Question: Does Tennessee have the 2 best WINS this season???

As the final seconds tick down, despite a furious Kentucky rally, Tennessee appears on the verge of a HUGE victory (at home) against #2 Kentucky.

Pair that with a win over (former and now current) #1 Kansas earlier this season (the Jayhawks' only blemish)...and color me impressed.

Sure, both wins were at home. Sure, Kansas and Kentucky had to lose their 1st and 2nd games respectively eventually. Sure, this is the same Tennessee who kicked it's best player off the team...and also lost to Georgia.

Nevertheless, does any other team in the country have two more impressive victories this season??? I bet J.P. Prince (below) is also struggling to find one.

At least it helps them forget about this TOOL. No, not you JP.

Credit: Yahoo! Sports

Kiffin Out, [Insert Lame Duck] In

Chris Mortensen of ESPN is reporting that Raiders owner Al Davis has fired head coach Lane Kiffin (by telephone), seemingly ending the charade that has taken place since Kiffin's hiring last year. That said, Davis aims not to honor the remainder of Kiffin's contract. For that, Davis will be criticized for yet another reason.

The demise of the Raiders is nothing new. Though Davis should be remembered for his contributions to American football, his missteps (and cowardice) as owner over the last five years may result in this generation forgetting that.

In spite of a 4-12 record last year and the exact same winning percentage so far this season, the Raiders were making progress under Kiffin, who was doing his best despite not having any real control over personnel and staff. With the likes of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City (my pick), Detroit, Minnesota, St. Louis, San Francisco and perhaps Seattle looking for a new head coach in the off-season, Kiffin will have a leg up on the competition due to his youth and experience.

Quick Hits from Sunday's Games

Here's one sentence (maybe two) from each of Sunday's games ...

Cleveland @ Cincinnati
Edwards and Ocho Cinco find the endzone, and Quinn should have entered the game for Cleveland after halftime if Crennel knew what he was doing.

Houston @ Jacksonville
Jacksonville evens up its record yet Matt Schaub has a career game. Both defenses stopped the other team's running backs.

Atlanta @ Carolina
Moose reawakens and Atlanta fails to score a TD in its second straight divisional road game.

Denver @ Kansas City
LJ and Clement's fantasy teams got going. Four turnovers and an inability to stop the run killed Denver.

San Francisco @ New Orleans
The return of Deuce McAllister to full-time duty and a full game's worth of production from Drew Brees result in an easy win in the Big Easy.

Arizona @ New York Jets
Thirty-four second quarter led to the clock operator being replaced and Kurt Warner putting up the worst 472 passing yards ever. Arizona will never stay on the East Coast.

Green Bay @ Tampa Bay
Late burst from Earnest Graham shored up an anything but certain victory for Tampa. Shocker: I saw at least one scuffle and guess who was in the middle? Jeremy Trueblood.

Minnesota @ Tennessee
Tennessee cruises behind its defenses, who caused three turnovers, and effective redzone play. Minnesota is searching for answers.

San Diego @ Oakland
Oakland squanders a 12-point fourth quarter lead and that LT guy wakes up from his season-long slumber. As of the writing of this post, Lane Kiffin still has a job.

Buffalo @ St. Louis
Linehan's out after Buffalo took care of business in the second half. Action Jackson finally finds the endzone.

Washington @ Dallas
Washington outplayed and outcoached Dallas, and TO - the target of 34.5% of offensive plays - complains. Missing person reports were submitted for Marion Barber III and Felix Jones.

Philadelphia @ Chicago
Orton plays his best half as a pro followed by possibly his worst. Philadelphia's inability to translate turnovers caused into points (6 points from 4 turnovers) cost them dearly.

Friday's Quick Hits

A few quick hits on this fine Friday. Less than 49 hours and counting to the 1pm ET Sunday kickoffs.

- In the minds of many, Lane Kiffin is irrelevant. To people who have played football, they have viewed his public display of insubordination as an affront to the sport. I view it as courage and long overdue public criticism of Al Davis, who lost it 20 years ago. Mind you, that's a conservative estimate. Gregg Doyel describes it much better than I do or ever will in this piece about Kiffin's bravery. Simply stated, Kiffin continues to position himself for his next NFL head coaching position. If he wants a college head coaching position, he can go that route as a secondary option.

- On Wednesday, I asked the question, "Can Koren Robinson Make Good in Seattle?". The more operative question is, "Can Koren Robinson can get in football shape and learn enough of the playbook to warrant snaps against the Rams?" I know, that's a long question and you've already put too much into your work week. Bear with me.

- I forgive you, Ed Hochuli. Others who are struggling to stay classy may not. Unlike other game officials, you did not cower after a botched call that unfortunately led to the wrong team winning. You took e-mails from the haters and you responded to them. I've been to a number of college basketball games and a good portion of which involved controversial calls deciding games (the worst one of which was UConn/Washington in the 2006 Regional Semifinal - UW got jobbed and UConn got theirs two days later). The view, which I've seen more than once, that I cannot get out of my head is that of zebras sprinting to the locker room to avoid any measure of accountability. I am fully aware that many of those wishing to make zebras accountable are heavily inebriated; however, some of us are only drunken with sporting integrity.

- Adrian "All Day" Peterson spent all day missing practice Thursday. As a note to our readers, I have been adamant that due to his running style and inability to stay healthy and the need to carry this team on his shoulders without a proven quarterback, Peterson would get injured and miss significant time on or before the sixth game of the season.

- Also, loyal college basketball fans, I just got my hands on my first college basketball preview magazine. Midnight madness is less than a month away ...

"Tuesday" FauxCast: Pre-Season Edition

Sitting at my day-job cubicle, I scroll through sports related sites fairly regularly (it helps get my mind off of the horrid stench emanated by the woman who sits to my right). Aside from the Olympics fiasco (I wonder if the judges were threatened with human rights abuses?), my focus has been primarily on the stories coming out of the NFL Pre-Season. Thus, I figured, why not get into pre-season form myself and bring back the FourCast a couple weeks early? (And since everyone is missing a step in the pre-season, I decided to be a day off). Let’s take a look at what’s been hitting the No Fun League over the past few days (and hopefully protect me from Stinky McGee for a few more minutes).


1. Tony Dungy changes his last name to “Belichick”

Okay, so he really didn’t change last names, but given the Belichick-esque routine with regard to Peyton Manning’s condition, he should get an award. So often Dungy gets praise from the “media” and fans for being a class act, while Belichick has his name dragged through the mud (even before spygate). Dungy himself has even seemingly accepted the pedestal on which he’s been placed, chastising the Pats Head Coach for his questionable methods. However, throughout last season, Dungy never once properly addressed the injury to Marvin Harrison, letting opposing teams (not to mention countless fantasy owners) prepare for no reason. Wait … doesn’t everyone (legitimately) give crap to Belichick for doing that with regard to Tom Brady’s “shoulder injury”?

This pre-season, Dungy seems to be acting coy with regard to Peyton’s knee and its, now missing, bursa sac. Could Peyton’s knee brace be this year’s version of Brady’s boot?


2. You’re doin a heckuva job there, Brownie

Ronnie Brown began the pre-season as the top running back for the Miami Dolphins. Sure, everyone assumed he’d be splitting the carries with Ricky Williams, but we also figured he’d get most of the touches. Now we know (thanks to the folks at ProFootballTalk.com) that Brown is listed as the #2 back on the ‘Fins depth chart. The #2 overall selection in the 2005 NFL Draft came out of Auburn with lots of hype. Unfortunately, his injury plagued career has only seen him get 1,000 yards rushing once and has yet to see him play all 16 games. Maybe he just likes being #2?


3. Depth at Wide-Receiver is for pansies

While Peyton limps around (or “limps” around, we don’t know … friggin Dungy), the “other Manning” continues to show us that he really doesn’t need much in the way of teammates. A season after winning the Super Bowl without the help of the talented (but loud-mouthed) Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey, Eli is showing us he really doesn’t need depth or talent at the wide-receiver position (Note: Somewhere Donovan McNabb is taking notes). On Monday night, Eli shredded the Browns secondary for 2 touchdowns to Domenick Hixon, in all completing 4 of 7 passes to only Hixon and Sinorice Moss. Those stats, of course, do not include a 53-yard pass interference gain on a pass to Moss that set up the first TD to Hixon.

All-in-all, the G-men only needed to complete passes to five different receivers, none of whom were named Plaxico, Amani, Mario or Steve Smith.


4. The Truth?!? Al Davis can’t handle the truth!

Al Davis has forever been the scorn of head coaches. He bring them in, has them do his bidding without complaint and then disposes of them. Kinda sounds like Dick Cheney and his hunting pals. Well, maybe the Vice-President should think twice before inviting Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin out to hunt geese. Kiffin, long rumored to be a lame-duck coach this year, has forgotten all about the “thou shalt not bemoan Al Davis” motto of the Oakland Raiders (yeah, the “Commitment to Excellence” line is just a farce). In comments to reporters earlier this week, good ole’ Lane whined about the lack of depth on his team and further bitched about the management’s lack of play in the waiver/free agent market this pre-season.

Is Kiffin just trying to pass the buck so as to not scare away potential future employers? Probably. But hey, I give the kid (yes, “kid”) credit for having the testicular fortitude to give the finger to Davis . If Brett does run for president, Kiffin can be his renegade/maverick veep choice.