Seriously, we’re in week eight already? This season has been flying by and I’d much rather this season slow down because it’s been a very fun ride. Here’s this week’s Cover Two column.
NINE OVERTIMES?
The early slate of games lately has been bereft of drama the last few weeks and the Penn State-Illinois contest was no different this past Saturday. It was a war of attrition that went well past the four-hour mark and despite both teams going for two after the third overtime frame, they set a new record in the history of college football with nine overtime periods.
It was an insane game and while it seems like the over would have cashed with the game playing out over nine overtime periods, but the Fighting Illini came away with a shocking 20-18 victory. Even more crazy was that both teams combined for 18 points.
UL Monroe Continues to Shock the CFB World
How about Tommy Bowden and the Warhawks? Once the program hired Bowden, everyone started to pile on the program and put them at the bottom of the rankings in the Sun Belt conference. You look up today and ULM has won two straight victories against Liberty and South Alabama respectively and are second in the Sun Belt West Division.
The first year head coach of the Warhawks has done well so far, but there’s still a lot to be done before they can roll out the red carpet and become bowl-eligible and it begins with an App State team that just beat Coastal Carolina on Thursday night. Unrelated note: why is Coastal Carolina still ranked while the Cajuns aren’t?
Hail to Upsets
Clemson’s precipitous fall is something to behold and the Pitt Panthers showed just how far this team has fallen. DJ Uiagalelei is not the guy that Dabo expected to pick up where the great Trevor Lawrence left off and that’s hurt an offense that had a lot of hype headed into the season.
That said, you have to love seeing Kenny Pickett carve up the Tigers defense like it was Thanksgiving dinner. He’s had a lowkey good career at Pitt and that game may have helped his draft stock.
Sooners Look Suspect
I think after week one of the college football season, one team has looked more suspect than any of the other contenders for the playoff and that’s the Oklahoma Sooners. They barely beat a Tulane program that has done nothing of note after that anomaly and then just this past Saturday they seemingly played down to their competition in the Kansas Jayhawks (you read that right) for a half.
Yes they won by a decent margin, but the Sooners still have a lot of landmines to avoid if they want to get into the CFP and their hopes are hanging on by a thread at this point.
Bengals Are So Hot Right Now
Joey B might need to change his name Hansel McDonald because he has been en fuego the last couple of weeks and this past Sunday was a magical performance. The former LSU Tiger had over 400 yards passing and three touchdowns in a dominant performance over the Baltimore Ravens.
I said it back when he was drafted that once he got into his second season, he would be one of the top quarterbacks in the entire league because the game would slow down for him. Then you get the best rookie in the NFL right now in Ja’Marr Chase and this team looks like that legendary 2019 LSU Tigers offense.
Sam Darnold Just As Bad With Panthers
The Carolina Panthers headed into year two of the Matt Rhule era with a big pet project, trading with the New York Jets for Sam Darnold. A lot like some relationships where one person thinks they can fix the other, it’s clear that what Sam Darnold’s issues are can’t be fixed just with a new head coach at the helm.
When you’re replaced by a former XFL QB in PJ Walker (for the record he was going to be the league MVP if COVID never happened), the signs aren’t necessarily good. It also paints a pretty bad picture for Joe Brady, who may be losing his control of the play-calling if they continue to underwhelm on that front.
Cardinals Kings of the League
The Arizona Cardinals aren’t necessarily surprising anybody, but they are the lone undefeated team in the league and are doing this in the toughest division in the NFL which is even more impressive.
Even without Kliff Kingsbury being on the sideline due to COVID in week six, he came back for week seven and they dominated the Houston Texans. Yes that’s not anything to really brag about because everyone is annihilating them, but it’s still a nice victory to have.
Sir, This Is a Broadcast Booth
What the heck is in the alcohol in Baltimore? During the broadcast of the Ravens-Bengals contest, someone decided to climb their way to the broadcast booth and try to get a drink. Don’t believe me, listen to this call from the Ravens Radio Network.
Major props to both the broadcast team and the producer to cut the feed to the play-by-play audio to avoid any major FCC fines if one of the seven deadlies were uttered.