Week 7 Goal Line Stand

The Week 7 Goal Line Stand
This week, I went 2-2 in my picks. Texas A&M messes me up again. Goodness. I pick for them, they lose; I pick against them, they win. I mean come on. But let’s recap what happened this weekend in College Football.

1. Michigan State wins its fourth straight against Michigan 28-14. Michigan had plenty of opportunities to win this game, but either poor coaching or poor execution prevented Michigan from being great. . Was the wind a factor? Yes; but is it an excuse? No. On 4th and Inches, (cliché), the Michigan coaching staff called a play-action pass and almost turned the ball over. Devin Gardner fumbled a shotgun snap and forced a punt. Michigan gets a stop defensively and keeps the game a one possession affair. Michigan gets the ball back. Denard Robinson throws a quick slant on a blitz read and the WR is not on the same page and a pick 6 seals their fate. Michigan State’s defense executed their game plan to perfection in containing Robinson to only 42 yards on 18 carries. Robinson was also only 9/24 for 123 yards. They were flying to the ball and pushed Robinson back to the inside where the rest of the Michigan State defense was to help with bringing him to the ground. None of the other players for Michigan could get into the groove of the game rushing and Michigan ended the day with 36 carries for 82 yards. Kurt Cousins was less than impressive in this game going 13/24 for 120 yards. He did make the throws that he had to make in critical moments of the game. Edwin Baker was the story of the Michigan St. offense, rushing for 167 yards on the day. Michigan contained him in the first half, but he really got off in the second half. The story line for me in this game was how cocky Michigan State was after this game. Cousins played like crap and if there were some better coaching decisions made on behalf of the Michigan coaching staff, they would have lost this game. I thought it was kind of classless, taking all the credit like they put on a clinic against Michigan in this game. You didn’t so stop fronting. You didn’t beat Michigan, Michigan beat themselves. I picked Michigan 24-17. Michigan just didn’t want to be great yesterday.

2. Texas A&M finally holds on to a lead against Baylor and wins 55-28. Baylor’s defense and running game decided not to show up this week to the game. Last week Terrance Ganaway rushed for 200 yards; this week 34 yards. Texas A&M held Baylor to 50 yards rushing. They couldn’t get anything going on the ground and as result they just couldn’t keep up the Texas A&M. Baylor’s defense allowed a ridiculous 681 yards of total offense and made Ryan Tannehill look like he was the first pick of the NFL draft and made Ryan Swope look like Wes Welker. 415 yards passing for Tannehill, 206 yards receiving for Swope. Oh yeah, and don’t let me leave out the fact that A&M rushed for 266 yards on 45 carries. Robert Griffin III threw for 430 yards and 3 Tds to one interception. For the season, that gives him these stats: 142-182 78% completion percentage, 1950 yards, 22tds, 2 ints. I picked Baylor 35-21. Missed this one, thanks to Baylor’s defense deciding to chill back in Waco instead of coming to the game.

3. Oklahoma State beat Texas 38-26. If you look at the stats, it has all the staples for a win. Texas dominated time of possession (39:18) and rushed for 231 yards. HOLD UP! Didn’t happen that way because Texas, like Michigan, didn’t want to be great on Saturday. The defense played fairly well and held 46 year old Brandon Weeden to only 218 yards passing. They also held Blackmon and Cooper to under 100 yards receiving. Well why didn’t Texas want to be great? Because they could not stop the run. Oklahoma St. rushed for 202 yards and 3 tds. Jeremy Smith had a big game with only 7 attempts but had 140 yards rushing and 2 of those TDs. I understand that you have to defend the pass, but you cannot let an Oklahoma St. team that rushed for 155.5 and ranked 59th in the country to gash you for these big runs all game. At some point, Manny Diaz had to say, you know what I am going to take my chances in coverage and stop this run. The Texas secondary played well, especially Carrington Byndom. Blackmon did catch a TD pass, but he did not show out as he has in weeks past. I would have rolled the dice. Case McCoy did not play a snap as Mack Brown went with freshman David Ash in this game. 2 interceptions and 40 pass attempts later, he only threw for 139 yards and 0 tds. Malcolm Brown played great and is right now the Big XII freshman of the year. Only time will tell. The youth of Texas is apparent this year. I did pick Oklahoma St. 42-20. Texas stayed in this game, but just couldn’t make the plays when they needed to.

4. Arizona St. couldn’t overcome the odds in Autzen to beat Oregon and lose the game 41-27. Oregon’s offense is so fast and can capitalize off mistakes faster than any team in the country. The personal foul they called against Moos, the DT from Arizona St., led to a score in less than 1 min. They have speed all over the field. People thought that they were going to miss LaMichael James this game, and it turns out that Kenjon Barner knew that they wouldn’t carrying the ball 31 times for 171 yards and a TD. They plugged DeAnthony Thomas, the dynamic freshman wideout from Crenshaw High School in there and he got 73 yards rushing. When it was all said and done Oregon rushed for 327 yards against a very good Arizona St. front 7. Darron Thomas did go out with a knee injury. He went to the back and got a brace, but Chip Kelly wouldn’t let him come back in the game. Freshman Brian Bennett surprised the audience as well as the defense with his quickness and great eye with the zone read play. Osweiler was efficient in the first half but that interception to Cliff Harris at the end of the half and the quick score by the Ducks all but sealed the fate for the Arizona St. team that just seems to fall short each year against the Ducks. Pflugrad didn’t play particularly well either. Oregon’s secondary really stepped up in the second half. Oregon’s defensive front also did a great job getting pressure on Osweiler in the second half. Story line of this game is the personal foul; that is one call that Burfict needs to avoid for the rest of the season. Those penalties really hurt Arizona St. There were a couple the killed drives, and that kept drives alive. I picked Oregon in this game 45-30. I was just a few points off.

This was another fantastic week of college football. Stay tuned to Week 8’s 3rd and Goal Analysis!