Week One Review

News and Notes from Week One

Short blog this week, but that’s really because there was nothing to report from the opening games of the season. The biggest upset we saw was lowly Jacksonville State beating a weak Ole Miss team. There wasn’t a lot to learn from the scores because everything went essentially according to script: the powerhouses did as expected and crushed their respective patsies into submission, though TCU did get a bit of a scare from Oregon State. (I’m not counting Utah beating Pittsburgh because I thought the Panthers were overrated in the first place).

That all changes this Saturday, when the first of two consecutive weekends of great matchups kicks off. This week we get Penn State-Alabama, Florida State-Oklahoma, Georgia-South Carolina and Miami (FL)-Ohio State. These matchups will all have an impact on the national championship picture. However, it’s the Oregon-Tennessee contest that is actually the most important.

Although the other title contenders will also be fighting to avoid an early-season letdown, Oregon is playing for much more. The reputation of the entire Pac-10 is at stake in Knoxville and there’s truly not much the Ducks can gain from this game. If they win in a blowout, everyone will assume the Volunteers are terrible. If they win close, or Tennessee pulls the upset, the Pac-10 will take a beating in the polls not only for the rest of this season but probably next year as well. The effect such a loss could have on the conference is enormous and would only reinforce the SEC belief that the West Coast can’t play quality football. This week is a must-win for Oregon.

In other Pac-10 news, USC looked as awful as a team can in victory by giving up nearly 600 yards to Hawaii, Oregon State bumbled away a chance for a big upset against TCU and UCLA got run over by Kansas State. Both Washington schools couldn’t live up to increased expectations and the teams that did win (Cal, Oregon, ASU and Stanford) did so versus vastly inferior opponents. Only Arizona managed a decent win against a respectable team, knocking off Toledo 41-2. All in all it was not a good week for the conference, which has struggled mightily since the end of the 2009 regular season.

Boise State-Virginia Tech analysis

The best game of the week was fortunately saved for last. A massive national audience tuned in to see Boise State beat Virginia Tech 33-30 Monday night, solidifying the Broncos as a legitimate threat to become the first non-automatic qualifying-league team to play for the BCS championship. Skeptics will say BSU won their toughest game the season by only a field goal; more rational observers will acknowledge that Tech was fortunate to be in the game at all against a clearly superior opponent.

After their initial 17-point burst in the first quarter, Boise State was held in check for the rest of the half and led 20-14 at the break. The Hokies eventually took a 30-26 lead, aided not only by a pair of fumbles but also by a timely special teams penalty and a fortunate fourth-down conversion. By comparison, BSU’s scoring drives were long, consistent and varied, with nary a turnover to help. Overcoming a negative turnover margin to win is the sign of a good football team.

The most obvious indicator of the Broncos’ superiority, though, was a simple eye test. Name one player on the Tech offense who made a single good play, if you can. There was Tyrod Taylor... and no one else. Allegedly great running back Ryan Williams was stuffed to the tune of two yards a carry, no receiver for the Hokies stood out and even Taylor (who played the best game of his career) was repeatedly hit, sacked, or forced to scramble. Nothing Tech tried on offense worked as it was supposed to; their only successes came on broken plays.

The Broncos’ offense, on the other hand, spread the ball to talented receivers like Austin Pettis and Titus Young and split carries between a trio of backs in D.J. Harper, Jeremy Avery and Doug Martin. None of it would have been possible without their triggerman Kellen Moore, who is now 27-1 as a starter.

Boise State played faster and more physical all night and deserved the win. Now, the question is whether the team should play for the national title if they go undefeated, which is highly likely. Oregon State is the only formidable opponent left on the Broncos’ schedule and I just don’t see the Beavers pulling the upset in Boise. It’s a difficult question to answer, but given how much respect the pollsters have awarded BSU it’s tough to argue against it, provided there are not two undefeated teams out of the BCS conferences. If the Broncos do manage to get there and win it all, at the very least it could have a crippling effect on the unfair system we use today to determine a champion. And that’s an idea everyone should be able to get behind.