Don't fret and just keep your heads down and keep on winning. That's all that matters.
2015 NCAA Football Thread
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Don't fret and just keep your heads down and keep on winning. That's all that matters.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
If that was all that mattered we'd be screwed . . .
It's so uncomfortable listening to Saban's press conferences. I feel bad for the poor little media guys . . .
It's so uncomfortable listening to Saban's press conferences. I feel bad for the poor little media guys . . .
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ElCee/LC/El Cid
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I don't think Kansas State is very bad at all. That's a top 50 team (F + has them at 31), and while the injuries to TCU's defense will probably catch up with them at some point, they're what, still probably one of the 10 best teams in the country, and with one of the very best offensive players in the country.
In the interests of full disclosure, I actually thought Ohio State played pretty well today too....certainly better than the last four weeks. It might not exactly show it on the statsheet, but that was a blowout.
In the interests of full disclosure, I actually thought Ohio State played pretty well today too....certainly better than the last four weeks. It might not exactly show it on the statsheet, but that was a blowout.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
But what does being a top ten team even mean? Top ten Oklahoma lost to lowly Texas, and not just TCU but fellow 'top ten teams' Alabama and Michigan State could have very easily lost to unranked teams today also. I don't even know why we're talking about TCU, they were probably playing the strongest opponent of the four. And I know it's always like this in October, teams play up and down and it's hard to gauge who the top ten teams really are, but it seems even more chaotic this year than it normally is. A lot of teams are already halfway through their seasons and we still really don't know anything . . .
I'm not going to pretend that I spent four hours watching the Ohio State game, but it does seem like they played better, even if I am just judging by the stat sheet and play-by-play. But then we're back to the question of how hard is it to look good against Maryland? So still, we really don't know anything about Ohio State . . .
I'd be interested in your opinion of Michigan/Michigan State this week, and whether you think either or both still poses a realistic threat to Ohio State at the end of the year . . .
Toledo won again btw. 38-7 over Kent State. Really no one standing in their way at all. Toughest team on their schedule is probably Bowling Green . . ?
Cal/Utah is a lot more competitive atm than I would have expected . . .
Down to sixteen undefeated teams, but we didn't really lose anything. There is still at least one undefeated team in each P5 conference plus the AAC and Toledo . . .
The first teams got bowl eligible this week too -- Florida, Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa, Oklahoma State and TCU . . .
I normally look at the AP or Sagarin when thinking about rankings, but I saw you referenced the F/+ thing, which I hadn't looked at since last bowl season. I remembered we compared it to Sagarin during last bowl season and it fared well once it had a whole season of data to reference, but right now it's got Alabama, Clemson, Stanford, LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, FSU, Notre Dame and A&M as its top ten. Why even mention that . . ?
That might have sounded mean. Right now Sagarin has Alabama, USC, Baylor, Stanford, Oklahoma, Michigan, TCU, Ole Miss, Clemson and Utah in its top ten -- neither Sagarin nor F/+ count the games played today, ofc. So while Sagarin makes a little more sense, it doesn't really have enough data to make good sense yet either. So I didn't mean to say that the F/+ thing was crap, just that all those computer polls are crap until they get sufficient data. Occasionally you have to just watch the teams play and decide for yourself. I'm sure my phone could plot a better path to the bathroom for me, but I've been pissing for myself since I was in my early twenties
And finally, just for Light Cleric there bc I don't think anyone else mentioned it, that was ofc and incredibly cool thing LSU did for SCAR this weekend. It's easy to look at it from the outside with a cynical eye, but I'm not sure Alabama would have treated another school that way and I doubt there are many schools outside the SEC that would have done that either, so kudos sir, well played . . .
I'm not going to pretend that I spent four hours watching the Ohio State game, but it does seem like they played better, even if I am just judging by the stat sheet and play-by-play. But then we're back to the question of how hard is it to look good against Maryland? So still, we really don't know anything about Ohio State . . .
I'd be interested in your opinion of Michigan/Michigan State this week, and whether you think either or both still poses a realistic threat to Ohio State at the end of the year . . .
Toledo won again btw. 38-7 over Kent State. Really no one standing in their way at all. Toughest team on their schedule is probably Bowling Green . . ?
Cal/Utah is a lot more competitive atm than I would have expected . . .
Down to sixteen undefeated teams, but we didn't really lose anything. There is still at least one undefeated team in each P5 conference plus the AAC and Toledo . . .
The first teams got bowl eligible this week too -- Florida, Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa, Oklahoma State and TCU . . .
I normally look at the AP or Sagarin when thinking about rankings, but I saw you referenced the F/+ thing, which I hadn't looked at since last bowl season. I remembered we compared it to Sagarin during last bowl season and it fared well once it had a whole season of data to reference, but right now it's got Alabama, Clemson, Stanford, LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, FSU, Notre Dame and A&M as its top ten. Why even mention that . . ?
That might have sounded mean. Right now Sagarin has Alabama, USC, Baylor, Stanford, Oklahoma, Michigan, TCU, Ole Miss, Clemson and Utah in its top ten -- neither Sagarin nor F/+ count the games played today, ofc. So while Sagarin makes a little more sense, it doesn't really have enough data to make good sense yet either. So I didn't mean to say that the F/+ thing was crap, just that all those computer polls are crap until they get sufficient data. Occasionally you have to just watch the teams play and decide for yourself. I'm sure my phone could plot a better path to the bathroom for me, but I've been pissing for myself since I was in my early twenties
And finally, just for Light Cleric there bc I don't think anyone else mentioned it, that was ofc and incredibly cool thing LSU did for SCAR this weekend. It's easy to look at it from the outside with a cynical eye, but I'm not sure Alabama would have treated another school that way and I doubt there are many schools outside the SEC that would have done that either, so kudos sir, well played . . .
I'm sorry, but I'm the kind of guy who gives a team that plays defense much more respect than those that do not. I simply am not impressed by any team that puts up 50 points a game but allows their opponents to score 30 or 40 points as well. And if last year was any indication, the committee isn't impressed by such performances either.
I'm sorry, but that's just not real football. Say what you want about the Buckeyes, but they play real football. Take Kansas State for example at the end of that game: There was like 7:55 left in the game and they were up by like 5 or something. That is a situation where you run the ball and try to burn up as much clock as possible. But what did K-State do? Threw the ball three straight times and took less than a minute off the clock. That what these teams do nowadays. They try to be flashy and feel like they have to score on every possession or they're a failure. So they just bomb the ball down field on every play and hope that it works. Now that style works when you play another team that plays like that, but once such a team runs into a team that actually plays defense and doesn't try to be flashy on offense, they lose. Why? Because that flashy offense doesn't get the chance to put up 50 points because they don't get their hands on the ball nearly as much against a team that plays more traditional football as they do against a team that plays shootout ball as well. This was proven last year. Everything people are saying about TCU's offense is very similar to what people were saying about Oregon's offense last year. And what happened when Oregon ran into a team that played traditional football? They lost, and lost badly. And the same will happen to TCU once they run into a team that doesn't have a tissue paper defense. Given what I've seen from TCU, I see three extremely likely losses on their schedule: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Baylor.
EDIT: In other news, of the 20 games this week in the Yahoo Pick 'Em I went 11-9. That's my best week so far. I started in week 4 and went 6-8 that week with 2 games that were pushes. I then went 7-10 in week 5 with no pushes. Overall, I'm 24-27. That's not too shabby considering how much of a rollercoaster ride this season has been.
Here were my picks for this week (bolded team is the team I picked). The format is Favorite/Underdog, Spread, and then whether or not I won or lost that one:
1. Va Tech/NC State, 0, Lost
2. Ohio State/Maryland, 33.5, Won
3. Penn Sate/Indiana, 8, Lost
4. Oklahoma/Texas, 17, Won
5. Clemson/Georgia Tech, 7, Lost
6. Nebraska/Wisconsin, 1.5, Won
7. Michigan/Northwestern, 7.5, Lost
8. Georgia/Tennessee, 3, Lost
9. LSU/South Carolina, 13.5, Lost
10. Notre Dame/Navy, 14, Lost
11. Appalachian State/Georgia State, 16, Lost
12. West Virginia/Oklahoma State, 7, Won
13. Alabama/Arkansas, 16.5, Won
14. TCU/Kansas State, 9, Won
15. Florida/Missouri, 5.5, Lost
16. BYU/East Carolina, 7.5, Won
17. Florida State/Miami, 9, Won
18. Michigan State/Rutgers, 14.5, Won
19. Utah/California, 7, Won
20. Hawaii/San Diego State, 1.5, Won
I also predicted Northwestern to score the least amount of points out of those teams for the tie breaker and Oklahoma to score the most, so I was 1-1 on that. As you can see, this was the week of the underdogs as I only picked one favorite and that was Georgia. There is a method I use to make my picks and I adhere to it religiously and it seems to be working decently enough. I was starting to doubt my picks early on though as you can see they didn't do too well, but then I went on an absolute tear in the late games.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
I agree generally that playing defense is better than trying to outscore your opponent, but I disagree as to whether that's what happened in TCU/KState. KState is not a flashy offense by any stretch, but they are a good football team that played well at home vs. a depleted defense. This is the first time they've gone over forty points on offense all year and they've played some pretty soft defenses. I'm not sure I'd file Bill Snyder among the most progressive offensive minds of this generation either. Or among the minds of this generation at all, come to that. But he's still a great football coach, which is why he almost beat TCU at home with an inferior team . . .
And TCU will not lose to Okie State. Probably won't lose to Oklahoma either. I'm not sure anything is going to stand in Baylor's way though. They're probably the only team in the country that hasn't played down to the level of their competition all year . . .
And TCU will not lose to Okie State. Probably won't lose to Oklahoma either. I'm not sure anything is going to stand in Baylor's way though. They're probably the only team in the country that hasn't played down to the level of their competition all year . . .
K-State may not be a flashy offense, but they definitely try to be. It seems the teams of the Big 12 are trying to copy the Pac-12 in their style of play and it's just not working out well for either conference.
And the cracks in TCU's defense were there long before the injuries. The injuries may be making it worse, but their defense was mediocre at best anyway. Plus, I'm a Buckeye fan, so you know I don't want to hear any whining about injuries
.I'm also not entirely convinced about Baylor's defense as well. They seem to be up and down from week to week. One week they are shutting down a team, and the next they are giving up 31 points to Lamar. They need to tighten it up on defense before I start taking them seriously. With that said however, I do have Baylor in my personal top 4 for the playoffs right now.
TCU has stopped more offensive drives than OSU this year.
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Yeah, that story gave me the warm and fuzzies, I gotta admit. A lot of people in the region(and the country as a whole) did a hell of a lot to help Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina, so it's great to see them paying it forward. I was fortunate enough not to have to endure that because I moved to Georgia in late 2003.
Funny that someone complaining about TCU's defense mentions a 3 and out in a key part of the game.
Light Cleric
ElCee/LC/El Cid
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Our defenses were just as effective, yeah
In the major bowl games last year, TCU was the only team that held its opponent to under 20 and in fact held their opponent to 3.
Last year TCU held Minnesota to 7, Ohio State gave up 24. This year gave up 17 to Minnesota, so that's 8 quarters worth of defense giving up the same number of points as 4 quarters worth of "defense".
Last year TCU held Minnesota to 7, Ohio State gave up 24. This year gave up 17 to Minnesota, so that's 8 quarters worth of defense giving up the same number of points as 4 quarters worth of "defense".
Light Cleric
ElCee/LC/El Cid
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If only half those starters were still on this defense, right?
Looks like losing to Ohio State is a fireable offense. Only scoring 28 against OSU after putting up 6 against West Virginia shows a program on the decline.
Only because there have been more offensive drives overall in the games they play. That's like saying cops in a major city are better because they stop more crimes than cops from a small town.
Points/yards allowed by TCU this year: 165/2321
Points/yards allowed by OSU this year: 104/1801
Sorry, but OSU's defense is much, much better than TCU's.
Nice try at taking a dig at OSU, but if you really followed college football at all, you would know that Maryland's coach was getting fired after the Ohio State game regardless of the outcome. I love it when casual fans think they are making some clever joke and just make themselves look like fools.
You mean after they had already given up 42 points to a Big 12 team that is mediocre at best? Yeah, that's some monster defense right there.
I have pointed to 2 games where the Big 12 has had a common opponent with a Ohio state University and the Big 12 had held the team to less points than Ohio State. Based on those results, I wonder what the defensive stat comparison would look like if TCU and Ohio State flipped schedules. I guess there is the possibility that the TCU defense would get choked up in the small town dust storms.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that Big 12 powerhouse Kansas gave up 3 more points to Rutgers than Big 10 straggler Michigan State.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that Big 12 powerhouse Kansas gave up 3 more points to Rutgers than Big 10 straggler Michigan State.
Only looking at specific games is just cherry-picking data to make your team look better. Also, last year's stats are completely irrelevant to this year's stats. Stop manipulating data to make it look like TCU has a good defense when they clearly do not.
You have to consider a team's entire body of work for the season in question to get an accurate assessment of how a team is performing. And I'm sorry, but the numbers simply aren't in TCU's favor. Also, TCU and Ohio State's overall strength of schedule isn't really all that different with TCU's only being a little bit higher than Ohio State's. So they play against a similar quality of opposition and defensively, OSU is simply performing much better than TCU.
And before you knock OSU for getting choked up in small town dust storms, make sure you're team's performance is spotless. Giving up 37 points to SMU, 52 points to Texas Tech, and 45 points to Kansas State. Those are games TCU should have won easily and they struggled.
Face it, there is just no way to make TCU's defense look good without deliberate manipulation of the data.
