College Football Shake Up

College Football always seems to have a shake up just past the half way point of the season. The Baseball playoffs are getting very interesting. If you listen to the talking heads then the small market teams have no business making it to a championship game. It will just hurt ratings. The NFL is in full stride. Gold Rush is back. We love our “reality” shows here. All this and more in the week that was for the second week of October 2018.

Every year there is a weekend when the top 10 teams in the country have a collectively bad day. On the flip side of that it means that the teams out side of the top 10 had a good day. For 2018 the first of these types of days happened this past weekend. Four teams in the top 10 lost. The biggest one was When number 13 LSU destroyed number 2 Georgia. This is only the biggest one because Georgia was the second ranked team in the country. Two un ranked teams took out top 10 teams. Michigan State beat 8th ranked Penn State by scoring a touchdown with 19 seconds to go. Giving them a 21 – 17 win. Iowa State too out 6th ranked West Virginia 30 – 14. In what was less of an upset but will have huge consequences for the playoff is Oregon beating Washington 30 – 27 in Overtime.

That lost by Washington my eliminate the PAC 12 from the playoff. The teams that control their spot are Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Alabama. All three of those teams are 7-0 and are looking pretty strong. The only one that seems to be a lock for the playoff is Alabama. I don’t see them having a chance to lose till the SEC championship game. Then even if they lose like last year. They are probably still going to make the playoff.

Notre Dame and Alabama Look like Locks for the Playoff

Notre Dame has games against Florida State Northwestern and USC. I guess they could lose one of those but none of those teams are at their best and Notre Dame should be able to beat them. If they do lose one a close one they may still be sitting in a good spot to make the playoff. Since they are such a huge draw you know that the committee will be taking that into consideration.

That would leave us with one open spot. Which will probably end up going to Clemson. Another team that will probably end up going undefeated. Again a team that even if they have one close loss. with the success they have had the last few years will get the benefit of past success and make the playoff.

We are really starting to see a crazy pattern here that is really eliminating many teams from even having a chance to make the playoff. What we can really hope for is absolute chaos the rest of the season with some major upsets.

NFL in Full stride

The NFL entered week six strong. The Eagles got their season back on track by destroying the Giants on Thursday night football. If the Eagles even just play average the rest of the season they should win the NFC East. On the other side of the game. The Giants are well on their way to a top 5 pick in the draft again. The Giants will have a chance grab a replacement for Eli. Regardless of what they do they are probably in for a long season next year as well.

One Undefeated Team Left

There is only one undefeated team left in the league after week six. The Rams are the only one left after the Chiefs lost to the Patriots. The Rams had a close game with the Broncos. They won by three. A win is a win. Even if it is by one point. The close games are the games that define you has a team. Not the blow outs. Jerred Goff did not have his best game. He only completed 50% of his passes for 201 yards. The Broncos schemed to stop Goff and his receivers. What that did is it left Lanes for Gurley and he took advantage of them. Gurley racked up 208 yards on 28 carries. It was the first time in 17 years that the Rams had a runner go over 200 yards. Gurley is quickly claiming the title of the best running back in the NFL.

Five Teams Five wins

On the other end of the win loss spectrum are five teams. five teams that combined do not have the same number of wins of the Rams six games into the season. Those teams are the Giants, Colts, Raiders, Cardinals and 49ers. Combined they have 5 wins. In our preseason picks we had most of these teams pegged as not being that great. We gave them a little more respect but none of these teams were expected to make the playoffs. We really did not expect them to be this bad though. It would have been difficult to know ahead of time that the Raiders were going to decide to have an Oakland Raiders going out of business sale. It is clear that they are gunning for their move to Las Vegas. The problem is that they have to play next season somewhere. It could be in Oakland it could be somewhere else. The problem is that they are going to be really bad. Not sure who is going to want to watch them. Maybe they should play a whole season in London. It would be great to have a few extra 9 am games for those of us from the Mississippi on East.

London Games should Start in the AM Eastern time

That last comment leads me to a selfish thing. I like to watch football. Many times even bad Football games are good games to watch. The past weekend there was a game in London. What surprised me was that it did not start till 1pm Eastern time. I just saw that there was a game being played in London. So I did not pay much attention to the start time. I just thought to myself. cool another Sunday with football from 9am to midnight. To borrow a phrase from Lee Corso – “Not so fast my Friend” The game was not where to be found. That is when I checked to see the time and it was a 1pm start time. DOH – just say no NFL start them early. I guess I could give them a pass since it was two west coast teams in the Raiders and the Seahawks. But still on them for scheduling those two teams in London. Plan better my NFL friends. Plan better.

NHL who Started Strong

There has been exactly no surprises to start the NHL season. I say that as in how the teams have started out so far. The teams that were expected to be at the top. Toronto, Carolina, Anaheim, Boston and Nashville. Are at the top. Granted this is only a few games into the season and with 82 games to play it is a marathon and things can change. What has been a surprise is the attendance in the NHL this year.

Attendance in the NHL BAD

The attendance in Detroit is so bad that they have decided to change out all the seats in the arena to change them from red to black. The red seats are an eye soar on television and make the arena look even more empty than it already is. Other teams have had problems as well. In a not so surprising attendance release the Florida Panthers had an announced crowd of less then 6000. That usually means that there was a lot less people there than that. Not sure what the average attendance for the Panthers has been but I am pretty sure that it is not much more than that. Miami has trouble drawing in just about every sport so it is really not a surprise. Not sure why the NHL keeps a team down there. It has never really drawn that well but who are we to decide.

NBA – Wait for it

You don’t have to wait for the season to start. It starts this week. After the excitement of the first week. There is really nothing to be very excited about. I guess if you are a big NBA fan you look forward to the Christmas schedule. Then it is just waiting it out till March and April to sort out the playoff seeding. I am not sure how to fix the regular season problems in the NHL and the NBA but they need to do something. It seems that each year the regular season gets less and less important.

Television – We watch a lot of it

We have a television schedule and many of you probably think we are nuts. We plan our whole evening around what we are going to watch on television. Sometimes we are watching more than one show at a time. Especially when a sporting event is on in prime time. Then we watch the show schedule on the TV and I watch the game on my tablet. Technology allows us to waste brain cells in so many new ways. LOL

This week on Sunday with the Walking Dead. It was probably the best show that they have had in two seasons. then the ruined it at the end with Rick talking to Negan. While Negan was quite the character. That story has run its course. I am done with it. If Negan is the one who ends up killing Rick that may be the one thing that actually makes me stop watching the Walking Dead. It seems that I am not alone in that thought. This past weeks episode of The Walking Dead was the lowest rated episode for the Walking Dead – ever. At this point I do not think it is fixable.

College Football Shake Up – The Week That Was