Three Things that Must Happen / Week 12

The following things must happen in order for me to be happy (read: for Ohio State to get back to the BCS Title game and have a shot at winning it).

1. Missouri or Kansas must lose when they face each other this weekend. This definitely will happen, unless they tie or the world blows up or something.
2. West Virginia must lose to Connecticut, Saturday. This actually might happen. Connecticut, believe it or not, is a top-25 team.
3. Oklahoma must get QB Sam Bradford healthy in time for the Big 12 Championship game and then must beat the winner of Missouri/Kansas.

Ohio State would then jump to number two in the BCS standings and play LSU in the National Title game. LSU is the best matchup of the remaining teams near the top (except for maybe Arizona State should LSU lose, too) because LSU runs a more traditional offense.

If LSU loses to Georgia in the SEC Championship and West Virginia wins out, OSU probably gets beat on Jan. 8. West Virginia runs a more potent spread option than Illinois, especially running with Steve Slaton and Pat White, and we all know how that turned out.

If LSU loses and Missouri wins out, we might lose that game too, because Missouri runs a…can you guess?...spread offense, right. Chase Daniel is light years better throwing the ball than Juice Williams, who killed OSU’s secondary.

And Kansas?…spread offense. But they are largely untested and should lose one of they’re final two games. They are undefeated, but sport the 117th-rated schedule. And their coach may die of a heart attack before then. Have you seen this guy? If they end up winning it all, the Jayhawks players might just end up dumping ranch dressing over him instead of Gatorade.

So be praying for a miracle…or several miracles over the next few weeks. But the way this college football season has been thus far, don’t be surprised if the Buckeyes find themselves back in it.

NFL PICKS WEEK 12

Last Week: 11-5

Overall: 74-55

Green Bay over DETROIT
Indianapolis over ATLANTA
DALLAS over NY Jets
Tennessee over CINCY
CLEVELAND over Houston
KANSAS CITY over Oakland
Seattle over ST LOUIS
NY GIANTS over Minnesota
Washington over TAMPA BAY
New Orleans over CAROLINA
JACKSONVILLE over Buffalo
ARIZONA over San Fran
Denver over CHICAGO
SAN DIEGO over Baltimore
NEW ENGLAND over Philly
PITTSBURGH over Miami

Boeckman's Importance / Week 11

Now, about that debacle on Saturday in The Shoe. We lost. Our National Title hopes are out the door like Stephon Marbury. And what was the primary culprit? The spread offense. What a surprise. Welcome to the Twenty-first century, Buckeyes.

True, the first touchdown was a complete sham. Had Tressel been paying attention and challenged that the ground had caused Illinois’s fumble, or had the Illini not hurried to get a play off, they ball would have gone back to the Bucks on the twenty-yard line. But it wouldn’t have mattered. The Ohio State defense could not stop Juice Williams and the Illinois running backs from getting 5-6 yards per carry. And of the four touchdowns that Juice threw, all of them were to guys that were anywhere from 1 to 8 yards open. Easy pickins.

And then there’s the play of Todd Boeckman. Before the game, a fellow Buckeye friend of mine mentioned his speculation of the newly-anointed Golden Boy from St. Henry. He said it was the silent “o” in his last name that made him not trustworthy (and the fact that he loves throwing the long ball into double coverage). After the game, this same friend decided that the silent “o” stood for “overrated.” His greatness, indeed, is overrated—several sportscasters were mentioning Heisman in the same breath as Boeckman last week before the game. But his importance to the Buckeyes’ success is not overrated at all. If we would have won Saturday and had gone on to win a National Title, and if we win this coming Saturday against Michigan, it would have been because of number 17. Not number 33 (not much of a factor against Illinois), or number 80 (who decided not to show up Saturday), or even number 28 (who, at 80-90%, is better than any other RB in the Big Ten. Even Mike Hart).

Defense doesn’t win championships anymore. Not in this spread-offense-riddled landscape that is college football. You have to be able to put points on the board because every great team can do just that. Offenses will move the ball. You are not going to dominate a great team defensively anymore. Coordinators are too smart and players are too fast. That’s why Boeckman is so important. Those three interceptions by Boeckman (one in the endzone and another within the redzone) hurt OSU more than the inability of their D to stop their opponent, in the end. Had those three pics turned into scores, and had Boeckman not thrown some other questionable passes, the outcome would have been different. I’m not saying he played horribly, because he showed some real moxie standing in the pocket and taking shots and even running for big gains when the need arose. I just wish he’d been more like Krenzel and less like Bellasari.

Let’s just hope he plays like the QB who actually won last year’s Heisman Saturday versus those Wolverines. Or the one who will win next year’s.

NFL PICKS
Last Week: A woeful 6-8, thank goodness I didn’t document them here.
Overall: A respectable 64-50
Tampa Bay over ATLANTA
CINCY over Arizona
INDY over KC
JACKSONVILLE over San Diego
Oakland over MINNESOTA
Cleveland over BALTIMORE
GREEN BAY over Carolina
New Orleans over HOUSTON
PHILLY over Miami
DETROIT over Giants
Pittsburgh over JETS
DALLAS over Washington
St. Louis over SAN FRAN
SEATTLE over Chicago
New England over BUFFALO
DENVER over Tennessee

Kobe-To-Bulls Trade / Week 9

I wish I could enjoy all this Kobe-to-the-Bulls talk. But I can’t. It’s not going to happen. Kobe has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t simply want to play for the same mediocre team in a different city. He doesn’t just want to swap jerseys and continue chucking up 40 shots a night on a team destined to barely make the playoffs. He wants to contend. He’s not doing that in Los Angeles with a supporting cast of the likes of the underachieving duo of Odom and Kwame. Or Luke Walton, who can pass, but that’s about it. Or Derek Fisher, a good scorer of the bench on a good team, running the show. Or Andrew Bynum, who is at least 2 years away from being pretty good, and maybe just pretty good.

Kobe wants to go to the Bulls, but he doesn’t want to be shipped off for Luol Deng, the Bulls best player, or Ben Wallace, the Bulls best…over-the-hill, undersized center. He says he will veto any deal that includes either of the two. Kobe wants his cake and eat it too. He wants the whole cake with extra icing and a tall, chilled glass of milk to wash it down. And he apparently doesn’t want to leave the Lakers anything but crumbs. And that aint gonna fly. No matter how much Buss and Kupchak want him gone.

I was curiously using the ESPN.com Trade Machine to try and make a deal work between the two teams, and it’s nearly impossible. One trade had me sending Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, Viktor Khryapa, and James OnCurry for Kobe. That means that the starting lineup on the Bulls would be Hinrich, Kobe, Deng, Joe Smith, and Wallace. And coming off the bench? Thabo Shefolosha, Nocioni, rookie Aaron Gray and Adrian Griffin. Now this team is pretty good, but they have absolutely nothing down low. Even less so than now, which I thought was impossible. And the Lakers aren’t really getting much in return besides an undersized streak shooter who can’t play defense (Gordon), an energy guy who is limited offensively besides being the most annoying personality on the planet (Noah), a backup point guard (Duhon), a dunker (Thomas), and two rookies. For the best player in the world? The Lakers aren’t stupid, and they aren’t that desperate.

That’s why I’m not holding my breath. The only way this happens is if the Bulls give up several draft picks, if Kobe concedes on his demands, or if a third team gets involved. Rumor has it that the Kings are shopping around Ron Artest, but even his talents don’t come close to even 50 cents on the dollar.

So, as much as I would love to see Kobe stroking fadeaways a la MJ in a Bulls #24, it’s more likely that I start liking the current Bulls #13.

Week 9 NFL Picks
Last Week: 6-7 (yikes!)
Overall: 58-42

TENNESSEE over Carolina
TAMPA BAY over Arizona
Washington over NY JETS
NEW ORLEANS over Jacksonville
San Diego over MINNESOTA
ATLANTA over San Francisco
Green Bay over KANSAS CITY
DETROIT over Denver
Cincy over BUFFALO
CLEVELAND over Seattle
OAKLAND over Houston
Dallas over PHILLY
PITTSBURGH over Baltimore
Game of the Week:
New England over INDY