LegendaryGT
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- Oct 18, 2009
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After last week's whirlwind evening slot, this week has a decidedly more even pace. Another compelling Thursday matchup, an upset alert on Friday night, alongside what could potentially be an okay game out of the Pac 12, and just enough games in each Saturday time slot to keep your picture-in-picture busy. Not quite as many opportunities for Team Chaos, this week, as most of the top 5 are heavy favorites, but hey they don't play the games on paper.
Thursday, September 22
7:30 PM - Clemson at Georgia Tech. We all know what's up here. Clemson in BDS at night, short week. Throw the stats and the expectations out, for this game. It's a Thursday night ACC game, which only means the conference will end up being embarrassed during the only spot on national television. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
Friday, September 23
8:00 PM - TCU at SMU. TCU just finished playing its first complete game of the season against Iowa State, but still gave up 6 yards per pass. As FCS foe SDSU demonstrated, the Horned Frogs have some suspect elements in their secondary. Enter SMU, in Chad Morris' second year at the helm, it doesn't look like they have made much progress on the surface, but there are signs of brewing improvement in their recent game against Baylor. Although SMU didn't score as many points as in last years contest, Baylor was able to bring forces to bear that TCU may not, namely a good pass rush and a ball hawking backfield, leaving SMU 17-44 with three interceptions. Even with that dismal passing line, the SMU rushing attack had far more success on a per-play basis, all while gaining around 50 more yards and allowing 200 fewer. Looking back to last year's contest with SMU, TCU's performance can't afford a similar adjustment. TCU couldn't quite pull away comfortably until the fourth quarter, needing a 450 yard passing day from Trevone Boykin on top of 266 rushing yards. Even then, there were weaknesses in TCU's secondary that SMU took advantage of, completing 18 of 32 passes for 334 yards (that's 10.4 yards per pass). Boykin plays for the seahawks now and the secondary doesn't seem to have improved for TCU. If SMU can make the leap from improving to improved in this game, then they'll justify me putting TCU on upset alert.
9:00 PM - USC at Utah. Poor USC. 117 total yards of offense, and they ran a play on defense where nobody was assigned to cover Heisman candidate Christian McCaffrey, with predictable results. The wheels are totally off over there. Utah probably isn't as good as either of the two playoff contenders that have destroyed USC, but they aren't a bad team, and this is a USC team with a recent history of emotional death spirals. If they don't win this game, they could very easily end up in El Paso again.
Saturday, September 24
12:00 PM - Georgia at Ole Miss. You're going to want to tune in for this. After absolutely obliterating Florida State in the first half, Ole Miss committed four second half turnovers to neutralize themselves. Given some time to tune up, they played another lightning first half against Alabama, then fumbled into their own end zone and gave up a pick six for what were the decisive scores of the game. Even after that, however, they managed to mount two touchdown drives in a span of 3 minutes in an attempt to regain the lead. At the end of the melee, they had outgained Alabama by 40 yards, and passed for 421 yards at 10.1 yards per pass. If either of the disaster turnovers had not happened, you might be looking at a team that just overthrew the heirarchy. UGA, by stark contrast, just played the opposite role against Mizzou, winning despite being outgained by 60 yards, and giving up 376 yards at 9.9 yards per pass. Mizzou lost on a performance that involved 5 turnovers, including 3 of the last 4 drives to end the game. A huge number of turnovers can change almost any result, but Ole Miss is another animal entirely from Mizzou on both offense and defense. If it took 5 turnovers to beat Mizzou, how many will they need to collect against Ole Miss? The UGA pass defense is just not prepared for Chad Kelly and company, and it's going to be a bloodbath. Barring a huge letdown game, don't be surprised to see Chad Kelly have 500 yards through the air. UGA doesn't have the accurate quarterback or receiving corps to duplicate FSU's success in the air, and it doesn't have the athletic dual threat quarterback to duplicate Alabama's success on the ground (Jalen Hurts ran 18 times for 146 yards). Scoring at pace with Ole Miss is just not in the cards. Sitting at 74th nationally in BOTH yards per rush and yards per pass despite playing UNC's god awful run defense and Nicholls State, I don't know if I've ever seen a bigger mismatch game for UGA on paper. All signs point to carnage. Believe it only when you see it, but I'm pretty sure you're going to see it.
Thursday, September 22
7:30 PM - Clemson at Georgia Tech. We all know what's up here. Clemson in BDS at night, short week. Throw the stats and the expectations out, for this game. It's a Thursday night ACC game, which only means the conference will end up being embarrassed during the only spot on national television. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
Friday, September 23
8:00 PM - TCU at SMU. TCU just finished playing its first complete game of the season against Iowa State, but still gave up 6 yards per pass. As FCS foe SDSU demonstrated, the Horned Frogs have some suspect elements in their secondary. Enter SMU, in Chad Morris' second year at the helm, it doesn't look like they have made much progress on the surface, but there are signs of brewing improvement in their recent game against Baylor. Although SMU didn't score as many points as in last years contest, Baylor was able to bring forces to bear that TCU may not, namely a good pass rush and a ball hawking backfield, leaving SMU 17-44 with three interceptions. Even with that dismal passing line, the SMU rushing attack had far more success on a per-play basis, all while gaining around 50 more yards and allowing 200 fewer. Looking back to last year's contest with SMU, TCU's performance can't afford a similar adjustment. TCU couldn't quite pull away comfortably until the fourth quarter, needing a 450 yard passing day from Trevone Boykin on top of 266 rushing yards. Even then, there were weaknesses in TCU's secondary that SMU took advantage of, completing 18 of 32 passes for 334 yards (that's 10.4 yards per pass). Boykin plays for the seahawks now and the secondary doesn't seem to have improved for TCU. If SMU can make the leap from improving to improved in this game, then they'll justify me putting TCU on upset alert.
9:00 PM - USC at Utah. Poor USC. 117 total yards of offense, and they ran a play on defense where nobody was assigned to cover Heisman candidate Christian McCaffrey, with predictable results. The wheels are totally off over there. Utah probably isn't as good as either of the two playoff contenders that have destroyed USC, but they aren't a bad team, and this is a USC team with a recent history of emotional death spirals. If they don't win this game, they could very easily end up in El Paso again.
Saturday, September 24
12:00 PM - Georgia at Ole Miss. You're going to want to tune in for this. After absolutely obliterating Florida State in the first half, Ole Miss committed four second half turnovers to neutralize themselves. Given some time to tune up, they played another lightning first half against Alabama, then fumbled into their own end zone and gave up a pick six for what were the decisive scores of the game. Even after that, however, they managed to mount two touchdown drives in a span of 3 minutes in an attempt to regain the lead. At the end of the melee, they had outgained Alabama by 40 yards, and passed for 421 yards at 10.1 yards per pass. If either of the disaster turnovers had not happened, you might be looking at a team that just overthrew the heirarchy. UGA, by stark contrast, just played the opposite role against Mizzou, winning despite being outgained by 60 yards, and giving up 376 yards at 9.9 yards per pass. Mizzou lost on a performance that involved 5 turnovers, including 3 of the last 4 drives to end the game. A huge number of turnovers can change almost any result, but Ole Miss is another animal entirely from Mizzou on both offense and defense. If it took 5 turnovers to beat Mizzou, how many will they need to collect against Ole Miss? The UGA pass defense is just not prepared for Chad Kelly and company, and it's going to be a bloodbath. Barring a huge letdown game, don't be surprised to see Chad Kelly have 500 yards through the air. UGA doesn't have the accurate quarterback or receiving corps to duplicate FSU's success in the air, and it doesn't have the athletic dual threat quarterback to duplicate Alabama's success on the ground (Jalen Hurts ran 18 times for 146 yards). Scoring at pace with Ole Miss is just not in the cards. Sitting at 74th nationally in BOTH yards per rush and yards per pass despite playing UNC's god awful run defense and Nicholls State, I don't know if I've ever seen a bigger mismatch game for UGA on paper. All signs point to carnage. Believe it only when you see it, but I'm pretty sure you're going to see it.
