Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap: Week 4

Michigan coasts to victory after building a 21-0 first half lead; N.C. State embarrassed in by Cincinnati.

Michigan 28, San Diego State 7. Most bloggers and sportswriters were predicting a one touchdown win for Michigan, with a score around 28-21. I don't think anyone foresaw SDSU being held to just 7 points by the Michigan defense. This was perhaps the best defensive effort of the year, with the front seven closing down the run gaps and the secondary providing blanket coverage, even when Courtney Avery and freshman Blake Countess came into the game to replace Troy Woolfolk and J.T. Floyd. Countess had a solid day and provided some hope of depth at the cornerback position.

Still, Michigan was fortunate that SDSU star quarterback Ryan Lindley threw the ball poorly, and that receiver Colin Lockett dropped passes and ran poor routes at times. I'm also a bit baffled at why SDSU did not call for more sweep plays in the ground game, where Michigan has been vulnerable. Denard Robinson had a horrible day passing, going just 8-17 for 93 yard with two interceptions. It's a good thing he had 200 yards rushing... apparently Al Borges is well aware of what works in the Michigan offense.

I did like that the speed option play made an appearance, and that the quarterback play action pass (what MGoBlog readers call "QB OH NOES") was called several times. Both are designed to take advantage of a defense that might be concentrating too heavily on Robinson. I do not like the plain drop-back pass plays; I don't think Robinson has the field vision and accuracy for these plays yet. It may come with time and practice, but right now we're seeing late passes into coverage, and that leads to interceptions.

Grades: Offense C+, Defense A. The defense did yield some yards, but it looks like they're finally figuring things out; they had good leverage and good technique. Mike Martin was a beast and the defensive line had a great day. On offense, Denard's passing is a concern, and though Michigan ran out to a fast start, the second half was full of gaffes.

N.C. State 14, Cincinnati 44. Well, ugh. Not much went right for the Wolfpack in this game. The whole of the offensive output came essentially on two long touchdown pass plays. The ground game was nonexistent: State had negative 26 yards rushing as a team (due to six sacks on Glennon), and the top individual rusher was Curtis Underwood, with 6 rushes for 6 yards.

The problems with this year's squad are many. The offensive line is struggling. There are no reliable tailbacks. The defensive line is racked with injuries. The secondary is porous. It's hard to blame the problems on Russell Wilson's departure, though that certainly hasn't helped either. I don't think there are any quick fixes. Hopefully the team will get healthier, and some creative playcalling can mask some of the personnel issues, but man... when you're 109th in the country in rushing, you're not going to win many games.

State thus far only has two wins, against FCS opponents. Central Michigan, Viriginia, Boston College, and Maryland might be beatable, but the rest of the schedule has Georgia Tech, Florida State, UNC, and Clemson. Yikes. I think a bowl bid is just about a lost cause.

Other Notable Games

#1 Oklahoma beat a pretty good Missouri squad 38-28, after falling behind 14-3 early.

#2 LSU whomped #16 West Virginia 47-21, though WVU did rack up 463 yards passing.

#3 Alabama beat #14 Arkansas 38-14. I thought Arkansas would give Alabama a better game. It's hard to choose a clear #1 team right now... #4 Boise State, #5 Stanford and #6 Wisconsin are also looking like they might go 12-0. LSU and Alabama have to play each other, but what if we end up with five unbeaten teams? BCS nightmare scenario.

#7 Oklahoma State beat #8 Texas A&M 30-29. Oklahoma State still has a ways to go, but there's a chance they could be unbeaten going into a season-ending finale against Oklahoma.

#10 Oregon demolished Arizona 56-31. The good news for Arizona is that their schedule is heavily front-loaded; the bad news is that even the weaker teams on the schedule can probably still beat them.

#21 Clemson beat #11 Florida State 35-30. Clemson is now the ACC front-runner, and Florida State is officially out of the national title hunt. Hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude about that.

Arizona State routed #23 USC 43-22. USC might be looking at something like a 7-5 season. Again... schadenfreude.

#25 Georgia Tech handed UNC its first loss, 35-28. It's remarkable that UNC is playing as well as it is, though.

Ohio State managed to beat Colorado, 37-17. The Buckeyes still only managed 110 yards passing, though, with new starting quarterback Braxton Miller.

Illinois squeaked by Western Michigan 23-20. I continue to be a skeptic about Illinois, but we're now looking at the very real possibility they could be 9-0 before meeting Michigan on November 12th.

Indiana lost to North Texas 24-21, failing to come back after falling behind 24-0. If you think that's bad, Minnesota lost to North Dakota State 37-24. Remember when people were excited about the new coaches at Indiana and Minnesota, saying this was looking like a big turnaround year? Yeah, me neither.

Maryland lost to Temple 38-7. Maryland played competitively in its first few games so this was a bit of a surprise.

Boston College finally notched a win against 1-AA UMass, winning 45-17.

Duke crushed Tulane 48-27, improving to .500. Who would have thought that Duke would look like a better team than N.C. State at this point?

Miami (FL) lost to Kansas State 28-24. This is not a very good Miami team, and let's not forget how they walloped Ohio State.

Permalink