one of the most endearing and persistent is the idea that when it comes to local derbies, anything can happen. Form is irrelevant. So too is financial strength, squad depth, managerial http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/robert-alford-jersey prowess, and anything else you might ordinarily consider relevant when thinking about a match. When two teams are located quite close to one another, things get messy.How true is this? Probably not very. But then, that’s not the point: this is an expression not of fact but of hope. Maybe things aren’t this way, but oh, they really should be. It is an idea that appeals to the old roots of football, to a more chaotic time, perhaps all the way back to those pre-modern village-on-village dust-ups. Simultaneously it offers liberation from the iniquities of modern footballing power. Maybe, if we all agree hard enough, the thing that’s obviously going to happen somehow won’t.And as Manchester United’s visit to their nearest and dearest grows nearer, that thought is growing again. What if something weird happens? Maybe even something funny? It is a derby, after all. That lack of travel time plays havoc with reality.If we’re going to talk about something weird, then we should probably start by defining what would be not-weird. Which would be a Manchester City victory, probably quite a comfortable one. They’re just better than United: 18 points better last season, after 38 games, and nine points this after just 11. The City Football Group aren’t idiots, after all. When they mask vast expenditure with a series of elaborate shell companies and inflated sponsorship deals http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/jake-matthews-jersey , they do it right. Allegedly.Guardiola’s City will probably end up being regarded as one of the best in Premier League history, while Mourinho’s United 鈥?well, they’re not. (You can put a “yet” on the end of that sentence if you’re feeling kind.) The whys and wherefores of that imbalance are to be debated and contested, of course, but they are there, whoever’s fault it is. That’s the baseline. What should happen.And so, to what could happen. Hope for weirdness comes from two places. The first is United’s recent uptick in form: they’ve picked up four wins in six games, including that comeback against Juventus. And the draw at Chelsea was, from a United perspective, broadly promising if specifically irritating. You’d be lying if you said that these performances were convincing. United haven’t kept a clean sheet since the stultifying draw against Valencia, and this recent run has also included a schooling at Old Trafford by Juve. But on balance, United look like a team with something about them. Some invention. A touch of collective belief. Maybe even the first hints of an actual attacking plan. And those are the kind of things ruinously expensive football teams really should have, so that’s nice.The other hope for weirdness to come is the weirdness we’ve already seen. The Manchester Derby is actually pretty productive when it comes to derby wackiness: a 6-1 here, a 5-0 there, a 5-1 over in that direction. Even Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering sides occasionally fell victim to the mysterious powers of proximity.In 2013/14, City went to Old Trafford and produced perhaps the most one-sided 20 minutes of football that the Premier League has ever seen. As a stunned David Moyes looked on, City scored in the first minute, then could have picked up another ten or so as United’s defence stood around, apparently baffled at the sight of footballers passing to each other. Then moving. At pace.Also, it says here that in April 2015 Authentic Keanu Neal Jersey , a Manchester United side managed by Louis van Gaal scored four goals. Doesn’t seem right. Subs please check.Most recently, last season. United went to the Etihad for City’s title coronation, conceded two before half-time, and then 鈥?won. City just 鈥?melted. Weird again. Indeed, precisely the kind of formbook-through-the-window weirdness that derbies are supposed to produce. It didn’t mean anything in the broader scheme of things. It didn’t seem to come from anywhere or go anywhere. It just happened. An isolated and bizarre collection of things, occurring on a football field. That’s what derbies are in the imagination, and that’s what they are, occasionally, in real life. Just often enough to keep the imagined idea alive. And given that the alternative is another comfortable City victory, there are certainly worse things to hope for. In its first year post-Lamar Jackson, Louisville is 2-7, a couple of the worse losses coming by 35 points at home to 3-3 Georgia Tech on Oct. 5, and getting blown out 77-16 by Clemson, and losing 54-23 to Syracuse on Nov. 9.The worse Louisville gets, the more incredible Jackson looks. In all four of Bobby Petrino’s previous seasons in this stint at Louisville, the Cardinals have gone 8-5 or better — and for at least parts of three of those, he had Jackson as his quarterback. Jackson caught fire and took the starting job in 2015, won the 2016 Heisman Trophy after lighting the college football world on fire while scoring 51 touchdowns, and was a finalist behind Baker Mayfield in 2017. As the Georgia Tech game was unfolding, it was clearer than ever just how much Jackson meant to Petrino’s Louisville all along.Same with the Syracuse game Authentic Vic Beasley Jersey , too: Throughout Jackson’s career, college football fans remarked on how many Louisville flaws the QB was masking. Well, now there’s no mask. During Jackson’s time, the Cardinals’ offensive line was always bad, and the defense frequently struggled. Jackson’s wide receivers often dropped passes. He often had to try to win shootouts while avoiding constant pressure.Offensively, the 2017 Cardinals ranked 81st in standard-downs sack rate, allowing 29 Jackson sacks. Entering the game against Georgia Tech, the Cardinals were down to 97th in that same category. The offensive line then allowed two sacks and seven quarterback hurries against the Yellow Jackets.Louisville’s wide receivers have combined for just five touchdowns all season — last year the Cardinals had 29, with Dez Fitzpatrick catching nine. Defensively, the Cardinals rank 103rd in S&P+, and the unit is giving up 40.8 points per game. Oh yeah, and: In Jackson’s final season, Louisville finished at 87th in S&P+ on defense, but the Cardinals still won eight games. And now the offense that had to carry all the load during Jackson’s two full years as a starter is no longer capable of carrying anything. It ranks near the bottom in every major S&P+ category:(Note: These S&P+ numbers are from before the Cuse game)Against Syracuse, Petrino tried three different quarterbacks in Jawon Pass, Malik Cunningham, and Sean McCormack, who saw his first career game action in the process. McCormack threw a pick on his very first throw, Pass had a fumble, interception http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/andy-levitre-jersey , and another fumble on three consecutive possessions, and Cunningham had just one passing attempt. This pretty much sums it up the night: Almost everyone expected Louisville’s offense would regress without Jackson, but Petrino actually hoped it would get better. From ACC Media Days in July:And Louisville’s offensive future didn’t look this grim, especially due to the personnel Petrino had returning: But actual improvement was always going to be nearly impossible minus Jackson.As far as Petrino’s future in Louisville, that’s a bit unclear at the moment.One bad season, along with the $14.1 million buyout in Petrino’s contract, makes it probably unlikely he’ll be fired after this year, but it wouldn’t be all that shocking if he was. He’s officially on the hot seat now, though — that seat is close to catching on fire right about now. Petrino himself has owned up to some of the mistakes he’s made this season, but as Card Chronicle points out, patience in Louisville with Petrino is wearing a little thin: Retroactive Heisman Trophies don’t exist, but if they did, Jackson would deserve another one.You don’t replace a player like Jackson, and you can’t expect Petrino to do that. Instead, he needs to figure out how to win games without Jackson at quarterback — something he hasn’t been able to do at all so far this season.