Monday Morning Roundup - 11/9/09

"At that moment a voice came over me and said, Look up, get up, and don't ever give up. You tell everyone or anyone that has ever doubted, thought they did not measure up or wanted to quit, you tell them to look up, get up and don't ever give up." - Michael Irvin

College Football Saturday

This past Saturday was filled with big games, upsets, and a complete re-shuffling at the top of the rankings. After watching the Alabama-LSU game on Saturday, I think it’s easy to say that the upcoming SEC Championship game may be one of the best in the history of the game. The Crimson Tide and the Gators will match up in Atlanta for what should be a semifinal for the National Championship game. The winner will go to the BCS Championship game while the lose will potentially head to one of the other BCS bowls. However, my question is this; let’s say Florida beats Alabama on a last second field goal, is that close enough of a margin to play a rematch for the National Championship? I’ve said in past articles that the Texas Longhorns, while impressive as a team, have one of the easiest schedules in the country. Either way, between the SEC Championship game and the actual National Championship game, we should see two great games.

I’ve said it every week since Notre Dame lost to Michigan, see you later Charlie. With the Fighting Irish losing to Navy on Saturday, Charlie Weis has continued to write his own pink slip. With three games left

against Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and Stanford, I’d honestly be surprised if they won two of them. At

Pittsburgh and at Stanford are going to be two very tough games, with each of them being two extremely underrated teams. As Stanford showed this weekend, they have the talent to compete with anyone in the nation, including beating the No. 8 team Oregon; on the shoulders of running back Dion Lewis, Pitt’s offense is firing on all cylinders this season; Connecticut showed this weekend that they can also compete with any of the best teams in the country, as they took Cincinnati down to the last second in their game against the Bearcats. The fact that anyone thinks that Jimmy Clausen or Golden Tate are worthy of Heisman consideration is hysterical. This is the same group of players that has needed to go to the last second in four of their six wins, all against far worse competition. What I find troubling with this team is the fact that every year, they continue to sign five star after five star recruit to come to South Bend. They hired Jon Tenuta to be their defensive coordinator, yet it hasn’t improved much. The coaching on this team is what is holding it back; any coach can get the top players in the nation to come to Notre Dame, it’s just a question of whether or not they can coach them; it’s pretty clear that Weis can’t.

I was very impressed with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in their victory over Oklahoma. Their offense, obviously, needs a tremendous amount of work, however their defense is playing on an elite level right now. Led by future Top 5 pick Ndamukong Suh, the Huskers have put themselves back into position to win the Big 12 North and head to face Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. I plan on talking later in the article about Suh, however it goes without saying that he is likely the most dominant defensive lineman in college football today.

With Iowa finally succumbing to the fact that they were going to lose sooner or later, the Big Ten has taken a wild shift, especially with Ohio State’s victory over Penn State. Next week’s game between the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes in Columbus appears to be what could be described as the potential conference championship game. Who knew that Ohio State could still win the conference when fans in Ohio were calling for Jim Tressel to be fired after the team’s loss to Purdue; overreact much? With Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi likely out for the next two games, I’d be surprised if Ohio State lost next week’s game, especially coming off an emotional game like the one they played on Saturday against Penn State. I’d also be surprised now if Penn State was able to make it to a BCS game; with losses to Iowa and Ohio State in addition to a horrible non-conference schedule, the Nittany Lions’ resume isn’t looking too promising right now. The team that most college football fans aren’t giving any attention to is Wisconsin, who very quietly went to 7-2 with their victory over Indiana this past weekend. The Badgers may be one of the more underrated teams in the nation.

Boise State might be the most overrated team in the last five years. They have consistently struggled to beat

some of the bigger cupcake teams on their schedule. With games against Tulsa and Louisiana Tech that

went down to the wire, it’s quite obvious that the Broncos should not be playing in a BCS game this year. Being undefeated is great, but when you barely beat a 3-6 team like Louisiana Tech by only 10 points, people are going to be concerned. TCU, on the other hand, continues to roll over their opponents on their way to a BCS berth. They have good wins over Virginia, Clemson, Air Force, and BYU, and assuming they win out, would have a victory over No. 14 ranked Utah. This is the non-BCS conference team that is going to make the most noise this season.

NFL Sunday

In their last eight appearances at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, the Green Bay Packers are 1-7. Playing in Tampa Bay has been a very large task for the Packers, no matter how good the Buccaneers were. The record dates back to the days of the NFC Central when the Bucs were in the same division as

the Vikings, Packers, Lions, and Bears. One way or another, the Packers lost to the only team in the league that had yet to win a game and there’s no way of getting around it. For Tampa Bay, they may have bought themselves new life in the race for the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft. From Green Bay’s perspective, things are not looking good. Their offensive line is a complete mess and they will likely need to address this spot at least two-to-three times in the draft, if not more. They need help at tackle as well as along the interior of the line. With a relatively tough schedule the rest of the way, I really think that 4-4 Green Bay will be lucky to finish 8-8 with the way that they are playing right now. You can say that this all goes back to the trade of Brett Favre to the Jets; the legacy of general manager Ted Thompson could fall not with how his team finishes this year, but how the Vikings and Favre finish. Two years ago I said that it was a mistake getting rid of Favre and I’ll stand by that today. Now all we have to do is sit back and watch how history unfolds.

Both the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints were dealt a scare on Sunday when they both were brought stiff competition by the Houston Texans and the Carolina Panthers, respectively. Indianapolis is suffering badly from injuries in the secondary this year with both safety Bob Sanders and cornerback Marlin Jackson out for the season. They also have had to find a replacement for Anthony Gonzalez at wide receiver and both Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie have done a nice job of picking up the slack. However, the Colts’ good luck can only carry them so far. They nearly lost to San Francisco last week and they needed a missed field goal at the last second to avoid overtime against the Texans. With New England rolling into town next Sunday night, it’ll be interesting to see how they perform next week after Sunday’s big win over Houston.

The New Orleans Saints are a team that has been able to overcome big deficits early in games to come back and win the game. They’ve done this two out of the last three games against Miami and Carolina, two teams that they should beat relatively easily. The Saints have a bit of an easier schedule ahead with two

games still against Tampa Bay as well as games against St. Louis and Washington; however, they also still have to play at Atlanta as well as home against New England and Dallas. Like I’ve been saying for the past couple of weeks, the Saints have to be considered the favorites in the NFC with the Vikings on their tail as they both compete for home field advantage in the playoffs. Home field advantage could be huge this year; the difference between playing in the Superdome in New Orleans or the Metrodome in Minneapolis could be a major advantage for the home team. Both teams are on track to win the byes in the playoffs, especially with no one else in the NFC coming out and proving that they are worthy of competing with the two giants. When you consider that the AFC has several contenders in Indianapolis, New England, Denver, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the two teams in the NFC have to be thankful that they have a far easier trek to go far in the playoffs.

If someone could coach their team out of a win, Andy Reid did just that on Sunday night. Whether it was the lack of time management, misuse of replay, or the misjudging of when to go for it on fourth down, Reid without a doubt played a part in the Eagles 20-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It’s very surprising to see how not using your timeouts correctly can cost your team a win, but we saw a perfect example of it on Sunday night. This was a very winnable game for the Eagles, one that they had controlled for a good part of the game. Philadelphia now faces a five game stretch where they will only play one game at home, against Washington, but will be on the road against San Diego, Chicago, Atlanta, and the New York Giants. Whether or not the game last night defined the season for the Eagles is yet to be determined, however the next five games very well could tell us what the future of the 2009 Eagles is. The Cowboys gain tremendous momentum off of last night’s win. At 6-2, with two games against Washington and another against Oakland, it’s likely that this team will win nine games at a minimum this year. Heading to Lambeau Field to take on Green Bay will be a great game next week; they could use the win, because their schedule gets difficult towards the end of the year with games still against the New York Giants, New Orleans, San Diego, and Philadelphia.

After being beaten at home by the wildcat last season, the Patriots came out ready to defend the tricky formation on Sunday. They were able to effectively hold Ronnie Brown to just 48 yards and no touchdowns on 15 carries. While Brown was able to throw for a touchdown out of the formation, it’s clear

that the Patriots were ready to go up against the Dolphins on Sunday; this is usually the result when Bill Belichick has two weeks to prepare for a team. I was impressed with the play of rookie cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Sean Smith from the Dolphins. While they did make some mistakes, they are rookies, and that’s to be expected. The future of the Miami secondary is bright. On the other hand, it’s clear that the Dolphins need to look at receivers in the draft this year. Their passing game was the main reason why Miami wasn’t able to attempt to make a comeback in the game. For New England, next week’s game against the Colts is going to be a major game that should tell us who the elite team in the AFC is. As I mentioned, the Colts are undefeated, but the last two weeks they’ve shown that they can be beaten, and with two rookies in the secondary, you’d have to think that Tom Brady is going to be licking his chops to get ahold of the Colts’ defense. Next Sunday night’s game figures to be one of the top games of the season, which is usually the case when these two teams face off. Don’t miss this one.

With their victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals have officially swept the season series and have taken control of the AFC North. Their game against Pittsburgh next week could ultimately determine who wins the division. The Steelers could use a win tomorrow night against Denver to stay on pace with the Bengals in the division. If Cincinnati can come away with a win in the game next week, then the Bengals would be on track to take the division. Cincinnati’s dominance over the Ravens on Sunday proved that they are finally for real.

NFL Draft Implications

The 2010 NFL Draft is going to be the year of the defensive tackle. With Ndamukong Suh, Gerald McCoy, Terrence Cody, Jared Odrick, and Arthur Jones all being potential first round picks, or first round candidates, the senior class alone from this position group could trump any in years past. Suh, McCoy, and Cody are all worthy of Top 10-15 consideration, proving the fact that the defensive tackle has gained more respect over the past few years and teams are not afraid to take one high in the draft. Suh has raised his draft stock as much as anyone in the country this year and will be a Top 3 pick if all goes well between now and April.

- Like Suh, Clemson running back C.J. Spiller has raised his draft stock as much as anyone in the country this year. The speedy back for the Tigers has shown over the course of the season that he can take the ball to the house every time he touches it. With the success of Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson, teams aren’t going to be afraid of taking smaller, faster backs these days now that they know that they can have the type of impact that Johnson has had. I can tell you this, Spiller certainly has the same type of big-play potential that Johnson brings to the table and may be the top running back in the draft at this point. If you have a chance, check this kid out.

- Injured running backs: LSU’s Charles Scott is done for the season with a broken collarbone. A third-to-fourth round pick in my opinion, Scott has an ideal frame for an every-down back at the next level. The injury shouldn’t hurt his draft stock that much as long as he is able to make a full recovery. There is talk that he could make it back for a bowl game, so he should also be good for offseason workouts. Cal’s Jahvid Best suffered a very serious injury on Saturday night when the talented back dove into the endzone and landed on what appeared to be the back of his neck. Best was taken to the hospital with a concussion and has since been released. He’ll miss at least one game, however it goes without saying that we hope that Best is able to regain to full form. For how scary and dangerous the play looked, it’s great to hear that he is doing alright.

- With Tampa Bay’s win on Sunday, the top of the draft order has been shuffled up again. If the draft were to be held today, St. Louis would pick first with Kansas City second, followed by Cleveland, Detroit, and Tampa Bay. Expect more updates this week on the draft order as well as a new mock draft.