Tigers on the prowl.

If anybody hasn't been paying attention to the Clemson Tigers, their body of work over the last 3 weeks should be enough to merit a look.  


First, they started by knocking off defending national champions Auburn 38-24 (in impressive fashion too), ending Auburn's 17 game win streak.  Then, they continued their recent home dominance against Florida State, winning 35-30.  And for their final act, they traveled to Blacksburg, VA, (a very tough place to play) and basically just dominated Virginia Tech, winning 23-3; becoming the first ACC team to beat ranked opponents 3 weeks in a row.

Hokies QB Logan Thomas could not escape the eye
of the Tiger.

Their wins against Auburn and Florida State came within the confines of their vaunted "Death Valley" stadium, and most pundits didn't give them much of a chance against Virginia Tech; being that this was Clemson's first outing away from home.  Like I mentioned earlier, not too many teams come out looking good after a visit to Blacksburg.  However, the Tigers had other plans.


While their offense took most of the most of the plaudits over the last few weeks (and rightfully so), it was Clemson's defensive performance that stole show, holding the Hokies to only a field goal, while forcing 2 turnovers (an interception and fumble recovery), and 4-16 on 3rd downs.  Also of note, Clemson snapped Virginia Tech's 12 game win streak in league play.


With Miami facing NCAA sanctions, and Florida State not quite where they were hoping to be at this point in the season, Clemson has not wasted any time to stake their claim as possibly the best team in the conference.  Of course, they still have that showdown against Georgia Tech on October 29, in what will likely be a preview of the ACC title game.

Tajh Boyd's performances has opened
eyes across the landscape.

Outside of Georgia Tech's "triple option" attack, Clemson has a very potent offense led by sophomore QB Tajh Boyd.  A native of Hampton, VA, Boyd has been nothing short of exciting, passing for over 1400 yards and 14 TDs against 2 INTs.  Should he keep up at this rate, he will most likely be the first Tiger QB to get serious Heisman hype since the days of the recording setting Woody Dantzler.


Also another player worth mentioning is freshman receiver, Sammy Watkins.  Over the last couple of weeks, he emerged as Boyd's favorite target, making big plays in the wins against Auburn and Florida State.  While he had an off day against Virginia Tech, junior Tight End Dwayne Allen picked up the slack.  Also chipping in were running backs Andre Ellington and Mike Bellamy (whose 31 yd TD run sealed Clemson's win over the Hokies).


The ACC has proven to be a very unpredictable "dog eat dog" kind of league.  Today you're hot, tomorrow you're not; you can never really know who's going to win on any given weekend.  While Clemson are sitting pretty at the moment, even they know there's still some work to do if they are to win the league.

Dabo Sweeney has had a lot laugh about over
the last three weeks.

After going through a tricky conference schedule, Clemson close their regular season on the road against the rival South Carolina Gamecocks.  While a loss to the Gamecocks wouldn't ruin the Tigers' shot at a BCS bowl, it would wipe out any shot at a national title should Clemson find themselves in that position.


Whether Clemson emerges as the top team out of the ACC remains to be seen, but what we know is they'll definitely put on quite the show.

Asphyxiation & Meltdown (A&M)

It's been almost 10 years since Texas A&M kicked off with a preseason Top 10 ranking.  All it took was a fortnight for them to drop out of the Top 20, after yet another second half meltdown; this time at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks, a one time South West Conference rival.


One week after watching a 17 point half-time lead disappear against Oklahoma State, the Aggies seemed determined to put that performance behind them with 5 first half touchdowns (all rushing), racing to a 35-17 lead before the interval against their future SEC division foe.  Once again, they came out flat in the second period, getting outscored 25-3.


For a while, the Aggies seemed to be in control of the game, running the ball at will against an Arkansas defense that couldn't stop the run even if they tried.  As a team, A&M totaled 381 yards on the ground; Christine Michael ran for 230 yards and 3 TDs on 32 carries, Cyrus Gray had 95 yards and 2 TDs on 17 carries, while QB Ryan Tannehill pitched in with 56 yards on 5 carries.  On any day, if you passed those stats onto someone, they'd probably tell you that the Aggies won.  However, despite getting gushed for all those yards, Arkansas came up big when it mattered the most, stopping Michael for no gain on a rush attempt on 4th & 2 late in the game.


A&M had been faced with "4th & short" situations during the 3rd quarter.  With the Razorbacks still reeling, A&M opted to punt rather than go for the kill.  The decision to punt on both occasions gave Arkansas some confidence that they could stop the Aggies, which is what they eventually did.  The momentum started to swing in their favor and next thing you know, Arkansas comes out on top.

Weeden (l) and Wilson both combined to torch the
Aggies for 948 yards through the air.

The running theme during these two losses has been the porosity of the Aggies pass defense.  Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden passed for 438 yards, while Arkansas' Tyler Wilson went bananas, passing for 510 yards.  Along with the 900+ yards, both QBs combined for 5 touchdowns and no interceptions.  You'd figure that maybe the Aggies would make the necessary adjustments, seeing that there was nothing unpredictable about what Arkansas or Oklahoma State was doing, but whatever they did probably didn't work.  With a lot of "pass happy" schools on the Aggies remaining schedule, you can be sure that those teams will be taking notes and studying some film.


It has been 16 years since Texas A&M beat a team from the SEC, but with them moving on to that conference, they may not have to wait any longer.

Cowboys pick up tempo after a sluggish start.

Oklahoma State's encounter against Texas A&M was pretty much a tale of two halves.  And while it was the Aggies who got off to a quick start, the Cowboys were the ones laughing last after dominating the second half at every turn, winning 30-29.


The Cowboys extended their winning streak over A&M to 4 wins, after having suffered a 4 game losing streak of their own in the series (2004-2007).  Anyone who paid for a ticket to this game surely got their money's worth; this one lived up to all the pre-game hype.  Also another point to note: at least this game kicked off at a very considerable time of the day; I'll take a 2:30pm kickoff over a 12:15am kickoff any day.

Broderick Brown had himself quite the afternoon.

The most surprising stat of course is that Oklahoma State's potent offense was only held to THREE (!!!) first half points.  You'd think that a team averaging at least somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 points per game would do better, but that was not the case.  A lot of credit will of course go to A&M's defense, that had a good enough pass rush, making things harder for the abnormally poised Brandon Weeden.


However, rather than kick their opponent while down, A&M seemed to take the foot off the pedal.  They had their chances to extend the lead in the first half, and potentially put the game out of reach.  Or maybe they planned on coming back to close the deal in the second half.  I had a feeling that the tide was about to turn for the worse.

Blackmon!!  Oh no, you didn't!!

True enough, that is exactly what happened.  Oklahoma State state came back and played probably what was their most complete game in a while.  With his offensive line blocking well, Weeden went to work, finding his receivers, while the running game picked up steam of its own.


Hats off to the defense for nearly pitching a shutout against A&M's offense.  The defensive line made a point of getting to the quarterback often, and the defensive backs contested any pass that they could.  End result was 4 forced turnovers; a fumble recovery and 3 interceptions including one by James Thomas to clinch the win.  Defensive back Broderick Brown made yet another highlight reel play (why lie, he's making it look real easy), to pick off Aggies QB Ryan Tannehill, giving the Cowboys a short field.


On the ensuing drive, Justin Blackmon had a moment that he would have loved to take back if possible.  He found himself in single coverage (why again would you single cover this guy?), and after making a catch and running for what was a sure touchdown, he fumbled the ball which went through the end zone for a touchback.  Had he not fumbled (or at least if he'd been able to recover it in the end zone for a score), that touchdown would surely clinched the game for his team.  However, it only served to make things a little more interesting.  Luckily, the defense stepped up again with Justin Gilbert (who returned a kickoff for a score, only to have it erased due to a holding call), making the most of a poorly thrown pass by Tannehill.


It's been almost 30 years (maybe more) since Kyle Field hosted a game in which both A&M and its opponent were ranked in the Top 10.  So for Oklahoma State to win a game of such magnitude and in a very tough environment, the momentum will probably snowball all the way to (and maybe through) Bedlam (I don't know that December 3 could get here fast enough).  You really want to measure the negatives against the positives, but judging how the team bounced back, it's all positive.


Also the days leading up to the game had been very trying as the team was in mourning following the death of Angela Spencer, wife of Linbebackers' coach Glenn Spencer.  Coach Spencer had to be hurried home during the Tulsa game, and was able to spend few moments by his wife's side before she passed away.  So it was only fitting that the team send her off in style.  RIP Angela Spencer.


Oklahoma State will be off this weekend, before they return to action against Kansas.  Hopefully their momentum won't take the weekend off either. 

Oklahoma wards off Tiger upset bid.

The last time Oklahoma faced off against Missouri, they were ranked #1 in the newly released BCS rankings, but were left picking themselves off the mat after the Tigers sprung an upset in Columbia, MO.  It was the third successive week in which the top ranked team fell on the road; Alabama lost to South Carolina a fortnight earlier, and Ohio State followed up with a loss to Wisconsin the week after.


This time around, Oklahoma made sure not to stumble, despite a slow start in which they trailed 14-3, ending the 1st quarter at 14-10 after a Ryan Broyles touchdown catch.  In the absence of Kenny Stills and Trey Franks, Jazz Reynolds and DeJuan Miller had to step up and fill the void.  Both receivers were starters at some point earlier in their careers, but due to various issues (Miller suffered a season ending knee injury, while Reynolds was suspended due to violation of team rules), they had been firmly supplanted by the aforementioned duo.  Reynolds came up with a huge 39 yard reception in the 2nd quarter that possibly shifted the game's momentum in favor of the hosts.


Oklahoma was eventually able to wear down their opponents with a short passing game, and running the ball taking time off the clock.  Also defensively, they made enough plays to hold off the Tigers until the game was beyond reach.  It may not have been the most satisfying performance, but a win's a win, right?


Landry Jones to Ryan Broyles seems to be the key to get this offense going.  In their previous match against Florida State, they hardly connected much after the opening drive.  Jones went over 400 yards passing (AGAIN!!) and Broyles had yet another 10+ reception, 100yd receiving game; numbers that seem to be pedestrian to these two guys.

Despite giving up a lot of yards, OU's defense clamped
down when it mattered the most.

It was nice to see coaches try to get Roy Finch involved, including him in the kickoff return unit.  With Brennan Clay and Dominique Whaley getting the lion's share of the carries in the running game, the only time Finch gets to see the field is while on the sideline.  It would be nice to get him more touches, but that's really up to the coaches.


This was clearly not Oklahoma's best defensive showing.  They gave up 532 yards and two big scoring plays; L'Damian Washington's catch and run for 45 yards & score, as well as Henry Josey who ran 48 yards for a touchdown off an option pitch.  They didn't force any turnovers either, but you can credit Mizzou for protecting the ball.  The defensive unit played really well in between the 1st and 4th quarters, so that's a positive. 


At the end of the day, Oklahoma got the result that it wanted, and it's a lot easier to fix any errors - be they mental or tactical - after a win than a loss.

Crimson Tide stain Happy Valley "white-out"

Last season, in just his second start the collegiate level, Robert Bolden was overwhelmed by the defending national champion Alabama during Penn State's visit to Tuscaloosa.  It was just one of many early season showdown of football heavyweights across the nation.  Alabama won that contest by a score of 24-3, as they set on to try and defend their crown.


This time around was no different, as Alabama came away 27-10 winners in a rare visit into Big Ten country.  The Crimson Tide were returning a lot of starters on a defense that frustrated Penn State's offense for much of the afternoon; silencing a usually rabid Nittany Lion crowd.


Just like Penn State, Alabama have yet to "settle" their own quarterback situation.  AJ McCarron had to split time Phillip Sims in their opener against Kent State.  This time around, he played well enough and only left the game when the outcome was no longer in doubt.  


Alabama ran the ball well with Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy, and McCarron made some good throws such as his lone touchdown pass to Tight End Michael Williams; a pass that was rifled through defensive traffic to open the scoring for 'Bama.  It's still early in the season, but I get the feeling that Alabama vs LSU might just be the game that decides how the West will be won; SEC West, that is.

Bolden found the going tough against 'Bama

The Nittany Lions seem to have their work cut out for them.  Over the last few seasons, they have enjoyed stability at the quarterback position.  From Zack Mills, Michael Robinson, Anthony Morelli and Daryll Clark.  With that stability came some success as the Lions were able to win some games and even successfully contend for conference titles.  


However, things seem a little different this time around.  Robert Bolden came onto campus as a highly regarded QB prospect, and beat out veterans Matt McGloin and Kevin Newsome for the starting job.  Bolden became just the first freshman QB to start a season opener under Joe Paterno; that's got to be a big deal.  Despite some good performances early in the season, Bolden struggled, and finished the season behind McGloin.  Bolden stayed with the program after plans of transferring out failed to materialize.


Against Alabama, he made some really good plays, but was found guilty of trying to go for the "big play" one time too many.  McGloin wasn't that much of an upgrade either, completing only 1 pass out of 10 attempts.  The Lions running game struggled against a stout 'Bama defense as well.


If Penn State are to really contend for the Big Ten title, they need to decide on who will be their signal caller, then settle on it.  Bolden is a scrambling QB with a strong arm, and if he is "the guy", the coaches should then call plays that are suited to his strengths.  McGloin can make plays with his feet as well, but lacks the "cannon" arm like that of his counterpart; still, he's capable of making things happen.  What we know is that a "QB by committee" isn't working for this team.  


Until they can get that fixed, Penn State may just get by beating the weaker teams, but will most likely struggle against the conference heavyweights.