South Carolina vs. LSU

vs.

#12 ranked South Carolina will take on #2 LSU this weekend in sloppy conditions at Tiger Stadium. Weather will definitely be a factor as Tropical Storm #10 (likely to be a named storm by gametime) will be moving across southern Louisiana on Saturday. LSU played in rainy weather at Miss St. and should have the advantage playing at home.

QB Matt Flynn is still nursing a sore ankle, but he is expected to play. The Tigers, however, will be without senior WR Early Doucet and starting DT Charles Alexander was lost for the season with a knee injury. LSU should be fine at both positions due to quality depth and experienced backups.

The "Old Ball Coach" is a rumored candidate to replace Les Miles, if/when Miles heads north to Michigan. Spurrier may be looking to impress LSU fans and a good showing this weekend by the Gamecocks could leave that lasting impression if LSU is looking for a new coach. With LSU's defense, however, it will be hard to move the ball and South Carolina will have to be creative and force turnovers, if they are to have a chance.

Prediction:
S.C. 6
LSU 27

Week 2 NFL Power Rankings

Two weeks down, let's look at how teams are stacked up in the NFL:

1. Indianapolis Colts (2-0): Had a tough game in Tennessee, but they're still the champs.
   
2. New England Patriots (2-0): The cheaters look like a team on a mission this year.
   
3. Dallas Cowboys (2-0): Offense is firing on all cylinders, but defense isn't. Signing Tank Johnson is a boom or bust move.
   
4. Pittsburgh Steelers (2-0): How good are the Steelers? Bills and Browns aren't good barometers, but they look legit.
   
5. San Diego Chargers (1-1): Tough game against the Patriots. L.T. has hundreds of fantasy owners questioning selecting him #1, even though he was the consensus.
   
6. Chicago Bears (1-1): Is this the season that Lovie Smith makes a QB change?
   
7. Denver Broncos (2-0): Two lucky wins puts the Broncos in the top 10. Yep, it's still early in the season.
   
8. Seattle Seahawks (1-1): Looked like one of the NFC's top teams, but a botched handoff killed them against the Cardinals.
   
9. Green Bay Packers (2-0): Brett Favre looks like he could play 4 more years, and he might.
   
10. Washington Redskins (2-0): Nice win against the Eagles in one of the NFL's toughest places to play.
    
11. Tennessee Titans (1-1): Vince Young was leading his team downfield, but couldn't quite
    
12. Carolina Panthers (1-1): One step forward, and two steps back for a team that just can't consistently put it together.
    
13. Houston Texans (2-0): The surprise of the NFL thus far, Houston must be tired of losing so much.
    
14. Cincinnati Bengals (1-1): Scoring 45 points and losing must have been tough to shallow for Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson.
    
15. Baltimore Ravens (1-1): Kyle Boller played well, will he be the starter now?
    
16. Detroit Lions (2-0): The pesky Lions have a ton of weapons on offense, but they let Minnesota hang around and go to OT.
    
17. San Francisco 49ers (2-0): The 49ers offense has yet to get going, but two wins is still two wins.
    
18. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-1): The Jags still didn't run the ball well in their victory over the Falcons.
    
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-1): The Bucs hit the Saints with big plays in the passing game, showing that Joey Galloway and Jeff Garcia will make a nice WR/QB combo.
    
20. New Orleans Saints (0-2): The offense stinks, the defense stinks and the kicker is 1-3 on FGs...other than that, the Saints are OK.
    
21. Minnesota Vikings (1-1): Tavaris Jackson may need to take a break and hold a clip board for a while after throwing 4 ints against Detroit.
    
22. Arizona Cardinals (1-1): With all the playmakers they have on offense, their coach still wants to pound the rock.
    
23. Philadelphia Eagles (0-2): Donovan McNabb needs to not worry about the criticism of black QBs and just improve his game. He looked terrible last Monday.
    
24. Cleveland Browns (1-1): Brady Quinn will have to wait a bit longer as Derek Anderson led the offense to more than 50 points.
    
25. St. Louis Rams (0-2): Tough division loss to the 49ers. Steven Jackson needs to be a bigger part of the offense.
    
26. New York Jets (0-2): Is that a QB controversy brewing in New York? Kellen Clemons looked solid against the Ravens, but his WRs didn't do him any favors.
    
27. New York Giants (0-2): Eli Manning played through his injury, but the secondary was torched for the second week in a row.
28. Oakland Raiders (0-2): Should have been a victory against the Broncos, but a time out stopped their celebration.
    
29. Buffalo Bills (0-2): Flat effort against the Steelers. What happened to the J.P. Loman/Lee Evans connection?
    
30. Miami Dolphins (0-2): Aging defense had trouble stopping Dallas' offense, at least they got a first hand look at T.O.'s celebration.
    
31. Atlanta Falcons (0-2): Can Byron Leftwich save this team? Probably not.
    
32. Kansas City Chiefs (0-2): Larry Johnson is probably second guessing coming back from his hold-out.
    

Week 3 Top 25

After three weeks of college football, teams are starting to separate themselves. A few of the hyped preseason teams have struggled early (Michigan, Louisville, Tennessee) and some unlikely teams (South Carolina, Kentucky, Oregon) have made their way into the rankings. The two top teams, LSU and USC, continued their dominance and Florida impressed with their win over the Volunteers.

Here's a look at this week's Top 25:

1. LSU (3-0)
2. USC (2-0)
3. Florida (3-0)
   
4. Oklahoma (3-0)
   
5. West Virginia (3-0)
6. California (3-0)
   
7. Ohio State (3-0)
   
8. Penn State (3-0)
9. Wisconsin (3-0)
10. Texas (3-0)
11. Oregon (3-0)
    
12. Rutgers (3-0)
13. Boston College (3-0)
    
14. South Carolina (3-0)
    
15. Clemson (3-0)
16. Virgina Tech (2-1)
17. Louisville (2-1)
    
18. Hawaii (3-0)
19. Alabama (3-0)
    
20. Texas A&M (3-0)
    
21. Kentucky (3-0)
    
22. South Florida (2-0)
    
23. Georgia (2-1)
24. Nebraska (2-1)
    
25. Arkansas (1-1)
    

*Dropped from Rankings: UCLA (previously #12), Tennessee (previously #21)

What's wrong with the Saints?

The Saints' bandwagon is a lot less crowded this week after their 31-14 defeat in Tampa. It's not just the fact that they have lost 2 games in a row, it's how bad they've looked. They were dominated by the Superbowl champs and now they were dominated by a team that only won 4 games last year. The defense doesn't scare anyone, and the former #1 offense in the league can't get out of its own way. What is wrong with the Saints?

The offense starts and finishes with Drew Brees and Deuce McAllister. Both are playing frustrated right now. Deuce isn't seeing any daylight and after getting poked in the eye, he didn't play much more yesterday. The offensive frustration can be seen more in Brees' body language. Dropped passes yesterday killed their early momentum. The "Cover 2" defense has confused Brees and forced him to settle for check downs. They start pressing and then nothing goes right.

The defensive front four is playing OK, while the secondary is playing worse than last year, if that's possible. The upgrade at CB, Jason David, has been a total bust. Fred Thomas could do no worse than David's performance in the first two weeks. The safeties rarely make it over to help the CBs in coverage and big plays are still being gained at will.

Lastly, the new most dreaded words for Saints fans: Olindo Mare in to attempt a field goal. This guy is terrible. Sure he can get touchbacks on kickoffs, but last time I checked, you don't kickoff that much if you aren't scoring. With the Saints averaging 12 points a game and Mare being only 1 of 3 on FG attempts, Saints fans are left to wonder why the accurate John Carney was let go.

Has the team been reading its own press clippings? Did they think that the big plays would come as easy as last year? Are they trying too hard to duplicate last year's success? Is Sean Payton making the offense too complicated and trying to live up to his genius hype? Will the defense ever be able to stop the big play? Can New Orleans just not handle high expectations?

It's one week until the home opener on Monday Night Football against Vince Young and the Titans. Let's hope that the home crowd can light a fire under the team, otherwise it's "the same old Saints."

Saints vs. Buccaneers

The Saints will look to impress this week as they take on the division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints offense was flat against the Colts and couldn't find the end zone, while the defense was torched by Peyton Manning and his wide receivers. This Sunday will have a very different feel to it.

The Saints will be chomping at the bit to play as they had to wait longer than usual to get back on the field after playing on a Thursday. This made the players think longer about their play and should have them more focused against the Bucs. I see the offense moving the ball like they did in the preseason and they will find the end zone multiple times this week. Reggie Bush wants to impress and he, along with fellow RB Deuce McAllister, should have a big day.

The Bucs are sort of in rebuilding mode, but time is running out for coach Jon Gruden. He brought in QB Jeff Garcia, who is familiar with the Saints from his days with the Eagles and 49ers. RB Carnell "Cadillac" Williams is nursing sore ribs and may not play. This sets up for a good spot for New Orleans to refocus themselves and get a win in the division.

Prediction:
Saints 27
Bucs 16

Middle Tennessee State vs. LSU

VS.

The Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders travel to Baton Rouge to take on the #2 LSU Fighting Tigers this Saturday. This game had every indication of being a "rent-a-win" or "cupcake" until last Thursday when MTSU went blow-for-blow with top 10 ranked Louisville on national TV. MTSU is not to be taken lightly, but LSU should still win this game easily. LSU last and only meeting with MTSU was a 30-14 victory in 2001.

LSU's defense is light-years ahead of Louisville and while MTS may be able to move the ball some against LSU, they won't come close to the 42 points they scored last week. LSU should go up big early and be able to provide valuable playing time and game experience to backups and future leaders for the purple and gold. With a few players nursing injuries, mainly QB Matt Flynn and S Craig Steltz, backups will be put in the game early. Flynn may start, but look for Ryan Perriloux to see the majority of the snaps.

Prediction:
MTS 13
LSU 47