Them Guys Are Fast
Building on my last entry, it was incredibly obvious on Saturday that college football players are 18-21 year old athletes. My new theory is this: The team with the highest average age will get my pick to win any given game.
Case in point? Auburn-Arkansas. Maturity level won the game for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Granted, the fact that Darrin McFadden could have run through some of those tackles pulling a rickshaw didnt hurt. However, Auburn is a more talented team than Arkansas (surely). The Hogs just never got down. The body language of the Tigers was very clear in this game. Here is how I read their body language through all 4 quarters.
1st quarter: Are they really trying to run the ball on us?
2nd quarter: These young upstarts are gonna be surprised when we come back in the second half.
3rd quarter: Why do they insist on running the ball through these gargantuan holes in our defense?
4th quarter: It’s our quarterback’s fault because he got sacked 5 or 6 times.
And according to my favorite Texas A&M site, sometimes a win is a loss. I have to agree. Take, for instance, Alabama’s win over Duke. Alabama, down 14-10 at halftime, came back to win. However, this win is a loss because at no point in the past, present, or future should any team in Division I-A college football ever have the following sentence typed about them: (Insert team name here) was down at halftime to the Duke Blue Devils.
Another point of interest. The defense for California has to be the fastest defense I have ever seen! Watching the Cal-Oregon game was like watching a track meet. I compare it to the Miami defense about 2-3 years ago, only much faster. The Cal defenders were flying around the ball, outrunning the recievers to the point of the catch, and basically making the Ducks look like they were playing with ankle weights. So, you might ask yourself, why haven’t I heard about this incredibly fast defense? Why aren’t they ranked top 1 or 2 in the country? I will tell you why. They concentrate on being so incredibly fast that they forget to tackle the ball carrier. At one point, two defenders were chasing the ball carrier, and much to everyone’s surprise, when they caught up to him, they ran past him. They were racing to the endzone taunting each other. One said to the other..”C’mon you slowpoke! You run like a girl! Yeah, you run like Marion Jones.” The other player promptly tried to tackle his teammate and they both fell to the ground laughing. I hate the Pac-10.
Last but not least, there were at least two great games in the SEC tonight. Georgia pretty much dominated the field in their 24-7 outing. They showed poise and great execution in every phase of the game. Then, there was the 44-9 shellacking that Tennessee served up. It was a well executed gameplan by the Vols. The 1 TD that they gave up was a kickoff return. Oh wait. That was the same game. Sorry.