What an absolutely wonderful day of football yesterday.
On a semi-cold, windy day in Chaska, Minnesota, my son's eighth grade team won their championship game 35-14. They were tied at the half 14-14 because of a couple big runs by the other team's back. They'd never been tied before, so it was interested to see how they responded. They responded by taking control of the football and driving. It was a great game. That's sports at it's greatest. They finished the season undefeated, and I'm not sure about their defensive statistics, but they rarely gave up anything. Great coaches - taught the kids a lot about football.
Georgia! Vanderbilt? That's all right, that's okay, they're going to be your boss someday. Too soon for Dawg fans. What happened to Georgia's defense?
Oh, yeah, overrated like most SEC defenses.
Yesterday during Florida-Auburn, Todd Blackledge made the comment about how great the SEC defenses are, and I nearly puked. What was he basing that on? Probably statistics - which are especiall overblown in the first half of the season because the SEC doesn't play anyone in non-conference that has an offense. Way to jam up those statistics. Then get into conference where there are offenses like Florida, and Blackledge finds it shocking that the defenses aren't playing as well? Wow! What a revelation!
Texas struggled early against Baylor, but like all Baylor teams, they didn't have Texas's depth, they couldn't get things going on the road, and they didn't execute throughout the entire game. Texas's offense struggled early as well, but Baylor couldn't capitalize. Colt McCoy threw for a school-record six touchdowns, mostly against Baylor's worn-down defense. Good job, Six-Shooter!
Was I ever wrong about the Big 12. Colorado gets their first win in stunning fashion. Oklahoma State outscores Kansas, and Mizzou finally takes a loss. What a first play for Mizzou, though, big reception, then having the ball punched out at the 1 yard line?
Is Michigan's defense really that good, or does the Big 10 lack in good offense? Watching yesterday's game against PSU - it would have been a Wolverine loss if Penn State had anything resembling a good offense. Michigan will be highly ranked today, no doubt, but they still have Lloyd Carr, don't they?
USC - are they going to win the Pac-10? In an In the Bleachers podcast, I took Oregon over USC to win the Pac-10, but now I'm not so sure that it won't be California. USC looks very tentative on offense, and finally got their heads together and simply drove the last touchdown home.