A great article by Greg Bishop that details the process of recovering from an NFL game.....
https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/12/05/nfl-injuries-recovery-allen-robinson-justin-forsett-cameron-jordan-ryan-harris
But, enough about that....Let's get to college football!
The first game that I like is Georgia Tech -3 against Duke. Georgia Tech, the team that runs an offense from the dark ages of football, is currently 3-3 and playing much better as of late. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils of Duke, they're up next. Georgia Tech is coming off a win against the Louisville Cardinals (although the way they played, they should've been called the pigeons)....
A look at the huddle of the Louisville Pigeons during last week's game
Georgia Tech absolutely dominated the game, scoring 66 points and rushing for 542 yards and 8 touchdowns, including 2 by quarterback TraQuan Marshall, who really seems to have found himself a home in Georgia Tech's offense. Now, onto the passing side of the ball, where.........wait for it......Georgia Tech threw the ball TWICE. Surprisingly, they completed it ONCE. 1/2 passing for 12 yards. Let that sink in. one for two passing for 12 YARDS!! And they dominated and WON! That's amazing. I wonder what Paul Johnson would do if he had to throw the ball ten or fifteen times......AIR RAID!
Well, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let's look at the opponent of the Yellow Jackets, the Duke Blue Devils. Duke has played well this season, only losing last week to a down Virginia Tech team who I honestly thought had very little chance to win the game. Now, I know what you're thinking.......why are you picking against a team that just had their worst game of the season....Let me throw a couple of stats out at you.
1) Georgia Tech has forced 12 turnovers in 5 games, a 2.5 turnover per game average, while Duke has only forced 6.
2) Georgia Tech has possessed the ball for 195 minutes over 5 games, an average of 32 minutes per game. In a game that takes 60 minutes of "running time", Georgia Tech has the ball over half the time. Ball Control offense baby!
Turnovers and Ball Control Offense!! That's what Georgia Tech does!!
I think the Yellow Jackets will control the ball, force a few Duke turnovers, and come out of the game victorious, 27-21.
As you can see, the Yellow Jackets are ready.....For the Blue Devils!
Live look in at the Georgia Tech football facilities....As you can clearly see, things are BUZZING with activity and anticipation.....(I know, I know, I'm terrible....)
Okay, time to move onto game number two of this week... We're going cross country from a Yellow Jacket hive to a zoo. An Autzen zoo.
Now, I know what many of you are saying. "No one wins in Autzen. The Ducks are too good there." "The Autzen crowd will be rocking, and the crowd will be too much to handle." Well, as ESPN analyst Lee Corso would say....
Washington is a very good football team who is hitting it's stride right now. Outside of a supposedly "neutral" loss to Auburn, they've won 5 games in a row, and wait....they did have a chance to beat Auburn in a decidedly Auburn Texas Stadium. They have good road wins against Utah (The Muss, the Utes student section is also supposedly very loud and raucous), and BYU, and they have beaten North Dakota (I know, we'll forget that one), UCLA (The Chip Kelly experiment is failing miserably), and a scrappy Arizona State team. Now, I know that they don't have a real "signature" win on the season, and all the naysayers will state that "They don't blow teams out." Okay, maybe they don't blow teams out. BUT, they do find a way to win. That's one of the hallmarks of a good sports team. They find a way to finish the game and eventually win it. Washington needs a statement win, and Jake Browning, Myles Gaskin (who probably will play on Saturday - they need him to be a difference maker) and Aaron Fuller get the job done on Saturday night in Autzen. Think teams can't win at Autzen? Just ask the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford was down 20-7 in the 3rd quarter of their game at Oregon going into the 4th quarter, and then rallied to win the game in overtime. Good teams are cool under pressure, and I think that Washington won't get rattled by the atmosphere in Autzen. No word on what Puddles the duck has up it's large, comical sleeve however. Additionally, I hope that Washington doesn't get distracted by the Oregon uniforms. What are they going to wear this week? Old TV Test Patterns? MC Echer sketchings? Only time, and Phil Knight, will tell. I think Washington (-3) goes into Autzen and beats the Ducks, 35-28.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to an article by the Oklahoma News, It would take 40 seasons, with bowl games, for Oregon to wear all of its uniform combinations.
40 seasons! That's ridiculous. Why do you need so many uniform combinations. But, if my school had Phil Knight as a benefactor, I'd want that many uniform combinations, too, so I won't complain.
Oregon's latest addition to the uniform arsenal.........
And the alternate jersey:
Time to switch from one team with a uniform problem to another team that sits next to them at ugly jerseys anonymous. Take a look at this graphic....waaaay too many combinations:
West Virginia (-6.5) and their cavalcade of uniforms travels to Ames (not the old discount stores)
to take on the Iowa State Cyclones in a Big 12 matchup. The Mountaineers come in averaging a robust 41.4 points per game while giving up 18.6, and the Cyclones give up an average of 24.4 points per game while scoring only 23.6. West Virginia is led by Heisman front-runner Will Grier (1,819 yards, 21 TD's, 6 INT) and the receiving tandem of David Sills and Marcus Simms (368 and 490 yards respectively). West Virginia is currently undefeated, and has victories over Texas Tech (the WVU defense actually knocked out Texas Tech QB Alan Bowman in that game), a convincing win IN Manhattan against a feisty Kansas State team (Bill Snyder must've spiked the gatorade with geritol), and Kansas (I know, Kansas is awful).
Now, remember when I said that Georgia Tech throws the ball TWICE a game? Yeah, West Virginia throws about twenty times as much. Here are the passing stats from their first five games:
Week 1 - 34 attempts
Week 2 - ONLY 29 attempts
Week 3 - 36 attempts
Weeks 4 and 5 - 41 attempts each
It's a serious Air Raid in Morgantown, but lost in the shuffle there is the Mountaineer defense, giving up an average of 18.6 points a game, and that includes a game with Texas Tech, which I thought would be one of those 98-97 games where they throw the ball 200 times combined and no one plays any defense. They gave up 14 points to Tennessee (not shocking at all, although Tennessee struggles to score more than a neutered dog), Kansas State scored 6, although in the past two weeks Kansas has scored 22 and Texas Tech has scored 34. They've forced 8 turnovers on the year, which averages out to be a little more than one per game, but they're the exact opposite of Georgia Tech, which will hold onto the ball and play defense. West Virginia likes to score as fast as possible, almost as if they're afraid it will explode if held too long (hot potato, anyone?)
West Virginia and Georgia Tech's world premiere music video
Now, onto the Cyclones. There have been so many tropical systems moving around/near the United States, I don't even like typing the word "cyclones", even though Cyclones are typically found in the Middle East, not the Mid-West. Iowa State has played well in all of their games, not getting blown out and even beating an (similar team to West Virginia) Oklahoma State team, although I think West Virginia has much more firepower and a more balanced attack than Oklahoma State. Additionally, West Virginia CAN play on the road, while Oklahoma State turns into Okla-NO-ma State away from Stillwater. Iowa State doesn't score all that often, and they have turned it over 7 times on the year, while taking it away 7 times (an even turnover margin). They played tough against Oklahoma and TCU, not being intimidated by the heavily favored ranked teams. I think it's kind of like Cinderella. She can go to the ball, and she can keep up appearances, but once that bell tolls, she's running out of the palace and back to her mundane life. I think West Virginia breaks Cinderella's heart and wins by double digits, 42-21. I'll lay the 6.5 points and take the Mountaineers.
Iowa State's new team transportation
No comments:
Post a Comment