Sunday, December 13, 2009

Texas vs Alabama and Man vs. Food

During the Heismann broadcast last night, we saw a segment where Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy went out for a little Man vs. Food action in New York city. They were served up several of the largest roast beef sandwiches I have ever seen in my life. That was fun. I love Man vs. Food. It is not only my favorite show, it is the only show I watch besides all the various football programming.

The food was not as fun as the conversation. Colt wanted to know who Tim voted for. Tim took the 5th, but this was only the prelude to the good stuff. It would appear that Tim is prepping Colt for what he is going to see in the Alabama defense. The prep went well beyond telling him that Mount Cody's weight is “more like four bills”. This is very intriguing. Tim admitted he is passing on as much intelligence as he can muster.

All week long, I have not been able to shake the strange feeling that Texas is going to pummel Alabama. I know this does not make sense. It is a bizarre premonition of doom for Alabama I have not felt in a long time.

The last time I had this kind of unexpected, irrational, premonition, the year was 1984 and the Raiders were about the play the Redskins. As you well remember, the Redskins were garnering all manner of praise at that time. People were trying to rank them with the greatest teams of all time. It was surprising the Raiders were there at all. They had had so many ups and downs, benching Jim Plunkett several times that season, that nobody expected them to make it to the big dance. Nobody thought the Raiders would win... except the Raiders... and me.

To this very day, I cannot explain why I thought the Raiders were going to take the Redskins down. It wasn't because I liked the Raiders. On the contrary, I hated them. I just had that feeling. I couldn't shake it off. The final score was 38-9 Raiders and the experts had 10,000 tons of egg all over their faces. They called it Black Sunday. For the experts, they could call the next day Feel like Shit Monday.

Right now I cannot explain why I think 'Bama will go down hard to Texas. Bama is a very good team. If I have any reason, I just think the SEC was way down in horse power this year. This Florida team would never have gone undefeated in the 2008 SEC. I think Bama had an easier ride than most would give them credit for.

The Big-12 is an underrated conference this year. They are playing much better defense this season. Nobody is giving Texas credit for being a survivor of one of the most grueling schedules around. They have been in a few death-matches in the steel cage this year. They know how to survive, and they do it all the time.

Still, all the empirical benchmarks point towards an Alabama victory. I just don't think it is going to happen like that. When I saw that Super Tim was passing on crucial intelligence to Colt, I think I got an indication why I've had this bizarre feeling.