Southern Miss
Well, USM lost to Texas State. I know so little about Texas State that I had
to look up their mascot. They are the
Texas State Bobcats. This is a bad loss
when you start looking at the chance of post season play for USM. There were some positives from this
game. USM dominated Texas State in total
yards. USM had almost double the yards,
but the Golden Eagles had SIX turnovers.
No one wins with six turnovers. USM
still had the lead late in the game with six turnovers.
Bright spot from this game was that USM may have found a
quarterback in Allan Bridgford.
Bridgford threw for 377 yards.
Bridgford piled up a lot of the yards on some long pass plays late in
the game. Monken finding a quarterback to run his system
could be promising for USM as they head into conference play.
USM enters this week with a 13 game losing streak. That is the longest active losing streak in
FBS. That streak won’t end in September
either. USM goes on the road to play
Nebraska, Arkansas, and Boise State. USM
will probably be a 3+ touchdown underdog in all of those games. Those losses will extend the losing streak to
16 games. I hope they
can get a few wins in conference play.
Ole Miss
I want to first say what an awesome football game! I thought each team had this game won at
least 2 different times. The ending was
spectacular, but really the entire game was great. I was really excited about football season and
this game did not let me down. The ending to this game got me so wound up that it took me a couple of hours to go to sleep after it ended. It was worth it though. I'm happy to see a MS team come out on the good side of a game like that. Teams from MS normally end up on the bad end of a game like that. That game was what ESPN calls an Instant Classic.
Ole Miss beat a very good Vanderbilt football team without
playing their best game. The Rebels made
a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball.
The really scary part is that the offense scored 39 points in a
performance that I think was a C+ or B- effort. Bo Wallace was really rusty early, but as he started to settle down he made his presence known.
With the number of weapons they have on offense and the style of offense
they are running, I don’t see anyone keeping this team from scoring less than 30
points. This sky is the limit for the
offensive unit.
The defense made some huge plays early in the game, but as
Vanderbilt started to settle down they really took advantage of this group. I really do think this side of the ball has
great potential, but at this point they just need to try to hold people
down. The offense will win the games for
the defense. The defense needs to be a bend but not break unit early in the season.
Everyone reading this knows about the injuries suffered in
this game, so I will leave the subject alone.
I never wish injuries on any players or teams.
Ole Miss plays SE Missouri State this week. It will be a
blood bath. Ole Miss will call off the
dogs in the second half after they score in the 50s. The Rebels have a big game next week as they
travel to Austin, TX. The game against the
Longhorns may look more like a track meet than a football game. The O/U for that game will probably be in the
70s.
Mississippi State
A thought that really ran through my head Saturday when
watching MSU play was how long until baseball season starts again. I love football and wish I could say I was
joking about that comment. Disappointing
is really an understatement when talking about the offensive side of the ball
for Mississippi State on Saturday. When
I think back over the last 3 games I have no clue what the identity of
Mississippi State’s offense is. Over the
last three games the offensive side of the ball has done nothing that was even
average. Dan Mullen is an offensive
coach, but the offense he is putting on the field right now really is not
good. They are not even average.
Dak Prescott starting at quarterback this week will mix
things up a little. I see Dak doing a
good job at quarterback because the offense that Mullen runs is designed for a
running quarterback. Tyler Russell
should be playing in a pro-style offense not the offense Mullen runs. If Dak plays like I think he will Dan Mullen
will have a really tough choice at quarterback for the Auburn game.
The defensive unit played a great game considering the lack
of help from the offense. No one else
will hold Oklahoma State under 30 points this year. If the Bulldogs had done anything on offense
the defense probably would have won this game for them. The defensive side of the ball did as much as
they could do. I think Geoff Collins
will make this group play really good in every game year. Their success really does depend on the
offense helping them.
MS State should steam roll Alcorn St, but I expect this game
to be close early. The Bulldogs need to
win this game by 5+ touchdowns. If they
don’t win by a large margin I will be really worried about them heading to the
plains next Saturday. The two goals for
Alcorn State game are to get more efficient on offense and to keep players
healthy.
Overall
You want to know how good Las Vegas is at making lines. In week 1 the favorite covered 38 games and
the underdog covered 37. They proved
that they don’t need a warm up week in week 1.
They are already on their game.
People are exploding over Bama’s performance against Va
Tech. No, they didn’t play a perfect
game, but they won and covered the spread.
The special teams play did significantly contribute to the win. That is what you get when you have superior
athletes 2 or 3 deep at every position.
The offensive line looked shaky, but it was the first game. Saban will get them tuned in for next
week. Next week we are getting an early season
heavy weight championship fight. The
winner of next week’s game is the front runner for the National Championship.
The most impressive individual performance from week 1 was
from Jameis Winston of Florida State. Winston is stepping
into a similar spot that Manziel did in 2012.
He is playing behind an offensive line that has a ton of experience and
talent. The options are endless at the
skilled positions. Winston has stepped
into the perfect storm.
