Blogpoll Ballot: Week 2
A lack of upsets led to a fairly static first-run ballot for this week’s blogpoll.
We gave East Carolina their just desserts after the 24-3 thumping of the Mountaineers gave them back to back wins over ranked foes.
Outside of the irrelevant BYU Cougars, the biggest slide award goes to Ohio State. I’m sure they’ll drop further in most other blogpoll ballots but I think we’ve got it right, for now….
| 1 |  |
Idle: Next week they play a fairly hyped game against the Team America Loves to Hate. | – |
| 2 |  |
This one was close in the 3rd Qtr (28-20) before the Sooners peeled off 24 unanswered points to close the deal. Bradford was large going 29/38 for 395 and 5 TDs. In other news, Ben Mauk has petitioned his petition to petition the right to petition the NCAA for another year of eligibility. |  1 |
| 3 |  |
Dawgs roll over Central Michigan 56-17 behind Moreno’s 18/168 and 3 TDs. QB Matt Stafford has been stellar totaling 488 yards passing and 4 TDs in two games. UGA’s 9 game winning streak is 2nd best in nation (BYU 12). | 1 |
| 4 |  |
The score was close (9-3) until the 4th Qtr but the ‘Cane offense was so bad Florida was able to keep them at bay before 17 4th Qtr points put the game on ice. Tebow: 311 total yards and 2 TDs. ‘Cane offense: 140 total yards, 0 TD. | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Uninspired effort showed just how much Beanie means to this team and how veteran teams are more likely to overlook an opponent than green ones. A drop in the poll is obviously just – they’ve got some provin’ to do. |  3 |
| 6 |  |
Mizzou scored 42 first half points in a 52-3 rout of SE Missouri State. Chase Daniel set a school record going 16/17 (245 yds, 3 TD) before being pulled in the 2nd Qtr. | 1 |
| 7 |  |
Juco transfer QB Chris Todd put up 248 yards passing in first start as Auburn took a 24-0 lead in 3rd Qtr before winning 27-13 against Southern Miss. Tiger D held Southern Miss to 1/14 on 3rd down. | 1 |
| 8 |  |
Game vs. Troy postponed due to hurricane Gustav. | – |
| 9 |  |
High powered Red Raiders struggled on offense with Nevada taking the total yards battle 488-421 in 35-19 win. T-Tech QB Graham Harrell had a career low 19 completions (19/46) but he managed to hook up with stud WR Michael Crabtree 7 times for 158 yards including an 82 yarder giving the Red Raiders a 28-12 lead early in the 4th Qtr. | – |
| 10 |  |
Longhorns score 4 TDs in 15 minutes bridging 1st and 2nd quarter on the way to a 42-13 win over UTEP. McCoy finished 20/29 for 282 and 4 TDs against a pick. Interestingly, the Miners outgained Texas 412-404 holding the ball for nearly 37 minutes. | 1 |
| 11 |  |
Badgers rolled up 51 unanswered points in 51-14 win over Marshall. Allan Evridge gained some confidence going 17/26 for 308 yards and a TD to complement 2 rushing TD’s each from PJ Hill (18/57 blah) and John Clay (11/54). Next up: dangerous night roady at Fresno State (10:30 EST, ESPN2) | 1 |
| 12 |  |
The Pirates racked up their second straight win over a ranked opponent with a 24-3 dismantling of West Virginia. The D held WVU to 12 first downs and 3/12 on 3rd down. | 14 |
| 13 |  |
Todd Reesing blew up for career high 412 yards through the air and 3 TDs in 29-0 shutout of La Tech. Mangino eats Verne Troyer during post-game celebration. Next up: big one @ South Florida Friday night. | – |
| 14 |  |
Sun Devils beat Stanford 41-17 behind Rudy Carpenter’s 345 yards and 3 TDs. Carpenter’s 733 yards passing in first two games is school record. | – |
| 15 |  |
Warden Paterno’s inmates looked strong in a 45-14 pounding of the Beavers. RB Evan Royster showed some flash in a 141 yard, 3 TD performance and WR Jordan Norwood had a career high 116 yards receiving (8 catches) and a TD. | – |
| 16 |  |
The Ducks piled up school record 688 yards in 66-24 butt raping of Utah State. For perspective, Utah State is now 1-45 against Top 25. | – |
| 17 |  |
Bama suffered a letdown of their own in a sluggish 20-6 win over Tulane. The Tide offense sputtered to the tune of 11 first downs, 172 total yards, 4 sacks and 3/11 on third down. | – |
| 18 |  |
Active career FG leader Sam Swank hit his third of the game with :03 left pushing Wake to a 30-28 win over Ole Miss. Wake was outgained 360-348 and lost the TO battle 3-1 but held on to win behind QB Riley Skinner’s 2 TD passes (32/43, 267). | – |
| 19 |  |
Bye week. Next up: Bulldogs host Wisky. | 2 |
| 20 |  |
Juice (16/25, 124 yards, 1 TD) was up down with 2 INT and a fumble at the goal line to go along with 174 yards rushing (2 TD) in Illinois’ 47-21 win over Eastern Illinois. | 3 |
| 21 |  |
Cal throttled Washington State 66-3 behind 200 yards rushing and 3 TD from Javhid Best. | 3 |
| 22 |  |
The Bulls needed OT to get past Central Florida 31-24. South Florida outgained UCF 504-226 and was helped by UCF’s 12 penalties for 148 yards. Disciplined squad you’ve got there, O’Leary. | 2 |
| 23 |  |
Nebraska led just 14-12 with 12 minutes left before Niles Paul’s 85 yard kickoff return for a TD started a 21-0 run giving the Huskers a 35-12 victory over San Jose State. Neb penalties: 12/103. Impressive. | 1 |
| 24 |  |
BYU caught a break as Jake Locker was flagged for a bogus unsporstmanlike conduct penalty after scoring with :02 left. The penalty backed up the extra point try which was promptly blocked by the Cougars. You can’t barely survive against a Washington program that’s lost 11 of 13 and not move down. | 5 |
| 25 |  |
The poll is much more handsome with Rick Neuheisel in it so this was an easy choice. | 1 |
DROPPED OUT: West Virginia (#10), South Carolina (#25).
so far it looks like USC is favored by 9-10 points
http://msn.foxsports.com/odds?sportName=CFB
Can we get an all of the above option in that poll?
Time to put up or shut up. Even Peter King from SI is ripping the bucks after looking like crap against OU. tOSU needs to come out firing and kick some tail. I hope they’ve been holding back offense to suprise USC thinking they could beat OU and YSU with vanilla.
I agree with the drop of the Buckeyes for the half-hearted effort against Ohio and for BYU’s drop (albeit in victory as well) against an inspired Washington team but you are dead wrong on the unsportsmanlike call on Jake Locker. It was anything but bogus – Locker scores with :02 left on the clock then transfers the ball from his left hand to his right hand and spirals it 30 ft in the air. He didn’t “flip it behind his back” as Mark May wants us to believe. Did you see the replay? The ball didn’t even come down until 4 or 5 teammates are jumping all over him when none were withing 10 yards of him when he scored. You can see the ball coming down in the background. Earlier in the game Locker had scored and simply handed the ball to the referee, should have done that and Washington would have kicked the extra point and gone into overtime. BYU made an incredible play to block the kick and won the game. Looking forward to seeing the Bucks unleash against USC this week to shut up ESPN talking heads. Go Bucks!
I can’t believe that it is finally USC week and I have convinced myself that a moral victory would be okay (within a touchdown or so).
Utahbuck, I saw that replay but admittedly I was only half-heartedly interested. I still hate to see a flag in that scenario since he wasn’t trying to show up the other team but you could be right.
Ultimately, I care very little about both of those sorry programs. I think I was just hating on BYU because when we released our initial pre-season blogpoll, a reader was adament we had done BYU dirty be ranking them so low and it turns out we were absolutely right about their mediocrity.
Quite honestly, if you’re one of the precious few expecting more than a moral victory, I’ll have what you’re having. I can only assume it’s crack.
We need a pre-game like this please. Where’s the nasty? Where’s the go-for-the-jugular instinct? The boys need to find it like, yesterday…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFx6OFooCs
Utahbuck – I saw the replay but you are probably right about that flag. I watched it but was admittedly paying half-attention. I’m thinking I was just hating on BYU because we took some flak from someone when we released our preaseason blogpoll for having BYU too low.
Poguemahone, you’re no Buckeye fan and not one of us.
There’s a difference between what you want and what you expect, Jeffy my boy.
Tommy, what are you doing awake so early. Should you not be out cruising for nuggets and that next killer wave? May a mudslide take your dog away.
Did everyone see that the beast that is Virginia dominated Richmond 16-0 while gaing 295 yards of offense and 2.4 yards a carry on 91 yards rushing.
I still think people are overyhyping the way USC crushed Virginia…….Virginia may be the worst team in the worst BCS conference.
After this weekend Oklahoma would get my #1 vote……I would probably have USC at 2 but only because Georgia & Florida didn’t impress that much and the Buckeyes looked HORRIBLE!
That said if you actually paid attention to the game you would have noticed that there was no play action or misdirection runs & most of the passing plays were short 5 yard curls, outs, & slants. Tressel did not let anything out of the bag yesterday and seemed okay with an ugly win because of it. However in no way does this make up for how pathetic our offensive line looked and for the embarrassing dropped passes of our receivers. At one point I wondered to myself if Robiskie and Hartline had even been to a practice this week.
Now for the defense…..After watching that game I actually wasn’t thinking about what USC would do to us this week……I was more wondering if Juice Williams would reach 300 yards passing or rushing against us first……because he would damn sure have both against that defense. Note to coaches….the experiment with an extra Linebacker instead of a safety against running QB’s was a failure. I want Russel and Coleman in there at all times! If anyone was paying attention there was very few serious that they were both in there…..most of the time 1 or the other was replace by #7 (unfortunately it was not Chris Gamble). And that is not a knock on Hines….I’m sure he will be a great linebacker…….but not a safety.
Hey Wil, guess what: you’re not a Buckeye fan! You sound like you don’t believe we’re gonna win 66-3! Benedict!
Eat my balls, Pogue.
I have to admit, I admire your candor.
Jeff at MSNBC, wouldn’t that hurt if he ate your balls?
UtahBuck, seriously…….you don’t think that is a retarded call? Locker is probably only 20 years old…….I would hope he is that excited when he scores a TD with 2 seconds left…..that was a horrible call. If he was taunting the other team or acting like a jack@$$ and being a me guy then I would understand it……he did none of those things.
poguemahone, I still think the Buckeyes win 24-13 and Beanie runs for 135 & 2 TDs. I think USC’s offensive line is exposed and their QB struggles under pressure and doesn’t have a go to back that can run between the tackles to gain the tough yards. I think OSU kills the clock in the 4th quarter with Wells, Herron, & Pryor.
Fair enough. I think JL is tremendously overrated, our safeties are disappointingly average, but our D-line and Marcus Freeman won’t let it get out of hand. 21-10, USC. FWIW, I think Carroll calls off the dogs for the first time in his career to avoid injury to his stars.
I find it funny that everyone on here over the past two years bitches about everyone jumping to conclusions about our team based on one or two games (ie the NC games). Boy how we all hated it when we were no good cuz we come out of the Big Ten and can’t beat the SEC just because we lost two games. Now everyone in here wants to jump on that same bandwagon cuz we didn’t even lose to Ohio, but played poorly. What happened was no one this week was prepared for the Bobcats; they were all too worried about Beanie and USC. The press, the coaches, the players, everyone only talked about those two things, even if it was in the context of “I swear I’m thinking about Ohio and not USC or not Beanie” because that means you are thinking about them. Thats all the quotes and questions this week were about. Now that is inexcusable. This team often lacks the heart, the fire, the whatever you want to call it to show up and win the big games and the close games. We have been too blessed to the point of entitlement. We think we can just show up and they should hand us the crystal football. It don’t work that way folks. I hope everyone on the roster, from Coach Tressel himself all the way down, grabbed their ears and tugged really hard come Saturday afternoon so their heads finally come out of their asses and they play the football we all (should) know they are capable of playing this Saturday in LA.
“This team often lacks the heart, the fire, the whatever you want to call it to show up and win the big games and the close games. We have been too blessed to the point of entitlement. We think we can just show up and they should hand us the crystal football. It don’t work that way folks.”
What’s maddening about this statement is that this OSU team *should get this already.* They should get it. After being blown out by Florida and run over by LSU, this team – of all teams – should understand that nothing comes for free in football. Why are we wondering why OSU doesn’t take people seriously? Shouldn’t we be past this?
Poguemahone is absolutely right. The safeties are quite average – a point I’ve been complaining about for two years now – and JL can’t get off blocks. He gets blocked because the interior defensive line doesn’t produce. This OSU defense serves us well against YSU and the Big T(elev)en schedule, but they get gashed – and badly – by top flight competition. Lord, they couldn’t stop Illinois in their own stadium, with all the marbles in play.
I hope OSU makes me eat my words, and makes me wonder if I know anything at all about evaluating a team on film. I hope, I hope, I hope…. but, I doubt it.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We have the talent level, I know we do, will we play up to the ability? USC is always the biggest, strongest, fastest guys all on one team. They are an SEC all-star team. I mean come on, a bona fide SEC QB is the backup! This is the stage we need, could be the last chance we get for quite awhile. Please, please make a statement for the positive side boys. Go Bucks!
LOUD NOISES
USC should be worried about Ohio State more than Ohio State about USC. They have played only one game, against a shitty virginia team that YSU would take to the woodshed.
We will have Washington back next week along with doug worthington right? That should help and I wouldn’t be shocked if we see T Pryor line up a wide out or wing back. We haven’t shown anything and that is the only positive you can take from game 2. I think we didn’t run saine till the game was on the line vs ohio and he was looking good. However without Beanie this team will have 3 and 8 insteed of 3 and short and that is when teams blitz Boeckman. The coaches have to help him out by calling more first down passes. On Defense we have to be nasty and get to the the ball carrier with bad intentions ala #36
How can people blame the line they give boeckman 3-4 seconds every passing down. Do you people watch the game? Boeckman gets happy feet after 1 to 1.5 seconds he needs make his read and throw or get rid of it. He will be pressured USC has a good d. If we lose this game you will see alot more T Pryor because boeckman will be the reason.
I agree that the line isn’t the reason for the passing woes, but i don’t think its boeckman either. He had for easily catchable passes dropped by his WRs. They showed the same disappearing act against LSU. I think its on the WRs to decide whether or not they want to be elite.
This O-line is terrible. Yes I watched the game. What I saw: zero push off the ball and getting pushed backwards by smaller and less athletic D-lineman
this game could get real ugly … please people for the love of god, stop making excuses and stop praying that this team “gets fired up” … we tried that, remember? the result was game over midway through the second quarter against LSU.
what we really need is a once-in-a-lifetime performance like we had against Miami in 2002/2003 (I guess I am praying for a twice in a lifetime performance, huh)
I agree with those that think a moral victory is the best we can hope for with this team and coaching staff. I have no confidence in this staff to gameplan or make any needed adjustments – how could I after the last few years and then the mother of all unholy sites: 4&1 and mo wells???? Seriously JT is THAT STUPID???
Chuck, you are the type of fan that makes me sick…….you have totally bought into the hype of USC beating what might turn out to be the worst team in the ACC. Youngstown State may actually be better that Virginia and I don’t mean that as a joke……go look at the stats for Virginia when they played another (and worse) 1AA team in Richmond. Seriously, have some faith in your team and in a coaching staff that has made your team a dominate force in the NCAA again.
tampa buckeye, I seriously wonder if you watch the same games as anyone else. That line play was pathetic…….even 36 said so as a sideline analyst…he was right down there and said it was pathetic.
You would be the coach to bench the Veteran senior QB who grades at a B+ but has reached his max potential for a Freshman phenom that has all the potential in the world but is grading in at a C+ or B- (sure an A in the mobility and running department……..but absolutely nothing in the passing department yet)
“Fair enough. I think JL is tremendously overrated, our safeties are disappointingly average, but our D-line and Marcus Freeman won’t let it get out of hand. 21-10, USC. FWIW, I think Carroll calls off the dogs for the first time in his career to avoid injury to his stars.
POGUEMAHONE – SEPTEMBER 8TH, 2008 AT 1:25 PM – #”
Pogue, you have again proven to everyone that missteps in reading the garbage that comes out of your mouth that you know nothing. You “think” JL is overrated? The guy has won every possible award a LB can win. But maybe it’s those that actually vote to whom those awards go who know nothing. Or maybe the Ohio State recruiting should have checked with you first to see what you “think” before they even went after JL. What you “think” amounts to dirt. You ought to go post on the ESPN blogs or Fox Sports blogs where you’ll better fit in with the rest of the SEC and USC blowhards. By the definition of the word, you are no OSU fan. You apparently have neither the emotional quotient nor the mental fortitude to be a loyal OSU fan. So do us all a favor, stop disguising yourself as one, and please stop cluttering up our blogs with your SEC-loving, man-crush-on-Pete Carroll, OSU-bashing hate posts. You suck.
Easy, Stefanik. I think there’s many folks of the opinion that JL is overrated. Taht doesn’t mean they hate him or they think he sucks – it just means they think he’s a little overrated. I, too, am in that camp. Does that mean you’ll soon be insulting my intelligence, too?
I firmly believe Freeman is the best LB on this team.