The Week In Football: Georgia Loses, Chargers Win, and My Angry Old Man

It was a rough weekend for me on football predictions. I went 1-2 on my college picks, and had a less than stellar 7-8 record on my NFL picks, with the Monday night game pending. Let’s run quickly through where I was wrong, where I was right (Chargers!), and some other thoughts on college football and the NFL.

 

1. I whiffed big time on Georgia. I probably gave them too much credit coming off a win against Clemson (who may actually not be that good), and I didn’t realize how poor their defense was. Also, I’m making a rule for myself right here and now; until Georgia wins at South Carolina, I won’t pick them to win in Columbia. If you are still reading my writing two years from now, and you see me picking Georgia to win this game, I want you to calmly tell me of how much of an idiot I am for making that prediction, and remind me of the rule I just made.

The crazy thing is, as bad as South Carolina has looked this season, they now have the inside track to win the SEC East, though their schedule is much more difficult than Georgia’s. They travel to Auburn and Florida later in the year, while they’ll host Tennessee and Missouri. Georgia gets Auburn at home, Tennessee at home, and Florida in Jacksonville. They play at Missouri, and at Arkansas, which would be a tricky game if this was 2011. Honestly, I actually like Missouri to win this division. Maty Mauk is the best quarterback on those three teams, and the Missouri’s defense is the best by far. Best QB + best defense = winning. Keep an eye on the Tigers.

 

2. USC let me down as well. I realize they were coming off an emotional win over a rival, and they had to travel across the country, but really USC? You let Boston College rush for 452 yards? They whooped them on the line of scrimmage the entire game, on both sides of the ball. I still think the Trojans are the best team in the Pac 12 South Division, particularly with how bad UCLA has looked (more on them in a minute). USC hosts Arizona State on October 4^th. The Sun Devils have been the most impressive team in the division thus far, and I’m predicting that the winner of that game will end up winning the South. I’m sure that prediction will end up blowing up in my face around November, but for now, I’m sticking with that.

 

3. I’m officially done with UCLA as a national title and conference title contender. They’re the 3^rd best team in the Pac 12 South. I realize they won, but they were trailing late to Texas, a team that got blown out 41-7 at home a week earlier. I’ll give them credit for gutting out a tough game, but their defense has just been okay, and their offense has been about as bad as every Nic Cage movie. They are at Arizona State two weeks, and from what they’ve shown me thus far, I don’t give them much of a shot in that one, even with Brett Hundley playing (apparently he just had a minor elbow hyperextension, and will be able to play). They still have games at home against Oregon, USC, and Stanford, but I think they’re worse than all three of those teams. I could easily see them losing all three of those and finishing the year with 4 losses, which would be a far cry from the lofty expectations that many people had for them at the beginning of the season.

 

4. I technically didn’t make a pick on the Tennessee-Oklahoma game this week, because I couldn’t bring myself to pick against the Vols, only I didn’t feel like anyone would take me seriously if I announced, “Tennessee has like 20 guys who are traveling for their first college road game ever, into a hostile environment, not to mention the fact that they’ve played more freshmen than anyone in the country. Oklahoma is also one of the best five teams in the nation. Yeah, I see the Vols taking this one”. I’m never encouraged by losing, but I don’t feel terrible about the loss. They competed the entire game, and I gained a lot of respect for Justin Worley, who literally took a beating the entire game. If they don’t have those back to back end zone picks, they’re down just 27-24 or 27-20, which looks a whole lot better than 34-10.

 

Two quick takeaways from this game going forward:


For Butch’s offense to really work, they’re going to need someone else to play quarterback. Every time they run that read option play, the defensive ends can always crash down on the back because they never have to worry about Worley keeping the ball and running it himself. Running those plays are almost pointless because Worley never keeps it, and it always gets stopped in the backfield. However, I’m not sure that they’ve got that guy on the roster. Don’t you think they’d be playing him if they had him? That concerns me about next year for the Vols, but I’m sure that who’s playing quarterback next year isn’t exactly at the top of Butch’s priority list right now. I think it’s probably finding a way to win at Georgia in two weeks. But it’s something I’m thinking about.


Also, is there a worse lead in game announcer than Kirk Herbstreit? I don’t have a problem with him personally, but he sort of comes off like that guy who played one year of college football, so he thinks that all of the sudden he’s Nick Saban (yes I realized he played four years of college football, but just go with me on this). He’s breaking down plays and disagreeing with everything the coaches are doing, and you’re thinking to yourself, “Dude, you’re bothering me. I need to get away from you”. He said on Saturday (and I’m paraphrasing), “Tennessee shouldn’t even try to run the ball on Oklahoma”. Yeah, you’re right Kirk, they should just drop back and throw it every time. It’s not like Oklahoma had rushers in the backfield the entire game (oh wait, they did). And yeah, Worley is definitely a good enough passer to bring the Vols back simply by just dropping back and throwing every single time (oh wait, he isn’t). What an idiotic thing to say. The funny thing was, they actually didn’t have a terrible day running the ball either. Jalen Hurd had 97 yards rushing on 14 carries. But yeah, they shouldn’t have even attempted to run it at all.

 

5. The 49ers were the big losers this week. Leading 17-7 at halftime, and 20-7 entering the 4^th quarter, the Niners somehow found a way to lose. And by “found a way to lose”, I mean that Colin Kaepernick threw three interceptions and had one fumble, which allowed the Bears to stay in the game. Last week I wrote that Colin Kaepernick was one of the most electric players in the league, but this week, he did his best Romo impression. That’s sort of become his game. He’s capable of making these impossible plays happen every week, but he’s also capable of throwing a huge, back-breaking pick at almost any time. Also, San Fran had to rebuild almost their entire secondary from last year, and that reared its ugly head when they were incapable of keeping Brandon Marshall out of the end zone the entire night. I still think they’re a playoff team, but the threat of a Kaepernick let down is a reality in every game they play. He’s not great at confidently standing in the pocket, and he doesn’t do a great job of looking defenders off. His first pick happened entirely because he stared down Anquan Boldin the entire time, allowing the safety to easily jump the route. I like Kaepernick, but the Niners won’t be a Super Bowl contender if he can’t play more consistently.

 

Also, watch out for the Bears. The defense was much better this week, and they’ve got the most balanced offense in their division. Jay Cutler will need to stay healthy, which has been a problem for him before, but if he can, I like them to win that division. The Vikings let me down almost as soon as I mentioned that they might be pretty good. Matt Cassel played like Matt Cassel yesterday (4 picks), and Green Bay is Aaron Rodgers or bust. The Packers were down 21-3 to the Jets about halfway through the 2^nd quarter, and were a Marty Mornhinweg timeout away from being tied with them late in the 4^th quarter. They may end up sneaking into the playoffs, but they haven’t impressed me yet this season. And I trust the Lions to play well two weeks in row about as much as I’d trust Bernie Madoff. Coming off that huge Monday night win against the Giants, they completely laid an egg against the Panthers this week and lost. My money (figuratively) is on Chicago.

 

6. Can I get some love for the Chargers? Yes, I realize I had the Seahawks winning the game, but can I get some credit for saying that the Chargers are really good? Please? It’s all I got this week. The defense looks like it’s going to be solid all year, and Phil Rivers was the man. I love Rivers’ fearlessness, his swagger, and his gun slinger mentality. He, unlike Green Bay the week before, wasn’t going to back down from Seattle, and actually decided to throw at Richard Sherman a little bit. Now Sherman didn’t get beat deep for a touchdown or anything like that, but I think utilizing the entire field enabled them to be as potent offensively as they were. Also, where did that throwback Antonio Gates performance come from? 3 touchdowns? That looked like Gates circa 2006, not the version we’ve seen over the last few years. He may not play that well again this season, or ever, but he was huge for them this week.

 

I still think Seattle is the best team in the league, and I still think they’ll get the one seed in the NFC. However, it just goes to show how hard it is to play great in the NFL every week, and how hard it will be for them to repeat as champs. They host Denver next week, which will be an interesting game for sure, though I have a strange feeling that Seattle may win by three touchdowns. They, particularly at home, are a tough match up for Denver. But more on that game later in the week. For now, I’m still a believer in the Seahawks.

 

7. How are the Saints 0-2? Do I know nothing about football? I didn’t love New Orleans coming into the season, but at worst I thought they’d be 1-1 entering week 3. They’ve lost late in both games, no thanks to that defense, who allowed both the Falcons and the Browns to drive down the field late and quickly to set up a tying or game winning field goal. The offense has been fine, but they won’t turn it around if they don’t start getting more from Rob Ryan’s defense. Also, keep an eye on that Ryan/Sean Payton relationship. I tend to not make a big deal out of sideline disagreements, because it’s an extremely competitive environment with extremely competitive people, but it’s something to watch as the season progresses. It wouldn’t be the first time that chemistry issues derailed a team’s season and success (see Shaq-Kobe and 2004 NBA Finals). Also, two weeks in, they’re already down 2 games in the division. This week, at home against Minnesota, is a must win for them.

 

8. Even weirder, the Bills are 2-0. 2-0! Buffalo! And the strange thing is, I’ve been more impressed with Buffalo than I have with just about anyone. They’ve run the ball extremely well, the defense is solid, and EJ Manuel looks like a competent quarterback. However, I’ll believe that Buffalo is a legit when they clinch a playoff spot. I’m sorry, but when your team hasn’t made the playoffs since 1999, I’m going to be skeptical until they’re able to prove otherwise. I remember in 2011, when Buffalo started the season 5-2, including a huge 21 point comeback win against the Pats in Week 3. They then proceeded to lose 8 of their last 9 games, and reminded all of us why they are the Bills. Let’s see if they’re still on top of the division 6 weeks from now.

 

Denver has actually been the least impressive 2-0 team to me, because I felt like they dominated their first two games, yet both the Colts and the Chiefs had the ball and were driving late for the tying score before Denver made a play to stop them. Strangely enough, they’ve struggled to put anything together offensively in the second half of games this year, and they’ve struggle to run the ball, only averaging 95 yards through the first two weeks. I also wasn’t high on Carolina coming into this year, but they looked like last years’ Panthers yesterday when they dismantled Detroit. The defense has been solid, and Cam Newton, much like last year, played well enough for his team to win (281 yards, one passing TD, no picks).

 

Finally, we’re debuting a new gimmick this week, called “Questions from my Angry Old Man”. My Angry Old Man is about what you’d expect; he sits around all day whining and complaining about how everything was better back in his day. The players were better, they cared more, the grass was greener, the people were nicer, and all they young people were more respectful and didn’t drive around in their blam blam cars listening to their boom boom music. You get the point. Just lots of yelling and swearing. However, I agreed (begrudgingly) to take one angry question from him a week. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Here’s his first question, “What has happened to Vanderbilt? They look terrible. They’re 1-2 and are lucky to have that one win, because they had to come from behind to beat UMass. All the Vanderbilt fans said they would be fine with James Franklin, but they aren’t! Idiots! Also, why are you such a disappointment as a son? Turn off that boom blam music and start appreciating Karen Carpenter with me!”

 

As you can see, he’s full of anger. I’m actually not totally surprised that Vandy has struggled. I thought they’d take a huge step back this year without Franklin. When has Vandy ever gone 9-4 in back to back seasons and with two straight bowl wins? When will they ever beat Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida in the same year again like they did last year? It will probably never happen again. It just goes to show how great Franklin was. He did an all time great coaching job there in his three year tenure. He got Vanderbilt to compete in the SEC! That’s insane. Now the real question is, if Derek Mason continues to struggle, how long will he keep his job? What if they finish the year 2-10 or 3-9? That’s not totally unreasonable is it? They have games at home against Charleston Southern and Old Dominion, which are probably wins, but they also have 7 conference games left. I doubt they’ll win any of their conference games. Their best shot was probably against Kentucky, but the Wildcats actually look like they might be a semi-competent team (they lost to Florida in triple overtime). Are we sure they’ll beat both ODU and Charleston Southern? With how they’ve looked this year, I can’t say for certain that they will. Would Vandy fire Mason after just one year? It’s possible, particularly with how delusional that fan base probably is coming off the Franklin era. Then who would they get? I think it’s safe to say that Vanderbilt hit a grand slam home run with Franklin, a once in a generation hire for them that won’t come around again for a long time. They are back to being Vanderbilt again, and frankly (no pun intended) I’m glad. Because it sucked losing to them 2 years in a row.

 

As always, if you liked what you read, please share this with someone, and feel free to comment below.