Is it just me or has this been a weird football season so far? Here it is week 6 (week 5 in the pros) and some very strange things are going on. In the pros the last two undefeated teams, Arizona and Cincinnati, both lost. So after only 5 weeks there are no more undefeated teams. If your a Browns fan every game has been decided in the last minute. Anyone old enough to remember the " Cardiac Kids"? Now you know why Mike Pettin is bald! In college four of the top ten teams lost on the same weekend and in high school football both Massillon and Moeller lost this weekend. I would like to tip my hat to the following schools, Cleveland Rhodes, Millersport, Madison Plains, Grandview and Central Crossing. Cleveland Rhodes is 5-1 and last year only won four games. Millersport game into the season on a 48 game losing streak and they are 5-1. Madison Plains is 5-1 and has won 5 games for the first time since 2005 and Grandview is also 5-1 after a 4-6 campaign last year. Central Crossing is 4-2. This is the most wins by the school since they opened in 2002 and they beat Hilliard Davidson and Upper Arlington in consecutive weeks. These are just a few of the teams who have improved this year and I hope they all have much more success.

Weekends like this one past, is why I love the game of football

So Mississippi and Mississippi State are still undefeated. The Florida State quarterback has a disciplinary hearing. Notre Dame loses their top receiver and may face other sanctions and the starting running back for Georgia gets turned in for signing autographs for money by the person who paid him! The biggest game in the Big Ten was Minnesota vs. Northwestern. Penn State and Michigan played and nobody cared. Baylor scores 61 and wins on a field goal at the gun, after trailing by 21 with less than twelve minutes to play. Notre Dame scores 50 and only beats North Carolina by 7.The Browns hammer the Steelers and the Bengals miss a 36 yard field goal in overtime for a tie. I still say this is a really weird football season.

Agreed. Weird... but exciting.

LOLPhins

So the insanity continues. The defending Super Bowl champs are 3-3 and lost to the Rams! Jacksonville wins their first game of the season over the Browns. The Bengals get shutout by the Colts. I think Indianapolis is a better team, but I never would have guessed a shutout. The Cardinals are now 5-1 and leading their division by two games. Florida State beats Notre Dame on an offensive pass interference penalty. Alabama beats Texas A&M 59-0 and Mississippi State is number 1 in the country. In high school football we had three unbelievable games. Here in Ohio Tiffin Columbian beat Shelby 83-82 in two overtimes. This ties the most points combined in a game with 165 points. The other game was in 1923 when Medina beat Spencer 165-0! In California Tennyson beat Castro Valley 85-77 in overtime and in Texas, Jacksonville beat Nacogdoches 85-79 in five overtimes! These two teams set the national record by playing a ten overtime game in 2010. What sort of fun are we in for next week?

This week wasn't as crazy this week. LSU beat Mississippi and that was considered to be an upset. Illinois beat Minnesota and that was considered an upset and Ohio State had to go to double overtime to beat an incredibly average Penn State team. In the pros, the Cardinals are 6-1, the Seahawks are struggling and just barely beat Carolina. I have been a Cardinal fan since the early 1970's when they were in St. Louis. In Georgia there is a mercy rule in a peewee league which is thirty three points. With his team leading 32-0, an eight year old intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown. Good for him, bad for the coach. The coach has been suspended for the next game and fined five hundred dollars for running up the score! I guess that eight year old should have taken a knee. When will common sense make a return

The Cardinals are leading the league with a 7-1 record. The Miami Dolphins beat San Diego 37-0, yes 37-0! Traditionally the Chargers are not good on the East Coast, but 37-0 really? The Redskins are in an accident before the game, they are greeted by protesters at the stadium and then they lose in overtime. In college, a really mediocre Florida team beats Georgia. Mississippi loses to Auburn when they lose two fumbles inside the ten yard line and on the last fumble, they lose their top receiver to a broken leg.In high school football, I would like to congratulate two coaches in Central Ohio for their efforts this season. First to Coach Chris Harr at Grove City Central Crossing for beating Hilliard Davidson and Upper Arlington in consecutive weeks and for leading his team to their first playoff appearance. The other Coach is Terry Holbert at Millersport. Coming into the season Millersport was on a 48 game losing streak. The Lakers ended up with a 7-3 record. Congratulations to both of these coaches and good luck to Central Crossing in the playoffs and to both of these teams in the future.

Thursday night the Browns drilled the Bengals in Cincinnati 24-3. The Cardinals sign Carson Palmer to a 3 year, 50 million dollar extension and Sunday he tears his ACL and is out for the rest of the year. The 1-8 New York Jets get out to a 17-0 lead on the 6-3 Pittsburgh Steelers and hold on to win 20-13. For the third consecutive week a quarterback throws for six touchdowns in a game. This time Aaron Rodgers throws six touchdowns in the first half against the Bears. The Bears have given up 50 points in back-to- back games. The game between Utah and Oregon featured a 178 yard scoring play. A receiver from Utah is about to score on a 79 yard pass play, but he drops the ball before he crosses the goal-line, the referee does not signal touchdown and a player from Oregon picks up the ball and returns it for a touchdown. Instead of a 14-0 lead for Utah, we have a tie game. LSU leading by three with less than a minute to play, kicks off out of bounds and allows Alabama to tie the game, then loses in overtime. Minnesota, who lost to Illinois, beat a 6-2 Iowa 51-7. Texas A&M, who lost to Alabama two weeks ago 59-0, beat number four Auburn, in Auburn!

The Cardinals are now 9-1 and still not getting a lot of respect. The Browns beat Cincinnati in Cincinnati, then come home and look terrible against the Texans. The Broncos lose to the Rams and have two receivers injured in the process. The Chiefs beat Seattle and the Raiders are now 0-10. In college football, after Mississippi State loses to Alabama, we now have only two undefeated teams Florida State and MARSHALL! Marshall's average winning margin is 31 points, but that will only get them a pat on the back. Do I think they could beat an SEC team or any other school from a power 5 conference, there is only one way to find out, give them a chance. Virginia Tech beat another top 25 opponent this week when they beat Duke. Northwestern beat Notre Dame in overtime and not only did Arkansas beat LSU, they shut them out! These last three weeks should be a lot of fun!

Indiana rushes for over 200 yards and takes Ohio State into the fourth quarter. Michigan is terrible. Northwestern has beaten both Wisconsin and Notre Dame this year. Arkansas has beaten LSU and Mississippi in back-to-back weeks, both by shutouts! Florida State keeps winning, but not by much. This week they needed a last second field goal to beat Boston College. In the pros, Arizona is down to their third string quarterback for the second time this season. The leader in the NFC south is going to have a sub .500 record 11 weeks into the season and everyone in the AFC North has at least 6 wins. The Buffalo-New York Jets game is being played in Detroit because of 6 plus feet of snow in Buffalo. Unfortunately the high school playoffs were marred by a game-ending brawl between Columbus Beechcroft and Steubenville. I still believe that if Ohio State, Florida State, Alabama and Oregon win out that they will make the playoffs, unfortunately this leaves out Mississippi State, Baylor and TCU. I think that the Big 12 not having a Championship game will hurt both TCU and Baylor and Mississippi State will not have a chance to play for their conference title and will fall just short.

This may be the week where everything is decided. Ohio State should beat Michigan, even though they only won by a point last year. The top four teams in the playoffs have games in which they are favored but could lose. Alabama has to play Auburn, Florida State has to play Florida, Mississippi has to play Mississippi State and Oregon has to play Oregon State. So if all of the favorites lose what then?

Ohio wins the game against Michigan and suffers two huge losses, J.T. Barrett breaks an ankle and Kosta Karageorge takes his own life. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. Mississippi State loses to Mississippi, Marshall loses 67-66 to Western Kentucky in overtime, Notre Dame loses their fifth game after starting 6-0. Nebraska starts the coaching carousel by firing their coach and UAB is going to drop their football program. In the pros, the Browns may have a new quarterback, the Bengals need a new quarterback, the Raiders get beat 52-0, the Falcons and the Saints are tied for the NFC South lead with 5-7 records and the Giants lost an 18 point second half lead for the third time this year.

I guess I should make myself clear. In no way are J.T. Barrett's broken ankle equal to Kosta Kerageorge's untimely passing. Barrett's broken ankle will heal, but the hearts of Kosta's family and friends may never mend. I have had to deal with this more times than I care to count. It just leaves more questions than answers. Once again my thoughts are with his family and friends and te

I said on an early post that if Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State and Oregon won out they would make the playoffs. I was right (accidents do happen). I never thought OSU would win with a third string quarterback over Wisconsin by a score of 59-0. I honestly believe they have a great chance to beat Alabama and I think Oregon will beat Florida State. I would like to congratulate both Baylor and TCU on great seasons, but the lack of a conference championship did not help. In the pros the Raiders have only won two games this year, but both wins may have hurt or even eliminated teams from playoff contention. In the case of their second win, over the 49ers, they may have even cost a coach his job. Once again the Bengals blew it in a big home game and the Browns just needed one or two first downs late in the fourth quarter to beat the Colts in another squeaker. Even as a Cardinal fan I think the favorites are Green Bay, Seattle and New England. I hope I am wrong.

Okay, so the Cardinals are in the playoffs and it looks like the NFC South winner will not have a record over .500. Unfortunately the Cardinals are down to their third-string quarterback. Johnny Manzell made his pro debut and just to show you how bad he played, his uniform number was higher than his QBR. The Bengals can join the Patriots, Colts and Broncos in the playoffs with a win.The Saints may win the NFC South with an 8-8 record. This means they would have to host a playoff game. Unbelievably the Saints are terrible at home. They may get to host a team with an 11-5 record, somehow it just does not seem right.

Rich Perrine;1684438 wrote:I said on an early post that if Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State and Oregon won out they would make the playoffs. I was right (accidents do happen). I never thought OSU would win with a third string quarterback over Wisconsin by a score of 59-0. I honestly believe they have a great chance to beat Alabama and I think Oregon will beat Florida State. I would like to congratulate both Baylor and TCU on great seasons, but the lack of a conference championship did not help. In the pros the Raiders have only won two games this year, but both wins may have hurt or even eliminated teams from playoff contention. In the case of their second win, over the 49ers, they may have even cost a coach his job. Once again the Bengals blew it in a big home game and the Browns just needed one or two first downs late in the fourth quarter to beat the Colts in another squeaker. Even as a Cardinal fan I think the favorites are Green Bay, Seattle and New England. I hope I am wrong.

OSU was the only stretch in that prediction, and i Know many believed the same thing with OSU.

Arizona is now on their third quarterback, again. The Browns used three quarterbacks, Kansas City had to go to their back up because their starter suffered a lacerated spleen. The Bengals still cannot beat the Steelers. The 7-8-1 Panthers will HOST a playoff game against Arizona and will probably win. I am an Arizona fan, but I think they are offensively challenged and unless the defense scores once or twice I do not think they will win. The Lions have now had two guys suspended for intentionally stepping on other players. My prediction for the NFC Champion will be Dallas and I think that Pittsburgh is playing the best in the AFC and if it turns out that way I will not be watching the Super Bowl, I hate sequels.

So what did we learn from the playoffs this weekend? The Bengals are bad in the playoffs, they couldn't score in a whorehouse. Their last four playoff games they have four touchdowns, three from the offense. They are averaging 11 points a game. They did not have A.J. Green or Gresham and it showed. The Cardinals were just to beat up to stay with anyone the last six weeks. The Lions haven't won a playoff game since they hosted the Christians in the Coliseum in Rome and the Steelers really missed Le'veon Bell. I really thought that the Steelers would take advantage of the Ravens patchwork secondary, but the pass rush was really amazing by the Ravens.