My Saturday Opinions Part II - October 13, 2007

I guess at this point in the year, we should expect the unexpected. I thought the big story would be Kentucky upsetting LSU, but the bigger upset, is definitely Oregon State over California. This was quite the game. Oregon State deserved the win. The played well and held the lead for most of the fourth quarter. But then they gave up a touchdown, and had to punt with just over a minute to play. Cal had a chance to win the game or to at least tie it and go into overtime. Their inexperience quarterback made a stupid mistake. There was only 14 seconds left in the game, Cal was clearly in field goal range and wanted to take a shot at the end zone. Nobody was open, and Kevin Riley, Cal’s QB, decided to run up the middle and slide. The clock continued to run, and Cal ran out of time. Oregon State wins and upsets the #2 team in the country. Only 2 weeks after the polls were thrown up for grabs, once again, teams seem to be trying to avoid playing for the National Championship.
If the season were to end today, we’d be seeing Ohio State play Boston College for the title. Doesn’t actually sound that great. They are not the best two teams in the country, and South Florida probably isn’t a top 5 team. This does allow some of the other one loss teams to make a play for it.
Oklahoma made a statement today by beating conference foe, and undefeated Mizzou. They kept the game closer than they should have, but dominated the game. They could very well be ranked in the top three come next week. We’ll see where the BCS computers put them. As long as OU wins out, they should be playing for the title. Sam Bradford is amazing. He has great poise for a freshman. OU should have ran the ball more than they did, to better control the clock, but it’s hard to argue with scoring 40+ points.
Why does BYU insist on making things harder for themselves? They force themselves to win despite their own turnovers and penalties. This seems to be a continuing theme for the Cougars over the past 5 years. But the BYU has enough offensive firepower to still win even with their handicap. The one thing I don’t fully understand is why BYU doesn’t stick with the run. The are always successful with it. They have a stable of big bruising running backs, and can get 4-8 yards each carry. BYU might be ranked after this week if they played on ESPN, but since they lack exposure, they won’t be ranked unless they win out, and win their bowl game.
I guess that right when I get behind a team and start believing in them, they blow it. I start looking at Cincinnati, Uconn and ASU and they are all letting me down. Uconn and Cinci both lost already, and ASU is currently battling with Washington, and losing. I expected Uconn to lose today, and Cinci couldn’t stay undefeated too much longer, but ASU shouldn’t be losing this game. Washington is not a bad team, despite their losing record, and they are well coached. But I guess the Pac 10 is just going to beat each other up, and ruin anyone’s chance of playing for the National Title. ASU still has another half to rectify their position, but I won’t be staying up to watch it.