Welcome to the Tuesday Morning Linebacker segment where each Tuesday morning the sports weekend will be analyzed and written about. Many other sites do all of their columns on Monday morning, but I always like to include the Monday Night games during this part of the year.
- Randy Moss is a sore loser – The NY Jets took it to the Patriots 16 – 9, and the Patriots star receiver Randy Moss commented that Jets lock down cornerback Darrelle Revis needed safety help to shut him down. In fact after watching the entire game the Jets were in man coverage almost the entire game because of the blitzes they were throwing at Tom Brady. I would say Revis did a great job on Moss, but he was helped by the pressure being put on Brady. Randy Moss needs to just realize they lost and he was almost a non factor in the game, rather than trying to make it seem like it took an army to stop him. They play one more time this season and I can’t wait it’s going to be interesting when these two hook up again.
- The Tennessee Titans are in trouble - The Titans lost their star Nose Tackle Albert Haynesworth in the off season because the Redskins threw $100 million at him, well they thought they would still be a decent defense and it seemed that way after the first game against the Steelers. But Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson lit the Titans defense up for 357 yards passing, and 149 yards receiving by Johnson, and they gave up 34 points in a loss to the Texans. The main problem right now is they are getting absolutely no push up the middle on their pass rush, and defensive backs just can’t cover for long periods of time. I am not sure what they are going to do to fix this, but starting the season off 0 – 2 after going 13 – 3 last year doesn’t bode well for their playoff chances.
- Detroit your 0 – 18 not 0 – 2 - The Detroit Lions have a new head coach, and have started the season off 0 – 2. This would normally be okay except for the fact that the Lions lost all 16 games last year, so their is going to be a fair amount of pressure for them to win to end what is soon to be an NFL record losing streak. I questioned started a rookie QB, and not going with the veteran Daunte Culpepper who I think gives them the best chance to win right now. We will see when and who they get their firs win against, hopefully for them it will be soon.
- The Miami Hurricanes are back - The Miami Hurricanes had arguably the toughest schedule to start the season with it’s first four opponents ranked in the top 20. As a long time Miami fan I was hoping the Hurricanes would go 2 – 2 through this stretch, after the first two games now it seems like 3 -1 or even 4 – 0 is very possible. With Virginia Tech this weekend and Oklahoma on October 3rd it’s not going to be easy, but for some reason I feel very confident about those two games.
- The College Football rankings are not accurate – If you look at the preseason polls and the polls now 3 weeks in it just proves that the so called experts have absolutely no clue who is and isn’t going to e a good football team. Miami was not ranked in the preseason and now have shot up to #9 & #13, but Florida State was ranked #18 went to un-ranked, now they are ranked #18 again. Georgia Tech was ranked #15 lost one game and is now un-ranked, while Georgia started out the season with a loss and ranked #13 but has never dropped out of the top 25. It would just be smart for all the pundits to wait until about 5 weeks are in the books to put out the first poll rather than guessing those first few weeks about who is good or not.
- Coaches talk the best trash - The Epic battle between Florida and Tennessee ended in a closer game than many people expected. Lane Kiffin came out with an extremely conservative game plan which kept his mistake prone QB from throwing passes, and Florida won 23 – 13. This conservative game plan irked Florida coach Urban Meyer who let on that his players may have been suffering the effects of the flu hence the reason the game was not a blow out. These two have been talking trash ever since the game ended, and the mid field handshake after the game was laughable. The only one that was worse was Bill Belichick’s handshake with Jets coach Rex Ryan he barely even stopped. Then the fact that Ryan told everyone all week that Belichick was a better coach than him, but he won’t be kissing his super bowl rings had to irk the Patriots coach.
- Fans are getting crazier - I know most have heard about Leodis McKelvin of the Buffalo Bills having his property vandalized because of his fumbled kickoff against the New England Patriots, but his teammate Donte Whitner has his house broken into and $400,000 in jewelry stolen while they were playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now why you would have that sitting around your house I have absolutely no clue, but the fact is fans are taking more liberties than ever. Plus the fans booed the Washington Redskins after a paltry 9 – 7 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday, which prompted some players to speak out against the fans which typically isn’t something you want to do. But your team won, who cares if it was ugly, sloppy, and they didn’t score a touchdown they won 16 other teams weren’t so lucky that week. Then don’t forgot the fan throwing the drink on Ron Artest that started the malice in the palace years ago, people can’t seem to come to the game and sit down and be entertained anymore.
