It's time to crush it

I won’t lie. Even while giving up 63 points, West Virginia was impressive. Geno Smith has looked every bit the second coming of RG3, only with better receivers. The offense is clearly among the nation’s best. But, but, but… there’s the defense. As amazing as Dana Holgersen’s attack has looked, I can’t see them sustaining this pace through 12 games. It’s just too much. And as the Baylor game showed, a team who can get one or two stops against the Mountaineers can beat them.

It was a largely uneventful week, with a few strange caveats. Georgia and Tennessee plays a surprisingly defense-less shootout. Texas and Oklahoma State had a controversial back-and-forth affair of their own. Wisconsin blew a double-digit lead at Nebraska, which will really cost the Badgers. Oregon State finished off a fine win late over Arizona.

For every good contest, though, there were two ugly ones. Ohio State and Michigan State played an awful game that felt like both teams wanted to lose. Missouri barely escaped UCF in a toothless offensive slog. Texas A&M completed Arkansas’ death spiral with a 58-10 hammering. LSU also took way too long to put away Towson, another in a strange trend of elite teams not taking care of business very efficiently. Oregon struggled in the first half against Washington State, South Carolina fell behind early against Kentucky and Florida State only beat USF by 13.

What’s to make of these issues? It’s possible that everyone is simply battling for a distant second behind Alabama, that the Tide are that much better. All the other contenders have certainly shown more flaws. Using the “overlooked” excuse is a bit rote at this point, too. Each team has played enough games to make that argument pretty weak. I’d say both of those things could play into it, but right now consistency seems to be the biggest problem. Alabama has it, most other teams don’t.

The big story going into the weekend was how Washington (or more accurately, Stanford) embarrassed and hamstrung the entire Pac-12 on Thursday. Just when the voters had decided to respect the conference, too. Then the ACC wrangled away that narrative by being, well, the ACC. Georgia Tech lost by 21 to Middle Tennessee. Louisiana Tech – as I predicted! – beat Virginia. Virginia Tech gave up a last-second touchdown and lost to Cincinnati. Oof. On the plus side, North Carolina did beat fearsome Idaho 66-0. So there’s that.

Coming up: USC at Utah Thursday night. Revenge game for the Utes? For the Pac-12’s sake, I hope not. Utah State plays BYU Friday… let’s think about this. USU beat Utah, who in turn beat BYU… right now, the Aggies are the best team in the state! On Saturday morning there’s the always-interesting academy matchup of Navy and Air Force, a battle of SEC lowlifes Arkansas and Auburn (how weird does it feel to type that?) and the Sunflower State Showdown of Kansas and K-State.

Things get going in the afternoon with the suddenly-intriguing Arizona-Stanford matchup, LSU going to Florida for a big showdown, a clash of styles between West Virginia and Texas, another top-10 SEC game with South Carolina and Georgia and the Big Ten’s best featuring Nebraska versus Ohio State. All in all, a great slate.

Top 25

1) Alabama

Horrors, I say. The Crimson Tide let Ole Miss score? Twice? How considerate of them. Bama is off this week, so they’ll get to do whatever it is evil empires do in this situation. Probably prepare for more efficient demolitions of better opponents than the Rebels. No, A.J. McCarron is not a Heisman candidate, Tide fans.

2) Oregon

The Ducks played three-quarters of a good game against Wazzu, but that second quarter was nasty. It’s times like that which cause people around the country (particularly in the South) to scoff at the notion that Oregon is an elite team. Then UO shifts into gear and pulls away. Still, these repeated lapses are a worrisome trend.

3) Florida State

FSU got the win over South Florida, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive a performance as when they beat Clemson. I like the ‘Noles defense and E.J. Manuel has been consistently solid, which is somewhat of a first. That doesn’t change the fact that this last week was a little underwhelming.

4) LSU

Speaking of underwhelming… eesh. A two-score win over an FCS school isn’t going to impress anybody, Tigers. How LSU has managed to stay so good these past few years without any kind of competent quarterback is beyond me. They go to the Swamp this week, so I expect we’ll find out a lot about this team.

5) Kansas State

The Wildcats got a nice breather this past week to prepare for… Kansas? Then Iowa State? Talk about a bad time to have a bye. On the other hand, it does more or less ensure that this squad will be 6-0 when they travel to Morgantown on the 20^th. A heavyweight fight in the Big 12 between KSU and West Virginia? Not something I thought I’d ever see.

6) South Carolina

I was marginally more impressed by South Carolina this week than Georgia, though their positions are immaterial at this point because they play Saturday. The Gamecocks defense is unquestionably better. Generally, we’ve seen that when a good defense faces a good offense, the defense wins.

7) Georgia

As noted above, Carolina has the defensive edge but UGA is superior offensively. That has to rankle Bulldogs fans, who expected their defense to be a major strength this year. So far it hasn’t come together, culminating in a 44-points-allowed performance last week against Tennessee. The team needs the D to step up.

8) Notre Dame

The schedule continues its dark and twisted path for the Fighting Irish with game against Miami (FL) in Chicago. This is one of the more interesting matchups of the weekend, pitting a strong Hurricane offense against the stingy ND defense. What’s more surprising is that both these teams are good again. I like the Irish.

9) West Virginia

Baylor wasn’t a real test. That bodes ill for the Mountaineers defense. Texas’ defense is also streets ahead of the Bears. This is also the first road game for WVU. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see them come crashing down to earth; actually, I kind of expect it. Defense over offense every time.

10) USC

The Trojans should (hopefully) have gotten things in order enough to knock off the Utes convincingly tonight, though you never know when Lane Kiffin is in charge. There’s still a lot to play for and a division title to be won, so SC has to wake up and play like it matters. The Cal game was just so-so.

11) Texas

Texas’s offense is pretty average. Their defense is another story. Not unlike Oregon’s, the Longhorns defenders tend to wait until opposing teams start to think they’re not that tough before flipping a switch and dominating. As I said, I like Texas at home this week and depending on the outcome they could even be favored against rival Oklahoma.

12) Florida

All right. Here’s the real test. At home, against LSU. Despite the 4-0 record I’ve been skeptical of the Gators, but now they get a chance to prove their mettle. If they win, they’ll be a legit top-15 team (I’m not biting on top-10 yet). If they lose, it’ll be another overrated Florida story.

13) Clemson

Took their sweet time putting away Boston College, but a win’s a win. At least the FSU loss didn’t have too much of a hangover. The unfortunate thing is that this team could reasonably run the table until the finale against South Carolina and still be left out of a quality postseason game.

14) Ohio State

There aren’t many 5-0 teams, so good on the Buckeyes. The problem is that no one would take OSU against many of the others. Braxton Miller seems to be the glue holding this whole operation together. If he goes down, like the scare Saturday, the unraveling could be epic.

15) Oregon State

The Beavers probably feature the finest collection of wins in the country: Wisconsin, UCLA and Arizona. What’s more, with WSU upcoming and the postponed Nicholls State game on the schedule, this team has practically already qualified for a bowl. However, that would have been impressive before the season. Now it seems like a consolation prize.

16) TCU

QB Casey Pachall was just suspended, which throws much of the Horned Frogs’ plans into doubt. I don’t think they can navigate the Big 12 without him; it would have been dicey even with him at the helm. The back half of that schedule is starting to look terrifying.

17) Oklahoma

OU has been a disappointment thus far, though time remains to turn things around. Lubbock has not been kind to Sooners teams in the past, but I don’t have a ton of faith in this season’s Texas Tech squad. Using this game as a springboard for next week’s Red River Shootout could help a lot.

18) Stanford

There will be more on these guys later, but… arrgh. The worst possible thing for the Pac-12 was for Stanford, the team that beat USC, to lose. Not only that, but they lost to a UW team that got pounded by LSU. There was nothing positive to take from the Cardinal’s Seattle trip.

19) UCLA

A workmanlike win over Colorado and the Bruins are back in the rankings where they belong. This week’s contest against Cal is a rivalry game, but UCLA is the better team. Even at Memorial Stadium I believe they should win. The Bears have to be reeling and the Bruins should be able to take advantage.

20) Nebraska

Well, that was almost a disaster. Down by 17 at home to the team who had embarrassed the whole conference, Nebraska dug down and found a way to come back against Wisconsin. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning. The next two games are ranked Ohio State and Northwestern, followed by the Michigan schools. Oh my.

21) Louisville

Southern Miss isn’t bad, but I’m off the Louisville bandwagon. There have been too many close calls and the schedule doesn’t allow for this team to prove anything. The Cardinals will still likely win the Big East… not that that’s much of an accomplishment these days.

22) Oklahoma State

It bugs me to see Oklahoma State dropped out of the rankings after a possibly bad call cost them a win over a top-15 team. The Cowboys have been challenged much more than many other teams who have defrauded the system en route to undefeated records thus far. Mississippi State, Rutgers, Northwestern – none of these teams have played anybody.

23) Utah State

I’m taking a bit of a flyer on this one. It’s quite possible the Aggies will go into Provo and lose to BYU tomorrow. But what I’ve seen out of this team has been promising. They beat Utah and should be undefeated, if not for a late missed field goal at Wisconsin. They’re definitely one of the better mid-majors.

24) Michigan State

As with Oklahoma State, this team lost by a point and is hanging outside the rankings when everyone knows they’re worthy of a spot. Yes, the Spartans are one-dimensional, but it’s a better dimension than most teams have to work with. MSU is going to go at least 8-4 this year, so get on board.

25) Boise State

Another close win, eh? Well, if I can tolerate it from Louisville I can tolerate it from BSU. It’s actually quite interesting to see a Broncos team that for once isn’t blowing everyone off the field. Chris Petersen remains a master worker and I’m confident things will get prettier.

Pac-12 Thoughts

Damn those clever devils from Stanford. Before the season I knew what we had with that team. I knew the defense would be about the same, strong but lacking in speed. I knew the offense would sorely miss Andrew Luck and the departing linemen. I knew the Cardinal wouldn’t be as good as the past two years. Then they went out and played one great game against USC and I willingly forgot everything I knew.

The truth, as I iterated and reiterated from July through early September, is this: Stanford is an 8-4 football team. Josh Nunes is simply not reliable enough at this point to bail the offense out of anything more than basic passing situations. It’s not all him – the receiver situation continues to be dreadful, which reached its nadir with the dropathon at Washington – but Nunes is indeed a problem. The team doesn’t have enough weapons to challenge elite teams.

By no means does that qualify Stanford as a bad team. It just means they’re exactly what I thought they were, if I may paraphrase poor Denny Green (good guy, met him once). It also means Oregon State is the clear – and possibly only – challenger for Oregon in the North. We’re still a ways off from that, so hold that thought.

The South, initially presumed to be solely USC’s domain, now looks wide-open. UCLA and Arizona State have both laid claim to the division title, so the Trojans will need to fight them off to make the championship game. SC remains the favorite, but the outcome is now in question.

We have three rivalry games this weekend (or two and a half, as OSU-WSU isn’t technically a rivalry). I’m taking the ranked, or higher ranked, team in all three, but none of the contests is a sure thing. UCLA should be able to handle Cal, but you never know when the Bears might put everything together. OSU should respect Wazzu for the fight they showed last week and beat them, but that’s what I thought in 2010 when the Cougs mysteriously thrashed the Beavs at Reser. Likewise, Oregon’s expected to put down the Dawgs without issue (be honest, UW’s not a top-25 team) but could run into trouble if Washington plays as well as they did last week.

The other Saturday game might turn out to be the most interesting and best-matched, though. Arizona visits Stanford in a game that could instantly end any high hopes for the ‘Cats or permanently torpedo the Cardinal’s era of elite football. Both teams need a win after what’s happened in recent games. Should be a fun weekend.

Heisman Watch

Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia

There is one man who deserves this platform and one man only. I don’t care who the opponent is: 600 yards, 8 touchdowns and 88 percent passing is INSANE. Smith has done exactly what RG3 did at the beginning of last season and could run away with this thing. But wait? What’s that on the horizon? Is that… a real defense? There could be more people in the race come Sunday.

Random Thoughts and Observations

How ‘bout them ‘Canes? Miami (FL) is 4-1 and putting up a ton of points. They’ll likely get whacked against Notre Dame this week, true, and there is the lingering problem of those pesky NCAA sanctions. Still, they’re 3-0 in league play and the best team in the Coastal division. They look like Miami again. When and if the team ever gets to play in the postseason again, they might be dangerous.

In other ACC news, Duke is also 4-1 (though only 1-0 in-conference) and looking to make a bowl for the first time since 1994. With a win at home against struggling Virginia this week they would put themselves in great position to do it. For a program that has had so little success over the years, that would be a great accomplishment.

It’s been noted by one or two analysts, but why is it acceptable for Georgia to beat Tennessee 51-44 and laughable that West Virginia beat Baylor 70-63? We all know the importance of defense. High-scoring games are usually scoffed at for their lack of defense. Yet when an SEC game becomes a shootout there seem to be more excuses about quality of play. Anyone who believes that (and I really doubt there are many) is just lying to his or herself. Tennessee ain’t putting a bunch of stars in the NFL. We all know it. So let’s call all these shootouts the same thing: bad defense… and good offense.