Wade Walks, Suh Kicks, Bama Loses, and Or-e-gon!!, November 9, 2010

Hello, faithful readers. I appreciate your faithfulness :) People like me would be really bored if no one ever read our work.

It's been a while since my last post, largely because, with the end of the baseball season, my greatest sports fascination is over until next October. Well, AL Gold Glove winners were announced today (Ichiro, Joe Mauer and a bunch of Yankees), and the other major award winners will be announced in following days, but, really, baseball is over. It's all about football now.

I'm not too big a fan of hockey, or basketball, though I did watch the revamped Miami Heat (D-Wade, King James, and Chris Bosh, and company) in their season opener against the Celtics (they were beaten soundly, despite a late charge led by LeBron) and their home opener against the Orlando Magic (they crushed 'em, behind a strong effort from Wade). Well, now I've seen: it's still Wade's team, and it always will be, just like Derek Jeter remained the most popular Yankee even once A-Rod came on board. When Wade has a big night, the Heat wins. With LeBron, it's about 50/50. I am expecting the Heat to make the playoffs, though.

Well, football season is in full swing. My mom went to the Baltimore Ravens-Miami Dolphins game in Baltimore last weekend (the Ravens won despite some scuffles on offense), and said the same thing everyone does about going to football games: the atmosphere is awesome, but if you're there for the football, you should just watch in on TV.

There are MAAAAANY major stories out there, but I'll only quickly touch on a few:
-Brett Favre's starts streak is still alive (293 and counting), despite injuries to his ankle (against the Green Bay Packers) and his chin (against the New England Patriots), and he led the Vikes to an overtime win against Arizona this week

-Randy Moss is a Tennessee Titan. The wide receiver with the second-most touchdown passes all time (to Jerry Rice, duh) went from New England to Minnesota, was released, and was picked up. Moss has been labeled a head case and a pri-madonna, and has already refused to speak to the media for the rest of the year. We'll see if he holds to that.

-Michael Vick led the Eagles to a big win over the Indianapolis Colts this week, helping to shovel some dirt on the Vick/Kolb QB controversy.

-Colt McCoy makes a heck of an NFL quarterback! The University of Texas product passed for 270 yards in his NFL debut against the Steelers, led the Browns to a victory over the Saints, and then beat the Patriots this week, scoring his first career rushing TD on a 16-yard carry in the process. McCoy has pretty much made up for missing most of the 2010 BCS Title game versus Bama after that first quarter shoulder injury.

-Donovan McNabb had a bye week after being benched by Coach Mike Shanahan late in an ugly loss to the Detroit Lions. Shanahan put in backup quarterback Rex Grossman (remember him?) with about two minutes left, with the Redskins only down by one score. Grossman fumbled after being hit on his first snap, and the Redskins were crushed. Shanahan defended his move by saying Grossman knew the two-minute drill vernacular better than McNabb, then saying he doubted McNabb's cardiovascular endurance. I'm serious.

Wade Walks
The woeful 1-7 Dallas Cowboys changed coaches yesterday, when general manager Jerry Jones fired head coach Wade Phillips and replaced him with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett in the aftermath of a hideous 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Cowboys are without Tony Romo, are without luck, and will host the Super Bowl this year, but most assuredly will not play in it. This week, they play the red-hot New York Giants.

Suh Kicks
This was by no means one of the week's major highlights, but it's worth mentioning. During last Sunday's game against the New York Jets, the Detroit Lions lost their kicker to an injury, and defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh (the 2010 NFL Draft's #2 pick out of the University of Nebraska) volunteered to kick the point after touchdown late in the game. His kick clanged off the right post, just barely missing. The Lions lost the game.

Bama Loses
All you need to know is right there in the section heading. The defending BCS National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide lost their second game of the year on Saturday, dropping to head coach Les Miles' LSU Tigers, 24-21, just four weeks after losing their first regular season game in 29 tries to South Carolina. One thing you will hear about is that Miles was seen plucking blades of grass and eating them during the game. Kind of random, right? But this victory catapulted LSU (who lost to Auburn the week before) back into the Number Six spot in the national rankings, and dropped the Crimson Tide to 12th.

Or-e-gon!
The Ducks opened the season with a 72-0 win over New Mexico, beat Portland State 69-0 two weeks later, and dropped 50 points on Washington this week in their second week at number one. The week before, the Auburn Tigers became one of just a handful of teams in BCS history to lose the #1 overall ranking without losing a game. All that remains between the Ducks and the National Championship Game are Cal, Arizona and Oregon State.

Speaking of college football, #3 TCU smashed former #5 Utah in a matchup of then-undefeateds, claiming a 47-7 victory. TCU has games remaining against San Diego State and New Mexico. If they win both, and either Auburn or Oregon loses (and Auburn plays Alabama in three weeks) , they could play for the national title. Last year, the Horned Frogs were undefeated until they met Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Boise, meanwhile, smashed Utah State and continued their undefeated reign.

To make things simple, I'll finish up here with the Top Ten rankings for the BCS and the NFL.

College Football
1. Oregon 2. Auburn 3. TCU 4. Boise State 5. Stanford 6. LSU 7. Wisconsin 8. Ohio State 9. Nebraska 10. Michigan State (Oregon, Auburn, TCU and Boise are all undefeated)

Professional Football
1. Baltimore Ravens (6-2) 2. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) 3. Atlanta Falcons (6-2) 4. New York Giants (6-2) 5. New York Jets (6-2) 6. New England Patriots (6-2) 7. Green Bay Packers (6-3) 8. Philadelphia Eagles (5-3) 9. New Orleans Saints (6-3) 10. Indianapolis Colts (5-3)