Offensive Showing

This weekend was rough. I started getting sick on Friday, and it carried through the weekend. I didn't watch any football on Saturday, but logged into ESPN.com a couple times to find that the College "Top 25" were doing their best rendition of the Iraqi Republican Army. Slogan: RETREAT!

Yes, half the top 10 lost this week. Parity in college football? Whooda thunkit?

USC, the top-ranked team, almost let Washington beat them, the same Washington team that OSU beat soundly two weeks ago.

Remember Florida, the team that killed OSU in the championship game last year? They scored 17 points against two-loss Auburn. West Virginia's high-flying offense scored a whole 13 points. Oklahoma's was averaging over 50 points,; they only scored 24...and lost. Clemson mustered a whole three points.

Some mighty offensive showings by the alleged "Top 25" teams in college.

Then, you had the pro games, like Bills vs. Jets at 0-0 by halftime. (It wasn't because either team is a defensive powerhouse, either.) The Rams, once billed "The Greatest Show on Turf", scored one touchdown. The Chargers, one of last year's overpowering teams, lost to the Chiefs after only scoring 16 points and committing four turnovers. The Eagles have scored three points, and there are only two minutes left in the game.

No problems for the Brownies, though. They won, 24-13, and scored 24 or more points for the third consecutive week. I told Marie before the start of the game that, if the Browns would score 20+ points, they'd win. The Ravens offense just isn't good enough to score that much, even against a much-maligned Browns defense.

Talking about offensive showings, here are this week's Idiots of the Week:


Win - Brian Billick, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Did he forget his team was playing the Browns this week? I was surprised he didn't have his quarterback run the no-huddle offense throughout the fourth quarter. It wasn't as though the Browns' defense was stopping the Ravens, they were stopping themselves.


Place - The Browns defense. Yes, the Browns won, but they still allowed another running back to gain more than 100 yards rushing. They haven't shut down an offense in three weeks.


Show - The Pittsburgh Steelers, for graciously losing to the Arizona Cardinals, who were led by Methuselah, er, Kurt Warner. The high-flying offense was shut down by Arizona, whose head coach and defensive coordinator were candidates for the Pittsburgh head coaching job after Bill Cowher left. Now the Browns are only one game out of first place, although I don't expect them to get there.


Honorable Mention - Me, for strongly recommending that people not pick the Browns this year. Looks like the team could actually be competitive in many of this year's games. (BUT...don't pick them next week; they are playing the Patriots.)




Maybe the Browns' offense is pretty good. Oakland and Baltimore are supposed to have two of the better defenses in the league. We'll see next week.