CFTop10 Week 1 Review

What a fantastic first week of football. Other than Florida (who was playing a thoroughly outmatched opponent) almost every team showed a little rust. It is so unfortunate that so many teams are forced to schedule such big games so early. Many of these marquee games would be so much more exciting later in the season when teams have the ability to gel. It's hard in college where players fly in and out so fast that you cannot get a feel for them. Especially with all the rules the NCAA has on summer practices and such. So if you team didn't play very crisp ball, don't fret. There is a lot of football left in the season.

Onto the games.

1. Oregon @ BSU.
Review: FAIL. I picked Oregon and the points. I really thought Oregon would have been able to do so much more than they did. I give a lot of credit to BSU for their gameplan against the spread attack, but Oregon just looked terrible in the trenches. I knew that they would have some issues there, but I had no idea it would be this bad. Now Oregon has to go the rest of the season without the best RB and their best defensive player. I know I said don't fret above..... but Oregon should fret. Right now, this is not a good football team. Boise State on the other hand looks to be a very solid team. The rest of their schedule is pathetic, but they may need to look out for some conference foes who will only get better as the season goes on.

2. BYU v Oklahoma.
Review: PASS. I knew this would be a very interesting game and it was. The loss of Grisham only made this more interesting. The thing I cannot get over is the absolute lack of OL protection OU had. BYU got after them really well. The loss of Bradford IMHO was inevitable with the way they were playing. OU has 2 good players on defense. Reynolds and McCoy. BYU played a very sloppy offense and the loss of Harvey Unga was obvious. I didn't think BYU would win, I knew they would keep it close. Kudo's to Bronco and his Cougs. They came out and played defense and I didn't think they could. With or without Bradford I saw BYU winning this in the second quarter. The Sooners got very conservative with their backup and the pressure would have gotten to Bradford a lot in the second and probably would have caused all sorts of problems (and turnovers).

3. Georgia @ Oklahoma State.
Review: PASS. I didn't doubt this for a second. Georgia played pretty good defense against a very very good offense. OK State is moving up on my list and they are a lot better on defense than last year.

4. Alabama @ VT.
Review: FAIL. Alabama played excellent defense. VT is going to be fine, but their offense needs some more time to get it together. They were completely inept. The Alabama offense just wore them down. I do not expect this offense to score as many points every game but they are going to be very solid. By the way, an extremely boring game to watch. I think that is just Saban's style. Not only does he lull you to sleep with his expressionless face and voice, his teams do the same. They just keep plugging away.

5. Maryland @ Cal
Review: PASS. Cal is a very dangerous team. Balanced offense and very underrated defense. They will give the Trojans a run for their money in the PAC-10, and are also very deserving of a top 10 ranking.

6. LSU @ Washington
Review: FAIL. Wow. All I can say is wow. Sark and Holt have given a pathetic 0-14 team over the last 14 games electroshock therapy. You take away 2 plays and/or some wide receivers to catch 4-5 dropped passes and Washington walks away with a win here. LSU was very lucky to walk out of this one. I knew the Huskies would play hard and that there were some real concerns about the LSU offense, but this game was great. Locker is bigtime player and the Huskies are going to scare some people this year. LSU looked lethargic at times but had a ton more talent and continuity when things got tough. They should get a lot better as their QB gets more experience and their WR's learn to run better routes.

7. Nevada @ Notre Dame
Review: PASS. Nevada still can't play defense and this factored into the score. They just couldn't play clock possession against a Notre Dame team that is very skilled on the outside. I'm not ready to crown Jimmy a Heisman candidate yet (sorry Dr. Lou) but they are obviously better. We'll see how they handle some other teams that are committed to playing defense. I thought Nevada would do more on offense, but once they got down by 2 scores it was obvious their gameplan was shot and they fell apart.

8. Mizzou @ Illinois
Review: FAIL. This is the one that I really failed at. I really expected Illinois to play better than this. Juice and Benn are too good to show like this. Blaine Gabbert is the real deal and will break every Mizzou passing record before he leaves. I am still scratching my head at this one. Illinois is a much better team than this. Mizzou will do well, but I don't expect them to threaten the top of the Big12 this year.

9. Western Mich @ Michigan
Review: PASS. I didn't get to watch this game but Michigan just outclassed WM. Let's see how they fare next week vs ND.

10. Central Mich @ Arizona
Review: PASS. Just barely. The Stoops defense did their job and the offense was rather anemic. I am curious to see how Arizona does over the next few weeks. Their offense needs a lot of work.

We'll see the Miami FSU game tomorrow, but for this week I was 6-4.