I hate complaining about refereeing. However…
I will complain if it alters the outcome of a game. The TCU-Texas Tech game had two blatantly bad calls. Did it cause TCU not to win the game or have at least a chance to win it? I don’t know. They lost by 10 so that can be debated either way. However, the ending of the Wisconsin-Arizona State game (which was a damn good game for about 59 minutes and 40 seconds) sent me back to the Fail Mary Seahawks-Packers game last year. I am still confused as to what the hell happened there. Joel Stave just basically puts the ball down on the ground. I know the rule says if a player “gives himself up” that the play is dead. Many said it looked like Stave was about to kneel but bumped into an O-lineman. Either way, part of me thought he took that way too easy and that it was truly a fumble recovered by the Sun Devils. But why, oh why, was it not reviewed RIGHT AWAY? Instead the refs ran off the field like it was last call at the bar. Just a complete shitshow that shouldn’t happen in this day and age. Don’t even get me started on the Haha Clinton-Dix targeting penalty that wasn’t a targeting penalty (but give them 15 yards anyway).
Speaking of Tide-Aggies…
Ok I will admit. It was a great game. Problem was, as soon as the Tide went up 2 touchdowns, I knew it was over. That team is coldly efficient and never gets rattled. Like, NEVER. As much as I get sick of Alabama winning, you can’t help but respect how this team plays…on offense. The defense is a different story. Yes it was Johnny F’n Awesome and the Aggie Juggernaut Experience but it’s not like there aren’t other SEC teams who can put up the points. Saban has to be worried about the defense’s sieve-like playing. Don’t be surprised if they give up at least another 30-spot (if not 40) to some team in SEC play. And yes, A&M’s chances at winning the division are officially gone.
Disappointments
Let me rattle off a few teams that I thought would be pretty good to very good and are pretty bad to awful so far this season:
- Louisiana Tech – I thought this team would surprise many and even challenge Tulsa for supremacy in the C-USA West. Man, how I was wrong. They looked terrible against Tulane and look like they will struggle to even get to a bowl. So yeah, losing Colby Cameron (and to a lesser extent, Sonny Dykes) was a massive deal.
- Texas – I picked this team to go to the Fiesta Bowl. THE FIESTA BOWL! And the worst part is? They could still do it. Running the Big 12 table might be the only thing that keeps Mack Brown his job. Otherwise he will be living on Manny Diaz’s living room couch come January.
- UConn – Not that I thought this team would be amazing. I did assume they would be bowl-eligible though. Wow, I may have been dead wrong about this. Something tells me that now Paul Pasqualoni has become the front-runner to be the first one fired this season.
Look ahead
I appalud ESPN for having the guts to do College Gameday in Fargo. It would not surprise me one bit if five years from now we were hearing about North Dakota State being accepted into the Mountain West. And it’s not that there aren’t good games on the air this week, it’s just that none of them really stick out as something special. The following week? That’s a different story. Four huge games coming up that will shape the national championship picture. So ESPN goes from picking something out of almost nothing, to having a hard decision on who to leave out.
Again, expect an update later in the week on the TV schedules although a few of the cable offerings are set in stone already.
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