Well, after the first week of the season I got yet another reminder of why I don't wager on sports. I don't think you could call it the week of the upsets in the Big XII, unless you happen to live in lawrence, kansas; but a lot of games that should have been laughers turned out to be pretty good contests.
In St Louis, the final (for now at least) installment of the Arch Rivalry ended pretty much as it has every other year, with my Tigers holding the trophy for the 6th consecutive time. However, unlike previous years it wasn't slugfest, with the last team holding the ball having an excellent chance of winning. This time Mizzou was led by a gambling, attacking defense that shut down the Illini in the 2nd half as the Tigers roared back from a 13-3 halftime deficit to win 23-13. On the defensive side of the ball, Aldon Smith picked up where he left off last year as he dominated whoever was unfortunate enough to be across the line from him. Carl Gettis was suffocating in coverage, and on offense, let the Wes Welker comparisons begin for sophomore wideout TJ Moe. He caught 13 passes and took some hits that were nothing short of nasty. The kid is going to be a good one. Real good.
Also picking up where he left off last year was me. I finished the week 11-1 straight up, but only 4-5 against the spread. My only straight up loss for the week happened no where else but larry, where the fighting jayhawks lost to North Dakota State in thrilling fashion, 6-3. The Turner Gill era opened with something of a thud and many of the beak faithful are already questioning the decision to run Mark Mangino out of town last year on an incredibly sturdy and large rail.
There could have been several more straight up upsets for the week however as Texas, beginning the post Colt McCoy era; Oklahoma, post Sam Bradford and Texas Tech sans the pirate all were involved in games that were much closer than expected. Actually, about the only confortable win of the weekend that was expected was corn nations decisive 49-10 throttling of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who admittedly went 0-12 last year. Make no mistake, even here corn nation and Bo Pelini aren't making reservations for the NC game quite yet. Actually, the biggest wins of the week were probably Okie State who blasted Washington State 65-17 and K State and Mr Burns beating UCLA 31-22.
We've got a couple of pretty good games coming up this week and I'll start taking a look at them tomorrow. Until then I'll just close with; NORTH DAKOTA STATE??? BWAHAHAHAHA
heh. Tell Lew I said hi.
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