In short, Nebraska was highly competitive again, no glaring mistakes this time. The pass defense is improving, finally. The reason why I say finally is that it's halfway through the season, and NOW Nebraska is fixing the problem. Shouldn't this be something that should have been fixed after the first game? Sheesh.
Anyway, down 14-20 in the 4th quarter this happened:
Crowd went nuts. Then some old 90s Hip Hop song played, crowd went more nuts. Then Wisconsin drove down the field, crowd gets scared. Wisconsin proceeds to hit post on the field goal try, crowd resumes going nuts, only to have it fade away in the next drive after Nebraska fails to make a damn first down. And they kick the winning field goal this time. Roller coaster emotions man.
Its one of those things that I honestly can't explain, because truthfully Nebraska probably played pretty damn well, and losing the game was the net result of not having a seemingly healthy Pierson-El fielding punts (at least its looking like hes healthy...)
The Big Red Throwdown:
But we can't dwell on that now, the bottom line is Nebraska is heading to play a tough Minnesota squad short 3 wins at 2-4. Nebraska should be 5-1 at this point, and some arguments can be made for 6-0, but the reality is they aren't and people need to suck that up. Go ahead throw away this season and just play spoiler while getting to be bowl eligible (still looking at you Michigan State) because there is no way Nebraska is going to the title game, even if they miraculously finish 8-4 (actually if math works out there is a slim slim slim chance). What really gets me though is I read something that said "How Will Nebraska Lose in the Last 10 Seconds Against Minnesota". Its a funny game, but a game that just goes to show how much faith fans have in Nebraska (by the way, the top response was "Kickoff returned for a TD after Nebraska kicks GW/tying FG" which looks extremely reasonable unfortunately) And lets remind ourselves that this is a Minnesota team who played (a weak) TCU team pretty tough at home. And we still got a whole half of a season left to play out...sit tight folks if things don't improve.
Nebraska O vs Minnesota D: Edge Nebraska. Even though it hasn't looked like it...Nebraska still has the offensive potential...sure its shrouded with Armstrong under the gun but its still there...
Nebraska D vs Minnesota O: Edge Minnesota: Minnesota went off against Purdue in the second half, but they've been able to stay competitive in the close games because of their defense. Just imagine what they'll do against whatever is left of Nebraska's weak defense. The only benefit is that Minnesota is not a passing team (hope they worked on it during practice)
Special Teams: Depends if Demornay is fielding punts or nah. And hopefully kickoff coverage is worked on...Minnesota has a reputation of being scary on returning kicks
Prediction: Minnesota 27, Nebraska 20 (Nebraska loses in the fashion as stated above, I'm actually not sure if I'll be happy or sad if this actually happens)
The Rest of the Week In College Football:
AP Poll (Reflects prior to Thursday and Friday night games)
1) Ohio State
2) Baylor (Up 1)
3) TCU (Down 1)
4) Utah (Up 1)
5) Clemson (Up 1)
6) LSU (Up 1)
7) Michigan State (Down 3)
8) Florida (Up 3, but say goodbye to that after saying goodbye to your druggie QB)
9) Texas A&M
10) Alabama (Down 2)
11) Florida State (Up 1)
12) Michigan (Up 6...OUTTA NOWHERE)
13) Ole Miss (Up 1)
14) Notre Dame (Up 1)
15) Stanford (Up 1...ugh)
16) Oklahoma State (Up 5)
17) Iowa (Up 5)
18) UCLA (Up 2)
19) Oklahoma (Down 9, yea I'd drop you 9 too if you lost to Texas)
20) Northwestern (Down 7, all good things must come to an end. Even if it was ended by Michigan)
21) Boise State (Up 4...I'm seeing the future...and they get destroyed by Utah State!)
22) Toledo (Up 2)
23) California (No budge even though lost to Utah, congrats AP poll you actually made sense for once)
24) Houston (NR)
25) Duke (NR)
Dropped: USC (Cue epic collapse. What happened to Pac-12 and National Title contention?), Georgia
Trending: Temple, Memphis, Arizona State, Mississippi State, Texas Tech
My Top 25:
1) Ohio State
2) Michigan State
3) Utah
4) Baylor
5) Alabama
6) Texas A&M
7) TCU
8) Ole Miss
9) Clemson
10) LSU
11) UCLA
12) Florida State
13) Oklahoma State
14) Florida
15) Notre Dame
16) Duke
17) Stanford
18) California
19) Minnesota
20) Memphis
21) BYU
22) Northwestern
23) Temple
24) Boise State
25) Kentucky
But lets stop for a second! Since it is the halfway point, lets check-in on my projections I made in the pre-season! (These are updated through Thursday and Friday games) (On Target means that in terms of wins and losses they have the same record as projected, but it could mean they won a game they should've lost while losing a game they should've won)
ACC Atlantic:
Florida State - On Target
Clemson - On Target
Syracuse - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to South Florida)
Louisville - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Houston)
Wake Forest - 2 wins ahead (Unexpected wins against Army and Boston College)
NC State - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Virginia Tech)
Boston College - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Wake Forest)
ACC Coastal:
Duke - On Target
Pittsburgh - 2 wins ahead (Toss Up wins against Virginia Tech and Virginia)
North Carolina - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Georgia Tech)
Virginia Tech - On Target
Miami - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Cincy)
Georgia Tech - 3 wins behind (Unexpected loss to North Carolina, Toss Up losses to Notre Dame and Duke)
Virginia - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Pittsburgh)
Big 12 (10):
Oklahoma State - On Target
TCU - On Target
Baylor - On Target
Oklahoma - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Texas)
Iowa State - On Target
Texas Tech - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Arkansas)
Texas - On Target
Kansas State - On Target
West Virginia - On Target
Kansas - On Target
Big 10 East:
Michigan State - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Oregon)
Ohio State - On Target
Michigan - 2 wins ahead (Toss Up wins against BYU and Maryland)
Penn State - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Temple)
Indiana - On Target
Rutgers - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Washington State)
Maryland - 2 wins behind (Unexpected loss to Bowling Green, Toss Up loss to Michigan)
Big 10 West:
Iowa - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Wisconsin)
Northwestern - 3 wins ahead (Toss Up wins against Stanford, Duke, and Minnesota)
Illinois - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Nebraska)
Minnesota - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Northwestern)
Wisconsin - On Target
Nebraska - 3 wins behind (Toss Up losses to BYU and Wisconsin, Unexpected loss to Illinois)
Purdue - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Bowling Green)
Pac-12 North:
Stanford - 3 wins ahead (Toss Up win against UCLA, Unexpected wins against USC and Arizona)
California - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Texas)
Washington - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against USC)
Washington State - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Oregon)
Oregon - 3 wins behind (Toss Up loss to Michigan State, Unexpected losses to Utah and Washington State)
Oregon State - On Target
Pac-12 South:
Utah - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Oregon)
Arizona State - On Target
UCLA - 1 win behind (Unexpected win against Arizona, but Toss Up losses to Arizona State and Stanford)
Arizona - 2 wins behind (Unexpected losses to UCLA and Stanford)
USC - 2 wins behind (Unexpected losses to Stanford and Washington)
Colorado - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Hawaii)
SEC East:
Florida - 3 wins ahead (Toss Up wins against Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Missouri)
Georgia - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Tennessee)
Kentucky - 1 win behind (Toss Up win against South Carolina, but Toss Up losses to Florida and Auburn)
Missouri - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Florida)
Tennessee - 1 win ahead (Unexpected win against Georgia)
Vanderbilt - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Middle Tennessee)
South Carolina - 1 win behind (Toss Up loss to Kentucky)
SEC West:
LSU - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Mississippi State)
Texas A&M - 3 wins ahead (Unexpected wins against Arizona State, Arkansas, and Mississippi State)
Ole Miss - On Target
Alabama - 1 win behind (Unexpected loss to Ole Miss)
Auburn - 1 win ahead (Toss Up win against Kentucky)
Mississippi State - 2 wins behind (Toss Up loss to LSU, Unexpected loss to Texas A&M)
Arkansas - 3 wins behind (Unexpected losses to Toledo, Texas Tech and Texas A&M)
What to Watch For:
With all of that said...its another eventful week here for college football! Let's get to some ranked action predictions: Last Week: 3-2, Overall: 25-15
Iowa @ Northwestern - Northwestern 22, Iowa 14
Northwestern loves those low scoring affairs, and after getting stifled by Michigan, they'll be looking for revenge as their hopes for a Big Ten Title are more than alive this year.
Alabama @ Texas A&M - A&M 34, Alabama 27
Slowly losing faith in the Tide...on the road against another air raid offense and decent defense, shades of Ole Miss.
Michigan State @ Michigan - State 27, Not State 20
I'm still not sold on Not State, they've looked impressive lately but I don't think they have enough power to stop BOTH State's offense and powering through their defense, even at home.
Florida @ LSU - LSU 35, Florida 24
This game has lost some credibility now that Florida's QB is suspended. LSU by a mile at home.
Since this post was made after the UCLA-Stanford game, I can't call it but that was a bit of a stunner.
Meanwhile...in the NFL:
Thurs Night: Oops.
Sunday Night: Patriots @ Colts - Patriots 35, Colts 20
Deflate Gate 2.0, except with feeling and the Colts are...deflated this season.
Monday Night: Giants @ Eagles - Giants 31, Eagles 20
What happened to the Eagles? And the Giants look hella good, so yea.
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