Any Given Saturday

I might revive this blog later but until then choose one of these other ones I write:

http://bigten.mostvaluablenetwork.com

http://buckeyes.mostvaluablenetwork.com

Week 9 Preview

Ohio State at Minnesota

Minnesota has a worse passing offense than OSU. Just let that sink in and then you can see why Minney is in trouble. Yes Maroney is explosive but OSU’s run defense is no joke and while he might get more yards than other teams OSU has played he will be entirely too contained to win. OSU is 37-7 against the Gophers including 1989’s huge comeback victory in which OSU overcame a 31-8 halftime deficit to win 47-37. My Prediction: OSU-28 Minney-14

Purdue at Penn State

So Purdue is not at all what it was supposed to be with all of the preseason hype and Penn State has exploded. Coming off a huge shaming of Illinois PSU is looking for another big one against Purdue. Purdue might actually have a chance. But it depends on what offense PSU brings out. Is it going to be the slightly under par offense that faced South Florida and Michigan or the explosive on that faced Minnesota and Cincinnati? My Prediction: PSU-44 Purdue-14

Michigan at Northwestern

Who would have thought that Northwestern would be in place to win the Big Ten and Michigan without a real shot in hell? That is just what will happen if the wolverines fall in Evanston. I remember the last time NU beat the Wolverines in 2000 and I think there is definitely a good possibility that it will happen again. This is the first time ever that Michigan **is the underdog (I cannot figure out how to cross that out but aparrently UMich is still favored to win by a field goal) in this match up and its probably not unreasonable at all. My Prediction: NU- 45 UMich- 34

Week 8

Well OSU might as well have not played. I mean I knew Indiana was weak but 48-10? That’s a bit ridiculous. I guess there is a reason that Indiana is called OSU’s home away from home.

Week 7

Michigan State at Ohio State

Well OSU won but more accurately MSU fucked up.  I mean damn OSU’s offense gave the Spartans every chance to win the game its just that the MSU team made ridiculously worse mistakes. Such a sloppy and stressful game to watch. That whole field goal debacle at the end of the half made me throw up my hands…partially to give the guy behind me a high five and partly out of disgust for such an awful play. That entire series of events looked like the Buckeyes were up against my high school’s football team (which for the first time ever is 4-1 second only to Colerain) but still. (My Prediction- MSU-10 OSU-21) Actual: OSU-35 MSU-24

Week 7 Preview

One game. That’s all again. This time its only because this is the only game I will watch this weekend as I have tickets to it.

Michigan State University at Ohio State University

Drew Stanton has proved that he is the real Drew in the big ten and has been explosive in all of his games this year. Even in the loss to Michigan he still passed for 218 yards and a touchdown. However if there is anything OSU does well is defense. I think that OSU’s defense, special teams, and home crowd will win it for the buckeyes and MSU’s weak defense will give up enough to our sputtering offense to give us the necessary points to win. My Prediction: OSU-21 MSU-10

Week 6

Ohio State at Penn State

Well I was right, but being right never has been so sad. Our sputtering offense coupled with PSU’s surprisingly good defense made our effort entirely too piss poor to compete. Two turnovers were key to the lion’s victory, one coming on the final drive to try and send the game to overtime. All I can say is that this loss does not have me as depressed as the Texas loss because I would rather we fall to Joe Pa than to Mr. Brown. Now if we don’t win the Big Ten title I damn well hope Penn State does. (My Prediction- PSU-14 OSU-10) Actual- PSU-17 OSU-10


While I didn’t preview other games I did watch a few of them so here is a bit of a recap:

Georgia at Tennessee

I watched this game thinking that Neyland stadium would make a big difference and cause Shockley to stumble, but no the Vols seemed to have nothing go well for them and let UGA beat them at home. There were two main problems in this game that let UGA win. One was field position. Most all of Tennessee’s drives started around their own 20 with about four in or around their 10 where as UGA’s worst field position was at their own 16 and they started in front of their twenty most of the time. The second issue was the ground game. I mean how is Riggs a Heisman hopeful when his team only gets 48 yards total on the ground? Very bad football on Tennessee’s part. Final: Tenn-14 UGA- 27

Minnesota at Michigan

Yikes! I’m usually pretty happy to see the team up north fall but this is getting ridiculous. At this rate no one is going to give a rats ass about The Game. Michigan needs to step up and get things going. I knew that their run defense was suspect but I was expecting bigger things from the offense as October rolled in. I mean 94 yards on the ground against Minney’s defense is unacceptable. I understand Hart’s 100+ performance was negated a little by Henne’s -17 performance but still Hart is a much better back than that. However kudos to Minnesota’s o-line and Maroney for bouncing back so well from their shaming in Happy Valley. This isn’t right Michigan better get improve because I really want to see a good game at the end of November. Final: UMich-20 Minn-23

Cal at UCLA

Where can you get 545 total yards and score 40 points and still lose? In the PAC 10 of course. This was bad football, but great fun to watch. I didn’t realize that PAC 10 teams hated defense as much as they seem to in this game. So much so that they can allow for a three touchdown fourth quarter that blows a sizeable lead. I mean had OSU been up by 12 points at any time in the PSU game it would have been over, but then I’m entirely too spoiled by great Midwestern defensive football battles that seem to be unheard of out west.

Week 6 Preview

Well I only can preview one game this weekend. I have had entirely too much stuff to do this week to stay on top of this but hey what am I going to do?

Ohio State at Penn State

This game is going to be a huge defensive game. AJ Hawk and company are going to go to town on the Penn State offense. However I see PSU’s defense stopping Pittman and smith on the ground and causing turnovers through the air. This will end up as a low scoring game that will be won on defense and special teams. OSU has an edge with that but at happy valley I’m going with Penn State. But hey I like to be proven wrong. My Prediction- PSU-14 OSU-10

Week 5  

1. Illinois at Iowa

I called this one correctly. I didn’t get to watch it though. Iowa was probably just letting off some steam from the shaming they received in Columbus. They did give up 374 yards which is not what good defensive teams do. (My Prediction: Illinois- 17 Iowa- 47) Actual: Iowa- 35 Illinois- 7

1. Michigan at Michigan State

It was close as I thought. MSU is a contender for the Big Ten crown but they are going to have to shape up on defense. They’ll be able to stop the bottom feeders but they need to take care of business against the big boys. (My Prediction: UMich- 36 MSU- 42) Actual: MSU- 31 UMich- 34

1. Minnesota at Penn State

This game scared me. When a team can make the leading rush offense look that bad then they must be for real. This was a good wake up call for the buckeyes who might not be taking next week’s game seriously. I understand that Minnesota’s defense is pretty piss poor but its still a big ten school so I’m not sure I want to underrate PSU’s offense until OSU shuts them down. (My Prediction: Penn State- 35 Minn-27 ) Actual: Penn State- 44 Minn-14I am scared for Saturday’s game. So far I’m saying we lose. But that might change if a lot of PSU’s team goes to jail or something. I’ll analyze that game later.