You’d hardly think I was talking about the game itself if I said that Michael Vick was the biggest story of the football week.
But that was the case with Vick making his first NFL start since New Year’s Eve 2006. Back then he was with the Falcons, now it was with the Eagles, but not a whole lot seems to have changed. Aside from the rust that Vick showed in brief appearances last year and during the pre-season this year, it does seem that Vick has morphed back into his old self on the field. Coming in as a relief option when Kevin Kolb went down last week, Vick showed that he could still play effectively; this week, Vick showed that he could still go the full sixty with no problems. The win over Detroit proved to be more of an exhibition for Vick to show off that he still had the skills that made him what he was prior to the jail time he served. Vick did run a little, but with LeSean Jackson’s three-touchdown performance all he had to worry about was getting the job done through the air, something he did with ease. Considering Vick hasn’t lost his athletic ability and Kolb hasn’t done anything for the Eagles in any of his brief appearances in between Donovan McNabb’s injuries, I say let Vick prove his worth since so many people were skeptical last year as to if he could even still play.
And while Vick’s performance—along with Jahvid Best’s three touchdowns and 200+ total yards for Detroit in the same game—game me reason to smile Sunday, the Manning Bowl did anything but. Manning Bowl II had all of the luster and gave off all of the anticipation of the first meeting between the brothers years back, but the sequel was downright pitiful in comparison. Right from the beginning, the Giants had no answer for Indy on either side of the ball and the game that had yours truly on the edge of his seat at kickoff slowly became another big game that was left amongst the changing channels long before it was done.
The Giants are among many teams who I find difficult to get a handle on. Many NFL teams have appeared to have formed a traveling theater group performing Jekyll and Hyde. Right now, half the league stands at 1-1 and just about all of them have played like it. The exception in the 1-1 group has to be Baltimore who have played the same way in both of their games: great on defense, pathetic on offense. Yesterday may have been the best indication that Joe Flacco is a great quarterback, considering what he’s done in such a short period of time, but someone who is still a work in progress.
The most puzzling in the NFL have to be the Vikings and Cowboys. Two teams that were among the pre-season Super Bowl contenders—more Dallas than Minnesota—have started 0-2 with lackluster performances that have caused some to question whether either will be making the playoffs later this season. I think week two is a tad early to be questioning playoff berths for anybody, but it is puzzling to see two teams that went past the first weekend of playoff action last year start off so bad. With Minnesota you knew the injuries would effect things on offense, but to the degree that it has is really something as Favre seems to have morphed back into the Brett Favre that had people in Green Bay calling for him to retire before his rejuvenation in recent years. With Dallas, it’s almost baffling as this is a team that didn’t lose any major component on either side of the ball and for the first time in years (and I mean years) seemed to have some real team momentum after finally gaining a playoff win last season. To go along with that is the fact that the performances Dallas has put on these first two games have been the very definition of Jekyll & Hyde: week one saw Romo and the ‘Boys’ offense look like twelve bewildered men on a football field while their defense kept them in the game until the very end while week two saw their defense take the week off and let Jay Cutler have another big day to start his year with Romo seeming to have found his groove, but with question marks still looming.
College football provided my sports thrill of this past weekend in the form of Auburn and Clemson’s battle of attrition. The game had all the elements of a game of the year contender as Clemson built up a seventeen point lead only to have Auburn gain nearly 300 yards and score twenty-one points in the third quarter in a close game that went to overtime with Auburn eventually capping their great comeback with a win. The game also featured some of the hardest hitting this side of Steelers/Ravens. Three players were taken off the field in the fourth quarter and overtime alone while nearly every other play in the second half featured a player down on the field after a major hit. Kyle Parker was an early victim as a big hit to his back in the first half resulted in Parker playing over half of the game in pain while taking more hits along the way. This was good old, smash-mouth, southern football, and I couldn’t have been happier for it and glad that I was able to view it.
The polar opposite of that would be Notre Dame/Michigan St. This was almost the definition of razzle-dazzle with the game turning from a defensive-minded slow moving game with a 7-7 deadlock at the half, into a high octane passing exhibition with the teams combining for forty-two second half points. And then there were the theatrics that would transpire in Overtime. After Notre Dame booted a field-goal to take the lead, the Spartans faced the same option on fourth down. They added a twist by opting for a play call right out of Boise St.’s playbook and won the game with a fake field-goal touchdown pass (forget the tie, let’s go for the win).
The Brian Kelly era in South Bend through three games has embodied what the entire Charlie Weis era as Notre Dame coach did: unimpressive “big” wins, falling for trick plays at the worst possible time, and losing games in the final minute. That is not say that the winds of misfortune don’t blow both ways as Michigan St. couldn’t even properly celebrate their climactic win. Just minutes after the game had ended, Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a mild heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital. He seems to have recovered, but is listed as being out indefinitely.
Now to something less surprising in the college football world: Mark Ingram running over Duke. His stats spoke for themselves: nine carries for 151 yards and two touchdowns with his scoring runs coming from one and seventeen yards, but being set up by runs of more than forty. The fact that Ingram’s surgery only put him week-by-week as far as playing was concerned should’ve told people that any troubles with Ingram had been alleviated by the surgery. Needless to say, Ingram made up for lost time and didn’t need a lot of time to do it. I’m not going to get carried away with this brief, but spectacular performance as it was against Duke and Ingram will get the chance to fully prove that he is back and better than ever when he faces off with Arkansas this coming weekend. I expect more of the same, but it will probably take Ingram at least ten carries to get to the 150-yard mark this time around.
Another thing not very surprising was Michigan’s near collapse against U-Mass. Those who’ve read my column know that I am a huge Michigan football fan. I have been one since as far back as I can remember. I am also one of a minority of people who gave Rich Rod the benefit of the doubt when that first season in Ann Arbor didn’t go well by any standard, and still do. However, there are two things to consider when looking at Michigan’s 42-37 win: FCS (division I-AA) teams have had better luck this year than any other time in history against FBS (division I-A) teams as several have tasted sweet shocking upset victory with Mississippi and Kansas being among those who fell, and Michigan’s secondary is just plain awful. Look at the 95-yard touchdown that nearly cost Michigan the game against Notre Dame from a week ago and realize that that kind of lapse in coverage was happening all game long as well as the week before for the Wolverines. And while Derod Robinson’s play could already be described as the stuff of legend in Ann Arbor, they haven’t even gotten to conference play yet. When they do, the defenses are sure to get much, much tougher once the Wolverines have to meet Iowa and Ohio St. and Wisconsin. Those games will be the real test and will decide whether or not Derod Robinson and Heisman Trophy have any business being in the same conversation.
Almost fittingly, the week ended with one of football’s least spoken truths: if a game is close enough, the final three minutes will provide more excitement than the previous fifty-seven combined. The Saints last second win over the 49ers on Monday Night Football proved this point to be as true today as ever. The game was a close albeit not that noteworthy one until Reggie Bush’s injury and more specifically the final possessions for each team. After the Saints blew three opportunities from inside the San Francisco five yard-line in an attempt to seal the win, Alex Smith guided Frisco down the field in a fashion typical of his Monday Night outings: an even mix of Smith passing and Smith running. Smith’s legs did as much work as his arms and both combined for a long drive that took less than a minute resulting in a touchdown. After a tense review that overruled the original call and gave Frisco the tie on the ensuing two-point conversion, Drew Brees mirrored Smith’s quickness in leading his team down the field, but did it all through the air. This lead to a game-winning field-goal that actually was deflected by the 49ers, but still went through. All of that in the final three minutes.
Finally, I’d like to give my opinions on Reggie Bush forfeiting his Heisman Trophy. I know that everybody who can give an opinion on this one has, but here goes: it was the right move by Bush to give it back and it was the right move to keep it vacant. I won’t give any points to Bush for forfeiting the award as it was going to come down to him giving it back or it being taken away anyway, but I will give the Heisman Trust points for not automatically giving the award to Vince Young and for not having a re-vote. A re-vote almost five full years after the fact is silly if not downright stupid, and Bill Dockery was right on the money when he said that you can’t really tell where the votes would’ve gone if Bush was off the ballot. Going back to that year, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn would’ve likely gotten much more votes than they did (as would’ve Young) had Bush’s votes needed to be redistributed. Also, I would like to point out the major flaw that many people calling for Young to be given the award gave as reasoning for the move: the fact that Vince Young won the national title that year against Reggie Bush and USC. Some may not have already realized the flaw in such reasoning, so here it is: the national title game is played nearly a month after the Heisman Trophy is presented, so how could a game that is played after the voting is tabulated have any impact on the voting? Getting back to Bush, I am glad that he gave the trophy back only so the circus that the whole USC scandal has become can fully (hopefully) go away. I do side with the people—including Bush’s parents—who don’t believe he should’ve given it back. I don’t think he should’ve given it back. My reasoning is simple: he did nothing that enhanced or effected his on-field play in anyway. What Bush was guilty of and what has helped get USC in so much trouble was a moral and financial infraction, not a performance enhancing one. You can wave the whole ineligibility thing (a system of rules that needs some tweaking badly) in my face all day long, but since he wasn’t caught with ‘roids or using an illegal diuretic or anything that a host of football players have been caught using and penalized for using since 2005, I don’t believe there was any justifiable reason for Reggie Bush to give back his Heisman.
