Lingering Questions

Another reason I didn't write a diary for last night's game was I kind of thought Bill Simmons would do one, and he did. Since I will never be able to write as well as him, I don't ever want to do a diary when he does. Anyway, I had a few lingering questions/thoughts from last night's game...

- Should we really believe that there was a problem with the replay monitor and that's why they didn't review the play when Vince Young's knee was down before he pitched the ball for Texas' first touchdown? Seems to me they should have stopped the game until they were able to review that play.

- Why do the BCS bowl games have to start so late? I may sound like an old man, but being up until 11:30 watching college football isn't the most desireable thing in the world, and I LOVE college football. Either the networks need to change this, or I need to move to the West Coast. This is even going to get worse next year when FOX is in charge of televising the BCS games. I think FOX enjoys torturing the East Coast with late starts. Didn't everyone of the World Series games end after 11:30? College Football bowl games generally last 4 hours anyway, and with FOX televising, they are likely to last 5.

- What was Reggie Bush thinking when he decided to lateral the ball to a tight end who wasn't even looking at him after he took a screen pass to the Longhorn 20? Did he just think that he could do whatever because he won the Heisman Trophy and didn't care?

- Better yet, how was USC still in this game when: they went for a 4th and 1 inside the Texas 40 and didn't get it in the first half, the Bush play, Leinart threw an interception in the end zone, and then they went for it on 4th and 2 with just over 2 minutes left and missed it?

- Oh yeah, why wasn't Heisman Trophy winner and most dangerous player on USC, Reggie Bush, not even ON THE FIELD for the fourth down? Why not have LenDale White as lead blocker and have the shifty Bush take the ball. Actually, before that, why did they pass on 2nd down? That was the only possession in the second half that USC didn't score on (not including the final 2 plays). Texas' defense couldn't stop USC in the second half, so they went conservative to try and run out the clock, then they throw on second down and it is incomplete, stopping the clock, forcing them to run on 3rd and 8, and then the fourth down play. Way to go Pete, way to go.

- Was it the greatest game ever? I don't know, but it definitely ranks high on the list. I probably haven't seen a better game. Well, maybe the 1994 Colorado/Michigan game (sorry Gaddis, that was just for you).

- Has there ever been a weirder introduction to a game than the Farrell/McConaughey thing? By the way Will was on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPNRadio today, outstanding stuff, he even sang a tribute to the late "Blue".

- Andy, I definitely heard Jackson say "times-out" and I loved it. He is one of my favorite announcers of all time. Just for the record, if for some reason my life was to be narrated, either live or being told in past tense, here's the list of announcers I would want to do it:

Brent Musberger
Gus Johnson
Dan Shulman
Keith Jackson

- I know earlier this year I wrote how tough it was to write these when I was watching "Who's Line is it Anyway", but it's even tought to type when watching "My Name is Earl" and "The Office".

- Is there any reason after last night's game that Vince Young AND LenDale White shouldn't declare themselves eligible for the NFL Draft?

- Until next time...

NFL 2005 Awards

The NFL regular season is over, as a Packers fan I say thank god, so it's time to hand out some hardware to the best performers in the year that was 2005.

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year: Cadillac Williams

No brainer here, it's Cadillac Williams. Nobody else really stood out this year. Samkon Gado came on late in the season and could have pushed Cadillac had he not gone down to a knee injury. Heath Miller and Ronnie Brown both had nice seasons, Troy Williamson surprised me, and Mark Clayton started to come on late, but nobody had enough to surpass Cadillac's amazing start to the season.


NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year: Shawne Merriman

In a two horse race, Shawne Merriman takes it over DeMarcus Ware. Ware looked good early and compiled 58 tackles and 8 sacks, but Merriman came on late and his 57 tackles and 10 sacks takes it.


NFL Offensive Player of the Year: Tiki Barber

A quick rundown of the candidates...

Shawn Alexander: 1880 rushing yards 27 tds
Tiki Barber: 2400 totals yards 11 tds
Steve Smith: 103 receptions 1563 yards 12 tds
Larry Johnson: 2093 total yards 21 tds
Carson Palmer: 3832 passing yards 67.8 comp % 32/12 td/int 101.1 QB rating

It was quite a year by the running backs, not included on this list were stellar performances form Clinton Portis, Edgerrin James and LaDanian Tomlinson and not to mention a rebirth from Santana Moss. That being said, the hands down unanamous winner is Mr. Offense, Tiki Barber. Barber carried the Giants and gave young Eli Manning a saftey valve to rely on throughout the season.


NFL Defensive Player of the Year: Brian Urlacher

Urlacher lead the NFL's best defense, Umenyiora has a sweet name and has come on as a dominant pass rusher, O'Neal lead the NFL's best ball hawking defense in interceptions, Peterson is arguably the best defender on one of the NFL's best defenses and Burgess lead the NFL in sacks. It was a close call, but Urlacher is the straw that stirs the drink on the NFL's best unit, yes unit not best defense, best unit.

Brian Urlacher: 121 tackles 6 sacks
Osi Umenyiora: 70 tackles 14.5 sacks
Deltha O'Neal: 65 tackles 10 interceptions
Mike Peterson: 131 takles 6 sacks 3 interceptions
Derek Burgess: 51 tackles 16 sacks


NFL Coach of the Year: Mike Shanahan

Mike Shanahan: AFC West Champs 13-3
Lovi Smith: NFC North Champs 11-5
Marvin Lewis: AFC North Champs 11-5
Nick Saban: 2nd in AFC East 9-7
Tony Dungy: AFC South Champs 14-2

Shanahan lead a Broncos team that looked as if it had taken a major step back to a division title going away. He won with a completely new defensive line, a running back by comittee and Jake the Snake Plummer. Most impressive was the coaching job done on Plummer who did his best to make you forget he was the same Jake Plummer of the Cardinals.

Saban did an impressive job by winning 9 games with an average-to-bad team, and Lewis and Smith both did a nice job of building up perennial cellar dwellers into division champs

Dungy too did a great job leading the Colts to a 13-0 start. I could go either way here between Dungy and Shannahan, but I think the job Shannahan did with that team rebuilt was just a bit more impressive.


NFL MVP: Shaun Alexander

Here's my criteria for MVP voting. Take the guy you're debating and replace him with a good player. So for example, replace Alexander with Gaddis' favorite Rudy Johson. Do the Seahawks win 13 games? I don't think so. Now put Alexander in Johnson's place on Cincinnati, do the Bengals win more than 11 games? Absolutely. Going off that logic, Alexander was the most valuable guy to his team this year in my eyes.

Voting

1. Shaun Alexander
2. Tiki Barber
3. Tom Brady
4. Brian Urlacher
5. Carson Palmer

That was quite a Game, and I was WRONG... again

Well, I was wrong, that's for sure.

Let's recap:

Keith Jackson will give me goose bumps- check

Bush will have over 250 yards- dead wrong (82 rushing, 92 receiving)

ABC will show Laura Quinn, Keith and Dan mentioning ABC's last title game until 2010- I fell asleep for about 15 minutes at the end of the second quarter and didn't watch half time, so I don't know
Texas won't rattle Leinart- They did intercept him, but they didn't record a sack and he had 1 touchdown and 370
yards passing, so I say check

Vince Young will throw 2 touchdowns- Dead wrong

Texas will come out strong- Check

Herbstreit will say Ohio State wins 2007 Fiesta Bowl- hasn't happened yet, but it will, that's for sure

USC will win 38-27- wrong. I thought I was in pretty good shape when USC was up 38-26, but Vince Young showed why many people said he would be the difference in the game.

So basically we proved once again that I don't know what I'm talking about. But, at least if I was a weather man, with these stats, I'd probably get a contract extension. Oh, and at least Iowa didn't win.

- Until next time...

BCS Title Game

I was going to write a diary for this game, but considering it probably won't kick off until about 7:30pm CST and will probably last about 4 hours, I may fall asleep during it. So, before the game gets started, allow me a few predictions...


- Keith Jackson will give me goose bumps at least twice during this game

- Reggie Bush will have over 250 yards total offense

- ABC will somehow find a way to show Laura Quinn (not that I mind at all)

- Keith and Dan will make mention of this being the last BCS Title game until the 2010 Rose Bowl to be broadcast by ABC

- The Texas defense will not rattle Matt Leinart

- Vince Young will throw at least 2 interceptions

- Texas will come out strong

- Kirk Herbstreit will predict Ohio State as the 2007 National Champions

- USC will win its third consecutive National Championship going away and will win 38-27.

One final note; I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. Many things happened which need to be covered. As a recap of the top sports stories in Wisconsin in 2005, click over to the Brew City Beat and read Justin's column.

- Until next time...