What I Learned This Weekend...

by imarealist on Sep 4, 2007 12:02 PM EDT Comment 0 comments

Georgia's defense is "4 Realz!"

The defense looked fast, composed, and had an excellent gameplan. Ellerbe looked really good. Geno Atkins had his name called frequently, and Brandon Miller played well. There was only one play that caused gnashing of teeth. It was the 3rd & 21 with roughly 7 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. What happened? It looked like a zone as nice and soft as the other side of the pillow. True to form, Adarius Bowman splits the over-the-top help and the underneath linebacker for a 28-yard pickup and a first down inside the Georgia redzone. But, I suppose the defense can't stop 'em all right?
Alesana Alesana means "statue."

The 6'4" 286 lb junior left tackle for Kansas State was merely a mile marker for Quentin Groves. It was reminiscent of Derrick Harvey's performance against Ohio State last year. Groves was just too fast, and the K-State offense couldn't adjust to double him up.
Teams relying on the run... not so much.

Several teams that traditionally (whatever that means) lean on the running game to prop up everything else struggled mightily this past weekend.

Virginia Tech had 33 yards off 31 carries. That's good for #98 in the country after week one. (To compare, Hawaii had 37 yards off 10 carries.) Last year, VaTech ranked #90, averaging 113.38 yards per game.

Auburn earned 62 yards off 37 carries. They fall-in at #89. Last season, they averaged 148 yards per outing, which was good enough for #47

Wake Forest amassed 2 yards(!) on 24 carries. They are not dead last, though close: #111 (Notre Dame is last with -8 yards rushing). In 2006, they finished #44 with 150 yards per contest.

What does this mean, if anything?

Obviously Virginia Tech doesn't need too many yards on the ground to be successful, but they do rely pretty heavily on a sufficient ground game. If they aren't able to run the ball as well as they did last year, which wasn't particularly well at all, then they could be in trouble... starting this week against LSU. Glennon likely will not have as good a day as he did against ECU at night in Baton Rouge.

Auburn's offensive line looked inept. Cox was sacked five times (ed: only five times?), and running back Ben Tate managed 82 yards on 23 carries.

Wake Forest... yeah, I don't know. Neither team ran the ball (the other team being Boston College - 52 yards on 26 carries), but both teams lit up the scoreboard through the air. Wake put it up 60 times for 365 yards, completing 75% of the passes. Unfortunately, starting QB Riley Skinner left with an injury and is likely out against Nebraska this weekend. Those running stats may reverse this week.
Quick Hitters:

>> Notre Dame is in for a loooong season. They looked as bad as I imagined against that blitz-happy Tenuta defense.

>> Playing cupcakes is not a good idea. Michigan gets upset by Appy State in the biggest upset in college football history. USC, Ohio State, & Texas fail to light up the scoreboard (as much as they should have) against weaker win-for-hires. Wins by Florida, Oklahoma, Louisville, and Boise State should be taken with a Stone Mountain size grain of salt. F'rinstance, Florida beat Western Carolina 62-0 last year when they weren't exactly an offensive powerhouse, and Oklahoma beat Middle Tennessee State 59-0, then lost the next week to Texas 28-10.

>> Florida State is just not good... at least, not right now. They have two games and three weeks to turn into a functional football team before the showdown with Alabama. The defense still has some fast athletes, but the offense has zero coherency. It is just an amalgamation of some players with no consistent thought or action. It is really a sad state of affairs that has spiraled out of control after the departure of one Mark Richt.