What Are You Thinking?

 

Time and time again, many coaches, college football analysts, and other members of the media have called for the discontinuation of college football's BCS system. It's a system that continues to confuse me, and the amount of bowl games that are in existence waters down the importance of playing in one. Auburn and Oregon, as expected, were selected to play in the national championship game. Did all of the other bowl games matter? Does it matter that Wisconsin and TCU play in the Rose Bowl? What does the winner of that game get? It's just as significant a win as the winner of the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl. It's a system with no importance to any of the winners except the one who wins the national title.

Temple finished the season at 8-4, but they lost their final two games to Ohio and Miami (OH). Miami (OH) won the MAC conference championship with their victory over Northern Illinois in the conference title game last week. With Northern Illinois finishing with a 10-3 record, they were a sure bet to be in a bowl game with Miami (OH) from the MAC conference. Ohio, Toledo, Temple and Western Michigan finished with at least six wins to be bowl eligible. Western Michigan, however, finished with a 6-6 record. Ohio and Toledo received bowl bids. Temple and Western Michigan were left out.

C'Mon Man. I'm interested in hearing a logical explanation for omitting Temple from this year's bowl season. Most bowl games have select conferences that takes part in the game. They need to scrap this. Clearly, Temple is better than several teams who will be playing in a bowl game. How did Temple get passed over in favor of UTEP, BYU and Florida International? All three teams have 6-6 records. Temple beat UConn, who will be playing in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, a BCS bowl even though they probably don't deserve that. Temple played Penn State very competitively, losing 22-13, at a time when Penn State was in the top 25. None of those three 6-6 teams won their conference championship, so there is no justification for them being in a bowl game over Temple. It makes no sense and this whole bowl system needs to be scrapped immediately.

The Steelers-Ravens and the Jets-Patriots matchups were billed as the best games this weekend by a landslide. Both games were division games and all four teams have been billed as the best four teams in the AFC. The Jets clearly didn't show up in their game, losing 45-3 and losing the AFC East lead to the Patriots in the process. The Steelers-Ravens game was much closer, and it came down to under a minute to go in the fourth quarter. A couple of plays turned out to be the difference in the outcome of the game. The Steelers took this matchup 13-10, evening the season series after the Ravens beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh back in Week 4, granted without QB Ben Roethlisberger.

This was a classic nasty matchup between the Ravens and the Steelers. Both teams were unable to put up a good amount of points. When you're going up against either defense, that tends to happen! Both quarterbacks weren't spectacular, but Roethlisberger or QB Joe Flacco are never really spectacular. Both teams usually rely on a solid running game that has potential to open up the passing game a bit. Both teams have capable running backs, which is why I'm baffled with a decision Ravens' offensive coordinator Cam Cameron made in the fourth quarter up 10-6. Instead of running the ball on 3rd and short with the lead, Cameron wanted to throw. That proved costly as S Troy Polamalu stripped Flacco of the ball, giving the Steelers great field position, en route to their go-ahead and eventual game-winning touchdown.

C'Mon Man. You have to run that football in that situation. The Ravens have two capable running backs in RB Ray Rice and RB Willis McGahee. Run the ball and get the first down. If you don't get the first down, punt the ball and put the Steelers offense in a harder position. The problem is they're trusting Flacco, when he hasn't necessarily shown he is capable of leading that offense. Flacco hasn't excelled yet, even with the additions of WR Anquan Boldin and WR T.J. Houshmanzadeh. They need to run the ball in situations like that and not trust Flacco with making plays in situations like that. It's not going to work. Flacco also messed up when he had a second chance, short-hopping a pass to WR Ed Dickson on 4th down to end it.

The Washington Wizards started their three-game West Coast trip on Sunday, and concluded it on Wednesday. They came back home with no wins. The Wizards lost by an average of 16 points to the Suns, Lakers and the Kings. The most competitive matchup in the three losses just so happened to come against the defending champion Lakers, who beat the Wizards by 8. The Wizards are currently sitting at 6-15, last in the Southeast division. This was expected, as the Wizards surprisingly received the #1 pick last year, after having a bad season. The positive is G Gilbert Arenas' return to action this season, even though that may not be a complete positive for the team.

The youth on the team is a positive. They drafted G John Wall with that first pick in the last draft. They also have young, productive players in G Nick Young, C Andray Blatche, and C Javale McGee. McGee had 13 points and 9 rebounds in their blowout loss to the Kings. His numbers weren't astounding, and what he did at the end of the game wasn't astounding either. With the Wizards down 116-91, the eventual final score, McGee intercepted an inbound pass and was all alone on his way to the hoop. However, McGee thought he was Dr. J. He cradled to the ball and never had a good handle on the ball as he was going up for the dunk. His dunk attempt never came close to the rim, as he lost it in the air and it bounced high off the glass.

C'Mon Man. This is not the dunk contest. McGee should not be doing that in a game where he's getting blown out by 25. Lay the ball up and call it a night. It was embarrassing to himself and his team's performance that night. The Wizards didn't have big expectations going into the season, but their season is looking frustrating for coach Flip Saunders. Wall has been bothered by injuries, and their schedule has been pretty tough so far. That does not mean you have to lose your mind. Of course there should be no disciplinary action with this one, but if McGee sees the replay, he should discipline himself for that stunt.