Observations following a full weekend of sports in the Bay area:
n Being a Raiders’ fan means never having to say you’re sorry, even if your team is.
How else to describe a team that can’t hold a 21-3 lead at home against a previously winless team? It doesn’t look like Andrew Walter is the answer at QB, at least not this year. The new/old coach might not be Shell-shocked yet, but it’s a good bet he realizes that these aren’t your Raiders’ teams of the 1990s that Art Shell coached in his first go-around in Oakland.
Just win baby!
n Seeing is believing.
San Jose State is six points away from being 4-0 this season. Tomey, can you hear me? I’m beginning to believe. The Spartans’ only loss was on the road to a Washington team that is 2-0 in the PAC-10.
The Spartans are averaging 28 points a game, have yielded just 17 total points in the last two games and allowed just two TDs in the last 10 quarters. Granted, it came against 1-AA Cal Poly and winless San Diego State.
San Jose State gets a week off before Utah State comes calling on Spartan Stadium. The schedule gets more difficult thereafter, but if the Spartans can break even in the Western Athletic Conference, they should be bowling for dollars in December.
n I’m Ram-tough and not the Lonesome Loser.
No numbers, no Sweeney, no depth, no problem.
All it takes is a solid game plan and a group of hard-nosed players who refuse to accept that they’re not good enough to win.
Gavilan College is 1-4 and talking about being good enough to make the playoffs. That’s all you need to know about a team that just won its first game of the season.
It wasn’t bluster and it wasn’t cockiness. It was a group of young men who still believe they can be a good football team. Even with a record three games under .500, they have attitude. With College of the Sequoias looming ahead of the Coast Conference schedule, having attitude is good.
n The Land of the Giants is a tired, old refrain.
Remember the days when Dodgers-Giants games during the last weekend of the season were meaningful? It was this past weekend … for Los Angeles. The Dodgers played like they had the playoffs at stake while San Francisco played like its players couldn’t wait for a tee time.
But then, what would you expect when half your team is the retiring type, or at least should be.
