Thoughts

What a great weekend I had to which to look forward. So many good games scheduled. How could this college football weekend possibly let me down? Well, I'll tell you.

Miami/Florida State was played Friday night (rescheduled. hurricane.) in a game nearly completely devoid of offense. This age old rivalry due to being nearly cross-town rivals turned conference showdown was given the billing of a heavyweight match up. The game did not live up to expectations.
Miami 16 - Florida State 10.

Saturday brought renewed hope as Michigan visited Notre Dame, the team they toyed with last season 38-0. The Wolverines have not won in South Bend in the last 3-4 meetings so there was more pressure on this rival match up. Let's call Saturday's loss to the Fighting Irish a learning experience (euphemisms are beautiful). Let's highlight what the boys in blue learned.

[More:]

1) You cannot win if you turn the ball over repeatedly.
2) You cannot win if you do not score touchdowns.
3) You cannot win if you get beat mentally before the game is over.
Notre Dame 28 - Michigan 20.

Watching Michigan lose was bad. It would not have negated the loss in my mind to see Ohio State lose as well, but I would have felt better. Flipping the channel to the game just in time to see Marshall tie the game with a few minutes to go was a step in the right direction. One defensive stand and the game was headed to overtime. The Thundering Herd defense did it's job in forcing the Buckeyes to punt. All Marshall had to do at this point is run a little offense and let time expire bringing on overtime, or even attempt to mount a last minute scoring drive to win the game. They, in fact, opted for neither. They run a few plays lackadaisically as though overtime is in the bag. 3 and out, no big deal they punt to Ohio State. This doesn't bother them, though I am now on the edge of my seat wondering what they were thinking. Sure the game isn't over, but my blood pressure should not have to rise like this. Wouldn't you know it, Ohio State ends up kicking a 54 yard field goal to win the game. The kicker drilled the ball through the uprights, he had enough leg for another 6-8 yards.
Ohio State 24 - Marshall 21.

Michigan lost. Ohio State won. I'm not happy.

In week 1, not a single top 25 team lost. In week 2, five top 25 teams lost (to unseeded teams). There were, however, some very exciting games. As much as I hate to admit it, the OSU Marshall game was fun to watch at the end and Texas/Arkansas was a great game to watch at the bar Saturday night. Texas squeaked out 22-20 in a game that game down to the wire.