Monday Grab Bag: Winless in Seattle (harf, harf)

It's cold and rainy today in Boulder Valley... figures... CU remains winless in the new conference; not just football, the whole athletic department is 0-for-the-Pac-12.  *sigh*

But, there's just 26 days left til basketball season starts... so we've got that going for us... which is nice. 

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As promised, today's grab bag carries the title "Winless in Seattle."  I just wanted to get out in front of the Daily Camera sports staff who predictably went with "Defenseless in Seattle" in their wrap-up article.  Boulder Colorado: where the hack headlines are as predictable as the losing football.

Are you ready recap the weekend?!

Click below for the bag...



Yet another road loss - It's not like I didn't see this coming.  Not only was I vocal in my acknowledgement that not only would the Buffs go 0-fer the month of October, but I also expressed that CU would probably be buried in those games.  Still, getting trounced by a total of 100-31 in the span of 8 days doesn't feel good.

CU did very little to prove they belonged on the field Saturday.  Sure, the offense looked good (finally scoring a 1st quarter TD is a good start), and Speedy was effective before he sustained a sprained knee (more on that later), but all-in-all CU looked plain outmatched in their 52-24 loss Saturday afternoon.  Hey, at least penalties (3-for-30) were down.


Defense makes it easy - The word effortless continued to spring to mind when watching an opponent thrash the CU defense.  Washington racked up 562 yards (over 500 for the second consecutive week) and 7 touchdowns throughout the afternoon.   Overall, they churned out 8 big yards per play (this despite being in shutdown mode offensively for most of the second half).  The CU offense, which is pretty competent with all hands on deck, just can't keep up with that level of output.

Washington's offense had an easy go of it Saturday.

Yes, there are excuses.  The secondary is essentially Ray Polk and a few guys grabbed from off the street, injuries are piling up, and the expected talent-deficiency is a pox on every position grouping, but that doesn't make their flailing each Saturday any easier to watch.


And the hits just keep on coming - As if the Buffs weren't in a bad enough place already, stars Rodney Stewart and Doug Rippy were both hit with knee injuries against Washington, leaving both the offense and defense with even less to work with.  I worried before the season started that injuries and a shallow depth chart would kill CU's season, but this is worse than expected.  Speedy, Rippy, P-Rich... that's a massive chuck of the Buffs remaining explosive talent sitting on the bench due to injury.

Speedy's out.  So is the season.

The best part?  The season is only just over half finished.  6 games remain to be played; at this point I have to wonder how many players CU will actually have on hand to finish with. 


Notes from around football nation -  


College Football

Boise St @ CSU - The Rams took it on the chin even worse than CU did, losing 63-13 in a glorified scrimmage against the Boise St Broncos.  All told, the State of Colorado's 3 Division 1-A programs (CU, CSU, AF) lost by a combined score of 156-64 over the weekend.  Maybe this state should consider hitching its hopes to lacrosse or soccer, something where there's less chance of national-level embarrassment.  So... go Rapids?

Ohio State @ Illinois - The football gods are unkind; my Illini picked a terrible week to remember that their head coach is Ron Zook and lost 17-7, at home, to a reeling Buckeye squad.

NFL

49ers @ Detroit - After a thrilling, and hard fought, 24-19 win over the Lions, SF coach Jim Harbaugh decided to rub it in by over-exuberantly shaking hands with Lions coach Jim Schwartz.  Schwartz took exception and chased after Harbaugh.  This was both the most interesting and stupidest part of Sunday's rather tame action.

Bills @ Giants - America's team, the Buffalo Bills, couldn't pull it out, losing a heart-breaker in the Meadowlands.

Minnesota @ Chicago - The Vikings are terrible.  The Bears aren't much better, but the Vikings are really bad.


World Series preview - The Fall Classic is set, and the matchup no one predicted in the preseason is set.  St Louis vs Texas?  Even I will have a hard time drumming up the interest to watch that.  Tony LaRussa makes watching baseball nearly impossible, what with his roughly 4,827 pitching changes per game, and Ron Washington's crack-addled antics unnerve me.

Who will I end up rooting for?  Well, I have a family attachment to the Cardinals, and I find the holier-than-thou bullshit of Josh Hamilton infuriating as all get out (ginger ale for all!), so go St Louis!  (Texas will win, however, in 5)


Happy Monday!