Anyway, I felt like talking football, but none of my friends are fans of the same teams as me, and everyone I know is already sick of all of the Fantasy Football talk. So, to the blog, I go!
Notre Dame: I was at the North Georgia State Fair a few weekends ago when one of the booth employees noticed my Notre Dame t-shirt and exclaimed, "Yer boys is gettin' worked over today by Michigan State." I told him that didn't really surprise or bother me all that much. "But Michigan State ain't no good, are they?" he asked. "Hey, neither is Notre Dame," I replied. I do get frustrated with how biased people in this region are against the Big Ten and Notre Dame--neither gets any mention on sports radio unless it's to say how shitty they both are and how they pale to even the bottom-feeders of the mighty SEC. But this dude was right, ND got worked by MSU. And it didn't really bother me at all.
My expectations for this year's Notre Dame team are for them to go 7-5, make a mid-level bowl against a very beatable third-tier team from a BCS conference, and end their season with a win for the first time in many moons. To get to 7-5, in my opinion, they only needed to beat either MSU or Purdue, not both of them. So with their win over Purdue this past weekend, they remained exactly where they needed to be.
No game is a given for ND this season, but almost all of the games remaining on their schedule are winable, even by the current class of overrated or underachieving Irish. Here's how I see it coming out:
W San Diego State
W Michigan
L @ Michigan State
W Purdue
W Stanford
L North Carolina
W @ Washington
L Pittsburgh
L @ Boston College
W @ Navy
W Syracuse
L @ No. 9 USC
Like I said, every game (except USC) is winnable, so there may be some upsets there that I haven't predicted. They could end up beating UNC, Pitt and/or BC. But at the same time, I could also see them losing against Stanford, Navy and/or Washington. So if you assume they'll upset someone but also lose one they shouldn't, 7-5 seems pretty reasonable, right? And 7-5 may be enough to get them to the Liberty Bowl against a 6-6 Virginia team or the Copper Bowl against a 8-4 Baylor squad. (I totally made up the bowls and matchups, but you get the idea.)
What ND haters don't realize is that ND didn't just choke against LSU two years ago and against every team last season, they've choked in every bowl game they've played in since the early nineties. Notre Dame hasn't won a bowl game since the 1993 Cotton Bowl. That's going on sixteen years of bowl losses. I've been wishing for years that ND would make a smaller bowl that they could actually win, and the silver lining to last year's meltdown and this year's struggles is that they should get exactly the kind of mid-range bowl they need.
Anyway, hope is still alive for the Irish. My expectations are low, and so far, they're right on track. We'll hope for the 9-3 or 10-2 season next year. For now, let's get to .500 or better and win a bowl.
The Colts: Indy didn't play this past weekend, which was probably the best thing for everyone. They're so beat up this year that they need the rest, and Payton needs some practice time with his squad. It didn't help Indy's cause that Tennessee (4-0) and Jacksonville (3-1) both won on Sunday. But one of the Monday Night Football announcers made a good point last night, which is that the top dogs in the AFC seem to currently be winning with defense, but before they can make a playoff run, these teams will have to learn how to score some points. And in that regard, I'd put Indy before the Titans and Jags, and even ahead of Pittsburgh and New England. So Indy isn't out of the picture yet, despite a 1-2 record to open the season. I can still see the team going 10-6 and then making some noise in the postseason.
Of course, it won't be easy. Check out their upcoming schedule:
Sun, Oct 5 @ Houston
Sun, Oct 12 Baltimore
Sun, Oct 19 @ Green Bay
Mon, Oct 27 @ Tennessee
Sun, Nov 2 New England
Sun, Nov 9 @ Pittsburgh
Sun, Nov 16 Houston
Sun, Nov 23 @ San Diego
Even Houston is no softy this year, despite their record (they've had a difficult opening schedule, as well). If the Colts can go 5-3 over the next eight weeks, they'll be in good shape. That will put them at 6-5, with games remaining against Cleveland, Cincy, and the Lions--all of which should be easy wins. The Colts do close the season at Jacksonville and home against Tennessee, but if they split those, they get to 10-6. And just like with the Irish, every game is winnable for this team. They could win more than I predict--but shouldn't really lose many more. A 10-6 record should be a wild-card spot, and could even be a division winner (anyone who has faith in the Titans power trio of Kerry Collins/Chris Johnson/Justin Gage staying undefeated is a moron).
The Colts are still alive, my friends.
Indiana Hoosiers: The loss to Michigan State was unfortunate, but predictable. The Ball State loss the week before was worse, as it means IU now needs to pull an upset or two to get to bowl-eligibility. And Northwestern and Minnesota are looking good--two teams IU would normally count on for a few wins. So IU is 2-2, with no guaranteed wins left on the schedule. I was hoping for 3-1 right now, and for Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota and Central Michigan to all look like absolute doormats. If all four of them sucked, IU should be able to beat at least three for the required six wins, right?
IU's remaining schedule isn't bad, by Big Ten standards. They don't play Ohio State or Michigan, and they get Wisconsin (a team they've upset in the past) at home. But with the team underachieving at the moment, nothing is guaranteed.
October 4 at Minnesota
October 11 Iowa
October 18 at Illinois
October 25 Northwestern
November 1 Central Michigan
November 8 No. 18 Wisconsin
November 15 at No. 6 Penn State
November 22 at Purdue
This weekend is huge--if IU beats Minnesota, bowl eligibility is still within reach. If they lose this game, it's all over. Whatever they do, I hope they play Ben Chappell more. I think he's much better for the team than Winslow, despite the fact that Winslow's the more exciting player and better NFL prospect (as receiver, not QB).
Fantasy Football: Okay, I lost all three games this week, bringing my standings to 0-4, 0-4 and 3-1. But there's an upside. For one, all of my teams endured serious bye weeks this past weekend. So I won't be missing that many players from here on out. For another, some of my underachievers have started to perform (at last) and others have finally gotten the boot. But the biggest thing I have going for me is that most of my leagues allow the top eight to make playoffs. So I may be in 10th place in one league and 12th in another, but both of those let the top eight go to the postseason--and I'm not out of that running, yet.
I haven't been sitting on my hands--I'm making moves and trying to improve my roster. If a few players start to come around, I'm confident I can still make playoffs in all three leagues. And once you make playoffs, anything can happen. So I'm trying to keep my chin up. One thing I've decided is that I'm not going to listen to the folks at ESPN, anymore. I occasionally listen to a few Fantasy Football podcasts on my iPhone on the way home from work. But this past week, they were wrong on pretty much every prediction they made, costing me mega points. So no more input from those guys--they're guessing just like I am, so I may as well live and die by my own gut.
Anyway, that's the marathon update of Football news, according to me. If anyone actually made it down this far in the post, send me an email and I'll send you a free t-shirt! Kidding, of course. The only free t-shirts I have are for the female skewing shows on TNT, and if you made it this far in a football post, you're not the right demographic for those shows.
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