Men of Troy, Cardiac Cats

What was I thinking? How could I have ever thought Ohio State could keep it close with USC? The reason I thought the way I did is, Ohio State was returning 20 of 22 starters from a team that reached the BCS Title game last year. However, deeper thinking would have made me realize Ohio State was very over-rated last year and back doored their way into the game rather than earning it. I thought they were very over-rated last year. They lack the speed and athletes of the SEC and USC. Keeping the same over-rated players from last year won't close the gap against the SECs and USCs of the world. I agree with the general public and experts. USC is by far the best team in the country. The only other team that has shown something is Oklahoma. However, I don't won't to see a USC-Oklahoma BCS title game, even though that what it looks like we are headed. I want to see USC vs an SEC team. Oklahoma got manhandled by USC years ago and Oklahoma has played poorly in BCS bowls the past few years.

I was half right with most of my predictions last week. I'm 2 for 2 in upsets in College Football so far. Maryland, a 14 point underdog last week, beat Cal. I hope from here out, when a West Coast or Pac-10 teams plays on the East Coast, they shouldn't agree on a 12 Noon start. I picked most of the winners, but not by the margins I predicted. Georgia struggled against South Carolina, Panthers had a tough time with the Bears, but a win is a win.

Georgia survived South Carolina. They probably should have lost the game. Unbelievable how many times South Carolina shot themselves in the foot. Does this mean the Georgia Bulldogs are over-rated? Probably not. South Carolina always plays Georgia tough. We'll get more of an idea if Georgia is for real this weekend against Arizona State.

Georgia Tech lost a close one to Virginia Tech. They probably should have won the game, but didn't. Virginia Tech still doesn't impress me at all. I'm a little worried about Georgia Tech though. Georgia Tech's defense is keeping them in games. I'm not sure if Paul Johnson's offense can survive against the big boys. Also, this is not the type of offense to have when you're playing from behind. Luckily, there are no big boys in the ACC. Hopefully it's the learning curve that is causing GT's offense to sputter.

The Carolina Panther, aka the Cardiac Cats, are back at it. They looked awful the 1st half on Sunday. However, the defense kept them in the game. Luckily, Chicago is not very good offensively. I think Chicago is better than most thought. Their win over Indy is not fluke and Matt Forte looks like he can carry the workload. He's a big, strong RB. He's the real deal. On the other side, Jonathan Stewart showed why the Panthers were so high on him. If he can stay healthy, he will be one of the best RBs in the NFL. Interesting they are playing Minnesota this week. Stewart and Peterson are very similar, a combination of speed and power. Stewart can and will be at Adrian Peterson's level next year if he can stay healthy. Another key is the Panthers re-built offensive line is good. Looks like the gamble with Otah on draft day will pay off. He's still a little raw, but will only get better.

What a Monday Night game. Definitely one of the best Monday Night games in a long time. I was more impressed with the Eagles than with the Cowboys. I was wrong about my assessment of the Eagles and McNabb. McNabb has looked as good as he's ever been. These are the 2 best teams in the NFC. Yes, better than the Packers and Giants. Packers are good, but not great. The Giants injuries and the loss of Osi and Strahan will eventually catch up to them. I wouldn't be surprised if Dallas chokes again this year. I just think they are not committing to the run like they should. They need to go to a more consistent ball control offense rather than a gun-slinging style offense. They will put their defense into too many holes with quick series and high turnovers. The Giants played the perfect style last year. Ball control, consistent, commit to the run, etc. Even the year the Colts won the Super Bowl, they didn't get into the high scoring shootouts they were accustomed to in previous years.

Just a quick comment on the Denver-San Diego game. San Diego got jobbed. If the ref wanted to make up for it, he should have called a holding penalty or something the next play against Denver. There is such a thing as a make-up call. Just shows you the ref cared more about his ego than doing the right thing. I've ref'd football and basketball before. You can practically make a case for holding almost every play in the NFL, just like you can practically call a foul almost every play in basketball.

Down Goes Brady and WVU. Miracle in San Diego.

College - Ohio State struggled against lowly Ohio. Classic case of looking ahead. Now it seems all of sudden everyone is predicting they have no chance against USC. With Beanie Wells most likely out, it's going to be even tougher now. I think they still have a good chance. They still have a great defense and Tressel is one of the best coaches in the country. Ohio State will be ready.

East Carolina pulled off the upset of WVU. My upset prediction came through. ECU has a good chance to run the table. The bigger question will be which big time program will Skip Holtz be coaching next year?

Pro - Of course the big news is Tom Brady's injury. Very unfortunate. Hate to see that happen to anyone, especially the caliber of player Brady is. This leaves the AFC wide open now. Matt Cassel is not going to be able to lead this team to the promiseland. Belichick's stubborness of not having a veteran backup comes back an bite him. Everyone now is jumping aboard the Steeler's bandwagon after one game. Jacksonville was my #2 team in the AFC before Brady's injury, so I will now elevate them to #1 in the AFC. Yes, they lost this past Sunday, but it was a road rivalry game. The Cowboys are now the Super Bowl favorites and rightfully so.

Carolina Panthers - Tremendous victory for the Panthers over the weekend. Probably the the 4th best victory in franchise history (1 - Defeated Eagles to go to Super Bowl. 2 - Defeated Rams in OT to get to NFC Championship game. 3 - Defeated Cowboys at home in 1997 to reach NFC Title game). The Panthers are going to be force in the NFC if they can stay healthy. I saw some inefficiencies such as poor red zone offense and poor play calling, but nothing that can't be fixed. Steve Smith back in week 3. Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah has greatly improved this team. The defense isn't a force like it once was, but they are playing as a unit and have a lot of versatility with their players and schemes.

Weekend Preview - 9/5/2008

The weekend got off with an early start last night. The NY Giants dominated the 1st half last night and hung on in the second half. The Redskins continued their preseason hangover. Vanderbilt shocked South Carolina. Like I said last earlier in the week, the Gamecocks did not impress me last week, even though they won 34-0.

Here are some weekend predictions:

The Panthers travel to San Diego this Sunday. I'm not picking the Panthers to win, but I think it will be close. Historically under the John Fox era, the Panthers play season openers on the road a lot better than they do at home. Granted they've never opened with an opponent the caliber of San Diego, but I think San Diego wins by 4 or less, not the double digits a lot of the experts predict.

Georgia Tech has their 1st real test of the year when they travel to Boston College. This will be the 1st big test to see how Paul Johnson's offense works against the big boys. BC's strenghth in their defense is stopping the run, where they were one of the top teams in the country. GT's strength this year, will be their defense, not their offense. GT has 2 potential 1st round draft picks on the D-Line. I predict a low scoring affair. BC comes out on top though.

Not much of a big slate in College Football this weekend. A lot of good games next weekend. The game that interests me the most is Florida-Miami. Miami has historically played Florida tough and has won most of the time. However, the game is at the swamp, Miami is young with an inexperienced QB, and Florida is primed and ready to go. Even though I still don't trust the Gator defense, they should have no problem with this young Miami team.

I'm going to start picking an upset special every Friday for college and pro.

College: Not a good slate to pick upsets this weekend. However, I think East Carolina can knock of West Virginia. The Pirates have a good defense and are sky high off their win over Virginia Tech. WVU gave up more points than I though they would against Villanova and gave up a ton of yards.

Pro: I initially said Buffalo over Seattle, but I'm not sure if that would be considered an upset. I'm going to go with Atlanta over Detroit. How often has Detroit ever been favored on the road? Everyone is counting Atlanta out this season. However, if they do win this game, it will be one of the few they do win. Atlanta will rely more on Michael Turner than Matt Ryan. Detroit lost their best defensive lineman in the off-season. The Lions have a lot of offensive weapons. Atlanta's defense will have to get into bend but don't break mode.

Latest Musings - Favre, Olympics, Panthers

A few ramblings from the past week:

Favre - I don't think there was a winner or loser from the Packers-Favre divorce. The Green Bay Packers obviously wanted to move on. Truthfully, I don't blame them. Favre has held them hostage for the past few years. The Packers were ready to move on. I think they were very frustrated. They couldn't plan for their draft, look at potential free agents, and juggle the salary cap because of Favre's waffling the past few years. Favre finally announced he was retiring. The Packers moved on. They drafted Brian Brohm in the second round in case Aaron Rodgers doesn't work out. When Favre changed his mind, AGAIN, the Packers had enough. I really think if Favre would have told them, yes, he was coming back initially, the Packers would have been satisfied and would have accepted him. They could have used their 2nd round draft pick on a position need. Obviously, any team would rather have Favre than Aaron Rodgers, but the Packers felt they were being held hostage. Thompson and McCarthy were satisfied with Rodger's progress and felt satisfied with their team without Favre. I'm not going to question the Packers for this decision. McCarthy and Thompson have been good the past few years in judging young talent. They developed a lot of young players last year and their future looks bright. Grant, Jennings, Hawk all were very young players that contributed heavily to the Packers success last year. I still think they will win the NFC Central this year.

As for Favre and the Jets, this made them from who cares to somewhat interesting. They will definitely be better than 4-12 from last year. They made a lot of FA signings and have drafted well the past 2 years. Favre is an upgrade, but not as significant as a lot of the experts are saying. Sure, he may add a few wins this year. Realistically, how many more years does he have left. Would they be better in letting Kellen Clemens develop or take a flyer on 1 year, 2 max, with Favre? I think this team is a 9-7 team at best. Problem is, this doesn't get you into the playoffs in the AFC. Favre will bring them publicity and excitement temporarily. However, I think the Packers are still in a better situation this year.

Summer Olympics - I really haven't been interested at all in the Summer Olympics since the games were in Atlanta. However, this year's Olympics has a lot of intrigue and NBC has done a great job in presentation. I've heard more buzz about this Olympic Games the past few days from friends, co-workers, media coverage, etc. than I have for the past 2 combined. The USA Basketball team, otherwise known as The Redeem Team, gets the bulk of the coverage. I think they will win the Gold easily. Kobe Bryant has shown a lot of leadership skills this year and on this team. That's what USA Basketball has been missing the past few years. All these basketball superstars really didn't have a leader and we are seeing more team basketball rather than individual agendas. I think the 2nd biggest reason for the buzz of this Olympics are the location. China is the most populated country in the world and just like real estate, location sells. Even though I don't agree with China's political agendas and really don't trust them, they have done a great job being a host country and the athletes seem happy to be competing over there.

Carolina Panthers - Final musing is about my hometown team, the Carolina Panthers. Their 1st pre-season game has come and gone. The 1st string, for those that played, looked good. Peppers looked like the old Peppers, the O-line looks like the real deal, and the Defensive Line as a whole looked better than I thought they would. Coming into this season, I thought the Defensive Line would be their weakness. I would have liked to see Delhomme play a longer series. He played mostly short series thanks to the defense. It was just the 1st pre-season game though. The Colts had a lot of key players out, including Peyton Manning, so who know if this game really gauges anything for the Panthers. A better Eagles team looms this week. Let's see if we see promise again this week or if we got the classic Carolina Panthers tease.

State of the Carolina Panthers

Some NFL teams made some moves this week and the Carolina Panthers were one of them. The Carolina Panthers are my adopted NFL team. I grew up in Georgia, so naturally I rooted for the Atlanta Falcons growing up. I'm now a Carolina Panthers PSL owner and go to as many games as I can.

This week they cut Dan Morgan and Mike Wahle. Morgan has been hurt for most of his tenure and it was a complete shock when the Panthers gave him an extension 2 years ago. Wahle was cut due to salary cap reason. The Panthers need a lot of help this off-season. They are a .500 team at best right now and their record the past 2 years have shown it. Poor drafting, injuries, and poor player personnel decisions have caused their demise from NFC contender to pretender. The NFC is not as stacked as the AFC, so one good off-season can put almost any NFC team back into title contention.

This may be one of the biggest off-seasons ever for the Panthers. How is Delhomme's rehab going? Was Julius Peppers under-achieving season a sign of things to come? How do the Panthers handle his contract, which is set to expire? How do they handle the aging Jenkins and Rucker on the defensive line? With the release of Wahle, there is not much depth at OL. Ken Lucas has declined every year since he got here. What to do about DeShaun Foster? Will the Panthers ever get a good 2nd receiver?

I expect the Panthers to cut Colbert and Foster this off-season. Just makes sense. Colbert is obvious. Foster is aging and declining and could use the cap space. DeAngelo Williams is ready to take on full-time role. The toughest thing is deciding on how much to give Peppers. I don't think he should get Top 5 money. He is reminding me of Jevon Kearse. Kearse was defined as 'The Freak' in Tennessee his rookie year. Had a good first few years. Then, the Philadelphia Eagles got him for big bucks at about the same stage Peppers is at now and has under achieved. This year's draft will make or break the team. Their biggest needs are DL and Secondary help. They desperately need a #2 receiver, but maybe Jarrett can live up to his potential. I'm sure they'll signed a veteran receiver in the off-season. If this year's draft turns out to be a bust, we can say bye-bye to Fox and Hurney.