AP Poll Olympics: Pre-Bowl season finale

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Jeff

This is obviously the last poll prior to the bowl games, and some of the entries are just astonishing.  Thank god the AP Poll is no longer a part of the BCS Standings…it’s just too bad that the computer polls and the Harris poll aren’t a whole lot better.  Even though they’re going to a 4-team playoff, I’m not sure they’ll ever be able to fix the ranking system.

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Under The Lights Round 2: Michigan vs. Notre Dame 2013

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Jeff

As it was to be expected, Michigan’s last scheduled home game against Notre Dame will be a night game.  This is for three obvious reasons.  #1 their home schedule before the month of November is pretty terrible, #2 this is the last time that Michigan fans will see Notre Dame in the Big House for quite some time, and #3 the last game was an absolutely huge success.  I mean honestly, during the Under The Lights game I had the most absurd emotional swings ever, it was too awesome.

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Lions vs. Colts: I think this team is trying to kill me

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Jeff

Honestly, that was an absolutely soul-crushing loss last Sunday.  Sure it didn’t matter because they already had screwed themselves out of a playoff spot, but still.  I’m sick and tired of watching this team piss away leads purely because they can.  Last year they could only play in the fourth quarter, and now they can’t play in the fourth quarter at all.  They’ve blown three straight fourth quarter leads in three straight home games; disgusting.

Embarrassing.

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Notre Dame LB Manti Te’o should not win the Heisman. Here’s Why.

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Jeff

Let me preface this by saying that this has nothing to do with wanting Charles Woodson to stay as the only primarily defensive player to ever win the Heisman.  I thought that Ndamukong Suh deserved the Heisman when he was up for it in 2009, and it is only a matter of time until a defensive player wins it.  However, it does have everything to do with the Notre Dame bias in the media.

I don’t doubt that Manti is a great guy and that he is a leader on and off-the-field.  I know he has had a troubling year, and I wouldn’t wish what happened to him on anyone.  But you have to ask yourself, if Manti played on a team that wasn’t undefeated, and it wasn’t Notre Dame, would he even be in the discussion for it?  Absolutely not.  His statistics aren’t anything special, except for the 7 interceptions that he has had.  Think of this, if Texas A&M was undefeated and Manziel’s stats were the same, he would have been the only person invited to the ceremony in New York.

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The NFL’s shift to an offense oriented explosive league continues, even if it changes the integrity of the game

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Jeff

Ed Reed’s comments this past weekend after the Baltimore Ravens loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers brought to light a pretty interesting idea, the NFL cares more about offensive players than defensive players.

Through no fault of their own, defensive players jobs are getting tougher and tougher.  More penalties are being called on them, and more of them are being fined for illegal plays.  Rules are being shifted to protect offensive players, while cut blocking is still allowed.  It was in fact a cut block that knocked out Houston Texans starting linebacker Brian Cushing early in the year.  This is a block where the offensive line can go right for the knees of defensive players as long as they aren’t engaged with another defender.  Literally, it is in the rules to allow offensive players the opportunity to blow out defensive players knees.

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Lions vs. Texans: Pure Thanksgiving Day Agony

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Jeff

Hey guys, remember when the Lions went into overtime against the Texans when they were winning 31-24? Yeah, me too.

The second that Jim Schwartz threw that challenge flag I knew the game was over.  Teams never come back from this type of stuff.  It almost always backfires on them, or causes the team to get frustrated and they come apart at the seams.

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AP Poll Olympics Week 13

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Jeff

Well, last week sucked.  Notre Dame is #1, Michigan lost to Ohio State, Lions blew two games, still no hockey…just awful.

Bronze Medal: Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News

After a long absence, Jon makes his way back onto the podium with this absurd ballot.  Oregon at #2 ahead of Alabama and Georgia doesn’t make sense.  South Carolina and LSU ahead of Georgia doesn’t make any sense either; along with Texas A&M being ranked #11.  His ballot has an absolutely horrific order for the Top 11.  The middle part of his poll is decent, but Utah State, Northern Illinois, San Jose State are all overrated, easily.  And as much as I want to keep defending USC you can’t have them ranked after that loss to Notre Dame.  That game was a massive coaching brain fart, and just all around terrible.

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If Chip Kelly decides to go to the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles are the perfect fit

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Jeff

I had this realization during Monday Night Football, and it is so obvious I don’t know why it hasn’t been discussed more in depth before.

I honestly don’t see Chip Kelly leaving Oregon, at least not yet, since he still hasn’t won a National Championship.  But, if he were to leave, the Philadelphia Eagles would be the perfect fit for him and his offense.  They have a wealth of playmakers on that offense just waiting to be unleashed.  His backfield would be loaded with Michael Vick, Nick Foles, LeSean McCoy, Bryce Brown and Dion Lewis.  And then he has a good core of receivers with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Riley Cooper, Jason Avant and Damaris Johnson.  Then you add Celek at tight end and you have a lot of speed on the squad that would be able to give teams absolute nightmares.

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The Big 14? What could possibly go wrong?

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Jeff

This is obviously late, but with my cousin in town and other festivities going on, it was a bit difficult to find time to write this post.  Rutgers and Maryland; definitely not 1st round draft picks, not even 2nd rounders.  Maryland at least has a decent basketball team, and Rutgers was the first football team ever, but otherwise there is literally nothing impressive about these additions.  There is nothing that gets you excited about this.  To be honest, I just hate conference expansion.  The people in charge are just telling you that money is more important than anything else, and I value tradition.

To state the obvious, this was strictly to increase revenue and to negotiate a bigger television contract with ESPN.  A quick money grab that will ruin conference integrity.  This is how this is going to be viewed by every single person that sees this and I don’t blame them.  I’m not sure how else you could possibly view an action like this in any other way; I certainly will refuse to look at it in any other light.  Here’s an interesting fact from SI.com: “While getting all 15 million homes is unlikely, this could potentially be a $100 million annual television windfall for the Big Ten. (That figure doesn’t include the additional money that will come from the added markets and games when the Big Ten negotiates its next television contract in 2017.) It’s estimated that the Big Ten’s annual payout could increase to between $30-35 million per year, nearly double the ACC’s $17 million payout.”  15 Million additional homes paying for Big Ten Network would be massive, but I think it is a huge overestimation.

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The AP Poll Olympics: Week 12

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Jeff

Shout out to Kansas State and Oregon for creating my nightmare scenario, with a little side help from UCLA.  I mean honestly, what were the odds that #1 and #2 would lose and the only team left that could beat Notre Dame has their quarterback injured in the last five minutes of their game?  Just terrible.  It would appear that the luck of the Irish is on overdrive right now.  They’ve gotten huge breaks all year, and they just keep coming.  I hate that Notre Dame is ranked #1, I personally have them #2, and you can bet that they will thrash USC and their young QB all day today and go to the National Championship game.

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