From RealFootball365.com’s weekly “power rankings”:

15. San Diego Chargers (LW: 6; 1-2) - Where have you gone, Marty Schottenheimer? Bolts Nation turns its lonely eyes to you …

At least my other teams come in better:

6. Tennessee Titans (LW: 12; 2-1) - You can bet that those mocking Vince Young in April 2006 for his low pre-draft Wonderlic scores are the ones feeling stupid right now. Watching Young is like seeing a combination of John Elway, Fran Tarkenton and Joe Montana. He’s clutch, he’s mobile and he does nothing but win.

3. Dallas Cowboys (LW: 4; 3-0) - Although the Cowboys play in football’s weaker conference, there is no question that they could give any of the AFC’s elite a run for their money. There simply aren’t many — if any — poor areas on the roster, and if there are, they’re covered up by a tremendous offense and outstanding coaching staff.

Oh, how I’d love to see a Cowboys-Titans Super Bowl. But the Steelers and Patriots are going to make that really difficult.

Well … our second AYSO game of the season also ended in defeat, but the boys played much better today, especially in delivering the ball out of the goal. Our goalies made some great stops and some great punts. We still need to get more aggressive in going for tackles, more aware of the space on the field, and more disicplined in playing positions, but in every respect this game was an improvement over our season opener.

Last Saturday, our home opener—by “our,” I mean my son Nathan’s AYSO team, which I coach—went against us in a big way. We lost 5–2, thanks in no small part to poor delivery of the ball out of the goal and a little too much “mob ball.” We’ve been working on those skills this past week, so I’m hopeful for a better showing against this Saturday’s opponents, the Killer Dragons. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Dallas Cowboys opened their 2007 training camp with a big show to kick off the “Wade Phillips era.” You know, that phrase is a little annoying. With six different coaches in the eighteen years that Jerry Jones has owned the team, I don’t think any of them qualify so far as having an “era.” But never mind that. The Cowboys have some talented players returning, and everybody’s excited about Texas native Wade Phillips—the son of former Oilers coach Bum Phillips—taking over the helm.

As for the San Diego Chargers … well, I’m still not quite over the dismissal of Marty Schottenheimer and the hiring of Norv Turner. A Sports Illustrated staff writer wrote that “The Chargers were an NFL-best 14-2 before imploding in a 24-21 home playoff loss to New England,” but why does losing by 3 points to the Patriots’ fourth-quarter comeback constitute an “implosion”? Anyway, I’m hopeful that the Chargers’ players’ talent will overcome their coach’s lack of talent. Last season, the Chargers were 14-2 (87.5% wins). Turner’s career regular season record is 58-82-1 (41.5% wins). This does not bode well. But there’s a lot of attention on rookie Craig Davis and what he might bring to the team at WR.

Anything good going on with the Tennessee Titans has been overshadowed recently by the misdeeds and shenanigans of Pacman Jones. I’m afraid I’m likely to lose a lot of respect for the Titans if they allow Jones to attend training camp and play in preseason games despite the fact that he’s been suspended by the NFL for the entire season (pending a review after week 10). Hopefully, attention can now turn to the rest of the team, including the various draftees who haven’t yet been waived.

Don’t pick up Tank Johnson. Just don’t do it. You’ll just take Dallas farther down the Raiders road—a journey it’s already on.

Nathan’s soccer team, the Conejo Lions, unexpectedly broke into his league’s playoffs a few weeks ago. They won their first playoff game while Nathan was out of town at his grandmother’s house for an extended Thanksgiving holiday, and then went on to win two games on a single day last Saturday. On Sunday, they lost their semi-final match 2-1 against the Lynxes (well, they call themselves the Lynx’s, but you know how some people* just can’t accept that apostrophe-plus-s doesn’t make a possessive). Nathan had a great season and really turned it on the last couple of weeks. We’ll be practicing a lot in the off season so that he has another great U10 season next year. A big thanks to David Rigby, his coach (who is also a professor, in geography, at UCLA).

* This is intended as a good-natured dig. Please take it that way.

Two weeks ago, Nathan’s AYSO soccer team, the Conejo Lions, won 3-2 over the Wolverines. After a week off for Rosh Hashanah, yesterday the team lost to the Lynxes, 4-2 if I counted right.

My son’s U10 AYSO soccer team, the Conejo Lions, won their first game (out of ten) of the season last Saturday, 3-2 over the Wildcats.

Two interceptions (one overturned by a questionable review) within the last one minute? Who was it that hired Drew Bledsoe to helm the Cowboys? Yikes.

And would somebody please tell Mike Peterson that God doesn’t take sides in football games? I appreciate Mike’s desire to give God credit for the good things that happen to him (like his recovery from injury), but there are limits. There were undoubtedly fervent believers on both sides of the ball and the stadium today.

Well, this post is really about football. Sorry for the mixed metaphor. The Washington Redskins are scheduled to play an away game in Tampa on November 19, so unfortunately, I won’t be able to keep up my tradition of seeing a pro football game during the SBL meeting. Actually, I’ve only been able to accomplish this twice, in Nashville (Bengals at Titans) and Atlanta (Titans at Falcons).

Also, it looks as if only one preseason game this Saturday—Patriots at Falcons—will be televised. I’m not that interested in either team. My beloved Titans and Cowboys are both playing, but neither on TV. I’ll have to check the radio schedule, I guess. At least the Sunday and Monday night games will be televised. I must say I’m very thankful for the existence of the Field Pass.