Football

So the first week of the NFL and the second week of college football come to a conclusion tonight. I had quite an enjoyable time watching it and trying to stave off the impending nervousness (all while trying to keep Mrs. X calm). Not much grabbed me in the NFL yet except that I really like Carson Palmer so far but I'm very tenative about the defense which is very young. I think my prediction of a 7-9 or 8-8 season is very plausible. I must also note that Mrs. X beat me in our head to head pick of 5 games. Lesson: Never pick the Bengals in an opening day game and never pick Indianapolis against New England.

In college, Notre Dame beat Michigan so there was all kinds of happiness for us. I have a soft spot for Notre Dame and living in Ohio requires me to hate Michigan (the fact that Mrs. X has a personal vendetta against them helps). But I must say that I think that the new young quarterback for Ohio St. seems to be either in league or related to Danny Graves. He did his absolute best to lose that game against Marshall. I realize that he's young, but come on. You can't throw the deep ball over the middle like that for two interceptions in a row. I also think that Mike Nugent may be crowned as something near the level of god by the time this season is over. If they beat Michigan on a game winning field goal, he will have a shrine erected to him in front of the horseshoe.

Lots of upsets this weekend and that was enjoyable to watch, but some of the old stalwarts came through after shaky openings. I still haven't seen anything to make me go against USC as my number one pick yet but I can see a couple of teams that might change my mind. I will also say that unless they have a bad collapse against some other team, I think Purdue is the heavy favorite to win the Big 10 this year. Purdue plays most of the weak teams in the Big 10 and gets the luxury of playing the wounded Ohio St and Michigan teams at home this year. At Notre Dame seems to be the only chance for a derailment. We'll have to see what strength of schedule does for their chances of playing in the Orange Bowl come January.