OK, so without further fanfare or ado, let's get to the action and take a look at the games that I picked for this week. We'll have some fun with this and have a game show theme this week after last week's successful "Music Appreciation Blog".
Game #1 - "The Match Game"
Alright, ladies and gentlemen(Mr. Dawson, please stop kissing everyone....Mr. Nelson Riley, are you awake? Mr. Hackett, are you sober?) It's time for everyone's favorite game, The Match Game!
Contestant #1 is a coach of an undefeated team in the American Athletic Conference, Luke Fickell!(who looks surprisingly like Rob Riggle)
Good afternoon, Mr. Fickell, thanks for playing our game. This afternoon, we'll be playing a little differently than usual. I'll give you some words, and you fill in the blanks.
Sentence 1: Your team, Cincinnati, has ________ losses.
Sentence 2: Your opponent, the Temple Owls, have _________ losses.
Sentence 3: Your team is a ___________ point ___________ against the Owls on Saturday.
(Answers: Zero, Three, Three, Underdog)
I do not understand how a team who lost 3 games (3!) already can be favored over the undefeated bearcats. Let's take a deeper look into the schedule:
Temple: Villanova (L) - so they lost to an FCS school (albeit a good one), Buffalo (L), Maryland (W) - probably their best win, although that's not saying a whole lot from a Maryland team that looks like Superman one week and Bizzaro the next, Tulsa (W), Boston College (L) - B.C. did have A.J. Dillon that week, so if Temple played B.C. again without Dillon, who knows, ECU(W), Navy(W), for a record of 4-3 overall, and 3-0 in the AAC.
Cincinnati - UCLA (W) - Chip Kelly's wishing he stayed unemployed, Miami(OH) (W) - Miami of Ohio is terrible this year, so easy win there, Alabama A&M (W),Ohio (W), Tulane (W), UCONN(W) for a record of 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the AAC.
I understand that Cincy has not played an extremely tough schedule, but they haven't played cupcakes the entire year. Temple's schedule is probably stronger overall, but the AAC is so weak in the division it doesn't really matter. The fact that Temple LOST to an FCS school, even Villanova, makes Cincy look very attractive this week.
Michael Warren is a very underrated running back, running for 675 yards (a 5.4 YPC) and 11 touchdowns in the six games, so the Temple rushing defense better be on it's best behavior. Desmond Ridder is a dual threat quarterback who has rushed for 398 yards (52 YPG) and 4 touchdowns, while throwing for 10 more. Ridder does a wonderful job of spreading the ball around and not zeroing in on one target, with no one bearcat receiver having over 300 yards receiving. Cole Smith is an accurate (although very limited) field goal kicker, and the Cincy defense is led by Cortez Broughton who nearly averages a sack a game and has 11 tackles for loss through six games, and James Wiggins, who leads the team in both tackles and interceptions.
Temple is led by Ryquell Armstrong, their feature back (677 yards through 7 games). Their offense seems to me to be very one-dimensional, and Armstrong has to get going if the Owls are going to have success. Anthony Russo and Frank Nutile have taken turns at quarterback, and while Russo has thrown for 1100 yards this season, combined the two of them have thrown 11 interceptions on the year. On defense, the Owls are led by Shawn Bradley (No, not the Brigham Young/Philadelphia 76er draft bust who was surprisingly good in the video game NBA Jam)
who leads the team in tackles and Rock Ya-Sin (Not Rock Raines, the baseball hall of famer), who leads the team in sacks with 4.5.
I think the Bearcats will come ready to play, and I think the bearcats claw up the Owls, 24-10.
Game #2 - "The $10,000 pyramid"
Welcome to the $10,000 pyramid, ladies and gentlemen! We have a couple of great contestants for you here tonight, Iowa football coach Kirk Ferenz and Maryland football coach
Maryland is a strange team that needs to find an identity in order to contend in the Big 10. Don't get me wrong, I think they've done a fantastic job bringing that team back from the brink of non-existence, but I don't think they'll find it against a Hawkeye team that has been playing MUCH better as of late and has one of the best defenses you'll see (especially against the run, where they are only one of four teams to have allowed FOUR or less rushing touchdowns thus far). The Hawkeyes are not one dimensional, either, as Nate Stanley (QB) has thrown for 15 touchdowns this season, good for second among quarterbacks in the Big Ten. I think Iowa has a good day through the air, and the defense puts the clamps on the Terps offense, and Testudo the Terrapin goes through a long day in Iowa City (and the visitor's locker room in Kinnick Stadium doesn't help, either).
Yes, the visitor's locker room in Kinnick Stadium is painted pink.
Game #3: "Jeopardy"
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I'm Alex Trebek and welcome to our show. Tonight, we have a special grouping of categories, and let's take a look at them right away.
The categories are: "I Wish I played in the Big 10", "I Wish I was a non-directional school", "Broncos do it better", "CMU=Trash" and to round it out, "A Petit Dejuner".
Woah....ladies and gentlemen, some poignant categories this week. I think we'll start with I Wish I Was a Non-Directional School for 1000, Alex. I think Western Michigan, even though they are a directional school, usually doesn't play like one. When you think of directional schools, like Eastern Illinois or Eastern Michigan, for the most part they aren't very good. The directional Michigan schools have long been the whipping boy for the two most prominent schools in Michigan, Michigan and Michigan State (unfortunately, Michigan Tech, we're not talking about NCAA hockey, so you're not included.) Western Michigan has kind of bucked the trend lately, with a big BCS bowl run and win a couple of years ago under coach P.J. Fleck and with WR Corey Davis, and they have continued to be good for the past few years. They are 5-2 this year, with a 3-0 conference record. They have a very balanced offense, with LaVante Bellamy running the ball very well for 676 yards and 4 touchdowns through the first seven games of the season. Jon Wassink has been throwing the ball all over the lot for the Broncos, completing 62% of his passes for 2000 yards and 16 touchdowns, along with three td's on the ground. I think WMU goes into Kelly Shorts Stadium and gets it done, albeit with a few brow-mopping moments, 27-21.
So, those are the three games that I'll give you an in-depth preview on. Hopefully you enjoyed "Game Show" week here......Lata!
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