Blogpoll: Week 11
With Texas Tech in the middle of potentially surviving a scheduling gauntlet coupled with Bama’s mediocre showing against LSU, we’ve moved Tech into the top spot.
Admittedly, our heads are still beyond cloudy after getting together in Chicago over the weekend so consider this an even rougher first draft than usual.
What’s your take on Penn State? We put ‘em 7th, aka the last of the one loss squads, because we just don’t think Boise or Utah deserve a spot ahead of the Lions. What say you?
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| 1 |  |
What can we say other than we are believers. The offense is sick and they appear to be the only team in the Big 12 with a defense. Is Harrell your Heisman front runner? 40/50, 426 yards and 6 TD. Now that is a stat line. Next up: @ Oklahoma. |  2 |
| 2 |  |
We dropped ‘Bama to #2 and frankly, while they’re deserving of the spot based on record, we don’t think they are currently the second best team in the country. To their credit, they did pull out the W in an OT nailbiter but their own poor play kept it close. JPW completed less than 50% of his passes (15/31) with a pick and LSU actually outgained Bama. Their saving grace was the fact LSU’s Jarrett Lee is the worst QB in the conference. Sure, Bama can try and take some of the credit, but Lee produces similarly ugly stat lines on a weekly basis (13/34, 4 INT). We’ll eat crow if it comes to it but we see Florida delivering a pimp hand to Saban’s boys in the SEC title game. | – |
| 3 |  |
The Gators slaughtered Vandy 42-14 to secure a bid in the SEC title game. Tebow tried to keep pace with Harrell accounting for 5 TD (3 pass, 2 rush). Next up: South Carolina. | 1 |
| 4 |  |
The Trojan offense sputtered a little but the D was again dominant in USC’s 17-3 win over Cal. The defense has now held six opponents to less than 10 points this season and they’ve given up just 13 total points in the last five games. USC is 25-0 in November games under Pete Carroll. | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Colt McCoy threw 5 TD passes as the Longhorns bashed Baylor 45-21 in Austin. Our favorite white receiver, Jordan Shipley, scored a TD for the 10th straight game. First downs: Texas 30, Baylor 9. | 1 |
| 6 |  |
The Sooner offense blew up again with 653 total yards with Sam Bradford again doing most of the heavy lifting. The QB went 22/33 for 320 yards and 4 TD with the RB tandem of DeMarco Murray (123 yds) and Chris Brown (117 yds, 3 TD) adding another 240 yards. OU has yet to score less than 35 in any game. Next up: Texas Tech. | 1 |
| 7 |  |
Well, so much for Joe Pa going out on top. In the end, maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that the Lions lost 24-23 to Iowa on a last second FG considering they have now lost the last 3 to Iowa coming off a bye (’03, ‘04). Viva La Ferentz. Man, did Darryll Clark stink it up: 9/23 for 86 yards and a pick. |  6 |
| 8 |  |
Boise State beat up on another janky opponent. This time it was Utah State, 49-14. Four different Broncos threw a TD pass and the D forced 6 turnovers. | 1 |
| 9 |  |
Utah scored 13 unanswered points to sneak past TCU 13-10 and move to 10-0. Brian Johnson led the Utes on an 80yd drive capped with a 9yd TD pass to Freddie Brown with :48 left on the clock. Total yards: TCU 416, Utah 275. | 1 |
| 10 |  |
Andre Ware needs to cork it. Of all people, why is he trying to call out Tressel for supposedly running up the score in OSU’s 45-10 road win at Northwestern? If anything, you’d think he’d be a fan of such strategy considering it’s all his Houston teams did back in the day. Hell, all the running up the score they did allowed him to win a Heisman. Unbelievable. Of course, if you don’t want ESPN’s z-team calling your games, win more of them. | 1 |
| 11 |  |
The Cowboys had no answer for Texas Tech’s offense surrendering 38 first downs and 629 total yards in the 56-20 loss. WR Dez Bryant also learned a lesson after spouting off this week saying he deserved as much hype as Tech’s Michael Crabtree. Bryant: 4/86, 0 TD. Crabtree: 8/89, 3 TD. Case closed. | 3 |
| 12 |  |
Jeremy Maclin put up 278 all-purpose yards and 3 TD in Mizzou’s 41-24 win over Kansas State. Missouri now sits atop the Big 12 North. | – |
| 13 |  |
Georgia almost lost another one but Matt Stafford’s TD pass to A.J. Green with 1:54 left allowed the Dawgs to escape with a 42-38 victory in Lexington. Stafford: 17/27, 376 yards, 3 TD. Moreno: 22/123, 3 TD. | 1 |
| 14 |  |
Max Hall played a near flawless game going 25/30 for 317 yards and 3 TD in BYU’s 41-12 win over San Diego State. | 2 |
| 15 |  |
Ball State improved to 9-0 beating Northern Illinois 45-14. Nate Davis led the charge throwing for 300 and 4 TD. | 2 |
| 16 |  |
Sparty improved to 9-2 with a 21-7 win over Purdue. Ringer was Ringer going for 121 and 2 TD but Hoyer struggled going 10/22 with 154 yards and 2 picks. MSU held Purdue to 191 total yards and 3/16 on 3rd down. | 2 |
| 17 |  |
The Tar Heels beat Georgia Tech 28-7 to secure their first winning season in seven years. Yikes. Can you imagine? This one only 7-0 heading to the 4th quarter but UNC got 3 TD’s in the final 14 minutes. Yards rushing: GT 326, NC 186. | 2 |
| 18 |  |
The Horned Frogs jumped out to a 10-0 lead but couldn’t make it stand up in a 13-10 loss at Utah. TCU outgained the Utes 416 to 275 but allowed an 80 yard TD drive in the final minutes. | 5 |
| 19 |  |
LSU tried to pull the upset but Tiger QB Jarrett Lee refused to let that happen tossing 4 INT, including the game sealer in a 27-21 OT loss to Alabama. | 4 |
| 20 |  |
Bowden turned 79 years young as his Seminoles beat Clemson 41-27 in Tallahassee. The FSU crowd sang Happy Birthday to the old man with 380 career W’s. The Seminole D held Clemson to 2/15 3rd down conversions. | NR |
| 21 |  |
Wannestache’s boys took advantage of 5 turnovers to romp past Louisville 41-7 in Pittsburgh. Next up: @ UC. | NR |
| 22 |  |
The Bearcats improved to 7-2 with a 26-23 upset win over the Mountaineers in Morgantown. UC is now 5-2 against ranked teams with Brian Kelly as head coach. Before Kelly, UC won just four times in 62 tries against ranked opponents. | NR |
| 23 |  |
The OBC moved to 7-3 with a 34-21 win over lowly Arkansas. Of course, the Cocks will almost certainly meet the same fate as all the other teams we slot in 20-25 spots that seemingly lose the week after they crack our ranking…Next up: @ Florida. | NR |
| 24 |  |
Bye week. Next up: @ Houston | NR |
| 25 |  |
Beaver freshman RB Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 144 yards and a score in Oregon State’s 34-6 destruction of UCLA. Rodgers now has the most ever rushing yards by a Pac-10 freshman (1,089) with three regular season games still remaining. | NR |
DROPPED OUT: Georgia Tech (#20), West Virginia (#21), Northwestern (#22), Maryland (#23), California (#24), Kansas (#25).
Can’t argue with this one, looks good. Exactly how I had my top 10.
Couple things for Coach Tressel:
I understand the intense desire to run the ball; however, you have to create angles for lineman. I watched the game a couple of times and listened to the announcers on 610 Sunday dog the O-line in the first half. They had issues, but Northwestern was run blitzing or at times blitzing every gap on first and second downs. Coach you have to change some tendencies, stacking the “I” and having Beanie follow the FB into the hole every time screams simplicity. How about pulling the backside tackle into the hole while the fullback kicks out the backside DE. To build off FB chopping the backside DE, Beanie could start one way and then counter following the FB (See Minn-GB game from yesterday). Also try some quick slants, screens, throw to the running backs out of the back field on first down. Make the defense play honest , giving your o-line a chance to succeed, and improving the running game.
I am only asking for slight modifications to the game plan, so please…..
I can only hope to see Tech romp on Florida in the National Championship game..
I think you have to drop Penn State further for losing to an unranked team.
Well then you have to drop Florida for the same reason Rob.
Actually, I don’t think I’m gonna argue with the poll this week. It would just be the same argument as last week with why I think Texas should be ahead of Florida and USC, but no sense in going around again this week. I’m starting to come over to the Dark Side Chris. Maybe I’m just tending to agree with you more because you made me famous. We celbs have to stick together.
Top Ten looks pretty good. I would drop PSU down further too for the loss to the unranked, and because it was a late loss. But either way I’m hoping that Sparty beats up on State Penn on 11/22, just after Im heavily intoxicated and celebrating a Meeeeeeeeeeeeechigan ass kicking.
How far do you drop one-loss PSU then? No way we’re putting Utah or Boise ahead of them and after that it’s all two loss teams including one they beat. Not that total losses is our most important criteria for slotting but we went with the logic of putting them at the back end of the one loss teams in this instance.
Yea your right Chris, just that we tumble down the polls after a loss so badly that I’d like to see some other teams experience that too ya know. But it is pretty solid to be truthful and not a homer.
I don’t see any justification for USC or Florida ahead of Texas. Texas has three wins over your top 12 and lost on the last play against your #1 on the road. Florida has one top 15 win and lost at home to a mediocre Ole Miss team. USC has one top 15 win and lost to a team barely ranked.
That was an awesome win. Being top-10 is fun. I hope we close out this strange season with 2 very lopsided victories and a convincing win over an SEC school on New Years…maybe Georgia.
Spartandan, your points are well taken. Honestly, we have them ranked the way we do because on a neutral field, we think Florida and USC would both beat Texas due to lack of a defense. We totally agree Texas’ loss was ‘better’ but we don’t think they are a better team than fellow one-loss teams Florida or USC.
Chris,
I agree with your rankings for the most part. I would flip the top two though. I really think on a neutral field that bama would beat tech. I dont think tech would be able to put up the offensive numbers against a defense that knows how to play. No one in the Big Twelve plays decent defense. Also, I want to see how tech handles Oklahoma this week. If tech wins then I may even rank them number 1. Right now i still believe bama is the top team. However, I believe Florida will probably beat them in the SEC championship game.
Question: Boise State versus Penn State …who wins ?
Remember: No one picked them to beat Oklahoma 2007 Fiesta Bowl.