Week 10 - Open Date (although I understand there were some other important games on)

This weekend was Auburn's open date, which I guess was a good thing, because there were so many other games on that I wanted to watch.  Of course, if Auburn had been playing, I would've just watched that game instead of flipping back and forth among all of the other ones.

Tennessee, as expected, beat MTSU, but I probably didn't expect a shutout, so that was nice to see.  And by "see," I mean watch on a very fuzzy broadcast similar to the JP Sports broadcasts of the 80s or early 90s.  It's strange watching a football game with weird mirage-like squiggly lines outlining all the players, graphics, etc.  Even through those distractions, though, I'm pretty sure I saw some troubling tackling techniques.  Apparently the new thing is to "tackle" people by just diving at their legs and hoping to knock their legs out from under them.  Granted, sometimes that works, and it makes for a flashy scene on TV.  If the runner happens to jump over you or otherwise avoid you, however, you have missed the opportunity to take him down because you failed to wrap your arms around him and pull him down.  What has happened to tackling fundamentals?

I was proud that there were two games showing top-10 matchups between SEC teams.  Arkansas finally managed to dispatch South Carolina, although that game appeared to be back and forth for a while (I really only watched it during commercials in other games).  The big game, LSU vs. Bama, did not disappoint.  Two pretty much equally-matched teams fighting it out in a defensive showdown.  I can't believe there wasn't a single touchdown scored in the entire game.  It was a great game - my only complaint is that I had to suffer through Verne Lundquist's commentary.  He drives me batty.  Within the first quarter, he had referred to LSU as "Auburn" and Bama as "Arkansas."  At least three times during the game, he would yell, "INTERCEPTED!" when the guy who caught the ball was wearing the same uniform as the guy who threw it and there were no defenders close enough to catch the ball.  What game were you watching, Verne?  Anyway, I don't think it's a big secret that I really don't like either LSU or Bama (although I would call LSU the lesser of two evils), but what I do like are the SEC's chances at a 6th National Championship in a row.  It's on you now, LSU.  Bring it home for the SEC!