It was a little tough for me in picking the NFL games last week.  I ended up with 10 correct (out of 16), so I’m hoping for better days ahead.  I may not win a pizza this year from Papa John’s…not that I need a pizza.

With fall starting, I am into football full time.  It all starts on Friday nights, where I enjoy listening to some of the high school games on the radio and keeping up with scores from high school games all across the nation via Twitter (@TheWesternWord).

On Saturday, my attention turned to major college ball and ended with me watching Mizzou at Oklahoma, the Bobcats at Eastern Washington, and the Griz getting whipped by Sac State.  Yep, I can keep up with all three and even feed myself…sometimes I drop a little food, but that’s the way it goes during football season.

Today’s commentary about football deals with the winless teams in the NFL, the ESPN NFL Countdown crew, major college football and division II ball.  I also have to comment on some Montana High School football.  Enjoy…

National Football League

If you had the Lions and the Bills listed as teams that would be undefeated after week three, you are a genius.  They have been surprising winners.  On the losing side, if you would have said the Chiefs, Colts and Vikings would all be winless, nobody would have believed you.  That’s why they play the game.

The good news is that the Vikings play the Chiefs next Sunday.   They should call it the O-Four bowl as the team that loses will be 0-4.

Monday Night Football:

ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown studio crew was over the top last night about the Michael Vick situation. Vick said on Sunday that he was getting hit too many times and not getting the calls.  The Countdown crew (especially Tom Jackson) went to his defense.  Jackson was furious and showed a lack of professionalism in his commentary.  On the other hand, Trent Dilfer (on site crew) was calmer in stating his point that Vick is not being mistreated.

And Twitter went wild!

I don’t care.  The MNF crew wasted a lot of time discussing Vick, who was not even playing Monday night.  Frankly, too much time was wasted discussing Tony Romo’s ribs too.  I’ve decided that Tony Romo is a regular season player.  He can’t win the bigger games.

The whole MNF crew has performed poorly so far this season – there are too many former jocks commenting and they are not trained in their jobs.  There are really too many folks participating in Countdown.  They need to cut about half of them.

The Sunday Night “Football Night in America” team does well and they are the class of the pre-game shows, not to mention they have the best crew calling the games (Al Michaels/Chris Collinsworth).

The Hot Seat:

Just three games into the season, several teams are 0-3.  Which coach of the 0-3 teams are possibly on the hot seat?  Most folks believe it is Dolphins coach Tony Sparano.  The Dolphins play at San Diego this Sunday.    The O-3 St. Louis Rams host Washington.  The Vikings play at the Chiefs.  The winless Colts play at Tampa Bay on Monday night.

College Football

Major College Football FBS (Division I-A Teams):

The shuffling of teams in major college football is still happening; the SEC added Texas A&M to their conference.  A&M left the Big 12.   There are some rumors about Missouri heading that way, too.  I hope not.

The whole problem with the Big 12 deals with Texas and the Longhorn Television Network deal they cut with ESPN.   ESPN has a big conflict of interest in this deal – so anything they “report” about the Texas Longhorns should be looked at closely.   They have a financial stake in the Longhorns now.

By the way, the Big 8 was doing just fine until the Texas schools joined.

#1 Oklahoma was able to hold off a tough Mizzou team Saturday night in Norman, Oklahoma, 38-28.   It cost the Sooners the #1 ranking in the Associated Press poll. The new top five are:

1.  LSU, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Alabama, 4. Boise State, 5. Oklahoma State.

FCS (Division I-AA Teams):

I am not at all sold on the two Montana teams so far this season.  Sure, they will both win some games but the post season is what people are looking at these days.  Having running QBs that can’t pass very accurately may bite them (it already did the Griz) this season.

The Montana Grizzlies were beaten by the Sacramento State Hornets Saturday night 42-28.  The Griz can get back on the winning track next week as they host winless Northern Colorado.

What stood out in this game to me?  One was the Griz had four turnovers (three were interceptions) and the other is you must have a QB who can throw and run (a little) to be competitive.  It was good to see QB Nate Montana get some reps.  When a team falls behind (like the Griz did), you must have a QB who can pass to get you back into the game.  They brought in Nate Montana too late.  He needs more reps in practice to be ready.

The same can be said about the Montana State QB DeNarius McGhee.  If the Bobcats fall too far behind in some games, then he will need to be better than the 11 completions out of 25 attempts showing he had against Eastern Washington.

The Bobcats beat Eastern Washington on the red turf last Saturday.  It was a good win for the Bobcats, but it will be interesting to see them host the Sac State Hornets in Bozeman on Saturday – this will give us a check to see how Montana’s two bigger schools compare.

What stood out?  The Bobcats’ Jason Cunningham kicked five field goals (two were from 55 yards) and Cody Kirk rushed for 117 yards.

Montana State is ranked #4 in the latest poll (same as last week).  Montana fell from #9 to #16.  Sac State is #25.   Insider’s Tip:  One team to watch in this division is Northern Iowa.  They are ranked #2 behind Georgia Southern.

High School Football

Montana AA:

With #2 Helena Capital beating the Great Falls Bison 41-0 and the Bison taking on #1 Helena High Friday night, we should see how strong the two Helena teams are this year.

It’s kind of amazing that two schools from the same town have such great football teams at the same time – we’re talking about a town of just 30,000.

With five games out of the way (10 total), it appears the AA road to the championship will go through Helena in 2011, but two Billings schools (West/Senior) may have something to say about it and also Kalispell Glacier.  Helena Capital plays at Billings West Friday which should be one of the bigger AA games this week.

Wrap-up

That’s it for this week’s Just Football – Follow me on Twitter @TheWesternWord to get some of the scores and other stuff via Twitter.