The Week in Football: Apologies to the State of Mississippi, and Dallas? Dallas?

My Angry Old Man has screamed and shouted his way to the top of my writing this week. “You idiot, when are you going to start listening to your father? I’ve been telling you and telling you how good the Mississippi schools were, yet you keep dismissing it! When are you going to start giving them some credit! Turn down that boom boom music and listen to my wisdom!”

 

I think it’s time that I publicly admit something; I owe the state of Mississippi an apology. My Old Man was right. I’ve picked against Miss St three times this year, and all three times they’ve come out early and smacked the other team in the mouth. I’ve also picked against Ole Miss twice this year, in back to back weeks. They shut down Alabama’s offense, and then destroyed Texas A&M the entire game on Saturday. I’m sorry Mississippi. I didn’t give you guys enough credit for being a really good team. I didn’t believe that they’d be able to physically dominate and put down all of their opponents this year. I guess that’s what happens when both schools have been largely irrelevant for all of my lifetime.

 

So where do these schools stand going forward? Let’s look at their schedules. Ole Miss still has tough games left at LSU and Arkansas, as well as a home date with Auburn. Mississippi St still has to travel to Alabama, and they’ll host Arkansas. Another game to keep an eye on is when they travel to Kentucky on October 25^th. The Wildcats have been quietly very competitive this year. That’s not going to be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination.

 

The Egg Bowl is on November 29^th in Oxford. Can you imagine how huge that game would be if both Mississippi schools were undefeated at that point, with the winner taking the SEC West? It would be bigger than all of the other Egg Bowls combined. I actually expect both schools to have at least one loss by then, but even if they did, that game could still be for the division title. I’m not sure the state of Mississippi could handle it. It might collapse in on itself. Or the entire state would divide by zero and cease to exist. It’s one of those two options. Either way, I’m rooting for it. Because any time a game called the Egg Bowl can end up being the biggest game of the college football season, I’m all for it.

 

TCU Blew it, and Defense is Dead

 

The most alarming game of this season happened on Saturday, when TCU surrendered a 21 point lead with 11 minutes to go, and lost 61-58. The Horned Frogs had only given up 58 points all year, but on Saturday, that didn’t matter. They got torched. And it was embarrassing. You can’t give up a 21 point lead in the 4^th quarter. You just can’t. But as I watched Sportscenter on Saturday night, one of the college football “experts” said one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard a media personality say. Instead of mentioning the fact that oh, I don’t know, TCU allowed Baylor to drive the field on them at will for the final 11 minutes of the game, he instead decided to make the point that the Horned Frogs didn’t do a good enough job of creating anything on offense that quarter. What? WHAT? How about the fact that Baylor went down the field almost unimpeded for the entire quarter? After Bryce Petty’s pick six, TCU just decided to stop playing defense. Or maybe they couldn’t. I’m not begrudging Baylor for being highly advanced offensively, or for scoring a ton of points, but seriously, does defense even matter anymore? I’ll admit that offensive play calling is way far ahead of defensive play calling, but it also hurts that every single rule in football favors offense. You can’t touch the quarterback, receivers are free to run over the middle without the threat of getting their clock cleaned, and on and on and on. I just wish the rules wouldn’t be so slanted in favor of the offense. I wish the rules would give the defense a chance. 61-58? Really? Even the SEC, the league historically with great defense, gets torched. Does getting stops even matter any more? Or do you just have to be able to score a bunch of points quickly? The college game is much different than it was ten years ago. The physicality has slowly been taken out of football, and now we get 300 shootouts every weekend. And when you consider that everybody can score points now, it really makes you scratch your head and wonder what the heck happened to Missouri on Saturday. If you get shut out in this era of college football, your school should probably discontinue its football program.

 

My 4 Team Playoff

 

Every week from now to the end of the season, now that I’ve seen at least 6 games from every school, I feel like I can start trying to make sense of the college football landscape, as well as who is deserving of being in the 4 team playoff.

 

1. Mississippi State. They’re the best team in the country, and they’ve got the most impressive wins. Dak Prescott should be the Heisman front runner, if he isn’t already. And their defense is very good, though they could easily get torched at some point this year, just like every defense.
2. Ole Miss. They’re better than Florida State, at least in my opinion. They’ve got 2 extremely good wins, which is two more than Florida State has (unless you want to give them credit for that Oklahoma State win, which was impressive, but less so than beating Alabama and Texas A&M). Plus, they’ve got the best defense in the country, and it doesn’t even matter that it’s the best that money can buy.
3. Florida State. Just because they’re undefeated. If they can get by Notre Dame this weekend (and I think they will), their schedule is full of a bunch of cupcakes. If road games against Louisville and Miami are your toughest tests, you should probably go undefeated, which means they’ll make the 4 team playoff.
4. Baylor. I have them here now because they’re undefeated, but I think the winner of their game at Oklahoma on November 8^th will end up determining who gets this spot, assuming the winner leaves this game with only one loss. There offense is so explosive, but they excel at playing that revolving door defense.

 

The Dallas Cowboys are the Best Team in the NFC

 

That’s a sentence that I never thought I’d type. But it’s true. It was weird how they physically dominated Seattle. They pounded the rock with DeMarco Murray, and Romo made some really nice throws. Dez Bryant outplayed Richard Sherman, and that Dallas defense was actually really good. I thought they’d be in trouble on that side of the ball this year when they lost Sean Lee and DeMarcus Ware, but other guys (Rolando McClain) have stepped up and been great for them. They’ve got the best offensive line in the league, and they’ve actually committed to an offensive strategy that isn’t, “Let’s have Tony Romo throw 50 times a game”. As long as they keep the ball on the ground, and Murray can stay healthy, Dallas will win the division and maybe have the best record in the NFC. It’s in play. Then again, we’re still talking about the Cowboys, the team that’s disappointed its fans more than Nic Cage disappoints moviegoers. The most Cowboy thing to do is go 8-8 or 9-7, all while still giving the fans hope, only to lose the last game of the season for the division and have the season end. That’s what happened the last three years. The second most Cowboy thing to do is have a great regular season, finish something like 13-3, have the best record in the NFC, and then lose the first playoff game. That’s what happened in 2007. It could happen again. We’re still talking about the Cowboys. But for now, they’re the best team in the NFC.

 

What Happened to Seattle?

 

I thought they were the best team in the NFL, and I didn’t think there was any way that Dallas could go into that hostile environment, against that physical Seahawks team, and push them around for 60 minutes. But that’s what happened. If Dallas doesn’t have two special teams blunders (a blocked punt and a fumbled punt return), the game wouldn’t have even been close. I still think that defense is really good, but we’ve seen this year in their two losses (San Diego and Dallas) that as long as you’re willing to keep the ball on the ground, you can dominate the time of possession and tire that defense out. San Diego had the ball for about 42 minutes in their win, and Dallas held onto it for 37 minutes, and ran 70 offensive plays to Seattle’s 48.

 

And then there’s that offense. Can we please stop with the Russell Wilson hyperbole? I’m a fan of Wilson’s game, and I think he’s a really good quarterback, but he’s not one of the 10 or 12 best at that position in the league. There’s no comparison between what he’s asked to do and what the Colts ask Andrew Luck to do, or what the Packers ask Aaron Rodgers to do. He’s a nice player, but he’s not a 4000 yard passer, or a guy that frightens you with his ability to throw the ball down the field. And speaking of down the field, Seattle doesn’t have great offensive weapons. Percy Harvin doesn’t make those game changing plays anymore, and the biggest play Doug Baldwin has made all year happened on that blocked punt yesterday. The formula with them is the same that it’s always been: play great defense, control the clock with the running game, and have Russell Wilson make a few plays with his legs and in the passing game. But they aren’t going to win the Super Bowl, or get the 1 seed in the NFC, if that defense plays like they did yesterday. I hated how Sherman was fist bumping and yucking it up with Dez Bryant yesterday, because that’s so far from how he normally is. This is the same guy who yelled into Erin Andrews’ microphone about how Michael Crabtree was a sorry receiver. That’s who he is! It was weird how he went away from that and started congratulating Bryant during the game. He should have been talking smack to Bryant, not acting like they just went in together on a business deal. I hope the Legion of Boom hasn’t lost their swagger.

 

NFL Power Rankings

1. San Diego Chargers. I picked them to win the Super Bowl from the beginning of the year, and they’ve lived up to my expectations thus far. They’ve won five straight games, and Phil Rivers is the MVP of the league.
2. Dallas Cowboys. They’ve also won five straight games, they are the best running team in the league, and they’ve got the best win of the year, the win in Seattle yesterday.
3. Seattle Seahawks. I’m still a believer in the Seahawks, though I am concerned about they were physically overpowered in their two losses. They didn’t even really look all that good last Monday night against the Redskins either. But I can’t drop them lower than 3^rd.
4. Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning is having another great season, and Denver’s defense has really played well this year. It appears that the additions of Aqib Talib and DeMarcus Ware have really helped give them more of a physical, intimidating swagger on that side of the ball.
5. Arizona Cardinals. Carson Palmer is back quarterbacking this team, they’ve got one of the best defenses in the league, and it appears that Larry Fitzgerald has finally began to hit his stride after yesterday’s game (6 catches, 98 yards, 1 TD). Plus, that defense is awesome.
6. Philadelphia Eagles. They appear to have figured out their problems in the running game (Shady McCoy 22 carries for 149 yards yesterday), and that offensive line has started to get healthy again.
7. Detroit Lions. Their defense allows the fewest yards per game, and they’ve actually played pretty well on the road this year, which has been there problem the last few years.
8. Cincinnati Bengals. I’m still really high on this team even though they haven’t looked anywhere near as good after their bye week as they did before it. Keep an eye on that defense though (which was supposed to be strength). They’ve been torched the last two weeks by the supposedly limited Patriots’ and Panthers’ offenses.
9. Baltimore Ravens. They’re quietly 4-2. They’ve got a nice front seven, Joe Flacco looks like he might be earning that obscene contract he got last off-season, and Steve Smith Sr. has been a huge addition for them. He looks like he’s got three good years left.
10. San Francisco 49ers. I’m back on the Niners bandwagon. They are the only team in football that has victories over two 5-1 teams (Dallas and Philly). We’ll see what happens with them tonight.

 

Also, watch the baseball playoffs. They’ve been really exciting! And enjoy the Monday Night game. It’s the last football game that matters until Thursday. You deserve it.