alt.sports.college.pac-10

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:31:05 -0500, Sean S wrote:

>Greg Sumner laid this on me:
>> Except for Oregon State, anyway.
>
> heh.
>
>> Cal won on the road,
>
> I didn't see the Cal game, but looking at the box score, even
>accounting for the fact that it was a desperate late comeback by CSU, 458
>yards to a mediocre MW team? I'll tack it to a letdown, but that has to be
>a tad alarming.

I saw the game and as you suggested, Cal was clearly flat after last
week's game. The offense showed an occasional spark but really didn't
take off until late in the 3rd quarter when Montgomery and Best went
in at running back. They were getting some good gains and Cal started
making first downs and sustaining drives. Best looks like he's going
to be real good for the next 3 or 4 years. The passing attack just
seemed out of sync all game. Longshore was off and receivers were
dropping balls. The defense is a concern. They haven't been very
impressive in either game and I think Cal will lose 2 or 3 games if
the defense doesn't improve. Fortunately, CSU has a running and short
passing attack and the Cal defense could get away with letting them
march slowly up and down the field then stop them before they get
within field goal range. When Cal got up 34-14 late in the fourth
quarter, the Cal team looked like they thought it was over. A long
bomb TD and an onside kickoff recovery followed by another TD made it
look closer than it really was. When Cal got the ball after that, they
managed to make a couple of first downs and put the game away. The
bottom line is that Cal was in a classic trap game situation. They
played badly but sheer superiority of talent allowed them to slowly
pull away and get a victory.

Having watched half the 4th quarter and OT between Hawaii and
Louisiana Tech, now I'm a bit concerned about playing La Tech. They
looked better than I would have expected, especially on defense. Cal
should still win by 2 TDs, but they better be more into the game than
against CSU.

>> ASU rolled.
>
> "but the sloppy Sun Devils overcame five personal fouls, an
>interception and two fumbles to take a 19-14 halftime lead."
> The more coaches change, the more they stay the same.
>
>> Oregon stuck the knife into Michigan
>
> Yeah, great win, nice to see the fellas lay a whooping on the big OOC
>game this year (and no onsides kicks!). Dixon was sharp, they ran the ball
>well, and played hard. On UM side, Hart showed me what a great player he is
>- he seemed to be the only guy in blue playing with real heart once things
>got tough.
> That said, I am wondering how big of a win this is gonna be in
>December. This is the worst Michigan team I can remember seeing in quite a
>while - their defense has serious problems. Not only are they slow, but
>they can't tackle. But to Oregon's credit, they didn't "play down to the
>competition" (did I just say that about MICHIGAN?!?!), they just came out,
>played smart and hard, and scored a great win.

I only saw the second half of Oregon-Michigan but Oregon was very
impressive. I'm not too shocked they won, if fact, although I didn't
pick Oregon to win here in FGSP, I did pick them in CFPOOL. I heard
much of the Oregon radio broadcast last week and they just exploded on
Houston in the second half, so I figured they would score on Michigan.
I'm surprised that they held Michigan to 7 points.

>> and UW broke the BSU win streak.
>> There were a LOT of BSU fans at the game. They weren't dished much
>> crap though, they came a long way from a small town and they got a lot
>> of respect.
>>
>> It was truthfully an ugly game, but the UW won playing solid C+
>> football in the 2nd half. C+ only because the defense played A
>> football to bring up the average.
>
> Awesome win for UW; I wonder who was smrat enuff to prognosticate
>it?...hmmm. hehe. UW has not played all that badly as the recent record
>would indicate, they were due for a solid win. Ty has them going in the
>right direction.
> Kinda funny to watch Weis struggle and Ty on the upswing. In fact, if
>UW were to play ND right now, I am reasonably sure UW would thrash them.
>(hell, if ND were to play Austin Peay right now, I'm not sure Austin Peay
>wouldn't thrash them).

I would have liked to see ND lose but I had to get away from the TV at
least part of the day. I don't hate ND, but the amount of coverage
they get make them a team I want to see lose nearly every week. I'm
glad Washington has improved as it makes my sister, niece and nephew
happy, but 6-6 will be good enough. Maybe 7-5 so they can go to a
bowl.

Plaidmoon

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