2019 CFB Post week 1 thoughts

[The_QCT]

Sorry I'm late - it's been a hectic week.

I'm going to do it a little different this year. I'll give me thoughts on how the Top 5 teams looked...a few others in the poll. Then look ahead at some match-ups. I'll give my current CFP. I am working my own set of power rankings, but want to wait a couple of weeks to release as I want more date to crunch the numbers. Anyway, off we go...

1. Clemson 52, GT 14
- Everybody is talking about Lawrence's performance..or lack there of in this case. :wank:
What that tells me is that most people didn't actually watch the game. GT played 2 high safeties in an effort to take away any big plays. So what did Clemson do? They took what the defense gave them and rushed the ball down their throats for over 400 yards. On one drive, GT got tired of getting gashed on the ground, so the brought one of the safeties up into the box. What happened? Lawrence hit Higgins for a 65 yard TD. Defenses have to pick their poison vs Clemson...try to stop the run and get beat in the passing game - or - try to stop the passing game and get beaten to death on the ground. Either way Clemson will hang half a hundred on you and whoop your ass.

2. Alabama 42, Duke 3
- I think the most alarming and damning thing here is Saban proved he is a POS. How? Alabama's RB1 and RB2 were suspended for the 1st half of this game. However, Alabama struggled to run the ball big time in the first quarter as the score was 0-0 going into the 2nd Q. So what did Saban do? he compromised all of his values (what little he has), realized he needed the RB's and ended the suspensions a quarter early to help his offense. That, my fiends, is the definition of a piece of shit.

3. UGA 30, Vandy 6
- UGA pounded the ball on the ground with an extremely predictable ground game. Their passing game is mediocre and their defense held a bad Vandy team to 6 points.

4. Oklahoma 49, Houston 31
- Everybody needs to remember that this Houston defense gave up 70 points in their bowl game last season....to freakin' Army. So it's bad...really, really, really bad. So as expected Oklahoma's offense rolled and Hurts looked like a heisman contender. Their defense gave up 31 to a bad Houston team. Wake me up when they play somebody.

5. Ohio State 45, FAU 21
- The FAU defense is projected to be one of the worst defenses in America in both efficiency and total...and they showed why in the 1st quarter vs OSU. The game was the tail of 1Q vs 3Q's.

1Q:

Drive 1: 70 yards. Fields 1/1, 5 yards and a 56 yard TD run. Fields is a helluva and athlete and running the football has always been his strength. You'll see a lot more of this through out the year. He is going to put a hurting on some defenses with his legs.

Drive 2: 26 yards. Ohio State got the ball on the FAU 26 to start....so nothing impressive here. Fields was 1/1 for 26 yards and a TD.

Drive 3: 58 yards. Another fairly short field to work with and Fields went 2/2 for 41 yards and a TD.

Drive 4: 46 yards. Yet another short field thanks to plus field position. Fields 1/2 for 29 yards and a TD.

4 TD drives in the 1st quarter with 3 short fields (2 in plus territory) and a total of 5/6 for 101 yards and 3 TD's for Fields. He had wide open WR's all quarter (I don't think he had to go to a 2nd read once) and no pressure from the FAU defense. It's a good performance, but in context, a very easy performance that really any plus QB could have made.

Quarter 2 brought a little adversity for Fields as FAU made some adjustments and brought some pressure. How did OSU's 5 second quarter drives go?

Drive 1: 6 plays for 20 yards, punt.

Drive 2: 3 plays for -2 yards, punt.

Drive 3: 9 plays for 40 yards, Fields fumble.

Drive 4: 3 plays for 2 yards, punt.

Drive 5: 3 plays for 7 yards, Dobbins fumble.

5 drives, 67 yards, 3 punts and 2 TO's. Yikes. How about Fields? 5/10 for 72 yds, 0 TD's, 2 sacks and -9 yards rushing. Pretty different when the defense adjusted and started bringing pressure.

The Buckeyes have a lot to prove vs Cincinnati this weekend.


Other performances:

LSU - beat GA Southern. Looked fine. 22 of 27 passes were under 10 yards.
Michigan - struggled with MTSU.
Texas - Won handidly.


My CFB if it were played this weekend?

1. Clemson - Clearly the best team in the country
2. Alabama - Clearly the 2nd best team in the coutry
3. Oklahoma - Offense hummed, and defense is improving
4. UGA - Ground game and defense are off to good starts

Outside looking in:
5. Ohio State - need to see Fields vs a decent defense. His performance vs FAU's adjustments definitely give me pause.
6. LSU - need to see passing game vs a defense with a pulse
7. Texas - we will learn a lot about them this weekend.

Results:
1. Clemson vs 4. UGA - winner: Clemson. UGA's run game is too predictable. Clemson would beat them by double digits.
2. Alabama vs 3. Oklahoma - winner: Alabama. This is the Hurts vs Alabama match-up that many want to see very badly. However, as of today, Oklahoma doesn't have the defense to beat a top team like Alabama or Clemson.

National Championship:
1. Clemson vs 2. Alabama - winner Clemson. Clemson's offense is better than the offense that hung 44 on them, then took their foot off the gas in the 3rd quarter...then proceeded to smash Alabama in the mouth with a 10 minute 4th quarter drive in which they literally made the Alabama defense quit. Nothing has changed. Clemson 44-31.

 

[jaydog]

All the top teams are playing weak teams. There's not much to see here unless you like to watch exhibition games that count.

The michigan game vs Army was hilarious. Jim Harbaugh sucks. I don't know what happened to him after his 9'er's gig, but geeeez!
:tsk:

 

[The_QCT]

All the top teams are playing weak teams. There's not much to see here unless you like to watch exhibition games that count.

The michigan game vs Army was hilarious. Jim Harbaugh sucks. I don't know what happened to him after his 9'er's gig, but geeeez!
:tsk:

Not true. Clemson played a Top 12 Texas A&M team...and completely dominated them. Texas and LSU was a Top 10 match-up. There have been some good games featuring really good teams...just not very many yet.

I've said it since day 1...Harbaugh is the most overrated coach in America.

 

[jaydog]

It's to bad they schedule these out of conference games so many years in advance. It makes it difficult to schedule a good up and coming team/program before they get too big. Once a team gets big the other teams do not want to play each other figuring we'll just play them in the playoffs.

So like the Buckeyes could have scheduled a solid team like Texas a few years ago and it would actually be relevant now. Or a team like Georgia. Four or five years ago nobody saw Georgia being as good as they are now.

Btw, has Clemson and OSU ever played each other during the regular season? I know they've met a few times, but how many were regular season games?
:confused2::thinking:

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Oh yeah. I agree. Jim Harbaugh is a douche.

John on the other hand is a phenomenal coach.

 

[The_QCT]

It's to bad they schedule these out of conference games so many years in advance. It makes it difficult to schedule a good up and coming team/program before they get too big. Once a team gets big the other teams do not want to play each other figuring we'll just play them in the playoffs.

So like the Buckeyes could have scheduled a solid team like Texas a few years ago and it would actually be relevant now. Or a team like Georgia. Four or five years ago nobody saw Georgia being as good as they are now.

Btw, has Clemson and OSU ever played each other during the regular season? I know they've met a few times, but how many were regular season games?
:confused2::thinking:

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Oh yeah. I agree. Jim Harbaugh is a douche.

John on the other hand is a phenomenal coach.

Although I agree that scheduling OOC so far in advance provides some challenges, I disagree that it's difficult to schedule a good team.

- Clemson scheduled A&M when Manziel was there - they are still a good team today.
- Clemson scheduled a future series (3 games) with Georgia 2 years ago (while they were going to the National Championship). - there is little chance they won't be good.
- Clemson scheduled a future series with LSU - there is little chance they won't be good.
- Clemson schedule a future series with Oklahoma - there is little chance they won't be good.

If you are scheduling traditional powers like Clemson has, there is a pretty good bet your OOC schedule will be strong.

Ohio State scheduled a future series (which we are seeing) with TCU back in 2014 when they were 12-1. However the 2 seasons before (1st 2 in the Big 12) they were 4-8 and 7-6. There wasn't much of chance they would maintain that level of play for the next 4-5 years. And they didn't.

Ohio State has future series scheduled with Oregon (not consistently good or a power); Washington; Boston College and Texas. Out of all those teams, which one has been consistently really good? Washington maybe? But they haven't consistently won the Pac 12 and have been destroyed when playing in the CFP (24-7). Texas is improving and should be good moving forward.

Which OOC slate is tougher:

Georgia, LSU, A&M and Oklahoma
-or-
Texas, Washington, Oregon and Boston College

**both have Notre Dame

It's not even a question. But here is the big difference. Clemson AD Dan Radakovich was on the college football playoff committee it's first 4 years; so he knows what the committee wants to see in an out of conference schedule. The SEC is widely views as the best conference in America...the Pac 12 is looked at as a bunch of crap. Radakovich knows that beating SEC teams give you a lot more credit with the CFP than beating Pac 12 teams....so he schedules the top SEC teams he can (SCar is on the schedule every year) - meanwhile, OSU is scheduling non-difficult Pac 12 schools.

Remember when Clemson went to the CFP with 1 loss and won the title? That's because he knows how to schedule.

The point being it's not as difficult as it seems. Ohio State would be much smarter scheduling traditional 8-4 SEC teams than 11-1 Pac 12 teams.