-Texas Tech asked it's students to be quiet when the visiting Texas Longhorns had the ball, because they wanted to see what would happen if Texas had to work in a completely silent stadium. The thinking was that the Longhorns wouldn't concentrate as hard because they didn't have to think about blocking out noise. Considering the Longhorns shot out to a 14-point lead before the first quarter was even over, I would put that experiment in the 'fail' category.
-I was watching the UMass/Michigan game and I could not get over how annoying the announcers were being. UMass was hanging around late in the game and went for a two-point conversion after a touchdown. Had they gotten it they would have only been down 10. Instead they missed and were down 12. The announcer for the Big Ten network kept going over how had they simply kicked the extra point it would have been an 11 point game and thus they would have been a touchdown, two-point conversion and field goal away from tying the game. "Now," he said, "It's a three-score game. They need a touchdown and two field-goals." Only, no, they didn't. Two touchdowns and UMass has the lead. Now, because I went to school for this exact kind of thing so I happen to know you don't need to be a math major to call college football. But, you do at least need to be able to do football math and this guy couldn't.
-As devastating as it was for Notre Dame to lose in overtime on a fake field-goal attempt, I frankly can't even get all that upset about it. (And to those Domers who want to point out that the play clock was at zero, everyone knows the refs left that go for another second before they throw the flag. Let it go - we're better than that.) The guts it took for Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio to even call that play makes it inspirational. In the words of Ron Burgundy, "Actually, I'm not even mad; that's amazing." However, it should be noted that Dantonio had a minor heart attack later in the evening, proving it is never wise to pull that kind of stuff against God's favorite college football team.
-It's amusing to me to watch everyone jump back on the Jets' bandwagon after yesterday's thumping of the Patriots. Hey, I'll admit it - they were the better team yesterday. But, there is also something to be said for playing against team when they are desperate. I think deep down the Jets know they were an 8-8 football team last year who only made the playoffs because other teams rested their starters down the stretch. Therefore they realised they couldn't start 0-2 and be two games behind in the division race before the season ever really got going. Yesterday was as close to a must-win for them as you're going to find in September football. I'm still not convince that Sanchez is a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback.
-The Sunday night football game of the week was Giants/Colts, which meant Peyton and Eli Manning were playing each other for the second time in their careers. NBC made a big point of saying that it was the "Manning Bowl II", as if the defenses weren't even playing. The broadcast kept showing the family luxury box and talking about the family's football legacy, but to those of us with Internet access it was just a reminder that through his sons' success Archie Manning has somehow managed to get morphed from a mediocre quarterback with 50 more interceptions than touchdowns who never won more than 8 games in a season, to the borderline Hall of Famer who was simply trapped on bad teams. It's amazing what time and successful offspring can do to people's memories.
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