stuff is cool

I know I haven’t been posting every week like I said, but I have been keeping my NFL power rankings each week, so fear not:

Rk(Prv)	Team			W-L	Score	Wk 17		Chg	Sc Chg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1(1)	San Diego Chargers	14-2	 271.92	W v ARI		--	+32.06
2(3)	Baltimore Ravens	13-3	 248.05	W v BUF		+1	+38.98
3(2)	Chicago Bears		13-3	 205.82	L v GB		-1	 -5.70
4(5)	New England Patriots	12-4	 197.51	W @ TEN		+1	+41.99
5(4)	Indianapolis Colts	12-4	 192.37	W v MIA		-1	+26.23
6(7)	Philadelphia Eagles	10-6	 106.18	W v ATL		+1	+26.77
7(6)	New Orleans Saints	10-6	  92.85	L v CAR		-1	-10.34
8(8)	Dallas Cowboys		 9-7	  51.86	L v DET		--	-26.01
9(12)	New York Jets		10-6	  51.50	W v OAK		+3	+15.70
10(10)	Jacksonville Jaguars	 8-8	  47.62	L @ KC		--	 -1.64
11(13)	Kansas City Chiefs	 9-7	  42.32	W v JAC		+2	+13.87
12(9)	Denver Broncos		 9-7	  35.59	L v SF		-3	-18.07
13(15)	St Louis Rams		 8-8	  28.97	W @ MIN		+2	+26.21
14(11)	Cincinnati Bengals	 8-8	  27.07	L v PIT		-3	-17.54
15(16)	Pittsburgh Steelers	 8-8	   5.16	W @ CIN		+1	+18.07
16(17)	New York Giants		 8-8	  -3.42	W @ WAS		+1	+13.58
17(23)	Green Bay Packers	 8-8	  -6.51	W @ CHI		+6	+34.93
18(19)	Seattle Seahawks	 9-7	  -6.57	W @ TB		+1	+19.37
19(14)	Tennessee Titans	 8-8	 -15.64	L v NE		-5	-29.14
20(24)	Carolina Panthers	 8-8	 -20.99	W @ NO		+4	+22.24
21(18)	Atlanta Falcons		 7-9	 -37.77	L @ PHI		-3	-19.51
22(21)	Miami Dolphins		 6-10	 -50.92	L @ IND		-1	-15.27
23(20)	Buffalo Bills		 7-9	 -53.09	L @ BAL		-3	-22.15
24(22)	Minnesota Vikings	 6-10	 -64.83	L v STL		-2	-24.87
25(25)	San Francisco 49ers	 7-9	 -79.29	W @ DEN		--	+14.72
26(28)	Houston Texans		 6-10	-110.99	W v CLE		+2	 +2.76
27(26)	Arizona Cardinals	 5-11	-121.56	L @ SD		-1	-18.40
28(27)	Washington Redskins	 5-11	-137.39	L v NYG		-1	-34.18
29(29)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	 4-12	-199.48	L v SEA		--	-35.04
30(30)	Cleveland Browns	 4-12	-210.44	L @ HOU		--	-43.68
31(31)	Detroit Lions		 3-13	-218.60	W @ DAL		--	 +9.18
32(32)	Oakland Raiders		 2-14	-284.45	L @ NYJ		--	-41.95

The top 9 teams all make the playoffs, and 11, 16, and 18 join them. Perhaps not surprisingly, 16 and 18 are from the NFC. First round playoff predictions according to the rankings have Dallas knocking off Seattle, Indy over KC, Philly over the Giants, and New England over the Jets.

Now, if you are a college football fan (or just a football fan in general) and you didn’t stay up to watch what looked like Boise State’s drubbing of Oklahoma, you missed at least the best game of the Bowl season so far if not the best college bowl game in quite some time, probably topping Texas/USC last year, though obviously not as meaningful; though it might not be quite as good as the Miami/Ohio State game from 2003, but it’s probably more fun to watch.

For you sports fans who haven’t heard about it yet, it goes something like this. Boise State is up 28-10 well into the third quarter, with no real sign of stopping though Oklahoma did start to slow them down a bit. Oklahoma scores 18 unanswered points to tie the game with 1:26 left in the game. Already the game was shaping up to be a very interesting one, with Oklahoma’s offense finally putting things together. Boise State gets the ball back and on the very first play Oklahoma intercepts the ball and runs it back 34 yards for a touchdown to take the lead 35-28 with just over a minute left (1:02). Oklahoma had held Boise State scoreless for the previous 22 minutes of the game, so they had to be pretty confident that they could hold for one more minute.

Boise State started from their own 20, and immediately struck with a 36 yard pass deep to the left side, getting them into Oklahoma territory. Then, Oklahoma’s defense stepped it up, sacking Zabransky for an 8 yard loss, followed by two incomplete passes. It was 4th and 18 from about midfield, and less than 20 seconds on the clock. Even if they converted, they’d only have time for one or two more plays after that at best. Oklahoma was playing “soft” to prevent Boise State from getting the first down. They’d gladly give up a 12-15 yard play as long as it meant that Boise State wouldn’t break it for a long play. Zabransky took the snap and sent a pass 15 yards down the left sideline to Drisan James, a couple yards shy of the first down. Several OU defenders immediately close on James, ready to take him down and win the ball game. Knowing that this meant the game, James cut back looking like he was going to try to beat all of those defenders, and as he cut towards the middle of the field he turned and lateraled it to another receiver, Jerard Rabb, in full stride who at least had the speed and position to get the first down and get out of bounds further down field. But, instead he had a running lane and took it to the house. Tie game, 35-35. We head to overtime.

Boise State as the visiting team got to call the coin toss. They win the toss and, as most teams do, elected to go second. Oklahoma’s drive ends almost as soon as it begins. Adrian Peterson immediately runs the ball in 25 yards for the touchdown on the first play of OT, and Oklahoma converts the extra point to take the lead 42-35 in the first OT. Boise State begins their drive by getting stuffed, and then getting a small gain to set up 3rd and long. Zabransky got the first down on a 9 yard dump pass across the middle, saving the game for now. With first and ten now, Boise State ran it twice and got it to 3rd-and-1 (to get the 1st down they had to get to about the 3 yard line). Their RB Ian Johnson tried to pound the ball up the middle but got stuffed for a 1 yard loss, setting up 4th and 2 from the 5. Boise State WR Vinny Peretta lined up alongside the QB Zabransky in the backfield and then Zabransky went in motion wide left (and arguably should have been called for illegal forward motion as the ball was snapped, but that’s somewhat irrelevant). Peretta received the direct snap and Oklahoma collapsed in on him but Peretta lofted the ball over the top perfectly to WR Derek Schouman for the touchdown. Instead of kicking the extra point to tie, Boise State decides to go for two to win it. Zabransky took the snap, transferred the ball into his left hand, faked a screen pass to the right with his right hand while holding the ball back behind his back for Ian Johnson to run it in to the left side for the 2pt conversion and the game.

And to top it all off, Johnson not only scored the winning 2pt conversion for Boise State, he then proposed to his girlfriend, the captain of the cheerleading squad, on national television.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good video of the highlights of the end of regulation, but here’s a Google Video link with the OT highlights: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=163885453571558914