| Blue View |
White View |
| By Tim Olsen |
By Mark Nance |
| What is the worst 3-0 team in the NFL, and which 0-3 team is the best? |
| Since the San Diego Chargers finally picked up their first win of the season Monday night, I had to take them off my list. The best winless team in the NFL is the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals have an MVP-caliber quarterback in Carson Palmer, two great wide outs and a decent running attack. Three tough losses against Baltimore, Tennessee and the New York Giants (a combined record of 8-0) have put Cincy in a hole, but they should be able to pick up their first win this week against fellow 0-3 Cleveland. Speaking of the Giants, they are the worst 3-0 team in the NFL. After a close, lackluster, Week 1 victory over the Redskins, the G-men pummeled the hapless Rams before edging out the aforementioned winless Bengals with a field goal in overtime. The road doesn’t get much tougher for the defending Super Bowl champs until weeks 8-10 when they travel to Pittsburgh, host Dallas and travel to division rival Philadelphia. |
No matter how much I would like to fight for the St. Louis Rams or the Kansas City Chiefs as being the best 0-3 teams, I can’t. They are the worst and will be lucky to win one game. The Bengals are the best 0-3 team. I doubt they will make the playoffs, but having a decent quarterback and two great receivers (Houshmanzadeh and 8-5) can’t hurt your chances of winning more than the Chiefs and the Rams combined. The Buffalo Bills are the most overrated 3-0 team. The three teams they’ve played have three combined wins and the next two teams they play have one combined win. I hate to say their schedule is easy, but when you’re in the weakest division (thank you, Tom Brady, for getting injured) and you get to play the Rams and Chiefs in the same season, you are bound to make the playoffs. Have I mentioned how bad the Rams and Chiefs are? |
| Thoughts on Diondre Borel’s first start |
| Saturday’s game between the Aggies and Vandals was a big step for the sophomore from Oakley, Calif. Making his first career start in an Aggie uniform, Borel amassed nearly 300 yards of total offense, throwing for two scores and rushing for another. The option seemed to be especially effective, and will be a great addition to the USU’s offensive arsenal. Borel will see better defenses, starting with the Aggies next game against that team to the south of us that will remain unnamed, but it was a great first start. If the offense can continue to function with that type of continuity, a couple more notches will be checked in the win column as the season moves on. |
For starting out so slow, Borel made the Vandals defense look like a joke in the second half. The difference between the two halves was when Borel decided to stay in the pocket to throw and started to run right away when it was a quarterback keeper. In the first half, Borel ran out of the pocket to throw the ball and had some horrible throws, including an interception. In the second half, he stayed in the pocket and didn’t let the pressure push him to scramble. He was smart. He had 92 rushing yards, the best of which was a 33-yard touchdown run and two touchdown throws. He led the offense on several good drives and helped them gain some confidence. If Borel can lead the team like he did against Idaho, we’ll at least score three times on the Cougar defense. Borel was a completely different quarterback when he started, compared to when he went out after helping the Aggies put up 35. Setzer took care of the rest. |
| What happened to the New England Patriots? |
| What goes around comes around. At least that’s probably how the New England Patriots feel after a 38-13 beat down at the hands of the hapless Miami Dolphins. Let’s review this: New England had won their last 21 regular season games. Miami? The Dolphins were just 1-18 in the last two years. None of that mattered Sunday with the Patriots unable to stop the Ronnie Brown show. Brown rushed for not one, not two, not three, but four touchdowns on the day, and decided to throw for another for good measure. When the dust settled at Foxborough, the Patriots were trying to get the taste of life without Tom Brady out of their mouth. The last time New England lost a regular season game? Dec. 10, 2006 – a 21-0 loss to the Miami Dolphins. |
How can you not laugh about this one? I know I could go off on how sad this game must have been for the Patriots, but I would like to take a different cynical stance. Poor Chad Pennington. I will give the man props for being extremely accurate when he throws the ball, but he has never been a quarterback that enjoys the end zone. Ronnie Brewer took over for Chad Pennington, scoring five touchdowns, including a 19-yard touchdown pass. Usually you see the quarterback get the ball in pressure situations, but Brewer was the quarterback on five plays and had five touchdowns. Chad Pennington was traded to the Dolphins after being released from the Jets after they signed Brett Farve. Pennington has played like a washed-up quarterback for the last three seasons, and has now accounted for less than half of the Dolphins touchdowns. My advice: start Brewer as quarterback and you’ll see the Dolphins win. That’s basically what happened Sunday. |
| Was the U.S. Ryder Cup team better off without Tiger Woods? |
| The United States ended nearly a decade-long drought Sunday when they pulled away from the Europeans to win the event for the first time since 1999. Enjoying the familiarity of the bluegrass on the Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky, the U.S. team came away with their largest margin of victory since 1981. Was this team better without Tiger Woods? Hell, no! Tiger is the best golfer in the world, and will most likely be the best golfer ever by the time he’s finished. His performance at this year’s U.S. Open was one of the most amazing sports feats I’ve ever seen and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Props to the Americans for coming together and playing as a team this year, but that’s what the difference was – the Americans had an all-around better team. The best golfer in the world would’ve only added to that. |
Do people still play and watch golf? I thought the season was canceled after Tiger had his surgery. I must be out of the loop. In response to the actual question, who cares? I have never heard of a professional golfer who was well known for his play in the Ryder Cup. The only statistic that matters in golf is how many major championships you win. Tiger Woods understands that aspect. He was probably relieved he didn’t need to participate in the Ryder Cup, because it would have cut into his practice for an actual important tournament. Good for the U.S. for winning. I’m all for the red, white and blue. However, why should I even care about the Ryder Cup when it’s just a bunch of second-rate golfers who don’t even get to play with the best golfer in the world. I hope the players remember their glory of this Ryder Cup while Tiger heals up and prepares his dominance of major championships. |
| Rant |
| We’re only a few weeks into the college football season, and it’s already time to rant about the BCS. Every major sport has a playoff to decide its champion, and it’s time for the NCAA to adopt this system into the FBS (Division I) system. Even the lower divisions in college football know how to properly decide a champion. Four weeks into the college football season and it’s already heading in the direction of a BCS disaster. USC will most likely roll through a weak Pac-10; both the SEC and Big-12 could easily provide an unbeaten team and both the WAC and Mountain West have the potential to sport an unbeaten team. As exciting as the entire season of college football is because of the importance of every game, not much of that excitement will be lost by instituting a playoff format. The BCS needs to adjust and catch up with the rest of the sports world. Take the top 16 teams in the BCS standings and let the players decide who’s best – not computer stats and a bunch of guys in suits. |
Why in the world do teams start rookie quarterbacks? The unbeaten Baltimore Ravens are not going to stay undefeated for long. Joe Flacco is a good reason not to start rookie quarterbacks. His projected stats for the year are 16 interceptions with no touchdowns. He has a quarterback rating of 55 and he is likely to be the starter for the rest of the year. Do I smell another Alex Smith or John Beck? When you start quarterbacks their first year, they never seem to make it very far. Almost all of the legends had a couple of years to learn from another. Steve Young, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, Tom Brady and Brett Farve all got to watch and learn in the beginning. Too bad they give some rookies $33 million guaranteed. That’s not a bad paycheck for being benched after a couple of games. Good luck Flacco. Hopefully you’ll be able to get that elusive first touchdown. |
