First of all I had to work on Saturday and didn't get home until around 8 pm (MST). No college football for me. I missed Rivalry
Saturday! Obviously being tired and pissed, the only logical thing to do was sit down and watch a tivo-ed episode of "Ghost Whisperer" with my wife (don't ask). I totally forgot that USC was playing Fresno St at this same time and it was only by randomly flipping channels that I came upon the last part of the game. After seeing the score and getting an update on Reggie Bush's stats I proceeded to whack myself upside the head with a crowbar. - Holy Dick Cheney, did Bush have himself a game or what?! I'm not a big Trojan fan but I do like to watch exciting players. I think Bush qualifies. 513 total yards. 294 yards rushing.

Other Thoughts:

-USC still has to play a potent offense against UCLA and most likely Texas. They better hope Leinart, Bush, or White come up with their usual magic because that defense has not looked very good at times. - Put your tongue back in your mouth Vince Young. It's not polite to drool.

-I'm somewhat of a Texas Tech fan but even I can admit that I don't think that TD was valid that won it for the Red Raiders against Oklahoma. It sure looked like he was down before he got that ball across the goal line.

-Penn St. has to be the biggest surprise for me this year. They are flat out good and Robinson their QB is a star. I still think Joe Paterno ought to retire though. Why not go out in a blaze of glory? Or at least before we need to get him Hubble telescope lenses for those glasses.

-I think Oregon should be ranked ahead of both Notre Dame and Ohio St. There, I said it. Go Ducks. Any team that wears that color scheme should be given the benefit of the doubt.

-BYU and Utah played a pretty exciting game in the big rivalry matchup for my state. At least that's what I've heard. Deep breath. ok moving on.....Despite the loss, BYU is moving in the right direction. They are bowl eligible, which is step forward after 3 years of losing - The Utes 6 wins are a far cry from last year's undefeated season but they are a young team (QB was only 18) and maybe next year they will win some of the tight ones they couldn't close this year.

-Why does it seem that every Big Ten game is played for some kind of goofy trophy like a bucket, pig, axe, or the fossilized head of Woody Hayes? And do coaches actually use these things as extra motivation? Big Ten Championships are nice. But if you've got yourself a nice piece of pork in the trophy case then you've got something special.

NFL Disappointments and Surprises: Receivers

To continue the theme of the last couple of posts I'll move on to disappointments and surprises among the receiving corps. There are many guys at Wide Receiver that haven’t had the type of season so far that they or their teams have expected. This is a tough position to label because there is so much stuff that relates to the wide-out’s performance that is out of their control. The most obvious being whether or not you have a QB that can get you the ball or a coach that is willing to throw it. And really, all hell could break loose in the next few games for some of these guys and they could suddenly look very productive.


- Randy Moss’s 629 yards aren’t bad but he’s only caught 39 balls. So far, this deal hasn’t been all it was cracked up to be for the Raiders or the Vikings. I’m wondering though, does Moss end meetings with Al Davis with the words, “can you dig it baby”? And even more important, does Al respond with, “you bet your ass I can dig it!” ?

-Some might include Muhsin Muhammed on this list after his breakout year in 04. But really his season hasn’t been that disappointing relative to expectations. Come on, he signed with the Bears! Did anyone really expect him to go to the Pro-Bowl this year? The Bears aren’t a bad team but they are not going to light up anyone through the air. The only thing I wonder is if he convinced himself he was going to change the Bear’s offensive approach by showing up or if he was honest with himself and realized that the only numbers that were important to him were the ones in his bank account? I’m guessing it was the latter. I’m not out to brand him a bad guy. It's just that its a little ridiculous that he would go seemingly for more money when reports are that the Panthers offer and the Bears offer weren’t significantly different. Whatever the amounts, the Bears offered more. --At any rate, I don't think he can make the claim he was leaving to play for a winner. The Panthers were a decent team and he had no idea if the Bears were going to be. --Ok then. I’m done.

- Eric Moulds and Lee Evans both are under 400 yards for the season. Disappointing because both of these guys have great hands and are good receivers. Maybe Losman has it figured out now and the passing game will improve. Maybe my stunning good looks will continue to improve with age. These are things that we just don’t have answers for at this time.

-For various reasons Joe Horn (I’m sorry about Aaron Brooks Joe, I really am), Issac Bruce (injuries) and Michael Clayton (?) have not put up the numbers this year that we were expecting. They plan to personally apologize to fantasy owners worldwide.


- But my pick for most disappointing receiver is a three way Detroit tie. Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, and Roy Williams (although Roy’s last game was a real teaser) were supposed to be a three headed monster this year. Instead they have joined their QB’s in a game of “let’s see how fast we can get Mooch fired”. It’s fun, everyone’s playing, and there’s no assembly required. Be warned though, Matt Millen gets pissed when he doesn’t get to go first. -- None of these guys have over 310 yards receiving and the Detroit press has been all over their asses this season. Figuratively speaking of course. Because otherwise that’s not a pretty picture.



How about pleasant surprises at the Receiver position?

-Although Plaxico Burress has always been seen as talented…and tall.. you have to be a little surprised at his immediate success in NY (48 catches, 706 yards). His numbers already are not too far off his stats for the past couple of years with the Steelers.

-Joey Galloway (51 grabs, 862 yards) has been reborn in Tampa and looks like the guy who put two 1000 yard seasons back to back in 97 & 98. Where’d he go anyway? He’s like the guy in the horror flicks that goes out for a smoke and only comes back after he’s been possessed by a crazed spirit. So who’s possessing Joey now? Anyway, horror flick character, “Chucky” Gruden doesn’t care as long as he keeps it up.


- Dallas’ Terry Glenn is another guy who has found resurgence with a new (and old) coach. He’s got 713 yards and has been a favorite of Bledsoe’s on the deep routes. He just has to keep reminding Drew that he' the guy in the white uniform.

-And to plug a Ram guy here (and an alum of both my alma maters, Snow College and Utah State), I’ll mention St. Louis wide receiver, Kevin Curtis. He got some press that I noticed (yes I'm biased and you can check out a couple of good articles on him here and here ) coming into the season because of his breakout performance in the playoffs last year (where he outplayed both Holt and Bruce against the Seahawks and Falcons), but still he’s not a guy many people have heard of. For a nobody, he’s got an impressive 587 yards on 40 catches.



-And finally although, they were listed in my mid-season report as two of the best receivers of the season so far, I think you have to say they are also the two most surprising receivers of the year. I'm talking of course about Santana Moss of the Redskins and Steve Smith of the Panthers. Their stats are almost identical (Smith has 58 catches & 937 yards while Moss has 51 catches & 935 yards) I don’t think anybody at the beginning of the season had these guys pegged as being 1 & 2 in the receiving stats this late into the season. They’ve been huge for little guys.

Ok, following up on my previous post of the most disappointing running backs so far this season I thought I'd throw out a few surprises at tailback.

First, anybody that has followed football for the past few years can't be surprised at what Shawn Alexander, Edgerrin James, Ladainian Tomlinson, and Tikki Barber are doing. Even Clinton Portis, Reuben Droughns, Willis McGahee, and Rudi Johnson's solid but not spectacular seasons are not too surprising because you knew they were going to get the carries.

On the other hand:

- Warrick Dunn may have surprised some with his yardage (896) and yards-per carry average (5.1) this season, but I've liked this guy for a long time and felt he was underrated by many.


- Although you knew the Bears were going to run the ball, Thomas Jones has shown me some moves that I didn't know he had. Before he got hurt he had almost 800 yards and a 4.5 yard-per carry average. I'm wondering what they do next year with Benson ready for more playing time. Do they trade Jones, or try the platoon system like some teams employ? This guy is too good to sit.

-There was some buzz about Larry Johnson before the season began but I am surprised at how he has taken hold of the position for K.C. Even if Holmes doesn't get hurt, I think Johnson gets more carries to end the year. He's not the receiver that Holmes is but he's averaging over 5 yards a carry. Plus, I'm pretty sure if LJ had not gotten sufficient touches this season, he would have put Vermeil's family jewels in a vicegrip and really given him something to cry about.

-I know the Broncos run the ball well with just about anyone in the backfield but I really didn't know which one of their backs would step up this year. I also didn't figure on two guys doing as well as they have. Usually it's one guy on the team that grabs the mantle for the season. Mike Anderson's done it before so I'm not shocked with his solid season (669 yards, 4.5 yard average) but Tatem Bell has shown some serious speed to the outside and a big play ability. With some of the long ones he has busted out, his average rush per carry is 6.3! With his 606 yards rushing he has definitely impressed me. The only question I have is, when he's on the sideline and Shannahan is talking to him does he sit there and think, "damn!, those bug eyes are really freaking me out!" ? Just a thought.


Is it possible to be surprised and disappointed in the same season with a back? That's the case for me with Carnell (Cadillac) Williams of Tampa Bay. I think if he can get healthy we'll see some flashes of that early season brillance. I'm not surprised Cadillac's ex-Auburn teamate Ronnie Brown is doing well. After all he did go # 2 overall in the draft. There must have been a reason for that. Could it have been that he's fast, big, and very coachable. yeah that.



Steven Jackson's success for the Rams has not been surprising to me but the number of times he's been given the ball (729 yards, 155 carries) has. What I mean by this is that I expected Marshall Faulk to get at least of third of the carries in a game. That hasn't happened despite signs that Faulk is looking very fast this year. Faulk's window for padding those rushing stats is closing (32 years old) and I think the team needs his abilities. I'm bitter about this and don't want to talk about it. Let's move on.



-Hands down the biggest surprise for me this year so far at running back has been "Fast" Willie Parker of Pittsburgh. I'm not a big Steeler fan but I'm not even sure they knew who this guy was before the year began. I had never heard of him. He's cooled a bit from his fast start and his playing time has been cut into by Bettis (rightly so) but somebody please tell me they knew he would have 615 yards at this point (4.7 avg.) in the season. I want stocks in whatever your buying.

Pardon me for my lists, but I was thinking the other day about a few guys who I had expected to have nice seasons this year and for whatever the reason, haven't come through so far. Conversely, I wondered who have been the biggest surprises?
Now I have limited my list to the guys I follow the most, offensive skill position players (and believe it or not I haven't yet dabbled in fantasy football. so sue me). Sorry, I'm not going to get into defensive players. They are harder to analyze unless you really know what your talking about and again, I am a Ram fan so what the hell do I know about defense?
So anyway, relative to expectations and results who has been this season's biggest disappointments and surprises at the skill positions?

First my take on the biggest disappointment to date at the running back position: I think there are few candidates for this.

- Carolina has played well this season and their dual threat of Foster and Stephen Davis have been adequate, but Foster's been banged up and only carried the ball 75 times for less than 300 yards and Davis is averaging only 3 yards a carry with just under 500 yards. Now Davis does have 12 touchdowns but the only scoring that has really caught my attention was done by the Panther cheerleaders.

- Ahman Green's season has been a downer, complete with a season ending injury and Priest Holmes wasn't even the best back on his own team before he got hurt.

- Or how about the Jet's Curtis Martin who after his 1697 yard performance last year gave hope to the over 31 club. He's 32 years old now and his 3.4 yard per carry average is looking geriatric this year. I'm 33 and it kills me to think that if I was a running back in the NFL (work with me here) my career would essentially be over. It's incredible how 32 and older is seen as ancient for RB's in the NFL. I guess the pounding they take over 10 years in the league really does wear them down. To be fair to Martin, his line sucks.

- Another guy having a down year is Corey Dillon. He also has been a bit gimpy and his 441 yards and 3.5 yards-per carry mirrors the Pats season so far: very average. It's causing Belichik to look more like your friendly neighborhood serial killer every day. Keep up the great work Corey!

- And with the contract he signed Lamont Jordan really should be giving us more than a couple of good games and a 3.8 yard per carry average (after all it was the yard-per carry average last year that got him the contract). He's a big guy, he should carry guys at least 4 yards after he's hit. He's shown signs of coming to life with an increased workload so we'll see how the rest of the season goes.

- But for me, the award goes to your favorite inmate and mine: Jamal Lewis. Congratulations Jamal, you've just won a compilation cd of Joe Theismann's greatest suck-up comments about you. ----Jamal has a paltry 480 yards and and 3 yard per-carry average. What's that you say? The Ravens can't throw the ball and everybody is loading up on the run? Umm....and that's different from other years how? Yeah Lewis missed training camp and had his mind on other things in the offseason (namely how to keep the only other guy bigger than him from making him his beeatch) but what about all that talk of him really getting his head straight and how he realized how important football was to him? A lot of people were saying if he made a run at the single season rushing mark with an impending prison sentence always on his mind then just think what he could do without that burden. Hey it's contract time though right? Got to be careful. Careful you don't run yourself out of the league.
--Here's the thing: I'm not a Raven fan even though I lived in Baltimore for about a year, but I do like Lewis. He was fun to watch when he ran over people and occasionally around guys. I remember thinking a couple of years ago, "how do you stop this guy?" Apparently a few strip searches and jumpsuit wardrobe do the trick.

Coming next: RB surprises