Game Day Thoughts

Even in the best of times, facing the Saints in New Orleans is a tough task. These aren't the best of times for the Minnesota Vikings. They have been reeling from distracting off-the-field developments in the past week. They are also coming off of a thorough thumping by the New England Patriots last week in their home opener. The Saints are coming into their own home opener today in a foul mood. A preseason Super Bowl pick by many, the Saints have opened the season with an overtime loss to the division rival Atlanta Falcons and a last second loss to the Cleveland Browns. They are close to being 2-0 but the standings show 0-2. The closeness of those games matter little right now.

The Vikings can win this game!

The Minnesota Vikings filled their open roster spot yesterday. That was the spot that was
unfortunately vacated by Adrian Peterson. They signed receiver Charles Johnson off of the Cleveland Browns practice squad. He was originally a seventh round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2013 out of Grand Valley State. At 6'2" and 215 lbs, he's got a nice blend of size and speed. He clocked a 4.38 in the 40-yard dash at his Pro Day before the 2013 NFL Draft. Johnson was part of some controversy last season. The Packers had stashed him on their practice squad hoping to develop him from small school, raw receiving talent into an impact player. His experience and knowledge just had to catch up with his natural ability. Before any of that could happen, the Browns signed him to their roster in October. Packers head coach Mike McCarthy wasn't too pleased with the transaction. He felt that the player was stolen from his team. If the Packers really wanted to keep and develop Johnson, they should have placed him on injured reserve. Unknown to anyone outside of Green Bay, especially the Browns, was that Johnson had a torn ACL. The Browns discovered that injury in a physical. The Browns offensive coordinator last season was current Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner. Even if Johnson couldn't play in Turner's system last season due to his injury he was learning that system. That probably gave him a little bit of an edge over other players that the Vikings might have been considering. Johnson may not have any regular season game experience but he does have a lot of intriguing natural ability. The Packers have a terrific record of developing receivers over recent years and they were appeared to be intrigued by Johnson. Now, the Vikings have him. They also have a Charles Johnson and a Charlie Johnson. One weighs about 100 lbs more than the other so there shouldn't be much confusion.

There are some terrific games today and tomorrow night. The highlight for most is likely the Super Bowl rematch. The Denver Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. I expect this game to be much closer than the game last February.

Other terrific games:

San Diego at Buffalo
Washington at Philadelphia
San Francisco at Arizona
Pittsburgh at Carolina
Chicago at New York Jets

I like the visiting teams in all but the last one.

Some college thoughts:

For the third year, I'm left to the radio for Cal games. Since the debut of the Pac-12 Network I've had Cal television silence for many of the games. Including the Big Game! Directv refuses to accept the terms of Pac-12 conference. Terms most cable and satellite providers find perfectly acceptable. Directv can suck it!

The game that I couldn't see. Cal visiting Arizona. Both teams entered the game undefeated. Cal at 2-0. Arizona at 3-0. Arizona left the game with a win on a Hail Mary 47-yard touchdown to end the game. 49-45. Arizona's only lead was with no time on the clock.

Arizona scored 19 points in the last 3:30.

Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon attempted 73 passes. I'd never listened to a game in which a quarterback has thrown 73 passes. I haven't seen one either.

Cal has scored on their first possession in each of their three games. They start the games great. They really have to learn how to finish them. They had a big lead against Northwestern in the first game of the season and hung on to win. They had a big lead against Arizona last night and couldn't hold that lead. Cal's most time consuming scoring drive of the game was 75 yards in 2:48. Most teams can easily chew up 6-7 minutes on a drive of that distance.

Cal's first two possessions last night ended in touchdowns. Quickly ended in touchdowns. The first possession consisted of three plays for 75 yards. It took 43 seconds. Their second drive was one play for 80 yards. 13 seconds. I have nothing against big plays but Cal's offense, and any hurry-up offense, does their defense no favors. They are on the field a lot. Cal's defense has played well early in games. They held Arizona to only 6 points in first half. The defense looked helpless most of the second half.
Cal has to learn how to shift gears and slow down and control the game. They ran for 193 yards and couldn't chew up the clock. That doesn't even seem possible.

The two teams combined for 1200 yards. Rough night for the defenses.

Cal safety Griffin Piatt has three interceptions in each of their three games this season. He arrived at Cal as a receiver. He's now making an impact on the other side of the ball.

Next week, Cal hosts Colorado.

Current Philadelphia Eagles starter Nick Foles is the only Arizona quarterback to start a game in the NFL.

Alabama's run of running backs since Nick Saban has been the coach is remarkable. The great high school backs just head there. Mark Ingram starred with Trent Richardson backing him up. Richardson starred with T.J. Yeldon backing him up. Yeldon stars now with Derrick Henry backing him up. Since I first saw him two years ago, I've thought that Yeldon was the most impressive up to this point. Even more impressive than Ingram in his Heisman year. I was very impressed with what I saw of Henry yesterday. All that I really knew about Henry was that he broke legendary Ken Hall's high school career rushing record. A record that stood for about 60 years. Henry is a bull. Big too. Which certainly helps in being a bull. At 6'3", he's a very tall back. At 238 lbs there's some size to that frame. There's some Marshawn Lynch to his running in that it takes a few guys to bring him down. He can step out of tackles with ease in addition to running through them. Alabama's run of terrific running backs isn't ending any time soon.

Alabama receiver Amari Cooper showed that his team isn't just a collection of terrific backs. Cooper had 10 catches for 201 yards and three touchdowns in the Tide's 42-21 defeat of Florida. Julio Jones is a tough Alabama act to follow but Cooper isn't shying from the challenge.

Last week East Carolina got some attention by beating a Virginia Tech team that was coming off a win over Ohio St. Yesterday, East Carolina destroyed #25 North Carolina 70-41. 70! The Pirates only loss is a 33-23 loss to a very good South Carolina team.

East Carolina wasn't the only school that sent the scoreboard spinning.

Michigan St.  73
Eastern Michigan  14

Wisconsin  68
Bowling Green  17

Georgia  66
Troy  0

Texas A&M  58
SMU  6

Texas A&M hasn't missed the offensive excitement of Johnny Manziel. Kenny Hill has done a fine job at quarterback. The Aggies have scored 52, 73, 38, and 58 in their five games. Lamar, Rice, and SMU were the opponents in the last three. Their first win is the one really impressive win. That one was a 52-28 win over South Carolina.

Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk has one of the best names in college football. Maty Mauk! The name is just fun to say. Yesterday wasn't fun for Missouri. The #18 Tigers were shocked by Indiana. I guess Indiana, and the rest of the Big Ten, were getting tired of hearing how shitty their conference is. Well, the Hoosiers upset one of the better schools in the SEC.

Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon gained 253 yards on only 13 carries. He had five touchdowns on runs of 2, 50, 3, 21, and 69 yards. 145 yards on those five touchdown runs. Most impressive.

Good game in Death Valley. Mississippi St. shocked #8 LSU 34-29. The Bulldogs were leading 34-10 in the fourth quarter. A furious comeback brought the Tigers back and a Hail Mary pass away from a win. Didn't happen.

Prior to this weekend's games, Arkansas was the only team in the SEC West with a loss. That one loss was to Auburn, an SEC West team. After this weekend, Arkansas and LSU are the only SEC West teams with a loss. And, yes, both losses are to SEC West teams. Incredible.

#1 Florida State dodged a bullet from #22 Clemson. Winning 23-17 in overtime. The Seminoles were playing without quarterback Jameis Winston due to stupidity. Make only one of their missed field goals and Clemson wins this game. Good teams find ways to win games. Winston needs to clean up his mind-numbing stunts if the Seminoles hope to do anything close to what they did last year.

There's no doubting the talent of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. He's a terrific football player but so many of his passes are to wide open receivers. Not just open but blown coverage open. Not a defender within five yards open. That sort of open. He's not going to see gaping windows like that in the NFL.

Speaking of #2 Oregon, they held on to beat Washington State 38-31. Mariota completed 21 of 25 wide open passes for 329 yards and 5 touchdowns. Not bad.

Go Vikings!