A Look Back At The Week That Was...
- Taylor Martinez And Company Exact Some Revenge Against Washington, With A Little Help From The Guy's In Stripes: In the third meeting in just 364 days between the two teams, this time in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Cornhuskers seemed unstoppable on offense and suspect at times on D as they rolled the Huskies 51-38. When the whistle blew at the half, it looked like it was going to be a pretty exciting shootout, as Washington only trailed by three points at 20-17. Depending on who you ask, some might say it should have been 24-20 UW. With only a couple of minutes to go in the second, Washington punted the ball away to Nebraska. As the deep man for the Cornhuskers went to catch the ball, one of his teammates tripped and bumped into him. That caused the ball to bounce off of his leg and into the hands of a waiting Husky gunner, who then ran the ball into the end-zone for what appeared to be a touchdown. Then came the flag for kick catch interference, which would be the first of three controversial calls for the same penalty, and things began unraveling from there. Nebraska was then able to march down and kick a field goal to go into halftime leading by a field goal. The third quarter was an absolute nightmare for the Huskies, who were called for another kick catch interference at the start of the quarter, with an additional five yards tacked on for a sideline penalty. Nebraska was able to capitalize on the great field position to go up 27-17. On the ensuing kickoff, Washington true freshmen Bishop Sankey fumbled the kick return in the end zone, and he and receiver Kevin Smith were unable to corral the ball as a swarm of Husker special teamer's ran down to grab the ball at the 1-yard line. It only took one play for them to punch it in and blow the game wide open. The Huskies made a late comeback, scoring three TD's in the fourth, but it was too little too late. Blaming the officials would be easy to do on this one, and the calls were admittedly bad. The Pac-12 officiating office even said so. But, winning teams overcome things like that, and after the first bad call the Dawg's never seemed to regain their composure. It cost them the game, and a chance to prove that the Holiday Bowl was no fluke.
- USC May Not Be Eligible For The Post Season, But They Are Starting to Look Like The Trojans of Years Past: Matt Barkley threw for 324 yards and five touchdowns, as the Trojans stormed past a lackluster Syracuse team. The Trojans offense had gotten off to somewhat of a slow start in the first two games, but they exploded Saturday. Where they are really reasserting themselves though is on the defensive side of things. They are allowing just over 300 yards per game through the first three contests, with a meager 88 of those on the ground. The Pac-12 South appears to be wide open, and with this team not being able to play in a bowl game, look for them to be very motivated to run the table. That would make quite the statement heading into the 2012 season, when the Trojans bowl ban will be lifted.
- The Cardinal Continue to Roll, As Zona' Continues to Tumble: Heisman front-runner (And future Seahawk quarterback) Andrew Luck threw for 325 yards, as the Stanford Cardinal thumped Mike Stoops' struggling Arizona Wildcats. After being contained much of the first half, Luck and his offense erupted in the last 30 minutes of the game. Slowly and methodically picking apart a worn out Arizona defense. Stanford has won 11 straight games, dating back to last season, which became the longest streak in the Nation after defending champ Auburn was knocked off Saturday afternoon. Arizona, meanwhile, has a 1-2 record and is currently on a very different sort of streak. The Wildcat's have now lost seven straight in conference games. With immaturity on both sides of the ball, it looks like it may be a long Winter in Tucson for Coach Stoops and company. For Stanford and Luck, who are currently ranked 5th in the country, they seem to have picked up right where they left off in the Orange Bowl. They appear to be legit nation championship contenders in 2011.
- Utah Utes: For the first time since 1922 the Utes and BYU played each other as non-conference opponents, and it was all Utah. Forcing seven turnovers, and punishing the Cougars with a relentless ground game, they became the first in-state opponent to knock off Brigham Young since 2005. Quarterback Jordan Wynn threw for 239 yards and two touchdowns, and running back John White shredded the defense on 174 yards and three scores. If the Utah defense can continue forcing turnovers, and the run game keeps on rolling, these guys may surprise some folks in the Pac-12 North.
- Washington Receiver James Johnson: Although it came in a loss, the Junior had his best day as a Husky, catching six balls for 108 yards, two of them for touchdowns.
- The Stanford Defense: It looks like this could be a very magical year for the Cardinal, as they are ranked 5th in the country and have the best quarterback in the nation leading their attack. The news on Monday that linebacker Shayne Skov will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury could prove to be a very big blow. Skov, the teams leading tackler, is the man who runs the show for the defensive unit. Next to Luck, he is the most important man on the team. It may be something they can overcome, but they will need somebody to step up in a very big way in order to keep national title hopes alive down on the farm.
- UCLA Head Coach Rick Neuheisel: Bruin fans are growing very impatient with the 4th year head man, and a 49-20 drubbing by the Texas Longhorns at the Rose Bowl will not help his cause. Quarterback Kevin prince went 3-7 with three interceptions in the first quarter before being yanked for backup Richard Brehaut. If Neuheisel and the Bruins can't turn things around soon, his seat will be getting much hotter than it already is.
- #23 USC Heads to Tempe to Take on The Sun Devils: After a tough loss last weekend against Illinois, Arizona State returns home to take on a 3-0 Trojan squad that looks to be returning to form. This will be the first crucial game in what appears to be a wide open Pac-12 South. Look for a high scoring game, I say last team to touch the ball wins.
- Oregon Takes on The Wildcats in Tucson: It has been a tough stretch for Arizona, having faced two top-ten opponents in the last two weeks. It doesn't get any easier this weekend, as the 10th ranked Ducks head into town to play a team they have beat in three straight contests. Arizona quarterback Nick Foles has been playing very solid football, throwing for 7 touchdowns and zero interceptions, but he has gotten no help from an inexperienced offensive line and a lackluster running game. Things shouldn't be any different in this contest, as I expect Oregon to win big.
- Make or Break Meeting For Oregon State And UCLA: With losing records to begin the year, and struggling units on both sides of the ball, this game could be key in determining what direction these two teams are heading in for the 2011 season. Oregon State is starting a freshmen at quarterback, and UCLA doesn't know what to do at the position. Look for it to be a low scoring game, with UCLA being able to do just enough to pull out the victory.
- The Seattle Seahawk offense is still bad. Actually, worse than it was a week ago. When you are talking about the April draft in September, things are not good.
- I told you last week Pretty Boy Floyd would knock Victor Ortiz out, and I don't care how it happened, it did. There is no such thing as a cheap shot in boxing. The object of the game is to batter one another in the face until one man is knocked out. And the number one rule to remember in the sport is to ALWAYS protect yourself. Well, Ortiz forgot that rule and the veteran Mayweather made him pay. Case closed. Oh, and that post game tirade against Larry Merchant was priceless.
- I will have a separate article on this before the weekend, but the Pac-12 choosing not to expand is the best decision. What people forget about a lot of times when talking about this sort of thing, is the academic side to all of it. We can all make fun of some of the schools in the league (Those people in Tempe and Pullman) but the truth is they are all really good academic institutions. Adding the schools that were being discussed would have diminished that high standard. The Pac-12 is very strong going forward, and right now the collapsing leagues are envious of that. Keeping newcomers out and working with what they have is by far the best option.
- Greg Normand, shut up about Tiger Woods. You cheated on your ex-wife with a flight attendant, so who's to judge?
- A Boston Red Sox wild card collapse would be great. Those Bean Town fans got so arrogant after the 2nd world series title. I liked that town a lot better during that 86 year drought. Maybe a complete collapse will bring them back to earth a little bit.
- "Worst2First" moved to 2-0 this week, despite tight end Antonio Gates getting me a whopping 0 points. Looking ahead, the next 2 weeks are looking pretty easy, so count me in for 4-0.
In case you haven't seen this video yet, it was during the Monday Night Football game between the Gaints and the Rams. The Rams no-huddle offense was smashing down the field, so veteran safety Deon Grant decided to do something about it. That something was a very pathetic "injury" flop. He clearly won't be getting into acting once his career is over. It was so bad, the league sent out a memo to all players and teams today, warning them of fines and penalties for faking injuries in order to effect game play. Take a look...
snake it till you make it - grab jerseys, play dirty, fake injuries, whatever it takes.
ReplyDeletebut after the fact come out and own up to it - his press conference denying it was embarrassing.