5-at-10: College football madness, Manning has no Luck in Indy and who won the weekend

Monday, October 21, 2013

photo Robin Thicke, left, and Miley Cyrus perform "Blurred Lines" at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

What an awesome weekend. Outstanding even.

Let's get to work before we have to get to work. Work. Or as Miley Cyrus would say, let's get to twerk before we go to twerk.

Are we to a point that we can sub in the word twerk in like the Smurfs do with 'smurf' in just about any situation?

From the "Talks too much" studio, grab a brew, don't cost nothin.

College football rewind

Wow. Is there much more to say?

Wow. There were so many monster moments from Saturday. Can we rank which team had the best day?

Here's our ballot:

1) Auburn rolls into College Station and lands a 45-41 shocker over Johnny Football and the Aggies. This one tops our list because it was on the road against a high-quality opponent - which also happened to beat the living stuffing out of Auburn last year - that catapulted Auburn to 11th in the BCS standings. (Side note: StuckinKent's computer poll has had Auburn in the low teens for a few weeks now. Well played indeed Stuck's computer.) The win - coupled with LSU's stunning loss at Ole Miss - means Auburn joins Alabama and Missouri as the only teams with complete control of their SEC fate.

2) Tennessee ends a five-season streak against ranked foes - against the Ol' Ball Coach, no less. There's a fair argument to be made that for what it meant in the moment and the degree of difficulty, that Marquez North's one-handed, fourth-quarter catch in double coverage was the best catch in Tennessee football history.

3) Central Florida does the nation a favor by folding the House of Cards on Friday night. Hey George O'Leary, it may be time to polish up that resume. What? What did we say? Too soon? C'mon.

4) Missouri is for real, beating Florida and taking a two-game lead in the SEC East, which had the Gators, the Gamecocks and the Georgia Bulldogs each lose a conference game on the same Saturday since 2004. The Tigers were one of five in-conference SEC upsets. The Tigers were +3; Vandy was +7.5 and beat UGA straight-up; Tennessee was +7 and beat USC; Ole Miss was +10 and beat LSU on a last-second field goal; Auburn was +14 and won at Texas A&M. According to RJ Bell, if you had wagered $100 bucks on a parlay on those five to win straight-up it would have paid more than $63,000.

5) Florida State, which grabbed the No. 2 spot in the initial BCS standings with an overwhelming, anyone-else-got-any-questions 51-17 win at Clemson. Jameis Winston meet the world; world meet Jameis Winston.

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BCS rankings

Even though their Saturday was very impressive, Alabama likely enjoyed Sunday more. (Side note of the two of the Fab 4-plus-1 picks that hit, Alabama was one everyone should have been heavy on, considering in the days leading up to the game, Arkansas coach Bret Bielema mentioned Alabama freshman Altee Tenpenny, saying he told the Arkansas native running back he would be fourth-string at Alabama. There's pulling Superman's cape, there's poking a sleeping bear with a stick and there's calling out Nick Saban before a game about something involving recruiting. We're surprised it was only 52-0. #karma.)

What we're not surprised by is that Alabama is atop the BCS standings that were released Sunday.

photo Alabama Crimson Tide logo

Alabama's the best team in the country. No. 2 Florida State may have the best player in prodigy QB Jameis Winston, who was masterful in the Seminoles' showdown beatdown at Clemson. No. 3 Oregon may have the best offense. No. 4 Ohio State certainly has the easiest schedule. No. 5 Missouri may be the biggest surprise, but...

Alabama is the best team. Period.

Think of it this way, despite all of the complaining and bemoaning about this area needing to step forward and that group has underperformed, if you take a 49-42 road trip win over then-No. 6 Texas A&M, the Tide have pummeled everyone and every thing in their path.

Their closest game in their other six wins is 25 points and their average margin of victory overall is 31. In fact, other than Johnny Football's circus act in College Station, Alabama has allowed all of two TDs - a 77-yard by Virginia Tech and a 30-yard pass by Kentucky - in 24 quarters.

Yep, the BCS may face controversy about which team deserves to be No. 2, but there is no debate about which team should be No. 1.

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Welcome back, now take this

The Indy fans showed much love for Peyton Manning in his return Sunday night to face the Colts. In a fitting and understated tribute before the game, Manning took his helmet off and placed his hand over his heart as he mouthed "Thank You" several times during the long standing ovation.

photo Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning smiles following an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

It was good times. Everything after that though was great times for the current Colts, who rallied around the moment and All-Pro quarterback in waiting Andrew Luck and delivered a complete and thorough 39-33 win that was not as close as the score would indicate.

It's difficult to know whether all the background noise distracted Manning, who continued his aerial high-wire act with 386 yards and three more TDs in the lose. It was amazingly easy to see that the Colts were motivated by the moment, however. Indy was the better team in each phase, including discipline, winning the turnover battle 3-to-1 and committing half as many penalties.

If you don't want to answer the college football questions below, here's one for you:

What's your Rushmore of Most Untocuhable/tradable athletes in all of sports? Andrew Luck is definitely there. LeBron is there because there's not enough out there to warrant moving King James. Kershaw maybe? Aaron Rodger? Kevin Durant?

Discuss with the athlete who you think GM X would say, "You want to trade for (blank)? Bwah-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha." Click.

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This and that

- We had a lot of fun on the radio with the Camel 'Hump Day' Geico commercial. Now, the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki are having some fun too. From JMC in the Dallas office, here's the clip.

- We said good-bye to two underrated football coaches this weekend as former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips and Former Washington coach Don James died. Phillips was an all-time quote machine - a country Les Miles is a fair press conference comparison - and one of the founding architects of the 3-4 defense. James' coaching tree is sneaky impressive considering two of the hottest coaches in college football - Nick Saban and Missouri's Gary Pinkel are among his disciples.

photo UTC Mocs player Davis Tull poses for a portrait at Finley Stadium.

- Nice win for the Mocs and kudos to Davis Tull for setting the school sacks mark. UTC did not allow a TD in the 20-9 win over Elon and is now 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Conference. Of course, as JMC also noted over the weekend, the Mocs bring a three-game winning streak into a home game this week. That's the good news. The bad news: The 2 p.m. kickoff is going to be affected by the 3:30 Alabama-Tennessee game.

- Also of note, Mr. Keon Williams went over the 100-yard mark again for the Mocs. Trying to think who said he would have a breakout season.... Hmmmm.... Through seven games, Williams is averaging 98 yards a game and 6.0 yards a carry and has 10 total TDs (nine rushing, one receiving).

- Tough loss for the Titans on Sunday, but that had as much to do with the opponent, a very good San Francisco bunch. Fine win for the Falcons on Sunday, but without Julio Jones that had as much to do with the opponent, a very blah Tampa Bay bunch.

- Jamie McMurray won at Talladega, which normally means you go fast turn left and avoid trouble. There was a noticeable absence of the big wreck that has become commonplace at the superspeedways. And with the absence of the unaccountable, it should remain as no-surprise that five-time Jimmie Johnson now has the points lead with four races left.

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Today's question

This one is pretty straight forward:

Who had the biggest win this weekend and why?

You can make an argument that it's any number of SEC teams. You could make the argument that it's Florida State. Heck, the Colts have a beef too.