Iowa 16 - Northern Illinois 3
Iowa's D was ferocious, holding NIU to 20 yards on the ground. Jake Christensen was poised. We had no turnovers. Albert Young and Damian Sims went over 100 yards. There's clearly room for improvement but on the whole, I'm very happy with their performance.
We will have a much more comprehensive look at this game later.
Indiana 55 - Indiana St 7
An emotional win for the Hoosiers in their first game since Head Coach Terry Hoeppner died in June. They came out with a purpose and simply dominated the Sycamores. The story of the game was the Hoosier Defense which held Indiana St to just 46 yards on the ground, had 5 sacks, and generated 3 turnovers. Not the scariest of opponents, to be sure, but we all know what happens when you don't show up to play against an "inferior opponent".
Also, James Motherfucking Hardy had 3 catches for 153 yards and 2 TD's (79,58).
Missouri 40 - Illinois 34
Juice Williams got knocked the fuck out, the Illini fumbled 5 times, threw 2 picks, allowed a punt return for a TD and a fumble to be returned 102 yards for a TD... so... all in a day's work for the Zooker. Well played, man.
Call me.
Penn State 59 - Florida Intl. 0
JoePa was terrifying and Deadspin Hall of Famer Ned did not play. Moving on.
Ohio St. 38 - Youngstown St. 6
The sweatervest slayed the mighty Penguins. Not a lot of good news for the Buckeyes here though. Defensive End Lawrence Wilson broke his leg and Beanie Wells looked fat. It wasn't the pants either. He appeared to have consumed a Thanksgiving dinner just before the game. Not a good sign for the Buckeyes. I think they'll have to go to another blue chipper in his stead. I feel for you, Buckeyes!
Northwestern 27 - Northeastern 0
*yawn*
Purdue 52 - Toledo 24
A game like this sheds more light on your weaknesses than it does on your strengths. Purdue allowed 4 YPC and was -1 in turnovers. Not what DC Brock Spack was hoping for out of his Maginot Line defense. Lucky for them they don't play a good team until October.
Michigan St. 55 - UAB 18
Not gonna lie, I did not realize UAB had a football team. I did however, notice that the dragon on their helmets looks like Zach (or Weezy?) on Dragon Tales. Not scary.
Nice job, Sparty.
Bowling Green 32 - Minnesota 31 (OT)
The wheels are already coming off for coach Tim Brewster. After a first half that saw them befuddled and punchless with the new spread offense, the Gophers scrapped it at halftime and came out with a power running attack (a la Glen Mason) in the second half. Nice to see coach Brewster is sticking to his guns! This is a bad team, folks. Bad.
Wisconsin 42 - Washington St. 21
Wisconsin's offense put on a show here. Tyler Donovan threw for 3 TD's and ran for another. P.J. Hill was OK, but not great. It was not all good news for the Badgers. They did give up 157 yards on the ground (on just 32 attempts). 5 YPC on the ground isn't going to get you far in the Big 10 so this is something coach Bielema better get a handle on, fast, because they travel to UNLV and meet up with Travis Dixon and Frank Summers next week. Those 2 are a solid QB/RB tandem and will be a much tougher test than the Cougars were.
Georgia Tech 33 - Notre Dame 3
Georgia Tech kicked Notre Dame's ass, frontier style. It was as thorough a beating as you'll see in every facet of the game. Notre Dame looked sluggish, passive, and most disturbingly, unprepared. Charlie Weis made Chan Gailey look like Vince Lombardi. If I was a Notre Dame fan I would be calling for Weis' pasty, misshapen, butter glazed, head. How bad was this beating? Notre Dame had 41 rushes for -8 yards against a very average defensive unit. The good news? It's about to get worse as they play Penn State at Happy Valley next week. When reached for comment following yesterday's loss, paunchy progesterate Charlie Weis said, "don't skimp on the gravy!"
Appalachian St 34 - Michigan 32
An absolutely brutal loss for Michigan, make no mistake about it. However, it is most certainly not the "biggest upset in college football history". It's clear to anyone who actually watched the game that Appalachian St. is a good football team. They're well coached, they have good athletes, and they had a good game plan. Should Michigan lose to them, at home? Of course not. It was a bad loss by an unfocused team with a skittish QB. Was it a stomach punch loss? No. Appalachian St. controlled the game from the outset and won. I would say this is particularly brutal to Big Blue just based on the fact that many thought this was their year and this was the team to get them a title. That's over now but your season isn't. If you want to see what they're made of, watch how they respond next week against Oregon. Winning is easy, it's only when you lose that we see if you have any character. Chin up, guys, the world doesn't stop turning just because you lost. Trust me, this comes from a guy whose team lost to Indiana, Northwestern, and Minnesota last year.
7 comments:
Yeah, gotta say, there's much to like here. I was at the game and felt a little underwhelmed. Watched it on TV afterward (because I'm a loser) and thought there was room for improvement but much to work with. Mistakes were fixable.
Dude, love the blog. Not a huge Hawks fan, but very well done.
Nice overview but I do not believe that the QB/RB tandem from UNLV will be tougher than WSU's. WSU had and has a good offense even by Pac 10 standards. Most of WSU's yards came early and Wisky got their bearings and came around. look for a more consistantly dominant defense next week.
Life as I know it has ended.
Years of clean living are over.
:lonebadger: Going on the road against UNLV is a bigger test of their run D what Wazzu at home. You'll know right away if the problems have been addressed.
:CrimeNotes: You'll be back. You guys always come back.
No U of M no OSU and an upset in Wisconsin... I-O-W-A, 2007 Big Ten Champs
:Tyler: Beating Wisconsin is not an upset, brother. Also, I'd like to see us score more than 1 TD before I'm proclaiming us Big Ten Champs. I like the way you think though.
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