LSU/TCU and other Top 25 ramblings

What an opening Saturday of college football, and there are still 2 more games to go?? Awesome. Well, as promised here is the run-down on the TCU/LSU game which will be followed by a quick hit of other Top 25 action, as well as a peek in on the teams I listed in my "Teams to Watch" blog. I'll get around to talking about Oklahoma State before it's all over as well, I promise.

LSU 37 TCU 27

I was not shocked by how the game ended; I expected LSU to pull it out, but the game was everything I expected it to be. There were big hits, TCU never folded, and these teams battled to the end.

So how does the LSU offense look under Cameron? The philosophy looks exactly the same as it did last year. LSU is going to run the ball, LSU is going to eat up clock, and LSU is going to grind you down, beat you down, and punish you. The play-calling looked much improved over last year. I did not feel like LSU was beating their head against the proverbial brick wall with that mind numbing "lets run the same play over and over until the game is over" mentality. There was an awesome call of a draw play, play-action was used very effectively and Mettenberger showed a lot of growth which I will get to in a minute. With everyone going faster on offense this year, LSU is NOT one of those teams. They put together drives of 69, 80, 69, and 68 yards with the shortest number of plays being 7 and the shortest time being 3:03. Their 14 play, 68 yard, 6:09 TD drive was huge. LSU also only had 3 drives of 3 plays against a very good TCU defense. I did count 16 first down runs before the final drive, but un-like in the past, these runs served to set up very good play-action on first down and some really good second down runs.

Bottom line on the LSU offense was 80 plays, 36 minutes of possession, 197 rushing yards, and 251 passing. They wore down the TCU defense in the 4th quarter and had two great performances from 2 talented backs. Magee ran for 95 yards and Blue ran for 89. Jeremy Hill didn't play and that's scary when you think about what that running game will be with him back. The LSU offense did this to a TCU D that ranked 16th in the country playing in the B12. That's big time. The only they need work on is their red-zone efficiency - score the damn touchdown!

Mettenberger, the QB for LSU showed a lot of improvement. I was shocked to see his line at only 16 completions and 32 attempts. But if you factor out the 4 pass interferences (only 1 of these was called), the 2 dropped passes, and the 2 screen plays that never developed, Mettenberger was 16 of 24 and only made a few bad throws. But he made some throws late in the game that I don't think he makes last year. He hit Landry for the game sealing touchdown on an incredible pass with a defender all over Landry. Mettenberger also made an incredible pass to Beckham down the sideline for a first down on a critical drive. If you need more proof, Mettenburger was 8 of 14 on third down and all 8 of those completions resulted in first downs. That's clutch.

Another big question heading into this year for LSU was the young defense. This is all you need to know: Allen, Ferguson, Johnson, and Rasco. Those are the names of the front 4 for LSU and they look to be every bit as good as last year's group. They were firing off the ball all game, they were aggressive, and were generally causing chaos and flying around all game long. I am not sure about the LB's and DB's yet, but the DB's shut TCU down on their final drive, denying anything and everything to the TCU receivers. Not to say that the defense did not take its bumps in this game. For me, the LSU defense is a bend at first, lets see what the other team has kind of defense early on, and then they proceed to take everything away from you. This is how it was working against TCU and then TCU made a quarterback change, which I feel took the LSU defense out of its rhythm mid-game and TCU was able to make some plays. But lets be clear, TCU scored 27 points, but the LSU D only gave up 20.

So what did I see out of TCU? Exactly what I expected. This team is a team that is going to be right at the top of the B12 and has a great chance to win it and go to a huge bowl game. IF they continue to play Boykin at QB. This kid made some great throws with LSU lineman putting him on his back and being all around his feet. He threw a perfect strike while taking a huge hit on 3rd and 17 and the pass ended up in a 35 yard gain. On another 3rd down, he single-handedly ran away from the LSU defense to gain 10 yards and a first down. Boykins is the real deal. Another bright spot for TCU is a kid named Catalon. This guy has real speed in the open field and scored on a 20+ yard run and returned a kick 100 yards for a touchdown. Watch out for him, and I would look for TCU to find more ways to put the ball in his hands as the season goes. TCU did only managed two sustained drives against LSU and only 259 yards of offense. Like I said earlier, I did not expect TCU to win this game, but they showed everything that I expected out of them. Tough D, a strong offense, and a huge desire to win. They will not quit and they will not go away.

On a down side for both teams however, there was a knack for making dumb penalties at wrong times. Both teams seemed to get rattled at different times and not execute. LSU must eliminate mental errors like this going forward in the SEC. At the end of the half dumb penalties cost LSU a chance to score a touchdown with a delay of game and a false start. TCU, late in the game, got called for 12 men on the field and a false start on the same drive. When asked about the penalties Les Miles said, "...that's un-typically of us..."  That's right, "un-typically."

Last but not least you cannot talk about an LSU game with debating the Hatter impact. It looked like the Hatter struck early as TCU fumbled their first kick return. However my fiance called it right when she said of the TCU kick returner, "He should know better than to hold his baby like that." Then there was some wackiness at the end of the half where there was a penalty on LSU for a lineman taking their helmet off and TCU ran off the field, but then there was no penalty on LSU and TCU had to come back onto the field so LSU could kick the field goal. And at one stretch it was almost Hatter in reverse as LSU fumbled for the first time in over 300 attempts and the offense stalled out for 2 consecutive series and let TCU get right back into the game.

Bottom line is both of these teams will be a force this year. Depending on what happens next week we could very well see LSU jump over Georgia and grab a top 10 spot. I really hope TCU does not fall out of the polls because of this loss, because as long as they start Boykin and don't have to play LSU every week, they will win a lot of games.

Other quick hits from around the Top 25

Alabama - Saban has some work to do. That Alabama team cannot go into SEC play and expect to come out looking like a National Champion. If you factored out the kick return touchdown, the punt return touchdown, and the interception return for a touchdown, Alabama actually was behind 10-7 for most of the game. McCarron had a horrible day by Alabama standards. The defense looked shaky as well and if the Virginia Tech receivers could catch, I wonder how the game might have come out.

Ohio State - What if Buffalo doesn't fumble at the goal line at the start of the 4th quarter and instead they scored a TD and made it a 10 point game? I doubt it changes the ending, but it would have made it interesting, but I also doubt you will hear anyone on ESPN talk about that.

Oregon - Over 700 yards of offense? Check. Over 60 points scored? Check. Taking care of Nichols and Dime state? What do you think?

Georgia/Clemson - I am very happy for Clemson, their defense made some plays, Boyd made some plays and they looked the part of a potential national champ. But lets be honest, Georgia gives a game away every year and it looks like they were trying to gift wrap this one at times. The Georgia D is going to be better than what people think, those young kids made a lot of plays against Clemson and kept Georgia in it. But what can you do when your senior QB fumbles deep in your own territory? Easy TD for an offense like Clemson. Then what can you do when your senior QB throws an INT after you recovered a fumbled punt return? What can you do when your senior QB makes questionable throws and decisions through-out one of the biggest games of the year. Georgia also committed 9 turnovers for 84 yards and that's no way to beat a top 10 team. Then finally, what can you do when Clemson's D has a huge goal line stand and then your special teams botch the field goal? It's all about execution in the Top 10 and Georgia did not do that when they had the opportunities. Clemson did. The bad news is Georgia gets South Carolina next week and are in danger of dropping from the Top 10 and being replaced by LSU. What can you do?

South Carolina - The offense is MUCH better than what I expected from them. The o-line and the running backs are going to cause problems for a lot of teams, Georgia being one. I am not sure about the Gamecock D though. If their front 4 does not get pressure it does not look like there is enough experience or maybe talent behind them to make a big difference. The defense does have good speed but can they use that to their advantage enough to get where they want to go this season?

Texas A&M - what an impact one player can make to both sides of the ball, it was like a completely different team on both sides after half...or maybe it had something to do with some of those suspended defensive players coming back as well. We won't know anything about the A&M D until they get all those players back in 2 weeks and if Bama hasn't fixed that offensive line we not know much then. As for that guy who signs autographs...sigh...do we really have to act like we are signing autographs as a celebration? or that it is raining money on us? and are we really talking trash to the RICE defense?? You let Rice get under your skin? Classy guy, no really, I'm glad to see he's learning from where he's been. I know I defended him for being 20, but eventually a kid grows up...right? I don't know, this is a football blog, not a parenting guide.

Oklahoma did not score a point in the first quarter today. Then they ran for 305 yards, scored a bunch, and shut out that poor school of the blind that they were playing in week 1.

Speaking about B12 offenses, Texas failed to score till there was only 1:28 before half time and they were down 7-0 to NMSU. Then 54, 66, 74, 25, and 55 happened. The first 4 of those being the lengths of touchdown passes by UT QB Ash and the last being the length of his touchdown run. By the way, New Mexico never scored again.

Tommy Rees of Notre Dame had a good game....against Temple...No really, the was 16 of 23 for over 300 yards and the most important thing for him: no turnovers.

Michigan and Florida: Look at these numbers:
  One school put up 463 yards of offense, 221 passing, and 242 rushing.
  The other put up 415 total, 153 passing, and 262 rushing.
 The first one was Michigan who scored 59 points with some short drives, and the second was Florida with 24 points and typically longer drives. Or is it un-typically...I get confused with grind it out, pound out the win SEC schools. They win, they win in ugly, dominating fashion, but ESPN will tell us they let Toledo hang around, and that Michigan looked dominant.

Nebraska handed out 7 blackshirts before the season began to their defenders and then they handed out over 600 yards of offense to Wyoming in Lincoln. Pay it forward I guess! I'm sure those blackshirts are black and blue now. Nebraska did their best to give the whole game away at the end but somehow managed to win the game.

Now for a quick peek at the teams I said to keep an eye on this year:

Northwestern took care of business with a 44-30 win over Cal. What I would expect from a potential B10 champ.

Wisconsin beat UMass 45-0. I'm not ready to say I was wrong about Wisconsin after playing UMass. Did you know UMass had a football team? I still don't think they do...

UCLA put the clamps on the MW with a 58-20 win over Nevada.

Washington may finally be coming around. QB Price threw for over 300 yards and the Huskies demolished Boise St 38-6. Get Washington ranked and drop Boise out, it's that simple.

Rutgers, remember that guy who said the Big East was the second best conference in America? Well he would like to point out that he was speaking about the old Big East from last year and that the new AAC means nothing. Especially with Rutgers going down to Fresno St and the entire conference going 3 and 5 on opening week. This conference is dead to me; as dead as Louisville's hopes of getting into a national title game after the conference got steam-rolled.

Georgia Tech rolled up a 70-0 win over a junior high school team.

UNC lost to SCar but hey who doesn't lose to an SEC school at least once a year? I am not ready to write them off yet. They left plays on the field with a muffed punt, bad red zone play and dropped passes. If they make those plays, who knows? But they had better start making those plays or I will forget who they are as well. Their game-plan against Clowney was great however. They ran away from him, let him run up field from the play, and basically made him a non-factor, BEFORE he got "tired."

Ole Miss/Vanderbilt - DIDN'T I TELL YOU THAT THESE TWO TEAMS WERE GONNA BE GOOD?!?!? I know I did, it's okay you can thank me later. How about that Mathews kid? Gets slammed to the turf, throws up his orange gatoraide, makes a huge catch on 4th down to keep the hope alive, and then deflects the game winning interception into Ole Miss' hands. He came back to college for this people. But no, seriously, I feel for the kid. No one in the SEC should take either of these two teams lightly. They won't stop, and I expect them both to play a role in who plays for the national championship by the end of the year. Ole Miss got some bad news about injuries to some of their young talent today and hopefully that won't derail their development too much.

AND now lets talk about Oklahoma State! Is the 2 quarterback thing dead? Can they just go with Walsh instead of Chelf and get on with it? The offense did not look like typical Cowboy offense for most of the game, but who knew that Mississippi State had such a legit SEC defense? The only problem for Miss St is the lack of quarterback play. Ok St thinks they have 2 qbs and Miss St just needs one...irony. The big question is....Am I eating crow for what I said about the Ok St defense since they only gave up 3 points? Not yet, because as I said, Miss St doesn't have a quarterback. The Bulldog play calling was horrendous and their 3rd down play-calling came from a special circle of offensive hell. But I did see a Cowboy defense that feasted on the ineptitude of the Bulldogs and grew more and more confident until they were making plays and forcing the issue on Miss St. But as I have pointed out, the OK St D was good against teams they should have been good against last year, lets see what happens when they play a team with a quarterback.

That's it for today. I hope you all enjoyed the games as much as I did!!! There's still 2 left. After the Florida State game on Monday I will post my predictions of the next Top 10. It will be "un-typically" enlightening.

As always, please leave your comments at the bottom, there should be a comment box for you, or you may have to click the link that says "no comments."  Un-typical I know. Or you can email me at collegefootballfanweekly@gmail.com or you can follow me on Twitter: Aubrey Mos @simplyNCAAF.