I guess Bill Belichick will be just fine without Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel?
Oakland took the opening kickoff and drove to get a TD, indicating the first time New England had enabled an opening-drive TD into a competition, in 3-7 games! However, the defense settled down after that, allowing only a 73-yard TD’bomb’ into Randy Moss in the agen judi bola quarter and also a concession TD (leading 30-14) for roughly three minutes remaining in the game. In terms of the crime, Brady passed for 306 yards with 2 TDs (no INTs) and Dillon ran for two scores, even despite running for only 63 yards.
New England has now won 35 of its last 39 games (counting the postseason), including 2-1 straight in your home! No team from the Super Bowl age has ever won three consecutive championships and also in NFL history, just Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers have won three consecutive titles. Green Bay won the NFL title in 1965 and then won the first two Super Bowls, after NFL title-game wins at the 1966 and 1967 seasons. Can the Pats make it three straight Super Bowls and four in five seasons this year?
I assume but it’s not easy nowadays to even make the playoffs year in and year out. New England has won three Super Bowls in four decades but in 2002, the Pats failed to even reach the postseason. Only three franchises have made it to the postseason in each of their last few years. Philadelphia tops the list with five straight playoff appearances, followed by Green Bay (four directly ) and Indianapolis (three straight).
Even the Eagles finally broke their NFC title-game hex last year, beating the Falcons 27-10 in the NFC Championship Game, where they had lost the 3 previous years. Even the Eagles are the NFC’s best team again this season but are facing the fact that four straight and five of the past six Super Bowl champions have failed to post winning records the following year!
The Bengals own the longest playoff drought, having last been to the postseason in 1990. They’ll go into the 2005 season having a stretch of 14 consecutive playoff-less years. Underneath Cincinnati is currently Arizona with six consecutive non-playoff seasons. Buffalo, Detroit, Jacksonville and Washington have all missed the postseason the previous five decades.
The San Diego Chargers ended an eight-year playoff drought a year ago, by advancing from 4-12 from 2003 to 12-4 in 2004. A turnaround such as the Chargers experienced this past year have not become the norm but it is maybe not really a rarity, either.
Over a five-year period (2000-04), 25 of the 60 playoff participants (41.7 per cent ) are teams that have been .500 or worse annually before. All made the play offs coming from a non-winning year old. Who will be this year’s surprise team?
Week 1 continues on Sunday using the marquee game including the Colts’visiting’ Baltimore to play with the Ravens. For all those of us who grew up with Johnny U, the Colts are NOT supposed to be the visiting team in a game played in Baltimore. Week 1 ends with an NFC Championship Game rematch between the Eagles and Falcons. However, this period that the game is currently in Atlanta, not Philadelphia.
College Football
Three matches top college football’s 2nd Saturday. No.2 Texas will visit Columbus, Ohio to meet No. 4 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan hosts No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 5 LSU, homeless by Hurricane Katrina, will play at Tempe against No. 15 Arizona State (rather than hosting the Sun Devils in Baton Rogue).
TEXAS in OHIO STATE
Texas scheduled this game years ago and now may be asking themselves”This year?” After Oklahoma’s pathetic season-opening operation versus TCU, 2005 would be the year the Longhorns FINALLY beat the Sooners. A triumph over Oklahoma on October 8 will make Texas among those restrictive favorites to get spot in this year’s Rose Bowl however, not if the Longhorns lose in Columbus. Ohio State is currently 61 SU under Tressel versus top-10 teams and this is going to be the institution’s seventh-ever nighttime game in Ohio Stadium. In six previous games”under the lights”, OSU is currently 6-0 SU and ATS! As for Texas, the Longhorns never have lost a’authentic’ road game as a 42-38 loss in Lubbock versus Texas Tech at 2002 (eight straight wins).
Notre-dame in MICHIGAN
Talk about an underdog collection? The’dog’ is an incredible 14-2-1 ATS if Notre Dame and Michigan hook up. Notre Dame opened with a 42-21 win in Pitt, whilst the Irish capped 500 yards of offense with 3 3 FDs at Charlie Weis’ debut. Michigan’s defense hasn’t played well since the team’s eighth game of last year. Since that time, Michigan has allowed exactly 37 points into Michigan State, Ohio State and Texas, while allowing two other teams, north western and Northern Illinois (the other day ), more than 400 yards. In Michigan’s favour is a superb crime of its own and also a 14-0 SU record in”the Big House” since installing its new artificial surface.
LSU in ARIZONA STATE
Hurricane Katrina pushed a place change with this particular match, as LSU was first scheduled to host the Sun Devils at Baton Rogue. Would the pac 10 finally be playing’blessed’ as it has to do with a weather-related game-change! Back in 1998, a hurricane postponed UCLA’s game with Miami from early September to early December, when Miami had been an infinitely more polished team. UCLA’s loss in December that year, cost the undefeated Bruins an opportunity to play in the first-ever BCS title match. Again last year, a hurricane pushed Cal’s match at Southern Miss to the finish of the season and a closer than expected margin of success in that match, might have cost the Bears a vacation to the Rose Bowl.
Is this the year it ends up from the Pac-10’s favor? LSU is loaded and would have been a solid favorite in your home but playing Tempe, the match is a tossup. ASU, now gets its two most significant challenges of the year at home, Saturday night versus LSU along with an October 1 date with USC.
CLOSING NOTE
Akron was the lone MAC team to never play and Purdue was the only Big-10 team not in actions. Akron holds the distinction of being the only bowl-eligible team in 2004 (maybe not on suspension) to NOT buy a bowl bid. Purdue, was only 7-5 in 2005 but the team’s five losses came by a total of just 14 points! After opening the 2005 season 5-0, the Boilermakers lost consecutive games to Wisconsin (by three points), Michigan (by two), Northwestern (by 2 ) and Iowa (by two).
If last week’s results are any indication, Purdue shouldn’t be overly focused on using a close game on Saturday. MAC teams moved 1 10 (3-6-1 ATS) past weekend, the only win coming by Toledo over I aa Western Illinois (62-14). The 10 losers allowed on average 38.3 PPG! In terms of Big-10 a week, the conference proved to be a perfect 10-0 SU and 7-2-1 ATS.