The NFL and Food Network Present: Home Cooking; featuring the Arizona Cardinals

Leave it to the NFL to have one of the greatest playoff games in it's history partially ruined because of wonky rules and awful officiating. Baseball maybe; but not in the NFL, land of a thousand rules and infinite number of reviewable plays. Had this been a Week 17 game between the Rams and Redskins it would have been a little less egregious, but for a PLAYOFF game to end the way it did is completely unacceptable. Obviously my fan boy is showing, but I can't help but feel that this game will forever be stained because of a clear miss (misses?) on an official's part directly led to the end of a game.

Can't blame it all on the referees, in fact they'd be about 11th on my list of reasons the Packers lost, with Dom Capers being reasons 1 through 10. Throughout the game I was having periodic flashbacks to both games against the Vikings watching Green Bay drop 7 in zone coverage and bring 4 on the pass rush. Logic would seem to point to a 4 man rush against a 6 man line will favor the offense 100 out of 100 times. Kurt Warner is not the devil spawn of Michael Vick and Warren Moon so he's not going to burn you with his legs if you can get pressure and collapse the pocket. He can however laugh at you're soft zone coverage while he systematically dissects you if there is no one in his face.

Need proof? Think back to the 49ers game. Anyone think that San Fransisco's front 4 or defensive secondary is anywhere near as talented as the Packers'? No, didn't think so. The difference in why the Niners were so successful as opposed to the dismal Green Bay performance was pressure. San Fransisco brought heat throughout the game and forced Warner to rush throws, throw in to coverage, or simply throw the ball away. Pressure makes Warner turn the ball over, it's a proven fact throughout his career. No pressure on him equals him throwing more TD's than incompletions. But I digress, back to the scrubs wearing the stripes.

Home cooking happens, it's undeniable. Take this article from Yahoo! Sports for example; it's a different sport but the results are there. That's not to say there is some giant conspiracy to keep the Packers from winning the Super Bowl, but to see the number of calls that should have gone against the home team that were either completely overlooked or just wrong, it makes you wonder what is going on down on the field. Of course, there is no good argument without facts and/or substantial evidence. With that in mind I'm going to open up the NFL rule book for you and let you decide if I'm completely off base with my home cooking ideas.

Alabama wins the National Title. Let my insufferable gloating begin!

I'll just leave these here...

From 10/5/2009

2) Alabama should be #2, or possibly #1, in the country: Ah, the unpopular practice of moving an unbeaten team down in rankings. Always an exercise that brings about an enormous amount of hate and conference favoritism accusations from hateful, conference elitists. Well, too bad, it needs to be done to properly recognize the Crimson Tide's success this season. And just so I'm not going to be accused of playing favorites towards the SEC and hating on the Big 12, I am all for putting 'Bama above both Florida and Texas at this point.

The reason for the change at the top: Why not? Realistically, the top 3 teams in the country are totally interchangeable at this point and an argument could be made for each team to be at the top of the polls. However, I don't know how you like your elite tier football programs, but I like to see them go outside of conference and play somebody of value. So far, Alabama is the only one to fulfill this criteria by taking on top 10 Virginia Tech, and as their season opener no less. Yes, they followed that game up with North Texas and FIU, but that one game against a opponent of worth puts the Tide one game ahead of both the Gators and the 'Horns. A definitive win over Ole Miss this weekend and anything less than a #2 ranking would be grounds for an NCAA investigation into their pollsters.

Just a heads up, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Alabama got more first place votes (5) in the AP poll this week than Texas (1), so send the hate mail elsewhere.

From 10/14/2009

- Alabama will play Florida for the SEC title and straight up dominate.

7) Finally, justice for the Crimson Tide: Sure, they only moved up to #2 in the polls, but it's progress. Obviously they weren't going to leapfrog Florida after they beat LSU, but at least the voters finally realized that Alabama beating a decent, yet highly overrated, Ole Miss team is far more important than Texas destroying Colorado and their nepotism driven offense. If Texas beat Oklahoma this weekend, more than likely they'll retake the number 2 spot, but they probably shouldn't. That would be their first "good" win of the season, and it's really not all that impressive now that the Sooners have 2 losses.

In reality, the polls will mean absolutely nothing until the SEC title game happens. If Florida and Alabama meet up in that game, it's not really going to matter who is #1 at that point. The winner of that game will be the number 1 team, the loser will drop to around 4th or 5th, and Texas will be number 2, barring a loss at some point. So Longhorns fans, relax about being dropped in the polls. It's really not that big a deal right now, especially with Oklahoma and their conquering hero Sam Bradford coming to town this week.

From 10/19/2009

1) The NCAA hates Nick Saban: I can't think of any other reason for the continued disrespect of this incredible team. Florida is gift wrapped a win thanks to homer calls from incompetent SEC referees (to be discussed later), Texas looks flat and uninspired against a deflated Oklahoma team, USC takes a page out of the Minnesota Vikings playbook and gives up in the fourth quarter, Virginia Tech loses to a team without an passing game, and Miami looks less than impressive against a terrible UCF team. Meanwhile, in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide absolutely dismantle a South Carolina team that is better than most people think, and it is largely glossed over.

Why? You've got me.

Need proof that the BCS is either horribly flawed, or a total joke; Florida has beaten one ranked team and is nearly .040 percentage points ahead of Alabama, a team with 3 ranked wins in 7 games. The only thing keeping me from jumping into the "total joke" camp is the fact that there is no other team within .060 percentage points of either of these teams. Clearly Florida and Alabama are the best two teams in the country, but the problem is they're no longer interchangeable as most people believe. At this point in the season, Alabama is without question the number one team in the nation. Get that "their the champs until someone beats them" argument out of here. This isn't boxing, it's college football. New year, new teams, new number 1. The Tide have better wins and have looked better in their wins, simple as that.

Watching Alabama play, I keep having this thought that they are a Big 10 team trapped in the SEC. Not a bad thing, just a stylistic observation. Looking at the SEC, the top teams usually step on the field with a high octane offense and an athletic defense that can fly around the field an threaten a pick-six on every throw. Alabama is a different kind of monster in the SEC. Yes, they can punish you for making a bad throw, but it's usually the result of their front seven being dominant to a point where the offense has to try and force passes down field. No one will ever accuse the Tide's offense of being explosive, but make no mistake, they have playmakers everywhere and can put up some serious points.

The problem with Top 25 pollsters is that often times they get blown away by statistics and don't really take into consideration how games play out. Alabama beat South Carolina 20-6, and that's about the extent of knowledge a pollster needs when making up their Top 25. Sure, I have absolutely no proof of this, but it's the only logical conclusion I can make when the polls continue to have the Gators at #1. The score of the game was 20-6, but really that game was nowhere near as close as the score indicates. Alabama totally dominated the Gamecocks on both sides of the ball, but apparently that has little or no bearing on their ranking. Florida gets soundly outplayed by a brutal Arkansas team, but holds on to their top spot because "a win is a win".

Final score doesn't mean everything. When voters figure that out, I can stop wasting time complaining about the best team in a conference sitting behind the second best team in the national polls.

2) OK, one more point on Alabama...: Mark Ingram is a freak. The big questions going into this season were if Alabama would be able to replace John Parker Wilson at QB, and if losing Glen Coffee would allow defenses to key in on the new play caller. Well, so far they've answered with a "kinda" and "not at all". Nothing helps a new QB get his bearings than having the option to hand the ball off to a stud running back and piggy-back a passing attack off him. That is exactly what Ingram was brought to Alabama this season. Not only has he opened up the passing game for the Tide by forcing teams to stack the box to stop him, he has the ability to beat an 8 man front and break away if he gets the edge. 245 yards against a Steve Spurrier defense should be a red flag for every team that they need to know where Ingram is at all times. With most of the top Heisman candidates floundering, this sophomore might just sneak up and steal it away if he keeps playing like he has.


Lucky for everyone I started redesigning the site almost immediately after Alabama made the National Title game (after straight up dominating Florida!) so my gloating was kept to a minimum. Texas played great after losing their heart and soul on the first drive, but the Tide showed why I was so high on them all season. Punishing run game led by Heisman winner Mark Ingram, stifling defense at all levels, and they refused to give the Longhorns' backup QB any room to breathe or get comfortable (until the 2nd half). For as bad as Nick Saban tried to conservative the game away, Alabama had their way with Texas whenever they actually had their foot on the gas.

A few words of warning though; the amount of hype Alabama is going to get for a repeat National Championship this off-season is going to challenge this year's Florida Gators for the most insufferable of all time. It's not exactly without merit, it's just going to be completely unbearable.

Construction Zone: Disaster in Progress

(Ok, you get the idea)

Apologies for the absence. I've been attempting a redesign for the page and so far DreamWeaver has owned my soul, thus the lack of content. I should be back sometime after the National Championship game, hopefully to gloat and repost all my "Alabama is the best team" posts. In the meantime, please accept the musical mastery of Skratch Bastid.