Your source for drinking the Kool-Aid of the Fighting Illini, Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks.
Anti: White Sox, Yankees, Packers, The ACC, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, A.J. Pierzynski....
Currently sitting at 3-6, my Illini have for the second consecutive season take the long road down the toilet bowl. What grinds my gears is that I hear people that still have the hope of becoming bowl eligible by going 6-6. Nevermind the fact that we will need wins against Northwestern (6-4), at Cincinnati (9-0), and Fresno State (6-3) to get to 6-6, which won't happen (repeat....WON'T happen), I'm talking about there being a sense of accomplishment of going 6-6.
This is what the over-population of bowls does to us. Yeah, there's a bunch of money going around and that's all well and good, but can you really feel good about making the postseason by have a .500 record? And what if you go to a bowl with a 6-6 record and lose? That means you end the season with a losing record. That should mean that your season was somewhat of a disappointment. And yet you went to a bowl. I just feel that there's something wrong with that.
Even in the case of Illinois, one of our wins (and ONLY one up until 2 weeks ago) was against Division I-AA Illinois State. So even if we win out, that would put our record at 5-6 against I-A opponents.
Ok, I'm done ranting. I'll close by saying so much for the last year of Juice-to-Benn. Hopefully OC Mike Schultz will realize once Juice graduates and all he has is the less mobile Jacob Charest (who by the way looked pretty good against Minnesota), he'll stop calling all those stupid QB draws and throw the damn ball downfield.
As I watched the Saints beat the Falcons 35-27 on this past weeks MNF, I couldn't help think of 2008 Oklahoma football. The whole attitude of "We're gonna put up a ton of points, try to keep up." And not only that, but the fact that their defense forced 3 interceptions out of the usually efficient Matt Ryan. At the halfway point of the regular season, the Saints are, at least in my opinion, the definite front-runner for the Super Bowl.
On the other end of the ranking, the Rams (29 up from 32)finally got off the schnide, beating the almost equally bad Lions 17-10. So at least in terms of wins and losses, the '09 Rams are better than the '08 0-16 Lions. But they're still the Rams. Looking at their schedule, there's pretty much only one winnable game left (home vs. Seattle), so I would say you could pencil them in for a 2-14 season.
The Browns (32 down from 29) on the other hand, have an even easier remaining schedule than the Rams, but have about an equal chance of going 2-14. Of eight games remaining, four of them are against teams ranked 24th or below according to this weeks power rankings (@Det, @KC, v.Oak, v.Jax). Although I couldn't tell you which one it would come from (my guess would be the home against Oakland game), but can't be more than one win coming from these four. There offense can only be described as anemic. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan called a pretty good game against the Bears, allowing only 2 touchdowns in 5 red zone trips.
The Texans (11 up from 18 last week) are quietly 5-3 behind the 7-0 Colts, and if the season ended today, would have their first ever playoff appearance. It's really the definition of under the radar, with all the attention on Indy and Peyton Manning's MVP-type season. Matt Schaub is passing at a 66.4% clip, for 16 TD, 7 INT, and a 100.5 rating. Who is this 100.5 rating ahead of? Tom Brady (99.9), Tony Romo (96.8), Carson Palmer (89.2), and Eli Manning (86.4). I'm not sure Houston will be able to ride Schaub's arm all season, with a run game only posting 92.5 yards per game (28th in the NFL), but it will be interesting to watch.
The biggest thing I got from Week 7 was that the bad teams are SOOO bad. Teams #26-32 (Lions and Titans on a bye) went a combined 0-6, and were out scored 210-40. 210-40!!! That's more than 4 touchdowns a game. Forget win-loss records, I really wonder how bad these teams are against the spread. Because not only are they losing, they are losing BIG and I really don't see any improvement coming. Can you seriously look at any of these teams and see more than maybe 4 wins?
There are enough incredibly bad teams to have a playoff. Losing teams advance and we can call the last game the Toilet Bowl. In a committee of two, I came up with 2 possible venues: a U.S. Naval aircraft carrier in the Middle East; or Barrow, AK, the northernmost point in the United States.
On the more positive end, I keep New Orleans in the top spot, because (a) they put up 43 point in the last 30:05 of the game, after being down 24-3, and (b) Indy did win big, but it's against the Rams, and the Rams are just the Rams. Biggest jump goes to Pittsburgh from #8 to #4 after putting the first loss on Minnesota, who dropped from #4 to #5.
