Monday Morning Roundup - 11/23/09

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

I need to say ahead of time that the college football section this week is going to be a bit smaller than usual. I was in Iowa this weekend for the Iowa-Minnesota game, so outside of seeing the end of the Arizona-Oregon game as well as highlights from other games, I didn’t have a chance to see any other games this weekend.

This past Saturday featured several games that decided where many teams would be playing in December and January. The Big 12 North, Pac-10, and ACC Atlantic Division were all crowned, or set up to be won, by the end of Saturday, which should provide us with a great last couple of weeks of the regular season in college football. With one more week of regular season games before the Conference Championship games take place, we should certainly see some entertaining games to finish out the year.

Potentially the biggest win from Saturday was Oregon’s double-overtime win over Arizona. Assuming they win out the rest of the year, Oregon should face Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. That’s not going to be the easiest task for Oregon as Oregon State comes to town on December 3rd. Winning the rivalry game would be huge for an Oregon team that hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1995. Oregon was able to escape Tucson with a tough-fought victory over the Wildcats in what ended up being a thriller.

With Boston College’s loss to North Carolina, Clemson’s sealed up the Atlantic Division in the ACC, however they also were able to go out and take care of business against Virginia. The upcoming ACC Championship game promises to be a very entertaining one with two talented offenses squaring off against each other in the Tigers and in Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech will be favored in the game, but Clemson, led by running back C.J. Spiller, should give them as big of  fight as they’ll face this year.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers won the Big 12 North on Saturday night with their victory over Kansas State. The Huskers have had an up-and-down year, but it’s nice to see them finish the year out with the division crown. Their offense has been stagnant at times in 2009, but their defense has powered them and given them a chance to be competitive in every game they’ve played. Going up against Texas isn’t going to be easy in the Big 12 Championship Game, however if Nebraska is able to played good defense, then I think that we could potentially see an upset. The Huskers are going to be one of the top two-or-three teams that Texas will have played this year.

How about the Ole Miss Rebels playing like the team that most in the nation had ranked in the Top 5 in the country at the beginning of the year; yes it was this year. LSU’s blunder at the end of the game cost them any chance of throwing one last pass to try and tie the game. Their clock management was lacking badly, which is the one reason why they lost the game. Jevan Snead played well as he went 14-21 for 206 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. It’ll be interesting to see what Snead decides to do at the end of the year. Ole Miss’ Dexter McCluster has raised his draft stock significantly in the past few weeks and he has a chance to be drafted as a nice scat back or change of pace back for a team at the next level. McCluster also showed his versatility on Saturday with a touchdown pass to Shay Hodge.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Between USC and Oklahoma, I don’t think I remember a pair of former elite programs having just as bad years as these two have had. USC is 7-3 on the year and Oklahoma is 6-5. While you can make the arguments that the Sooners are without Sam Bradford and that the Trojans are in a rebuilding year (clearly), I don’t think I’ve seen two giants like these having as bad of years as they have had. The Sooners were walloped by Texas Tech on Saturday 41-13. Like I mentioned, I didn’t see the game, but the final outcome is shocking for a team that many considered in the preseason to be one of the top teams in the country.

NFL Sunday

The Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions played one of the more entertaining games of the 2009 season on

Sunday. A back-and-forth battle that included padded stats and minimal defensive play, the Lions were able to pull out a win on the last play of the game. After tossing up a hail mary pass as time was running out, wide receiver Bryant Johnson was pushed out the back of the back of the end zone as the ball came down and pass interference was called on Cleveland, giving Detroit the ball at the one-yard line. With one un-timed down, Matthew Stafford threw a quick strike to Brandon Pettigrew, rookie-to-rookie, to give the Lions their second win of the season. Both teams are in contention for the first pick in the draft, however Detroit took themselves a bit further away, while Cleveland remains deadlocked with St. Louis right at the top. Entering this weekend, the two teams would have had a coin flip to determine who would pick first and who would pick second. I’ll have an updated draft order up this week.

It’s amazing how two teams can take such different directions over the course of a season; it’s even more unique when the two teams are fierce rivals and are competing for a division crown. Such is the situation in the AFC West where the Denver Broncos have now lost four games in a row, while San Diego has rebounded after their slow start to take a one game lead over Denver following yesterday’s 32-3 win over the Broncos. San Diego has now won five straight games since they lost to Denver at home back on October 19th. With the way that each of these two teams are playing, the division could be sealed up relatively soon. San Diego is in position to compete for the second bye behind the Colts, while the Broncos are now playing like the team that most experts expected them to play like at the beginning of the year. If the Broncos continue to stumble, they’ll likely take themselves out of the playoff race.

The New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons played a must-win game yesterday for both teams, in which the winner would likely be the favorite for one of the wildcard spots and the loser could be on the outside

looking in. The Giants came through with a huge victory in overtime which should rejuvenate the team, especially after watching the Dallas Cowboys only win 7-6 over Washington. The Giants are a team to keep an eye on; for the first time all season, they have a completely healthy team, something that they couldn’t say at any point so far this year. New York has a very tough schedule the rest of the year, with games still against each divisional team as well as games against Denver, Minnesota, and Carolina. The one key about the Minnesota game is that the Vikings could be in the playoffs and in position to rest their players. For the Falcons, they have lost four of their last five games and have a very important three-game home stand in which they need badly to win at least two of the three games against Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. Their outlook doesn’t look quite as bright after yesterday’s loss.

We had two fairly large upsets in the league yesterday when the Oakland Raiders beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the last minute of their game. The Kansas City Chiefs also shocked the football world with their

victory over the Steelers. To start with the Bengals, it was hard to say what exactly went wrong. They

seemed to let Oakland stay around too long before the Raiders finally scored with 41 seconds left. On the ensuing kickoff, Andre Caldwell fumbled on the return and the Bengals practically tossed the win to Oakland with that fumble. The Bengals should be thanking the football gods that both Pittsburgh and Baltimore lost as well, so that Cincinnati wouldn’t lose any ground in the division. As for Pittsburgh, there is something seriously wrong with the Steelers. Their special teams have been a problem for them, as was the case on the opening kickoff of the game when Jamaal Charles returned the kick for a touchdown. Pittsburgh’s loss of Troy Polamalu to injury this year has been an absolute killer and cannot be understated how much they’ve missed his presence on the field. Is the Madden curse coming to fruition once again, or is it just the fact that repeating as Super Bowl champions in the NFL is an extremely difficult task of accomplishing? Whatever it is, it’s clear that the Steelers are not the team that they were last year. In the AFC North, the standings remain the same with every team from the division losing, however it also moves them down the chain on teams that are in the hunt for a wildcard spot. It’s going to be a very fun second half of the season to watch.

Both the Colts and the Saints were able to go to 10-0 on the year, the Colts with a tough, hard-fought win over the Ravens, while the Saints easily sailed past Tampa Bay. Both teams are going to have very tough games next week as the Colts head to Houston to take on a very talented Texans team, while the Saints will host New England on Monday Night Football. These are two matchups that I could see each team losing; if they are going to lose a game the rest of the way, next week would likely present the biggest hurdle for them to overcome. It’s going to be a fun Week 12.

NFL Draft Implications

Clemson running back C.J. Spiller has really established himself as the top running back eligible for the 2010 draft. Spiller’s explosiveness and ability to take the ball the distance from anywhere on the field is what has excited scouts the most about his play. He’s a near-lock to land in the first round, especially when you consider that he’ll likely have a great workout at the Combine; I’ve heard that some scouts are talking about Spiller as a potential Top 10 pick. Now, I’m not quite that high on Spiller, but I do think that he’d make a solid mid-first round pick. I see Spiller as a similar player to Reggie Bush at the next level. A scat back/change of pace back who can take the ball inside or outside of the tackles as well as return both punts and kicks on special teams. However, unlike Bush, and like Tennessee’s Chris Johnson, I could see Spiller being a starter for the team that drafts him.

With the Notre Dame Fighting Irish falling to 6-5 on the year with their loss to the Connecticut Huskies, it’s almost a guarantee that head coach Charlie Weis will not return to the team next year. While this shouldn’t

be a surprising move, as I’ve been saying for weeks on this site that he should be fired, it’s one that could have a domino effect in South Bend. Juniors Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate are both very talented players and would be high picks if they decided to leave school for the NFL Draft. Clausen came to Notre Dame because he thought that Weis would give him the best chance of being a high pick in the NFL Draft. Now that Clausen’s stock is high, there may be no need for him to stay another year and attempt to learn a new system and potentially risk injury and/or an unsuccessful year in 2010. His safest bet would be to leave school after the team’s bowl game and enter the draft, and likely be taken among the Top 20 picks. From Tate’s standpoint, it would make the most sense for him to wait and see what other junior wideouts decide to declare. Dez Bryant is a given, but if Arrellious Benn from Illinois, Damian Williams from USC, or Dezmon Briscoe from Kansas decide to declare, then Tate may end up wanting to stay. If they don’t, then it would be in Tate’s best interests to leave school for the draft. He's one of the top underclassmen in the nation at the wide receiver position.

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