Monday, October 3, 2016

Saturday Review #4 (10/1/16)

I would like to start this review by issuing an apology to the following teams: Washington, Tennessee, and Northwestern. Tennessee has again proved me wrong and can beat ranked teams (even though Georgia shouldn't have been ranked), Washington crushed Stanford to prove to me why they are ranked where they are, and Northwestern beat Iowa which means they can actually win. I'm sorry guys, you're good (eh on Northwestern). Now let's begin with the Team of the Week:

Team of the Week: Washington Huskies

I know, I know... I've been so against this team for the whole season so far. They have officially gained my trust after they beat #7 Stanford 44-6. Yes, 44-6. I will give Stanford the benefit of the doubt because they were the away team for this game. But still, Washington dominated Stanford in this game. I do not know what happened to Stanford's defense in this game but Washington needed this win to prove that they belonged at #10 and boy did they.. Washington should now be the favorite to win the Pac-12 which to me is very unsurprising after this game. The Huskies next game is against the struggling Oregon Ducks, who could still put the Huskies on upset alert.

Game/Play of the Week: #11 Tennessee vs #25 Georgia/Tennessee's GW Hail Mary Catch

Oh Georgia... You guys were so close. Both Tennessee and Georgia came into this game with their struggles. Tennessee can't perform in first halves and Georgia just isn't that good. But Tennessee somehow managed to win this game after literally losing for most of it. Tennessee went into halftime losing 17-7 but made a 4th quarter comeback. They scored 20 points in the 4th quarter and won the game, The game winning drive ended with a pretty sick hail mary catch as time expired that gave Tennessee the 34-31 victory. I know I apologized for criticizing Tennessee for a good portion of this season so far, but I'm still not too big on them. If they keep under performing in the first halves of games, I don't think they'll fair very well playing teams such as #8 Texas A&M (who they play next.. good luck), and #1 Alabama. But they have a very good chance of winning the SEC East now so they'll end up finishing the season pretty well. That is, if they learn how to play football in the first half... Anyways, here's the play that won Tennessee the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jzM_gdi5A

Player of the Week: QB Deshaun Watson (Clemson)

Someone finally beat Louisville. The "unstoppable" team was stopped by this man right here, quarterback Deshaun Watson of #5 Clemson. Watson, a Heisman favorite, led the Clemson Tigers to a 42-36 victory over the #3 Louisville Cardinals. Watson threw for 306 yards and threw 5 touchdowns to beat Louisville, which is the most against Louisville this season. Now this game was close (finally a close game between top 10 ranked opponents!). In fact it came down to the last drive. On a 4th and 12 with 33 seconds left, Lamar Jackson threw a pass for 11 yards and ended up 1 yard short on the Clemson 3 yard line, turning the ball over on downs, giving Clemson the victory. Now I would've given this game the honors of Game of the Week but I did get a request to cover the Tennessee vs Georgia game (you're welcome A-Camp) so I decided to go with that. But yes, Deshaun Watson dethroned Louisville with 5 touchdown passes and that is why he is Player of the Week.

"Sadder"-Day's Upset: Indiana beats #17 Michigan State

Now a few other teams got upset this week like #12 Florida State, #18 Utah, #19 San Diego State, #21 TCU and #22 Texas, but I went with this one because it came down to the wire. Indiana beat #17 Michigan State on a field goal in overtime to upset the Spartans. This game went back and forth and with 11 seconds left, Michigan State quarterback Tyler O'Connor threw a touchdown to tie the game at 21 and send it into overtime. In overtime, Michigan State got the first possession but missed a 49 yard field goal to take the lead. So on Indiana's first possession, they ran the ball until they got into short field goal range (bravo Kevin Wilson for that strategy), and took the easy field goal to win the game, 24-21 in overtime. This is the Spartans' 2nd consecutive loss after being upset by Wisconsin last weekend. They play the BYU Cougars next. As for Indiana, they play #2 Ohio State in Columbus so their celebration will be short-lived and we shouldn't really expect anything from them at all for the rest of the season.

Well that wraps up this week's review. We learned that Washington is actually a really good team and they will win the Pac-12 and could even make the playoff, Tennessee can only play football in the 2nd half, Deshaun Watson is officially the King of the ACC, and Indiana will be a relevant team until next weekend. See ya next week!

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