Saturday, September 25, 2010

A pretty solid little Saturday...

Some quick thoughts on today/tonight's games before I leave the house for a couple hours:

Arkansas is going to score on Bama. Over 20, I'm guessing. To this point, I haven't been blown away by Bama's D. Penn State moved the ball fairly easily in the early going and Arkansas has much better offensive talent. Chris Childs is an NFL WR and DJ Williams is the #1 or 2 TE prospect in the country. Mallet is obviously a huge upgrade over Robert Boldin. The chess match between Petrino (a really gifted offensive coach) and Saban should be great to watch. Bama wins, but they don't cover. Arkansas blows it due to either turnovers or redzone inefficiency.

- South Carolina v. Auburn has great potential. South Carolina needs to win this game if they're going to be considered a legit SEC contender. Auburn is beat up from last week's game against Clemson and a win on the road would be a big boost to the Gamecocks confidence. However, winning on the Plains (at night) is no easy task. I don't trust either QB in a big spot late in the game. If I had to choose, I'd go with Cam Newton but that's just because I value my new laptop. Auburn, just barely.

- The RB matchup in the USCe-Auburn game should be fun. Marcus Lattimore has gotten all the pub nationally, but Auburn's freshman RB, Michael Dyer, was the only RB rated above Lattimore in last year's high school rankings. He's an MJD type back in build and style. I'd set the over/under for number of carries for these two at 60, and I'd take the over. At one point last year both of these guys were Auburn commits. Scary.

- Speaking of scary, Florida v. Kentucky scares me. UK can score, lots. In Brian Hartline, Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb they have 3 very experienced and talented offensive playmakers. Florida's D has been pretty good thus far (save for a couple breakdowns on the back line last week) but this will be their biggest test by far. I'm extremely happy this game is in Gainesville as I feel the home crowd will encourage the coaches to open it up a little offensively. And that's a good thing because, in my opinion, the UF coaches are going to have to take the chains off the passing game a bit if they want to have a shot a winning this game by a comfortable margin. Also, if you're going to open it up a bit, tonight is definitely a better setting than next Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.

- Terrible, inexcusable DUI (45 in a 20, on campus with two (yes, two) open bottles of Crown) or not, Frankie Hammond needs to start seeing a lot more time at WR for Florida. He caught a TD last week and seems ready to get himself back in the regular rotation at WR. This is a necessity if the Gator's offense is going to become capable of making big plays in the passing game. He was the second best receiver for UF in the spring and has proven himself to be a playmaker in games and practices during his time at UF. He's the Gators' best route runner and he has the speed to test defenses deep. Look for him to see more action in the slot and on some deep post routes.

- Boise State v. Oregon State: Sorry, despite the Beaver's recent history of upsets over top 5 teams, I just can't see them going into Boise and knocking off a very good, experienced team that knows it's season is dependent on what they do in there few national showcase games.

89 comments:

mayhugh said...

I might be one of the few watching, but this GT-NC State game is one of the more entertaining 10-7 games so far.

Mark said...

I've had it on in the background while doing shit around the house. Russell Wilson is pretty entertaining.

Mark said...

How about that Alabama defense?

Mark said...

Hey look at that! Turnovers AND red zone inefficiency. Ryan Mallett is so damned predictable.

Mark said...

Mark Ingram might run for 200 yards today.

Mark said...

If Bama wants to lose this game they need to continue to refuse to give the ball to Ingram. He's been dominant with the ball in his hands but, for some reason Bama went away from him in the redzone.

Mark said...

Arkansas looks like they can do whatever they want on offense. Bama's getting zero pressure on Mallett and the Arkansas OLine is starting to open some very big holes in the run game. A long way to go but Bama is in for a dogfight here.

Jerry said...

I'm so gay for Andrew Luck.

Jerry said...

And...

Nick Saban... +/- 5 foot 8?

Jerry said...

Also very ungay for Alex Flanagan.

Mark said...

-5'8" on Saban. Luck is great. I'm higher on him than I down on Jake Locker. And I'm pretty down on Locker.

Mark said...

Ingram should get 20+ carries this half.

Jerry said...

Never understood the whole Locker thing while Luck is sitting there in the same conference. Locker has a ton of talent, but Luck is the ultimate QB prototype. To me, he's the best QB prospect since 2004 at least.

Mark said...

Bama's tried a couple gimmick passes today. Not sure why. Do they really think they can't beat The Arkansas D straight up?

Mark said...

People fell in love with Locker's athletic gifts & overlooked his deficiencies as a passer while undervaluing Luck's athleticism and polish as a passer. IMO, the Locket scenario happens far too often with college QBs.

Mark said...

Bama can't cover DJ Williams.

Mark said...

I hate to say I told you so about this Bama D. Wait, no I don't.

Jerry said...

UCLA up 20-3 on Texas and Temple leading Penn State.

Mark said...

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY saw this UCLA-Texas game coming.

Mark said...

I'd expect Bama to start blitzing Arkansas much more frequently from here on out. They can't get pressure with their DL but the blitzes towards the end of that last series gave the Oline trouble.

Mark said...

I still think Ingram is better because he's such a great natural runner, but Richardson's speed/strength combination is really impressive.

Jerry said...

Holding Ingram to a 5 yard gain seems like a victory for the defense.

Feels like this one is going to OT. It's a little better than the Rutgers game.

Jerry said...

Maybe not OT. The commercial before the PAT confused me.

Mark said...

UCLA is now up 27-6 at the start if the 4th. UCLA has 11 yards passing.

Holy shit.

Jerry said...

27-6 UCLA. Game over. UCLA has 11 yards passing. That is stunning. UCLA is atrocious.

Jerry said...

Ok....

Jerry said...

At least it all happened at 6:09.

mayhugh said...

Have I mentioned how much I love the Lundquist-Danielson booth? The only way I could enjoy it more was if they Danielson's voice was about 3x more masculine.

Mark said...

Couldn't agree more on the CBS booth. Danielson is good to quite good.

Mark said...

Does Arkansas go four minute drill here or do they try and move the ball?

Mark said...

Oh Ryan Mallett. You predictable asshole.

mayhugh said...

Rinse. Repeat.

Mark said...

Good God that is fucking awful.

Jerry said...

Alabama has that thing where you know that Saban is a ridiculously good coach.

rob said...

look at the big balls on saban

Mark said...

There's been an Andre Debose sighting. I'm pretty excited about this.

Mark said...

All Trey Burton, all the time.

Mark said...

Will Hill just destroyed a guy in a wheelchair on a sideline pass route. Completely flipped him out of his chair. We rewound it 3-4 times and were on the floor laughing. We are terrible, terrible people.

Jerry said...

Worse coverage on the UK fake FG -- Florida or ESPNU?

mayhugh said...

Erin Andrews, lookin' tough.

mayhugh said...

Nice blocking on that return by Rodgers. He ran laterally long enough for his men to set up, then had lots of help downfield.

Jerry said...

QB controversy brewing in Williamsburg. Paulus led 2 TD drives int the 4th quarter. Up 3 with :20 to go.

Jerry said...

Tribe wins 24-21 with a 21 pt 4th quarter.

mayhugh said...

Jerry, I don't want to steal your thunder, but I have watched the first 10 minutes of Blue Bloods and I am not enjoying it. And I desperately want to enjoy it.

Jerry said...

I watched it this afternoon. It's OK, but probably not a keeper.

I don't have much thunder on Blue Bloods, Detroit 187, or Undercovers.

Jerry said...

I will say the Blue Bloods might have had the worst opening credits of any show this year. Or ever maybe.

mayhugh said...

I watched Hawaii 5-0 earlier today and generally agree with your assessment. I actually thought Main Guy was slightly above average, but not memorable by any measure. I think we finally know why Jin was written to speak little English, because Daniel Kim can't act. Scott Caan is definitely the glue and they gave him some above-average one liners.

mayhugh said...

Yeah, they weren't good. The opening theme song is a C-. Substance-wise, everything is just way too formulaic, and the dialogue could have benefitted from some re-writes.

Jerry said...

And we've found the answer -- Trey Burton.

mayhugh said...

Ok, so the sister is prosecuting arrests her brother made? That's it, I'm done with this show.

Jerry said...

Yeah, Jin's blank stare and flat delivery sufficed when he was speaking English as a second language, but as a native he's just a dud.

You had to be skeptical of Blue Bloods -- solid cast and awful time slot. Maybe the network knows something.

Jerry said...

New York...it's a small town.

Jerry said...

FWIW, she says that she'd recuse herself if the case went to trial.

mayhugh said...

Not good enough. It's more indicia that the show is clearly not well thought out. I'm actually angry about it right now.

Mark said...

I watched a bit of Blue Bloods last night, 15 minutes or so. I saw a crime solved, start to finish, in 5 minutes and I saw Donnie Walhberg get answers by shoving a suspects head in the toilet repeatedly and smash his head into said toilet. It got worse from there. A truly terrible show. Made me wonder how bad Outlaw must be.

Trey Burton all day.

Mark said...

Cam Newton is the best RB in thus Auburn-SC game.

mayhugh said...

Yes, said crime was a kidnapping which Donnie figured out within 2 minutes of sitting in his detectives chair was carried out by 1 of 3 people. A guy with that kind of deductive logic would probably have a little more scruples about beating a guy with a toilet in front of his partner, who didn't seem morally conflicted enough about what was transpiring. He went outside to "call it in" while Donnie kept beating on the perp. 6 minutes later Tom Selleck is telling Donnie (I'm paraphrasing) "You need to talk to [a pyschiatrist] about what happened in Iraq." Dreadful, dreadful programming. Not even Tom Selleck's mustache could keep me interested. And it's still a pretty solid mustache.

Jerry said...

I'm telling you, it's A LOT better than Outlaw. Please, somebody go on line and watch the Outlaw pilot.

mayhugh said...

Sounds like I'm going to take this on. I'm curious how a show could be worse.

mayhugh said...

Oh boy, am I regretting this decision.

mayhugh said...

I'm glad that's over. Outlaw is indeed awful. If Blue Bloods is a 100 in implausibility, I'd give Outlaw a 2000. It wasn't even trying to be somewhat realistic in terms of a legal procedural. You had the victim's husband present at a plea discussion between the defendant and the State, then the argument between both sides during questioning of a witness which the judge for some reason saw no need to get a control of. Worse was the intense conviction oozing from everybody on the show - it's like they think they are on a really good show, from Smits to his smarmy law clerk to even the defendant (played by RZA, I'm sorry to say). And I've got to think this show will not be endorsed by the Supreme Court Justices - Smits is portrayed as a womanizing gambling addict. I'm surprised they didn't give Ginsberg a cocaine habit or something.

Jerry said...

It was unbearably bad and it probably affected the way I'm watching subsequent shows. I'm going to have recalibrate my standards.

mayhugh said...

This may be the week Mark's and my wishes are fulfilled and Palmer gets pulled. It's just getting painful.

Jerry said...

Belichick's rack is looking impressive.

zman said...

The new iPod Nano has ruined Cake for me.

mayhugh said...

My dad and I just watched that Nano commercial, and upon being asked if he liked Cake, my dad said "I don't like rap."

zman said...

His statement is logically, if not musically, consistent so I can't give him a hard time.

mayhugh said...

During every commercial, I am throwing out songs on my iTunes that I think my dad will like, but he is a brick wall. This man has had an iPod for 2 years and he has 368 songs on it.

mayhugh said...

The Redskins played one of the worst 1st quarters in the history of ever and they are 1 point down. I'm pretty happy about it. And I'm hammered.

Dave said...

after several soccer events today, my entire family fell asleep on the couch watching the Giants (that's four people on one couch, all sleeping in front of a much awaited giant screen HD NFL game).

i don't think we missed anything.

greasetruck is in the studio.

Dave said...

and the new song has a monologue.

forty hours of fun report?

Dave said...

also, i hate to plug any blog except SoD, but I love the review of "outlaw" on the wheelhouse. well worth it.

Mark said...

I re-read the entire Blue Bloods discussion between Jerry, Mayhugh and myself to my gf this afternoon. We were both dying laughing. After Mayhugh and Jerry's review of Outlaw, I'm trying to convince her to watch the pilot with me.

And, not that anyone cares but I'm the worst fantasy owner ever. In my big league, 2 out of 3 weeks I've left a 30+ WR on my bench. First Hakeem Nicks, now Mike Wallace. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

zman said...

We just got an HD-TV yesterday - it's a hand-me-down from the zsister-in-law.

I work with a guy who is under 30 and who has no (zero) music on his iPod. He has Federal Circuit oral arguments, SCOTUS oral arguments, maybe some Click n Clack podcasts. But no beats whatsoever.

Mark said...

That's really weird. I wouldn't trust that guy. Not one bit.

mayhugh said...

I re-read Jerry's "New York... it's a small town" comment this morning and it got me laughing. I actually kind of enjoyed Outlaw just because it was so, so, SO terrible. Call it the "Jaws 3" Factor. I couldn't wait for the next thing to nitpick. And I didn't have to wait long.

There's a 35 year old black guy at my office who has 2000 songs that are all opera.

mayhugh said...

And... it's week 3 and we've found out that the professional football team I root for is absolute poop. I'm so relieved we have that figured out already. The rest of the season will be a breeze.

zman said...

Let's trade teams.

zman said...

The dude with the beatless iPod is weird (and wack) as hell. He left for a different job. I do not miss him. He's the type of guy who could roll into work one day and start shooting people.

zman said...

Is there some non-profit organization that gives NFL coaches permanent-press pleated khakis and all-white leather cross-trainers?

zman said...

One more reason to be happy that the Sawks are out of it: there's no need to flip back and forth between the Jets game and the Yankee game.

zman said...

I can't tell if the color on my "new" TV is screwed up. Are the Jets playing Boise State?

TR said...

Dustin Keller is channeling his inner Kellen Winslow (Sr.). Are the Jets this good or are the Fins this bad? One thing that I know is bad is Sparano's mustache in HD.

Jerry said...

"Minority owners"...gets me every time.

TR said...

Ulrich, Molina and Howard!? And Dre and Tupac doing California Love!? Sign me up.

zman said...

This Cialis tent-pitching ad is fantastic.

mayhugh said...

I just watched the promo for the 30-for-30 on Terry Fox called "Into the Wind." As Simmons would say, "Pass the goosebumps". I'm tuning in on Tuesday for that.

TR said...

I saw the Terry Fox movie in the early 80's. The story is pretty amazing.

The Yanks and Jets crushed my sleep last night. I'm gonna be a quart deep in coffee by 9 AM.

Clarence said...

Ugh.