the Colts this past week, they still appear to be my #1 surprise. They were down most the game, but they did not give up, and they did it all without their start wide receiver Andre Johnson. The Green Bay Packers however have also been a very big surprise. At the end of last year there was much speculation on whether Brett Favre would retire or come back for one more year, and so far his decision to come back has been a very good one. Favre has looked like the Favre from the mid 90's where he was leading to Packers to Super Bowls. His stats are tremendous, and he has the Packers off to their first 3-0 start since 2001. Also, with just one more touchdown pass, Favre will surpass Dan Marino with the most touchdown passes in NFL history with 421. One final note from the NFL this week is that the Eagles finally looked like the Eagles that many expected. McNabb looked like his old self, due in large part to his Wide out Kevin Curtis who hauled in 11 receptions for 221 yards and three touchdowns. Andy Reid's teams have been notorious for getting off to slow starts but finishing strong, and it is for this reason why no one should sleep on them, as they should be one of the teams to give a Cowboys a run for their money. Here now are my top 5 NFL games this weekend:
1) Patriots vs Bengals
2) Seahawks vs 49ers
3) Panthers vs Buccaneers
4) Eagles vs Giants
5) Bears vs Lions
MLB:
Although I have been in full football mode for about the past month, it is hard to ignore the playoff races that have been going on in the National League. We are entering the final weekend of the regular season and there are still no teams that have clinched a playoff spot. The Mets are one team that should have been able to lock one up, but they have literally collapsed. They have blown a once 7 game lead in a mere 15 days. If I am Manager Willie Randolph you better hope your team responds this weekend, or else he may very well be unemployed come Monday. The Phighting Phillies have played a magnificent final few weeks to put themselves in contention for not only the Wild Card, but also a chance to win the once believed unreachable goal of winning the NL East. One team that has really come out of nowhere these final few weeks is the Colorado Rockies. This team is simply on cruise control right now as they are riding an 11 game winning streak, and if they can somehow sweep the NL West leading Diamondbacks this weekend, they could make things very interesting in the NL West. The NL West has been very fun to watch as the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies all have a shot at winning it. In the NL Central it appears neither the Brewers nor the Cubs seem to want to pull away with the division. Although it now appears the Cubs are going to win it, they have definitely struggled down the stretch. The one good thing going for the Cubs is that many said the same thing last year about the Cardinals when they entered the playoffs, and we all know what they did. The ironic part about the whole NL Playoff race is there is a very good chance that there could be some play-in games, yet the team that will come out of the Central will have the worst record, yet will be sitting the prettiest since they won't have to participate in any of the potential games. Between football and now playoff baseball it should definitely be one exciting week in sports, and I am praying that the Red Sox can clinch their first divisional title since 1995.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
I will close this week's rant by giving my two cents on a more prominent rant that happened this week. I'm sure by now you all know that I am referring to the rant that Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy displayed this week after his team's victory over Texas Tech. If by chance you were living under a rock this week and do not know what his rant was all about, it was over a column written by Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman which portrayed OSU quarterback Bobby Reid as being a momma's boy. Mike Gundy to say the least spent 3 1/2 minutes chewing out Carlson and standing up for his player. While I respect Gundy for standing up for Reid, I do not think he did it in a proper fashion. The room was full of tons of other reporters wanting to hear his thoughts about the Cowboys big win that day, but instead they had to hear Gundy go off on Carlson, and then abruptly end the conference without taking any questions about the game. Gundy should have talked to Carlson privately, and not made the whole situation public. On the other hand maybe Gundy figured his rant would show his players that he is there for them in the hopes that they would rally around him, and be able to turn around a thus far disappointing season. Well that's about all I have for this week, and next week I look forward to talking more football and playoff baseball and as usual please keep spreading the word of my blog to friends and family members who are interested in sports as I try to continue to build my readership numbers. Thanks and until then Godspeed.
Brendan Boyce
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