As a football fan, this past weekend was the best of the year for me so far.

You see, even though The Badger Herald fell victim to the dirty play of the aptly named Dirty Birds in flag football, it was the first time neither my favorite NFL team nor my favorite college team lost in the same weekend in 2009.

Obviously, the latter would be the Wisconsin Badgers, and while they’ve only lost two games, those two have been flat out brutal to watch. Simply put, head coach Bret Bielema was out-coached in the second half of both games.

Now, I’m not allowed to cheer in the press box and instead must portray some semblance of objectivity when covering games, but inside I was more than a little bit upset about the ineptitude of the UW offense last week.

Only 66 yards of offense in the final 38 minutes? Please, John Clay should be able to fall forward 20 times for more than that.

Yet, that came after the Badgers were handed a tough defeat in Columbus a week earlier.

Going from an epic Chris Maragos fake field goal touchdown run to a 31-13 loss is at the very least a roller coaster ride of a game. What’s more, the epic nature of the failure by the Wisconsin football team in the second half took all the excitement out of being on the field for the final five minutes.

I’ve been on the field for the end of every game, and until that point, they had all been Wisconsin victories and most were thrilling finishes with the crowd getting as loud as they can to support their team.

So when I got to Ohio Stadium, I imagined the gladiator arena-like feel O’Brien Schofield had described, only to walk into a crowd that knew it had a win wrapped up.

Needless to say, it’s been a tough two weeks to be a Wisconsin football fan.

And my NFL team, as difficult as it is to admit, is the Tennessee Titans.

In the case of the Titans, objectivity goes out the window and I had more than a few choice words for the embarrassing play of the boys in the white and powder blue throwbacks last week as they got throttled by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

I mean, seriously, I’m still not over it. Losing 59-0 is absurd.

Even Charleston Southern put up three points to Florida’s 62 in the first week of the season, and I know those two teams are a lot further apart talent-wise than Tennessee and New England.

Don’t forget Jeff Fisher was wearing a No. 18 Colts jersey at a fundraiser saying, “I just want to feel like a winner.” I’m sorry, Jeff, were those 13 wins last year not enough?

Clearly, Fisher has given up after an overachieving 13-3 season. That or the “Curse of the Terrible Towel” is nothing to fuck with.

Eight losses in a row since stomping on the towel, including that embarrassment in Foxboro? I give more credibility to that curse than that of the Billy Goat.

And it’s not like this season looked like it would go this way from the beginning. The Titans were a pair of Rob Bironas missed field goals away from stealing a win in Pittsburgh against the defending champs.

Now, Tennessee fans can only imagine what life would be like if they had won that game, or if LenDale White hadn’t stomped all over the Terrible Towel. Seriously, why is he still on the team anyway?

Fortunately for me (and Badger Herald statistics editor Max Henson, who shares my terrible taste in pro football franchises), both the Wisconsin Badgers and Tennessee Titans were undefeated this past weekend.

No, they didn’t go 1-0 Bielema style, but they didn’t go 0-1 either.

Thank God for bye weeks!

For bad teams, the bye week is like Thanksgiving. You get to go home, eat a big home-cooked meal and watch somebody beat the hell out of the Lions. Unfortunately, they didn’t play this week either.

But in all honesty, I enjoyed entering this week following the winless weekend much better than the last two 0-2 weekends, or even any of the first four when the Titans went 0-4.

Unfortunately, both teams return to the gridiron this weekend, and both have excellent opportunities to continue their futility.

For Tennessee, its run toward joining the Detroit Lions in the record books (0-16) will likely continue with a home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who already outclassed them in a 37-17 blowout in the Sunshine State three weeks ago.

Wisconsin, on the other hand, hosts the ever-dangerous Purdue Boilermakers.

OK, so maybe Purdue isn’t quite at the level of Ohio State or Iowa, but the boys in black and gold did embarrass Terrelle Pryor and Co. in West Lafayette a couple weeks ago.

Plus, it’s Halloween, so anything could happen right?

Actually, when you look at it, maybe this could be the week when my luck starts to change. Maybe both teams could win! That would be quite the Halloween shocker wouldn’t it?

Then again, it looks like Kerry Collins and Scott Tolzien are still in line to start for their respective teams, so I guess Max and I will have to wait another week.

Jordan is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. Are there any Lions or Rams fans out there with advice for coping with the Titans’ epic failure? Send him your suggestions at [email protected].