5-at-10: Weekend winners, losers, college football rewind, Rushmore of Johnny Cash songs


              FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2015, file photo, Indianapolis Colts' Andrew Luck (12) looks to throw during the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, in Indianapolis. ?Luck has signed a new contract with the Indianapolis Colts that covers the next six seasons through 2021. The $140 million deal was completed Wednesday, June 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2015, file photo, Indianapolis Colts' Andrew Luck (12) looks to throw during the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, in Indianapolis. ?Luck has signed a new contract with the Indianapolis Colts that covers the next six seasons through 2021. The $140 million deal was completed Wednesday, June 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Morning, friends. As Snowman tells us, "We got a long way to go and a short time to get there. We're going to do what they say can't be done."

From the "Talk too much" studios, we will never forget.

Weekend winners

Sports fans in general. We said a welcome back to the NFL, which is the sport that stirs the social drink of the nation. And Sunday did not disappoint on any level. There was a major tennis final that included a big upset. There was the review of another college football weekend. There was a big-time golf star taking the lead into the final turn of the PGA season. NASCAR trimmed its field to the playoff Chase. Baseball pennant races are tightening and becoming pressure-packed. Wow. There was a lot going on.

No. 1 overall QB picks. We'll start with Andrew Luck. After a multitude of injuries last year, Luck returned to myriad of question marks entering this season. A guy who was once considered the future of the position in the league, faced doubters for arguably the first time ever. Wow, did he silence them with 385 yards and four TDs. He, along with former No. 1 overall picks Matt Stafford, James Winston, Alex Smith and Eli Manning had very impressive openers.

The Patriots. Love them or hate them, the Patriots simply are better than everyone else. How else can you explain it? Without one of the best quarterbacks in league history, the best tight end in the game, their most versatile defensive player and both of their starting tackles, the Patriots shrugged their shoulders and went to Arizona and beat a Cardinals team that many think will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Wow. Coach Hoodie is the best professional head coach in the free agency era regardless of sport.

Jack Del Rio. The Oakland head coach pushed his chips to the center, went for the two-point conversion and the Raiders delivered with a late 35-34 win at New Orleans. Great call - even if they had missed - and one we will see more and more

Lamar Jackson. The Louisville quarterback is absolutely killing it. He passed for more than 400 yards and rushed for 199 in Friday night's torching of Syracuse. He would have been the first player in NCAA history to go 400-200 but he lost 2 yards on his final carry of the game. Through two games, Jackson has accounted fro 13 touchdowns, which is more than every other FBS team in the country through two weeks. Read that again. Jackson has outscored every team in top level of college football.

Bonus: Couple of weekend winners from Friday night include Signal Mountain, which got its first win, South Pittsburg, which upset rival Marion County, and Baylor's Brendon Harris, who is a Vonn Bell-type of talent at safety.

photo Cleveland Browns quarterback Robert Griffin III drops back to pass during their orange and brown scrimmage at the NFL football team's training camp Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

Weekend losers

Referees in the Central Michigan-Oklahoma State game. By now everyone has seen the Hail Mary, Hook-and-Lateral thrilling play that delivered CMU a last-play win over Oklahoma State. We also know that the refs blew the late-game scenario and it should not have ever happened. That's a tough one to handle.

Cleveland Browns front office. In addition to losing an NFL record 12th consecutive season opener, the Browns had to watch Philadelphia rookie quarterback Carson Wentz do it to them. Oh yeah, Wentz was the No. 2 pick in last spring's draft; he was the guy that the Browns did not want and traded the pick to the Eagles.

Lane KIffin. Yes, he got his salary doubled late last week. He'll need it considering the gluteus maximus transplant he'll need after the world-class, on-camera a#%-chewing he received from Alabama coach Nick Saban. (Side point: Want to know why Saban and Belichick are the best who have ever been at their jobs? Because they only judge themselves and their teams against the expectations they have. That a#%-chewing was in the final seconds of a 28-point win.)

Fundamental late-game management of the NFL folks in the openers. Terrence Williams doesn't get out of bounds in Dallas. Marvin Jones doesn't get out of bounds for Detroit. Indy coach Chuck Pagano completely spacing out and allowing the Lions keeping their timeouts. That's the difference between winning and losing in a lot of cases in an NFL that is measured by field position and more times than not field goals are the difference.

Falcons and Titans. As TFP ace columnist Mark Widener tells us here, the two closest NFL franchises to our city snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. In a day of crazy NFL action, if you are a fan of the Falcons or Titans, you can't help but be somewhat troubled by home losses against beatable opponents.

Bonus pick: It was a pretty forgettable weekend of college games, but man Mark Stoops looks like a dead-coach walking right now after a 45-7 loss to Florida. On CBS for Pete's sake. (And if there's anything that screams how mediocre last week's games were, it's the fact that UK-Florida - a game the Gators won for the 30th consecutive - was on CBS. Ouch-standing.) Stoops and the Wildcats are 0-2 and have been outscored 79-7 since holding a 35-10 halftime lead over Southern Miss.

Big three reaction

We'll do this on Mondays through the college season. Our college football takeaway from the big three in our coverage area - UT, UTC and Georgia. Deal? Deal.

We'll go from worst to first of those three.

Georgia. Wow, that was almost a disaster. Nicholls State was picked next to last in the FCS Southland Conference - between Incarnate Word and Houston Baptist - and the Colonels scared the red off of Kirby Smart's shirt in a 26-24 Bulldogs win. There was very little good offensively, especially considering the biggest play for Georgia was the defensive touchdown that turned out to be huge.

UTC. On the other side of the coin from the Bulldogs are the Mocs, who like UGA, was ranked in the top-10 and played an inferior foe. Unlike UGA, however, UTC handled its BID-ness quickly and efficiently. And while the schedule will only get tougher, there's no way for the UTC defense to be any better statistically.

UT. OK, we were hard on the Vols' debut struggles against App State that led to a less-than-impressive 20-13 over time UT win. Then there was the start of the Battle of Bristol, when the Hokies rolled to a 14-bagel lead. You could have heard a church mouse toot around the 423 and the 865 right about then. That was before UT started to use Josh Dobbs' running ability and defensively started to really make plays. Dobbs is a real weapon running it and a handful of turnovers later and the Vols cruised to an impressive 45-24 win before a record-setting crowd.

If we are going to give the 5-star 5-at-10 SAL-loot, we'll go with Trenton Thompson's effort on the Georgia defensive line, all of the UTC defense which has allowed as many points through two games as we have, and UT safety Micah Abernathy, who continues to make a ton of plays at a position that a lot of us questioned before the season.

As for the areas of concern, Georgia's offense - Nick Chubb got all of 80 yards for Pete's sake - and Tennessee's passing game - Dobbs was 10-of-19 for less than 100 yards - are things that must improve and must improve quickly. (As for UTC, well, we'll ask UTC coach Russ Huesman today at 3:20ish on Press Row on ESPN 105.1 the Zone.)

photo FILE - In this June 16, 2016, file photo, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) dunks against the Golden State Warriors during the first half of Game 6 of basketball's NBA Finals in Cleveland. James is a free agent after declining his player option for next season with the NBA champion Cavaliers. The move was expected by James, who said last week he intends to remain with Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane, File)

This and that

- LeBron James is pretty good at life. He is now working on his second Hollywood endeavor, a project that is based on the work of famous sports surgeon Dr. James Andrews with NBC. We can see it being a TV-version of the doctor side of the movie "Trainwreck" in which James was pretty good.

- The Fab 4 picks went 2-2, and there were no nail-biters. WE had Duke minus-5 and they lost outright by 10. We had the under 48 in the Vandy-MTSU game that hit 71. Then we had Iowa minus-14 in a 42-3 win and UT minus-11, which looked shaky early but quite comfortable late. We're now 5-4 on the season against the spread.

- Dustin Johnson certainly has made his mark in 2016. He won the BMW event Sunday and now has the points lead in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs. (Side note: The winner of the Fed Ex Cup gets $10 million.) Johnson has multiple wins, including his first major, and is in line to be player of the year. Not too shabby for a guy who a year ago was fighting some personal demons during some time away from the game that may or may not have been a Tour-issued suspension.

- NASCAR's playoffs are here. That's a good thing. The bad thing is the most interesting thing to happen at a track this year happened Saturday night as the Vols and Hokies and 156,000 of their closest friends set college football's attendance record. It looked great on TV, but man the images of that traffic was cringe-worthy.

- Here's Yasiel Puig dressed as cheerleader because, well, because it's Monday.

- And we may write about this for A2 for tomorrow, but the Colin Kaepernick protest has gained steam and added tentacles as other NFL players either took a knee or raised a fist during or after the National Anthem. We will say this right here right now: These protests make me appreciate the words and the meanings - literally and figuratively - of the anthem and the flag even more. God Bless America.

Today's questions

Questions, we have a few.

We'll start where we normally do, and ask who won and lost the weekend.

We'll also ask for immediate feedback/review if any of you went to the Battle of Bristol.

We'll also ask why in the world can we not overturn, in this day and age of reviews and rewinds, the outcome of the CMU-Oklahoma State since it was a clear mistake? There was judgement call; this was a clear mistake.

Finally, if you need a Rushmore, on this day 13 years ago, Johnny Cash died. What's the Rushmore of Cash tunes? (We'll start with Folsom Prison Blues and Sunday Morning Coming Down and ask whatcha' got?)

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