It must be Autumn in the Rocky Mountains because it went from 80 degrees on Saturday to 50 on Sunday. Yeesh. It should start snowing any minute...
Anyway, football continues to get itself going, and I am not as enthused as I am in most years. Largely because most of the teams I follow are off to either very shaky starts, or are just completely bad.
College
My Colorado State Rams continue their streak of no-luck against the Cal Bears, finding their offense in the 4th quarter only when the game was finally out of reach. Just like last week they lose by a couple of field goals. That's now 9 straight losses dating back to last year.
Meanwhile, my other school, The Ohio State Buckeyes, looked offensively lackluster in their 20-2 victory over the Akron Zips (and if that's not the sort of score to make you scratch your head, I don't know what is). Of course in these sorts of games, Tressel likes to rotate in the back-ups once the first team has scored a couple of times so you never know whether the non-blowout was intentional.
OSU is now ranked #10 which is nice, but it may not last long. Next week they must go on the road to play at Washington (who are undefeated with wins at Syracuse and home against Boise State - not too shabby). The Bucks will be counting on their defense to win this one for them, otherwise we could be joining Notre Dame and Michigan as midwestern laughing-stocks.
NFL
The Cleveland Browns looked baaad against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Much worse than I would have hoped. If the offensive line can't block and pass protect for Charlie Frye, there's no reason to put in Brady Quinn. On the other hand if Derek Anderson is going to get playing time, why not play 3 quarterbacks like in preseason as long as we know we can't beat anyone.
The Denver Broncos put up huge numbers against the Buffalo Bills only to win on a last second field goal 15-14. What's the deal? Kudos to the kicking team though for getting the kick off while the clock was running.
Indianapolis and San Diego defeated the top two teams in the NFC so it looks like it will be up to whomever can survive the brutal AFC this year: Colts, Chargers, Steelers, Patriots all looked good. And we still have the Baltimore Ravens playing Cincinnati game tonight. One or both of those teams should be in the mix by January.
For being an opening game between two good but not great NFC teams, the game between Dallas and the New York Giants was strangely epic. The Cowboys look like they have the potential to go all the way if Romo keeps playing like that (unfortunately for them they'll have to play one of the half dozen teams above should they make it to the Super Bowl). And all I can ever say about the Giants is, "poor Eli."
Other Week 1 winners of note: Houston, Green Bay, Detroit, Minnesota, and Carolina, all of whom are potential spoilers.
