Saturday, September 09, 2006

Where to begin



Just way too much football to deal with now that the NFL and NCAA have gotten their seasons underway. We'll start with Pittsburgh, which got a nice win against a Miami team that still should be considered to at least contend for the AFC East.

Still, I can't help but think they're the same as the Minnesota Vikings from a year ago: Make a ton of off-season moves, get everyone janky about your prospects, get pre-season Super Bowl hype. Hell, they've even got their starting quarterback. Anyway, we all know how that story turns out.

The only thing I'll say about the controversial Heath Miller touchdown is that if I'm a Dolphins fan I'm absolutely livid at my coach. Yes, he got the flag down to challenge the score but where in heaven's name was the intensity you'd want to see from your coach? I just think that was a guy who wasn't entirely convinced he should challenge the play, which begs the question: Why wasn't he? At that stage of the game, as backbreaking as the play could potentially be, how can you not just automatically get out there and KNOW you need to challenge the play. And then when you do, you'd better be damn sure you're on the field making it known you've challenged. That said, the refs botched the call AND botched the "hey, should we be looking even slightly in the Miami bench's direction to see if they want to challenge this thing?" thing.

The Steelers still need to get more a running game going and hopefully bringing in Najeh Davenport addresses their slight lack of power running, which I don't think is yet an area of panic concern.



Moving west, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are 2-for-2 in the softies category. Two wins at Memorial over peons Lousiana Tech and Nicholls State aren't anything to jump for joy about but the manner in which they got those wins is encouraging.

The Huskers much-publicized running troubles of a year ago are seemingly taking care of with the four-headed monster in the backfield of Marlon Lucky (showing why he was so coveted a recruit), Kenny Wilson (ridiculously talented), Cody Glenn (change-of-pace bruiser) and Brandon Jackson (extra piece to the puzzle).

Zac Taylor has looked very good throwing seven touchdowns against one INT and the defence, well ... the defence is what it always is.

That said, the biggest benchmark comes next Saturday when they head to L.A. for the USC game. I'm not convinced that Nebraska is so out of its league here. We'll see. It's just way too hard to tell right now, but I'm absolutely bubbling over in anticpation for it. A win in this game is not even huge, or HUGE.... it would be HYYUUGGGE.

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