Sunday
Sep182005
Great weekend
Sunday, September 18, 2005 at 10:33AM Best week so far in college football. A lot of compelling matchups and outcomes.
Check the scoreboard for info.
Notable:
- USC 70 Arkansas 17
- Florida 16 Tennessee 7
- Michigan State 44 Notre Dame 41
- Louisville 63 Oregon State 27
- UCLA 41 Oklahoma 24
Quick thoughts:
Good lord did USC have a great game. I don't have words for what happened in that game.
Rick Clausen>Erik Ainge
Notre Dame came back to Earth. Gotta love the Michigan State offense.
Louisville appears to have fixed a few of their problems.
Why is Ohio State the #9 team in the country?
VaTech (45-0 against Ohio), Texas (51-10 against Rice) and Georgia (44-7 against Louisiana Monroe) all did like top 10 teams do and cruised past soft opponents. Same for Michigan (55-0 against Eastern Michigan), which makes one wonder about that Notre Dame game.
in General, Teams, The Big Six
General, Teams, The Big Six
Reader Comments (3)
Offense is only half the game. You praise Michigan State - they gave up 41 (!!!!!) points to Notre Dame who only managed 17 against Michigan's sad D.
You praise UCLA who gave up 24 to Adrian Peterson and a green offensive line. (Don't get me wrong, UCLA is still a top 15 team. But they still gave more points than TCU agains the same offense)
There are not more than 8 teams in the country that can beat Ohio State.
Lousiville? they won't play a ranked team this year.
Florida State? think Ohio State without Santonio Holmes on offense. Or a QB as decent at Troy Smith
Michigan? Great, you beat [random direction] Michigan 55-0. Where was all that offense last week?
My point is this. You put a lot of faith (to the point of arrogance) in the value of talented offense, but the fact remains, that teams with great defense are just as effective.
And no, Ohio State does not have the nation's best defense. Their DL is suspect and so far their LBs have been able to clean up the mess. That won't last forever.
The secondary also doesn't consistently face any great passing offense to prepare themselves for what they might see from teams who have more productive pass offenses.
Right now VT's defense is way ahead of the Buckeyes', for starters.
I'd have been more impressed if you guys had shut down Texas. The great defenses tend to shut down one dimensional attacks.
I put a good deal of faith in great offenses, correct. But there happen to be a few more of them out there than the great defenses.
There is some merit in winning a bunch of 13-7 games... but it also is cause for a great deal of skepticism. I put a LOT of value in teams who are better are putting teams away. When you're nickle and diming all of the field on offense and have to rely on your defense game after game, its a formula for disaster for 99% of the teams out there that try it.
Obviously it worked for Ohio State in 2000, but that is so far and beyond the exception to the rule they have become a modern anomaly.
Yes, Michigan State gave up 41 to Notre Dame, but until late in that game ND was barely in the 20's. They have proven so far that they can push their opponent to the point of defensive erosion. Most teams cannot match an offense that pushes 40 every night, so a lot of credit goes to them for figuring out an offense that is capable of winning that way.
UCLA sold out to stop Adrian Peterson and the Sooner run offense, correctly estimating that it was the Sooners' chance at victory to win through the run. They stopped the run (2.5 YPC for Peterson) and let Bomar throw all day. It took him an entire day of throwing to open guys to get to 24 points. Pretty good strategy for UCLA, knowing that they'd probably reach 30+ points against the Sooners' D.
Back to the Buckeyes---talent to overcome coaching and scheme? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. That will be LSU's downfall this year as it was last year.
And we've seen its limits with OSU:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=242550194
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=242902294
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=243182509
And addressing the offensive talent---it's alright, but its not like Antonio Pittman is very talented, nor are the quarterbacks and overall the line is a pretty pedestrian unit for the Buckeyes. What good are fancy receivers when their quarterbacks never get them the ball, ya know? That was FSU's problem a few years ago and continues to be a problem. Poor Fred Rouse.
Louisville may not play a ranked team this year, but who cares, if they are that good, they're that good, right? We have to be able to acknowledge that great teams can exist outside of the big conferences if we know how to spot them. Its not their fault their conference schedule doesn't match their prowess.
As for "nickel and diming it down the field" and having to rely on defense being a disaster 99% of the time... look at Oklahoma in '00, Ohio State in '02, and LSU in '03. Relying on Defense is fine, though having an explosive offense to go with it is huge advantage.
The other teams that have one NC's in recent years have won them not because of their explosive offenses, but their ferocious D. (USC the last two years, Miami in '01) Those teams shut down strong offenses, and blew opponents out just for good measure.
My point about Louisville not playing a ranked team was to say that we can't know how good they really are until they play someone who can/should stop be able to stop their offense. I will be skeptical until they 1) start pitching shutouts or 2) play against solid defense and. Winning games 44-41 is just as much cause for skepticism as winning games 13-7.
As for Va Tech having the best D, they haven't played ANYONE with a decent offense. Ohio? they have a cornerback with more touchdowns than their offense.
Duke? please.
Ohio State's D-line is fine. They held Texas to just 113 yards rushing, and a 2.2 ypc average. They held Miami to 48 yards and SDSU to a whopping 13. You don't hold teams to .7 ypc with a so-so or suspect D line.
The point of my posts has simply been to argue that Ohio State is still a top ten team. I don't hold any delusions about the quality of the Buckeye's offense, I just don't like to see them dismissed off-hand when they still are clearly a top 10 team.