College Football Week 10 Analysis

Yesterday’s football slate ended up being quite sub par when I came to quality games.  And living in Dallas, I couldn’t catch the local coverage of the ACC games.  But, here are some notes and thoughts on what I saw in yesterday’s action.  Be sure to check out my post from earlier on the LSU vs Alabama game as well. 

The Crazy Big Ten:

In the past three weeks in the Big Ten, six ranked teams have been upset and chaos is ensuing atop the conference standings.  Right now eight teams are already bowl eligible with Northwestern and Purdue still close to making it as well.  Additionally, 7 teams have 2 or fewer losses in conference play; making these last few weeks extremely interesting.  I said last week that I thought Nebraska would meet Wisconsin the title game; but, with Nebraska’s loss, I will revise that to say that I think we will see Michigan State vs Wisconsin.  Be on the look out for next week’s version of the “Weekly Big Ten Championship Game Pick”!

Oklahoma State’s Big Play Defense:

We saw last night what happens when a team that takes risks on defense doesn’t get the big plays that they need.  In the first 8 games this season Oklahoma State was able to force 30 turnovers or 3.75 per game! That is a ridiculous amount.  They were able to do this by taking risks on defense.  They over purse the quarterback, try to strip the football and jump routes looking for interceptions.  Last night, this strategy didn’t work, and a patient Kansas State team was able to take advantage.  Thankfully, their offense is so solid that they were able to win without relying on their defense to provide them with a short field.  When matched up with other aggressive Big 12 teams, look for Oklahoma State to get back to their normal self in forcing turnovers.  However, if forced to face a power / running offense again like Kansas State, we will have to see if their offense can make up the difference again.

Week 10 Picks Review:

This week I went 6-2 overall missing two silly ACC games.  I’m not sure why I thought Duke would win, I probably was just (1) really hoping that Miami would embarrass themselves and (2) wanting Virginia Tech’s close win last week to look better.  My other miss was on Wake Forest who took a 7 pt lead into halftime, but just couldn’t score at all in the second half.  On the other hand, the NCState vs UNC game went like I thought it would.  NCState showed up at home and UNC didn’t on the road; just like they have all season.