It feels pretty damned good to be wrong sometimes.
Arlington Heights 34, Dunbar 29
#15 Texas Christian 14, at Clemson 10
UBuffalo 13, at Temple 37
at #25 Nebraska 55, Louisiana-Lafayette 0
at Dallas 21, Carolina 7
First, a shout-out to Bucky, which managed to get by Michigan State, 38-30.  The Badgers are 4-0, and I think even HDD would have to be impressed. 
—
Arlington Heights’ version of Donnell Dickerson this year is a young man by the name of Marquis Jackson.  According to the write-up from the Startlegram, Jackson…
caught three long touchdown passes and ran for 52 yards as a Wildcat-formation quarterback to steal the spotlight from Dunbar’s blue-chip wide receiver, Darius White.
Jackson, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior, no doubt worked his way up in the minds of recruiters, including perhaps Texas assistant coach Major Applewhite, in attendance to watch White.
Not bad – but the view from here is that he oughta go to TCU.
—
Well, I was  gonna say, “As was the case two years ago, Temple proved too much for UBuffalo…”  Then I realized that I made a minor faux pas  on that recap – the Bulls actually got creamed by Rutgers.
But like that Rutgers game two years ago, this one was over at halftime.  Zach Maynard threw 4 interceptions, one of them a pick-six, and James Nixon took a kickoff return back 95 yards for another score as Temple beat UBeefalo for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Naaman Roosevelt caught 8 of Maynard’s 26 completions (41 attempts) for 120 yards.  But the running game is still MIA, as Thermilus only had 31 yards on 8 carries.  This team positively misses James Starks.
—
This wasn’t quite  what I meant…but it’ll do.
Last week, I said maybe the Cornhuskers should ditch the West Coast offense for the old throwback option offense.
Instead, they wore their old throwback jerseys that are as old as I am – no, seriously – they are, literally – and got the expected squash against a I-AA opponent.
Zac Lee was 15-18 for 238 yards and a score, and Roy Helu Jr rumbled for 83 yards on 15 carries.  The Blackshirt defense contributed two scores on a fumble recovery in the end zone and a pick-six.
Told you the Cornhuskers were pissed. 
UPDATE:  Denizen & fellow blogger/PFWer HDD correctly points out that Lou-La is, in fact, a Division I-A school, out of the Sun Belt conference.
T-BONE MCMANX:  There’s a difference?
VENOMOUS:  Hush, you… 
—
Speaking of TCU…now that’s  more like it.
I’ll be honest with you guys:  I didn’t follow the game like I normally would, because I was certain the Frogs were going to blow it and let the Tiger receivers run right through them.
But TCU – well, let’s let ESPN tell you about it:
The Horned Frogs lived up to their reputation as rock-solid defenders. They held Clemson to 117 yards in the second half and stopped the Tigers twice on fourth-quarter drives inside the TCU 20.
“Our defense has played great. It’s nice to have them on our team,” [QB Andy] Dalton said. “On offense, you don’t want to have games 14-10. But it’s nice to come out with wins like that.”
I wouldn’t complain too much about this one, Andy.  They’re not ranked, but like you guys, Clemson’s a damned  good team at home.
Dalton accounted for 312 yards all by himself, going 17-26-226 and calling his own number 19 times for 86 yards.
—
With about five minutes left in the game, this was my recap:
At this rate, Jerry’s Folly™ is gonna set the record for the world’s largest mausoleum.
Against an 0-2 team with an even more immobile quarterback than the one just benched in Tampa Bay, the Cowgirls laid yet another egg.
That’s “egg” as in “goose egg”.  That’s “goose egg” as in the one they laid in the first half against a defense on which the Falcons & Beagles seemed to have no problem scoring.  Their best shot came during their first drive of the game, where the offensive line’s inability to protect Romo and the resulting sack led to a field-goal attempt.  Which Nick Folk promptly missed.
In the third quarter, the C’Girls had the ball inside the two, with two downs to punch it in.  Third down got one yard.  Fourth down, goal – rookie tight end John Phillips flinches.  Seven points turns into three.  (They would finally put together a subsequent drive for a touchdown later in the third.)
In the fourth quarter, Jason Garrett suffered the Mother Of All Brain Farts™.  Inside the one, second & goal, he calls two fade routes, both of which Romo overthrows (the second one extremely miserably), rather than ram it down the Panthers’ throats.  The C’girls settle for another three.
In fact, the only thing the C’girls seemed to do well all night long was run the ball, which makes Garrett’s calls all the more puzzling.
Meanwhile, the Cowgirls own Swiss Cheese Secondary™ continues to allow opposing quarterbacks to play pitch-and-catch, and the front seven continues to put up only token resistance.  Jake Delhomme was pressured only once during the first half, and it appears that we’re finally figuring out just how valueable Greg Ellis was to this team, as replacement and first-round bust Anthony Spencer hasn’t done shit from the other side.  (They finally got their first sack of the year in the third quarter – by Jay Ratliff.  As in nose tackle Jay Ratliff.)  A 74-yard TD pass from Delhomme would get called back on a penalty.
At that point, Terrence Newman intercepted a Delhomme pass and ran it in, then Tashard Choice went around right tackle Marc Colombo for the two-point conversion.
On the ensuing possession, Victor Butler stripped the ball from Delhomme, and Jason Hatcher recovered, giving Jerry Jones his first win in his new playhouse.  And all after I’d predicted that Carolina would rip Dallas to shreds.
Like I said – it feels pretty damned good to be wrong sometimes.
This week:  4-1.  Overall:  15-8.
We’ll cover the concept of the “trap game” when the PFW reconvenes on Friday.  See you then.
Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: limits in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853
Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: groupby in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853
Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: limits in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853
Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: groupby in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853
Notice: Theme without comments.php is deprecated since version 3.0.0 with no alternative available. Please include a comments.php template in your theme. in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 4027
3 responses to “PFW:  I need to be wrong like this more often (UPDATED)”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
A 4-0 start is a 4-0 start. I’ll not complain about it.
The Spartans-Badger wasn’t as close as the score. The Spartans needed two TDs in the final 2:07 to get the score that close.
Maybe, just *maybe*, Coach Bielema installed a different enough system at the UW that it took a few years for the players to fully buy into it. But, I’m still withholding judgment until more of the season is under their belt.
I wouldn’t crow too much about the Cowboys’ victory. They won, sure, but, they *had* to win that game. The ‘Girls look terrible, and the ‘Girls won’t win until they fire the idiot owner. It’s not good when your owner is trying to outdo Al “Sea Monster” Davis as Worst Owner in the League.
Oh, uh…you need to do your homework a little better. Louisiana-LaFayette isn’t 1-AA. It’s a 1-A school, out of the Sun Belt Conference.
They are?  Dang.  Coulda sworn they were 1-AA.
Okay, I’ll update it soon as I get back from my sis-in-law’s b’day dinner. Brazilian churrascarias  wait for no man. 🙂