Tuesday Afternoon Linebacker

What a week in football. Peyton tosses six picks, sending the Colts into a two game losing streak. The Gators get a big win to keep their slim SEC East hopes alive. One of the winless NFL teams, the Rams, gets off the schneid. And in turn helps the Bucs claim sole possession of first place in the NFC South. The Bulls get back on the winning track by wood-shedding hapless Syracuse. Oh, and Ohio State got Zooked.

Tebowed
Seven touchdowns. All seven of Florida’s touchdowns Saturday night went through Tebow. FIVE rushing scores and two through the air. Darren McWho? The best running back in the SEC wears 15 and plays QB for the Gators. I know that’s a bold statement, but try and refute it. Tebow is just 4 running scores away from the all-time NCAA record for quarterbacks. D-Mac might have more rushing yards, but he hasn’t been nearly as instrumental in his team’s performance as has Tebow. “Superman” has to be the front-runner for team MVP.

Quick: which of the following would you expect to be the toughest challenge for Florida’s struggling defense: Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida Atlantic, or Florida State? If you said FAU, you’d be right. That surprised the hell out of me too. Vandy came into last week’s game averaging over 160 yards rushing and featured one of the SEC’s all-time receivers. And with SoS at the helm you’d expect the ‘Cocks would put up stellar numbers. The Owl’s come into Gainesville sporting the nation’s 57th best offense. However, Florida’s offense will square off against the nation’s 77th best defense, which should all but negate the Owl’s ability to run their offense effectively against the Gators. TALB will now remove his tongue from his cheek.

As for the FSU game in two weeks, here’s the tale of the tape: 30, 49, 24, 17. That’s 30 points per game against defenses that are statistically more competent that FSU’s unit (Georgia, Vandy, LSU, Auburn). And then there’s the cover-your-eyes FSU offense. This ought to be a fun two weeks for fans of the Florida Gators offense.

Pride
Just the tonic for a three-game losing streak, Syracuse. I tuned in here and there to find the Bulls up by a couple touchdowns most of the way. Good times. The Big East title might be gone now, but with two more wins (Louisville and Pitt) the Bulls could get to 9 wins and a decent bowl invite.

Say What?
The list of things I do not understand is a mile long. But one thing I thought I had a handle on was the way college football polls work. However, right now for the life of me I can’t figure out why Kansas isn’t Number 1. Hawaii, sure, I get that. They’re Hawaii. But the only undefeated team left from the 6 “BCS Conferences” is sitting at the four spot in the AP. Maybe the football writers started paying attention to what’s happening instead of just putting the best records at the top. That would be a welcome change.

I personally don’t think that Kansas is the best team. In fact I think the AP has the two best at the top right now. Though TALB’d put it the other way round. I can’t help but think, though, that if Kansas wins out and takes the Big XII championship they’d have to be tapped to go to New Orleans. That the Big XII plays a championship game will be a boon to the Jayhawks. Though the Ducks have wisely worked their schedule such that they will actually be playing on December 1, while Kansas and LSU play for their conference championships. The inactivity that “doomed” Michigan last season won’t be a problem for Oregon. But they will have the problem of likely being on regional TV as opposed to LSU and Kansas being on ABC and CBS nationally.

The way I see it, if Kansas wins out, they play for the MNC. Then it will be between LSU and Oregon. And the value of beating Georgia or Tennessee far out-weighs the value of beating Oregon State. Which puts the Ducks on the outside. But that’s life in the FBS.

Decent Shape
Even though they didn’t take the field, the Bucs did manage to take sole possession of first in the NFC South. A full game in the standings ahead of Carolina and New Orleans, plus a “half game” ahead of both since we’ve beaten them both head-to-head. Of course, we get them again before the season is out. But with a game lead, even a split with either one would be okay. Which brings us to…

Playoff Prognostication
Going forward, TALB will take a look at who might or might not make the NFL Super Bowl Tournament field. First the AFC, then the NFC.
AFC Locks: New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh
AFC Bubble: Jacksonville, Buffalo, Cleveland, San Diego, Denver, Kansas City. Tennessee
AFC “Not So Much”: Miami, New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, Oakland.
I hesitated with Jacksonville, almost putting them in as a Lock. But until and unless Gerrard comes back and plays well I can’t be sure. San Diego, despite their thrilling win against the Colts, needs to get their act together before I declare them a lock. They should win the horrid AFC West, but the jury’s still out. The Miami Dolphins are the first team eliminated from the possibility of winning their division.

NFC Locks: Dallas, Green Bay, New York, Seattle
NFC Bubble: Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Carolina, Washington, Detroit, Arizona, Chicago
NFC “Not So Much”: St. Louis, Atlanta, San Francisco, Minnesota, Philadelphia
Before this weekend’s action, I would have had the Lions as a Lock. But their defeat at the hands of Arizona has taken the shine off of this season’s Cinderella. Tampa, with wins against Atlanta and Houston over the next two weeks, would move into the Lock column. I also had some of the same reservations about Seattle that I do about San Diego, but then I looked at the ‘Hawks schedule the rest of the way: SF, CHI, @STL, @PHI, ARI, @CAR, BAL, @ATL. The Arizona game might be for the division, and the Panthers could be playing for their playoff lives. But outside of those two games, pretty smooth sailing.

Stop The Damn Play, Revisited
When this happened, I was planning to write about it. In fact, at the time, I had the same feeling about it as SMQ. But after thinking about it for a while I changed my mind. SMQ is dead wrong. This relates to the South Carolina - Tennessee collision from a few weeks back. Quoting from SMQ:

But to lose because one of your opponent’s linemen flinched before its kicker badly missed a field goal in overtime and nobody happened to break any rules when your kicker missed…that’s the kind of ending that would drive me insane if I was Steve Spurrier.

And this actually kind of goes back to what I talked about before about stopping plays. Once the false start occur ed, there was no further action. The missed kick never happened. I don’t know why I wanted to put this in here, but I do know that it is disappointing to see otherwise knowledgeable football writers get it so totally wrong.

The Zooker
Woe is The Ownedhio State University should they put South Carolina on the schedule next year. Future Hall of Fame coach Ron Zook led his Fighting Illini into the ‘Shoe and defeated the Buckeyes. Thus giving Urban Meyer and Ron Zook more than one thing in common. The other thing that Illinois’ win did was make it possible that Florida and Illinois could meet in either the Capital One or Outback bowl. That would actually be pretty interesting. In fact, SI’s Stewart Mandel has predicted just such a match-up in the What’s In Your Wallet Bowl.

Fading Fast
The Rusty Trombones have dropped all the way to sixth place in the BJFL after this past weekend’s action. A four game losing streak has the ‘Bones sitting at 5-5 and in 6th place. Still in the playoffs, but not for long if we keep losing. Though there should be a fair amount of shuffling for the upcoming week as there are playoff impacting match-ups of 1 vs. 5, 2 vs. 3, and 4 vs. 6. The top three or four spots should come into focus after this weekend.

Running Items
Plus One Bowl
LSU vs Oregon
I don’t think Kansas makes it through undefeated.

Super Bowl XLII
New England vs Dallas
Until proven otherwise…

Next Week: Falcons. Owls. Cardinals. TALB gives you the bird.