NFL '13 Dread News - Week 19

The NFL world is back to normal, once again spinning on its proper axis - at least for this season, anyway. The cream rose to the top last weekend as 3 of the 4 teams that earned byes for the 1st round of the playoffs won their 2nd round games at home to advance to the conference championship round. And the one team still alive that didn't have a 1st round bye - the 49ers - certainly would have gotten one if they weren't in the same division as the Seahawks. The four winners in the 2nd round are arguably (and it would be a pretty strong argument) the two best teams in each conference, so CBS and Fox no doubt are very happy, because New England at Denver for the AFC title and San Francisco at Seattle for the NFC crown figure to be highly competitive games that draw huge TV ratings.

6 of the 8 teams in action last weekend have at least one running back with dreads. The only two that don't met at Denver, where the Broncos held off the San Diego Chargers 24-17. There were plenty of chances for the Chargers to win this game, but they didn't take advantage of enough of them to pull off the upset. For example, after the Chargers punted on their opening drive, they had a chance to stop the Broncos' first drive. But on 1st down from the San Diego 29-yard line, CB Shareece Wright dropped what should have been an easy interception, keeping the drive alive. 6 plays later Denver led 7-0. The Chargers' D did get the turnover on the Broncos' second drive, recovering a fumble after S Jahleel Addae stripped the ball from TE Julius Thomas just before he hit the ground (photo below) at the SD 45-yard line. But again the Chargers failed to take advantage, missing a FG attempt on their ensuing possession. 

NFL '13 Dread News - Week 18

In only one of the four 1st round playoff games did the team playing at home have a better record than their opponent, so I guess it's not very surprising that only one home team won last weekend. Ever since New England won back-to-back Super Bowls after going 14-2 in both 2003 and 2004, 6 of the last 8 Super Bowl winners have been teams that did not get a 1st round bye. If that trend continues this season, that means either the Colts, Saints, Chargers, or 49ers will be raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy three weeks from now. Which one will it be? 

The Indianapolis Colts were the only home team to advance to round 2, and they had to come back from the dead  before barely defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 45-44. Despite finishing 11-5, the Chiefs didn't really beat any teams that were any good during the regular season. Only one of their 11 victories came against a team that finished with a winning record, and even that victory wasn't all that impressive because the Eagles weren't very good back in Week 3 when the Chiefs beat them. Whenever they played a good team, they lost, and that includes a 23-7 home loss to the Colts in Week 16. I thought the Chiefs were certainly very capable of beating a good team; but until they actually did it, it was hard to get very excited about all their success.

Well, the Chiefs are still looking for that victory over a quality team after incredibly blowing a four-touchdown lead in the 1-point loss at Indianapolis last Saturday. 

NFL '13 Dread News - Week 17

I believe I have reached a new low. In each of the first four years of this blog I was able to do at least a couple of weekly reports on the NFL during the season. But this year? Nothing - until now, that is, with the whole regular season already finished. Yes, I'm very disappointed that I haven't done anything yet. Yes, I still very much enjoy doing this blog. But there are only 24 hours in every day; and as long as that remains true I'm not going to have enough time to do all the things I want to do in this blog. Since I have chosen to emphasize college football, the NFL has to take a back seat.

But that doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention. By now you probably know that I love watching the Falcons, Chiefs, Bears, and Jaguars every week. But there are so many commercial breaks during NFL telecasts that I'm able to switch channels often enough to usually catch at least a little action from every game. Coming into Week 17 the Kansas City Chiefs were the only team that knew its playoff fate. At 11-4, they had clinched 2nd place in the AFC West as well as the #1 AFC wild card spot. The four AFC division champions had already been crowned, but their records were so close that none of them knew how they would be seeded for the playoffs. The #2 AFC wild card spot was a free-for-all. Over in the NFC, only 3 of the 6 playoff spots had been clinched, and none of the four division champions had been determined.

It must have been exasperating being a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals as those two teams tried to earn a spot in the playoffs. Ultimately they both failed to make it, and how they failed to make it was nothing short of fascinating. The Cardinals, 9-5 after Week 15, needed to win their final 2 games AND have at least one of these three things to happen: either the Panthers lose to the Saints, the 49ers lose to the Falcons, or the Saints lose to the Buccaneers. Despite 2 interceptions by Seahawks CB Richard Sherman, the Cardinals kept hope alive with a 17-10 win at Seattle in Week 16, the Seahawks' 1st loss at home this season. But the help they needed elsewhere didn't materialize. It looked like the Panthers were going to lose to the Saints; but instead they scored a TD with 23 seconds to go to defeat the Saints. Then it looked like the 49ers, a 14-point favorite, were going to lose at home to the Falcons; but instead with the Falcons down by 3, QB Matt Ryan threw an interception (returned for a TD) on 2nd and 1 from the 49ers' 10-yard line with 1:10 remaining in the game. 

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 15

Throughout the BCS era - which thankfully will come to an end less than 2 weeks from now (not that the next era will be any less aggravating) - life has not been fair for the teams in the smaller conferences. If you played in the Mountain West, Sun Belt, CUSA, MAC, or (prior to 2013) WAC, you were automatically deemed inferior to the teams in the 6 major conferences even before each season began, no matter how good your team was. And to have any chance of earning a trip to one of the big money BCS bowl games, you not only had to win your conference, you had to go undefeated as well. This year there were a couple of teams that threatened to be BCS busters. Fresno State made it to Week 14 before falling at San Jose State; and the other .....

Northern Illinois overcame the odds last season, earning a trip to the Orange Bowl; but the Huskies won't be appearing in a 2nd straight BCS bowl. Coming into the MAC championship game with a 12-0 record, NIU fell - hard - to Bowling Green 47-27. It was the first MAC title in 21 years for Bowling Green. At 9-3, the Falcons didn't have the sparkling record, or the Heisman candidate, or the hype that NIU had. But their 21-20 loss at Mississippi State in Week 7 proved they were no slouches. And they came into the game with a ton of momentum, having outscored their previous four opponents by a margin of 176-17 since suffering their only MAC loss 28-25 to Toledo in Week 9. Included in that run was an impressive 24-7 win on the road against Buffalo in a Week 14 showdown that clinched the MAC East Division title.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 14

     "They're going to try a field goal?" .......

...... asked CBS announcer Gary Danielson - incredulously - as Alabama lined up to attempt a 56-yard field goal on the last play of the game. If successful, the kick would give the Crimson Tide an SEC West-clinching 31-28 victory over Auburn. But since the Tide had already gone 0 for 3 on much shorter FG attempts earlier in the game, Danielson, yours truly, and likely thousands of others watching were wondering what on Earth had possessed Coach Saban into believing this attempt would end up any better than the previous three.

Well, as you probably have heard, this attempt didn't end up better than the previous three - it actually went even worse. Not only was it not long enough to be good, it in fact was so short that Auburn CB Chris Davis was able to catch the ball in the back of the end zone and proceeded to return it 108 yards all the way to the house at the other end of the field (photos on right) to give the Tigers the victory, 34-28, in one of the most amazing finishes to a game you'll ever see. In case you somehow haven't seen the play (or you just want to see it again) here it is on a video from the Auburn website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GKmkD1pUG0

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 12

In Week 6 they trailed at Memphis 17-10 with less than 3 minutes to play ..... They won 24-17. Two weeks later they trailed at Louisville by 4 with less than 30 seconds remaining .....  They won 38-35. In Week 11 they led by 5 with 40 seconds to go, but Houston had the ball 1st and goal at their 10-yard line ..... They won 19-14. And in Week 12 at Philadelphia they trailed Temple 36-29 with less than 2 minutes on the clock ..... Of course, they won 39-36. By now you likely have figured out that "they" are the Central Florida Knights. And being a fan of the 2013 Knights means you better not have a weak heart. UCF's latest escape act kept them undefeated in the AAC (5-0) and moved them another step closer to the AAC's automatic bid to one of the major bowl games.

Don't even think about saying that UCF is lucky. When the Knights have needed to make a play, they've gone out and done it, and there's nothing lucky about that. Making a lot of those plays have been their four standout receivers. Two of the four have dreads, but for a moment it looked like neither was going to be of any help this week. Sophomore Breshad Perriman wasn't even in uniform while recovering from a concussion suffered in the Knights' previous game. And it looked like junior Rannell Hall (photo below) would join him on the sideline after being injured in the 2nd quarter against Temple. But Hall wasn't out for long, and that was a very good thing for UCF.

Jason the Babarian

It was Sunday, November 17, and I was about three fourths of the way done with my weekly three hours of suffering watching the Falcons stink it up again (I mean, they can't even beat Tampa Bay). But, as always, I had two other televisions on too, with the sound down, so that I could keep an eye on other games during all the breaks and timeouts in the Falcons' game. Since the Bears were in a weather delay and the Chiefs weren't playing until later, that meant I was following the Jaguars more closely than usual, as they took on the Cardinals. And that meant I saw something that at first was hard to believe.

Just before going to a commercial break after a Cardinals punt in the 3rd quarter, there was a brief replay on the Fox telecast of a Jaguars player holding up what appeared to be a handful of dreads that apparently had been ripped away from somebody's head. Well, that's exactly what it was. Now I don't normally freak out and do a post every time someone gets his dreads yanked during a game; but this wasn't just one or two strands of dreads this guy was holding up - it looked like a whole bunch. And when he let go of them and they fell to the ground, it became evident that it was close to a dozen dreads that somebody had just lost.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 10

As South Florida fans watched the Bulls' offense look better than it has all season in their ESPN Thursday night game at Houston, I know what their reaction was: Where did all this come from? And while watching freshman QB Mike White throw the ball much more accurately than the other three quarterbacks who have played for the Bulls this season, no doubt they were thinking: Why has this guy been on the bench all year? In the Bulls' first 7 games their feeble passing attack averaged 10.6 completions and 132 yards. Making his first start, White passed for 311 yards on 26 completions. And if not for a questionable offensive pass interference penalty that nullified a 27-yard TD that would have given the Bulls the lead with 4 minutes to play, he might have led USF to the upset. But instead Houston held on for a 35-23 victory in a game that featured a lot of players with dreads.

That feeble offense is the main reason I for the most part have avoided watching South Florida this season, even though this is a team loaded with a lot of great dreads. Arguably the sickest of those dreads belong to junior WR Chris Dunkley, who made more of an impact in this game on special teams than on offense.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 8

Well, that wasn't much of a game. Was it? If you had asked me before Florida State played Clemson last Saturday, I would have told you that I thought FSU was the better team, but I still expected Clemson to win - because they were playing at home. But as it turned out, not even the home field advantage was enough to save the Tigers. Not only were the Seminoles the better team, they were an astonishing five touchdowns better. Losers on their last 5 trips to Clemson, the 'Noles ended that streak and had their fans enjoying themselves from start to finish as they put a 51-14 whipping on the Tigers - the most points Clemson has ever allowed in a home game.

I thought when Clemson struggled last week, scoring only 24 points in a 10-point home win over Boston College, that it was only because they were flat and that they would bounce back in a big way against FSU. Uh, no. The struggles didn't continue, they intensified. The Tigers were held to a season low 326 yards (their previous low was 415) and had 4 turnovers.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 7

One of the most disappointing games for Baylor during Robert Griffin III's Heisman Trophy winning 2011 season was the Week 5 road game against Kansas State in which the Bears, off to a hot start not too dissimilar from the way they've started this season, blew a 9-point lead in the 4th quarter and lost 36-35. The biggest disappointment for Kansas State in their Big 12 championship winning 2012 season came in Week 12, when the Wildcats, 10-0 and ranked #2 in the nation, made the trip to Waco and laid an egg, getting clobbered 52-24 by Baylor, which entered the game with a 4-5 record. So for this year's meeting between Baylor and K-State - back in Manhattan - you had the unusual case of both teams seeking redemption. It looked like the outcome was going to be a repeat of the 2011 game. But this time, after the Bears blew a 21-10 halftime lead, they regained momentum, regained the lead, and held on to win 35-25.

I try to never miss an LSU-Florida game, but Baylor against K-State was the game I most wanted to see this week - even if there weren't many players with dreads in uniform. It's just that I've become a really big fan of Tevin Reese (photo above), and also I wanted to see how the Bears' explosive offense would fare playing on the road for the first time.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 6

If you had told me before the start of the 2013 season that by the end of the first 6 weeks of the season Miami redshirt sophomore RB Dallas Crawford would score nearly 3 times as many touchdowns as his former HS teammate, Clemson junior WR Sammy Watkins, I probably would have been like Chief Lutz and asked you if you had "submitted yourself for drug testing yet?" But here we are approaching the middle of October, and it's a fact that Crawford has scored 8 TD so far for the Hurricanes, while Watkins has 3 TD for Clemson. Crawford used to throw passes to Watkins when they were at South Ft. Myers HS but also was a standout cornerback; so I figured when the 'Canes met the Tigers (if they ever meet them) we'd be seeing Crawford trying to cover Watkins, not trying to outscore him. But after playing on defense on the scout team while redshirting in 2011, Crawford switched to offense (RB, not QB) last season. And so far in 2013 he's been making quite a few house calls.

Crawford's 7th and 8th TD were scored last Saturday as Miami improved to 5-0, rallying from an early 17-7 deficit to defeat Georgia Tech 45-30.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 5

When I mentioned last week that Rutgers might be a threat to spoil Louisville's expected romp to the AAC title, you could almost hear the grumbling all the way from Orlando: What about UCF? I agree - what about UCF? Well, apparently I wasn't the only one curious to see if the Knights were for real after getting off to an impressive 3-0 start this season, because a sellout crowd of 47,605 was on hand (the second largest crowd since UCF opened their new stadium 6 years ago) last Saturday to see how they would fare against one of the better teams in the SEC. With Coach Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks on the opposing sideline, the Knights made their first ever appearance on ABC television. And although they did not pass the test, at least the day wasn't a total failure for UCF. The Knights led by 10 early, the Gamecocks went on a 28-0 run, and the Knights finished strong, with South Carolina hanging on for a 28-25 victory that left both teams at 3-1.

The game got off to a bad start for the Gamecocks, as starting QB Connor Shaw went down with an injury on their opening possession. They fell behind 10-0 and might have faced an even larger deficit at halftime if not for the 1st INT of the season by junior CB Victor Hampton, which ended a UCF drive that had reached FG range with 1:17 remaining in the half.