| 01 November 2011
Happy Football Thursday Cougar Fans!
Another week is upon us, and I for one am packing my bags and hitting Sea Tac for the quick trip down to the Bay Area. It should be a great weekend, and if we are able to build upon last week and take advantage of Cal's weaknesses (see QB and turnovers), I think we have a great shot to win this one.
A quick update on both our Pick Em Leagues. Over in League One, St Pete Cougs leads the way with 220 points, followed by The General (CJ Mizell is that you) at 217 and Cougar Country Fry Sauce with 215. Over in League Two, Hawaii Hentai leads at 41-18, followed by Softy Makes Me Puke, CWhite & Selah all tied up at 39 points!
Keep up the good work folks!
Lastly, if you missed Jim Walden on with Ian and Jason the other day, you can find the podcast of the conversation here, beginning at the clip's nine minute mark.
Lucas Likes:
USC 49 - Colorado 10: Boy, every week I predict let down, after let down for the Trojans. Last week the Trojans were a Pac 12 Referee mistake away from potentially knocking of Stanford. Maybe the whole conspiracy theory of the conference protecting it's elite teams is true. We all know Colorado doesn't have another win in them, and would imagine this week is no different for the Buffs.
Stanford 59 - OSU 14: So that whole Mannion 4 Heisman thing our defense started a couple of weeks ago was short lived, after the Beavs went into SLC and got smashed by a previously winless in-conference Utah squad. Do you really not see the Card absolutely pounding OSU? How did Vegas only install OSU as a 20 point underdog? No way they're looking past the Beavs to next week's showdown with the Ducks.
Arizona 35 - Utah 31: Arizona is showing some signs of life and I think they add another notch on the victory belt of their temporary coach. Juron Criner sure is exciting to watch, and I think we should see lots of points in this one.
ASU 38 - UCLA 24: Don't look now, but this game settles first place in the Pac 12 South Division. Last week I elduded to the fabled Northwest Championship that Slick created for the struggling Huskies a few years back. Neu claims they're refusing to focus on the South Division Championship, but I heard he's already made motivational shirts for his squad. At least, one of the guys on the Furness Show mentioned he has; although I cannot find proof of this anywhere. I have a hard time seeing the Bruins upsetting the Devils, but at the same time, it would be just like Neuheisal to pull this thing out.
Oregon 49 - Washington 48: I have a hard time betting against history, and the Ducks have won seven consecutive against the Dawgs. Every one of those wins for Oregon is by at least 20 points! However, it's the last game in Husky Stadium before it's renovated and the Dawgs are going to be honoring the 1991 Co-National Champions, so emotions will be running high. Last weekend, WSU exposed what teams need to do to slow the vaunted Oregon offense down, and UW has the perfect answer for that in Chris Polk. At the end of the day, Oregon has more to lose than the Huskies, so I see this one coming down to the wire.
WSU 38 - Cal 34: The Cougs have lost six straight in the series, but save for blow-outs in 2008 & 2009, the games have all been fairly competitive. Three of the four losses in that time frame have been by seven or fewer points. The last few seasons Cal has totally collapsed in the latter half of the season, and I believe last week was the start of their annual skid as they were embarrassed at UCLA. One thing Cal does really well is defend against the pass, so I would imagine they get a healthy dose of Carl Winston, which should open up the passing game. I'm thinking like 20-25 touches for Winston, which I will probably forget while I'm at the game, which will lead to me screaming at Todd Sturdy from the stands. On Tuesday, I unoriginally coined the phrase "Upset Two Weeks Removed From a Turd, A Week After an Uninspiring Loss" which is what we got last year in the upset of OSU, and I believe history repeats itself in San Francisco. I for one cannot wait!
Longball's Locks:
This weekend Amieable and I are trying something new… Busch Light tall boys. Whatever we have been doing hasn’t been working, so we are turning to the Pullman water for some good fortune. Here’s the picks…
USC 38 - Colorado 6: The Buffs get to experience an important Pac-12 rite of passage… getting blasted by the Trojans.
Stanford 44 - OSU 21: The Beavs are completely outmatched in this one but strange things happen to conference front-runners in Corvallis. Not this time!
Arizona 30 - Utah 24: I have always liked Utah’s running game and defense despite the QB troubles and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get bowl eligible. In this matchup, I have to give the nod to Nick Foles and the Zona offense.
ASU 42 - UCLA 17: UCLA continues to baffle the prognosticators, but I don’t think they pose a serious challenge to the Devils who will lock-up the Pac-12 South.
Oregon 45 - Washington 35: I will not be surprised at all if the Dawgs can take down the Ducks at home. Husky stadium will be a zoo for this one and the Oregon D was exposed against the Cougs. On the flip side, Oregon won’t be caught overlooking this one. I think the Ducks get a major scare, but pull away late.
WSU 33 - Cal 31:Well, here it is folks. It’s time for the Cougs to put a complete game together and take down a conference foe. Zack Maynard has been a mess for Cal this year, so of course just like Prince and Mannion did previously against the Cougs we can expect him to suddenly look like Steve Young. Can we overcome Maynard’s late Heisman bid on the road? I look for a thriller, not unlike our trip to Boulder.
Tim's Takes:
USC 45 - Colorado 13 I've run out of things to say about the Buffs. At this point it's just a bummer. Last week they showed you simply cannot give them enough points to produce a cover. On the flip side, SC was mighty impressive in defeat last week. This is going to be a big week for teams that were impressive in defeat last week (hint, hint).
Stanford 38 - OSU 14 Normally, this would be one of those games that looks like it has letdown potential, but Stanford doesn't seem to be the sort of team who is apt to fall into those sort of traps. Also.....really, Beavers?! You back up beating the Cougs by losing 27-8? Come on.
Arizona 31 - Utah 21 Arizona was reasonably impressive in defeat last week. Were it not for an untimely Juron Criner fumble, that game was going down to the wire. And the Huskies were wearing black and everything! I think they've got too much offense for the Utes to keep up in this one.
Arizona State 42 - UCLA 17 The Bruins have taken over ASU's role as the most schizophrenic team in the conference. They're like a box of chocolates, if a box of chocolates were full of a slimy coach, crappy quarterbacks, a dynamic running back combo and some legitimate deep threats whose talents are largely wasted on said crappy quarterbacks. Meanwhile, Arizona State is suddenly a steady force who seems to just take care of business week after week.
Oregon 45 - Washington 42 Game of the Week! Game of the Week! I hope Husky fans appreciate the wake-up call the Cougs gave the Duckies last week. You're welcome. In my mind, I picture these teams racing up and down the field, lighting up the scoreboard in a "whoever has the ball last wins" classic. My mind is usually wrong about these things, so it'll probably be either a blowout or a sloppy, low-scoring debacle. It doesn't really matter to me as long as Oregon wins. I won't be able to stomach Husky fans and those lovable lap dogs on KJR otherwise.
Last but certainly not least, our Cougar football team is playing a baseball game against Cal's baseball team and it somehow will count in the standings. No? Ah. I misunderstood. That's too bad because I'm pretty sure Dan Wagner is a sneaky good slap hitter. I alluded to the distinct advantage we have in terms of hair yesterday, but now I'll try to talk about actual football things. In our favor is that it appears that Zach Maynard will start so there is always the potential that he'll stink up the joint. Also in our favor is that Cal doesn't have a particularly strong running game. If they did, this would look exactly like the UCLA and Stanford games where we load up to stop the run and poor Damante Horton and Daniel Simmons would be left on an island on the back-end in the play action game. Against Marvin Jones and Keenan Allen, this would be a disaster. With the help of Locker, Bucannon and Toomer (giving the latter the benefit of the doubt and assuming he will in fact be helpful), we stand a better chance at neutralizing those big guns. Offensively, I think we all know the drill. We'll move the ball with the nice balanced attack we've settled into with Loebs running the show. This time, based on the law of averages and this team being due for something good to happen, we'll get it done in the red zone. How, you ask? I have no freaking clue. We just will, OK? Cougs 38 - Cal 28.
Go Cougs.
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