The football weekend

Saturday saw the long awaited return of Big Ten football. Yeah we have had at least some college games every week since mid-September, but this was the first Saturday this fall that felt kind of normal. 

And then the Gophers kind of ruined it by getting absolutely dominated at a fan-less TCF Bank Stadium by Michigan 49-24 (it wasn't even that close in reality).

The Gophers grabbed a quick 7-0 lead after a blocked punt. But that was Michigan's last punt of the night. The rest of the game was a largely inexperienced Gopher defense getting run the fuck over. Michigan only held the ball for 25 minutes, but averaged almost 9 yards per play. Only a trio of missed field goals kept the visitors from dropping 50.

The Gophers offense couldn't keep up. Tanner Morgan was rather awful. He missed a wide open TD on a 4th and goal that was the last chance to stay in the game. And he routinely failed to have any feel for pass rush, once getting blasted and fumbling for a touchdown return. And he ran himself into a few sacks.

The Gophers stunk early last season too, but they survived because their early schedule included the likes of South Dakota State and Georgia Southern. No such bailouts this year. Even the bad conference teams will not be those kinds of pushovers. PJ has a lot of work to do. 

Sunday's noon slate of NFL action was pretty entertaining. Only 2 duds: the Packers blowing out the Texans, and Washington just wrecking the increasingly disastrous Cowboys, who are now down to their 3rd string QB. Dallas is having one of the biggest catastrophe seasons in recent memory. As for the Packers, yeah I'm more than a little worried about their super bowl chances. But I have been before and things have worked out. And by the playoffs it won't be 2020 anymore. 

In the battle of unbeatens the Steelers held off the Titans. God forbid that prick Gostkowski missed against US. The Steelers are REALLY good. I think we would all sign up for a Steelers-Chiefs AFC title game. 

The Saints beat Carolina in another close one. I honestly think it serves the Saints well that they haven't just been lighting up everyone and have had to kind of grind out wins.

Buffalo and Cleveland each looked to be having flop games against, respectively, the Jets and Bengals. But both came back to win.

And Atlanta found yet another inventive way to blow a game. Figures that the only game they didn't look like themselves was last week. That kind of season.

In the late afternoon games, a competitive Bucs-Raiders game morphed into kind of a Bucs rout. Look, the national media is already getting all erect about the idea of Brady leading Tampa to the Super Bowl. But at this point last year his Patriots looked invincible and then slowly fell apart. I'm not exactly ready to crown them NFC champions.

Speaking of the Patriots, it is over. They are over. They are done. The 49ers went into Gillette and stomped the fallen dynasty. The Patriots seriously are looking like one of the worst teams in the whole NFL. They play Buffalo next week and that game could bury them.

We got our 1st snow game of the year. Granted, it is fucking bullshit that we are getting snow in October like this. The Chiefs routed Denver in that game.

And on SNF the Seahawks lost for the first time, in a 37-34 OT thriller in Arizona.

The Vikings cannot possibly make a playoff run. Of the 6 non-east teams currently in NFC playoff spots, the worst of them is 3 full games ahead of us, and that doesn't even include the at-the-moment out Saints and 49ers. 

Wasn't even a good weekend for the Tank Nazis. The only 1 win team that would maybe draft a QB that won was Washington.