This is a busy time of the year for sports, probably the best time of the year too. Football is in full swing, the NBA opens this week, and baseball is at least somewhat entertaining with the World Series opening tomorrow. It's great!! As a result I have a miriad of topics to get to and this first blog will be a cluster of those topics.
The NFL
The NFL is seven weeks in and we have some surprises here and there, but as an average fan I only care about 2 things: My Team and Fantasy Football. As for my team, the Indianapolis Colts, they are playing great! My boy Austin Collie (by "My boy" I mean "Guy whom I have never met and might freak out a little bit if I did") has 4 TD's and is tearing it up for a Rookie WR out of BYU. And in a quick text message poll I conducted earlier today the Colts were the runaway favorite as the best team in the league right now. The Saints got 1 vote and the Cowboys got 1 vote as well (from a man who knows literally nothing about the NFL). I was a little surprised by the results of my "very formal" text poll, true I have the Colts as the best team, but I figured more people would lean on the Saints with their ridiculous offense. **As an aside, during this text poll my father got very upset with me when I said, "The old man should have held onto the ball" referring to Brett Favre's fumble that led to a TD for the Steelers and a loss for the Vikes.** Oh and just so everyone is aware, the Seahawks are awful. As for fantasy football, both my teams won over the weekend, moving me to 7-0 in the LOM and 4-3 in my work league. This weeks NFL provided a good pick me up.
College Football
Oh the collapse that was this past weekend in college football. Here is how it went for me. Because there was literally what looked like 2 decent football games in college football last weekend, both in the Mountain West, there wasn't much to look forward to on the national scale. But those 2 games were big around here. I couldn't wait for Air Force to come into SLC and punk the Utes, and I was just giddy about my Cougars taking down the 8th ranked TCU Horned Frogs in front of ESPN's College Gameday. My wife and I had tickets to the BYU vs TCU game, the first game I will have been to in 2 years. We got to the stadium an hour early. Everything looked so great, we even got free brats from someone Kim knows. Now it was just time for the game... and we all know how that went. The Utes escaped an embarassing lose to Air Force in OT, and BYU... well they never showed up for this one and were dismantled at home.
As a BYU fan who witnessed this destruction first hand, I was demoralized. I have since come to realize one thing, that this is what BYU is. I know that a lot of BYU fans don't want to admit this but BYU is what we think they are. They are a a 9-11 win team every year that is very consistent. They beat who they are supposed to beat and they lose to teams that they are supposed to lose to. They are not now and most likely never will be a BCS bound team (this is the most painful realization). Their head coach has football at 5th on his priority list and doesn't believe he needs to gameplan for specific teams. You know what that gets you??? Wins over San Diego St and UNLV and losses to TCU and sometimes Utah. The only comfort that came from this weekend is that Utah looked pathetic against Air Force, so I am fairly confident that BYU will still win that game. Now I have to wait for Nov. 28th until I can feel good about my cougars again.
The NBA
YES!!!!! It is finally here!! We have waited through 4 months of boring offseason news, and what sees like an eternity of preseason NBA garbage. And finally the season kicks off. The Jazz open up tomorrow in Denver, dangerous game should be a good one though. As a Jazz fan here are some of my questions as we open this year: Can we stay healthy? Is Eric Maynor as good as I thought he would be? Are we going to trade Carlos Boozer? Deron Williams will finally make the All-Star team, right? As I have looked at all the pre-season predictions for the NBA, everyone has the Jazz finishing 5th-7th in the west with an early playoff exit like last year. It's hard to blame to predictions since the Jazz didn't make any offseason moves. But I think that the Jazz are going to go out and surprise some people. The aforementioned text poll also asked people how many games the Jazz would win this year, the answered varied but came in at about 55. I don't think that is too far-fetched. This is my thought, if the Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer are healthy then the Jazz win 58 games this year and finish 2nd in the west. Deron Williams is unreal and people will see a healthy Deron Williams dominate the league's pg's this year.
So there it is, the first post on this blog. Respond, comment, suggest or debate as you wish.
I agree the colts are the best team in the NFL right now BUT what about the giants?? The only game they lost was when Eli Manning was hurt. But I agree. Seahawks suck. Go Jazz!!
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ReplyDeleteAWESOME BLOG KYLE!!! I was hoping to be the first to comment on your blog, but I got a little long-winded....hahaha :)
ReplyDeleteI do like the Cowboys, but I do agree they are NOT the best team in the NFL this year. I think the Colts are too, and it is really fun to see a "slow white Mormon boy" doing so well as a wide receiver on the biggest stage in American Football.
As for the College Football post, since College Football is my true obsession this time of year, what about the big picture? I won't like it when TCU obliterates the Utes (being an avid Ute fan myself), but isn't it best for TCU to take the MWC cake this year and get a big BCS win??? I was all BYU, til they lost to Fl. St. It's just like last year when it was great for EVERYBODY that the U went undefeated (even though some BYU fans still couldn't stand that incredible Sugar Bowl victory). The Mountain West will really gain CREDIBILITY if TCU can run the table this year and get a BCS win, which it looks like they will. Did you see how TCU beat Clemson, and then Clemson turned around this week and beat #10 Miami? That was HUGE! The MWC can be the first "non-BCS" conference to have multiple BCS wins, and the only "non-BCS" conference to have multiple "BCS Busters"!!! That will be huge!!! MORE BCS appearances = MORE BCS money = MORE higher-powered recruiting = BETTER FOOTBALL PROGRAMS for everyone in the conference....so GO TCU!!!
As far as the National Scene goes, GO DUCKS THIS WEEK, and GO GATORS!!!
I've been a BYU football fan since the day my mother birthed me. Probably since the day I was conceived, but that's something neither you nor I wish to contemplate in any depth whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteBottom line: being a BYU fan is a tough gig. I usually listen to the KSL broadcasts during and after every game, but especially after losses. There's something about dissecting the game and analyzing what went wrong that somehow makes me feel better. The TCU game was no different and at 11:00 on Saturday night, I was still tuned in to the radio to try to make peace with the loss.
I've come to the conclusion that I would rather see TCU run the tables and get the BCS bid than see a scenario played out that leaves three teams, including BYU, as co-conference champions. Doesn't mean I'm a fairweather BYU fan. Just means I'm a college football fan that believes if a team deserves it, they should be rewarded. If TCU wins out, they deserve the BCS bid and I'll be rooting for them to make the MWC proud. In terms of national respect, it sure would make a bigger impact than having three co-champions. And that could potentially end up helping BYU someday, assuming they ever got their act together.
All that said, I still want to see the Utes obliterated, preferably by BYU... but I'll take anybody at this point.
I am so glad you have a blog...now I can read what you write and then sound like I know something when talking to other sports junkies. I will keep checking back for more!
ReplyDeleteI take offense to the comments regarding the Seahawks. (For no other reason than I am a Seahawks fan)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see BYU was exposed for the frauds they are. Go Aggies of Utah State Baby!!!
It does in fact look like the Colts are a premier team once again. I don't see too many teams that will contend.
The Bronco's will end up going 8-8 when people finally realize that Kyle Orton is not a NFL QB.
The Saints are probably the 2nd best team in the league. But they won't keep outscoring every team they play and will run into some trouble with New England, Atlanta (twice), and Dallas. But other than that, they have a pretty easy schedule: Carolina (twice), St. Louis, Tampa Bay (twice), and Washington. My calculations are that is 6 more wins. They will go 13-3, go to the Super Bowl, and lose to the Colts.
Nice Blog Kyle!