bowl projections

With only one week left in Penn State's season, it is time to start guessing about bowls. Despite their somewhat disappointing season, there is still a good chance PSU will play in a BCS bowl this season. Here is how I believe the most likely scenario that gets Penn State in the BCS would go down.

1) PSU beats Michigan St. to finish 10-2 on the season. Cincinnati wins out and wins the Big East. Texas wins out and wins the Big 12 and plays for the national championship. The Winner of the SEC Championship game (Florida/Alabama). Either Georgia Tech or Clemson wins the ACC. Oregon wins the PAC 10. TCU and Boise St. finish undefeated.

2) The Bowls have the following selection order this year: Orange, Fiesta then Sugar. However, the Sugar Bowl would most likely lose the number one ranked team to the national championship game and the fiesta would lose Texas as well. So the order would be Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Fiesta then Sugar.

3) So automatic births will go to SEC Champion (Florida/Alabama winner), ACC Champ (Probably Georgia Tech), Big 12 Champ (Texas), PAC Ten Champ (Probably Oregon), and Big Ten Champ (Ohio State). The SEC Champ and Big 12 Champ will play in the National Championship games, opening up two at large spots. At this point, there are four at large spots open. The first goes to the loser of Florida/Alabama game. Hard to picture a scenario this doesn't happen. TCU would get the second for being the highest ranked non BCS school in the top 8. That leaves two spots. The following teams will likely meet the requirements of being in the top 12 in the BCS (note no SEC team is eligible because they already have two reps): Boise St., Oklahoma State, Iowa, Penn State and maybe Virginia Tech/Stanford.

4) The selection would then go as follows:

- BCS National Title - Texas v. Florida/Alabama Winner

- Sugar Selects Florida/Alabama Loser

- Fiesta Selects Penn State

- Orange already gets Georgia Tech and selects Cincinnati

- Fiesta selects TCU

- Sugar Selects either Boise St. or Oklahoma State

So Penn St. would play TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. However, a lot could happen before that. An PSU needs to take care of business on saturday against the Spartans.

what the fuck eagles?

The Eagles are really starting to piss me off. First, take Sunday's disaster against the Cowboys. The Eagles looked absolutely hapless on offense, and most of the blame for the ineffectiveness has to fall on Donovan McNabb. Although I won't blame him for the first interception, the second, which occurred during a critical portion of the 4th quarter when the birds led 13-10, was all on McNabb. He predetermined that a delayed fade to Jeremy Maclin would be open, and it absolutely was not. Cannot make that throw up by three in the fourth quarter. That pick led to the game tying field goal. I understand why fewer shots were taken down field: the Cowboys were double teaming Desean Jackson and keeping the safeties deep, but McNabb should have adjusted and gotten the ball to Brent Celek more often. Jason Avant was also open on at least three occassions I can remember, and McNabb never even looked his way. Not to mention McNabb could not seem to make any good reads when the Cowboys brought a blitz. Both his picks came when the Cowboys brought extra pressure. In my opinion, with the increasing frequency that defenses are blitzing as total passes increase, the most important attribute for an NFL QB is the ability to read pressure and react quickly, and McNabb simply did not do that effectively Sunday.

Now I'm not saying its all McNabb's fault. Injuries to Jason Peters and a few other lineman made it difficult to find a rhythm, and a lot of blame needs to be put on Jackson for not getting open. If he wants to be an elite receiver he will need to beat double teams from time to time, and he has the tools to do it. And don't forget that Jerry Jones paid the line judge and replay official a combined $12,345,000 to mark that fourth down attempt short and ignore obvious video evidence from the replay during the challenge. If they get that simple call right, the Eagles would have had the ball on the Cowboys 35 yard line with the game tied at 13 with less than 9 minutes to play. Chances are good we win in that situation.

Things are not getting an easier for the Eagles either. Phillip Rivers and San Diego are coming to town, and the Eagles just lost Ellis Hobbes to IR and Joselio Hansen has been suspended by the League for four games for violating the League's substance abuse policy. Very gay. Stopping Vicent Jackson and the rest of the "Andre the Giant" type receivers on the Chargers without our #3 an #4 corners is going to be difficult to say the least.

But don't get me wrong. I still think the Eagles are the third best team in the NFC. Maybe second best depending if Brett Favre reverts to his old self in the playoffs and throws about 2.3 terrible picks per game, with 1.3 of them coming in crunch time. We have the fire power on offense to keep up with everyone, and although I think the defense is the real strong point for this team, injuries have proved extremely costly. A loss against the Chargers won't be the end of the world. They are an AFC team (means less for tie breaker scenarios) and the next two games are at Chicago and home against Washington, which are winnable games. I just hope the Eagle's can end one of the most devastating sports losing streaks of my life: Phillies lose World Series, Penn State loses to Ohio State, and Eagles lose to Cowboys. Ouch.

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!

the phanantic takes new york

Courtesy my Dad. GO PHILS!!!