Tuesday Afternoon Linebacker

I’m telling ya, it was so nice to have a full weekend of for-real it-counts football to watch. Don’t you think? Over the weekend I watched (with varying degrees of attention) Miami (FL)-Oklahoma, Georgia-South Carolina, Florida-Troy, Auburn-USF, Nebraska-Wake Forest, Green Bay-Philadelphia, Miami-Washington, Cincy-Baltimore, and of course Tampa Bay-Seattle. I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I got to watch so many games in one weekend. And this coming Saturday after taking in the UF-Tennessee collision I should be able to watch some of the late games like USC-Nebraska or Boston College and Georgia Tech. Classic.

Quarter Assed
The Bucs couldn’t even manage a half-assed performance on Sunday. Once single solitary quarter of pretty damn good football is all the lads could muster. This is going to be a long season. Very long. We couldn’t even keep the savior quarterback on the field for the first game. And that defense… boy howdy. I’m going to stop talking about the Bucs for now. I just can’t get my head around how bad they are at this point. Just terrible.

The Appalachian Impact
I promised last week that I’d talk about what TALB thinks the impact of the Appalachian State win over Michigan might be. And I think that it will be bad for small schools. Every Troy, UAB, and I-AA school out there is now emboldened. Never-mind that Michigan might just have been overrated by a tad. They’ll all think they can win. And they will. It will start a short trend (as the contracts play out) of little schools beating the big guys. And what will happen is that the big guys will stop paying these schools to show up for a beat-down. And instead just ask nicely of the other BCS conferences to send their lower-ranks over for a game. Of course, that will lead to these big timers having to go play there too. In other words, instead of Florida playing Western Kentucky to come to Gainesville, they’ll instead setup a home-and-home with a team like Syracuse or Baylor. Because even a loss to a lower-tier BCS team is better than losing to a team from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Bring on the Vols
The Gators’ defense needs to get their act together, and fast. As bad as Tennessee has been over the first two weeks, they will be a much more challenging opponent than either WKU or Troy. And UT will take advantage of the holes in the defense. And let’s not even talk about what LSU will do to these guys.

On the other hand, the Gators’ offense and special teams might be good enough to “cover” for the lackluster D against UT and Ole Miss. But again, LSU not so much.

War Damn Eagle?
Fark the Tigers. Fark them up their Eagle Arses. It’s just a shame that the Bulls didn’t crack the Top 25 this week. Though I do have one complaint about Jim Leavitt’s game plan. I think he should have tried to score as time ran out in regulation. Just try running straight ahead. More than likely you gain nothing and go to OT anyway. But maybe, just maybe you score a TD right then and there. And for all the back-and-forth emotion in that stadium during the 4th period the Tigers’ fans would have damn near fell over. Of course I applaud taking the chance in the OT. USF had nothing to lose by being bold, and it paid off. Unfortuantely they are off this week, which may hurt their chances to breach the Top 25. But if they can stay close, the next two games will be on ESPN (or the Deuce) against North Carolina and West Virginia (both at RayJay) which, if they win both, would vault them into the thick of the polls.

These are heady days for the USF Bulls. Enjoy it Bulls fans. Expectations start to grow from here. While today you might be happy with “We’re 22! We’re 22!” or something, next year you’ll want to be ranked in the pre-season. Then be considered for the Big East title. And so on. Pretty soon, not being ranked will be of concern.

One last item: according to a blurb in Sunday’s Trib the Bulls will travel to Gainesville in 2010 and 2015. However, at this time no return trips by the Gators are scheduled.

Tromboned
The might Rusty Trombones were victorious after the furious Week 1 action by a score of 73-66. Led by Tom Brady, Chad Johnson, and Marion Barber the ‘Bones prevailed over the Scumbags. Ocho-Cinco proved to be the difference in the game. Elsewhere in the Buc Junkies Football League, two teams reached the 100 point mark while to others were in the 90’s. Next: HuffDaddy (0-1).

Running Items
Breath Of A Salesman
Taco Bell has run out of names. Remember the heady days of the Gordita, the Chalupa, and the Chilito? Now they’re just calling things by their contents. Witness the new Cheesy Beefy Melt. Which is cheesy, beefy, and melty.

Grated Cheese
Even though Beansie had nothing to do with it, the Packers’ last minute win was credited to Favre after the game. I’d say that (Hillsborough High product) JR Reed had much more to do with the Pack winning than Brett “Toss It And Pray” Favre by muffing that late punt.

Plus One Bowl
USC vs. LSU
I don’t think the Gators will get past LSU.

Super Bowl XLII
New England vs. Minnesota
Is there anyone in the NFC that wants to challenge the AFC? Anyone? At this point the Vikes looked the most impressive, relatively speaking.

Next Week: Will the Saints roll the Bucs after getting rolled by the Colts? Or Are both of these teams just that bad? And “It’s Tennessee Week!”