CFB Review: Don't want to be number 2
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by Suckatsports
College football review talks about the week that was in college football, about the good teams that won, and the good teams that lost. Look for it to wrap up the college football preview, and to gloat upon picking correct outcomes.
This week could have just as easily been called the Top 10 Turmoil Redux Redux, because for the second week in a row the top 10 found some turbulence - four teams dropped out and new ones took their place. Not only that, but for the second week in a row, the second ranked team in the nation lost (Cal was last week, and USF this week). This has to be more than parity, when there's such a consistency of losing at the top, and the lack of a consensus top 5, or even a top team. The fact is, that college football is down this year as a whole, just like college basketball was last year. Parity it may be, but don't excuse poor play by supposedly top teams - if that's what they have you believe they are.
What an incredible game Auburn-LSU came out to be, not that anyone expected any less. Trailing by three, on the opponents 23 with roughly 10 seconds to go at home, it's a no brainer to kick the field goal. But the ballsy Les Miles goes for the win, and the Flynn-to-Byrd connection pays dividends as they get a touchdown to the only man in the pattern with nary a second left on the clock. So, here's the thing, people are calling it ballsy; I'm calling it downright stupid. We have to distinguish between favorable results with good decision making - this decision being the latter. This decision was unspeakably bad, and not to pile or... wait, who am I kidding - this whole game was Les Miles' fault. There's no reason that this team should be down 10 points for the 2nd time in as many games at home, when they're playing two inferior teams on the physical side of the ball. All things being equal, LSU should have lost this game, if not by this stroke luck many are calling genius. Let's move on to a different area of the game - the defense. The vaunted LSU defense has been shredded two weeks in a row, and while the first could be attributed to an excellent quarterback (and I really believe that to be the case for Woodson), but Brandon Cox cannot fall into that category. Worst of all, it isn't fluke offensive plays that have caused such a pileup of yardage and points, but rather running the ball "right up the gut" to what was perceived as the strength of this defense.
Please, let's officially stop this SEC is the most awesomest, best, and deep conference in the country. It's really just getting annoying. What I watched this weekend of the televised games, and final scores of the SEC showed me that this conference is just more mediocre while others are less mediocre. They are certainly not great. I don't know who can possibly explain South Carolina losing at home to Vanderbilt as a show of depth in any conference. It doesn't end there. What was supposed to be one of the best teams in the conference in Tennessee got completely handled by an Alabama team that just recently lost to Florida State. Oh no, there's more. The same Ole Miss team that brought Florida to the brink of their first loss in their second game just lost to Arkansas 44-8, to get them their first conference win. Florida, thought to be an unstoppable force just recently ended a two game losing streak and beat Kentucky after a bye week. Didn't just beat them, put forty five on them. That's not so surprising because Kentucky doesn't play much defense, but hold on, they were just revered for their solid defense up the middle on an explosive LSU offense they beat just the other week. Congratulations SEC fans, your conference is just as mediocre as any other.
Best of the rest. USF disappointed, and cost the Big East by losing Thursday night to Rutgers. All-in-all Rutgers probably deserved to win, since Ray Rice ran for a ridiculous 189 yards. You can't win by giving up that many rushing yards to one person. This is a blow to the Big East, because in reality, USF was their hope for the title game.
Michigan escapes Champaign with a victory. They capitalize on mental lapses on the part Illinois, or we could call them, "pulling a Zooker." Watch out, but Big Blue doesn't have a loss in Big 10 play, and the conference is once again going to be settled on that cold night in November.
Speaking of Big 10 play, Ohio State decides to let Michigan State back in before closing them out. After leading the Spartans by 24, they allowed two defensive touchdowns on back-to-back (and would have been another to-back) possessions to bring them to within 10. However, with Beanie Wells (31-221) and that defense, they pulled it out. Silver Bullets only allowed three points.
Why did Oklahoma let Iowa State hang around as long as they did? This team was absolutely explosive on offense first 5 games of the season, but the last couple have been entirely inconsistent. There's some believe that this team is too young to compete and keep it up.
There's nothing like playing Notre Dame to get yourself back on track. USC, after struggling several games in a row went in and beat on their little brother, shutting them out 38-0. But, this can't possibly be because of Charlie Weis. Genius at work.
CFB Week 8 scores [SI.com]
Photo: Doug Benc [ Getty Images ]
This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.
