Category: College Football (Page 287 of 296)

What’s nice about college football wrapping up week number two is that most teams are done with their cream-puff part of the schedule. Although week three will still have some unimportant match ups, we can expect see more competitive conference games starting next week.

Here is a look at some games that should have caught viewer’s attention in Week 2:

(#1) Ohio State 24, (#2) Texas 7
Anybody looking for a complete wrap up of this game can check out my other posting on The Scores Report from last night. I was very impressed watching Buckeyes QB Troy Smith make the necessary plays for OSU while Texas freshman Colt McCoy did enough not to win the game for the Long Horns.

I wrote in my College Game of the Week on Bullz-Eye.com that this would be a high scoring affair. But OSU’s defense came up with two huge turnovers – one while Texas was in the red zone – to limit the Long Horns scoring chances.

The Buckeye defense has showed that they will allow yards on the ground early in drives, but is more than capable in shutting opponents down once they reach midfield. In order to truly be viewed as a dominating program, I think the Buckeyes need to sure up that run defense. As of right now, however, OSU is clearly the best team in the nation.

(#4) Notre Dame 41, (#19) Penn State 17
The Fighting Irish dropped two spots in the AP poll because of the unimpressive victory over Georgia Tech last week. If Notre Dame re-claimed its number No. 2 spot with its 41-17 victory Saturday over Penn State.

The Irish put on a show both offensively and defensively in this game against, what I thought, was a decent Nittany Lions squad. Hesiman hopefully Brady Quinn – who looked rushed in his decisions last week – commanded ND’s offense up and down the field to the tune of 287 passing yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Jeff Samardzija looked great in space and caught six passes for 56 yards and a score.

All-purpose back Darius Walker finished with 172-total yards and one touchdown for the Irish while Notre Dame’s defense smothered Penn State all game.

Quick Shots:
People can be overly shocked by (#9) Florida State’s squeaker over Troy, but any team coming off an emotional win over (#17) Miami and having to play just five days later will look sluggish…Four ranked teams shut out their opponents this weekend, which is obviously a great defensive statement for these programs: (#4) Auburn defeated Mississippi State 34-0, (#7) Florida beat UCF 42-0, (#13) Louisville crushed Temple 62-0 and (#12) Georgia got by South Carolina 18-0…(#14) Iowa barely got by Syracuse 20-13 in overtime, but this is another game that is deceiving because Hawkeyes QB Drew Tate never saw the field due to injury…Finally, (#10) Michigan had its first ever lightning delay in school history, but once play continued U of M hardly stalled in a 41-17 blowout of Central Michigan (a game I thought maybe the Wolverines would overlook because of Notre Dame being on the schedule in Week 3).

Most impressive showing from Week 2: Troy Smith and the rest of OSU’s offense. Smith made great reads, showed great pocket prescience and used every single one of his weapons in the Buckeyes win over Texas. How about finding wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez for 142-yards and a 17.8 catch average?

Least impressive showing from Week 2: (#11) Tennessee’s performance against Air Force. Granted the Vols did beat the Falcons 31-30, but this was a team that nearly jumped up 10 spots in the AP poll with a decisive victory over California last week and then they come out and barely beat Air Force? Maybe this is why Phillip Fulmer is on the hot seat this season – he can’t keep his team focused from week to week.

On tap for Week 3: There is plenty of great match up’s next week with (#10) Michigan traveling to South Bend to face (#4) Notre Dame, (#7) Florida playing (#11) Tennessee and (#18) Clemson going to Tallahassee to face (#9) FSU.

But the best game on the schedule might be (#8) LSU facing (#4) Auburn in a tremendous SEC match up on Saturday.

Update: Check out the new rankings after a second week of action.

Is there any doubt? Is there any doubt at all that says Ohio State isn’t the best team in college football right now?

This game was certainly better than it’s 24-7 final score and the gentleman who posted that he thought this game wasn’t going to be a high scoring affair like everybody intially thought, was pretty much on the money.

I can’t say enough good things about Troy Smith after watching that game. Forget the numbers (17 of 27 for 269 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs by the way) for a second and just marvel in the way Smith kept his cool all game.

Going against a Texas team on its home turf is certainly no small task and Smith made it look easy. His pocket presence was excellent – he would go through two or three reads before making his final decision on virtually every one of his drop backs – and when he threw the ball he delivered great touch or zip given the situation.

His accuracy in finding wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez all game was fun to watch and anyone who thinks that the Long Horns didn’t suffer without their top corner didn’t see the same game I did. Way to get Ted Ginn Jr. involved early and often as well – that slant play on second down to Ginn on the Buckeyes first possession that went for 46-yards set the table for OSU’s offense all night.

On the flip side, I stressed the importance for the Buckeyes being able to stop the run this week in my College Game of the Week on Bullz-Eye.com and I don’t think I would be out of line to say they still have a lot of work to do. Selvin Young and Jamaal Charles had a lot of success running the ball on first downs in the first half. It wasn’t for a lack of talking by OSU, either – they just weren’t engaging the runners until they had already chewed up three or four yards already.

With that said, nothing can be taken away from the performance sophomore James Laurinaitis had tonight and the entire Buckeye defense made plays when they had to. The fumble Laurinaitis caused in the first quarter was obviously timely and a huge momentum killer for Texas, but it was his interception of Colt McCoy to start the second half that really took the wind out of the Long Horns’ sails.

Speaking of McCoy, this kid has a bright future. As much as I liked the way Smith stood in the pocket like a senior quarterback should, McCoy was equally impressive in his decision making (minus the interception of course). He took a couple of huge shots and still delivered the ball with accuracy and precision.

In the end, I just don’t think the kid made enough plays when he had to, however. There were a couple of times he led his receivers out to pasture when there really wasn’t a play (mostly on check downs). I thought he would run more and he certainly didn’t get Limas Sweed in the game at all.

I think this game came down to Texas playing soft in the secondary with Tarell Brown not playing and Smith just picked them apart. Antonio Pittman looked strong down the stretch run of the game as well and the defense will bend, but they refuse to break.