Sunday, September 11, 2005

Week 2 In a Nutshell | by Dylan

#10 this week. I can live with that. Although, other than preseason perceptions, there is no reason for Tennessee and Florida State to be ahead of us. In fact, based just on what's happened this year, it's hard to argue that Florida, LSU, Georgia, or Ohio State belong in front of us. That will all work itself out.

Nice work, Hawkeyes. From BCS contender to "spoilers" in 30 minutes.

TCU (aren't).

The Bayou Bengal is a paper tiger. Granted, there are plenty of reasons why LSU shouldn't have been sharp in their opener, but 29 ASU first downs? 460 yards passing allowed? That was one bad looking secondary last night. If not for two blocked kicks for touchdowns, it would have been a runaway for ASU. There's no way LSU will get through the rest of their schedule with less than 2 losses.

Purdue had a superficially impressive win, hanging 49 on Akron, and no doubt easing the fears of their fans after losing their two best offensive players from last year. But a look at the box score shows that up is down for this year's Boilers. While the run defense was solid, this was Akron, at Ross-Ade, completing 58% of their passes for 362 yards and 3 touchdowns. The score was 28-17 after three quarters. Did I mention this was against Akron?

Yes "andy", Oklahoma is still a bad football team. They may actually be getting worse. They are lucky they played Tulsa yesterday, since, by the transitive property of college football, they would have lost to SMU. Bomar's line read like that of a JV QB (5-13, 42 yards, 2 INT) in a hail storm. He didn't attempt a pass in the second half. They are going to lose to UCLA next week, and it's possible they will go 5-6 this year.

Texas is very good, but one touchdown at the 'shoe, tOSU? Playing two quarterbacks is like dating Angelina Jolie. Seems like a great idea at the time, but you soon realize that managing multiple personalities ain't worth the trouble. Maybe Purdue will win the Big 1?.

Michigan State looks to be a tougher game than anyone expected. Granted, they have been playing against field hockey teams, but in two games their offense has been piling up yards on the ground (537) and through the air (631) on the way to scoring 91 points. Could Sparty be back on the juice?

Ty Willingham has picked up right where he left off, absorbing a 39 point thrashing from Cal. The Molder of Men allowed a backup quarterback to throw for 271 yards and 4 TDs, while his Dawgs rushed for 68 yards on 27 attempts. The (not so) Huskies allowed 8.5 yards per play. The good news for Washington is that Dave Wannstedt will be available before too long.

Stanford 41, Navy 38. Dammit.