Weekend Observations

If you followed the advice of Young Sam Rothstein over the weekend you didn't get your knee caps broken, but you didn't break the bank either. Nebraska handled their business on the road and the Dolphins survived the spread with a controversial call against the Steelers. Not my best weekend, but not a total loss. At least Auburn, New England, and the Seahawks all covered. Fantasy football proved to be a little more favorable as I cruised to victory in one of my leagues and I'm up 14 points in another league going into tonight's game (I have Steve Smith and my opponent has New York's defense). My trash talking league didn't go so well. As I faced off against my arch nemesis my team laid a big smelly egg. I had Washington's defense which managed to get 4 interceptions (nice work DeAngelo Hall) and score 26 points but Ryan Mathews, John Carlson, Golden Tate, Brandon Tate, and Robbie Gould scored a combined 3 points for me. Needless to say the playoffs may not be in the cards this year. Here are some observations from the weekend.

The NFL:

The AFC West is the Chiefs division to lose. Even though the Raiders beat the snot piss out of Denver, Oakland is not a team you can depend on week in and week out. San Diego relies too much on Phillip Rivers and he can't do it all by himself. The Midwest version of the Patriots will make the playoffs.

The Ravens are serious about making a run to the Super Bowl. In years past Baltimore has turned to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed to keep them in ball games, but now they have the ability to win games with their offense. 30+ points is no big deal anymore. Watch out.

New Orleans has chemistry issues. The absence of Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush has taken its toll on the Super Bowl champs. It's never acceptable to lose to the Cleveland Browns (especially at home) and if the Saints don't get healthy in a hurry they won't get an opportunity to repeat as champs.

College Football:

The only thing we know for sure is that Oregon is an offensive machine. They won't be stopped this year. Wisconsin is a fly in the ointment, but I just don't trust them to win the Big Ten title. They are due for a major reality check. Notre Dame's lack of relevance (the topic of my Aug 26th blog) hit an all time low with their loss to Navy. Clearly they don't deserve their own network. It's time to pull the plug on this experiment. The Heisman trophy goes to Cam Newton. End of discussion.

MLB:

San Francisco and Texas shocked the world by making it to the World Series and dispelling the myth that the Yankees and Phillies were unbeatable. the $20,000,000 guys (Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez) both struck out to end the final game. Sometimes money can't buy a championship. Go figure. I hope this World Series doesn't ruin baseball. With viewership down across the board I don't for see this match up getting very good ratings. We already know Taco Bell and Subway are upset they don't get to run their commercials anymore. For what it's worth I'm taking the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series. Cliff Lee can't pitch every game.