Sunday Morning: 1st & 10

Ten things from yesterday's college football games:

1. Oklahoma led Baylor 28-zip at the end of the first quarter. OU's passing attack may well be the best in the nation. (Sam Bradford: 23-31 for 372 yards and two scores). However, they still struggle to be anything other than a mediocre running team. Tailbacks DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown and Moises Alou Mossis Madu combined for 198 yards on 53 carries. That is a paltry 3.7 yards per attempt. If the Sooners can't run on Baylor, how will they be able to run on Lack Crown's texASS Bonghorns next week?!?

2. College GameDay could not stop drooling over the texASS and Missouri offenses yesterday. Memo to the World Wide Leaders, please (puh-lease!) wait until those teams have played quality opponents before you openly weep tears of joy over them. Mizzu's season opening win against Illinois is the closest either team has come to playing a decent opponent.

3. We watched most of the second half of the Delaware-UMass game. Four observations from UMass' 17-7 victory: 1. The announced attendance in Amherst was over 16K. By our estimate, there were no more than 4,000 peeps there -- tops. 2. Delaware's offensive line is the worst we have seen in recent memory. (That, or UMass' D-Line is the best in recent memory. Not Likely.) 3. The Minutemen have two fantastic tailbacks -- junior Tony Nelson (163 yards) and true freshman Korrey Davis (one of the quickest 1-AA players we have ever seen). 4. As we could see our old dorm in the distance, we sometimes long for the days of our collegiate youth.

4. We are still laughing over those Fools who, having seen Florida State actually win...wait for it...two games in a row, are talking about the Seminoles being back. As they say in the Pepsi-spiked-with-ginseng commercial: WAKE UP, PEOPLE! The 'Noles beat Colorado and Miami, two teams that if they make a bowl this season, it will be something like The-We-Suck-Eggs-Bowl.

5. Best signs from yesterday's GameDay visit to Vanderbilt University: "What's worse Auburn's offense or the economy?" and "4-0 isn't just our G.P.A. anymore!"

6. Good news on the Tommy Bowden front. His Clemson Tigers did not lose yesterday. Apparently, not even Tommy can lose a game during a bye week. Great stat unearthed by Our Guy Pat Forde of espn.com: Clemson has been favored in each of its past 11 losses. Think about that.

7. We told you Coach Pete hates Oregon coach Mike Bellotti. We also told you he would try to hang half-a-hundred on the Ducks and that 'SC would win BIG. And so it was yesterday, as USC scored on a 59-yard pass from backup QB Mitch Mustain ('member him?!?) with less than two minutes remaining to make the final score 44-10, Trojans. Classic.

8. Among the 26 games we watched at least a part of yesterday, was Arizona waxing Washington, 48-14. It was our first looks at Versus' HD channel. Wow. Their HD is, perhaps, the clearest we have seen. A million times better than woeful NBC's/Notre Dame's. And just as good (if not better) as the crystal clear reception on ABC and CBS.

9. We love to poke fun at Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen. His "Hey, Ladies" long mane (though, much to our disappointment, he cut it last week), his arrogant attitude (despite having a terrible rookie season last year), the fact that all he really did last season was throw screen passes, and his penchant for being photographed off the field with red cups in his hand. But he has made Major Progress in his sophomore season. Yesterday, he played his best game as a collegian. Against Stanford, he was 29-40 for 347 yards, 3 scores and zero picks. His arm strength this year is every bit as good as Georgia's Matt "Everyone Loves Me" Stafford. (Clearly, Clausen's elbow was bothering him last year.)

10. Finally, in our weekly-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-football-note, we fear our Phillies are now in deep trouble. For the third straight playoff game, their situational hitting last night was simply abysmal in a 4-1 loss to the Brewers. Now leading two games to one, they send Adam Eaton's-Evil-Twin-Joe Blanton to the mound today. Which means there will be a decisive game five in Philadelphia on Tuesday, pitting Cole Hamels against CC Sabathia (with four days rest). Call us pessimistic, but we can easily see the Brewers winning that one in a low scoring game (say, 3-1) and advancing to play the Dodgers. Ugh.