Ah, the NFL

NFL means Not For Long. Like "Not For Long" will Tom Coughlin remain coaching if the Giants' defense continues to resemble the Madden '08 Titans (#32 of 32 teams in 2006) on the lowest difficulty setting. Tony Romo threw just 24 passes, completed 15 and amassed 347 yards. Those are numbers that Matt Leinart rolled up in college against lower-end Pac-10 teams. The Cowboys gained 8.7 yards per play -- that's ludicrous. The Giants rolled up 6.5 yards per play and Eli Manning threw 4 TDs. After the game, Cowboys' coach Wade Phillips said his team had room for improvement but the required improvements would be easy to handle. One postgame radio caller said, "yeah, like tackling can be improved in one week? It's only something these guys have been taught repeatedly for like 20 years . . ."

Speaking of not for long -- in the first two weeks of the college football season, Lloyd Carr has done the worst coaching job of a talented team that I've seen. This team had defensive starters returning, has some of the best talent in the nation, and had its top three skill players on offense eschewing the NFL for a chance to play for a national title.

First, Michigan gets rolled for 28 points in the first half against a I-AA school at home. Then, Michigan gets ripped for more than 600 yards and 39 points by a non-Top 25 team at home. That's pathetic. The sick thing is that Michigan could have beaten App. State but should never have had the chance -- App. State had first and goal at the UM 5 with 30 seconds left and immediately kicked the FG. That call is as stupid as it gets -- the Mounties could have run the clock to almost nothing, positioned the ball in the middle of the field, killed Michigan's TOs and kicked the game winner as time ran out. Instead, Michigan had a chance, unloaded a 46-yard pass to set up the game-winner, and only another miracle saved App. State.

This past Saturday, Michigan was so bad it gave up an easy 85-yard TD pass early, and then coughed up one of the worst plays I've seen -- a 61-yard TD toss behind a three-deep zone. Oregon had a slot and wideout on the left, they crossed and the slot ran an out. The corner rolled to the slot man; the right safety got beat deep by the wideout (no shock) but instead of having the central safety (free safety) help out, that player was looking the wrong way the whole time from before the snap through the whole play -- to the OreU right. Throw, catch, TD, 32-7 at the half.

The saving grace for Michigan -- it plays Notre Dame (two FGs on offense, one defensive TD = 13 points scored all year, 64 against) this week. Then again, the saving grace for Notre Dame is it plays Michigan (73 points, 60 in first half, this year). Yeesh.