The Way Forward

The Bears, i think, now have the inside track for the Rose Bowl. Crazy I know. But looking at the results from today, there are a few things that are apparent:

1) USC does not have a good offense. Which is surprising since they return 9 offensive started from a team that was pretty good. But I guess Mark Sanchez was a pretty good QB, and there was a reason why Carroll was PISSED when he left. Until they can score more than 20 on a decent team, they are going to be hurting. Maybe Barkley will be the guy in time, but not yet.

2) Oregon State lost at home to Cincinnatti, who is a pretty good team. The Bears get OSU at home, and unless they are much improved they will have a hard tome beating the Bears.

3) Oregon beat Utah, which is a ranked team, but not nearly as good as they were last year. Oregon could be a pretty good team. The loss to Boise was a big one, but this win brings the Ducks back onto the map. That being said, I do not think they match up well with the Bears. They have a lousy defense, and Masoli is just not going to do well against the Bears passing. And their running game is not up to snuff. I think the Bears score well over 30, and hold the Ducks to less than 25.

4) Washington - WOW!!! Are they going to run the table? THEY BEAT USC? I already had an email talking about their National Championship potential. No chance. But they should win a few this year. The question is, will they be good enough at the end of the season to scare the bears on the last game? But good for them to take care of the Trojans.

5) Texas is not as good as I thought, as Colt McCoy seems to be not as good as last year. I am sure they will get better, but it was not a great outing for them. It will be interesting to see if OK takes them out.

6) BYU takes themselves out of the equation. A huge loss for the Mountain West conference today with losses by their standard bearers by mid-level BCS teams (FSU and Oregon). That is what happens when they play decent teams over time. Boise is smart - they have only one decent team per year, and if they get by them, see you in the BCS.

7) Florida beat Tennessee by about the same score as UCLA did. But UCLA just scrapped by a lousy Kansas State team. So either Florida is not that good, or UCLA is pretty good but just bad today ....

8) Florida State is pretty good, and so is Miami. The ACC could be coming back. VA Tech beat Nebraska today in a close one. I think all three are ranked in the top 25 this week.

9) We have no idea really how good Alabama is, or Mississippi, or Florida, or Penn State. They should all shake out in a few weeks, as they play each other and others in their conferences. But they will all be ahead of the Bears. Maybe LSU will be as well.

10) ULCA, Stanford, ASU, Washington State all beat really lousy teams today (but of course, Washington State in overtime).

12) Arizona lost to Iowa and it was not really that close. They should not be a problem this year.

GO BEARS!!