College Football 2007

Ice · Post by **Ice** » 2007-09-29 01:03am

Darth Fanboy, talking about West Virginia wrote:I think they have the best chance to go unbeaten of any team in College Football.

Not anymore they don't. USF beat them for the second time in as many years. Go Bulls!

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-09-29 02:33am

Ice wrote:
Darth Fanboy, talking about West Virginia wrote:I think they have the best chance to go unbeaten of any team in College Football.
Not anymore they don't. USF beat them for the second time in as many years. Go Bulls!

Too true. I was cheering for them , because I love upheaval and plus it would be kind of neat to see the Bulls get into a BCS game. USF has a pretty good fan base getting built there for a program that has only been around 10 years.

SLOPPY first half for both teams. Eight turnovers in the first half. Also, I wouldn't have been so gung ho on picking WVU had I known Pat White was going to go down with an injury, he had a better chance of finishing a comeback than the second string kid, who made a handful of bad decisions in the clutch.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-29 12:13pm

HAhahaha! Fucking WVa. I love it I love it I love it!

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-29 03:56pm

Just got finished watching the LSU/Tulane game. A rivalry which had petered out for a good number of years but actually had some life today when the two teams met in the Superdome this afternoon. Tulane played LSU hard, sacking Matt Flynn seven times through the game (once for a safety) and the Tigers had to struggle to a 10-9 lead in the first half. But the second half was all-LSU, who ran up 24 unanswered points to come away with another crushing win to keep the pace up with USC.

Meanwhile, the Catholic high school team just dropped its fifth straight loss to Purdue. Thanks a lot, Charlie Weis, you useless lump of shit.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-09-29 04:28pm

Howedar wrote:HAhahaha! Fucking WVa. I love it I love it I love it!

21-13 isn't that much to brag about, since the games prior were all in the 40s. Loosing Pat White was what killed it dead, but the turnovers and other mistakes were nails in the coffin.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-29 04:28pm

Degan: I disagree; if SC even shows a pulse through four quarters today, then LSU has egg on its face. A Conference USA school should not be able to be ahead of the #2 team in the country until the end of the second quarter.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-09-29 04:45pm

I was at the USF-WVU game - on the first quarter I thought the USF defense played very well, but started getting sloppy afterwards. And the offense had those freaking turnovers within the 30!

Darth Quorthon · Post by **Darth Quorthon** » 2007-09-29 07:53pm

Interesting day today, with Oklahoma, Texas, and Rutgers losing. Tulane gave LSU a game for a bit before getting squashed, and Notre Dame even managed to show some faint signs of life. With the USC game starting in a little while, I'm betting that today's big upsets are all over, but you never know.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-09-29 08:14pm

I think Auburn has a small chance to upset Florida, and Washington has been pretty good this year save for one half against Ohio State. No reason to think we can't see more Top Ten teams go down. Wisconsin and California ESCAPED their games or we would have had five teams in the top ten down isntead of just three.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-29 08:56pm

Cal didn't escape in any sense - a #6 vs. #11 matchup (especially this early in the season) really is a tossup. And playing at Oregon... there would have been no shame in a Cal loss.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-29 10:29pm

Howedar wrote:Degan: I disagree; if SC even shows a pulse through four quarters today, then LSU has egg on its face. A Conference USA school should not be able to be ahead of the #2 team in the country until the end of the second quarter.

Um, Tulane held only a brief lead over LSU (for about 1.40) and then got thoroughly curbstomped in the second half. You might have been right if LSU had to struggle to escape with a last-minute winning score.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-29 10:38pm

Meanwhile, I saw Michigan managed to pull it together and beat Northwestern. They just might salvage a decent season after all.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-29 10:46pm

Patrick Degan wrote:
Howedar wrote:Degan: I disagree; if SC even shows a pulse through four quarters today, then LSU has egg on its face. A Conference USA school should not be able to be ahead of the #2 team in the country until the end of the second quarter.
Um, Tulane held only a brief lead over LSU (for about 1.40) and then got thoroughly curbstomped in the second half. You might have been right if LSU had to struggle to escape with a last-minute winning score.

Forget the score. Their line was dominated by Tulane in the first half; only in garbage time did they accrue any meaningful ground yardage, and Flynn got beat up.

Do you know how much time I spent today looking for the old "angry wave" logo?

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-29 11:25pm

Howedar wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:
Howedar wrote:Degan: I disagree; if SC even shows a pulse through four quarters today, then LSU has egg on its face. A Conference USA school should not be able to be ahead of the #2 team in the country until the end of the second quarter.
Um, Tulane held only a brief lead over LSU (for about 1.40) and then got thoroughly curbstomped in the second half. You might have been right if LSU had to struggle to escape with a last-minute winning score.
Forget the score. Their line was dominated by Tulane in the first half; only in garbage time did they accrue any meaningful ground yardage, and Flynn got beat up.

Do you know how much time I spent today looking for the old "angry wave" logo?

Uh huh. And for all that, Tulane couldn't capitalise on the shock they dealt to LSU in any meaningful way, and went on to get curbstomped. And for all the beating they delivered to Flynn, he still completes 16/29 for 258 yds passing. LSU faced a bit of adversity, but recovered and simply ran all over Tulane, while the Greenies fell apart.

You want a team with egg on its face right now? That's n.4 Florida, who are struggling in a 17-17 tie against a poor (and unranked) Auburn team which has had quarterbacking problems since traning camp this year.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-29 11:30pm

And Auburn just upset Florida —Byrum 43 yd field goal with 0.03 on the clock.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-29 11:35pm

Patrick Degan wrote: Uh huh. And for all that, Tulane couldn't capitalise on the shock they dealt to LSU in any meaningful way, and went on to get curbstomped. And for all the beating they delivered to Flynn, he still completes 16/29 for 258 yds passing. LSU faced a bit of adversity, but recovered and simply ran all over Tulane, while the Greenies fell apart.

Well no shit Sherlock, how do you think you recruit the same level of athletes to a program like Tulane? Do you think it's just a coincidence that, every week, we see non-BCS schools play major opponents tough into the half, then fall apart later in the game?

Well, it's not. It's because I'd guess that Tulane has three or four solid defensive linemen, while LSU probably rotated six or seven or eight men onto the offensive line. That's not the kind of disparity they're going to see against a BCS school.

LSU better be careful not to pull that weak-ass-line bullshit on a deeper team or they're going to go home a little sad.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-30 12:44am

Uh uh, Howedar. You're the one trying to make the "LSU has egg on its face" argument when the game stats don't support any such assertion and the only resort left is pointing to the Tigers having a bit of a stumble in the second quarter as its "proof".

Once more: you'd have had an argument if LSU had struggled just to escape with a bare-edge win at the last minute. That was not the case. LSU was slightly off its game in the second quarter but adjusted. They did not panic, they did not fall into a hole, and they came out strong for the second half. And that's all that counts.

BTW, of the four sacks (according to both CBS.com and ESPN.com) clocked on Matt Flynn, two of those came in that second quarter and only one in the entire second half, which means that the "weak-ass line" closed up and protected Flynn (and Perriloux) with lots of breathing room to spare.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-09-30 12:56am

Howedar wrote:Cal didn't escape in any sense - a #6 vs. #11 matchup (especially this early in the season) really is a tossup. And playing at Oregon... there would have been no shame in a Cal loss.

No shame perhaps, but they were incredibly lucky that Oregon ended up fumbling the ball into the endzone to end the game instead of sending the game into overtime, where Oregon would have held an edge and then been able to kill the BEars Pac 10 and national title hopes.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2007-09-30 01:22am

Utah just killed Utah State 34-15 (no real surprise, but it was a disappointing game to watch; they both looked terrible), which hopefully means they'll get a little better. They've been a weird fucking team; they slaughtered ranked UCLA 44-7, but then got the shit beat out of them by UNLV.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-30 10:54am

Patrick Degan wrote:Uh uh, Howedar. You're the one trying to make the "LSU has egg on its face" argument when the game stats don't support any such assertion and the only resort left is pointing to the Tigers having a bit of a stumble in the second quarter as its "proof".

The stats don't support any such claim? How many rushing yards did LSU have in the first half?

Once more: you'd have had an argument if LSU had struggled just to escape with a bare-edge win at the last minute. That was not the case. LSU was slightly off its game in the second quarter but adjusted. They did not panic, they did not fall into a hole, and they came out strong for the second half. And that's all that counts.

This game, of course. A win is a win. Still, any D-line coach in the Southeast is licking his chops.

BTW, of the four sacks (according to both CBS.com and ESPN.com) clocked on Matt Flynn, two of those came in that second quarter and only one in the entire second half, which means that the "weak-ass line" closed up and protected Flynn (and Perriloux) with lots of breathing room to spare.

Apparently you didn't read my post. That's what happens when a small-conference school has a few good guys but plays against a team with much more depth.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2007-09-30 03:47pm

Honestly, I'm not too happy with the LSU/Tulane battle. LSU should have pwned from the word Go, and... they didn't. They still won the battle spectacularly in spades, but not as well as they could have. Be wary of Victory Disease, LSU.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2007-09-30 05:07pm

Why does LSU become the AP #1 over USC? USC won a conference game against a quality opponent on the road while LSU faltered for a half against a non BCS school yet managed to still win. There is no reason to leapfrog them based on THAT performance, each of the past few weeks were understandable.

I'm noticing in the coaches poll that USC is a clear favorite. Wonder what the coaches know about football that the sportswriters don't?

South Florida is now #10, I would not be so sure about it, but they earned the spot and it's not a matter of whether they deserve it or not but whether they can defend it. It's a good team and a good story, and I hope to see them in a BCS bowl game in January.

The Cal/USC game could be the best game of the year. Check your calendars.

These games will still be very good, LSU/Florida and Oklahoma/Texas.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2007-09-30 05:51pm

Well I'm just happy that the ACC managed not to shoot itself in the foot after really starting to dig itself into a hole of low ranking teams. Then Maryland upsets #10, Florida State upsets #22, both Techs walk away with wins, BC holds its own and Virginia cubstomps Pitt. All in all a good weekend for the AC to show that it may be, as coaches have said, parity not poor play that is driving school rankings down. With the Big East losing two teams out of the top 25 (though gaining one) and losing quite a few more non-conference games I am more than happy to remind folks that if the ACC is down then the Big East is teetering on the ropes.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2007-09-30 06:30pm

Howedar wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:Uh uh, Howedar. You're the one trying to make the "LSU has egg on its face" argument when the game stats don't support any such assertion and the only resort left is pointing to the Tigers having a bit of a stumble in the second quarter as its "proof".
The stats don't support any such claim? How many rushing yards did LSU have in the first half?

So, let's just ignore the overall game performance and the season up to this point and focus on one atypical quarter as proof of your assertion, I suppose.

Once more: you'd have had an argument if LSU had struggled just to escape with a bare-edge win at the last minute. That was not the case. LSU was slightly off its game in the second quarter but adjusted. They did not panic, they did not fall into a hole, and they came out strong for the second half. And that's all that counts.
This game, of course. A win is a win. Still, any D-line coach in the Southeast is licking his chops.

Oh, puhLEEZE! You really imagine one atypical quarter out of a five-week season to date is really going to spell the key to destroying LSU? Here's a clue: any team any given week can be beaten and any coach worth his salt knows it. Les Miles knows it as much as any of his remaining opposition know it, and he's certainly not going to ignore the lesson of the Tulane game with an upcoming schedule front-loaded with real opposition.

BTW, of the four sacks (according to both CBS.com and ESPN.com) clocked on Matt Flynn, two of those came in that second quarter and only one in the entire second half, which means that the "weak-ass line" closed up and protected Flynn (and Perriloux) with lots of breathing room to spare.
Apparently you didn't read my post. That's what happens when a small-conference school has a few good guys but plays against a team with much more depth.

I did read your post. The whole thing still comes down to you asserting that one atypical quarter points the key to LSU's destruction.

You can't have it both ways. You can't shout "weak-ass line" while acknowledging LSU's depth only as a convenient prop for the "small-conference team" dodge when you need to handwave away Miles and the Tigers adjusting their game and how that line did give ample protection to both quarterbacks in the second half.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-09-30 06:51pm

Patrick Degan wrote:
The stats don't support any such claim? How many rushing yards did LSU have in the first half?
So, let's just ignore the overall game performance and the season up to this point and focus on one atypical quarter as proof of your assertion, I suppose.

Riddle me this, Batman, which is more likely: that Tulane's line is made of supermen, that LSU's line literally fell asleep, or that LSU's line is not shit-hot?

Your lack of differentiation between quarters and halves of play notwithstanding.

This game, of course. A win is a win. Still, any D-line coach in the Southeast is licking his chops.
Oh, puhLEEZE! You really imagine one atypical quarter out of a five-week season to date is really going to spell the key to destroying LSU?

Argument from incredulity.

Here's a clue: any team any given week can be beaten and any coach worth his salt knows it. Les Miles knows it as much as any of his remaining opposition know it, and he's certainly not going to ignore the lesson of the Tulane game with an upcoming schedule front-loaded with real opposition.

Thanks, I wasn't aware that coaches were aware of what goes on with their teams

Are you saying that it's a good sign that Tulane beat up LSU in the trenches for thirty minutes (again, not fifteen)?

Apparently you didn't read my post. That's what happens when a small-conference school has a few good guys but plays against a team with much more depth.
I did read your post. The whole thing still comes down to you asserting that one atypical quarter points the key to LSU's destruction.

Half, for God's sakes. Half.

You can't have it both ways. You can't shout "weak-ass line" while acknowledging LSU's depth only as a convenient prop for the "small-conference team" dodge when you need to handwave away Miles and the Tigers adjusting their game and how that line did give ample protection to both quarterbacks in the second half.

Wow, that ran on a little, didn't it?

I think that you just said that:
You can't say that LSU's line was terrible, because they played well in the second half. You can't blame it on LSU's superior depth, because [I'm not sure why you think this].

Why can't I say that, Degan? Why is LSU's superior depth wrt Tulane not a reasonable explanation? Of course coaching adjustments can be made. Are you saying that the depth doesn't matter? Was it all coaching? Had the LSU men forgotten to lift their hands and push against the Tulane line?

I'm not claiming that coaching had nothing to do with the improvement, and I hope I didn't give that impression. All I'm saying is that LSU's offensive line had damn well better play better in the next few weeks than they did against Tulane, or they're going to have pieces of Flynn and Perriloux all over the backfield.