I'm hearing a ton of Oregon fans doing a tad much boasting about taking apart Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Gotta admit, in the heat of the moment after the dazzling victory in the Civil War with my negative feelings towards what the Big 10 has become, I was of that mentality. After doing some initial research, I'm thinking this might be a pretty solid Buckeye defense. I'm not huge on the rankings because it incorporates what they did against patsies, holding Toledo to 13 rush yards and New Mexico State just 40. A closer look reveals an extremely experienced & talented group. They did march into Happy Valley and shut down an excellent back like Evan Royster limiting to his lowest total and yards per carry of his 2 1/2 year career. But again, what did they do against the top running attacks they faced. Navy puts up about 280 running it per game and OSU held them to 186, not quite a lockdown. USC went into Columbus with a true freshman quarterback and ultra-vanilla game plan and didn't exactly explode with 40 carries for 118 yards. Iowa, who is BCS Bowl bound didn't crack the 70 yard mark. Granted, none of these teams is in Oregon's league as far as a killer rush attack, but don't sell this Buckeye defense too, too short. We will get into their very conservative offense with Terrelle Pryor at the helm in the not to distant future, but I'm not a fan of his inaccuracy throwing it.
Not a pleasant situation in Portland with the Trailblazers. First, starter and defensive stalwart, Nicolas Batum had shoulder surgery in the pre-season and might, might be back in March. Then Travis Outlaw, who formed a terrific crunch time 1-2 punch with Brandon Roy was lost for the year(most likely) with a broken foot. Saturday they were hit with another disastrous Greg Oden injury meaning he misses most of his 3rd season after sitting out all of his first and the early part of his second. It's time to suck it up and realize the big fella is not a franchise cornerstone. Now the news comes down that Rudy Fernandez has a nerve problem in his back. The recently completed procedure will cost him a month and a half. I'm a huge fan of team boss Kevin Pritchard, but he's gonna have to go David Copperfield to fix this.
Okay guys, chance for you to win something for that special lady. It's a $50 gift certificate to the Divinity Salon in Springfield. Trust me, she'll love it. E-mail the correct answer to the following question to stevetannen@live.com
The Ducks ended up with the 6th most potent rushing attack in Division-1 as far as yards per game. Who were the 5 teams ahead of them?? Good luck.
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