Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Holy cow! What a weekend!

In accordance with prophesy, I spent the majority of my Saturday parked in my living room in front of two TVs (Friday night I gave serious consideration to buying a third.)

Starting with the most important game of the day, Clemson upset #9 ranked FSU. This was a game that the pundits had circled months ago. It was dramatic and it has far reaching impacts in the quest for ACC and national championships.

The quote from one of the announcers really sums up the first half for Clemson. “Well it’s a strange way to get to 14.”

Clemson scored a touchdown only to have the extra point blocked and returned for a 2 point safety. Clemson 6, FSU 2.

Clemson drove again, settling for a field goal attempt. It was blocked and returned for 6, + the PAT. Clemson 6, FSU 9.

Apparently the Clemson placekicking and FSU offense were somewhere else during the first half.

Clemson drove for another touchdown, this time opting to go for the 2 point conversion. Clemson 14, FSU 9.

More after the half:

Welcome back sports fans! The Cubs are in the top of the fifth and I’m at the bottom of mine.

The rest of the scoring breakdown doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that we got a key replay to go our way. I had spent most of the day complaining about the replay system. Well I guess you win some and you lose some. So really it is just like not having replay at all, except the officials are “right” (see the Oregon-Oklahoma game below).

I also made a comment about the offense’s no-huddle hurry-up and wait approach. That is where they line up then stop to look to the sidelines for the playcall. “The last offensive coordinator did that,” I said, “and it helped get him fired.” Then with under two minutes left in the game, and the FSU defense lulled, Clemson broke out with a 47-yard rush by James Davis to the FSU 4 yard line.

And that is why I sit on my couch and the coaches get paid.

What also matters is that FSU did get their run game going a little bit, only to have their passing game significantly curtailed. They were able to tie the game at 20, but their offense was only able to muster 11 points the entire game. Furthermore they ended with just 204 total yards.

Just 204 total yards. That is simply anemic. Prior to this game they had averaged 261 ypg to rank 108th of 119 teams. And they were a top-10 team!

A few other points about Florida State: The 27-20 score doesn’t describe the domination. What should have been 4 points for Clemson turned directly into 9 points for FSU. The score should have been closer to 31-11.

Also, what the fuck is up with Bobby Bowden’s new glasses?

He apparently traded in his Oakley’s for something designed for women, reminiscent of a George Costanza moment.

All signs point to FSU getting soft. They are spending too much time building statues and facilities and not enough time going anywhere and beating anybody on any Saturday. FSU has nothing to prove anymore and their performance on the field is showing it.

Now FSU has had another not-so-great performance, getting beat at home. Last week they barely scraped by a scrappy team from Troy. And in their opener they managed just 176 yards in a come from behind win over Miami (they also held the U to just 134 total yards).

And this brings us to Miami, a team that received a lot of positive preseason prognostication. They followed up their weak showing at FSU with a drubbing of a nobody in the form of Florida A&M. In week three Miami got the beat down from the hands of beat up Louisville. The Hurricanes have now lost 4 of their last 6 games. Defending Larry Coker will continue to get tough.

A month ago I suggested the Coker just can’t control his troops. The team took the opportunity to prove me right before the start of the Louisville game.

Miami started the day by stomping on the Louisville Cardinals logo in the middle of field. That might be that last sign of swagger the Hurricanes show for a while.

Miami is still a talented team, but they appear to be a bunch of head cases. That will keep you from winning championships.

Moving on to the rest of the ACC:

Speaking of head cases, what about BC kicker Ryan Ohliger missing a slew of kicks against BYU? That’s just infuriating after I would have given my right testicle for him to miss a kick last week against Clemson. BYU is probably better than I gave them credit for. And if one really looks at FSU and Miami and admits they are only above-average teams, that means most of the rest of the ACC is being overrated too.

Maryland got drubbed by WVU Thursday night. There is no surprise there. The Turtles surrendered 28 points in the first quarter while losing the ball five times in the game. King Hippo doesn’t yet have his team up to speed.

Wake Forest came away from UConn with a 24-13 victory. It hasn’t been pretty, but the Deacs are now 3-0 on the season. They beat a Syracuse team who has now given a tough time to Iowa and but a good hurtin’ on Illinpis. UConn’s strength is still TBD. And they also beat Duke thanks only to a last minute blocked field goal attempt. It’s hard to gauge them right now, but with games against Ole Miss and Liberty in the next two weeks, they may very well be 5-0 when Clemson comes to town. I for one and worried.

And how about Duke? The team that showed some life against Wake? Well they apparently used up all their life as they couldn’t muster a single point as 35 point underdogs at Virginia Tech. The 36-0 final really pissed me off.

Speaking of bad teams from North Carolina, NC State committed 94 yards of penalties en route to being drubbed by Southern Miss. If you’re keeping track, “Chesty” Chuck Amato is now 1-2 on the season, haveing barely beaten Appalachian State before getting drop kicked by MAC member Akron.

Georgia Tech beat Troy by 15.

UNC looks to have squeaked past DI-AA Furman. The Paladins racked up 32 first downs and 521 yards but came up short. They got behind early, in part due to a muffed kickoff return, and it was just too much to overcome. The narrow victory puts UNC at 1-2, with losses coming to a now-3-and-0 Rutgers and also undefeated Virginia Tech squad. I’m thinking the Tar Heels aren’t all that good this year, but I’m not chalking up a homecoming victory for the Tigers yet.

And that brings us to the team I most love to hate. UVA. Last week the Hoos were favorites by 9 points. They needed overtime and a missed extra point to dispatch the Cowboys from Wyoming 13-12. Yes, they scored just two field goals in regulation last week. So I cannot understand why they were favored by 9.5 to 10 this week against Western Michigan. Maybe because it was homecoming? It sounded like easy money to me. And it was. The Hoos were also MAC victims. Western Michigan rolled 17-10.

I’m down on the ACC this year. There is very little to be optimistic about at this point.

Other games of note from around the country:

Clemson beat the #9 ranked team on the road 27-20. South Carolina beat in-state DI-AA neighbor Wofford 27-20.

It took one play to stun everyone left at Williams-Brice Stadium as Josh Collier’s 25-yard TD pass to Andy Strickland drew the Terriers to 27-20 with 4:43 left.

Wofford had one last chance, driving to South Carolina’s 10 with :29 to go. On fourth-and-5, the Gamecocks’ Dakota Walker knocked Collier’s pass attempt into the air and linebacker Cody Wells caught it and South Carolina (2-1) escaped a huge embarrassment.

Oh yeah, Wofford put up 278 rushing yards.

Mississippi State finally scored this season. However it took them 22 points in the 4th quarter to avoid being routed by Tulane. MSU is just plain horrible.

Ole Miss isn’t much better. They looked OK in a loss to Memphis. But they’ve been drubbed by the Missourri Tigers and by Kentucky. Yeah. THAT KENTUCKY! Turning the ball over 5 times will do that to you.

Now on to the rest of the Top 25.

I expected Cincinnati to put up a little bit more fight against Ohio State. But the Buckeyes did just enough to beat the spread. Cincinnati Sucks!

#2 Notre Dame got absolutely humiliated by Michigan in South Bend. And I loved every minute of it. The Irish have been living on borrowed time and hype for a year now.

LSU-Auburn: I picked Auburn in a close one. Everyone picked a close one but I chose the right team.

USC-Nebraska: In an email from Brother of Nobrainer: “Not sure why there was so much hype on the USC/Nebraska game. Did someone really think Nebraska could go to S. Cal. and win?”

Florida-Tennessee: The Gators couldn’t cover the spread, but they got the W. Fulmer’s flunkees looked fallible last week against Air Force. Florida is looking like the best team in the Sunshine State this year.

Texas-Rice: 52-7. That was nice of Texas to let Rice score like that.

UAB-Georgia: Georgia pitched a 2nd straight shutout. Final score 34-0. UGA is moving up the rankings. They’re 3-0 and they don’t play anybody good until October 7th. Tennessee comes to town.

Oregon-Oklahoma: NTGON is a Pac-10 fan. She was happy to see Oregon coming from behind. But even she admitted that Oklahoma got absolutely SKA-REWD! There is no question that an Oregon player handled an onside kick before the ball had gone 10 yards downfield. After they were improperly rewarded the football, they received an erroneous pass interference call. The replay clearly showed a tipped pass. Fortunately for the Ducks, the guys in the review booth are completely incompetent.

Iowa-Iowa State: The Hawkeyes won, but they’re overall strength is becoming ultimately questionable.

TCU-Texas Tech: How about TCU holding Tech to just 3 points? I definitely didn’t see this one coming. That’s an amazing effort right there.

“I’ll be nice about that and politically correct like you’re supposed to,” Leach said. “But that was the sorriest offensive effort I’ve ever seen. Today, I coached the worst offense in America.”

Texas Tech had only 242 total yards…

I guess he didn’t watch the Florida State game.

Finally, Penn State won big over Youngstown State, but I’m still not overly impressed by the guys from State College.

It’s time to put my Top 25 together.

Also, now that we’ve got some games under our belts, I hope to resurrect my computer ranking/prediction system. I’m considering what changes should be made.

If you’re still reading this… wow, you must have a lot of free time.