WBN College Football Weekend Wrap Up
The Wildcats have been beaten soundly the past two weeks, the games weren’t even close for the most part, but the loss to LSU was not as bad as one might think if you just looked at the score.
The officiating in Baton Rouge was awful, plain and simple. Kentucky should have gone into half time only down 10-0 at the most after the refs refused to call a 12 man on the field penalty against the Tigers. Joker went out onto the field and was irate. It’s the most life I have seen out of him so far this season and it was a welcome change to his usual calm demeanor.
Officiating, as horrible as it was, was not to blame for another abysmal performance from the offense and Morgan Newton in particular. Newton’s receivers are still dropping passes but sometimes the ball wasn’t even close to getting to them. To their credit, the offensive line played admirably well against one of the best defenses in the country and the running game looked improved with Josh Clemons 100% better and back in the line up. The kid just needs to get a better feel for the open holes in front of him.
The defense played terrific for what they had to endure. They were on the field for half the game and saw their offense get only one first down in the first half. Besides one bad series when they missed 5 open field touchdowns as an LSU receiver scored a touchdown, the defense was very good.
Randy Sanders and his offense need to fix things now. Benching Newton in favor of Maxwell Smith is not the answer and I thought it was a bad move. Maybe it will wake Newton up a bit, but Newton has been known to sulk in the past. The Cats have to salvage a win and not drop four straight.
Back to Reality
After a stunning road win against the Wildcats the Cards were reminded of one very important thing: They are awful. The Marshall Thundering Herd came into Papa Johns Cardinal stadium with a 1-3 record and having only amassed 6 rushing yards in the previous week in a loss to Virginia Tech.
Herd players named Tron and Gator tore up the Card defense and rushed for 117 yards. Cardinal quarterback savior Teddy Bridgewater threw 2 interceptions late in the game to seal the loss.
Marshall is a truly terrible football team. Louisville is just worse. They have lost 2 out of 3 home games this season to Marshall and Florida International. This makes it all the more frustrating that Kentucky lost to Louisville. The Wildcats are two touchdowns better than their rival and the defense alone is better than anything FIU and Marshall has.
Charlie Strong is now 4-6 at home as UofL’s head coach. The home field atmosphere for Louisville is absolutely pathetic. The seats are never filled, even when the team is good, and the fans boo the home team more than the away team. I don’t see Strong at Louisville in the next 2-3 years. They lose to really bad teams at home on too much of a regular basis.
Top Teams Separating Themselves
I had no idea that Alabama and Wisconsin were going to win by the huge margins that ended up being the final scores. The Badgers and the Tide defeated two ranked teams by over 20 points a piece.
Alabama went on the road into a hostel Swamp and shut the Gators explosive offense down and put their starting quarterback out for the season. Florida had over 400 yards rushing on Kentucky and ended up with just 15 rushing yards against Alabama in a 38-10 loss.
The Badgers beat a #8 Nebraska team at Camp Randall to the tune of 48-17. I have been dismissing Wisconsin up until now. I think this team is a legitimate national title contender and is by far the best team in the Big 10.
The surprise team of the season to me has been Clemson, who has defeated three ranked teams in three straight weeks, two of them being conference rivals Florida State and Virginia Tech. I don’t think the Tigers are on the same level as LSU, Alabama and Wisconsin, but they are a very good football team.
Top 10
Alabama has now leap frogged Oklahoma to take the #2 spot. The Sooners are not winning as impressive as the top two teams in the SEC and I would argue that Wisconsin also belongs ahead of them.
1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Wisconsin
5. Boise State
6. Oklahoma State
7. Stanford
8. Clemson
9. Oregon
10. Arkansas
The SEC has three teams in the top ten, the Big 12 has 2, the Pac 12 has 2, the ACC has 1 and the Big 10 has 1.
Picks
I had a very good week going 5-1, my only miss being Louisville. I am now an awesome 15-6 on the season. I need to make a career out of this because I am much better at it than some of the dopes on ESPN.
NFL Note: The Lions are 4-0 after coming back and from a 24 point deficit to beat the Cowboys in Dallas. Also, the Ravens beat the tar out of the Jets and further proved that Rex Ryan and his flunkies are all talk and no substance. The game wasn’t even close as Baltimore scored 3 defensive touchdowns.
The Week to Come
If there is one quarterback in the SEC that is struggling as much as Morgan Newton it is Stepehn Garcia. The Gamecocks have showed ZERO ability to throw the ball this season. If Mister Cobble and the defensive line can continue to play as well as they did against LSU, shut down the run and force Garcia to win the game for USC, then the Cats can pull the upset.
Randy Sanders and the offense have to find 17 points if they want to end the murderers row stretch with a W and save the season for the Wildcats.
Duh Ville will travel to North Carolina. The Cards could win on the road. Their home crowd is so pathetic that they have more of an advantage playing away from the Pizza Oven. But it won’t happen. The Tar Heels are primed to thump the Dirty Birds.
Florida is about to get it’s second week of reality in a row as they travel to LSU for a game against the #1 Tigers. The Gators season is looking to go down the tubes from here as the SEC games are getting tougher in the coming weeks. Serves them right for what they did to our boys in blue.
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