Thoughts on today

* Memo to NFL and college announcers: when a receiver is catching the ball as he's falling down, he must maintain possession the whole way through. If he hits the ground and it bounces, it's incomplete. If it scrapes the ground, it's incomplete. This came up on Monday night with Raiders' receiver Louis Murphy, who was not given a TD because the ball scraped the ground as he was falling to the ground. It was the correct call, despite what the announcers in the booth apparently thought. And then during today's Notre Dame game, Michael Floyd caught a jump ball in the end zone, and as he hit the ground the ball came out. The announcers seemingly had no clue why this was called no catch on the field, and upheld upon review. It's because the defensive back was pushing him down as he caught it, thus beginning the falling motion, and then as he hit the ground the ball came out. I don't think this is that hard to understand, but it seems like a lot of football announcers are befuddled by this.

* I think my new cause will be to get pick plays eliminated from the passing game. Michigan St. today ran a successful pick play, and Texas Tech ran one for a TD. It's one thing if receivers run their routes together, and then one breaks off. But on both of these plays, one of the receivers did nothing but run up to the defensive back and essentially block him from covering the other receiver. This is illegal, but neither time was offensive pass interference called. The reason this irritates me is because it springs a receiver wide open. It's tough enough to play defensive back as it is, with all of the ticky tack illegal contact and pass interference penalties that are called, but to allow offenses to also run pick plays like Stockton and Malone is just unfair. I wish the NCAA and NFL would tell their officials to watch for this. They've gotten tougher on personal foul penalties, and a couple years ago they toughened up illegal contact in the secondary. Now it's time to eliminate pick plays. Leave that stuff on the basketball court.

* It is such classic USC to lose to Washington today that I'm almost embarrassed that I didn't call it. Instead I foolishly believed USC would play up to their talent level. USC does this every year, where they play an inferior Pac-10 team and lose. Two years ago it was Stanford, last year it was Oregon St. and this year it's Washington. It's like clockwork with that team. They win all the big ones and lose the little ones.

*Watching Washington this year, either Steve Sarkisian is the best coach ever, Jake Locker is the most valuable player ever, or Tyrone Willingham is the worst coach ever. I'm not sure there's any middle ground. I know I said this a couple weeks ago, but I saw Washington play Notre Dame last season and they were so embarrassingly untalented that I almost felt bad beating them. I don't think they crossed midfield until the 2nd half sometime. Now all of a sudden they're challenging LSU in week 1 and beating USC in week 3. These are two of the most talented teams in the country, and Washington is going toe-to-toe with them. To say this is unbelievable is an understatement.

* As great of a coach that Pete Carroll has been, and he's been pretty damn good at USC, I would have to say that two of the biggest upsets I've seen have happened under his watch. USC's loss to Stanford two years ago remains the gold standard, in my mind, for upsets. Stanford was terrible, USC was really good and the game was at USC. But this year's loss at Washington isn't far behind. I'm positive USC has backups that would start for Washington at certain positions.

* Call me Ebenezer Scrooge if you must, but I'm glad BYU and Utah lost this week, thus eliminating them from any ridiculous "they should be playing for a national title" talk. Smaller schools winning all of their games is fine, but let's be honest; half of the schools in the SEC and Big 12 could win a lot of games against their schedules. There's something to be said for winning all of your games (as USC shows every year, you can't take it for granted), but if you're in the SEC you've got to get through some combination of Florida, LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Arkansas and Tennessee. If you're in the WAC like Boise St., you've got to get through teams like Hawaii and Nevada.

* It's time to start taking Miami seriously as well. They rolled over Georgia Tech and beat Florida St. in week 1. More importantly, Jacory Harris looks like he has really improved at QB. I always thought Randy Shannon was the right guy for the job, and it looks like they've turned a corner. You always knew Miami could get the talent if recruited correctly, and now that Shannon has cleaned up the mess that Larry Coker left, it looks like Miami is back to being a player on the national stage. Their next two games are against Virginia Tech and Oklahoma, so we've still got more to learn about this team. But I've got my eye on them as a potential national title sleeper. They can beat everybody in the ACC, and a win over Oklahoma would be huge for their national reputation.

* I'm no fan of the Patriots, but the roughing the passer penalty against Vince Wilfork on Monday night was perhaps the worst roughing the passer penalty I've ever seen. A mundane pass rush in which he brought Trent Edwards down as he was throwing the ball, with no malicious intent whatsoever. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd want to come back with someone who has the attitude of some of these refs. I want to come back as a person who's not afraid to call a big penalty in a crucial spot, and really get myself involved in the game. I mean, people pay money to see the officials, right? I would just love to carry that attitude around. "You think you have a 15 yard gain huh? Nope, I'm calling a hold that not even the opposing coach is clamoring for." Last week Armando Allen was called for taunting after scoring a 2-point conversion with about 4 minutes left against Michigan. The referee had no problem calling a BS penalty like taunting in a crucial spot, forcing Notre Dame to kickoff from their own 15 and giving Michigan great field position, potentially altering the outcome of the game. I just wish I had the balls to do things like that. It's like every official carries around an "I'm Keith Hernandez" swagger.