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Hello Everyone!

Another wild and wooly weekend of college football happened. Lets talk about it.

Wisconsin 38, Nebraska 17: In a game that was close until the third quarter, the Badgers opened up the ground game completely for the last quarter and a half and the Huskers couldn’t respond. Oh, and did I mention Johnathan Taylor of Wisconsin ran 25 times for 249 yards?

The Stats:

  • Devine Ozigbo: 23 carries, 112 yards, 4 Catches, 18 yards.
  • Stanley Morgan Jr. 4 Catches, 115 yards
  • Time of possession: Wisconsin 36:41, Nebraska 23:19

In My Opinion

  • I know, it sounds like I’m trying to explain away my pick of the Huskers, being a “Husker Homer,” etc, but the game was close until 10:43 left in the third quarter. That was when Nebraska intercepted Alex Hornibrook and returned the pick for a TD to tie the game. After that, Wisconsin played keepaway. For the last 25 minutes of game time, Wisconsin had the ball for just under 18 minutes. Nebraska’s drives in that time? A long, almost five minute drive that produced no points. A 13 second, two play drive that ended when Stanley Morgan fumbled. And a minute long drive that ended on downs. Its hard to win a game when you can’t control the ball.
  • The defense is a work in progress. However, based on the play calling, its apparent that Diaco either doesn’t feel the defense has progressed enough to be truly aggressive, or just likes playing conservative. I think it’s the first. But for the 18 minutes Wisconsin had the ball late in the second half, the Badgers didn’t throw the ball twice. Just once; everyone could see they were pounding the rock. The Huskers stayed in the base defense look and dropped back into coverage, rather than stuffing the box. Wisconsin just kept hitting them with running play after running play. At some point, you would have expected them to move the safeties up and leave the CB’s on islands, but it never happened. Not even at run number 20 in a row.
  • That’s perplexing to me, because the game plan should have been to stuff the run game and make Hornibrook beat them through the air. Which would mean that they put eight men in the box and run blitz almost every play, especially once the Badgers got rolling. Hornibrook threw the ball twice further than 10 yards. Twice. And one of those was returned for a TD. He threw 17 times total, completing 9. He didn’t frighten anyone.
  • Props to Taylor, though, because for a freshman RB he’s the real deal. And Nebraska’s going to face him at least two more times?
  • In the first half, Ozigbo had 17 carries for 96 yards and was punishing Wisconsin on every carry. Of course, Wisconsin concentrated on stopping him in the second half, and Nebraska ran out of time before he got going. But why didn’t Nebraska have the same game plan as Wisconsin?
  • Course, someone was listening to me on the first drive of the night. Ozigbo ran three times for 21 yards, the Huskers threw downfield immediately and it paid off, with De’Mornay Pierson-El going 37 yards on the second play. I was literally screaming at my house guests that the coaches had FINALLY listened to me and were going to win the game. Then they went away from that gameplan after the pick six.
  • By the way, that return was not Tanner Lee’s fault. I love Ozigbo, but catching the ball out of the backfield is not his forte; the pass went through his hands and bounced off his helmet, before falling into the arms of Badger Chris Orr who had open field in front of him. Does Jaylin Bradley have better hands? I think that as good as Ozigbo is running the balls, his ball security is why he’s been kept on the bench.
  • Oh, and Tre Bryant still can’t play, plus Mikale Wilbon is still hurting. So next week is Ozigbo all the way against Ohio State.
  • The pass game is terrible. Without the 80 yard TD run, Morgan had three catches for 35 yards, which is far closer to his normal yardage per catch. Plus, he was targeted 7 times. Pierson-El was a non factor after his big catch in the first quarter. JD Spielman was the savior at least four times on third and long plays, which is a lot to ask of a redshirt freshman. Nobody else outside of Ozigbo made a catch. That’s a huge problem, since you can set coverage usually for two WR’s and let a zone coverage pick up anyone else with a fair degree of success (yes, a tampa-two coverage, I know). TE Tyler Hoppes has a decent future, but he’s not particularly fast and doesn’t have great hands right now.
  • This was a winnable game, and Nebraska coaches let it slip through their fingers. However, that won’t matter too much if Nebraska can’t hire an Athletic Director soon. They don’t seem to have too many applying for the job, or at least interested past early discussion. UNO AD Trev Alberts withdrew from consideration, citing “unfinished business” at UNO. Later in the week, the Ole Miss AD Ross Bjork hit the radar, with a quick “No thank you” after the story broke. Finally, TCU AD Chris Del Conte was reportedly interested on Sunday, and he issued a “No, thanks though.” Immediately after. Think Riley would consent to being AD and having someone else coach the team?

Going forward: I don’t know, guys. I think my streak of picking the Huskers to win will end this coming week, because I don’t think Ohio State is a winnable game. Depending on how they play, though, the rest of the season is still in flux. Minnesota is still in flux under PJ Fleck, so that’s a possible win. Northwestern just got pounded by Penn State, and isn’t as good as in prior years, so that’s possible too. Penn State? Yikes, no. Purdue? They’re much improved this year. Iowa? Yes, it would seem the Huskers will probably be 5-6 heading into the Iowa game…again. Twice in three years. That’s not good.

Result: LOSS. Sigh. I was the only one to take the Huskers.

The Rest of the Picks:

North Carolina State 39, Louisville 25. Lamar Jackson had 427 total yards and three total TD’s, but it was his last mistake that cost the game. Driving to tie the game at 32, Jackson threw a pick 6 and the game had a fork in it. Result: LOSS. Imjustamonkey joined me; Bugeater (and this will be a trend for the week) had North Carolina State.

Boise State 24, BYU 7. Still not sure why we picked for this one. Boise State let the Cougars score in the first quarter, but that was it. Result: WIN. All three of us had Boise State.

Iowa 45, Illinois 16. The game was closer than the score, as it was 24-16 after the third quarter. 21 points in the fourth quarter ended the Illini threat. Result: WIN. All three of us had Iowa.

TCU 31. West Virginia 24. In a game almost completely even, the difference was TCU QB Kenny Hill. Hill threw a 45 yard TD pass to Jalen Reagor, caught a 48 yard TD pass, and ran for a three yard TD with 2:53 left in the game. Result: WIN. Imjustamonkey and I took TCU; Bugeater had West Virginia.

Miami 24, Florida State 20. Miami QB Malik Rosier threw a 23 yard TD pass to Darrell Langham with 6 seconds left to win the game. Result: WIN. All three of us had Miami.

Purdue 31, Minnesota 17. Minnesota dominated the first half, and won the time of possession battle. Purdue came back with 18 points in the fourth quarter. Minnesota got the ball back with 1:10 to play and drove quickly down to the Purdue 24, but Ja’Whaun Bentley grabbed an INT with 10 seconds left and ran it back for the walk off TD. Result: WIN. All three of us had Purdue.

LSU 17, Florida 16. Florida scored with 1:45 left in the third quarter, but kicker Eddie Pineiro missed the extra point. That was the only difference in an ugly game. Result: WIN. And yes, I get my first “I TOLD YOU SO!!!” moment of the season, as both Bugeater and Imjustamonkey had Florida.

Texas 40, Kansas State 24 (2 OT) Texas went with QB Sam Ehlinger in place of Shane Buechele in this game, and Ehlinger responded with 487 total yards and two TD’s. The heor of the game though was Longhorn RB Chris Warren II. After ending the game tied at 27, both teams scored TD’s in the first OT. The Texas defense held, and then Warren bulled his way through a defensive pile of Wildcats from two yards out. Result: WIN. Imjustamonkey and I had Texas, while Bugeater had Kansas State.

Alabama 27, Texas A&M 19. Wow, the Aggies gave Alabama a game! The Tide jumped out to a 17-3 halftime lead, and scored to start the third quarter. After that, Texas A&M outscored Alabama 16-3. Did Alabama let up on the gas too soon? Probably, but it was still enough to win. Result: WIN. All three of us had Alabama.

Michigan State 14, Michigan 10. This seems to be a habit for Michigan State. Get an early lead, and hang on. Michigan State scored two TD’s in the first half, and then held on to keep Michigan State from taking the lead late. Five Michigan turnovers helped (three INT’s, two fumbles) to stymie the Michigan offense, but Michigan State kept the Wolverines to just 300 total yards as well. Result: LOSS. All three of us had Michigan.

Washington State 33, Oregon 10. The Ducks, playing without starting QB Justin Herbert, could only muster 277 yards against the opportunistic Washington State defense. The Cougars owned the second half, scoring 20 unanswered points. Result: WIN. All three of us had Washington State.

Stanford 23, Utah 20. Utah scored a TD with 44 seconds left, but couldn’t get any closer. Stanford had 384 yards, Utah 382 yards; this was an even game from that perspective, although Utah actually won the time of possession battle. Result: WIN. Imjustamonkey joined me; Bugeater had Utah.

For the week, thanks to Michigan falling to Michigan State and Louisville falling to NC State, I finished 10-3. Imjustamonkey joined me, since he picked Nebraska to lose but picked Florida to beat LSU. Bugeater went contrary this week, and it hurt him. He scored big on NC State, but lost on West Virginia, Kansas State, and Utah. He finished 8-5. For the year, Bugeater and I are now tied, at 52-26, while Imjustamonkey maintained his four game lead at 56 – 22.

Other Notes of Interest:

  • Miami starting RB Mark Walton injured his right ankle against Florida State and will have surgery on it today, ending his season. That’s a huge blow to the Hurricanes, as they do not have any experienced depth behind him
  • Duke, after starting the season so strong, has fallen in successive weeks to Miami and…Virginia. Virginia is now 4-1 on the season, with four winnable games coming up against North Carolina, Boston College, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. Okay, they close the season at Louisville, at Miami, and hosting Virginia Tech, but still; win three of the next four and 7-5 is probable. That’s a huge improvement over last years 2-10 record.
  • Iowa State 38, Oklahoma 31. Whoops. That’s a huge dent in Oklahoma’s CFP resume right there. Then again, it’s a bigger dent in Ohio State’s resume. Plus, if Iowa State could beat Oklahoma…could Nebraska beat a team OU handled? Possibilities abound.
  • Arizona backup QB Khalil Tate came off the bench against Colorado, replacing Brandon Dawkins who suffered an injury in the first quarter. Tate proceeded to run the ball 14 times for 327 yards and four TD’s, breaking Northern Illinois Jordan Lynch’s FBS record for rushing yards by a QB.

That’s it for now. Sorry for the delay; I spent Saturday and Sunday putting together new beds for my twins, and that took a long time. Laugh if you want, but doing double everything takes a while. In any event, I get to pick the games this week. So watch for a new pickem Thursday…as long as I don’t have a long stay on jury duty.