National News and Notes, Week 1
by Year2 on Sep 7, 2010 4:00 PM EDT
in SEC Football
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PrintCherry picking some scores and stats from outside the SEC for your consideration.
BOISE STATE 33, VIRGINIA TECH 30
A combined 18 penalties. Three turnovers. Three missed field goals (one negated by penalty) and a missed extra point. Blown coverages. Suspect kick off coverage on both sides. Hilariously inconsistent and terrible officiating. It was a fun and exciting game for sure, but it was not a great game. I have no idea how good these teams are still, primarily because it looked like neither wanted to win this game for stretches.
TCU 30, OREGON STATE 21
TCU was clearly the better team, and it would have won by more if not for two turnovers. Still, I was impressed by Oregon State's fight. Jacquizz Rodgers pounded out a good 4.2 YPC on TCU's defense, and the Beavers could have had an even better shot at winning if first-year starting QB Ryan Katz didn't play like a first-year starter. Also impressive: Andy Dalton's running.
OKLAHOMA 31, UTAH STATE 24
This outcome is probably a fluke given the general quality of the two teams, but it's not given the stat sheet. OU outgained the Aggies by only a single yard (422-421). Perhaps the most troubling thing is that after USU pulled within a touchdown late in the third, the Sooners' subsequent drives went punt-INT-punt-punt. I'll chalk this one up to looking ahead to FSU next week, but Oklahoma was closer to losing this one than Florida ever was against Miami (OH).
USC 49, HAWAI'I 36
If you just look at the box score, you might think Hawai'i won it. The Warriors outgained the Trojans 588-524, had a 31-25 edge in first downs, committed six fewer penalties for 58 fewer yards, held the ball longer, and was +1 in turnovers. So how did USC win? The Trojans always got into the end zone, while the Warriors had to settle for three field goals. That, and USC coasted a bit after racking up a big lead late.
KANSAS STATE 31, UCLA 22
The Wildcats' Daniel Thomas made a case for player of the weekend by gaining more than a sixth of his output of a year ago. He gained 234 yards on the ground against UCLA and generally looked like he couldn't be tackled. As for the Bruins, when exactly is Rick Neuheisel going to turn things around? The program has been stuck in neutral since Karl Dorrell's last season.
NEBRASKA 49, WESTERN KENTUCKY 10
There is no need to be concerned with Nebraksa's defense allowing 299 yards to the Hilltoppers. Last year's excellent unit allowed 274 to Arkansas State and 358 to FAU.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE 6, KANSAS 3
Don't mess around with NDSU, man. Seriously. The Bison now have wins over Kansas, Central Michigan, and Minnesota over the last four seasons with a one-point loss to Minnesota in '06. They have no other I-A opponents this season, so their reign of terror is just on pause for now.
BYU 23, WASHINGTON 17
Can someone explain again why Jake Locker gets so much hype? He had 7.2 yards per pass, 2.6 yards per run, and led his team to a rousing zero second half points. BYU's a good team and all, but that's not that great.
MARYLAND 17, NAVY 14
The Midshipmen beat the Terps everywhere but the scoreboard. They outgained Maryland 485-272. They converted 10 of 18 third downs as compared to one of five for UMD. They had a 26-11 edge in first downs. So what happened? On seven trips into the red zone, Navy had two touchdowns, a missed field goal, two fumbles, a turnover on downs, and had a drive ended by halftime. Not good.
OREGON 72, NEW MEXICO 0
The best word I can think of for Oregon's win here is "pitiless." After that, it's "symmetrical." The Ducks scored 72 points on 720 yards. They also had 351 yards passing and 369 yards rushing. Oh yeah, and they allowed just 107 yards for a margin of 613. New Mexico is terrible, but for one day at least, it looked like Oregon isn't missing Jeremiah Masoli in the least.
MINNESOTA 24, MIDDLE TENNESSEE 17
Middle Tennessee had the ball for only 14:26 and still had a chance to win. Only one of its drives lasted longer than five plays.
SYRACUSE 29, AKRON 3
I only highlight this one because it's the first case in five seasons of Syracuse actually dominating a I-A team. The Orange won by 26 and had a 431-166 edge in total yardage. There might actually be some improvement going on at Syracuse, unlike, say, Washington State who got throttled 65-17 by a rebuilding Oklahoma State team.
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Va. Tech should have won that game
but Boise state committed an illegal block on the back on the punt return and the refs were obviously looking at someone else. If that penalty was called the nobodies would have started at the 10-yard line not the 30, the hoggies would have caught up before they could have scored
"It's here, it's here, it's finally here" :Strongbad on football season
Not to mention the extremely iffy late hit call
where the receiver was still running on the field of play after stepping out of bounds.
To be fair, the whistles had blown on that one
The block in the back was iffier, but it might have been the side. I actually think both teams tried to give the game away, with the biggest penalty being Boise’s running into the kicker that gave VT a touchdown instead of a missed field goal. The only VT man who came to play was Tyrod Taylor, who was pretty awesome. On the other side, I was impressed with Boise’s ability against the power run game.
by Incipient_Senescence on Sep 7, 2010 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions
how could the defenders tell he went outta bounds?
he only got a quarter of his foot out and the refs hammered Va.Tech for that
"It's here, it's here, it's finally here" :Strongbad on football season
The whistle?
I was rooting for the Hokies (my brother is an alum), but the whistle had pretty clearly blown a few seconds earlier. I was sure the flag was coming as soon as he made contact. It was stupid. When the ref is blowing the whistle and waving his arms, don’t hit the runner.
Fake Pundit. Real Fan.
And The Valley Shook!
Normally I wouldn't say anything, but I go to Western Kentucky...
WKU scored 10 points against Neb, not 3. :)
Nvm its just the 3rd time in 4 years they have beaten an FBS opponent
Pretty impressive though.
You could have mentioned texas struggles over rice.
rice was in that game for awhile and texas came nowhere close to covering the point spread
I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. Glory favors the bold. Chance favors the prepared mind. Luck, well i have that too. University of Utah goes to the Pac-12 conference in 2011. I expect them to compete immediately for the conference CG. Brock Lesnar will defeat Cain Velasquez. Womens MMA, the next big thing in sports. Utah and Boise take care of business in week one. Don't be surprised if they both go undefeated.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Sep 8, 2010 12:32 AM EDT up reply actions
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