Somehow you knew Florida State was going to win this past Saturday. Same goes for Alabama, Ohio State, and UCLA.
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They were all favored by more than 2 touchdowns but ‘eked’ out wins to start their 2014 playoff campaigns by their own measure. Which is the goal for all teams this year. Make that Final Four. Be undefeated come December.
The biggest surprise from this past weekend? Probably Texas A&M’s destruction of their projections and South Carolina’s newly revised one as well as USC’s. Either way, I’d have to say that the first weekend of college football in 2014, in the new ‘Playoff Era,’ was kind of…well, just okay. Minus of course Nebraska’s Jordan Westercamp and his behind the back catch, the return of Everett Golson at Notre Dame, the collapse of Wisconsin against LSU in Houston, and of course Georgia’s Todd Gurley.
With the First Pick
And so we’re on to Week 2 and just looking at the schedule we are confronted with the over usage of the phrases ‘playoff implications’ and ‘early season test.’ Current ranked 14th USC is at 13 Stanford. BYU is at Texas. On the verge of being ranked Michigan is at 16th ranked Notre Dame. This is the 1st weekend we should have got. Not anticlimactic ‘neutral’ site games that weren’t really neutral. Boise State and Ole Miss were at a ‘neutral’ site in Atlanta?
In Eugene Oregon this Saturday afternoon however, might be the best one of the year. The one we’ve been waiting for. The season can REALLY begin. Sparty vs. Ducky. Ferrari vs. Titanium Wall. Michigan State at Oregon. #7 at #3. As spoiled as we are, I think we’re ready for this one. Here’s what you can expect…
Marcus Mariota’s Revenge
Betsided
November hasn’t been kind to the 2014 Heisman front runner for the past two seasons. With all the aplomb that an undefeated season can bring for the last two years, QB Marcus Mariota’s white whale resides in November and he’s ready to relinquish that moniker in early September to Stanford’s twin sister in Michigan State. It’s one of the reasons why he came back for his final year in Eugene. Mariota was a top flight draft pick, maybe going ahead of UCF’s Blake Bortles in the NFL Draft at 3, but he came back. Came back with a Search and Destroy mission to get that Stanford Cardinal November bitter taste of defeat out of his mouth, and maybe get the confidence he needs to win when it matters and eventually get his Oregon Ducks in the 4 Team Playoff. He won’t say it, but he needs this in a very bad way.
Oregon’s Keys to Victory
Glory Colorado
The Ducks defensive front has to get penetration early and often. Tackles for loss. Well timed blitzes and force 3 and outs in the 1st Quarter to the Michigan St. offense that way you can get that Oregon offense back onto the field and more importantly, the Spartan defense back out there as well. Outrun them with the run/pass option that Mariota is so famous for and don’t get rattled if your offense stalls on the first few possessions. If you get into a scoring match with the Ducks you better have brought your game controller. If this game gets into the 40’s, it’s Oregon’s. Their two losses to Stanford in previous years the Ducks only scored 14 and 20 and seemed stymied at times early when the offense sputtered to gain any confidence against their Pac 12 rival.
‘We Are Spartans!’
Spartan Avenue
When Braxton Miller went down for Ohio State before the season began, Michigan State was penciled in by many a college insider to carry the torch for the Big Ten in the new Playoff Era since his injury. It was a paved road to the Final Four for State right? Why then is such a favorite to make the playoff a 12.5 point underdog in Eugene? It started at 10 and then made its way to the current 12.5. The last I heard, those wanting to be playoff bound had to be undefeated or at least have no more than one defeat on their resume to be considered. With having at least an SEC team in, and Florida State having a yellow brick road from here on in, it leaves only 2 Golden Tickets to the show and if Sparty has a loss in week 2, its going to be dancing on razor blades the rest of the way in. Every game. So what gives Vegas? Is Oregon that much better than Michigan State even though the Spartans took care of the Duck’s nemesis, the aforementioned Cardinal in last year’s Rose Bowl? How quickly we forget.
Michigan State’s Keys to Victory
Betsided
Before you say, ‘Watch the Stanford film,’ over and over again or talk about that wall that is the Michigan State defense, its as simple as running the ball. Run the ball down the throat of that ‘unproven’ Oregon defense and keep Marcus Mariota and the offense off the field. New Oregon Defensive Coordinator Don Pellum wasn’t exactly pleased with the effort he saw coming from the sideline in a whooping of South Dakota 62-13 and made it known post game.
“No one stood out,” Pellum explained. “Just guys making plays.”
Effective downhill running leads to the play-action, and the Michigan State QB Connor Cook can and has to deliver a near perfect game on Saturday afternoon. Who knows, maybe both quarterbacks can trade off scoring to one up each other. Or maybe it’ll be a defensive struggle where points are hard to come by. Bottom line is this: If the score in the 4th is in the 20’s, then Spartan Nation is very much in it and maybe on the verge of being an elite caliber team by winning on the road, one we’ll see in January. If however the score is in the 40’s or 50’s come late in the 4th, you’ll wish you had hopped a plane to Vegas to lay some coin on that 12.5 the Ducks easily covered. Week 2…we’re ready.