Well, this was a weekend for football surprises. Four college teams in the top-25 lost to unranked opponents including both Miami and Virginia Tech. I wonder if the ACC mavens are rethinking their position on restructuring at this moment? Navy lost to Notre Dame on a field goal as time expired. Florida State laid an egg at Clemson. Washington State beat UCLA even though the Cougars committed 7 turnovers and 9 penalties – because the Bruins committed 7 turnovers of their own and 13 penalties. So when Sunday dawned, one might have expected what statisticians call “regression to the mean”. That would have meant a greater than normal number of “chalk wins” in the NFL games and no really big surprises. Excuse me, but regression to the mean will have to wait a week.

What did Atlanta, Jax and San Diego all have in common coming into the games yesterday? Each was 1-7 and each was a significant underdog. All three teams won and only Jax kept the game close. In my Topical Rant written on Saturday about NFL coaches who are or ought to be on the hot seat, I said that Jim Fassel ought to be feeling some job pressure because there is no fire on that team and that they play up or down to the level of their opposition. During the week, Michael Strahan chastised the NY media for focusing of whether or not the team would be up for a game with the Falcons so my observation is hardly unique and will not get me a call from the Nobel Committee. Nonetheless, the worst pass defense in the league (Atlanta) stopped the second best passing offense in the league (NY). Four turnovers by the Giants certainly helped that process along. The Falcons completed a total of 9 passes for 58 yards and they won by 20 points.

The Vikings have now lost three straight games and their defense has been pummeled in all of them. The Chargers came into the game averaging just over 300 yards of offense per game; against the Vikings they got 458. (Yesterday, even the Chiefs' offensive juggernaut only got 428 yards on offense.) As a team, the Chargers had been averaging 124 yards per game rushing; yesterday, LaDanian Tomlinson alone ran for 162 against the Vikes. Minnesota looked like a runaway winner in the NFC North two weeks ago and now they are in the midst of a three game skid. The schedule is VERY gentle for the Vikings with Oakland and Detroit coming next. But if they can lose to the Chargers by 2 TDs…

Let me put the Chargers' 458 yards of total offense in perspective for you. In the Bears/Lions game yesterday, the total offense for both teams was only 447 yards. In fact, the Bears did not gain as many yards on offense as the aggregate total of the yards that they punted the ball. The Lions ran the ball 20 times for a total of 17 yards; that comes out to just under 31 inches per rushing attempt. And yet, the Lions won the game!

Corey Dillon ran his mouth a couple of weeks ago and said he wanted out of Cincy. He had a “chat” with Marvin Lewis and has been on the bench since then. Yesterday, Rudi Johnson carried 43 times for 182 yards; Dillon was dressed and watching the game. I don't know for sure because I have no connection with anyone who knows the Cincy organization directly, but it seems to me that Dillon would have gotten away with that kind of tirade in the past – and probably has. Not this time. There are probably incentive clauses in Dillon's contract and he may not come close to the lucrative ones because he may not play for another couple of games.

Going into yesterday, three of the AFC playoff teams from last season were 2-6 this year (Jets, Raiders and Steelers). The Jets and Steelers won yesterday, but before the sentiment for a “season turnaround” gets too deep in NY or Pittsburgh, you need to remember that only one team that ever started a season 2-6 has ever made the playoffs and that was in 1970 with a 14-game season. Since the league went to 16 games in 1978, it has never happened. Just a note pf perspective here for the fans and media there.

After the University of Miami's loss to Pitt on Saturday, Kellen Winslow Jr. (who calls himself “The Chosen One”) went on a tirade that you must have seen on SportsCenter because they've shown it 11 gazillion times. In it, Winslow refers to himself as a soldier and a warrior engaged in combat out on the field. Some folks have objected to this as politically incorrect because we have troops in Iraq that are in harm's way and because of the victims of 9/11. As usual, I will not take the politically correct stance. Rather, I'd prefer to remind Messr. Winslow that warriors/soldiers do not do silly egotistical things that might jeopardize the well being of others or the overall mission objectives. He is not a soldier; he is a football player.

Memo to “The Chosen One”: Funny, you don't look Jewish…

Here's another NCAA football tidbit from Sports Illustrated that you might have missed. It seems that Maurice Clarett is in danger of failing two courses at OSU this semester. Isn't that amazing? He was in fine academic standing last year while he was spending all that time practicing and playing football but now that all he has to do is study and file lawsuits against the university, he is flunking two courses. Wouldn't it be ironic if he lost his lawsuit and could not go to the NFL next year and also could not play football because of academic ineligibility? I alluded to this before and now I will say it directly. Drafting this guy is a big gamble. He may not turn out to be a super running back in the NFL – see Ron Dayne as his prototype – and he brings some issues with him. Some people come with “baggage”; Clarett brings along a steamer trunk.

Here's a good line from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Shaq O'Neal once again retreats into his no-talk zone, explaining to the media, 'You're not at my level intelligence-wise.' If I were, I'd be hitting the THG pretty damn hard.”

St. Louis Cardinals' catcher, Mike Metheny caught 1,096 innings last season and did not make an error. That got him a Gold Glove Award. However, he only threw out 15 of the 65 people who tried stealing on him. That is 23% for those of you who weren't math majors. And that leads me to 2 questions:

1. Shouldn't that statistic be weighed a bit more heavily in the Gold Glove Award calculations for catchers?

2. Why didn't more people try to steal on him?

Finally, Georgia Tech has a wide receiver named Finesse Usher. The only reason I can think of to name a kid, Finesse, would be if he had been conceived at a bridge tournament.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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