I can remember a time when we rarely had to say the Thunder from Down Under during a game. I don’t have to think too far back, as it happened last night.
How’s Thorson taking the news?
Another interesting stat from last night…Ole Miss gained the vast majority of yards on their first five drives, roughly 340 yards They had twelve yards on their final three drives.
This past weekend was the typical big game Saturday, and the message boards didn’t disappoint with the quality of genius shown. We’ll drop in on the Classic City this week, but let’s start our trip in Charlottesville for the crash and burn of Florida State at the hands of UVA in a classic trap game spot.
Short weeks suck, but that’s the bed you made when you signed the ACC grant of rights, Seminoles. Virginia matched FSU’s physicality and made the Noles play for 60+ minutes. As a top team in your conference, coaches have to have their team ready every week in conference play to get a less talented roster’s best shot. You look at the stat sheet, and everything should have pointed to an FSU victory. Let’s move on to College Station and check the temperature of the Auburn family.
It ain’t pretty in Greater Phenix City/Opelika. Auburn doesn’t even generate 200 yards of offense but loses by 6. 2 missed field goals by A&M in the middle 8 kept the game in reach. Then a tipped interception leading to a 2-yard scoring drive made the game interesting. Texas A&M outplayed Auburn on offense & defense. Someone is going to expose the Aggies soon as just flat lucky.
I said before the season that Auburn would have at least 2 losses before the Dawgs show up in Auburn in 2 weeks. That’s exactly where they are. If the Dawgs come in and take care of business, Freeze is likely going to be out by season’s end.
Lather, rinse and repeat, Barn. Please stay in the cycle for as long as possible.
James Franklin loses to a top flight opponent again. This time Dan Lanning and the Ducks take their lunch money. Is Drew Allar just the Yankee version of Cade Klubnik?
Penn State loses another whiteout game where they pour every in one game a year. I enjoy watching that fan base wallow in misery after coming to the defense of Joe Paterno in the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal.
Penn State has at least 1 more loss coming and, with no Power 4 out of conference games, may miss the playoff. Let’s move on down to Oxford to check in on the Carpetbagging Leprechaun after the Magnolia Bowl.
The Corn Dogs are never going to be happy with Brian Kelly because he isn’t one of them. The Fightin’ Tigers have been living off the opening weekend win over Clemson, and now that they lost to Kiffin and the Rebels, the Cajuns realize again they can’t stand Kelly. LSU could only score 19 against a defense that gave up 35 to Arkansas and 23 to Kentucky … not exactly offensive juggernauts.
Given the remaining schedule, I can see the Tigers finishing the regular season unranked and wondering how Kelly wasted this defense with an offense that is pretty abysmal.
Throwing a bunch of money at Blake Baker to replace Schumann in the offseason wouldn’t be the dumbest move Kirby could make to get the defense back to the Smart/Lanning standard. Let’s head up to Champagne Champaign (sorry and thanks, Illini84) to check in on the Boy Wonder and USC after their tilt with the Fighting Illini.
USC gives up 34 points to an Illinois team that scored 10 last week while being curb-stomped by Indiana by 53. When a quarterback coached by Bret Bielema outplays a quarterback coached by Lincoln Riley, you know it can’t be good. The Men of Troy are bad on defense again and now have a home date with Michigan and a visit to South Bend on the schedule next.
I assume there’s enough money in the Hollywood elite to buy out Riley’s contract if things go off the rails.
At least they still have the Song Girls.
We finish this week’s trip in the Classic City after the Dawgs find another way to lose to Alabama.
No offense, but this post could be any number of commenters here at GTPR after a 3-point loss to Alabama. A 3-point loss, people. I know it’s Alabama again. If Kirby is the best coach in the sport, I don’t imagine he’s going to stand pat and give out paychecks to coaches he doesn’t believe are cutting it just because they are his “buddies” or friends with those same buddies. This argument is just as genius as the argument in 2018 that Kirby played Jake Fromm over Justin Fields because Jake liked to hunt and fish.
We knew this team was young, and they showed that for much of the first half on Saturday night. They also punched Bama right back in the mouth with a punishing, effective running game and a shutout in the 2nd half. One drop from one of those young players made all the difference. Bama recovered from their drop to score on the first drive. We didn’t, we turned the ball over inside our own 15, we gave up a terrible middle 8 touchdown, and we gave up points when we had the chance to tie the game. Surprise, surprise … all of that will get you beat.
To the fans especially the students that showed up and showed out on Saturday night, that’s what a home field advantage looks like. I have no idea if Kirby recognized the fire, passion & energy the crowd brought in any press conference since Saturday night. I hope he did and than told his team privately that everyone in the program let that crowd down with the way they coached and played on Saturday night.
That’s what I saw this past weekend. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Well, not everything was bad across the OLine last weekend.
And while we’re on accolades, the Georgia quarterback who couldn’t throw vertically, was only a running threat, yadda yadda…he racked up some praise.
Meanwhile, Manning is crapping his pants, Lagway is handing out turnovers like it’s Halloween candy, and so forth.
Man what a difference a weekend can make, no?