Football This Weekend

Of the top four college teams, one did not play and the other three lost. At least all three lost to ranked teams, but still. The number five team won and became number one.

I can't believe Atlanta lost won that game. That was one of five NFL games decided in the last five seconds this weekend. Not sure if that's a record, but wow.

One of those actually went into overtime on a tying field goal by Dallas. The Arizona coach did that crappy thing of calling timeout just as the ball is snapped, nullifying the kick in an effort to freak out the kicker. I hate that, and I wish the league would make a rule for the minimum time before the ball is snapped that timeout can be called to eliminate this cheap trick. You win games by better play and superior coaching, not by cheap tricks. Much to my delight, the invalidated kick was blocked, while the re-kick was good, backfiring on the silly dickhead Arizona coach. I almost hoped Dallas would win in ot, but Arizona did. On a blocked punt, no less. It was a wierd game.

Chargers: Now this is what a team looks like when they quit whining about the injured players they don't have, and suck it up and play football with the players they do have. I would never denigrate the value of Shawne Merriman; he is a fine linebacker and an asset to the team. But football is a team sport and to suggest that the team is helpless without him is an insult to ten other fine football players. And it is wrong, as was demonstrated last night at Qualcomm Stadium. Randy Moss caught a couple of short drop-offs, but on long patterns Quentin Jammer was on him like a coat of paint. The defense swarmed all over the Patriots like hungry sharks in a feeding frenzy, and the game was nowhere near as close as the 30-3 score after 55 minutes would indicate.

Same thing with the offense. LT and Gates are hurt so Philip Rivers filled the air with footballs and wound up with a 141.9 rating, 17-yard average completion, and 3 touchdowns which would have been four without the one prevented by pass inteference, and which later came on a run play.

Only one small note; I just wish they'd lose those candyass blue uniforms.