1. Boise St./Virginia Tech. The Hokies crap the bed early and late against the Broncos. Can someone please tell me why Va Tech threw the ball on 3rd down with two minutes to play? Boise doesn't have any timeouts left and you throw the ball? That play is very Charlie Weis-esque in my opinion. Of course in the end saving those 45 seconds proves to be useful since Boise scored 3 plays after the punt, but how do you not put as much pressure as possible on the opponent by running the clock down to around 1:00 after the change of possession?
2. Ain't Karma a Bitch. Ole Miss has no interest in Jeremiah Masoli until they have a need for him. After Masoli's waiver request is denied, Houston Nutt publicly cries for a reversal on appeal. Ole Miss and Masoli win the appeal and Masoli is allowed to play immediately, which he does. Ole Miss then loses to Jacksonville St. at home in OT. The universe sometimes rights itself all on its own.
3. Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Miami and Florida State all played well against weaker opponents. They face a true test of their ability this weekend. Bama has the easiest game, playing #19 Penn St. at home. Georgia plays at South Carolina, Tennessee opens the week as a 2 touchdown underdog to Oregon (who toasted Mike Locksley's Lobos 72-0), Miami travels to C-bus and Florida State goes to Norman. This weekend's slate of games is another reason to forget about last weekend!
4. Offensively our game was almost unwatchable. 8 fumbles, missed blocks, dropped passes, no running game to speak of until midway through the 4th quarter. Here is what we found out - the fans can talk all we want about playmakers but the fact of the matter is that without good offensive line play we will be in for a very long season.
For reasons I have yet to find out, Carl Johnson (and Will Hill) were suspended Friday for the opening game. In addition to that Sam Robey went down with a minor injury earlier in the week (which of course means half the season in Meyer coach-speak). This meant we had five offensive lineman playing their first game at their respective positions; and no viable option to replace a struggling center. Throw in a new fullback (T.J. Pridemore) and you have a recipe for disaster.
The problems Pouncey had at center are well documented and don't need to be re-hashed, although I was a little amused by the revelation that Mike will be using a towel this week during his press conference today. The bigger issue to me was the line play when we did get the snap into Brantley's hands. We had absolutely no running game before the big Demps run, and no inside running game at all. Maybe the erratic snaps were throwing off timing or maybe there was hesitation by the backs due to being surprised the ball landed in Brantley's hands, I don't know but I do know our offense had no rhythm whatsoever. Also the Miami coaching staff was yelling out our plays based on our formation before the snap. Predictable is never good, especially when it comes to play calling.
While the offense's play was borderline horrific, the defense showed why Meyer was so happy with the hire of Coach Austin. One would think that the defense will only be better with the return of Will Hill this week. We got pressure from both the inside and the outside linemen. Our linebackers, especially Bostic, played very well and it looks like Janoris Jenkins was playing at his 2008 level again. Overall I would give the defense's performance an A.
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