The Post Mortem

Eddie Guns is dead to The Hater Nation.

Of all of the guys who screwed the Chargers, it had to be Eddie Guns. Let's go over the ruling here.

The Chargers could not recover Jay Cutler's fumble because the whistle had blown. There is no arguing that, because that is the rule. However, Eddie Guns should have never blown the whistle in the first place. That was a complete whiff. And let's get this straight. The referees were afraid to blow a whistle when Chris Chambers fumbled.

But in the final minute, when all plays can be reviewed, Eddie Guns gets panicky and blows the whistle? Come on, you're not a rookie. Don't blame the rules, blame the guns. What a horrible mistake.

Philip Rivers was pretty classy after the game saying, "It shouldn't have come down to one play." And he's right, sort of.

Sure, it shouldn't come down to one play. But the referees don't need to give Denver extra downs. That would be akin to the referees giving the Patriots a few extra plays in the Super Bowl. The Chargers stopped them. They had won the game. Should it have been that close? No. But the Chargers did enough to win, and that's what is going to hurt the most.

Well that, and the Raiders being ahead of them in the AFC West standings.

But enough of the crying. And that goes for you, Norv Turner. The coach was livid in the locker room after the game. Not that you can blame him. But have some composure. Or at least be entertaining enough so you will end up on a Coors Light commercial in a few years.

KURT WARNER MACHINE ROLLING
If you had to vote today for NFL MVP, it has to be Kurt Warner, right? The KWM was on fire against the Dolphins on Sunday. What's weird is that the Birds have always been one of those teams that just kind of wins. They don't dominate anybody. They look like a K-Rod save, barely hanging on to survive. Which is probably the best way to put it. The Birds don't win, they just kind of find themselves ahead after 60 minutes.

But Sunday was different. The straight-up snot-kicked the Dolphins. Sure, it's just the Dolphins. But the Cardinals haven't had many wins like this where their fans are leaving early because they are winning.

• Give credit to Mike Shanahan for going for the two-point conversion. Pure balls by the Orange Hobgoblin. But whoever won that coin toss was going to win in overtime.

• A Hurricane finally hit Reliant Stadium. So now are there going to be people calling for the Texans to move to Los Angeles?

• Chiefs' safety Bernard Pollard is receiving death threats after his season-ending hit on Tom Brady. Pollard, however, should feel lucky that he didn't hurt Keith Youkilis or Dustin Pedroia. Then there would be some actual threats.

• Your local lineup on Sunday morning in Southern California: Raiders at Chiefs on CBS, Giants at St. Louis on FOX. Nobody would have blamed you if you didn�t get out of bed until noon. Double bonus, St. Louis game featured Joe Buck. Georgia is still haunting us from the grave.

• Speaking of Georgia, this came from the Associated Press: The (St. Louis FC) (0-2) came up with another dud in their home opener, which also served as a tribute to late owner Georgia (Frontandrearie). If there was a more fitting tribute to Georgia than a team drowning in its own mediocrity, what else is there?

• St. Louis dedicated Georgia Way outside of the football stadium this week. As a tribute to Frontandrearie, the street lights are red.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Let's not waste a lot of time talking about USC's domination over Ohio State. THN called it on Friday, though USC wasn't given enough credit because they won by 32, not 30 as predicted here.

The big story in college football this week is that the discussion of best conference has been tabled. There is no sense even arguing this anymore. The best conference in college football is the Mountain West, hands down. UCLA knocked off one of the top teams in the SEC a few weeks ago, Tennessee. BYU hammered UCLA, 59-0. That's unbelievable.

But it didn't stop there.

UNLV knocked off Arizona State. TCU knocked off Stanford. New Mexico beat Arizona. And on, and on.

The biggest joke is that BYU is behind Ohio State in the polls. Seriously? The Cougars would beat the Buckeyes by at least two touchdowns. No doubt at all. Not that it matters. BYU will eventually jump Ohio State and hey, if they run the table, they could find themselves playing USC in the national championship game.

• Sorry USC haters, Mark Sanchez is not John David Booty. Some team might test the Trojans this year, but Sanchez will end up pulling the game out. There will be no loses to Stanford, UCLA or Oregon State this season.
  

• The BCS championship trophy was at the Coliseum on Saturday. No wonder Ohio State played so bad.

• Curious comment from Kirk Herbstreit: "Terrelle Pryor doesn�t know where he is anymore and he's just out there playing football." Uh, when a guy gets whacked in the head, isn�t the first question, "Where are you?" Shouldn�t they have taken him out of the game? Maybe Ohio State gave him a concussion in the locker room before the game and said, "Go get 'em." Maybe Tennessee should try that with Vince Young. Maybe he�ll think he�s playing for Texas again.

• Trivia question: Who were the two quarterbacks who kept Matt Cassel on the bench at USC? Brent Musburger said, "If any USC fan missed that question, turn in your season tickets." Well, if they had season tickets, wouldn't they have been watching the game from the Coliseum?

• Just what Charlie Weis needed � more time off his feet. Is he going to gain 800 pounds and be perched on a bed right there on the Notre Dame sidelines? "I wash myself with a rag on a stick."

• Bucky pointed this out in the comments, why even have replay in college football? There have been a lot of blatant calls not overturned in the first couple of weeks. That downed punt by Fresno State was obvious. The San Diego State non-fumble the previous week. USC�s interception return for a touchdown even looked a little questionable. That cost Sanchez a fifth touchdown pass. Although that beats recognizing a bad call and not being able to change the call.

• Why can�t Oregon keep a quarterback healthy? They blew a chance at winning the national championship last year when Dennis Dixon went down. Now they lost two quarterbacks against Purdue. Why did Pryor waste his talent at Ohio State instead of going to Oregon?

• How many games would Tennessee win if they played in the Mountain West? Two? Probably San Diego State and New Mexico. But they would give Colorado State a game. Sorry, Scott.
  

AND FINALLY
You are lucky that I needed some good karma today. Because the photo I was planning to use was so egregious, that it almost offended me. But have I put enough topics on the table? I expect an overflow of Ohio State fans to roll in here and give credit to USC.