Back to Football

After the Labor Day weekend, with so much hustle and bustle in the sporting world this week, I found it too hard to settle on one topic. So today, we are going to go around the football world in a few minutes.


NCAA Football

There were not any Earth shattering results in college football over the weekend, but there were some adjustments to the power structure involving the strongest conference in college football. LSU, after its victory over Oregon in Dallas this past Saturday, leaped over Alabama into the #2 spot in the Associated Press poll and Auburn fell out of the Top 25 after squeaking by diminutive football power Utah State with the help of an onside kick.

LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee answered a number of questions about his ability to lead the team by effectively managing LSU’s offense, not making any mistakes, and seizing the few big play opportunities that the Oregon Ducks made available. A 98 yard, 45% completion performance with one touchdown and no interceptions by Lee is sufficient to double the scoring output of the #3 team in the country, late in the fourth quarter. All Lee needs to do is not try to do anything heroic (or stupid) to guide the LSU Tigers to a showdown with Alabama, later this season, with an unbeaten record.

As for Auburn...gravity is real! According to ESPN the Auburn Tigers had the lowest A.P. preseason ranking of any defending national champion in history at #23. I wonder how many have been unranked after WINNING their first game. The losses of quarterback Cam Newton and defensive tackle Nick Fairley to the NFL, along with the losses of a number of significant seniors from the 2010 BCS Championship winning team, has plunged the Tigers' credibility before they have lost a single game. Needing an unlikely onside kick recovery against a rent-a-win opponent from a mid-major conference, the Western Athletic Conference, for a win this past Saturday may have counted n the "W" column, but not with Associated Press columnists. WAR EAGLE!!!


Excited, Auburn? NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND! 1

 NFL

Roger Goodell has cleverly woven “Back to Football” into the taglines of sports outlets everywhere. This Thursday, we will see the nation really get back to football with the regular season opener between the last two Super Bowl winning franchises, the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, in the home of the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers.

If the NFL was “back to football” when the lockout ended, just weeks before the start of preseason, the league went “back to sleep” in its final slate of exhibition football. The players made the strongest case for the league to eliminate two preseason games and go to an 18 game regular season schedule with the slovenly comedy of errors witnessed across the league in the final week. Starters were rested and the guys who played…I think very few of them failed to make their teams because of the final preseason game. They weren’t making the cut at all!

I don't know what was worse, the blocking or this lovely "pass" by the Texans' Matt Leinart. THIS is a former Heisman Trophy WINNER??? 2

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1) Image from romenews-tribune.com
2) Image from mysanantonio.com