The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
All in all a pretty darn good opening day for college football. Some great games and of course a few surprises. Here are my observations from an eventful Saturday afternoon - we'll start with the good.
The Big 12
With one minor little blemish, it was a damn good day for the Big 12. Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, A&M, and Tech all won games they were supposed to win. Any of those teams could have lost and wouldn't have been a huge shock, but they all won convincingly. Meanwhile, Baylor strolls into Winston-Salem, NC and beat a pretty decent Wake Forest team. That's a very good win for Baylor - gotta be a huge confidence builder.
The big win for the conference has to be Oklahoma State's convincing win over Georgia. By and far the best part of the Cowboys' victory has to be their defensive showing. I know Georgia was breaking in some new (and key) offensive players, but holding a team like Georgia to 10 points is always a good thing. Offensively, it seemed to take the Cowboys a bit of time to get going and get in sync, but they were able to pull it together. I will say, Zac Robinson didn't look great and early on he was making some really bad throws. I'm not sure if he was injured at all, but he didn't look too sharp. Bryant make a couple of nice catches after shaking off the cobwebs from a vicious hit he took early on. All in all, a good win for the Cowboys, but honestly, they didn't look as impressive as I was thinking they would. We'll see - have to keep in mind it's opening week and they'll certainly improve.
Texas' Offense
The high octane Longhorn offense certainly lived up to expectations. But honestly, what did you expect? They aren't playing Alabama's defense or anything, but they did look good. I'll get to Vondrell McGee later (in the bad section), but I loved seeing the 200 yards rushing as a team. Oh, and let's all say hello to one DJ Monroe. He's a redshirt freshman listed as a wide receiver, but ran the ball 9 times and returned a punt for a TD. And yeah, he's fast. I look forward to seeing him included in some set plays in the near future. And how about John Chiles? 3 catches for 35 yards and a touchdown. And Colt was Colt - you think that McCoy and Shipley will put up some numbers this year?
I was also quite pleased with one Garrett Gilbert - his presence seemed calm and cool and he had a very nice TD run, absorbing a couple of hits along the way. Very nice debut.
Alabama
Damn. I mean, damn. I really thought Virginia Tech was going to take this one, but it doesn't help when you don't defend the run. The Hokies second year QB just couldn't get his passing game going, and of course the Bama defense had a little something to do with that. Alabama threw up just short of 500 yards of offense, and only gave up 155. That's impressive considering the Crimson Tide were breaking in a brand new offense. 268 of those nearly 500 were on the ground and that's against a historically very strong rush defense. Great, great way to start the season for Bama.
USC, Florida, Texas
All big winners in game where they were supposed to be big winners. Florida won by 59 and Texas won by 39 and neither of them covered.
And now, The Bad of the weekend...
Texas' Defense and Special Teams
One of the key things I was looking for in this game was how the special teams would play. Well, it wasn't good. They gave up 175 total return yards. One would say that when you score 59 points, you're kicking off A LOT. And they're right. But this is still a pretty high number. I'll ask this for what seems like the upteenth time - why can't we kick the ball out of the end zone? Ever.
And the defense gave up just shy of 300 total yards of offense and 20 points. I'm a bit surprised that the Horns gave up that many points. Although I will concede that one of those scores was a 75 yard bomb on broken coverage, but I just don't like the 20 I see up there. Definitely some things to work on, especially up front on defense.
Oklahoma
It's certainly early to be uttering the "P" word (panic), but this doesn't look good for the Sooners. First off, it's apparent that the concerns in OU's offensive line are certainly validated. Bradford was knocked down 3 times before sustaining his shoulder injury. That may be more than he was hit all of last year. Throw in a redshirt freshman and that doesn't bode well for the foreseeable future. The good news is they get Idaho State and Tulsa before a bye week, but after that, it gets a bit tougher: at Miami, Baylor, Texas and at Kansas.
Who knows how long Bradford will be out (not to mention Gresham), but I think it would be fair to say that with an injury on your throwing shoulder, it may take him a while to get back to form. We all know how the system works and OU can certainly still find themselves in the championship game, but now they don't have the luxury of losing to Texas and still falling ass backwards into the game. And assuming Bradford misses a minimum of 2 weeks (which is what I seem to read/hear most), he's out of any heisman discussion.
Vondrell McGee
Just a few days after being named the number one RB, Vondrell proceeds to go out and lose 2 fumbles in the first half.....they lost zero last year. I think that's why we saw the business-as-usual running back by committee approach for most of the game. Look, I like Vondrell a lot, but you can't put the ball on the carpet. You just can't. With Fozzy Whitaker getting healthy and the debut of DJ "Usain Bolt" Monroe, Vondrell may struggle to get 15 carries in a game like he got on Saturday. I expected him to have at least 20 touches, but that won't happen anytime soon.
And of course, The Ugly....
THE Ohio State
I'll preface this with I suspect that the Buckeyes may have been looking ahead to their battle with USC next week, but I was astounded at the lack of defense, a usual strength for this program. The Buckeyes gave up 342 yards (186 on the ground) to this Navy team. I'll tell you this, if they don't right the ship on the run defense, they have no chance against Southern Cal. Great ending to the game and very exciting to watch, but it was almost a disaster for Ohio State. Like I said, I think they were likely looking way ahead and I fully expect to see a much more focused OSU team next Saturday night.
OU Offensive Line
I know I've hit on this, but these guys were really terrible. As expected, BYU brought some unconventional blitzes and it's clear these guys are going to be a work in progress.
The ACC
In addition to the aforementioned Virginia Tech and Wake Forest losses, let's see how the rest of the league stacked up. For starters, Duke lost to Richmond and Virginia lost to William and Mary. For those of you who aren't well versed in the levels of college football - those are division II teams. North Carolina State only gave up 7 points....and lost 7-3 to South Carolina. One can only hope that the Florida State vs. Miami game on Monday night will provide some saving face for the conference. Hell, I had this conference as a more competitive "dark horse" type league for lack of a better term. Well, turns out there are numerous other terms I could have used. Like suck.
That's what I got for opening weekend gang. Good news is we're on a short week, we've got a few very high-profile match ups and of course, NFL starts this weekend. Does it get any better?
Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:
Memo to the people who are raising hell about the President of the United States addressing school children directly and sending a message of staying in school, working hard, blah, blah, blah - you know, usual presidential messages to school children: this is just dumb (and so are you). I still don't know what the big deal is here. Haven't past presidents done this before? Reagan, Carter, Bush 1 - they all did this. Did they face any of this mindless, manufactured bullsh*t when they did it? And has anyone actually read the speech? Is it even done yet? What, do you think he's going to try and convert your children to "socialists"? If you do think/worry about that, than you are REALLY dumb.
I had a chance to watch Meet the Press a bit on Sunday and this topic came up (albeit for a very short time because it's not really worth a whole lot of discussion) and I was quite happy to see their round table of conservatives and liberals all agree that this was ridiculous and "stupid" (yes, that word was used repeatedly). If you don't like the President's policies (be it Obama, Bush, whomever) that's fine, you're likely more than justified in that, but to take this sort of action over a speech to school children on the importance of staying in school? Sheesh, get a grip folks. Aren't you making a bigger deal out of it by doing this than if you were to never have brought it up? Just another example in a loooooong list of reasons as to why the average Joe Q. Public out there is just as much part of the problem as the ignorant, incompetent jackasses in Washington.
That's what I got. Short week this week so I'll be back on Friday with a look at the big games next weekend.
The Big 12
With one minor little blemish, it was a damn good day for the Big 12. Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, A&M, and Tech all won games they were supposed to win. Any of those teams could have lost and wouldn't have been a huge shock, but they all won convincingly. Meanwhile, Baylor strolls into Winston-Salem, NC and beat a pretty decent Wake Forest team. That's a very good win for Baylor - gotta be a huge confidence builder.
The big win for the conference has to be Oklahoma State's convincing win over Georgia. By and far the best part of the Cowboys' victory has to be their defensive showing. I know Georgia was breaking in some new (and key) offensive players, but holding a team like Georgia to 10 points is always a good thing. Offensively, it seemed to take the Cowboys a bit of time to get going and get in sync, but they were able to pull it together. I will say, Zac Robinson didn't look great and early on he was making some really bad throws. I'm not sure if he was injured at all, but he didn't look too sharp. Bryant make a couple of nice catches after shaking off the cobwebs from a vicious hit he took early on. All in all, a good win for the Cowboys, but honestly, they didn't look as impressive as I was thinking they would. We'll see - have to keep in mind it's opening week and they'll certainly improve.
Texas' Offense
The high octane Longhorn offense certainly lived up to expectations. But honestly, what did you expect? They aren't playing Alabama's defense or anything, but they did look good. I'll get to Vondrell McGee later (in the bad section), but I loved seeing the 200 yards rushing as a team. Oh, and let's all say hello to one DJ Monroe. He's a redshirt freshman listed as a wide receiver, but ran the ball 9 times and returned a punt for a TD. And yeah, he's fast. I look forward to seeing him included in some set plays in the near future. And how about John Chiles? 3 catches for 35 yards and a touchdown. And Colt was Colt - you think that McCoy and Shipley will put up some numbers this year?
I was also quite pleased with one Garrett Gilbert - his presence seemed calm and cool and he had a very nice TD run, absorbing a couple of hits along the way. Very nice debut.
Alabama
Damn. I mean, damn. I really thought Virginia Tech was going to take this one, but it doesn't help when you don't defend the run. The Hokies second year QB just couldn't get his passing game going, and of course the Bama defense had a little something to do with that. Alabama threw up just short of 500 yards of offense, and only gave up 155. That's impressive considering the Crimson Tide were breaking in a brand new offense. 268 of those nearly 500 were on the ground and that's against a historically very strong rush defense. Great, great way to start the season for Bama.
USC, Florida, Texas
All big winners in game where they were supposed to be big winners. Florida won by 59 and Texas won by 39 and neither of them covered.
And now, The Bad of the weekend...
Texas' Defense and Special Teams
One of the key things I was looking for in this game was how the special teams would play. Well, it wasn't good. They gave up 175 total return yards. One would say that when you score 59 points, you're kicking off A LOT. And they're right. But this is still a pretty high number. I'll ask this for what seems like the upteenth time - why can't we kick the ball out of the end zone? Ever.
And the defense gave up just shy of 300 total yards of offense and 20 points. I'm a bit surprised that the Horns gave up that many points. Although I will concede that one of those scores was a 75 yard bomb on broken coverage, but I just don't like the 20 I see up there. Definitely some things to work on, especially up front on defense.
Oklahoma
It's certainly early to be uttering the "P" word (panic), but this doesn't look good for the Sooners. First off, it's apparent that the concerns in OU's offensive line are certainly validated. Bradford was knocked down 3 times before sustaining his shoulder injury. That may be more than he was hit all of last year. Throw in a redshirt freshman and that doesn't bode well for the foreseeable future. The good news is they get Idaho State and Tulsa before a bye week, but after that, it gets a bit tougher: at Miami, Baylor, Texas and at Kansas.
Who knows how long Bradford will be out (not to mention Gresham), but I think it would be fair to say that with an injury on your throwing shoulder, it may take him a while to get back to form. We all know how the system works and OU can certainly still find themselves in the championship game, but now they don't have the luxury of losing to Texas and still falling ass backwards into the game. And assuming Bradford misses a minimum of 2 weeks (which is what I seem to read/hear most), he's out of any heisman discussion.
Vondrell McGee
Just a few days after being named the number one RB, Vondrell proceeds to go out and lose 2 fumbles in the first half.....they lost zero last year. I think that's why we saw the business-as-usual running back by committee approach for most of the game. Look, I like Vondrell a lot, but you can't put the ball on the carpet. You just can't. With Fozzy Whitaker getting healthy and the debut of DJ "Usain Bolt" Monroe, Vondrell may struggle to get 15 carries in a game like he got on Saturday. I expected him to have at least 20 touches, but that won't happen anytime soon.
And of course, The Ugly....
THE Ohio State
I'll preface this with I suspect that the Buckeyes may have been looking ahead to their battle with USC next week, but I was astounded at the lack of defense, a usual strength for this program. The Buckeyes gave up 342 yards (186 on the ground) to this Navy team. I'll tell you this, if they don't right the ship on the run defense, they have no chance against Southern Cal. Great ending to the game and very exciting to watch, but it was almost a disaster for Ohio State. Like I said, I think they were likely looking way ahead and I fully expect to see a much more focused OSU team next Saturday night.
OU Offensive Line
I know I've hit on this, but these guys were really terrible. As expected, BYU brought some unconventional blitzes and it's clear these guys are going to be a work in progress.
The ACC
In addition to the aforementioned Virginia Tech and Wake Forest losses, let's see how the rest of the league stacked up. For starters, Duke lost to Richmond and Virginia lost to William and Mary. For those of you who aren't well versed in the levels of college football - those are division II teams. North Carolina State only gave up 7 points....and lost 7-3 to South Carolina. One can only hope that the Florida State vs. Miami game on Monday night will provide some saving face for the conference. Hell, I had this conference as a more competitive "dark horse" type league for lack of a better term. Well, turns out there are numerous other terms I could have used. Like suck.
That's what I got for opening weekend gang. Good news is we're on a short week, we've got a few very high-profile match ups and of course, NFL starts this weekend. Does it get any better?
Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:
Memo to the people who are raising hell about the President of the United States addressing school children directly and sending a message of staying in school, working hard, blah, blah, blah - you know, usual presidential messages to school children: this is just dumb (and so are you). I still don't know what the big deal is here. Haven't past presidents done this before? Reagan, Carter, Bush 1 - they all did this. Did they face any of this mindless, manufactured bullsh*t when they did it? And has anyone actually read the speech? Is it even done yet? What, do you think he's going to try and convert your children to "socialists"? If you do think/worry about that, than you are REALLY dumb.
I had a chance to watch Meet the Press a bit on Sunday and this topic came up (albeit for a very short time because it's not really worth a whole lot of discussion) and I was quite happy to see their round table of conservatives and liberals all agree that this was ridiculous and "stupid" (yes, that word was used repeatedly). If you don't like the President's policies (be it Obama, Bush, whomever) that's fine, you're likely more than justified in that, but to take this sort of action over a speech to school children on the importance of staying in school? Sheesh, get a grip folks. Aren't you making a bigger deal out of it by doing this than if you were to never have brought it up? Just another example in a loooooong list of reasons as to why the average Joe Q. Public out there is just as much part of the problem as the ignorant, incompetent jackasses in Washington.
That's what I got. Short week this week so I'll be back on Friday with a look at the big games next weekend.
posted by The Bearden Wonder at 1:55 PM
2 Comments:
Texas A&M dealt with New Mexico handily this weekend. Although NM looks bad, it's been awhile since we handled a bad team the way we are supposed too.
We're not getting any press and people are talking up Baylor for god's sake as the new thing; but Jerrod Johnson went 31-41 for 350 yards and 2 TDs. He ran for another 57 and a TD. The offense totaled over 600 yards and the 2nd and 3rd string guys were in for almost the whole 4th quarter. We ran over 90 offensive plays using the new no-huddle offense we're running.
On defense, we held them to 21 yards rushing total and had 5 sacks and forced 2 turnovers. Right now, we're leading the nation in sacks.
Two problems are going to be this teams issue all season. First, youth and inexperience. We're playing almost 50% freshman and sophomores in the 2-deep and that's leading to penalties and new-guy misakes. Second, the left side of the OL is weak. Without development, that could really hurt us in league play.
This team is going to be better than expected. Should easily be 3-0 headed into the Arkansas game on 10/3. A win there and that OSU game at Kyle the next week gets real interesting.....
CSU handed it to CU in their own house. I'm not a Buffs fan by any stretch, but I'd say that counts as another blemish on Big 12.
Post a Comment
<< Home