HarleyQuinn

Two I-AA teams choked in the waning minutes/quarter as Western Illinois lost to Arkansas 28-24 and UC Davis lost to San Jose State. Also Northern Illinois choked and lost to Minnesota... very disappointed that none of those games were won by the losers (esp. the WI game because WI is ranked #25 in I-AA and Arkansas has Petrino on board).

— Eliminating the 5-yard penalties for incidental face masks. Only the 15-yard penalty for grabbing and twisting the mask will be enforced. In addition, officials will be on the lookout for offensive players who latch on to the face masks of defenders in an effort to take them out of plays. Finally! I've always thought it was unfair that a RB could not only grab a defender's facemask in a "stiff arm" (A real Payton stiff arm would be squarely on the helmet shoving him aside like the peon the defender is) but basically do a yank and throw forcing the defender to the ground and not get called. Same goes for offensive linemen utilizing such methods on blitzers/defensive linemen.

#7, #9, and #10 teams in the pre-season rankings all lost while #2 beat #1 and #6 beat #4. Should create some interesting results for the season ahead if such a trend keeps up.

Bobby Reid and Texas Southern are playing on ESPNU at 10:30 PM ET for those interested (and who get the channel). They're going up against Prarie View A&M. I also admit that I'm a huge, huge fan of ESPNU showing more FCS games this year too (Saw an ad for a game featuring Delaware State for next Thursday). Score of Note: Western Illinois leading Arkansas 3-0 with 12:50 in the 2nd. Gotta salvage pride somehow.

#17 Virginia Tech gets upset... awesome. I despise Frank Beamer (Guy just looks smarmy...) and this is my fav. game result of the first week.

Sadly, App. State got slaughtered but Armanti Edwards was really solid given the pass rush he faced (and his receivers were of zero help. I counted at least 6-7 drops total and some would've been key first downs).

Delaware has Rob Schoenhoft, the transfer starting at QB so that should be an interesting game to watch for that story.

That'd work for me and be fun too.

LSU's season-opener against Appalachian State on Saturday has been moved to 11 a.m. ET because of the approach of Tropical Storm Gustav. "Public safety concerns override game-day concerns," said Charles Zewe, chief spokesman for the LSU System, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The defending BCS national champion Tigers had been scheduled to face Appalachian State at 4 p.m. ET. The school said that there is a possibility of a Saturday night evacuation, which would have enormous traffic implications if LSU stayed with a 4 p.m. ET kickoff. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal already has declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance, and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said he would order a mandatory evacuation of the city if forecasters predict a Category 3 strike -- or possibly even a Category 2 -- within 72 hours. All pregame activities already have been canceled, including those at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which is being readied as a possible evacuation site.

Early FCS Offensive Spotlight RB Kyle Minett (South Dakota State): 22 carries for 111 yards and 1 TD. 5 catches for 15 yards vs. Iowa State. QB Bodie Reeder (Eastern Illinois): 19/28 for 201 yards and 1 TD vs. 0 INT vs. Central Michigan. QB Nick Mertens (North Dakota State): 16/18 for 304 yards and 3 TD vs. 1 INT vs. Austin Peay.

Notable FCS (I-AA) Results... Southeast Missouri State b. Southwest Baptist 35-28 in OT. #22 Central Arkansas b. Henderson State 38-14. #2 North Dakota State b. Austin Peay 41-6. That QB fella named Rhett Bomar led Sam Houston State to a 58-14 romping of East Central. Curious to see how improved Rhett is this year over last. Ryan Perilloux struggled (to put it kindly) as Jacksonville State still lost to Georgia Tech 41-14. - Numbers: 22/37 for 136 yards with 2 TD vs. 2 INT. 18 Carries for 67 Yards.

Some surprising scores right now in I-AA land. SE Missouri St. is losing to SW Baptist 21-12 with 7:00 left in the 3rd Quarter. Drake is in a battle with Upper Iowa despite leading 17-13 with 6:22 left in the 3rd.

The scoring system is heavily weighted towards the QB on yards and the RB overall (WR are virtually useless). I'd play it match up by match up with McNabb and Kitna. I'd also start Addai and Jacobs along with Hines Ward and Chambers (both should be better options at getting 5+ catches a week). Toss up between VD and LJ Smith. Just go with your gut there. Remember: It's easier to overthink an option rather than going with your gut.

What're your starting requirements/league scoring?

The Titans are the NFL equivalent of say the mid 90's Penn State college teams. Very good run game, good to great defense, average passing when called upon, and generally boring to watch. I will say that Chris Johnson is exciting to watch because the guy is just so fast (think watching Deion Sanders) and I think a tandem of LenDale White getting 20 carries to wear down the D while CJ gets 10-15 carries to burn people will result in a fair amount of victories. The big question is whether we see rookie Vince Young or the 9 TD vs. 17 INT Vince Young. Projection: 9-7 with an upside of 11-5 if Vince limits his mistakes and gets a 2:1 TD to INT ratio.

Quick FCS Spotlight for tomorrow's games. #18 Eastern Illinois @ Central Michigan #20 Eastern Kentucky @ Cincinnati #19 South Dakota State @ Iowa State (Airing on FCS Central) Also of note is Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech (Airing on ESPN 360) and Charleston Southern @ Miami (Airing on ESPN 360). Hofstra @ Connecticut is airing on SNY. The only game featuring a Top 15 team is Austin Peay @ #2 North Dakota State.

Created This Post: http://dh523.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/nfl-coaching-trees/ I made a list of coaches with the head coaches they served under (Really wanted a deeper study after seeing "trees" for Bill Walsh, Belichick, etc.) So with Bill Walsh you could get - Dennis Green - Mike Holmgren - Ray Rhodes - George Seifert - Sam Wyche Under George Seifert (SF and Carolina) you could get - Jack Del Rio - Jeff Fisher - Jon Gruden - Mike Holmgren - Gary Kubiak - Ray Rhodes - Mike Shanahan

Well... Miami at the time was 1-14 and the Pats had 400 yards of total offense. Considering they won the first game 49-28, it's a little surprising to see they didn't pour it on. Although of note, the first Miami game did have Ronnie Brown (17-76 with 5-33). The fact you mentioned the un-atypical scoring last year is partly why I'm concerned for the upcoming year. When the defense falters at all, they struggle to put up enough offense to out score the opposition by a big enough margin thus keeping the opponents in the game until the very end. 2007 @ Indianapolis: 24-20 Win (Pats score 14 in 4th after being down 13-10 entering the quarter) vs. Philadelphia: 31-28 (Tied at 28 entering the 4th) @ Baltimore: 27-24 (Pats score 10 in 4th after being tied at 17 entering the quarter) vs. New York Jets: 20-10 (Only up 17-7 at the half. Put up only 3 points after...in the 4th quarter. Jets score a TD at all in the 3rd and it's 17-14) @ New York Giants: 38-35 (Down 28-23 entering 4th quarter. Pats score 15 points to the Giants' 7) Playoffs vs. San Diego: 21-12 (Only up 14-12 entering the 4th quarter) vs. New York Giants: 14-17 (Score to go ahead in 4th quarter. Lose game on final drive) All of the above games (7) came after Week 9. That's with the offense being the "Vikings '98" reborn too! IMO, there's no way that the Patriots can storm the league and put up the offensive firepower they did last year so that means that they'll be in a lot more games like the above where they have to: Score in the 4th quarter and shut down through defense or come back in the 4th quarter to win. That's why a lot of these people acting like a 13-3 or 14-2 record wouldn't be crazy is surprising to me. The Patriots are the team to beat but not only can they be beaten... a lot of their games come down to the final quarter and given some of the opponents this season, I don't think they'll be able to pull out all of these close games like they did last year. Sorry for sidetracking this into Pats Talk Central... just enjoy looking at the angles.

Only taking into account the divsion here, New England completely demolished all three divsion foes in nearly every game last year (the closest was a 20-10 victory against the Jets in Week 15), including beating the Bills by a combined 94-17. The Jets have improved, but I still think the Bills and Dolphins are fairly comfortable wins. Largely agreed although if the Patriots mirror their 2006 season (385 PF vs. 237 PA), they could have a few tough games. That year they beat Buffalo 19-17, the Jets 24-17, Miami 20-10, Buffalo again 28-6, lost to the Jets 17-14, and lost to Miami 21-0. They also went 12-4 that season too (with a better defense than last year PA wise). I'm not so much concerned with the idea that New England will lose 2-3 games to AFC East opponents but more concerned with games being battles similar to the above scores. If New England lets Miami or the Jets stay in the game (i.e. down by a FG or a TD) then there could be a surprise or two in the final score. I guess I'm weighing the idea that they score 30+ easy vs. the idea that just two years ago they were winning games by a TD or less. See the win over the Jets (20-10) and the 28-7 win over a 1-15 Dolphins team that was in complete disarray last season (Starting Cleo Lemon and using Lorenzo Booker/Jesse Chatman as their tandem RB).

Not to mention they went 10-6 way back in... 2005. Miami went 9-7, Buffalo went 5-11, and Jets went 4-12. In 2006, they went 12-4 and lost games to Miami (6-10) and the Jets (10-6). I just don't see the offense being as insanely good as it was last year (A large reason they went 18-1). Again, I'm expecting them to win 11-12 games but I'm not ignoring the fact that with bad breaks, they could get down to 10-6 or 9-7 (If teams like the Jets and Bills explode to 8-8+ records). Also: Buffalo went 7-9 (252 vs. 354) and the Jets went 4-12 (268 vs. 355). With a few breaks, the Jets could have been at 6-10 or 7-9 as well. I think the Pats will be surprised by a team or two in the AFC East and lose those games. Also people are forgetting that teams like Indianapolis (missing Marvin Harrison), Philadelphia (Starting AJ Feeley), and the Giants (Gimpy Plaxico Burress) put the Patriots to the test anyway.

In regards to the 9 win statement that's largely because as "easy" as their schedule is, there are a lot of tough games for them too (especially midway through the year). Granted, it was more in reference to injuries piling up, etc. but they play the following tough teams... New York Jets (twice. Should be more of a challenge with Favre at QB. Second game is a Thursday after a Bills game) San Diego Chargers on the road Denver Broncos at home Indianapolis Colts on the road (This and the prior 2 opponents are all in a 4 week span) Buffalo Bills (twice including final regular season game away. Won 7 games last year with a piss poor offense which should be somewhat improved) Pittsburgh Steelers at home in week 13 which should be the start of playoff implications Seattle Seahawks (On the road a week after Pittsburgh at home) Oakland Raiders on the road (Tough defense and if the offense can improve at all, they could be a surprise). Think the Baltimore game last year. I wouldn't exactly call their schedule a push over or anything nor would I say they have an easy 12+ wins there. The AFC East is always a dog fight and I can see the Pats losing 2-3 to out of conference teams and get surprised by 1-2 in conference games. That'd give them a record of 11-5 or 12-4. Keep in mind that last year they could've gone 13-3 (If they had lost to Baltimore, Philly, and the Giants in week 17). I think the AFC East teams have improved for the most part and won't be the cake walk they were last year, outside of maybe Miami and they have Pennington in at QB as well along with the return of Ricky Williams at RB.

New England Patriots I'm confident they'll finish with 10-11 wins but honestly, would not be surprised to see them win only 9 games. The offensive line has been struggling (partly injuries and overall health concerns) while the rest of the offense seems to also be battling injuries here and there. Tom Brady should be healthy for the opener (as should Welker) but both will be overcoming injuries and will be trying to run an offense behind an offensive line that hasn't been impressing greatly. The backup QB job is also questionable and I'm a little worried what'll happen if Brady does go down because Cassell has looked inconsistent and Gutierrez/O'Connell are either a bit raw or guesses at this point in time. I'm pleased with the RB depth with Maroney, Faulk, Morris (and possibly Jordan) and am curious to see how Jordan gets used if he's kept as he's probably the most versatile of the group. Of course, their success all depends on the O-Line's ability to push. The defense should be solid but the secondary is a basically a mish-mash of decent veterans and rookies (Terence Wheatley). Harrison and Lynch will be rotating around at safety (more so Lynch given his age) but this will all place emphasis on the D-Line and LB crew making plays with the recent injury to Tank Williams and the blossoming depth issue now. I do like the LB crew with the slow (but solid) emergence of both Pierre Woods and Jerod Mayo who should help Bruschi and Vrabel in terms of rest. The D-Line is solid and probably the deepest position on that side of the ball but I'm curious if they'll be able to stop the run before the linebackers need to make the tackle 3-4 yards back. Overall Thoughts: Likely 10-6 or 11-5 (maybe 12-4 given their "easier" schedule this year). Could see 9-7 if things break badly.

All I want is App. State to score more than 17 points... and Armanti Edwards to run for one if possible.

With college football starting Thursday... It appears that Bo Levi Mitchell will be the starting QB for SMU with Braden Smith as the #2.

THURSDAY Vanderbilt at Miami of Ohio N.C. State at South Carolina Oregon State at Stanford SATURDAY Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina (at Charlotte) Syracuse at Northwestern Ohio at Wyoming Utah at Michigan Oklahoma State vs. Washington State (at Seattle) TCU at New Mexico Northern Illinois at Minnesota - Go Jerry Kill! Memphis at Mississippi Alabama vs. Clemson (at Atlanta) Michigan State at California Illinois vs. Missouri (at St. Louis) Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Illinois/Missouri game? 62 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Clemson's James Davis have against Alabama? 119