Two important Big 12 non-conference games and Colorado makes plans for the ski season

Another nail was driven into the coffin of Dan Hawkins Thursday night as his Colorado team dropped to 1-3 in non conference play after a 35-24 loss to West Virginia.  The Mountaineers ran all over the Buffs for 220 yards. Hawkins had stated “10 wins no excuses” before the season.  His team would have to run the table, win the Big 12 and a bowl game to do that now.

Before the conference games go into full swing next week, there are still a couple of interesting Non-con games this weekend.  Let’s focus on a couple of them, first Oklahoma.  The Sooners have rebounded fro their season opening loss to BYU to win two in a row and blank both opponents.

Freshman QB Landry Jones has filled in nicely for the injured Sam Bradford, but this week the talent level is a step higher in Miami and the game is on the road.  The Hurricanes are licking their wounds after a tail whipping in Blacksburg at the hands of Virginia Tech.  A week removed from a top ten ranking, they re looking for redemption.

Sooner coach Bob Stoops has already ruled Bradford out as starter Saturday, but he might be available for emergency duty.  Oklahoma gets a chance with this game toprove whether or not they’re still national championship contenders or a step down on the next rung of the ladder.  It’ll be interesting to see how Jones responds in a hostile environment, but I’m picking the Sooners.  they’ve had two weeks to prepare for this one.

Texas A&M is a surprising 3-0 and tangles with Arkansas Saturday night in the new Cowboys stadium in Dallas.  This would be the most impressive win in Mike Sherman’s tenure at College Station even though the Razorbacks haven’t performed up tho expectations so far this year.  They’re 1-2, with losses to Georgia and Alabama. 

The Aggies have averaged 244 yards rushing against a fairly weak schedule to date.  They’ll need to pound it against Arkansas and keep the ball out of the hands of Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.  Mallett has thrown the ball for almost 300 yards per game and put 41 points on the board in the loss to the Bulldogs.  I think we’ll see a lot of points Saturday night and Arkansas will find a way to win in the end against an Aggie defense that won’t be able to slow Mallett down..

It's a race to the bottom in the NFL

We’re only three weeks into the season, but it appears that we’re far enough along to issue our first ruling on who is the worst team in the NFL.  This of course can change, much like your luck on the roulette wheel.  In fact, it will undoubtedly feature several contenders throughout the season.  But for the moment I’m going to give your my bottom five, in reverse order.

No.5 is a tie between the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders.  I know, a week ago the Lions would be number one with a bullet, but hey, they won a game by beating Washington, they’ve got the number one draft pick in Matt Stafford at QB, a new coach and a one game winning streak.  

Oakland on the other hand has a win, but it was against the Chiefs and I still can’t figure out how it occurred.  They have quite possibly the worst starting quarterback ever.  JaMarcus Russell may have grown up throwing footballs through a swinging tire, but I’m not sure he can hit the ground behind the tire, much less hit the hole.

No.4, the Cleveland Browns. First they hired Eric Mangini to coach them, now it appears he’s already lost control of them before the end of September.

No. 3 is Kansas City.  Actually, these last three are like splitting hairs.  There’s not much to separate them.  The Chiefs have a terrible offensive line that makes running the ball impossible and throwing it a safety hazard for QB Matt Cassel.  They also have the Giants, Cowboys, Redskins and Chargers for their next four opponents, so they could claim the lead here in the next couple of weeks.

No. 2 goes to the Tampa Bay Bucaneers.  Tampa had just 86 yards in total offense while being shutout by the Giants last weekend.  Byron Leftwhich has been dumped as QB and second year player Josh Johnson takes over. These Bucs bring back memories of John McKay’s first teams in Tampa.  When asked about his team’s offensive execution he said “I’m in favor of it.”.   Raheem Morris can relate.

No. 1 is the St. Louis Rams.  They’ve lost 13 straight games, taking over for the Lions for the longest streak in the NFL.  They’ve only won five games since 2006 and they have a starting QB who is likely sidelined this week with a shoulder injury.  It’s doubtful it would matter.  He doesn’t have anybody to throw to that can actually get open.

It’s still early, so the race to the bottom is still wide open. 

Bye week comes at good time for Jayhawks

Kansas gets a week to rest up from the non conference schedule and a week of off the field controversy to begin preparation and focus on the conference race and a shot at the Big 12 North title.  The Jayhawks don’t play again until they host Iowa State on October 10th.

The Hawks upped their record to 4-0 and number 18 in the national rankings with their victory over a tough Southern Mississippi squad in Lawrence.  While the offense piled up yardage and 35 points in the victory, it was the defense that deserves much of the credit for the win.

With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, the Kansas defense came up with stops on four consecutive Golden Eagle possessions.  First, Ryan Murphy picked off an Austin Davis pass, then the Jayhawks forced a three and out.  Next, they allowed one first down before a punt and then on the final Southern Miss possession, Jake Laptad had a sack and they held on fourth down.

While the Kansas team gave up almost 400 yards and 330 through the air, they came up with stops when they needed against a good offensive team.  Defensive back Chris Harris has 15 tackles, two for loss.  They held an outstanding running back in Damion Fletcher to 27 yards and the Golden Eagles to 64 total on the ground.

The most promising thing about the offense in my mind was the fact the running game was outstanding with Jake Sharp on the sidelines.  Freshman Toben Opurum had 109 yards on the ground and delivered punishing blows repeatedly to tacklers.  He also added a touchdown reception.  

Sharp gets an extra two weeks to rest his leg injury and be back at full speed for conference play and when he returns, Kansas has a thunder and lightning running combo that will be tough to handle. 

With Iowa State first up in conference play, Mark Mangino has time to work on the offensive scheme and fine tune the line which allowed five sacks by Southern Miss.  Game time has been set for this contest.  It will be another morning kick, 11:30 on Versus.

It's only week three but Chiefs are looking up from the bottom of the barrel

When you look back at the Chiefs loss to the Eagles, it’s easy to say that Kansas City isn’t nearly as talented as Philly is.  That was obvious, even with Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook missing from the Eagles lineup.

The offensive line was manhandled and committed costly penalties.  The wide receiver corps was without Dwayne Bowe, but it really didn’t matter much.  The running game offers little get excited about, although Jamaal Charles had a couple of nice runs called back on penalties, including a touchdown run.

The Chiefs defense showed gaping holes over the middle in their pass defense for the second week in a row.  That’s players still not understanding where they should be on the field.  The defense committed some costly penalties in bad situations as well and didn’t apply any pressure on Kevin Kolb.

For most fans there was little to cling to and coach Todd Haley admitted as much after the game.  Monday when meeting with the media, he reiterated his quote of two weeks ago that the Chiefs margin of error is not great and he didn’t know that it would change much this season.  He included coaching in that analysis.

Haley said he thought his team was prepared a week ago and disappointed with the way they responded in the game, but he won’t change his approach and will continue to preach discipline.  He said the team can’t let anything slide.

Offensively, the Chiefs repeatedly put themselves in deep holes, something they can’t do.  Two first and 20 situations, six, 2nd and 12 plus plays and 0-11 on third down conversions.  Despite those numbers, Haley said after watching tape four times since the games conclusion, the game should have been competitive. 

The conservative second half ground game, while trailing by 20, seemed to have two objectives.  First, to simplify the game plan from all the information overload that seemed to be confusing some of the players.  Second, show the players that there are times you have to impose your will on an opponent and run no matter what.

Rookie linebacker Jovan Belcher saw some time with the defense in the second half and Haley said he expects he’ll see more as the staff has been impressed with this effort.  Haley also said changes will continue.  It’s not gonna stay the same when these are the results.  That won’t be accepted.

Chiefs mauled in Philly 34-14

The Eagles thoroughly dominated KC on both sides of the ball on the way to a  34-14 victory in Philly.  Despite missing Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook, the Eagles mixed the use of QB Kevin Kolb and a wildcat offense run by Michael Vick and LeSean McCoy effectively.  

Philly’s first score came on a 48 yard drive as the rookie McCoy pounded in from 5 yards out on a direct snap from the wildcat formation. 

Next possession, Kolb hit DeSean Jackson, who had a huge day, for a 43 yard gain to the KC 20.  Three plays later Kolb sneaked in from the one and it was 14-0 Philly.  It was the 7th time in 7 tries the Chiefs opponent had scored a TD when reaching the red zone. 

The Chiefs couldn’t do anything against the Eagles in the opening quarter, producing zero total yards, but don’t put it on QB Matt Cassel, he had no time to think in the backfield as the line was repeatedly overrun and committed penalties and it didn’t stop there.

KC finally got on the board thanks to Mark Bradley.  First, he threw his first career pass to Jamaal Charles for a 26 yard gain.  Then he out leaped Ellis Hobbs in the end zone for a 13 yard score on a perfect throw from Matt Cassel. 

The momentum lasted one play.  Desean Jackson went 64 yards on a slant pass from Kolb, beating Jerrod Page and it was 21-7 Eagles.

David Akers added a pair of field goals to stretch the lead to 27-7 in the second half.

Michael Vick wasn’t a real factor in the game.  He was 0 for 2 passing and had seven yards on one carry, but Kolb was solid with 327 yards through the air. 149 of that went to Jackson and eight other passes went to tight end Brent Celek who had a 35 yard TD reception in the fourth quarter to make it 34-7. Celek had 104 yards receiving.  

The Chiefs defense was repeatedly burnt with passes over the middle and the offense rarely gave Cassel any time to pass and committed seven penalties, Cassel finished with 90 yards in the air, but was 14 of 18 with two TD’s and no interceptions.  He was sacked three times.

Cassel finally got a 9 yard TD pass to Bobby Wade with 1:54 to go for the 34-14 final.  The Chiefs now comes back home to KC to face a Giants team that dominated Tampa on the road 24-0.  It’s going to get worse before it gets better.