Monday, September 21, 2015

College Football week 3 recap

College Football Week 3 recap
Well that was a roller coaster of a ride.  Starting the day out 0-3 was not pleasant, but then hitting the next 3 to get to even and the 4th well on it’s way to cover things were looking up.  Then the sure cover turned into an overtime push and the writing is on the wall.  The winning window had closed and disaster was about to strike.  It did, winning only 1 more game and having another push before losing out and finishing the week 4-6-2, bringing me to 16-15-3 on the season.  But just like in real life, you need to study the tape and figure out what went wrong.  Here is where I justify myself and what not.  Most likely I’ll be telling you how big an idiot I was for picking that game.

South Florida at Maryland:
This was a bonus pick take USF and the 7 points on the road.  Who knew that Maryland QB would show up and throw 4 tds.  He was on the verge of being benched after last week.  USF was in it, but then before the half Maryland scored a td to get a 14 point lead.  They also got the ball to start the 2nd half and got another td giving them a 21 point lead.  They never looked back.  USF couldn’t capitalize off of turnovers and gave the ball up a lot themselves.  This was just a horrible play.

Nevada at Texas A&M:
I thought Texas A&M would get 600 yards in this game and they were close with 535, but not close enough.  I didn’t expect Nevada to be able to rack up 359 yards themselves.  A&M also had 2 turnovers, which never helped.  Nevada did control the clock in this game with about 9 more minutes of possession.  It seemed like A&M could never pull away in this game.  Once they established the lead they coasted on defense, knowing they could match Nevada point for point.  And that’s pretty much what happened.  I thought A&M could’ve been championship team, but they won’t be if they keep playing like that.  Championship teams put teams down and make them their bitch.  They don’t let them hang around inside the number.

Central Michigan at Syracuse:
Speaking of not being able to put a team away.  Syracuse lead 24-10 at halftime, and then didn’t score again until overtime.  Syracuse almost fucked around and lost the game.  Let’s see if they treat this as a wake up call.

UTSA at Oklahoma State:
Now that’s how you put teams away.  I called for Oklahoma State to make a statement this week, and also said UTSA showed true colors 2 weeks ago against Kansas State.  Somehow I was right on both accounts.  Oklahoma State not only pounded the shit out of them with their starters, but when OSU put the backups in they were so hungry to prove themselves they widened the lead.  It was an amazing team performance.  Watch out for OSU in the Big 12 this year, dangerous team, and very experienced.

Georgia Tech at Notre Dame:
We all knew that Georgia Tech was going to run the ball and have a lot of rushing yards.  What I didn’t expect was for Notre Dame to match them in yards.  It helps that Prosise ran for 191 of those and scored 3 touchdowns including a 91 yarder.  Kizer played admirably filling in for Zaire, and didn’t look like a freshman at all.  He ended up with 242 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception.  Georgia Tech did have 2 missed field goals in this game, which never helps when playing on the road.  Another bad sign on the road is only converting 3 out of 15 3rd downs.  Sure they were 2 for 3 on 4th down, but still.  That’s a stalled offense.  Notre Dame was prepared for this team, like I thought they would be.

Nebraska at Miami FL:
What a heart break this was.  Miami was up 30-10 after 3 quarters of play.  They were then outscored 23-3 in the 4th quarter and had to go to overtime, where they prevailed by 3.  Nebraska scored a touchdown on it’s last 3 possessions, going 75+ yards in 2 minutes 38 seconds or less on each possession.  Miami got a wake up call in this game.  It’ll be interesting to see how they bounce back.  I thought for sure they would want to bury this Nebraska team.

Auburn at LSU:
We have confirmation that Auburn was over rated to start the season.  They couldn’t put Louisville away in week 1, and had trouble all game in week 2 against Jacksonville State.  Their first real test of the season was LSU, and they failed miserably.  Now don’t ever discount a Gus Malzahn team, he is a great coach and can right this ship.  Just be careful laying serious chalk with this team.  LSU proved who they are.  A monster running team with a QB that gets better with every game.  This team looks like they are primed to make a run for the SEC championship. 

Utah State at Washington:
I’m down on this Utah State team, I’ve gone against them the last 2 weeks with Utah and Washington.  I thought this line was light after the performance Utah State put forth against Utah, and it was.  It helps when Washington QB throws for 368 yards and 3 touchdowns.  That’s a pretty good day at the office.  In the end Utah State was just overpowered.  They won the turnover battle, but couldn’t move the ball. 

NC State at Old Dominion:
I thought this was a little heavy on the points given to ODU, but I was wrong.  NC State finished this game the right way, adding 10 points in the 4th quarter that allowed for the cover.  Old Dominion couldn’t get anything going on offense, and had their run game completely shut down.  They ended up with -3 yards on 21 carries.  Yes, that is a negative number.  NC State controlled the ball, the clock and the game from start to finish. 

Colorado vs Colorado State (neutral site):
It didn’t help that Colorado spotted CSU 14 points to start the game.  They did manage to climb back into the game, but couldn’t come up with the one stop needed in order to get the win and cover in regulation.  Instead it went to overtime where they won by 3 and I got the push.  Pushes suck.  They are a waste of time and money.  I guess it’s better than a loss, but damn man you go from covering and then just getting money back sucks.

Stanford at USC:
This was an absolute trap game.  There is no way USC doesn’t blow them out.  That’s all I heard, and my computer agreed with them.  I was high on Stanford to start the season, thinking they had a chance to win the Pac 12 this year, but they were sluggish in start against Northwestern in week 1, and then beat up on UCF at home.  I didn’t think they would improve this much between the team on the field in week 1 and that against USC in week 3.  Maybe USC isn’t as good as they looked in the first 2 weeks against lesser foes.  I don’t know what happened, but USC had everyone fooled, even the computers.

San Jose State at Oregon State:
I wasn’t impressed with Oregon State in their game against Michigan on the road.  San Jose State had exceeded expectations, so I thought this would be a good game.  I’m pretty sure I even had San Jose State rated slightly better than Oregon State.  I just didn’t see this game having this large of a variance.  Hell, San Jose State even led at halftime 21-14.  Oregon State did get points off of turnovers in the second half.  In consecutive series they recovered a fumble on defense, went down and scored a touchdown on offense, then picked off SJSU on their next possession and returned that for a touchdown.  San Jose State went from being tied 21-21 to losing 35-21 in a matter 2 minutes and 21 seconds.  Maybe this wasn’t a bad play after all, maybe just a bad beat.


There you go, that’s what happened.  Maybe a couple of bounces the other way, or a team puts the opponent down and this could’ve been a different story.  But those things didn’t happen, and I got my ass handed to me.  Until next week.

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