Judgement Weekend Hath Come Early
Posted by mopper3 on October 1, 2007
This was the week when the entire sport was to be flipped on its head. This was supposed to be the weekend of epic clashes and titanic struggles. It was supposed to happen this week, this was to be the week where judgments would come down upon the towering titans. No one got the memo and all hell broke loose roughly 72 hours ago casting the national scene at an earlier date and in a much more reckless fashion than anyone really expected. So what do we do now? We wait for the rest of the season to pan out. Same as always. Yes half the polls bit the dust, and the other half, with few exceptions, tried their damnedest to do the same for at least a half. This weekend can be summed up in a very succinct Youtube metaphor, because everything can be described and explained in a very simple fashion, through tried and true visual stimulation. The season as we thought we knew it is represented by the young man in red and this weekend’s insanity by the young man in white.
That is what happened, plain and simple. If there is one thing to be gleaned while sifting through the wreckage it is that no one is invincible this year, not even the titans. LSU somehow managed to be losing most of the first half against Tulane, yeah Tulane. USC soundly beat the statistical shit out of Washington but nearly crashed and burned on account of their own mistakes. Meanwhile, in Boulder Oklahoma, the team that has looked every bit as impressive as LSU was limited to 230 yards of offense. That total is not a surprise, OK it is a bit of a surprise, but Colorado had a very good defense last year, but you couldn’t tell because they went 2-10. But the Oklahoma defense that did show some vulnerability against Paul Smith and Tulsa last week was out and out exposed by a Freshman QB this week. Urban Meyer doesn’t like losing to Auburn, or in general, it makes him sick to his stomach. The teams played to a standstill, dead even in almost every category that counts. But in the category that counts the most, turnovers, Auburn came out ahead. This was a game where the last one with the ball wins, and Auburn had the ball last. West Virginia ran into a team that has the capability to play their offense to their own advantage. And the usual things that plague WVU’s opponents never really popped up, namely missed tackles and assignments. They played lane assignment football and never, ever grasped for straws.
Long story short the weekend was a mess and, in all honesty there is very little to take away from this week in terms of what it will mean for the rest of the season. That is the conclusion that I have reached about the weekend. It is too early in the season to truly eliminate any of these teams from any race that they may partake in. There are some exceptions, I do think that Rutgers has been exposed and while they will float around the rest of the season making brief appearances in the polls and on the national stage they are in the wait for next year mode. They justed looked far too average against the Terps, and the best player on that defense at the start of the season, Eric Foster was no where to be found.
Wisconsin is fucked, seriously fucked they can’t keep winning like that, not week in week out. The luck will run out. Some people I have talked to have brought up in infamous luckeyes of 2002 who won every week, but just barely. But unlike that team Wisconsin showed the cracks in the facade in week one, and they make appearances every week but so far the have overcome them, but their luck will run out very soon. The Badgers are not a top 10 team, not even close, when the polls start to correct themselves later in the season that will be bore out.
Besides Cal, the team that came out of this weekend looking the best was a Ohio State, whose victory over Washington looks a lot better. But this team still has question marks, and a lot of them, all on the offensive side of the ball. But they won once again in a walk over Minnesota and their bad choice of uniforms. But the questions remain about this team. Yeah the offense has looked explosive and efficient, but they have yet to face a defense that can be construed as above average. The first real defense they run up against is going to cause Todd Boeckmen massive problems, because right now he is fattening up on bad defenses, which tend to create bad habits. Ohio State is going to be in for a scare against Kent State who has one of the best defenses in the Mid Major ranks and they will fall, again, at Penn State, Ohio States very personal House of Horrors.
