I just want to start this weeks post off by saying that I purposely decided to not post last week because I wanted to do the Michigan v. Michigan State game, but I felt as if my bias would of come into play a little to much seeing as I do not like the Michigan Wolverines (check prior posts about them), but I do like the Michigan State Spartans, so that would of been a train wreck of a post. Anyway back to the game at hand.
This game was an upset. Plain and simple. Illinois didn't play to their full potential and Purdue definitely took advantage of Illinois shortcomings and exploited them. As you can see, Purdue is generally a mediocre team when it comes to their record, winning a hand full and losing a handful. On the other side of the field is Illinois, a team that generally wins a majority of their games, plays in bowl games and wins. Illinois fans saw this game as an opportunity to move their team up in the rankings, but it didn't turn out that way. I personally am a fan of any kind of upset, underdog win, so this to me was a good game.
Purdue took the lead early, with the only points scored in the first and second quarters. The first touchdown came with only three minutes left in the quarter, completed by a 6 yard pass from quarterback Caleb Terbush to Justin Siller. This put Purdue up 7-0. In the second quarter, a phenomenal run by halfback Raheem Mostert of the Purdue Boilermakers but 7 more on the board, with 12 minutes to still play in the quarter. He ran for 21 yards on that play and that was his only carry of the game. Fast forward four minutes and Purdue was looking to put the score, in their favor, up by three touchdowns. Quarterback Caleb Terbush completed a 4 yard pass to receiver Jared Crank. Terbush threw for 178 yards with 2 touchdown passes.
The third quarter became a blur, as both teams did nothing but punt the ball making for horrible TV and also horrible football. I felt like I was watching a youth football game. It is good to note that even though the game went sour in the third quarter, the Purdue crowd was still on their feet ranting and raving for their team to complete this upset. Consequently, this crowd fell silent in the fourth quarter. This is why.
Illinois decided that they finally wanted to play football. Purdue's hopes of an underdog victory started to become a meek dream. With eight minutes left in the game, Illinois's halfback Jason Ford grabbed the ball for a 16 yard run, which resulted in Illinois first touchdown of the game. putting the score at 21-7. Ford ran for 83 yards on 10 carries, basically being shut out by the Purdue defense. Illinois comeback once again flared with 54 seconds left in the game, when a 2 yard run by quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase put the game at 21-14. Illinois decided to go for the on-side kick, the drama was high, the crowd was loud and the kick was returned by Purdue. The crowd went even more insane. Purdue ran out the clock for probably their biggest win of the season, giving them some momentum to hold onto going into week 9 when they play rival (and once again my number one hated team) #18 Michigan, in the Big House. Don't count Illinois out of their own game though, every good team has a down game and loses as a consequence. Illinois who lost their ranking will step into #19 Penn States house, but I wouldn't count them out of that one just yet. I actually hope both Purdue and Illinois win their games this week. I just want to point out, also that Michigan State jumped to #11 in the rankings and are playing #14 Nebraska at Nebraska. This should be a great week of football.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
San Jose (2-4) at Brigham Young University (4-2) played 10/8/11
This week I wanted to choose two teams that are within one point on the ranking scales, just to show that every game isn't boring like the last two games that I have covered. Unfortunately, as I was watching the games on Saturday and Sunday I noticed that not many of the top 25 teams played others that were also part of the top 25. My second choice was to cover a game that ended in an upset (where the worse team beats the better team), then I noticed that didn't happen either. So I said whatever, I will just cover Brigham Young again. Why not, so here we go:
The first points on the board game with a safety from San Jose, putting BYU up by 2 early in the game. BYU seemed to control the game as if San Jose didn't even matter, putting seven on the board with a 21 yard pass from quarterback Riley Nelson to receiver Richard Wilson, putting San Jose down by 9 with a lot of game to play in the first quarter. San Jose finally found some room to put a score on the board before the end of the first quarter, but the drive resulted in a twenty-four yard field goal by kicker Jens Alvernik.
The second quarter was once again dominated by the Cougars (BYU) who eventually went up twenty at the end of the quarter. Two scoring drives resulted in this large lead, first with a 1 yard pass from Nelson to receiver Bryan Kariya for 7 points, and an impressive 40 yard pass from Nelson to McKay Jacobson to put the Cougars ahead 23-3 with a lot of game to play. San Jose once again put themselves on the board with a fieldgoal in the diminishing seconds of the half from kicker Jens Alvernik from 40 yards. The score at the end of the half was 23-6.
The second half started off with what the commentators and myself to believe that San Jose would come back, seeing as BYU is known for their second half let-down losses. This started to become a reality when (in a San Jose dominated quarter) San Jose finally recorded their first touchdown, which put them within ten of the Cougars. The drive ended with a run from halfback Jason Simpson to put the score at an intimidating 23-12. BYU and San Jose basically flipped roles in the second half, at the end of the third quarter BYU sent on their kicking team to put three through the uprights from 42 yards by the Cougars most impressive kicker Justin Sorenson (Sorenson has kicked for 40 points in the season).
The fourth quarter turned out to be a let down by both teams, seeing as both teams only scored one field goal each. First, San Jose with a 43 yarder from kicker Alvernik. Then an impressive 45 yard kick from BYU kicker Sorenson. Ending the game with a score of 29-16
San Jose had a great chance to come back and maybe pull a win over the struggling BYU Cougars. Although, their offense and their defense let down the comeback. Not saying that BYU's offense and defense were performing at top notch. Although, until the fourth quarter this was a very entertaining game to watch.
The second quarter was once again dominated by the Cougars (BYU) who eventually went up twenty at the end of the quarter. Two scoring drives resulted in this large lead, first with a 1 yard pass from Nelson to receiver Bryan Kariya for 7 points, and an impressive 40 yard pass from Nelson to McKay Jacobson to put the Cougars ahead 23-3 with a lot of game to play. San Jose once again put themselves on the board with a fieldgoal in the diminishing seconds of the half from kicker Jens Alvernik from 40 yards. The score at the end of the half was 23-6.
The second half started off with what the commentators and myself to believe that San Jose would come back, seeing as BYU is known for their second half let-down losses. This started to become a reality when (in a San Jose dominated quarter) San Jose finally recorded their first touchdown, which put them within ten of the Cougars. The drive ended with a run from halfback Jason Simpson to put the score at an intimidating 23-12. BYU and San Jose basically flipped roles in the second half, at the end of the third quarter BYU sent on their kicking team to put three through the uprights from 42 yards by the Cougars most impressive kicker Justin Sorenson (Sorenson has kicked for 40 points in the season).
The fourth quarter turned out to be a let down by both teams, seeing as both teams only scored one field goal each. First, San Jose with a 43 yarder from kicker Alvernik. Then an impressive 45 yard kick from BYU kicker Sorenson. Ending the game with a score of 29-16
San Jose had a great chance to come back and maybe pull a win over the struggling BYU Cougars. Although, their offense and their defense let down the comeback. Not saying that BYU's offense and defense were performing at top notch. Although, until the fourth quarter this was a very entertaining game to watch.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Auburn (4-1) at #10 South Carolina (4-1) played 10/1/11 (PT1/2)
This week I decided that I wanted to finally do a blog post on my favorite team in the whole league, which happens to be the Auburn Tigers. At the beginning of week 5, Auburn was not ranked at all, even though they were heading into the bout with three wins and no losses. Their opponent for week five was undefeated South Carolina, with four wins and no losses. They were also ranked 10 going into the game. I was personally excited for this game because, being an Auburn fan I know that they are good enough to beat a top 10 team in the league, this is because they won the NCAA National Championship last year (being between the number one and two team in the nation).
The first quarter started off uneasy for Auburn when they failed to get the ball down the field twice before they finally reached field goal position, and kicker Cody Parkey was able to put it through for 3 points. Auburn held that three point lead for about three minutes when South Carolina received a touchdown from an impressive 50 yard pass from quarterback Stephan Garcia to receiver Alshon Jeffrey. Good turned to bad for the South Carolina offense though, because Auburn proceeded to block the extra point attempt, epically limiting them to 6 points instead of season, keeping Auburn in field goal range. The rest of the quarter ended without the scoreboard changing.
The second quarter was fairly quiet, the first and only points that went on the board came nine minutes into the quarter after a fierce drive down the field by Auburn offense. A touchdown was finally put in with a run by halfback Michael Dyer in the third quarter. Ironically, Auburn missed their extra point, almost exactly a quarter after blocking a South Carolina extra point conversion.
As the game was winding down and us Auburn fans were getting very worried that the game would end in a loss, Auburn got their stuff together and made a final drive down the field, resulting in a 9 yard pass from Barrett Trotter to Philip Lutzenkirchen for 7 points, the extra point was actually converted this time, putting Auburn up by 3 with one minute and twenty-eight seconds left in the game. Auburn's defense was very clutch in this situation and shit down South Carolina's offensive drive, ending the game with an Auburn victory, solidifying the thought that Auburn does not need star NFL rookie quarterback Cam Newton, and also promising hope for the rest of the season after a shaky start.
Because of the win over a top ten team, Auburn jumped to number 15 in the nation heading into week 6.
The first quarter started off uneasy for Auburn when they failed to get the ball down the field twice before they finally reached field goal position, and kicker Cody Parkey was able to put it through for 3 points. Auburn held that three point lead for about three minutes when South Carolina received a touchdown from an impressive 50 yard pass from quarterback Stephan Garcia to receiver Alshon Jeffrey. Good turned to bad for the South Carolina offense though, because Auburn proceeded to block the extra point attempt, epically limiting them to 6 points instead of season, keeping Auburn in field goal range. The rest of the quarter ended without the scoreboard changing.
The second quarter was fairly quiet, the first and only points that went on the board came nine minutes into the quarter after a fierce drive down the field by Auburn offense. A touchdown was finally put in with a run by halfback Michael Dyer in the third quarter. Ironically, Auburn missed their extra point, almost exactly a quarter after blocking a South Carolina extra point conversion.
As the game was winding down and us Auburn fans were getting very worried that the game would end in a loss, Auburn got their stuff together and made a final drive down the field, resulting in a 9 yard pass from Barrett Trotter to Philip Lutzenkirchen for 7 points, the extra point was actually converted this time, putting Auburn up by 3 with one minute and twenty-eight seconds left in the game. Auburn's defense was very clutch in this situation and shit down South Carolina's offensive drive, ending the game with an Auburn victory, solidifying the thought that Auburn does not need star NFL rookie quarterback Cam Newton, and also promising hope for the rest of the season after a shaky start.
Because of the win over a top ten team, Auburn jumped to number 15 in the nation heading into week 6.
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