P62013: Week 5's Balloon Gets Deflated

Games watched: Va. Tech-Ga. Tech (Thurs); Utah St.-San Jose St. (Fri); Ohio State-Wisconsin (4th quarter). Radio: A&M-Arkansas.

I spent Saturday afternoon in the 82-degree heat of Notre Dame Stadium. The game was over before it barely started. After an incompletion and a three-yard run by GAIII to open the game, here were the next two plays from scrimmage:

3-7  N28   REES pass intercepted by Nelson, Corey at the ND24, Nelson, Corey return 24 yard to the ND0, TOUCHDOWN.
--------------- 3 plays, 3 yards, TOP 00:49 ---------------

               Hunnicutt, Mike kick attempt good.

                                    ========================
                                    OKLAHOMA 7, NOTRE DAME 0
                                    ========================

Hodgson, Nick kickoff 60 yards to the ND5, ATKINSON, G. return 29 yards to the ND34 (Colvin, Aaron).
1-10 N34   REES pass intercepted by Shannon, Frank at the ND49, Shannon, Frank return 17 yards to the ND32, out-of-bounds.
--------------- 1 plays, 0 yards, TOP 00:21 ---------------

Four plays later, Oklahoma scored again to make it 14-0. Less than three minutes had expired.

For the final 57 minutes, Notre Dame played Okahoma to a draw. But they never got closer than six points, and it never really felt like the Irish were in the game, because of those two picks by Tommy Turnover.

I'll only say one more thing about this game. I haven't had a ton of time to spend on dissecting Notre Dame football this season (have a busy job and being a dad will do that). But I apparently knew enough to call plays based on formation. For example, on one play I saw WR Daniel Smith come in. I said to TM, "it's gonna be a run." And it was, because Daniel Smith doesn't catch passes, he only blocks. After the play, I said to TM, "if I knew that, you know damn well Bob Stoops knew that." Later on, they brought in running QB Andrew Hendrix and a tight end on the left side. No surprise: ND ran to the left. They play went nowhere.

Notre Dame lost only once in 2012 (and that was in January 2013), to the Nick Saban juggernaut. In five games of September, they lost twice. At least Iowa beat Minnesota and kept Floyd. The day wasn't a total loss.

The poll: Notre Dame and Wisconsin out. Arizona State and Maryland in. Oklahoma and LSU down, Georgia up. No major moves.

Best week: it was "Dirty Diapers." Who, if you are paying attention, is in first place.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? There's no suspense here:

Not only did "Dirty Diapers" not lose (five wins and a bye) but he had Oklahoma which bumped him up seven points, widening his lead in the game. It's time we all start rooting against Texas A&M (shouldn't be too hard), Florida State (ditto) and Oklahoma if we want any drama in this year's game. (Of course, "Sidney" and "let's do this thing" dominated the first half of last year's game, and we know how that ended...)

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

Next week: Michigan-Northwestern will have a lot of interest from Pick Sixers (28 total picks). K-State vs. Oklahoma State is it's own special cripple fight. TCU-Oklahoma is a Group D fight that should shake up the poll. Washington at Stanford should be a great game.

I'll be in Dallas, feeling a lot more pessimistic about Notre Dame's chances against the now-ranked Sun Devils. Wish me luck.