Football Friday – lightning round

Football Friday - lightning round

Lightning-fast Football Friday.

Yes, I’m in this picture. As is Rooster, I believe, although it’s kind of hard to get a clean look at him. This is after the 2004 Apple Cup.

Anyway, first, our game – I had a ridiculiously long over-analysis on this game at AOL, and literally as I was typing the last line, I got a fatal error on my internet explorer window, causing a lockup. Sucks, I know. But I lost EVERYTHING. But, maybe that’s a good thing. It forced me to look at things much more on a simple level, and sometimes that’s the best approach.

To me, it’s all about the defenses. Whoever plays better defensively, with more emotion, creates turnovers, etc, will win. It’s going to be a bare-knuckle brawl and will fully lack anything resembling flash-n-dash. That said, I have to go with the Crimson army, returning the top 3 DT’s. The trickle-down from that development alone cannot be overstated. It means more 4-3 defenses, more blockers occupied at the line of scrimmage, very little double-teams of Mkristo, the LB’s are free to fly around and make plays, with the better pass rush off the edges that means life is better for the secondary in pass coverage, on and on and on.

Even though WSU never, never, EVER plays well in this game as a favorite, I’m picking the Cougs to pull it out, 22-19.

Other games:
USC 30, Cal 27 – Boys from Troy lock up the Pac-10. Longshore not what we thought??
ASU 34, UCLA 20 – The Devils are off the mat and playing with confidence again.
OSU 35, Stanford 9 – Beavs strike back after lackluster UCLA loss.
Oregon 27, Arizona 16 – It might be even closer than the score. Arizona has a really good defense, we know that, but their offense has improved to where they can put a scare into anyone.

FINALLY, the biggest game in the history of ever!?!? I’m calling the upset here. I can’t believe Ohio State is a 7-pt fav. I know it’s in Columbus and all that, but still, Michigan is really good. I’m also not totally sold on Ohio State’s defense, and as we know in rivalry games in November, defense usually makes the difference. Michigan 28, Ohio St 27.

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