Drop in the Rankings and Other Miscellany
While I have no excuse for the previously mentioned voter from San Jose, I can understand WVU's slight dip in rankings. Fox Sports says it this way:
Beating the Terps isn't the same as beating Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Miami or Tennessee.Close, but I would say it like so:
The beating of the Terps was not the same as the beating of Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Miami or Tennessee (but close).Can we assume, without too much of an argument, for now, that Virginia Tech and Miami are relatively comparable to Maryland and that Nebraska and Tennessee are slightly better than Maryland. Ok... so
| Score after the third quarter | Scoring Efficiency (if I bothered calculating it) | Opp. Current Ranking SL119 | |
| USC | 42-10 | 50%/36% | 19 |
| OU | 31-13 | ? | 38 |
| LSU | 31-0 | 67%/29% | 21 |
| Fla. | 35-20 | 58%/29% | 37 |
| WVU | 28-7 | 45%/18% | 40 |
So anyway, what can we tell from that chart? Well, not too much I suppose, but it does at least demonstrate that we dominated a slightly lesser team slightly lesser. (My english teachers would be proud.) Fortunately, college football being what college football is, Oklahoma could lose to Texas in the Red River Shootout and USC could get too cocky and screw the pooch against a lesser team later in the season. LSU and Florida will eventually face each other resulting in at least of those schools losing.
And while the above detailed games do not solely justify WVU's drop from #3 to #5, trailing at the half to a team, who, in the following week, was embarrassingly thumped by a IAA school, may justify the slight slip in the national polls.
I was going to do some more analysis, but this has taken long enough already. I'll leave it up to you guys to elaborate in the comments.
1 comment:
While I agree somewhat with your analysis, I will shed a little light on the Marshall "thumping" to which you refer.
Sure a 48 to 35 loss to New Hampshire is discouraging. An 0-3 start is also nothing to be proud of. That said, the silver lining should be that they posted their season high point total. In fact, they scored more against New Hampshire than they did in both of their previous games, WVU and Miami (FL)- where they had a two game total of 26. As soon as Marshall remembers to bring their defense to I-AA games, we will all see that they really are as horrible as we thought. (I was dangerously close to speaking positively of the Marshal Thundering Turd for a second, and for that I apologize.)
Perhaps trailing a team as bad Marshall at the half justifies a drop from 3 to 5. If I weren't a Mounties die-hard, if I weren't a bastard, and if USC or LSU had trailed the Turd at the half- I would expect them to fall at least two places.
I like the Maryland win. I am encouraged by our defense therein. I wish Louisville were still undefeated. I think we have plenty of time though. A team or two will lose a game they shouldn't, and if we are fortunate enough to run the table- who knows. Deservedly or not the skeptics may not be able to deny the Mountaineers.
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