Game Day Thoughts

The Minnesota Vikings haven't won in Chicago since 2007 when then rookie running back Adrian Peterson went other-worldly with 224 yards. It wasn't just the numbers in his performance. It was what he did in those 224 yards. A few weeks later, Peterson would run for an NFL record 296 yards. His 224 yards in Chicago was the more dominant performance. Here's hoping for some more today.

Minnesota-Chicago, Washington-Green Bay, Denver-New York Giants, San Francisco-Seattle. My goodness. There are some terrific football games today. WooHoo! Football is fun.

College Football. I was disappointed that I couldn't find the Stanford-Army game on any of the hundreds of sports channels that I have. College football at Michie Stadium. Priceless.

It was a special moment when Rutgers retired the #52 worn by Eric LeGrand.

Cal's defense is not good.

Ohio St took apart that defense.

One of the things that worried me when Cal hired Sonny Dykes was the all offense, no defense pattern of his teams. Up tempo offenses put a lot of stress on the opponents defense. It also puts a lot of stress on your own defense. Bringing in a new coaching staff is a process. I think that Cal has some nice defensive players so there's potential for a nice Bears defense. They're far from that right now. Biting on fakes. Missed tackles. I think that they'll get there. It took years for Oregon to finally field a defense that worried opponents. Hopefully, Cal can do it faster.

Cal's offense is a lot of fun.

Daniel Lasco ran well for Cal. With Lasco, Brendan Bigelow, and Khalfani Muhhamad, Cal has a real nice batch of backs.

If Cal could have stopped Ohio St. on fourth down plays it might have been a different game. Ohio St went for it on fourth down four times. They were successful four times. They scored four touchdowns. Ouch.

Almost as bad as the 52-34 loss to the Buckeyes was the excessive amount of red in Memorial Stadium.

All the talk yesterday was Alabama-Texas A&M.

Hey Seattle, the 12th Man is in College Station. Always has been. Always will be.

Johnny Manziel is an exciting little sucker.

Manziel really had the Alabama defense on it's heels to start the game. He was just playing catch with receiver Mike Evans. 14-0 early. AJ McCarron and the Alabama defense eventually settled down and it was all Alabama.

Until, Texas A & M came whistling back.

Alabama scored on a flea flicker. Nice name.

I loved the little delayed cut that Alabama's Vinny Sunseri pulled on his 73-yard interception return on to send Manziel diving for air.

Alabama is usually loaded in the secondary. They seem to be in a restocking year.

But, they still have safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. I would love to see Ha Ha next to Harrison Smith in the Vikings secondary next year. HaHaHa!

Speaking of Clinton-Dix. That was a horrible personal foul call against him yesterday. At least the replay booth saw it right and removed the ejection portion of the targeting infraction.

Sports Illustrated is really frying Oklahoma St.'s football program. If even a quarter of the tales are true, it's as bad as the renegade days at SMU and Miami.

The Matthews family presence in football is greater than that of the Manning family. At least in numbers. The patriarch of the family, Clay Matthews Sr. played defensive line for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1950s. Sons, Clay Matthews Jr. played linebacker for the Cleveland Browns and Bruce Matthews was a Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. Clay sent linebacker playing sons, Clay III and Casey, to the NFL. Bruce has his sons playing on the offensive line for Texas A&M. Jake will be a top pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Mike likely will be in a couple of years. Teenager Luke is sure to follow.

A ball thrown by Louisville quarterback looks a lot like a ball thrown by Warren Moon or Jeff George. It's pretty. Louisville has had several great college quarterbacks in recent years. Chris Redman, Dave Ragone, Brian Brohm. None of those terrific college throwers did much in the NFL. Bridgewater looks like one that will.

Michigan almost had another Appalachian St. on their hands.

Most had the Pac-12 title coming down to a fight between Stanford and Oregon. UCLA looks great. If Bridgewater is the best quarterback in college football, Brett Hundley isn't far behind. Only a sophomore.

Oregon's uniforms were ridiculous. They weren't bad last week so I had some hope that the Duck's fashion sense had improved. I was so wrong.

Go Vikings!