reactions to the last week in football
The NFL is back!! We are also in week two of the college season. Let’s get to it.
Ohio State vs. Texas: For three quarters it wasn’t much of a game. Ohio State was dominant. On the very first play of the game, Texas fumbles. The Texas defense was able to hold OSU to a field goal. Then, four plays later, Arch Manning throws an interception. 5 plays for Texas, two turnovers. OSU goes down and scores a TD and it’s 10-0 in the first quarter. It was 20-3 at the half and 23-3 at the end of the third quarter. Then Texas gets a 15 play TD drive and forces OSU into a three and out. On the ensuing drive, Texas with another long 13 play drive for another TD to make it 23-17. Suddenly it’s a ballgame. OSU misses a field goal on their next drive which opens the door for a game winning TD Drive for Texas. Ohio State fans are blaming coach Ryan Day for the loss. And having watched the game myself, I tend to agree. Once he got the big lead, he called the game not to lose instead of calling it to win. Texas was ranked #4 before the game and jumped to #1 with the victory. Ohio State was #1 and fell to #6.
Oregon @ Oklahoma State: Coming into the game, Oklahoma State had lost 21 straight FBS games. Their last victory against an FBS opponent was on September 14th, 2024 against Tulsa. Ironically, it was Tulsa that beat State last week to extend the FBS loss streak to 21 games. Oregon on the other hand, didn’t look good the previous week against unranked Boise State. And it’s not like OK State was getting blown out in every game during this streak. There were a handful of games that they lost by 8 points or less. The opportunities were there. With the loss, Oregon fell 15 spots in the rankings from #6 to #21.
Oklahoma vs Michigan: Michigan looked terrible in a week one victory against Western Michigan. And they didn’t look much better against 11th ranked Oklahoma. The saving grace for Michigan is that Oklahoma looked worse. 12 total punts in the game. 5 three and outs. Oklahoma fell to 24th in the rankings and probably shouldn’t be ranked after that debacle.
The NFL season started on Wednesday with a SuperBowl rematch between the Champion Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Sam Darnold went down with an injury and New England jumped out to a 10-3 lead at the end of the third quarter. And then Drake Maye collapsed by throwing three interceptions in the fourth quarter, allowing Seattle to win the game 13-10. A really unimpressive game but Seattle proved once again that they have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Thursday had the first ever NFL game in Australia between the 49er’s and Rams. A big debate on whether it was a better approach to travel early or late. The 9er’s went a week before the game and the Rams chose to go a couple of days before. The Rams looked lethargic, like they were still jet-lagged from the flight. San Francisco absolutely dog-walked the Rams in the 27-7 victory.
What a week for scoring. Eleven teams scored 30 points or more on Sunday and Monday. Teams that scored 30 or more points were 8-3. Unfortunately for the Saints, Panthers and Texans; they were on the receiving end of those other 30 point scores.
Starting in Detroit where the Lions needed overtime to dispatch the Saints 31-30. The Saints decided to go for the game winning two instead of the tie in OT. Saints QB Tyler Shough threw for 410 yards and Chris Olave had 182 receiving yards.
In Carolina, the Panthers beat the Bears defense down to the tune of 37 points. But Chicago lit the Panthers up for 59!! Both defenses looked awful in this game. And if either team wants to make noise this season, they need to improve the defensive side of the ball for sure. I’m also wondering if these offenses are who they are or just the benefit of going against terrible defenses.
Then we had what could be a preview of the AFC Championship with Buffalo in Houston. Houston has one of the best defenses in the NFL but submitted 36 points to the Bills. They had played each other each of the last two seasons and not only did Houston win both matchups, Buffalo scored 20 and 19 points respectively. So, for the Bills to score 36 in this game is huge.
And in what could be another potential AFC Championship showdown, on Monday night Kansas City dog-walked Denver. It wasn’t even a close game. KC running back Kenneth Walker showed why they went out and spent money on the SuperBowl MVP when he ran for 173 yards and two total TDs. I knew that Walker would have an impact on KC but I didn’t think that it would be this soon. Denver has a really good defense and they were obliterated.
A few games that I am looking forward to this weekend.
#7 LSU at #8 Ole Miss. How fired up will Ole Miss be for this game? Considering the new LSU coach was the coach for Ole Miss last year. And of course, because loyalty means nothing, Lane Kiffin decided to leave his old squad before the FBS playoffs. A win by either team will have an impact on the top 25 rankings next week. It’s hard to not be a little biased because of a dislike for what Kiffin did. However, I feel like LSU will get the win in a high scoring contest. 38-34.
The big game for me this week is the Thursday Night game on Prime Video between Detroit and Buffalo. Both have really good offenses and defenses that are better than what they showed in week one. I have Buffalo taking it in a lower scoring game than either team had last week. 28-24.
Jacksonville is at Denver on Sunday afternoon. Jacksonville has a pretty good defense and it will be interesting to see how Denver tries to rebound after getting beaten down by KC. In my predictions, I had Denver as a 13 win team. And I don’t want to be too reactionary about what happened on Monday Night. But my gut instinct is to go with Jax in this game. Although I do think that Denver will play much better in this game, Jacksonville wins 30-23.