Dez is done sadly, but there is hope

Every Oklahoma State Cowboys fan and pretty much anybody that follows college football knows that the OSU All-American wide receiver Dez Bryant was suspended a few weeks ago for lying to the NCAA about his involvement with former NFL ankle tackler, Deion Sanders.

OSU and Bryant have been appealing the suspension and pleading their case to get the young man reinstated, but as we learned Tuesday it was to no avail. The NCAA ruled that he would not be eligible to play until September 2010.

This is sad news to all Pokes fans out there as we have to continue this season without our top playmaker. I know we were all counting on Dez and the rest of the Cowboys to have a great season this year and even make a run for the Big 12 conference championship.

But fear not people cause we just might have a rising star shining bright in Bryant's absence. He goes by the name of Hubert Anyiam. Since Anyiam has been thrust into role of the team's number one receiver he has responded well and has played better than anyone thought he would. So far this season he has caught 25 passes for 306 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Can we continue the success against Texas on Saturday? Texas has the second best defense in the nation in yards allowed per game and in the top 10 in scoring defense. They are the best in rushing yards giving up.

Going by the stats it looks like we're going to have a tough time doing anything against this Texas defense, especially running the ball. We're likely not going to be with running back Kendall Hunter for the game and if he does play don't look for him to play that much. So, it looks like the running load will again be on Keith Totson. Totson is going to have to bring his A game to Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday night, that's for sure.

This is the game for our rising star wide receiver to really make a statement game. He has had two great games in a row, but those games weren't against teams the caliber of Texas. If Anyiam has a big game on Halloween night it could go a long way in forgetting the whole mess with Dez Bryant and the NCAA junk and get that bitter taste out of our mouths.

Ware finally gets his new contract

It was announced Monday that the Dallas Cowboys and their stud defensive linebacker DeMarcus Ware finally agreed to a contract extension. They signed Ware to a six year extension, keeping the Pro Bowler a Cowboy through 2015. The new contract is worth $78 million dollars with $40 million of that guaranteed.

So, is he worth it? After the big year he had last year, including a league leading 20 sacks you can definitely make the argument that he is. So why didn't they get this deal done during the offseason? There was a lot of talk about it during that time. Why isn't Jerry giving Ware the money he deserves?

This year has been a bit of a let down for Ware, so far. DeMarcus was without a sack until the fifth game of the year. He finally busted through and got 2 sacks in the win against Kansas City. He got two more sacks in their win against Atlanta on Sunday to up his total to 4 sacks in 6 games this year.

With the slow start of the season there was a lot of talk about whether or not Ware was holding back until he gets his new contract. People were beginning to wonder if Ware wasn't playing to his full potential this year because Jerry was slow in paying the guy. Then during the bye week we learned that he has a stress fracture in his left foot and has been playing with this for a couple of games. That might explain the slow start.

Ware has quickly become one of the best defensive players in the league. Since the Cowboys drafted him as the 11th overall pick in 2005, he has recorded 57.5 sacks in 70 games. He has three of the top five sack seasons in Cowboys franchise history and has been named to the Pro Bowl for the last three years.

Here's what Jerry had to say about DeMarcus Ware.

"He's a cornerstone player of this franchise, and will be for a long time to come. He's gone beyond anything we could have imagined when we drafted him."

This deal is good for both Jerry and the Cowboys organization and DeMarcus Ware, as well as all the Cowboy fans out there. Now let's hope that Ware will continue playing like he has been the last two games and justify the new fat contract to any doubters that might be out there.

Zac Robinson is a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award

Oklahoma State's quarterback Zac Robinson was announced earlier today along with 14 other QB's as semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award, which is awarded to the nation's best quarterback.

Zac has had a pretty decent year leading the Cowboys to a 6-1 record completing 115 of 176 passes for 1,547 yards and 12 touchdowns. He's been playing smart ball and has only thrown 3 interceptions, lowest in the conference. He's also set some new Oklahoma State record's this year including setting the pass completion record in Saturday's win against Baylor. He's also set records for total offense and touchdown passes.

Here's what Zac had to say about the nomination.

"It's an honor to be included as a semifinalist for an award as prestigious as the Davey O'Brien. I look at it as more of a team award than an individual award because when you consider all that we have been through this year, it really shows how well the guys around me have played."

You can go to www.voteobrien.org to cast your vote on who you think is the nation's top quarterback.

Here's also the list of all the quarterback's nominated.

Matt Barkley - USC
Daryll Clark - Penn State
Jimmy Clausen - Notre Dame
Jacory Harris - Miami
Case Keenum - Houston
Dan LeFevour - Central Michigan
Jake Locker - Washington
Colt McCoy - Texas
Kellen Moore - Boise State
Tony Pike - Cincinnati
Todd Reesing - Kansas
Zac Robinson - Oklahoma State
Ricky Stanzi - Iowa
Bill Stull - Pittsburgh
Tim Tebow - Florida

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, a finalist for coach of the year?

A watch list for the Paul "Bear" Bryant College Football Coach of the Year Award was releases today and Oklahoma State's own head coach, Mike Gundy is on the list along with 19 other coaches.

The Cowboys are 13th in the nation with a 6-1 record. We're playing well this year even without two key players on the offense. This Halloween night should be a real test for us in letting us see just how good we may be.

Here's the watch list for the award.

Robb Akey, Idaho
Mack Brown, Texas
Pete Carroll, USC
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Al Golden, Temple
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
Brian Kelly, Cincinnati
Chip Kelly, Oregon
Bronco Mendenhall, BYU
Urban Meyer, Florida
Les Miles, LSU
Joe Paterno, Penn State
Gary Patterson, TCU
Chris Petersen, Boise State
Nick Saban, Alabama
Randy Shannon, Miami
Bill Stewart, West Virginia
Kevin Sumlin, Houston
Dave Wannstedt, Pittsburgh

Source:

Atlanta vs Dallas Game Stats

	1	2	3	4	T
Atlanta (4-2)	7	0	7	7	21
Dallas (4-2)	0	17	7	13	37

	Atlanta	Dallas
1st Downs	21	18
Passing 1st Downs	13	13
Rushing 1st Downs	7	5
1st downs from Penalties	1	0
3rd down efficiency	6-12	6-13
4th down efficiency	1-1	0-0
Total Plays	65	59
Total Yards	298	414
Passing	174	299
Comp-Att	19-35	21-29
Rushing	124	115
Rushing Attempts	26	28
Yards per rush	4.8	4.1
Red Zone (Made-Att)	2-2	1-3
Penalties	3-30	8-50
Turnovers	3	1
Fumbles lost	1	1
INT	2	0
Def/SP Team TDs	0	1
Time	31:08	28:52

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	RTG
Tony Romo	21/29	311	10.7	3	0	141.6

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
M. Barber	14	47	3.4	0	13
F. Jones	8	37	4.6	0	12
T. Romo	6	31	5.2	0	17

	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
M. Austin	6	171	28.5	2	59
J. Witten	5	53	10.6	0	22

Dallas beats Atlanta 37-21

The Dallas Cowboys are victorious this day in Jerry World winning over a pretty good Atlanta Falcons team.

Is this a big win for the 'Boys? You better believe it! We needed this win...big time. We had two weeks to prepare for this game so anything less than a win would be a major let down. We needed to go up 4-2 to have any shot at making the playoffs this year. At 3-3 you could have count us done for.

But this game, this win was important for moral too. For both the players and we, the fans. We looked good, real good against a pretty good team.

It didn't start out that way though as we let Atlanta march the opening possession down the field for a touchdown and then our offense got on the field and went three and out. Nope didn't look to good at all.

Then the second quarter happened. Romo and the 'Boys stared the second quarter on fire. Romo even came back after taking a hard hit at the end of the first quarter. Maybe we need to hit Tony in the head before every game?

Tony found Miles Austin for a 59 yard touchdown and Patrick Crayton for a short TD pass to go up 17-7 at halftime.

Cowboys came out in the second half looking flat again and Atlanta scored on a touchdown run to make the game interesting again at 17-14. Dallas then decided to take charge of the game again.

We played well on both offense and defense although we continue to hurt ourselves with stupid penalties. To many false starts by this team. I know we won but we need to clean up those stupid mistakes if we really expect to win against good teams.

Our newly signed return man Allen Rossum got hurt the first time he touch the ball and that might have been a good thing cause that let Patrick Crayton go back to return punts again. He took a punt back for a touchdown in the 4th quarter to help seal the victory.

Our rushing game wasn't very good in this game though in my opinion. I thought that our big offensive line men were going to run all over the smaller Atlanta defensive front. Didn't really look like it but we somehow managed to rush for 115 yards, well below our season average. Marion Barber was the leading rusher with 47 yards. Where was Tashard Choice? We didn't really get to see him that much.

Miles Austin continued on his tear as he caught six passes for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns. Can we make this guy our number one receiver now? He sure is playing a lot better than that Roy Williams guy, who continues to show his lack of play making ability. Hey, Roy, when a ball hits you in the hands, try catching it! It's your job.

Defense played, dare I say...great? Maybe I wouldn't go that far but we did play pretty well. Coming into this game Matt Ryan had only been sacked twice. He was sacked 4 times today, by a team that's among the league's worse at finding the quarterback.

We were also able to intercept Ryan twice improving our total to 4 interceptions on the season. League's worst, I believe. Also got a fumble recovery. Solid, solid day by our defense.

Overall we played liked we needed to play to beat a very good Atlanta team. Now, can this be a building block for continuing success for the rest of the season or will we go back to playing good one week then playing like crap the next? Guess we'll see next week.

Atlanta vs. Dallas 1st half thoughts

What a game we have so far here in Jerry World. Atlanta came out and took the opening kickoff and proceeded to march the ball down the field for a touchdown. Dallas then receives the kickoff from the Falcons and our newly signed return man, Allen Rossum gets himself hurt on his very first touch of the ball. He strained his right hamstring and is now questionable to return, so Patrick Crayton is now back to his old job of returning kicks.


Of course the 'Boys can't do anything with the ball and go three and out and give the ball right back to Atlanta.

Then the Dallas defense decided to show up and held firm after that opening drive. We actually got a couple of sacks on Matt Ryan. Ryan had gone about 18 quarters without being sacked. We also got a couple of turnovers including a Mike Jenkins interception and a fumble recovery.

Dallas' offense was dead in the first quarter and it looked like Tony Romo might be knocked out of the game at the end when he got hit in the head and neck pretty hard while scrambling. Romo returned strong in the 2nd quarter though and the offense showed some signs of life, although we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with stupid penalties. So many false starts, it's ridiculous.

Barber has done nothing so far in this ball game and neither has Jones. Felix has had a few runs and a couple of pass receptions but nothing big and he did fumble the ball back to Atlanta after we got that interception. Dallas didn't get Choice involved in the game until near the 2 minute mark of the 2nd quarter when he caught a long pass from Romo.

Roy Williams continues to prove that he is a bust by not catching balls that hit him in the hands. Get him off the field please. Miles Austin on the other hand has caught a few balls when Tony finally got around to throwing to him. Austin caught a 59 yard touchdown pass in the 2nd quarter. Romo ends the half with an incredible scramble shedding off would be tacklers and throwing a touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton.

Can we get Roy on the bench and have Crayton and Austin as the wide receivers? And like I wrote about earlier in the week, we need to get Choice more involved into the game. The other two running backs haven't been doing much.

We scored 17 unanswered points in the 2nd quarter to take the lead 17-7. Romo was 14 of 18 for 191 yards and 2 touchdowns. His counterpart Matt Ryan went 9 of 18 for 80 yards and 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

Week 7 NFL Predictions

Green Bay (3-2) at Cleveland (1-5)

The Browns stink like a certain brown something, if you know what I mean. Look for an easy Green Bay win.

Winner: Green Bay

San Diego (2-3) at Kansas City (1-5)

San Diego is sucking it up this year but that's no surprise to me. I think they are always overrated. Kansas City isn't looking to good either but I think they have a chance against this soft defense. Yeah Shawn, I called you soft.

Winner: Kansas City

Indianapolis (5-0) at St. Louis (0-6)

Will St. Louis be the next 0-16 team? It sure is looking that way. They might be able to squeak a win or two this year somewhere, but they sure won't win against Peyton and the Colts today. The Colts have had two weeks to prepare for this team so watch out St. Louis.

Winner: Indianapolis

Minnesota (6-0) at Pittsburgh (4-2)

Probably the game of the week and should be a pretty exciting game. Who would have thought that the Vikings would be 6-0? Pittsburgh started off slow but they have changed that around. It's hard to pick who might win this game but since the Steelers were my preseason pick to repeat and win the Championship again, I'm going to go with them.

Winner: Pittsburgh

New England (4-2) at Tampa Bay (0-6)

Tampa Bay is terrible and it looks like New England is starting to find it's groove. They demolished the Titans last week so look for them to do the same against the Bucs.

Winner: New England

San Francisco (3-2) at Houston (3-3)

Another tough game to pick. Both teams have looked pretty good at times and not so good at other times, so this is pretty much a toss up.

Winner: Houston

Buffalo (2-4) at Carolina (2-3)

Uhh, both teams are pretty bad. Is anybody going to actually watch this game?

Winner: Carolina

NY Jets (3-3) at Oakland (2-4)

The Jets started off great but are falling fast. Oakland is...well, Oakland. They have been able to squeak out a couple of wins surprisingly enough.

Winner: NY Jets

Atlanta (4-1) at Dallas (3-2)

As a Cowboy fan I believe this is a must win for the Cowboys. If we lose this game you can pretty much kiss our season goodbye. Atlanta is a good team and so far we are 0-2 against good teams. We've had two weeks to prepare for this game, so we need to show up and actually look like we want to win some football games.

Winner: Dallas

Chicago (3-2) at Cincinnati (4-2)

Another match up of teams that look good one week and bad another. The Bengals are a surprising 4-2 though.

Winner: Chicago

New Orleans (5-0) at Miami (2-3)

There's been a lot of talk from the "experts" that say the Dolphins are going to win this game. They might have a chance but the Saints are looking really good this year.

Winner: New Orleans

Arizona (3-2) at NY Giants (5-1)

Arizona hasn't played all that well this year. The Giants have, well, until last week when they played New Orleans and got their butts handed to them. Look for the Giants to bounce back though.

Winner: NY Giants
Philadelphia (3-2) at Washington (2-4)

Yikes, what can be said about the Redskins? They are just in a downward spiral. This will be the first game where they play someone that actually has a win. The 'Skins should be at least 4-2. The Eagles on the other hand are coming off probably one of the worst losses in franchise history. Can they regroup?

Winner: Philadelphia

BYE - Denver (6-0), Detroit (1-5), Tennessee (0-6), Seattle (2-4), Jacksonville (3-3), Baltimore (3-3)

Oklahoma State quarterback Zac Robinson sets new record

Zac Robinson had a near perfect day down in Waco, Texas where the Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Baylor Bears pretty easily. Zac completed 23 of 27 passes for 250 yards and 3 touchdowns. Those three touchdowns were a season high for him this year.

With Zac completing 85% of his passes he has broken the old OSU record that was held by our head coach Mike Gundy. Gundy set the old mark by completing 77% of his passes against Kansas back in 1989. A lot of Gundy's passing records are slowly starting to fall since he's become the head coach. I'm sure he doesn't mind as long as we keep winning ball games.

More importantly Zac played smart and error free. He didn't fumble or throw an interception. The Cowboys have gone two games in a row without turning the ball over. It's key for Zac and the rest of the Cowboys to keep playing smart and protecting the football as the schedule heats up.

We host #3 Texas next Saturday on what might be a scary Halloween night. Texas played pretty well Saturday night against Missouri. Hopefully we can get the Texas that showed up against OU and not the one that played Missouri.

After Texas we travel to play Iowa State, who have been playing pretty good by Iowa State standards. We should win but this is just the type of game that usually trips us up. Texas Tech comes to town after that. This year's Tech team is not the Tech of old that's for sure but they are a tricky team to figure out this year, looking good sometimes and awful at other times. They just got whooped by Texas A&M last night and the Aggies haven't been looking good this year against Big 12 teams.

Colorado comes to Stillwater on November 19th. The Buffs have looked pretty bad this year at times but we have to be careful and not overlook them focusing on OU. They could trip us up.

Then we play OU at Norman for the last game of the season. Oklahoma is not the team of old and have had some bad moments this year but they always play tough at home. This could be our year to win there though.

So we have a moderately tough road ahead of us. This is Big 12 football so you never really know what's going to happen each Saturday. Lets stay focused Pokes.

Should be a showdown come Halloween night, Texas vs. Oklahoma State

The Texas Longhorns (4-0, 7-0) have just blown out the Missouri Tigers 41-7. That has set up a very interesting game next Saturday night as the Longhorns travel to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-0, 6-1) who beat Baylor earlier today down in Waco.

The Longhorns looked a lot better tonight than they did last weekend against OU. Is Texas finally in a groove? So much for their slow starts in this game. Texas was able to score on their first three drives. Colt McCoy completed his first 11 passes.

Texas seems to be clicking on both offense and defense judging by this game. Oklahoma State also looks to be clicking on both offense and defense. So it should be a pretty exciting game on Halloween night. Looking for it.

Oklahoma State wins 34-7 in Waco!

It was a wonderful day down in Waco, Texas. Why was it so wonderful you ask? Well the Oklahoma State Cowboys came away victorious in today's football game. Our defense played well and the offense played smart. This was the second straight game that he didn't turn the ball over.

As I said the defense played well. We gave up only 284 yards with 241 yards of it passing. Baylor was only able to rush for 43 yards.

Our defense had gone 5 and half quarters without allowing a score till the Bears finally found the endzone half way through the 4th quarter. It was also the fewest points we have giving up in a conference road game since 1997 against Oklahoma were we gave up 7.

Has Bill Young finally got our defense focused? Will we be able to continue playing good defense the remainder of the season? I sure hope so, but we'll have to wait and see.

The offense played pretty well getting 445 yards with 250 yards passing and 195 yards rushing. Zac Robinson played smart football and didn't throw a pick. He completed 23 out of 27 passes for 250 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Keith Totson had another good game filling in for the injured Kendall Hunter. He rushed for 109 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown. Beau Johnson also added 93 yards to the rushing total.

Hubert Anyiam had a fairly solid day with 9 catches for 83 yards. Two of our tight ends came away today with touchdowns, Wilson Youman and Cooper Bassett. That is news because until Youman caught his touchdown pass it had been nearly two years since an Oklahoma State tight end caught a touchdown.

Although this was a nice win for us, we need to get focused quickly and turn our attentions to #3 Texas who comes into Stillwater Halloween night. Should be an interesting game indeed.

Oklahoma State vs. Baylor 10/24

Another great Saturday of college football is here and today the #15 Oklahoma State Cowboys travel down to Waco, Texas to take on the Baylor Golden Bears. Unfortunately for Baylor nothing has really been 'Golden' for them this year. They are off to a 3-3 start which isn't really all that bad for Baylor standards, but they lost probably the most important player on their team earlier in the year. Robert Griffin the talented QB torn his ACL, I believe it was in the third game of the year.

With Griffin at the helm Baylor was poised to make some noise in the Big 12 South this year, but without him they are just the same old Baylor Bears.

Some notes on the game, Baylor has lost 19 straight to ranked opponents. Their last win was in 2004 against Texas A&M. Oklahoma State leads the all-time series 15-12.

Baylor has one of the worst rush defenses in the country so watch out for Keith Totson and the rushing attack of the Cowboys. They should have a pretty good day. Also look for Hubert Anyiam and see if he can have another good game. We really need for him step up and fill the shoes left by Dez Bryant, since his suspension.

Oklahoma State should and I do stress should have a fairly easy day against the Bears. Look for the Cowboys improving their record to 3-0 in conference play and 6-1 overall after today.

Oklahoma State 35 Baylor 20

New Fantasy Basketball team just drafted

We just got finished with our fantasy basketball draft in my work league. We have eight players in the league and I started out with the 6th pick, soooo the top players were already gone obviously but I am pretty happy with who I was able to draft in the first round. Overall my list is pretty solid, I believe. I wasn't able to get some of the lower tier players that I wanted but it's all good, as they say.

Here's my team.

Round 1	PF	Dirk Nowitzki
Round 2	SG	Danny Granger
Round 3	G	Andre Iguodala
Round 4	PG	Devin Harris
Round 5	F	Troy Murphy
Round 6	C	David
Round 7	SF	Rudy Gay
Round 8	C	Emeka Okafor
Round 9	Util	Derrick Rose
Round 10	Util	Rajon Rondo
Round 11	BN	Thaddeus Yound
Round 12	BN	J.R. Smith
Round 13	BN	Tayshaun Prince

But, then again I could lose my ass in this league. I don't really watch or follow basketball all that much, except for the playoffs. We shall see how this season goes.

How Romo and Ryan match up by the numbers

	COMP	ATT	YDS	COMP%	YDS/A	LONG	TD	INT	SCK	RAT
Tony Romo	96	165	1341	58.2	8.13	80	6	4	9	86.5
Matt Ryan	101	156	1162	64.7	7.45	90	9	4	2	95.6

Looking at the numbers I would have to say that the advantage would go to Matt Ryan. His overall QB rating is much better than Romo's plus his completion percentage is nearly 7 points better. That means that Ryan is making better throw's and his receivers are making the catches, something that our receivers don't know how to do sometimes.

You'll also see that Matt Ryan doesn't get sack a whole lot. He likes to get rid of the ball quick and has a lot of short drop backs. It's going to be tough for us to get pressure on him and get the sack.

Another advantage I would give to Ryan is that I believe he is a better leader even though this is just his second year in the league. I like Romo, I really do, but I don't believe he is a very good leader and that is something that he needs to be around here. This team needs him to be a leader, someone to take charge of things and get into peoples faces when they make dumb mistakes and get their heads back into the game. Tony does not do this. Troy did and so do other great quarterbacks and leaders.

Now I haven't seen Matt Ryan do this so I don't know if he does or not but from all the things that I've heard on the radio shows and TV is that he is one of the hardest working players in the game. He is at work pretty much every day even when he doesn't have to looking at tape and working to get better. You never hear of Romo doing stuff like this.

Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons season stats, so far

I was just looking over the season stats for the Dallas Cowboys and how they match up with their next opponent the Atlanta Falcons and thought I would share the info.

Offensively, Dallas is second in the NFL in yards per game with 420.4. Atlanta is 18th with 327.8 yards per game. Advantage Cowboys, by nearly a hundred yards.

In passing yards per game, Dallas is 9th with 259.4. Atlanta is 15th with 229.2. Advantage Cowboys.

The Cowboys are 3rd in the NFL in rushing yards per game with 161.0. Atlanta is 24th with 98.0. Pretty big advantage to Dallas.

Dallas and Atlanta are pretty much even in points per game. Dallas is 11th with 24.4 while Atlanta is 10th with 24.6. So there is really no advantage to any team here.

Defensively Dallas is 22nd in yards per game allowing 357.8. Atlanta is not that far behind us allowing 359.2. So we are pretty much even there.

In pass yards given up per game Dallas is 26th allowing 251.4. Atlanta is slightly better with only given up 241.0 per game. Slight advantage to Atlanta.

Dallas is 17th in the NFL allowing 106.4 rushing yards per game. Atlanta is 23rd allowing 118.2. Slight advantage to the 'Boys.

In scoring defense the Cowboys are tied for 12th place with the 49ers allowing 19.6 points a game. The Atlanta defense is 4th in the league only given up 15.4 points a game. Advantage Falcons.

So overall who is the better team going by the stats? I would like to say that there is a slight edge to the Dallas Cowboys. But we all know that stats can be deceiving, right? Should be an interesting game Sunday.

Dallas coaching staff needs to grow some balls?

Patrick Crayton the former starting wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys spoke out today about how it would have been nice if someone would have told him that he wouldn't be starting anymore. Instead he found out by watching what was going on on the practice field.

"I would have loved it," Crayton said of not getting an explanation from either Phillips or offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. "It would have been real stand-up. That's not what happened. Oh, well."

Of course Head Coach Wade Phillips said that he was pretty sure that they discussed it with him.

"We discussed it with him," Phillips said. "I have no doubt about that."

You have no doubt about that? Either you did or you didn't. Why don't any of them grow some balls and just flat out tell their players that they are either starting or not. Why are they afraid to hurt their feelings? You're the coach, tell them what they are or are not going to do.

Then there was the soundbytes of an interview if Jerry Jones when he was asked about the situation. Jerry just stumbled along saying that we, the coaching staff are not comfortable with that...and we just don't have to. I'll post a link to it whenever I find a link to it because you just have to listen to Jerry stutter his explanation.

You're not comfortable with telling someone that they are not going to start?? What in the hell is going on at Valley Ranch? Why can't you tell someone that, what's the big deal? It's your job isn't it?

Perhaps I'm just taking it the wrong way?

DeMarcus Ware, hurt??

As I was listening to our always delightful head coach Wade Phillips' press conference earlier, I heard him say something that kind of surprised me, but in a way didn't surprise me. If that makes any sense?

He said that DeMarcus Ware has a stress fracture in his foot. I can't recall which foot it was right now but he said that Ware had been complaining about it for a couple of weeks and they finally got around to seeing what the problem was yesterday.

So that makes one wonder if that is the reason why Ware has started off so slow this year? Apparently it's not that bad cause Coach Wade said that Ware would still be playing this weekend.

He also said that Marion Barber either broke or fractured his thumb on his left hand but that he would still be playing as well. Is it just me or does anybody else get frustrated at our running backs always being hurt in one way or another?

Week 7 NFL Power Rankings are out

The Week 7 NFL Power Rankings from ESPN.com are now out and there are some surprises in this week's rankings. The Colts are still number one but I believe the Saints made a strong statement Sunday for them being number 1 after what they did to the then number 2 NY Giants.

The San Diego Chargers moved UP two spots after getting man handled by the Broncos. The Dallas Cowboys dropped two spots from 17th to 19. What the bleep?

Here's the complete list.

1 (1)	Colts	5-0
2 (4)	Saints	5-0
3 (3)	Vikings	6-0
4 (5)	Broncos	6-0
5 (2)	Giants	5-1
6 (10)	Patriots	4-2
7 (8)	Falcons	4-1
8 (13)	Steelers	4-2
9 (6)	Bengals	4-2
10 (12)	Bears	3-2
11 (11)	Ravens	3-3
12 (7)	Eagles	3-2
13 (14)	Packers	3-2
14 (16)	Chargers	2-3
15 (15)	49ers	3-2
16 (19)	Cardinals	3-2
17 (22)	Texans	3-3
18 (9)	Jets	3-3
19 (17)	Cowboys	3-2
20 (18)	Dolphins	2-3
21 (21)	Jaguars	3-3
22 (23)	Panthers	2-3
23 (20)	Seahawks	2-4
24 (25)	Bills	2-4
25 (29)	Raiders	2-4
26 (26)	Lions	1-5
27 (24)	Redskins	2-4
28 (30)	Chiefs	1-5
29 (28)	Browns	1-5
30 (27)	Titans	0-6
31 (31)	Bucs	0-6
32 (32)	Rams	0-6

I'm a winner! No thanks to you Mr. Hasselbeck

Week 6 of the fantasy football season is now over and I am victorious for the second week in a row! I was able to crush my opponent jarhead hoo rah, who had been the winner of three in a row, 66 to 50. The amazing thing was that I was able to crush him without any points from my quarterback.

I was in dire need of a QB with Romo on the bye week and Sanchez sucking it up so I had to look to free agency for a decent QB. All week I was reading and hearing from all the "experts" how Matt Hasselbeck would be a great quality start since he was facing the Arizona Cardinals and their pass defense is one of the worse in the league. Well, nobody told that to Arizona who pretty much shut Hasselbeck out. He gave me zero freaking points! At one time he was at -1.

Luckily I had a great day out of my running backs Maurice Jones-Drew, who I believe is one of the top performing fantasy players for the week, and Jonathan Stewart. My New England defense finally showed up and gave me some decent points. My pickup of free agent Matt Prater of the Broncos was a quality move. He gave me 10 points. The rest of my team were underachievers.

Jarhead hoo rah was able to keep it pretty close with some great outings from Thomas Jones who gave him 16 points. He was projected at 9. He also got 16 points from his kicker Ryan Longwell. He was projected at 8.

If it wasn't for those two I would have blown him out because everybody else on his team were underachievers besides Peterson who gave him 8. He should have started Flacco instead of Manning since Flacco got 13 points and Manning just gave him 4.

Here's how we stacked up.

Aggies					jarhead hoo rah
Pos	Player	Opp	Proj	Act	Pos	Player	Opp	Proj	Act
QB	Matt Hasselbeck	ARI	11	0	QB	Eli Manning	@NO	8	4
WR	Brandon Marshall	@SD	4	2	WR	Steve Smith	@NO	3	2
WR	Nate Burleson	ARI	5	2	WR	Anquan Boldin	@SEA	4	2
RB	Maurice Jones-Drew	STL	13	25	RB	Adrian Peterson	BAL	7	8
RB	Jonathan Stewart	@TB	4	10	RB	Thomas Jones	BUF	9	16
TE	Todd Heap	@MIN	3	2	TE	Benjamin Watson	TEN	2	0
K	Matt Prater	@SD	8	10	K	Ryan Longwell	BAL	8	16
DEF	New England	TEN	7	15	DEF	Baltimore	@MIN	7	2
			55	66				48	50

Now for the rest of the league games.

Budmans 4 Aces - 63
TopDawg Sooners - 50

BIG RED - 46
reservoir dogs - 39

Donkey Punchers - 53
Bulldogs - 66

And for the second week in a row half of my team is on a bye week, so I'm going to have to make some more moves this week as well. Lame!

Can Anyiam be the big time player we need him to be?

Oklahoma State's wide receiver Hubert Anyiam is this week's Big 12 co-offensive player of the week. Anyiam caught 10 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown in what could be called a break through game for the young receiver. Can he continue to improve and play like this every week? We sure need him to since we are without our All-American wide-out Dez Bryant for the season (hopefully he'll be reinstated, but who knows.).

The Cowboy's travel down to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears Saturday, so we should be able to see Anyiam put up some more good numbers. But the real test will be the following weekend, when on Halloween night the third ranked Texas Longhorns come to Stillwater in what will more than likely be the game that decides the South division's champion.

The Cowboy's are probably the only team left that can put a stop to the Longhorns' run to the National Championship. So we need all of our players to step up, especially the defense. If they can play like they did in the second half against Missouri, I like our chances.

Dallas' bye week pobably the best thing for them

The Dallas Cowboys had Sunday off and that was probably the best thing for them. Sunday was not a very good day for the NFC East to put it mildly.

First off you had the New York Giants, who many had as the top team in the NFL going down to New Orleans and getting their butts handed to them. The Giants had the top ranked defense and the top ranked passing defense, but the Saints didn't care and beat the Giants 48-27. Drew Brees exploded for 369 yards and 4 TD's.

Then you have the Philadelphia Eagles in what should of been an easy win against the Oakland Raiders. Yeah, the Eagles lost to the lowly Oakland Raiders 13-9. Is the Raider defense really that good that they are able to keep McNabb and company out of the endzone? I guess so.

And of course there are the Washington Redskins who faced their sixth straight winless team. Yep, they lost to the winless Kansas City Chiefs 14-6. With the schedule that they have had the Redskins should be at least 4-2 but instead they are 2-4. Things are not right in Washington D.C. No matter how bad we have it here in Dallas, at least we can look at the Redskins and know that they have it worse.

So without us playing another crappy game and perhaps even losing we are able to get into a second place tie in the division. Hopefully the Boys will get their act together now and come out of the bye week on the right track.

The first BCS rankings are out

The first BCS rankings of the year were released today and the Florida Gators are number one. I am a little surprised after what happened yesterday. I figured Alabama would be number one. They were number one in the AP Poll though.

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Boise State
5. Cincinnati
6. Iowa
7. USC
8. TCU
9. LSU
10. Miami (FL)
11. Oregon
12. Georgia Tech
13. Penn State
14. Virginia Tech
15. Oklahoma State
16. Brigham Young
17. Houston
18. Utah
19. Ohio State
20. Pittsburgh
21. Wisconsin
22. Arizona
23. West Virginia
24. South Carolina
25. Kansas

As you can see the Oklahoma State Cowboys are ranked 15th. Should Boise State be ranked fourth? They have had some pretty close games to some questionable opponents. I am surprised to see both Wisconsin and Arizona in the polls.

Oklahoma State ranked 14th in AP poll

The new AP Top 25 was released earlier today and the Oklahoma State Cowboys only moved up two spots to number 14 from their previous 16th spot. I had thought that we had played fairly good enough that we would climb up the polls just little bit further, but no such luck.

There is a new number one however, as Alabama jumps Florida to take over the top spot. Here's the list.

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. USC
5. Cincinnati
6. Boise State
7. Iowa
8. Miami (FL)
9. LSU
10. TCU
11. Georgia Tech
12. Oregon
13. Penn State
14. Oklahoma State
15. Virginia Tech
16. Brigham Young
17. Houston
18. Ohio State
19. Utah
20. Pittsburgh
21. Texas Tech
22. West Virginia
23. South Carolina
24. Kansas
25. Oklahoma

You'll notice three new names on that last in Pittsburgh, Texas Tech and West Virginia as they both jump into the polls this week. Nebraska, South Florida and Notre Dame are the teams that dropped out.

Somehow Oklahoma is still in the top 25 even though they have a 3-3 record. There is no way that a team with a 3-3 record should be in the top 25. People still love the overrated Sooners I guess.

Tashard Choice is the right choice

I was just reading Tim MacMahon's blog entry over at ESPNDallas.com where Tashard Choice was talking about wanting to be a workhorse for the team. Call me crazy but I think he should be the workhorse and the number one back...for now anyways.

I am a big fan of both Marion Barber and Felix Jones but they can't stay healthy, especially Felix. Tashard is healthy at the moment so in my opinion he should be getting the carries for this team. He has done a pretty good job so far this year and we should let him get in a rhythm on the field. Keep Barber and Jones on the sidelines and let them recover 100%. I think the Boys made the mistake of bringing Barber back so soon and letting him re-aggravate his injury.

So I say give Choice the chance to prove that he can be the number one back and the workhorse for this team and rest Barber and Jones so they can get 100% healthy so they can come back and be productive for this team.

Players to keep an eye on for Week 7: CFB

Colt McCoy QB Texas - Colt hasn't been playing as well as he did last year but he's still been pretty decent. He has thrown for 1,410 yards with 10 touchdowns and has completed 73 percent of his passes. The only bad thing is that he has also thrown 6 interceptions. He only 8 all year, last year. He's facing Oklahoma in the big rivalry game and they need him to preform like he can.

Jimmy Clausen QB Notre Dame - Notre Dame is facing a big rival themselves when the USC Trojans come to town. Notre Dame has lost the last seven games to the Trojans, so they need for Jimmy to come through and help the Irish overcome that losing streak and probably even save his head coach's butt.

Blaine Gabbert QB Missouri - The Missouri Tigers had been flying high in the early part of this season. That is until Nebraska came to town and knocked them down. Gabbert has filled in nicely for the departed Chase Daniels and I believe that nobody really thought that the team or Gabbert would be playing this good. Blaine had played pretty well with 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions til the Nebraska game last week. He threw zero touchdowns and two interceptions in that game. His completion percentage also took a hit with that game, he only completed 39.5 of his passes. The Tigers are going down to Stillwater to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys and a questionable defense. Can Blaine bounce back and throw all over the Pokes or will the Cowboys finally figure out that they need to start playing defense against the bigger schools and tackle people?

Week 7 CFB Predictions

I did pretty well last week, especially in the Top 25 predictions. Lucky for me there were no real upsets. I went 16-1 with my only loss coming in the No. 17 Auburn at Arkansas game and Auburn getting blown out.

I went 8-2 in the other picks for an overall 24-3 record for the week. Not to shabby.

Now for my week 7 picks:

Top 25

No. 20 Oklahoma vs No. 3 Texas
No. 7 Ohio State at Purdue
No. 11 Iowa at Wisconsin
Arkansas at No. 1 Florida
No. 6 USC at No. 25 Notre Dame
Minnesota at No. 14 Penn State
Texas Tech at No. Nebraska
No. 23 Houston at Tulane
Colorado State at No. 12 TCU
No. 4 Virginia Tech at No. 19 Georgia Tech
Brigham Young at San Diego State
No. 17 Kansas at Colorado
No. 9 Miami (FL) at UCF
No. 22 South Carolina at No. 2 Alabama
Missouri at No. 16 Oklahoma State
No. 24 Utah at UNLV

We have four games that feature two top 25 teams. Personally I believe the game to be watching out of all of those is the No. 20 Oklahoma vs No. 3 Texas game. But I could be bias since I live in Oklahoma and not all that far from Dallas, either.

I hope for my Oklahoma State Cowboys that the same Missouri team that showed up for their Nebraska game shows up in Stillwater for us. Missouri did have the lead at halftime but they fell apart in the 4th quarter letting Nebraska score 27 points! I'll take that. Let's go Pokes!

My upset pick of the week is Wisconsin over No. 11 Iowa. Iowa has won some pretty close games against questionable opponents. Wisconsin has played fairly decent this year and they should have won against Ohio State last weekend.

Other games

Pittsburgh at Rutgers
Louisville at Connecticut
Northwestern at Michigan State
Wake Forest at Clemson
Georgia at Vanderbilt
Nevada at Utah State
California at UCLA
North Carolina State at Boston College
Marshall at West Virginia
Baylor at Iowa State
Illinois at Indiana
Kentucky at Auburn
Stanford at Arizona
Washington at Arizona State

Looking forward to another great Saturday of college football.

Fantasy Roster Changes: WM6042

I made 3 roster changes in my WM6042 work league in the hopes of shaking some things up and make a run at the leaders. My first change was at kicker. With Nick Folk on the bye week and Adam Vinatieri being hurt and missing the next 6 to 8 weeks or so I had to look around for another kicker in the free agents pool. I went by how many points they had already scored and Matt Prater of Denver was the top man so I quickly snatched him up. Of course that will now ensure that he won't do a damn thing the rest of the year.

According to most of the fantasy football sites/blogs they say that you should start Matt Hasselbeck at QB since the Seahawks are playing Arizona and the Cardinals are giving up a ton of passing yards. I checked and he was available in my league so I picked him up and drop Mark Sanchez, who I just picked up the other week but has done absolutely nothing since then. Hopefully Hasselbeck won't let me down and choke.

I decided to pick up another WR while I was making these changes and thought I would try out Nate Burleson since the Cardinals are giving up receiving yards. Unfortunately after I added him I noticed that he is questionable for the game, so this is a gamble move here. So I hope that my team up of Hasselbeck/Burleson will work out for me this week. I dropped Pierre Garcon, who I just picked up the other week as well, but only gave me one point last week.

With those changes I am now an eight point favorite over jarhead hoo rah this weekend. I've been heavily favored in some of the previous games and lost my butt, so who knows, but I can't wait to find out.

New Fantasy Football and Basketball Teams

I've been having a lot of fun playing Fantasy Football this year that I decided to start another team. Yeah we are 5 games into the season and what not but it's pretty fun.

Here is my new team:

QB - Philip Rivers
QB - Kyle Orton
WR - Calvin Johnson
WR - Antonio Bryant
WR - Torry Holt
WR - Eddie Royal
WR - Domenik Hixon
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew
RB - Steve Slaton
RB - Marshawn Lynch
TE - Greg Olsen
TE - Anthony Fasano
K - David Akers
K - Nate Kaeding
DEF - Minnesota

It's not that bad of a team. I have decent quarterbacks in this league. Questionable wide receiver's like the other league as well as running backs. I have Maurice Jones-Drew in both leagues.

I will have two basketball teams in different leagues. My public league team is already drafted while I wait for some more co-workers to join the private work place league.

My public league team is:

PG - Tony Parker (SA)
SG - Paul Pierce (Bos)
G - Stephen Jackson (GS)
SF - Jeff Green (OKC)
PF - Tim Duncan (SA)
F - LaMarcus Aldridge (Por)
C - Jermaine O'Neal (Mia)
C - Brendan Haywood (Was)
U - Mo Williams (Cle)
U - Boris Diaw (Cha)
BN - Jason Thompson (Sac)
BN - Michael Beasley (Mia)
BN - Kenyon Martin (Den)

It should be alright, we'll see how the season goes.

College Power Rankings: Week 6

I was just looking over the week 6 power rankings for college football over at ESPN. Florida is still number one after beating the 4th ranked LSU Tigers 13-3 Saturday night. Alabama is number two and there has been a lot of chatter about how Alabama should be number and there is a strong case for it. They did beat Virgina Tech at the beginning of the year. Virgina Tech is now number 4 in the power rankings. They also beat 24th ranked Ole Miss, who at one time was ranked as high as 4th in the nation. I think we can all say that Ole Miss was more than likely overrated at the beginning of the season.

Texas is number three and there shouldn't be any surprise there.

My problem with this list begins at numbers 16, 17 and 18. Oklahoma is number 16. Kansas is number 17 and my Oklahoma State Cowboys are at the 18th spot. We are ranked behind OU??! They have lost two games and are no where close to what they were last year or even in years past. Kansas may be undefeated still but they have barely squeaked by with wins against questionable teams.

Now I do admit that we have had our problems this year but we are arguably better than both those teams and if we are able to get Dez Bryant back we will be better than both.

We shall see how big of a fraud Oklahoma is after they get crushed by Texas this Saturday.

Miles Austin is NFC offensive player of the week

In what I guess is good news, Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin was named the NFC's offensive player of the week. Miles caught 10 balls for 250 yards and two scores, including the game winning touchdown in overtime. Thank you sir for showing up and playing the game. I wished you would have brought the rest of the team with you.

I hope that Tony Romo hasn't stopped thanking you yet because you helped to save his skin and the season as a whole. Now, I hope that you and the team can build on this and start playing better.

Please, please start playing better, thank you.

Cowboys No. 17 in NFL Power Rankings for Week 6

The ESPN NFL Power Rankings are now out. You can check the whole list out, here.

Obviously the 5 undefeated teams stand atop the rankings, as they should, but if you scroll down to the seventeenth spot you'll see the Dallas Cowboys shining bright. If you ask me, a die hard Cowboys fan, this is a generous ranking. To be brutally honest, we stink people! Yeah we may be a few close plays to being 5-0 and that would be great. We should have won against the Giants, who are currently number 2 on that list and we should have won against the Bronco's as well. The Bronco's are number 5 on that list. Both of those teams are undefeated, the Bronco's surprisingly so.

But have you looked at the three teams we have are wins against?

We beat Tampa Bay opening day 34-21. Our offense showed up and Tony hardly made any mistakes. Oh yeah, the Bucs are now 0-5 and number 31 in the power rankings.

We beat the Carolina Panthers 21-7 on a Monday night when Romo played smart and didn't turn the ball over. The Panthers are 1-3, getting their first win in comeback fashion Sunday. They are 23rd on the list.

And of course Sunday we somehow managed a win against the Kansas City Chiefs 26-20...in overtime. How many games have the Chiefs won? None, they are 0-5 and are 30th in the power rankings. Did I mention that it took us overtime to beat these guys? We should have lost to them.

There are a whole lot of negatives with this Dallas team and very, very few positives. We have a Bye week this week and we should use this time to get refocused on football and playing smart and not making all the mistakes that have been killing us. What are they actually going to do this week? Probably nothing, knowing them. They need a kick in the butt and they need it now.

Did I mention we beat Kansas City, in overtime?

Fantasy Football: Close win this week.

This was an interesting weekend for our fantasy football league at work. There were a couple of high scoring match-ups with one going 76-64 and another going 55-53 (with no players on Monday Night). I came in with a pitiful 43 bleeping points but somehow by the grace of the fantasy football gods I squeaked by with a win, that went down to the wire. My match-up was 43-42 going into Monday Night Football with all the players being played except for my opponents DEF. He had the NY Jets Defense. They in turn gave him negative one points, ensuring my victory!

Now these scores may seem pretty low compared to most leagues and they are because the League Commissioner made the points scoring more difficult.

Here is a look at our match-up.

Aggies Pos Player Opp Proj Act QB Tony Romo @KC 8 12 WR Pierre Garcon @TEN 3 0 WR Brandon Marshall NE 4 9 RB Maurice Jones-Drew @SEA 12 2 RB Joseph Addai @TEN 3 9 TE Jason Witten @KC 4 2 K Nick Folk @KC 10 8 DEF San Francisco ATL 7 1 51 43

Bulldogs Pos Player Opp Proj Act QB Donovan McNabb TB 10 15 WR Randy Moss @DEN 5 1 WR Calvin Johnson PIT 4 0 RB Steve Slaton @ARI 5 3 RB Tim Hightower HOU 6 7 TE Brent Celek TB 4 2 K Lawrence Tynes OAK 10 14 DEF New York Jets @MIA 8 -1 52 41

As you can see I had a few underachievers, that's you Maurice Jones-Drew! You've been lowballing me all season so far. Step it up dude. I picked up Pierre Garcon during the week and started him instead of Dwayne Bowe, which was a mistake since Bowe got 6 points and Garcon got none. Wished I knew that Jonathan Stewart of Carolina was going to show up so I could have started him instead of Maurice. Stewart got 7 points and had only 5 or 6 before that game total. Don't get me started on my DEF. I decided to drop the Steelers who have given me nothing over the season and picked up the 49ers who had the most fantasy points in the Free Agency. Then of course they decide not to show up for their game and only gave me 1 bleeping point.

I suppose I can't really complain to much since I was able to squeak by with a win bumping my record to 2-3. I would like to think that things are looking up but half my team has a Bye week this week, so it looks like I might have to make some moves.

The other match-ups were:

Budmans 4 Aces - 53
jarhead hoo rah - 55

Donkey Punchers - 50
BIG RED - 42

TopDawg Sooners - 64
reservoir dogs - 76

Standings:

1.	reservoir dogs	4-1-0	.800	321	W-2
2.	jarhead hoo rah	4-1-0	.800	280	W-3
3.	Budmans 4 Aces	3-2-0	.600	283	L-2
4.	TopDawg Sooners	2-3-0	.400	270	L-2
5.	Donkey Punchers	2-3-0	.400	239	W-1
6.	Aggies	2-3-0	.400	239	W-1
7.	Bulldogs	2-3-0	.400	220	L-1
8.	BIG RED	1-4-0	.200	222	L-1

Week 6 CFB Predictions

It's a cold and wet Saturday morning here but it's time for me to make this weekends predictions. Should be another great day of college football. There are several key match-ups today, so here they are.

Top 25

Boston College 14 at No. 5 Virginia Tech 48
Eastern Illinois 3 at No. 14 Penn State 52
No. 17 Auburn 23 at Arkansas 44
No. 15 Oklahoma State 36 at Texas A&M 31
Iowa State 36 at No. 16 Kansas 41
Kentucky 26 at No. 25 South Carolina 28
No. 3 Alabama 22 at No. 20 Mississppi 3
Wisconsin 13 at No. 9 Ohio State 31
No. 13 Oregon 24 at UCLA 10
Baylor 7 at No. 19 Oklahoma 33
Florida A&M 16 at No. 11 Miami (FL) 49
Colorado 14 at No. 2 Texas 38
No. 10 TCU 20 at Air Force 17
No. 1 Florida 13 at No. 4 LSU 3
No. 22 Georgia Tech 49 at Florida State 44
Michigan 28 at No. 12 Iowa 30
No. 18 Brigham Young 59 at UNLV 21

I really don't see that many upsets happening, but you never know anymore. The two big games of two ranked SEC teams will probably be the more interesting games this weekend. There is No 3 Alabama going and playing 20th ranked Ole Miss. How will Ole Miss QB Snead handle the Alabama defense, and is Alabama really this good? Then there is the biggest game of the weekend later tonight when No. 1 Florida takes the field against No. 4 LSU. Will Tim Tebow play? Can Florida win without him? Is LSU really that good? They should have lost last weekend but got help by a stupid penalty by the dumb refs against Georgia.

The only real upsets I think could happen: How will my Cowboys play without their All-Everything WR Dez Bryant playing? Texas A&M could bounce back after that crappy game last weekend and stun the Cowboys. I'm still not sold on Virginia Tech and I probably never will be, so Boston College could surprise them. Can No. 17 Auburn keep up with their new found high powered offense? Can Arkansas build off their huge against A&M last weekend and upset the newly ranked Tigers? Kentucky could possibly take down No. 25 South Carolina depending on which Gamecock teams decides to show up. No. 12 Iowa really hasn't shown much this year with a one point win against Northern Iowa and barely squeaking a three point win against Arkansas State last weekend. Michigan has shown some sparks late in games so it should be pretty interesting.

Other games

Purdue 20 at Minnesota 35
West Virginia 34 at Syracuse 13
Georgia 19 at Tennessee 45
Houston 31 at Mississippi State 24
Connecticut 21 at Pittsburgh 24
Arizona State 27 at Washington State 14
Maryland 32 at Wake Forest 42
Stanford 28 at Oregon State 38
Kansas State 14 at Texas Tech 66
Arizona 33 at Washington 36

Another exciting weekend of College Football

Even though there weren't all that many big exciting match-ups this weekend, Saturday turned out to be a very exciting day.

In the early round of games you had No. 22 Michigan rally, yet again in the fourth quarter to tie the Spartans and force the game into overtime. Unfortunately for the Wolverines their rally came to an end in OT as Michigan State went on to win 26-20.

Then there was the No. 4 LSU at No. 18 Georgia game. There wasn't a whole lot of offense going on in this game with the halftime score being 6-0 LSU. Finally in the fourth quarter both teams decided to come alive and things sure did get exciting when both teams combined for three TDs in the final three minutes. RB Scott scored a 2 yard TD run with 2:53 left making the score 12-7 LSU (the 2pt conversion failed). Georgia then turned around and marched down the field and ended with Cox throwing a 16 yard TD pass to A.J. Green with 1:09 left. Georgia missed the 2pt conversion as well making the score 12-13 Georgia. Unfortunately for Georgia they were flagged for excessive celebration on the TD, although it wasn't really all that bad, I thought, which gave LSU good field position. Two plays later RB Scott scored on a 33 yard touchdown run with 46 seconds left and the game was over.

Notre Dame had to come from behind yet again against Washington, finally winning in OT 37-30. Virginia Tech had some trouble putting the Duke Blue Devils away winning by the close score of 34-26. Iowa must of had a hangover over that Penn State win cause they almost lost to Arkansas State. The Hawkeyes squeaked out a 3 point win 24-21. The Cinderella story of Houston is now over as they lost to UTEP of all people. They can beat my Cowboys and Texas Tech but then they lose to a team that just got beat by nearly sixty points to Texas. UTEP won 58-41.

My Aggies of Texas A&M looked really really good early in their game against Arkansas. They jumped out to a 10-0 lead and the defense was shutting down Mallet and the Arkansas offense forcing several 3 and outs. Things quickly went south after that though, as Mallet and others started clicking by scoring 30 unanswered points to take a halftime lead 30-10. It was pretty much over by then as the Aggies went on to lose 47-19. A disappointing loss for A&M.

But the game of the night was No. 8 going to No. 17 Miami (FL). As a Sooner hater I loved watching this game as Miami was able to rebound off their loss last weekend to win 21-20. At first things didn't look to good for Miami as Jacory Harris threw an interception on their first two drives. Fortunately Harris and the team were able to settle down after that and the defense was able to stop the high powered offense of OU.

Players to keep an eye on for Week 5

There will be a couple of players to watch out for this Saturday. Two of them are coming off loses, so how will they rebound this week? How will they respond to the pressure of a big game against a big time opponent? That's what we're looking for.

Javid Best - RB California - Javid had helped the Bears get to a No. 6 ranking and had himself in the Heisman talks. Well, that all changed last Saturday when they went up to Oregon and got blown away 42-3 and Best only rushed for 55 yards. Now they have No. 7 USC paying a visit so the Bears need for Javid to get back into the groove of things if they expect to win this game. USC was able to hold Best to just 30 yards rushing last season. Can they do it again or will Javid prove that he was worthy of the Heisman talks earlier in the season?

Jacory Harris - QB Miami (FL) - Jacory and the 'Canes were getting a lot of talk and hype so far this year. That was until they went up to Blacksburg and got beat down by the Hokies of Virginia Tech. Jacory had been playing very well until that game and even got himself into the Heisman talk as well. The Virginia Tech defense did a good job at shutting him down as he went 9 for 25 for 150 yards and one INT. Now he has to rebound off that loss against the Oklahoma defense that has back to back shutouts, grant it those were by far less talented teams than what the 'Canes have been showing us.

Jerrod Johnson - QB Texas A&M - Most people probably don't even know who Jerrod Johnson is but you should keep an eye on this kid. This Saturday will be the first real test of what this kid and A&M of the season when they face off against Arkansas in Jerry World. Johnson has put up some big numbers so far this year, albeit against some questionable teams. He has passed for 961 yards so far with 9 TD's and 0 INT's and is leading the 1st ranked offense in the nation. Will he step up into the spotlight?

ESPN GameDay in Boston?

How do they come about picking places to go for College GameDay? Just wondering cause this Saturday the Chris, Kirk, Lee and the boys will be in Boston for the Florida State - Boston College game. Neither team is ranked. I haven't heard anything all year about Boston College and we've all seen the roller coaster year Florida State is off to already.

So why did they chose this game to go to? Why not the LSU at Georgia game? LSU is ranked 4th and Georgia is 18th. This seems like a great game for the boys to broadcast from.

What about 7th ranked USC visiting the 24th ranked Bears of California? What a match-up this would be, especially if both teams haven't already had the stunning loses that they have.

You also have 8th ranked Oklahoma going to 17th ranked Miami (FL). Yet another big time game that got the snubbed?

So why Florida State - Boston College? Where's the intrigue and the story lines in this game? Just curious.

Week 4 NFL Predictions.

There are a couple of interesting match-ups this weekend for the NFL. First off my Cowboy's go to Denver to take on the surprisingly undefeated Bronco's. But the Bronco's really haven't played anyone that good, so that record can be deceiving. Baltimore travels to New England should be a nice game. The Ravens have finally found some offense and Flacco has been doing a pretty good job at Quarterback. Then there is the battle of the undefeated with the Jets going down to New Orleans. Sanchez and the Jets has a whole have been playing really well, so we shall see if they can continue rolling along against the high powered Saints offense and a defense that has been showing up and playing fairly decent as well.

Now for my picks with the team that I believe will win in green.

Detroit at Chicago
Cincinnati at Cleveland
Seattle at Indianapolis
NY Giants at Kansas City
Baltimore at New England
Tampa Bay at Washington
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Oakland at Houston
NY Jets at New Orleans
Buffalo at Miami
St. Louis at San Francisco
Dallas at Denver
San Diego at Pittsburgh
Green Bay at Minnesota

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Green Bay - Minnesota game. Favre against his old team on Monday Night Football. Personally I have lost some respect for Favre over the last couple of years with all of his flip flopping and such. I wished he would have just stayed and retired as a Packer. I have Minnesota winning but I really hope that Green Bay beats Favre.

Roy Williams is unclear what his role is??

I read an interesting little piece over at the Dallas Morning News' Cowboys Blog in which Cowboy's Wide Receiver Roy Williams say's he is unclear what his role is here in Dallas.

"I do not know what my role is," Williams said. "I'm just trying to help this team win, whether it's catching the ball, whether it's blocking downfield, whether it's whatever the game is calling for. My role is to ... make plays, whether it's in the run or pass game, I'm guessing."

You just said what your role is SUPPOSE to be! Your role is to make plays and help out the TEAM! T.O. Junior?? This is what I hate about professional athletes. A lot of them are prima donna's that only think about themselves. Now, I didn't say that they are all like that, but there are more than we would like to see.

Roy, stop your crying just cause the TE is getting more receptions than you. Tony is going to throw it to the open man, he can't help it if Jason Witten is the one that is open more often than not. Tony is also going to throw it to someone he trust and believes will CATCH the ball. Like with T.O. you get the ball thrown to you but then you don't even bother to catch it.

Catch the ball and shut up. Or make blocks and shut up. Regardless you just need to shut up, T.O. Junior and make plays to help the TEAM win. This is a team game after all.

Some Week 5 Predictions: College Football

With my computer back up and running I can start back to making my predictions, so here we go with my picks to win in green.

Thursday, October 1
Colorado at West Virginia

Friday, October 2
Pittsburgh at Louisville

Saturday, October 3
Top 25
No. 6 Virginia Tech at Duke
No. 22 Michigan at Michigan State
Arkansas State at No. 13 Iowa
No. 3 Alabama at Kentucky
No. 10 Cincinnati
No. 4 LSU at No. 18 Georgia
No. 15 Penn State at Illinois
No. 9 Ohio State at Indiana
No. 21 Mississippi at Vanderbilt
No. 25 Georgia Tech at Mississippi State
UC Davis at No. 5 Boise State
No. 7 USC at No. 24 California
No. 8 Oklahoma at Miami (FL)
Southern Methodist at No. 11 TCU
No. 12 Houston at UTEP
Washington State at No. 16 Oregon

I don't really see a whole lot of the unranked teams beating the ranked teams this week, but with the way things have been lately I could be greatly mistaken. I am picking Oklahoma to beat Miami, but I really, really hope that Miami kicks their ass.

Other picks
Clemson at Maryland
Wisconsin at Minnesota
Virginia at North Carolina
South Florida at Syracuse
Kansas State at Iowa State
UCLA at Stanford
Washington at Notre Dame
Florida State at Boston College
New Mexico at Texas Tech
Texas A&M at Arkansas
Auburn at Tennessee