Our Honor Defend

Since the Buckeyes weren’t playing on Saturday, I had the opportunity to watch some other college football games without obsessing about a Buckeyes game the same day.  That is, I watched these games with only some moderate obsession about what will become of the Buckeyes offensive line against Michigan’s front four and either USC in the Rose Bowl or an also-ran from the SEC in the Capital One or Outback Bowls.

Anywho, observations followed.

Northwestern 24 @ Minnesota 17.
Northwestern won this game on the road with what appeared to be second stringers on offense… or at least at quarterback and tailback.  An impressive win, but muddled by the fact that the pick six with 30-some odd seconds left decided this game.  It was the clear winner of the Pontiac Gamechanging Performance of the day until Crabtree’s touchdown with a second left lifted the Red Raiders to victory.  Northwestern also has some rush end that caught my eye, but whose number and name elude me at the moment.  I think it was Corey Wootton.  Ohio State has much more talent than Northwestern, but given the performance of our offensive line, I’m not taking anything for granted.

Wisconsin 24 @ Michigan State 25.
Wisconsin had two players rush for over 100 yards.  One of them was PJ Hill (106 yards), who has been up and down this season.  Further, they never trailed in this game for 59 minutes and 53 seconds.  They still found a way to lose this game.  Worse yet for Wisconsin, they don’t even have the conference tiebreaker with Michigan since they lost that game too.  Ouchies.

Central Michigan 37 @ Indiana 34.
MAC status for Indiana: confirmed.

Michigan 42 @ Purdue 48.
I never thought I’d see this in the 2008 season.  Well, I never thought I’d see these two things this season… or three, however you want to categorize them.  First, I never thought I’d see Purdue’s backup quarterback explode for 266 yards passing and 3 TDs (0 INTs).  I never thought I’d see Michigan’s defensive front, the strength of their defense, fork over 256 yards on the ground… with 77 of them gained by Siller, the quarterback.  Third, I never thought I’d see Michigan be bowl ineligible in my lifetime.  I appear to be one of the few Buckeye fans who think Rodriguez will be good for the Wolverines and will eventually restore them to the top of the conference… behind Ohio State’s radiant glory, I should hope.  That said, I was way wrong on my prediction that Michigan’s talent level is just too good to lose to teams like Purdue and Toledo and that Michigan would eventually finish something like 7-5.  I’m really tempted to laugh at loud… I really want to… but Michigan’s follies this season mean jack if we don’t beat them.  Given our offensive line, I’ll have to bite my tongue for the interim.

Auburn 7 @ Ole Miss 17.
Tuberville is sooo gone after this year, and probably will be hoping something opens up in the Big Ten so he can put his money where his mouth is about how the Big Ten’s conference champion would be the fifth best team in the SEC.  Auburn has lost four straight, and five of six, and is two losses away from being bowl ineligible.  Worse yet, they’ve yet to play Georgia and Alabama.  Ruh Roh.

Pittsburgh 36 @ Notre Dame 33 (4 OT).
It was the game that wouldn’t go away.  For the first time, I found myself actively pulling for Notre Dame because I’m firmly on the Lou Holtz side of the fence in the College Football Live trench warfare between he and Mark May.  Of course, doing so led me to pause and genuflect: why do Ohio State fans hate Notre Dame so much?  Sure, their fans are boorish and have something of a God complex… but so do we… and so does everyone else in this landscape.  Besides, they’re not a conference opponent and they haven’t beaten us in 72 years.  Plus, the fight song is catchy too… don’t lie.  It is.  Oh, hating Charlie Weis is understandable given his disposition as a bully.  That I won’t question.

Arkansas State 0 @ Alabama 35.
I can’t watch Alabama games anymore because I get super-jealous of that offensive line of theirs.  It doesn’t have a weakness and those skillplayers… rather: “skillplayers” Alabama has playing behind them aren’t worthy of that great offensive line they have.

Florida 49 @ Georgia 10 (Jacksonville).

This game was almost kinda interesting until Georgia realized that the script to the play actually reads: Georgia always loses to Florida.  After that, it was kind of lame.  Still, I followed with some kind of interest — among the other games — until I couldn’t take any more of the Lundquist-Danielson blathering about Tim Tebow.  After awhile, I didn’t know if I watching a college football game or just a weirdly directed broadcast from the Trinity Broadcasting Network.  After some zoning out and disillusionment — in part because of the poor quality of play from the Bulldogs — I came to the realization that Tim Tebow died for my sins.  Tim Tebow so loved humanity that he died for all of our sins after the Ole Miss game, so that we may have eternal life when we leave our corporeal form.  It’s touching to hear (over and over and over and over and over and over again) how Tebow of Nazareth (TFJ: 11w) spent his summer not learning how to read more than one third of the field.  He didn’t even spend it learning how to put the right amount of air on a ball.  Rather, in all his selflessness, he spent it in the Phillipines, — that godless, soulless, moderately industrialized Western-influenced part of this world — curing lepers and teaching Filipino kids the ways of Tebow.

And who am I to be skeptical of Tim Tebow after Tebow so selflessly carried the cross of the Ole Miss loss earlier this season en route to dying four our sins.  How he accepted sole responsibility for the busted coverages of the defense and the inability of the offensive line to block that game.  After accepting the burden of all their sins, Tebow of Nazareth forgave their indiscretions.  For it is not the healthy that need Tebow, it is the wicked and wretched who must be shown the ways of Tebow.  After carrying the cross of the Ole Miss loss, dying four our sins and resurrecting himself from the dead, Tebow has led the Gators on a scoring frenzy.  In the past four games since that loss, the Gators have outscored their opponents 201-43.  That is, Florida has scored roughly 50 points a game and their opponents have scored roughly 10.  Two of those teams were Kentucky and Arkansas, though.

And it all comes back to the Christ-like… nay: Tebow-like qualities of Tim Tebow.  Eventually, it donned on me that Tim Tebow isn’t Jesus Christ, the Pope, Mother Teresa or Weird Al Yankovic.  He’s just a college football player who’s built like a fullback and runs in an effective single wing-inspired spread offense and I shouldn’t have to be listening to this outright creepy infatuation with him.  After that, I lost interest in watching this game.  I changed the channel for good once it came off to me that Gary Danielson was touching himself in an appropriate place as he was talking about Matthew Stafford.

Oh, and Georgia is now the Ohio State of the South.  No offensive line, unimaginative playcalling and big game chokes.  Let it sink in, Georgia fans, since it’s probably the most derisive insult you can get down here.  I’m not sure if it’ll be a national title game or just a regular bowl game that may happen, but Oklahoma v. Florida would be a fascinating bowl game, wherever it would occur.

Florida State 28 @ Georgia Tech 31.
Georgia Tech gets its first win over Florida State since 1975.  Paul Johnson is the man.  The fumble recovery in the end zone to seal it was probably another competitor for the Pontiac Gamechanging Performance of the Week (or whatever that thing is called) until the Texas Tech game.

Washington State 0 @ Stanford 58.
Washington State has been outscored 127-0 in its past two games.  Remember when they were a force in the Pac-10? Like just under 10 years ago? Yeeeah, Mark Price leaving that program was the worst thing that’s happened for both him and the program. A winless Apple Cup is still on the horizon, since I don’t count Wazzu’s victory over 1-AA Portland State.

Louisville 21 @ Syracuse 28.
Syracuse won?

Tennessee 6 @ South Carolina 27.
Tennessee is one loss away from bowl ineligibility.  I’d be willing to listen to any arguments about how Tennessee would be something other than the worst team in the Big Ten, or at least tied for the worst with Indiana, but I don’t think they’d be very good arguments.

Nebraska 28 @ Oklahoma 62.
Nothing went right for Nebraska this game in the first annual matchup of former Cardinal Mooney grads.  Oklahoma started the game with the ball and drove down the field with ease for a TD.  Nebraska’s first play from scrimmage after the kickoff was a pick six.  5 minutes in, they were down 28-0.  They were down 35-0 at the end of the first quarter and then I lost interest.

Texas 33 @ Texas Tech 39.
I struggle to watch games where I end up getting jealous of some team’s offensive line.  Texas Tech’s front five pushed around Texas at ease in the first half.  The Longhorns came back and eventually took the lead, with about a minute to go in the fourth quarter.  Then the Longhorns forgot you have to play defense.  That dropped INT will haunt that Longhorns defender (not sure who it is) for the rest of his career.