Quick Hits

Chuckles Weis should do the honorable thing next weekend. And what I mean by that is, at the end of the game against Stanford (win, HAH, or lose) he should do what Olympic wrestlers do when they hang up their spikes: remove his shoes, leave them in the middle of the field, waddle off and consume 150% of his daily recommended calories at dinner, then retire from collegiate head coaching. Given Notre Dame's talent at the offensive skill positions, there is no way they should be 6-5. Are they a great team? Heck no. But should they be losing to the UConns of the world? No. Whatever "schematic advantage" Weis thought he was giving the Irish, something's getting lost in the translation from Weis to the players.

Everyone who thinks the BCS is right up there with the Edsel should be rooting for the following things to happen:
- Oklahoma State to lose to Oklahoma
- Texas to lose the Big XII Championship Game
- Cincinnati loses to Pittsburgh
- TCU and Boise State win their remaining games
What this will do is one of 2 things: Put Boise State in the BCS AND put TCU in the BCS title game, or force the voters to engage in hijinks to keep one or both of those events from occuring. IF there is going to be a change in how the national champion is crowned in college football, it's going to take- either the most blatant screwjob of a non-BCS team ever, or a couple of bowls with such terrible ratings (due to non-name schools playing in them) that even the bowls and conference commisioners have to take notice. Odds aren't good (Texas is much better than Nebraska, as Texas plays defense AND offense), but it's at least possible.

- Terrible (wait, let's cue up Bill Walton) TERRR-IBLE day for the AFC North. Pittsburgh kicks things off by losing to Kansas City. The Berger leaving in OT with what looked like a concussion isn't good either, but losing the the Chiefs is just about unfathomable.
Shortly thereafter, Cleveland fell to Detroit despite jumping out to a 24-3 lead. Against Detroit. Cleveland gets some credit as the referee's threw a flag for defensive PI on what should have been the final hail mary play of the game. In order to qualify for PI on a hail mary, there should be a dead body on the field. I haven't seen a good replay yet, so I won't lambast the refs, but I'm inclined to believe Cleveland got a bit hosed. Still, if you go up 24-3 on Detroit (even if you're Cleveland), you shouldn't be in a position for that hail mary to matter.
Then Baltimore fell to the Colts. That in and of itself wasn't so bad (the Colts being undefeated and all), but Baltimore lost because Flacco threw a pick easily within field goal range with less than 3 minutes to go while down just 2 points. Seriously? You're not a rookie anymore, Joe.
And then Cincinnati, the class of this division, topped it all off by losing to the Raiders. Yes, the Oakland Raiders. For shame.

- Seattle lost. It wasn't close. Favre went 22-25 and 4 TD. Tarvaris Jackson even threw a TD off the bench. Steve Hutchinson did not suffer a season-ending injury. I hate this season.

- Did you see how that guy drove around a track so much faster than all of the other guys (even the older guy who used to be sponsored by Viagra)? I hear it was really exciting. More importantly, NASCAR is over. Back to real sports.

- Buffalo lost their first game under new head coach Perry Fewell. Perry needs some tutoring in 2 minute clock management. He took a first-half situation with the ball at about the 6, about 15 seconds left and the clock running with 1 timeout and turned it into 1 running play that had no chance of scoring and barely 1 second left after calling the timeout. Instead, he could have called the timeout right away and gotten about 2 shots at the end zone before kicking the field goal. He did get the field goal, but he blew the chance for at least an extra shot (and at least 2 extra better shots) at the end zone in a game his team lost by 3. I think it might have made a difference.

- Mark Sanchez looked, ahh, less than up to the task against New England. He's a rookie, and there will be growing pains, but he's trying way too hard to make a play, and is showing his inexperience (he started for just over 1 full season in college) running an offense, especially an offense where his supporting cast isn't significantly better than the defenses he's facing. 4 picks, 1 pick-6, and lots of missed receivers. Bad showing.

- Arizona beat St. Louis, but it was closer than one would expect (21-13). This is explained by Kurt Warner missing about half the game as a precaution due to concussion-like symptoms after a first-half hit. Arizona better hope Warner is ready to go next week, as unless Tennessee is willing to settle things with a contest of how many coeds you can get into a hot tub with your QB, Matt Leinart isn't going to be much help.

- Hey, MLS, what nitwit decided to put the MLS Finals on Sunday in primetime directly up against the NFL? Why oh why wouldn't you put it on Sunday afternoon, or (even better) some OTHER day of the week? How many viewers are they missing out on? Luckily we have twitter.

- Denver had (an admittedly gimpy) Kyle Orton under center and still lost to San Diego 32-3. Apparently the annual Denver fade has come a few weeks early this year.

- Dallas scored a grand total of 7 points against the Redskins. That's awful, that offense should be ashamed. Luckily for them, because they were playing the Redskins, it was enough and the Cowboys won 7-6.

- Finally, Jay Cutler looks awful but Eagles ineptitude and a showing by the Bears defense still have Chicago up 20-17 in the 4th quarter. Cutler has morphed from gunslinging Jay who kills his team with interceptions to gunshy Jay who kills his team by being too scared to make tough throws. It's really odd to watch.