05 November 2007

college football in review: week ten [10]

navy at notre dame

navy : i've been trying to decide whether if navy were lucky or if they are simply better than notre dame. in the end, it really doesn't matter, as the midshipmen finally beat the fighting irish after 43 years. [by the way, i think it's more that they are better.]

notre dame : this may be the most embarassing loss for a team since the washington generals beat the harlem globetrotters. i'm still wondering why notre dame, after tying the game late in the 4th quarter, didn't decide to attempt a 41 yard field goal. with decisions like that, the fighting irish deserved to lose.

florida state at [#2] boston college

florida state : the seminoles did america a favor by defeating the screaming eagles and thus preventing them from going to the bcs championship. they won by playing well on both sides on the ball, mostly due to drew weatherford leading the offense and their defense getting timely stops and turnovers.

boston college : i doubt that many people believed that the screaming eagles were going to finish at number 2 in the bcs standings, so their loss this week didn't come as a surprise. matt ryan played poorly, but i suppose that everyone is entitled to an off-day. although i do hope that this does curtail any matt ryan for heisman campaigns and/or anyone in the media calling him 'matty heisman.'

[#3] lsu at [#17] alabama

lsu : the tigers seem to be the best team in the country, and they have the best player in college football [glen dorsey]. so it's a surprise to me that they always play in close games. i suppose that playing in close games doesn't mean that they aren't the best team, but it does say that they have plenty of flaws. against alabama, they were one 4th-and-4 away from losing. fortunately for the tigers, they converted the fourth down and won the game thanks in large part to a john parker wilson fumble.

alabama : i'm a certain that nick saban went home and punched holes in the wall right after this game. alabama had every chance to win this game, and played tight as the game got closer to its end. when it mattered, the lsu defense did not let the crimson tide move the ball down the field.

[#4] arizona state at [#5] oregon

arizona state : even though the sun devils came into the game the higher in the rankings, the ducks were always considered the better team. and it showed as the sun devils comparative inexperience to oregon showed. the good news is that they still only have one loss and their hopes to make the bcs championship game are still alive [barely].

oregon : the ducks called a brilliant game offensively. after scoring two touchdowns on swing passes, they throw a touchdown where they faked a swing pass only to throw to a receiver downfield. now that's what it means to get deep into a playbook. oregon is clearly the most consistent team in a strong pac-10 conference.

nebraska at [#8] kansas

nebraska : i think it's a safe bet that all of the returning players and coaches will be looking forward to next year's game against the jayhawks. not only will they want to avenge the loss on the field, but they also might be throwing molotov cocktails through the kansas players' hotel bedroom windows.

kansas : all i can say is that this was beatdown city. i don't know bill callahan slept with mark mangino's wife or what, but the jayhawks pulled a 'patriots' and just wanted to undress the cornhuskers.

1 comment:

creasy bear said...

the jayhawks could've truly scored 100 points in this game. they called off the dogs in the 4th quarter. AND, they scored a touchdown on 10 consecutive possessions. nebraska's defense is just unspeakably bad. i'm pretty sure a number of 1-AA teams could work them over at this point.

i think navy and notre dame are fairly evenly matched but navy was much more motivated. i think this is particularly evident in that they gave up over 50 points to 1-AA DELAWARE the previous week, i.e. they were looking ahead to their "game of the season." yes, because there were navy players saying before the game that they wanted to beat notre dame even more than to beat army. that is really saying something. and that something is that army stinks.