CFB Review: Down goes Brutus
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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.
Ohio State lost an embarrassing game at home this past weekend, and certainly the weekend starts and ends there. Just to get this out of the way before getting into the game, on the first Illinois drive, the RB Dufrene did indeed fumble before going down, with Ohio State recovering in the endzone. This was an epic screw up by an officiating crew already slated for suspension in games earlier this season. Now that it's out of the way, that episode certainly is not what caused Ohio State to lose, although it might have gotten more interesting without one touchdown to the credit of the Illini. Illinois came in with a plan and executed it to perfection: they ran the ball right down the throats of the Buckeyes, holding the ball for almost the entire time in the 4th quarter. The perfect plan to beat Ohio State. They also came in with an athletic defense that allowed them to get pressure with only four people on Boeckman and put him in a position to make mistakes - which he did to the tune of three back breaking interceptions. It was more than that really, it was the second time in as many games playing an option team that ended up in the same result only this time the score was less embarrassing. I don't want to say that Ohio State was ill prepared just because watching the entire game it seemed like Illinois was not only ready but had the talent to work out this win. They made no mistakes, and they had the players, the talent and the will to play the game they needed to play, and without a doubt the better team won that game. Unlike the Florida game, where Jim Tressel was out coached, I put this one on the players, the defense played lazy all day, and there's just no excuse for that from their vantage point. And now all that blowing smoke about OSU winning an unwarranted national championship or getting killed in the national championship has gone for naught. And yes, as an alumnus this is extremely hard to say, but the result on the field speaks for itself. I for one am not happy about the fisticuffs at the end of the game, even if Illinois decided to dance on the Block O in the middle of the field. I hate that entire tradition on both sides, and I understand trying to protect "your house." But for the Ohio State defense (that's who I saw out there) it was time to take some pride during the game when Illinois literally danced on your faces, not after the game when they did it merely figuratively.
Best of the Rest.
Ohio State and Michigan lost before their game only for the second time in their history, but in the Big 10 race it meant nothing, the conference will still be decided next week. Michigan decided to throw away a game, which I've never seen before, to Wisconsin in order to rest most of their players, like Henne and Hart. However once those two graduate Mallet, Miner and Brown are certainly not the answer, and that defense continues to struggle against... everything.
Auburn is once again unranked after getting destroyed by Georgia. The last couple of weeks, the Bulldogs were able to pile up the points on seemingly decent defensive teams. Throwing up 45 points, and what seemed like a million rushing yards on an Auburn defense is awfully impressive. This should be a good game between them an LSU coming up soon.
Cal lost their 4th in a row? Is that right? Everyone wrote off USC after those two losses, but there's no reason they still aren't the most physically talented team in the Pac 10. They're clearly not as explosive as before (24 points?), but they're as dangerous as ever.
The Flutie magic has run out at Chestnut Hill. Playing close games and winning by the skin of their teeth has caught up with BC and they end up losing their second in a row in a game where the score wasn't as close as the game. Losing to two middle-of-the-road ACC teams? Bad.
Florida wins again, but may be too little too late in the SEC race. Tim Tebow is tremendous: he accounted for 424 yards of offense and 7 (SEVEN) touchdowns in the white washing of South Carolina. He's a great player and quarterback, but I fear for his health, because in Urban's offense he might be dead in another year.
Most impressive win was Kansas. They blew away a fairly offensively talented Oklahoma State team on the road in a trap game if there ever was one. Watching them play was interesting, because they aren't some gimmicky offense and defense, they have players who play hard and smart, and there's no reason to keep them out the championship game if they go undefeated. The soft schedule may come back to haunt them though.
How great was the Orange Bowl? Obviously not that great, when Miami was so distraught about the last game to play in it that they lost 48-0 to a just okay Virginia team. Said this at the beginning of the year: Randy Shannon while it seems he'll do an admirable job is not the man to bring this team around.
This post is cross published from We Suck at Sports.
