Week 2 In Review

Week 2 Rewind
After a tough weekend of blown leads, missed chances and backdoor covers (a bettor’s worst nightmare), you might have expected to see yours truly on the news, in a story about berating a line judge in tennis and yelling obscenities in front of a worldwide audience. Or perhaps screaming “You Lie” at a coach’s postgame news conference after a tough defeat, or worst of all grabbing the microphone at an awards ceremony from poor Taylor and telling the audience that Jennifer was the best youth soccer player of all time. But that’s just not me. One thing you can count on is graciousness in defeat from this writer and last week made me plenty gracious. But before we get to last week’s Saturday Lox, let’s take a look at the headlines (sorry for the tabloid week in review) from a week 2 that made up with dramatic finishes what it lacked in marquee matchups.


The Sweater Vest can’t escape Hollywood…
USC 18 – Ohio St 15

OSU coach Jim Tressel, known for his red sweater vest and matching conservative play calling, lost out on a big upset when QB Matt Barkley and Joe McKnight led USC on a drive for the ages. USC was outgained 138-6 in the 1st qtr, but was tied at 7 because of a Terrelle Pryor interception setting up a 1 yard TD run. The Trojans then outgained the Buckeyes 307-127 over the final 3 quarters but it was OSU that had the chance to take command on the scoreboard. But Tressel settled for a field goal when a TD would have possibly broke the Trojans back and then opted for the punt while in his kicker’s range, setting up USC’s decisive drive. Barkley converted a big 3rd and 9 from his own 15 to McKnight and two 4th and 1 plays on the drive, culminating in Stafon Johnson’s TD run with 1:05 left. McKnight, as predicted here, made big plays all night and stood out on the final drive when USC needed him most. OSU has now dropped 6 straight to top 5 teams. USC beat a Big 10 opponent for the 10th straight time. (Click link below for highlights from the decisive drive, set to music Stephen Spielberg would be proud of)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53WVU74tSVs
 
 
Charlie Wise he is not…
Michigan 38 – Notre Dame 34

In a performance that won over the hearts of Wolverines fans everywhere Tate Forcier led a Michigan comeback that has South Bend reeling. Even though the Irish played great offensively and should have done enough to win with their own comeback from down 31-20, Charlies Weis had to answer the usual post game questions about play calling, not running the ball when a first down would have won the game. Instead he ignored questions about his coaching and endeared himself to Big 10 officials and ND fans everywhere with his unofficial questioning of the calls (he didn’t want to officially anger another Big 10 crew that will work this week’s Michigan St. game). But the story and the drama went on between a ND offense led by Jimmy Clausen’s arm and Michael Floyd and Golden Tate’s receiving and the inspirational play of Forcier, who had a 31 yd TD run on 4th and 3 and then made the winning pass with 11 seconds left. The drive went 57 yards and Forcier did it all. Rich Rodriguez seems to have found his QB and seeing the embrace he gave him after the game, it looks like a big monkey was taken off coach Rod’s back. A tremendous edition of a rivalry that had gone stagnant in recent years. (See below for the final drive and ND fans cringing at another tough loss)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QizjUXKSXr4&feature=related


Still Water No Longer…

Houston 45 – Oklahoma St 35

A week after hosting the biggest game in school history and beating a tough SEC foe Georgia, the #5 ranked Cowboys had a letdown against the Cougars and were beaten in Stillwater. Mike Gundy, who until last week was famous for his “I’m a man, I’m 40” diatribe, had the state of Oklahoma all his own for one week, gobbling up the football headlines from the cross-state Sooners and readying for an undefeated run to a matchup with Texas. Instead, for two weeks in a row Cougars broke the hearts of Oklahomans everywhere (BYU Cougars last week). Led by QB Case Keenum, Houston stepped into the category of BCS buster for a week and looked every bit the part, moving the ball at will and finishing off OK State on an interception returned for TD in a wild 4th quarter. With two BCS conference teams left on its schedule (Texas Tech and Miss. St) the Cougars are dreaming of crashing the major bowls with an undefeated season. This game was a huge start.

Other Notes

The ACC avoided embarrassment last week when Florida State needed a 4th qtr comeback to beat 1-AA Jacksonville St and Maryland needed OT and a big 4th down conversion to beat James Madison. With those squeakers and favored Wake Forest getting a controversial TD with 2 seconds left in a home comeback vs. Stanford and UNC needing a safety on a holding penalty to beat UCONN on the road, the ACC survived a week that could have been a lot worse. Virginia’s home blowout loss to TCU hurt, but not as much as the Cavalier mascot falling off his horse in pregame warm-ups. Looks like Al Groh can’t even pick the correct first string mascot…

Tennessee and Lane Kiffin were not looking for the kind of performance they saw Saturday in their lead up to Florida this week. UCLA survived a defensive slugfest for the upset and head home with a lot of confidence. The Vols meanwhile can’t be feeling well losing a game like that heading to Gainesville.

Saturday Lox Week 2 in Review


Premium Lox

Week 2: 2-2

Overall: 4-5

Winners:

San Jose St (+14): 14-24

SJSU held Utah’s offense in check through 3 quarters and was tied at 7 until Utah opened it up in the final period and won by 10. A good showing by the Spartans that proves they are much improved or Utah is not nearly the team it was a year ago. Either way we’ll take the wins when we get them.

UNLV (+7): 21-23

The Rebels outplayed Oregon State most of the night and led 21-20 late in the game. A controversial pass interference call on an uncatchable ball helped the Beavers get into field goal range and hit the game winner with 7 ticks remaining. UNLV just missed out on another big Pac 10 victory and I missed out on a much needed money line victory, but covering the spread will do.

Losers:

USC (-7): 18-15

Although the Trojans got the dramatic victory in the Horse Shoe, we needed 7 points to cover. The game went as expected, but it lacked USC’s second half explosion that we have come to expect. A great game that will be remembered for a long time. Shades of when Vince Young took his team into Columbus and beat the Buckeyes on a dramatic end of game drive in 05. That game was also marked by missed chances for OSU.

Southern Mississippi (-14): 26-19

SM absolutely dominated this game and led 14-0 and 20-3 in the first half. They slowed down on offense after halftime, but still outgained UCF 409-94. They had a TD called back by penalty and fumbled a punt while up 10 leading to a UCF field goal. They scored to take a 13 point lead and went for 2 and the ATS win, but were stopped. The ensuing kickoff was returned for a TD and the final score indicating a close game. Make no mistake though Southern Miss dominated the game but could not show it on the scoreboard. A tough bet to lose.

Regular Lox

Week 2: 0-2-1

Overall: 2-4-1

Winners (Push):

LSU (-14): 23-9 PUSH

LSU did just about everything but score TD’s in this game. They outgained Vandy 326-210 and doubled the first downs, yet settling for field goals of 27, 22 and 25 yards will not satisfy fans or those in the betting community. If one of those is converted for a TD or Les Miles pulls an Urban Meyer and goes for the end-zone in the final minute of a decided game (they downed it at the Vandy 17) this game would be in the winner column and not kissing your sister. But a tie is better than a loss, in gambling at least.

Losers:

Georgia Tech (-5.5): 30-27

GT jumped on Clemson early, leading 24-0 on Thursday night while scoring on an 82 yard run, 85 yard punt return and a fake field goal pass. But Clemson showed a lot of resilience and climbed back to take the lead at one point, before succumbing to the Yellow Jackets on a field goal. GT did have a chance to score 6 for the cover but opted to play it safe even with a freshman kicker. That is why Paul Johnson is paid the big bucks, a win is a win for him, but not for me. Tough back door cover to lose but really a game that could have gone either way.

UNC (-5): 12-10

North Carolina could not get anything going offensively and needed a 4th qtr drive for a TD and a safety on a holding call in the end zone by a UCONN lineman to pull this one out. Not a pretty game for anyone but the Huskies have to feel they should have won this one. They turned it over multiple times and to lose on a safety like that at home has to leave a bad taste in their mouth. UNC got lucky to get the win and were never covering the spread.

Upset Specials

Week 2: 0-3 (outright upsets)

Overall: 1-4 (outright upsets)

Air Force (+4)(+140): 13-20

The Falcons led 10-3 going into the final quarter and were stopped on downs at the Minnesota 9, then with the game tied gave up a 52 yard fumble return for a TD. AFA had advantages of 24-14 in first downs and 386-326 yards. But the final score is what counts and the Gophers won in their first game back on campus. Losses like this lead to disorderly conduct charges in Las Vegas sportsbooks.

Washington State (+3)(+130): 20-38

The fans in Pullman didn’t have much to cheer about while Hawaii won a road game over a BCS team for the first time in 7 tries. Repeat after me: NEVER BET ON WAZZOU. I’ve learned my lesson.

Western Michigan (+2): 19-24

Western Michigan was outplayed in the first half but stayed in the game and down by 6 went on a 72 yard drive inside the Indiana 10 with under 2 minutes to play. About to score the winning TD WM fumbled the ball and the game and handed another tough loss to the Saturday Lox.

A couple fumbles recovered and a few Touchdowns instead of field goals and it would have been a great week. As it is, the bounces don’t always go your way. Next week promises to be different and if it isn’t I’ll take Kanye’s lead and go into seclusion to get my thoughts together, of course only after an appearance on the new Leno show, gotta keep it real.