Game Day Thoughts

Fifty years ago today, the NFL played their football games. It was only 48 hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Commissioner Pete Rozelle decided to play the games for all of the right reasons. Unfortunately, his decision was wrong.

Manning vs Brady! I always prefer these games to be viewed more like Denver vs. New England. Football is a team sport after all. But, players like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the type of players that make football such a beautiful thing. Two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever fling the pea. Same field. Oh my.

Ponder vs Tolzien! Minnesota vs Green Bay! This is likely the first time since the 1970s that the Vikings might have the edge at quarterback.

Over the past decade the Vikings have shown an incredible knack for making backup quarterbacks look like legends. Chad Hutchinson and Chris Weinke sadly and quickly come to mind. The Vikings had better break this pattern or Scott Tolzien could be a star for a day.

The incredible skills of quarterbacks like Manning, Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees make the drop off to their backups seem even greater. If the Broncos, Patriots, Packers, and Saints lose their starters they will flounder. Those quarterbacks aren't simply starters. They are elite, future first ballot Hall of Famers. The Packers are dealing with the drop from elite to backup now. They are a completely different team without Rodgers. The manner in which the Patriots responded to Matt Cassel in 2008 was incredible and rare. The value of these quarterbacks is the reason for all of the rules preventing pretty much any harassment of them.

The New York Giants and the Carolina Panthers haven't lost a game since taking the field against the Vikings. A combined 10-0. If the Vikings have done anything this year, it's an uncanny ability to make teams feel pretty good about themselves.

I haven't seen a lot of Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater but it looks like he does a nice job of getting the ball to his receivers where they can do something with it. He hits them in stride. He throws them open. I like that.

It looks like only quarterbacks are being considered for the Heisman this year. It's often their award to lose but there's usually a running back, receiver, or defensive player in there somewhere.

My Heisman vote doesn't count. It should but it doesn't. If it did count, it would be for Florida St. quarterback Jameis Winston.

Late season hiccups are always more damaging than those earlier. It's true in the Heisman race and in the BCS standings. It makes sense as the earlier those stumbles occur the more time that a team or a player has to make up for it. A loss is still a loss. Stanford's one real blemish this season is their loss to Utah. It seems forgotten now.

#1 Alabama played Tennessee-Chattanooga. #2 Florida St. played Idaho. There's absolutely no reason for these games to be scheduled in November.

Maybe Alabama and FSU were just trying to give their quarterbacks a Heisman boost in late November.

Georgia Southern defeated Florida, 26-20, without completing a single pass. They only attempted three. 429 yards rushing helps diminish the need to pass.

If I was an Arizona St. football player, I'd transfer as soon as those helmets were pulled from of the box.

116th Big Game! 8th most in college football history.

I didn't think that a 1-10 Cal season could get any worse but a 50-point loss to Stanford did just that. 63-13!

I really don't see how Stanford can have a player on their roster named Jeff Trojan. Come on!

Cal really did their very best to make Stanford receiver Ty Montgomery a superstar. It wasn't so much the four touchdowns that he scored before the game was sixteen minutes old. It was the total ease with which he scored those four touchdowns. Montgomery is a terrific football player but Cal barely put a hand on him.

Montgomery scored his fifth touchdown at the end of the first half. The five touchdowns were a Big Game record. Running backs Lindsay Chapman and Chuck Muncie of Cal and Toby Gerhart of Stanford held the previous record of four. Unlike Montgomery, they used the entire game.

Stanford set another record with 603 total yards.

Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov should have been ejected for his hit on Jared Goff in the second quarter. Launching and leading with the crown of the helmet are the criteria and there was zero doubt that he did both. This allowed Skov the opportunity to knock Goff out of the game later in the second quarter. That hit was clean.

Cal receiver Richard Rodgers turned Goff's last pass into a 62-yard gain. A Cal touchdown would have made this game a game again. Any momentum gained by the big play was lost with the injury to Goff. Zach Kline came in cold and Cal had to settle for a field goal. Stanford was thumping Cal pretty good before that. It was over after that.

Cal did a great job against Stanford's running backs. Until, Tyler Gaffney went 58 yards for a touchdown. Prior to that long scamper, the only running damage was done on a couple of reverses by the superstar, Ty Montgomery.

While Cal kept those backs in check, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan was excellent. He's considered something of a game-manager. He looked like a quarterback and a thrower yesterday. 17 of 26 for 329 yards and five touchdowns. He left the game before the third quarter was done.

Speaking of Stanford's backs, I sure like hearing the name "Barry Sanders" again. Junior is returning punts as a redshirt freshman. I look forward to seeing him run with the ball in the coming years.

Stanford stepped into the Pac-12 Championship game with the Big Game win and Arizona's 42-16 slap down of Oregon. The Arizona players looked like they were all dipped in a vat of red paint.

Cal didn't do a lot of things right this year. 1-11 is fantastic proof of a lot of problems. The biggest issues, for me, were the offensive line and the entire defense. The offensive line was very inexperienced. The defense was simply destroyed by injuries. I've never seen anything like it. Cal was playing with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string players at nearly every position. The good news is that the line gained a lot of painful experience and the defense has the entire offseason to get healthy.

Personally, this has been a brutal football season. Cal and the Minnesota Vikings have three combined wins in 2013. 3! 1984 was the worst that I've ever seen. The Vikings had three. Cal had two. The Vikings have six games to win three.