Good Lord.

There’s something a bit creepy about this.

“I’m going to pray that [Tebow] is true to his faith because if he falls and gets caught up in some kind of scandal it will be bad for Christianity,” Brown said.

(h/t EDSBS)

2008 Las Vegas Sports Consultants Top 30 – Week 5

Say what you will, the money folks are awfully kind to the Dawgs this week.

Rank	Team	Rating	Previous	Notes
1	Oklahoma	112.9	2	Leap past Horned Frogs to the top.
2	Southern Cal	112.2	1	Trojans dug a hole against Beavers.
3	Missouri	109.9	4	Let Big 12 play begin… Huskers up first.
4	Texas	109.0	6	Razor sharp win over Arkansas.
5	Florida	108.9	3	Rebels played with a cause.
6	Penn State	107.9	7	Nittany Lions finally getting deserved respect.
7	Alabama	107.5	17	Saban really has Tide rolling now.
8	Georgia	106.9	5	Bulldogs buried at home.
9	Texas Tech	106.8	9	Red Raiders get a break before Big 12.
10	Ohio State	106.2	8	Buckeyes putting pieces back together.
11	LSU	106.0	10	Tigers getting better with experience.
12	Brigham Young	105.6	11	BCS Buster…Three weeks to battle at TCU.
13	Kansas	104.8	12	Cyclones another pushover.
13	California	104.8	12	Bears ram tough against CSU.
15	South Florida	103.7	17	Title shot not out of the question.
16	Oklahoma State	103.6	19	Talented Cowboys under the radar.
17	Wisconsin	102.6	14	Big 2nd half flop in “Big House”.
17	Texas Christian	102.6	15	Had to lose ‘Sooner’ or later.
19	West Virginia	102.5	22	Finally showed signs of life.
20	Utah	102.4	20	Will Oregon State have anything left?
20	Auburn	102.4	21	Found a way to win over Vols.
22	Clemson	102.0	15	Jekyll and Hyde team.
23	Virginia Tech	101.8	25	Hokies hand Huskers home loss.
24	Arizona	101.0	25	Host Huskies next.
24	Tulsa	101.0	NR	Averaging 55 points per game.
26	Michigan State	100.5	30	Spartans playing well.
26	Cincinnati	100.5	23	A win is a win…slipped past Zips.
28	South Carolina	100.4	28	Shut down weak UAB offense.
29	Boston College	100.1	NR	Schedule only gets tougher
30	Boise State	100.0	NR	Broncos move up sitting at home idle.

That’s a huge jump for ‘Bama, so even though we think the Tide should be higher, it’s going in the right direction.  But how do you explain LSU at #11, behind Ohio State and Florida, for example?  And it’s still a bit of a puzzler to see Kansas ahead of South Florida.

At least Notre Dame isn’t getting any consideration.

And I’m not sure if it’s a mistake or an editorial comment, but at the link Tennessee gets listed as one of the teams that dropped out of the top 30 – twice.

The things I do for love, second half.

I sucked it up last night and watched a replay of the rest of the Alabama game.  I know there are a lot of people that found reasons from what happened in the second half to be somewhat optimistic and upbeat about how the game played out.  I’m not one of them.

Sure, there was that nice stretch in the third and fourth quarters when ‘Bama lost a little direction and focus and the Dawgs were able to narrow the gap to 31-17.  But then came what I thought was the most impressive drive of the game.  With all the energy and excitement in the stadium that the home team was feeding off of, here’s how the Tide responded:

Alabama at 14:41			ALA	GA
1st and 10 at ALA 34		Glen Coffee rush for 4 yards to the Alab 38.	31	17
2nd and 6 at ALA 38		John Parker Wilson pass complete to Julio Jones for 15 yards to the Geo 47 for a 1ST down.
1st and 10 at GA 47		Glen Coffee rush for 5 yards to the Geo 42.
2nd and 5 at GA 42		John Parker Wilson pass complete to Roy Upchurch for 22 yards to the Geo 20 for a 1ST down.
1st and 10 at GA 20		John Parker Wilson rush for 1 yard to the Geo 19.
2nd and 9 at GA 19		Glen Coffee rush for 1 yard to the Geo 18.
3rd and 8 at GA 18		Timeout GEORGIA, clock 10:34.
3rd and 8 at GA 18		Roy Upchurch rush for 3 yards to the Geo 15.
4th and 5 at GA 15		Leigh Tiffin 32 yard field goal GOOD.	34	17
		Leigh Tiffin kickoff for 70 yards returned by Ramarcus Brown for 31 yards to the Geo 31.
DRIVE TOTALS: Alab drive: 8 plays 51 yards, 04:56 Alab FG

That’s what very good teams do.  Five minutes off the clock and the game killing score meant that it was all over.  And if you have the stomach to watch, go back and look at that screen pass in the middle of the drive.  It’s textbook.  In particular, check out Andre Smith who has the athleticism to get out and take on Curran and the strength to lock him out of the play.  You’ll see why this time next year Mr. Smith will be a rich young man.

The game falls apart from there.  Georgia does manage to tack on a couple of late scores to make things look closer on the scoreboard and in the stats…

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	21	18
3rd down efficiency	4-10	4-13
4th down efficiency	0-0	2-3
Total Yards	334	324
Passing	205	274
Comp-Att	13-16	24-43
Yards per pass	12.8	6.4
Rushing	129	50
Rushing Attempts	45	16
Yards per rush	2.9	3.1
Penalties	2-9	10-81
Turnovers	1	2
Fumbles lost	1	1
Interceptions thrown	0	1
Possession	35:46	24:14

… than they really were.  Skip the yardage totals.  The tale for this game was told in Wilson’s completion ratio, the penalty numbers and the time of possession and that tale was that Alabama was able to do what its coaches planned and that Georgia managed to make things worse with mistakes.

One last observation – the new clock rules make it almost impossible to mount a second half comeback from a serious deficit.   If it hadn’t been for Miller’s punt return, Georgia never would have had a chance.  The problem was, as Blackledge noted, that there’s no margin for error.  Georgia got three straight three and outs on defense, a blocked punt and a 92-yard punt return and still had to maintain that pace for two more touchdowns just to get back to even.  That’s a tall order for any team, let alone one that had injury problems.

Mumme Poll dry run results

First off, again, let me say how much I appreciate everyone’s interest in this.  I wound up with 59 ballots being cast, which looks like it’s enough to generate a respectable number of schools receiving votes.

I don’t want to read too much into the dry run votes, because it’s impossible to say if everyone was completely serious with the ballots, although I must say that I didn’t see a single vote cast that I thought was truly off the wall.  So while I didn’t tally the voting, I did note that twenty two schools received votes from you.

Including me, there are sixty voters in the Mumme Poll.  Some of us have more than one school affiliation.  Here’s how that broke down:

• Georgia (55)
• Virginia (3)
• Alabama (2)
• Clemson (1)
• Colorado (1)
• Connecticut (1)
• Tennessee (1)
• UCLA (1)
• West Georgia (1)

And, yes, to answer the obvious question, judging from the ballots cast, there is going to be an issue with Georgia bias.  Let’s just say there’s a little disconnect between the negative comments about the ‘Bama game that I’ve seen here and on other sites and people’s votes for Georgia as a top twelve team.  I suspect that no other team that got owned the way Georgia did Saturday night would show up on every voter’s ballot.  I hope that this is something that will wash out over the course of the season, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

Anyway, now that your votes will be for real, I’m looking forward to watching this play out.  There are no Sunday games this week, so ballots should be turned in between 9:00 AM Sunday and 9:00 PM Monday.  I’ll post the results on Tuesday.