Three for Thursday Week 6

October 13, 2016 v3 p57

Week six in college football provided some blowouts, some surprises, and some more clarity.  Some of those things came from where you’d expect and others didn’t.  Here’s my take.

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Michigan – The Wolverines went into Piscataway New Jersey as a 30 point favorite.  They showcased a large number of New Jersey natives on their roster on their way to a 78 point victory.  A win that large can’t come without some help from your defense, which held Rutgers to 22 total yards of offense and didn’t allow a first down until there were nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Michigan State – The Spartans hosted the BYU Cougars last week in their last non-conference game of the year.  They had hoped to right the ship after dropping two straight games and find out some answers about their offense.  I think they only answer they found was that this is definitely a rebuilding year, not just a down year, after losing 31-14 at home.

Ohio State – The Buckeyes had a slow start in Columbus against a surprising Indiana team.  An explosion of three touchdowns in the second quarter was all they needed to put away the Hoosiers.  After that Indiana kept pace with the Buckeyes, but were too far behind to mount much of a threat.

Wisconsin – The Badgers had a bye week following their close road loss to the Wolverines.  This gives them time to rest and recover before hosting Ohio State in week 7.  This game should show us where the rest of the conference stacks up against the top team in the B1G.

Alabama – Nick Saban took his team northward to face former B1G coach Bret Bielema and the Arkansas Razorbacks.  They were able to handle them pretty easily, cruising to a 49-30 victory.  One has to wonder just how good their defense really is though, since they gave up over 500 yards of offense to Arkansas.

Notre Dame – The Irish went to South Carolina to play the Gamecocks in the middle of Hurricane Matthew.  Despite my dislike of Notre Dame I feel this game should have been rescheduled because the field conditions were terrible.  The only scoring was a direct result of turnovers due to the field conditions, that’s now how football games should be decided.

Clemson – The Tigers escaped the hurricane and went north to Boston where they had no problem dispatching of the Boston College Eagles.  After a few close wins early in the season Clemson is starting to show why they were ranked number two in the country during the preseason.  Deshaun Watson is beginning to strengthen his case for the Heisman and the defense seems to be finding itself as the season progresses.

Washington – The Huskies traveled to Eugene Oregon to face the Ducks and put up Oregon type numbers by blowing them out 70-21.  Is this score and indication of how good Washington or of how poor Oregon is on defense, not that they’ve really been that good on that side of the ball.  The rest of the PAC 12 conference doesn’t look anywhere close to Washington, who should go undefeated and win the conference championship and keep two B1G teams from getting into the college football playoffs.

Baylor – The Bears had a bye in week six.  I’m still having trouble listing them as the top team in the conference, but they are one of two teams that are still undefeated in the Big 12 and they have the most overall wins.  This conference is a mess from top to bottom, but at least they aren’t Rutgers.

Western Michigan – The Broncos welcomed Coach PJ Fleck’s alma-matter and former team Northern Illinois to Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo for their matchup in week six.  They did what they have done all season and rowed their boat all the way to another victory, making them 6-0 and ranked nationally in the AP poll for the first time in program history.  Western Michigan is poised to finish the season undefeated and make it into one of the New Year’s Day six bowl games, which would be a great way (unfortunately) to send Coach Fleck out because more and more it looks like a bigger program will hire him away from Kalamazoo.

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The Wolverines opened up their offense and let Jabrill Peppers really showcase his skills on both sides of the ball against Rutgers.  At first I thought Jim Harbaugh was just trying to make sure he beat the Scarlett Knights worse than OSU did.  In the second half though it became obvious that Rutgers is just a terrible football team and probably couldn’t have stopped Michigan if they were punting on first down every series.  Michigan State is struggling because they don’t have a skilled player at the quarterback position.  A lot of Spartan fans are calling for a change under center, but I think Mark Dantonio is a smart enough coach not to just pull the started unless he feels they have a better chance of winning with someone else.

As the season progresses the cream is really starting to rise to the top around the country.  It’s become easier to see who the haves and have-nots are.