NCAA Football Games to Watch This Week
2005-09-17
Posted by: badanov
Five games today top our list of games to watch.
OU at ULCA
As we remarked earlier UCLA has been showing signs of a contender in their last two games, defeating both opponents soundly at home and away.
Regardless of what you hear about OU, this will be a tight game. UCLA's win depends sharply on the trenches, as it is likely OU will once again try to ram the ball down the Bruins' throat. Last week OU sophomore running back Adrian Peterson got the call more than 30 times in their win over Tulsa. Of course that was Tulsa, some fans will say, except that we just don't trust OU coach Bob Stoops enough to believe he or his team will take it lying down. We believe this game will be razor close, closer than the 7 points ULCA has been spotted.
Having said that, OU will almost certainly have to pass the ball more than 11 times, as they did last week to keep up. That is where OU's conundrum is: in a new quarterback. If OU quarterback Rhett Bomar fails to deliver and OU is down, expect to see Paul Thompson step in. The question is will either play caller matter.
Michigan State at Notre Dame
This game will a little closer than the 7 points spread in favor of Notre Dame. We think this game will be close. Michigan State, like Notre Dame has been tearing up its opponents in two wins, against Kent State 49-14, and Hawaii 42-14.
What Michigan State will face will be an strong Irish defense which has held opponents to 15 points per game, almost the same as Michigan State. The difference is that Notre Dame has defeated two ranked opponents and in road games.
Michigan State is riding high on a high powered offense which includes a 78 throwing percentage Drew Stanton who is averaging almost 300 yards per game. Stanton has his choice among receivers with his top three, Terry Love, Jeremy Scott and Kyle Brown all averaging more than 60 yards per game receiving.
We like Michigan State in this game, but straight up we would have to go with the Irish.
Alabama at South Carolina
Alabama is rolling now (pun intended). After two solid wins at home Alabama will enter SEC play at South Carolina an underdog by three points. We like Alabama and we believe its role as an underdog still applies especially after the much touted South Carolina team nearly upset Georgia 17-14 last week at Georgia.
Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle is playing well with 60 percent completion 270 yards per game, but with 3 sacks and a pair of interceptions. This indicates to us a problem on the offensive line that Croyle will have to make up for. It will be critical this game for as much as we like Alabama against USC, Alabama will have to avoid mistakes completely.
The Alabama defense has been phenomenal allowing only 21 yards on the ground per game and 156 yards in the air.
South Carolina's defense has been awful, allowing 185 and 160 yards in passing defense and rushing defense. USC will have to do much better than this against Alabama's offense to get a home win.
Florida State at Boston College
Florida State won in rather convincing style against Miami Labor Day, and thus forced us to take back every bad thing we ever said about FSU. FSU has been winning games with defense, holding opponents to 53 yards per game on the ground, almost as effective as Boston College.
The Seminoles are favored by two points, which is about as close as you can get to pick 'em, but we believe Boston College will have the edge at home. BC has a fairly good quarterback, Quenton Porter who has been averaging 219 yards per game with no interceptions, but two sacks.
FSU's quarterback Drew Weatherford , on the other hand, has been mediocre with 204 yards per game and two interceptions and two sacks, as well as a 54 passing percentage.
Tennessee at Florida
We believe in this game Florida will get to make its case for a top five berth, simply because we believe Tennessee will go down in flames against Florida. The only problem is Tennessee has had two weeks to prepare for this game, while Florida. Has been padding its defensive stats by holding opponents to 192 total yards per game.
While Florida quarterback Chris Leak has been a great quarterback, Florida has also been running the ball a lot, averaging 171 yards rushing per game with running backs like Deshawn Wynn and Marcus Manson.
We can't comment too much on Tennessee since the only game they played so far they almost lost, and doesn't reflect, so we have been told, how good Tennessee really is.
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