Turn Up The Heat! Flanagan’s Thoughts From The Week

Sep 8, 2012; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns wide receiver Jaxon Shipley (8) goes up for the ball against New Mexico Lobos corner back Destry Berry (11) during the first half at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-US PRESSWIRE

In this week’s Turn up the heat, we will wrap up the Texas Longhorns game against New Mexico Lobos, talk about week one in the NFL, and talk some baseball and wildcard races.

Texas Longhorns thoughts:

– It’s been a couple days since the game against New Mexico and I’m not totally convinced on what this team is moving forward.  You can see all the talent that is on this team and what it’s going to do in the NFL, but it’s lack of discipline the start a game fast will bite them in a meaningful game.  This is a big game for the Texas Longhorns in Oxford, Mississippi.  Don’t sleep on the Rebels this weekend because they are very good at moving the ball and the no huddle offense that Coach Freeze likes to run.  This will be a national audience for the Longhorns to show why they deserve to be a top 15 team and if they struggle out of the gate in such a late starting game (9:15 pm EST), pollsters could drop down in the polls just based on their first quarter.  So if there is any game that the Longhorns were really need to come out and set the tone early, it is this game.

National Football League thoughts:

– It’s been almost a week since the Cowboys big win over the Giants in MetLife Stadium in New York City. I am still impressed by the win and I really think this Cowboys team can make some serious noise this season. I  don’t know if this Cowboys team will make the Super Bowl or not, but this Cowboys team is much better than they have been the past two years. I hope the Cowboys don’t break our hearts again.

– Being born and raised in St. Louis, I know that the Rams get a bad reputation around the NFL for what some consider a weak fan base.  Considering the Rams the last five years have had the least amount wins in the NFL, it’s hard for people to rally around the Rams in a town full of winners.  What I saw against the Lions was a different team. I admit I was upset when the Lions put the ball in the end zone with 10 seconds to go in the game. I am optimistic though on the future with Jeff Fisher as the Rams head coach.  Good things will happen in St. Louis and hopefully the momentum will lead to a new stadium deal to keep the Rams in St. Louis.

– The Houston Texans were just dominant against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday and sent the statement to the AFC that the Texans are a serious contender to win the AFC. Ryan Tannehill looked like a rookie in his first start for the Miami Dolphins.  The loss of Mario Williams seems to not affect the Texans that much on the field but I want to see what they do against better opponents.

-Brandon Weeden is terrible and the fact that the Browns didn’t even put in a Colt McCoy just shows how incompetent the Cleveland Browns are as an organization. Brandon Weeden had the worst QB rating for any rookie starting his first game in the history of QB ratings. Colt McCoy may not be the most spectacular NFL quarterback out there, but he’s much better than Brandon Weeden.

– The Ravens are a legitimate Super Bowl contender this year after beating up on the Bengals on Monday night.  This might be the final season for Ray Lewis and Ed Reed so if the Ravens want to send both of those Hall of Fame players out as champions, they are on their way to doing that.

Major League Baseball thoughts:

– The NL wild card race is too fluid right now to really determine who will go to the playoffs.  The Cardinals are trying to find a way to lose it and so are the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Cardinals do play the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-game series this weekend so they can put some distance between them and the Dodgers with a great series but considering Jaime Garcia will have to pitch in that series, I really don’t know what that series will hold for the Cardinals.

– Bobby Valentine will not be the manager of the Boston Red Sox by this time next month. I know I’m going out on a limb on that one, but it’s just been a disaster for the Red Sox this season and they really shouldn’t have fired Terry Francona.

–  So the Nationals are going to make the playoffs, but the whole situation will be look upon as a failure if the Nationals don’t win the World Series. Stephen Strasburg is obviously not happy about the situation since they shut him down early because he wasn’t giving it his all during his final start of the season.  If this move doesn’t pay off for the Nationals with a World Series championship while Strasburg is in DC, Nationals fans will be very unhappy with management.

Final thoughts:

–  Today is September 11th.  Most people old enough will remember where they were when the attacks happened.   It happened on a Tuesday much like today where it was nothing special going on that day but in the matter of hours, America was changed. I remember having first period English class like normal, then it was Gym class and we played soccer that day.  Then waiting to enter my biology class, I heard about  a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and this was about two hours after it happened but biology class went on as normal so I just thought it was a terrible accident and I would hear about later.  The next hour was my algebra class and that’s when I heard about the entire thing, how it was deliberate and my algebra teacher told me about the fourth plane crashing in Pennsylvania but it was unconfirmed at that point. I went to history class that day and my teacher stood up for class with the two TVs in the background showing over and over the planes crashing into the buildings when he told us “This is world history and you should watch this and remember this day forever.” I will never forget the first time seeing those planes hit the World Trade Center and all I could think of was my family and wanting to get home as soon as possible. I want to thank our troops for putting themselves in harms way to finally getting that son of a bitch Osama bin Laden and sending a message the rest of the world that if you attack us, we will attack you even harder.

Follow Hook’em Headlines on Twitter, You can contact Chris Flanagan at hookemheadlines@gmail.com.