Off week?

Every great team has a week where they don't look like themselves... I thought that this would be the week for the greatest Pick'em group as well, but many folks took the lemons of a harsh schedule and made tasty lemon bars with powdered sugar. Or something...

In the 'real' world, though, there were lots of potholes and construction sites on the road to the BCS Championship game... Many of the top teams did not play well at all.

• Like the police in Smokey and the Bandit, West Virginia's hopes ended in Louisville on Thursday night, where it was proven that there is no D in "Big LEast". Hopefully, though, they enjoyed the lovely parting gifts.
• Um, is there a trend here? PJs other favorite team put a scare into #2 Michigan, and Ball State lost due to a no call on pass interference in the endzone. Personnally, I thought that UM being pushed by Letterman's alma mater was kind of humorous, but I can see how people would feel otherwise.
• The Zooks looked like they were who we thought they were until the second half, when Tressel-ball turned the offense into mashed potatoes. While the defense played well, I can easily say that there were more than a few tOSU fans who were pulling a Paterno as the game wore on. But, the IlliBuck stays in Columbus.
  
• Speaking of JoePa, his knee was injured during PSU's loss to Wisconsin. As the film showed his leg being bent backward by the player sliding into the sideline, a sensitive internet pundit wrote,

Joe Paterno just about lost his leg below the knee when a player's helmet directly collided with it. The whole thing bent backwards, and he's still on the sidelines, looking no more irritated than he does on a day-to-day basis. You know who else can take a complete inversion of the kneecap? Corpses.

• Wisconsin proved why the new clock rules suck, by intentionally going offsides on kickoffs in order to take up more time. Remember, the clock starts when the ball is kicked, so any time that elapses is just gone when they assess the penalty and kick again.
  
• Florida looked shakey against Vanderbilt, which (I'm afraid to say) had more to do with Leak's turnovers than the Commodore defense.
• The team that Nebraska almost beat kicked the stuffing out of the team that beat Nebraska handily. Oh, what might have been.
• PACE couldn't keep pace with Assumption, losing 19-0. Too many assumptions, I guess.
  
• Anderson dropped yet another close one to Hanover College. Ouch. It's almost over, Joe... Hang on.
  

There were some good things, though...

• Kentucky upset Georgia. Hooray!! UK is almost elligible to go and get their brains beat in at a bowl game!
• Mississippi State beat Alabama at Alabama. Huh- I wonder if they can stay in the SEC now?
• ABC settled an argument for me. Since it's November, ABC has decided to start airing the 12:30 game out here instead of Hannah Montana. This week we got regional coverage. All this time, I thought I lived on the West Coast. What region are we in? Whatever region includes Penn State and Wisconsin. So, we didn't get to see...
  
• Nebraska defeat Mizzou, and put themselves in the driver's seat for another loss to Texas in the Big 12 championship. Go Huskers! And remember, "bugeaters" is better than "booger eaters"
  
• Miami is now 5-4. Five. And. Four. And they say there's no God.
• Notre Dame fans have something new to gripe about- "Why isn't Brady Quinn a Heisman frontrunner?" Hey, here's an answer- Because his great stats this week came against a team that has one win, and that one was to a 1-AA school. Also- it's not impressive that you have a team with no defense, so you have to continue to throw the ball to be sure that your team will win.
  

While it didn't turn out to be our best week ever, it also wasn't our worst. Again, on Friday this looked like a nightmare week, with only a couple of sure thing games. But, the worst we finished was 5-5, and most of our group was 7-3. Here's how it ended up:
Whoops- Emily joins Cat and Amanda in the "forgot to pick" category. Ah well, I guess our days of limited chirophobia are over.

Points wise, we did pretty well. You would have thought that our leaders would have lost more than just 6 points with such a difficult list of options.

Fror the record, aTm's and Tennesee's inability to play short yardage defense in the 4th quarter cost me from going 9-1 and only dropping 3 points. But, in the Aggie's defense, Oklahoma cheated ala USC last year (what? no replay??) Again, the world of "could have been"- I'm glad the Vols found something to party about.

With three weeks to go, here's how our points and picks line up:

Umm, Jake? You know how your wife didn't submit any picks this week? She's still beating you. I'm just sayin'...

Off topic, I would draw your attention to what looks like a great football film. It doesn't come out until December 22, but you can check out the main site here: We Are Marshall. As someone who has connections to West Virginia, this story is something that combines some of my favorite things. One note, though- this movie about a plane crash also stars Matthew Fox. Let's just say that if I see him on one of my flights from LAX, I'm going to leave the plane before takeoff.

Another great week, starting with yet another matchup of undefeateds on Thursday, as Louisville and Rutgers square off. The Zooks look to continue their successes against Purdue, while Auburn hopes it doesn't lose to a team that Kentucky defeated. The Wildcats host Vanderbilt, and toOSU looks to take Texas revenge on Baylor. It's a battle of "it's all relative" jokes when Tennessee and Arkansas meet, while tOSU travels back to Illinois to meet Northwestern. We'll see if Carrie is still talking to Todd after Nebraska faces the 12th man, and Brady Quinn pads his stats against Air Force (Are you freaking kidding me with this schedule?). The PAc 10's ugliest uniforms travel to meet the largest bunch of bandwagon fans as Oregon and USC play, while Stanford and Washington just try to stay out of each other's way.

Triple Small School Games of the Week!

Anderson and Manchester renew their storied rivalry in the Bronze Ball Game- I still haven't heard what this is about. Hopefully, Joe will be able to send us a recap of the Ravens' season... If he does, it will be posted immediately (after the word "asscrippling" is edited out).

In Crawfordsville, it's the 113th meeting of DePauw University and the Little Giants of Wabash College, and the 75th for the Monon Bell. Most known for the elaborate attempts to steal the trophy, this is one of the oldest rivalries in the nation. This year, it will be broadcast entirely on HDNet, thanks to a partnership between Mark Cuban (yup, that one) and DePauw.

Finally, in my favorite ridiculously named universities game of the year, California of Pennsylvania's Vulcans face off against Indiana of Pennsylvania, coached by Rutgers alum and former Fighting Illini Lou Tepper. Little known fact- the loser of this game has to change it's name to indicate that the other school 'owns' it; so potentially, next year's freshmen could be enrolling at Indiana's California of Pennsylvania.