by Adam Jones 

"What's the score?"

"24-11"

"Oregon?"

"Nope."

Tough to know what that means absent any context. The assumptions are always the same: turnovers, blown coverage, special teams blunder, but we don't really know the full story sitting at the back table of the Mean Eyed Cat, one of our country's great beer bars. Mean Eyed sits on Fifth Street, just off Mopac. Fitting that the trains run right behind it since the whole joint is homage to Johnny Cash. But it's not a sports bar-there's only one TV and the guys at the bar have it tuned to the Spurs-Mavericks game. This clearly demonstrates one of the downsides of democracy. We at the back celebrating dad's night (we don't convene until the last kid is put to bed) must depend on the Yahoo sports ticker, our imaginations and draft Dos Equis.

"31-14 at the half"

Where's the Duck comeback?

"31-17...31-24..."

Here it comes. Oregon is going to win this one. Except we were missing one important piece of information among our discussions of sports and stock prices, of parenting and politics.

Dennis Dixon was not on the field.

Arizona 34, Oregon 24

Add another contestant to America's favorite game: Who's NOT going to win the national title this year. Oregon's Dixon, the heart and soul of the second-ranked Ducks and the Heisman front-runner du jour, went down absent any contact and his ACL went with him, along with the best hopes for a magical Oregon season. Not so good being number two this year.

For that matter, it's not so good being number three. The Oklahoma Sooners lost their own dynamic leader, redshirt frosh sensation Sam Bradford, who went out early with a concussion to a much more dangerous opponent than Arizona. The Texas Tech Red Raider Aerial Freakshow  took advantage of OU mistakes to stake a 34-10 lead early in the third. Then, by playing ball control (NOTE: "ball control" to Texas Tech means a series of drives lasting no more than 45 seconds followed by punts and sending up prayers asking a benevolent God for Oklahoma offensive miscues, which were granted throughout much of the second-half) Tech gamely hung on for a 34-27 win.

Now we have a real mess. Last week I pondered what it would mean if Georgia made it through the SEC title game and staked a claim to a spot in the BCS title game with two losses. I was roundly mocked by the readership, which is fitting given a man of my station. However, today there are only five major conference teams remaining with one loss or fewer and aside from Ohio State, which is now in the roundhouse for the evening with an 11-1 record thanks to their 14-3 defeat of Michigan (what else is new), all of them have difficult tasks ahead.

LSU, who defeated Ole Miss 41-24, must play Arkansas and then win the SEC title game.

West Virginia's Pat White was typically brilliant as the Mountaineers won on the road at Cincinnati, 28-23. WVU must still defeat UConn, which is not a gimme this season. The Huskies beat Syracuse 30-7 on Saturday.

Kansas and Missouri will play each other and the survivor then must meet a very pissed-off Oklahoma for the Big 12 title. Those three may simply eat their own. KU and Mizzou were both impressive this week. The Jayhawks routed the allegedly resurgent Iowa State Hawkeyes 45-7 and the Tigers ran away from K-State 49-32.

Arizona State, who is already ranked behind Georgia if you are scoring at home, plays USC on Thanksgiving night.

So these are the circumstances that make me a Georgia Bulldog fan. The system simply can't take a two-loss national title participant. I don't think it can, anyway. Of course, I didn't think the system could take the AP refusing to vote the BCS title game winner as national champ, a team that failed to win its own conference participating in the title game or an undefeated SEC champion being denied a spot in the final, so what do I know?

There's another problem. Georgia, who defeated Kentucky 24-13 this weekend, doesn't even have the inside track on the SEC East title. Tennessee does. Barely. The Vols came back from 24-9 down to Vanderbilt and survived when the Commodores couldn't muster a game-winning field goal. 25-24, Vols.

Meanwhile, Alabama scheduled a tune-up game with Louisiana-Monroe in anticipation of the Iron Bowl with Auburn. Losing the tune-up game 21-14 in front of the home folks was probably not what Nick Saban had in mind.

Duke billed its game with Notre Dame as the Duke Super Bowl, which did the Blue Devils little good in a 28-7 loss that may have set NBC's coverage of college football back two decades. The Irish avoided a winless home season for the first time in 74 years, which is why you schedule Duke in the first place.

California is now officially in free-fall without a chute. The Golden Bears lost for the fifth time in six weeks against Washington, 37-24.

As soon as I begin to believe in Clemson and as soon as I completely lose faith in Boston College, this happens: BC 20, Clemson 17. Damn you, Tommy Bowden.

Virginia Tech whipped a Miami squad who may well have already quit. 44-14 was the final.

This is the time of year when all the schools from the Big Ten play for things like Paul Bunyan's Axe, the Old Oaken Bucket, the Big Sioux Hatchet, the Mildewed Chamber Pot and William Howard Taft's Truss. Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana all won to lay claim to something that would have otherwise gone home with Northwestern, Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue. Western Michigan embarrassed Iowa for good measure. Hey, didn't you use to be Kirk Ferentz?

Hawaii beat Nevada by the skin of their teeth on Friday night, remaining undefeated 28-26 on a field goal with eleven seconds left. Boise State had a much easier time of it with a 58-14 wipeout of Idaho.

Florida beat Florida Atlantic 59-20 and Tim Tebow became the first player in history to record 20 TDs both passing and rushing. Not a bad legacy.

And that, my friends, is pretty much it. Only one full weekend remains of our favorite sport, except for the Big Ten teams, who for the most part hung up the cleats this weekend to celebrate their traditional 40-day fast before the bowl season begins (Would it kill you to schedule one lousy match-up over Thanksgiving?).

Impressive Showing of the Week: Texas Tech

1. LSU: Notice how I keep trying to keep them down and they keep popping back up to the top?

2. Missouri: The Tigers gave Oklahoma a pretty good game in a close loss the first time around. I thing Mizzou will win the re-match.

3. Georgia: As I mentioned, Tennessee is currently blocking the Dawgs' path to the SEC championship. Remember, my rankings aren't about resume; they are purely about how good I think the teams are at any given moment.

4. Ohio State: Still the nation's best overall defense, Vernon Gholston was a beast against the Michigan running game.

5. West Virginia: Pat White playing quarterback is the ultimate "puncher's chance" at knocking out any of the above teams should WVU make it to the big show.

6. Kansas: Are they really the sixth-best team in the nation? They might well be, but I still won't know until I see the Missouri game next Saturday.

7. Not Oregon, but maybe Oklahoma: Dennis Dixon won't return to the Oregon line-up. Without him, the Ducks are not a top ten team. Sam Bradford may come back for Oklahoma. With him, the Sooners could still win the Big 12.

8. Virginia Tech: I think the Hokies are a shade better than either UVa or Boston College. Letting BC off the mat is the biggest do-over wish in the Va Tech season.

9. Arizona State: Too low? Maybe, but the cachet of having only one loss will rocket State up assuming they can beat USC on Thursday night.

10. Louisiana-Monroe: Either them or Illinois, maybe Boston College.

Waiting in the wings, as they have for most of the season, are Texas and USC. Wouldn't the Holiday Bowl love to have that fall into their laps?

Be thankful this weekend, especially for folks like my friend Major Marc Patterson, who is with his buddies in an undisclosed location performing undisclosed tasks so that the rest of us are allowed to eat turkey and watch television all weekend.

Thanks.

 

Copyright 2007 Adam Jones

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