Bummer-Palooza in Football Land

Not a good weekend in football land.

The Ducks lost on the road to Stanford by a score of 51-42 and now have a record of 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-10. That's still good for tied for first in the league, and if they can win the rest of their games (vs. ASU, at UA and vs. Oregon State) they will go to the Rose Bowl.

But.

It has to be said that the big Stanford offensive line and their huge running back absolutely WORKED the Ducks defense...especially in the first half. Worked! Stanford literally punted only one time in the first two quarters, and maybe twice in the second half. In all other instances they scored on their drives. Sure, the Ducks scored fast and often with their high octane offense...and if you told me before the game that they'd put up 42 points I'd have been confident they would win... but the UO defense could. Not. Stop. Stanford's offense. Could not. And that was the difference in the game. Any one time, if the Ducks D had risen up and stopped a drive in the first half, the Ducks likely win the game. I guess you just chalk that up to experience and move on with the goal of winning the next one and making your way (hopefully) to the Rose Bowl or another good bowl. But for sure on Saturday, Stanford was the better team.

The Huskies lost a close one to the UCLA Skippy Neck-Weasels down in LA. Like some of their other losses this season, there were some controversial calls by the refs, some poor decisions by the UW coaching staff (how about a time out to review the last UCLA touchdown?) and a pick off of QB Jake Locker. Not a good combo. The Dawgs drop to 3-6 overall and now need to win their remaining games (vs. Oregon State, WSU and Cal) if they hope to make a bowl game.

The Hawkeyes lost a game at home vs. Northwestern. Not only that, their starting QB is now injured and questionable for the rest of the season. So, while they sit at 8-1 overall on still in first place in the Big-10, all bets are off for the rest of their games.

The Seahawks managed to beat the worst team in the NFL. The 32-20 final score is actually a little deceiving as it was 25-20 Seattle going in the last minute of the game. As Detroit drove the field trying to score, the Seattle defense intercepted their QB and ran it in for a touchdown to close the game. So, congrats Hawks, you're now at 3-5 overall having beat three of the wost teams in the league (St. Louis, Jacksonville and Detroit) at home and losing badly to five good teams pretty convincingly both on the road and at home.

The Sounders lost their playoff game vs. Houston Sunday, thus ending their first season in the MLS. But what a season it was. A winning record, great attendance, made the playoffs and won the US Open Cup. Not bad at all for a first year team. I'm not a soccer expert, but it seems like the Sounders are going to need some more offensive firepower if they expect to go from one of the best eight teams in the league to, say, one of the best two or three teams.

Here's to hoping for better results next week.