Since CardinalEmpire seemed to have taken some slack for this assertion, let a veteran BE poster chime in.

This was not a good week for the BE. And anyone who thinks it wasn't that bad, wasn't paying attention. But before I proceed, let me state that one week does not a season make. But still, this was a sad, sad start. I'll begin with the four national games featuring what many thought would be the BE's Top 5 teams this year.

WVU and SU played a horrible game in front of a national audience yesterday (an audience I'm sure that abandoned the game by the half if not sooner). I mean seriously, would you have stayed in and watched this game on a beautiful Sunday afternoon of a long weekend if you weren't a fan of the two teams or perhaps of the BE?

While both defenses are good, the truth of the matter is that the Eers' offense was a bit inept (stupid penalties and to's at crucial points) and SU's offense was non-existent. Had either team been facing a Utah offense from last year, both would have lost by at least 2 TDs. All this game did was re-inforce the notion that the BE plays 'ugly' football and lacks playmakers at the skill positions. The next 'big' game for both squads comes on September 17th when SU hosts Virginia and WVU plays at Maryland. Both will need to improve significantly on offense to win those games. I have much more hope of the Eers doing this than SU. Bednarik showed a lot of promise.

Rutgers. What can I say? For those new to the BE, this has been Rutgers for the past couple of years. Promise of something better than they have provided in the past, only to have victory snatched from them as a result of incompetent coaching. Some have referred to this game as our bottom feeder losing to a Big10 bottom feeder - but in reality, it was a BE mid-level (4th or 5th, at worse 6th) team losing to the 10th best team in the B10. Not good folks. The Scarlet Knights have two cupcakes up next, games they need to not only win - but win big.

Pitt. The next time Pitt wins a big OOC game for the BE will probably be the first. And I define 'big' as meaning important. Last year's win over ND meant nothing because it came late in the season when ND had already established themselves as a so-so team. I'm really, really worried about the Panthers for this year. Their front line 'D' is more suspect than I believed possible and conservative offensive playcalling to keep that 'D' off the field does not play into Pitt's offensive strengths. It will be interesting to see how they play against Nebraska on September 17th.

Louisville. What can one say. They obviously thought they didn't need to come out and play the second half. And that resulted in almost losing the game. They were indeed fortunate that Kentucky coughed up the ball near the end - otherwise that game may very well have headed to OT. Brohm is not LeFors. Bush is a monster. Interestingly, the Cards next key game is also September 17th at Oregon State.

As for the other teams -

USF, while technically never in the game at Happy Valley, did at least show they have some promise.

Cincy, squeaking by an Eastern Michigan team that many had rated above them also showed that this young team has some promise as well.

Lastly, UConn. As an SU fan this kills me, but I have got to give the Huskies their due. They win the games they are suppose to win - and usually by comfortable margins. They don't have the talent of a Rutgers, but the coaching is so superior that I have little doubt they will beat Rutgers and possibly even upset SU at home to finish either 4th or 5th in the BE.

Still, when the most favorable things that can be said of the BE applies to Cincinnati, South Florida, and Connecticut - you know the BE had a rough week.

Meanwhile, for those that care, the ACC had a magnificent week.

GT's win over Auburn, Clemson's win over Texas A&M, BC with a good win over BYU on TV in the northeast, Maryland and Virginia not losing games they could have, and the VT/NC State game last night - a real defensive struggle that was fun to watch (not painful, like the SU/WVU game).

The gap has definitely widened.

When does basketball season begin????

Cheers,
Neil

Despite everything, the BE still went 3-3 in OOC games, and Rutgers was so close in making it 4-2. 3-3 is not great, but it was a whacky first week throughout the country in college football.

I agree, the Big East will be fine. UC should have buried Eastern Michigan, but after going up 14-3 the young guys got big heads and started to slack off. We'll see how up to par the young guys are in Happy Valley. The Big East will have a chance OOC to prove themselves. Syracuse will have a number of games, including Virginia. If West Virginia can beat Maryland and Virginia Tech they'll definitely be in the Top 20, maybe Top 15. If Pitt cleans up their OOC schedule, including Nebraska, they'll vault back into the Top 25. Louisville hosts Oregon State, and of course the other schools like UConn who should roll with the OOC and hopefully be a Top 30 or 35 squad, which is good, and UC has a couple of chances against Penn State and Miami-OH. If we can pull off the upsets that would be huge. I'm not sure who South Florida and Rutgers plays. But we still have our chances, just take care of business!

Quote:WVU and SU played a horrible game in front of a national audience yesterday (an audience I'm sure that abandoned the game by the half if not sooner). I mean seriously, would you have stayed in and watched this game on a beautiful Sunday afternoon of a long weekend if you weren't a fan of the two teams or perhaps of the BE?

While both defenses are good, the truth of the matter is that the Eers' offense was a bit inept (stupid penalties and to's at crucial points) and SU's offense was non-existent. Had either team been facing a Utah offense from last year, both would have lost by at least 2 TDs. All this game did was re-inforce the notion that the BE plays 'ugly' football and lacks playmakers at the skill positions. The next 'big' game for both squads comes on September 17th when SU hosts Virginia and WVU plays at Maryland. Both will need to improve significantly on offense to win those games. I have much more hope of the Eers doing this than SU. Bednarik showed a lot of promise.

-- Did you expect anything different? Considering the youth on our sidelines and the fact that SUs system is brand new that is exactly what should have been expected...by fans, TV networks etc

-- If truth be told I am very pleased by WVUs performance...Colson will never have that kind of day again and to come out of the Carrier dome with win with a ton of players who had never played any serious action is a great way to start the season

Quote:GT's win over Auburn, Clemson's win over Texas A&M, BC with a good win over BYU on TV in the northeast, Maryland and Virginia not losing games they could have, and the VT/NC State game last night - a real defensive struggle that was fun to watch (not painful, like the SU/WVU game).

The gap has definitely widened.

-- We need to let go of the ACC/BE football comparsions....although this has been traditionally the league we have compared ourselves with..it really isn't fair to do that anymore...they have two superpowers and we don't have any....All of there programs except perhaps Duke and Wake Forest have solid football tradition and we have two schools who have brand new football programs and two others who haven't had a chance to recruit with the BCS bid yet.....and if truth be told we only have 4 schools that have had any kind of tradition of success in football...the ACC has 10

--What we need to so concertrate on is trying to close the gap between us and the Pac 10...hopefully UL can stay in the top 10 and be our USC this yr and one or two more of our programs step up


Jackson

i honestly thought the cuse-wvu was a great game. it was my kinda game. a great defensive game. most of ya'll want 41-38 type games. but i like the grind em out punch each other in the face game and thats what i saw yesterday. yes wvu fumbled alot. and why did richrod keep colson in the game. i thought gwaltney looked pretty good. cuse's d looked pretty damn good stirppin the ball bout 5 times. wvu's d got a td and a safety so yeah to me it was a great game didn't dissapoint me @ all.

Jackson1011 Wrote:

Quote:GT's win over Auburn, Clemson's win over Texas A&M, BC with a good win over BYU on TV in the northeast, Maryland and Virginia not losing games they could have, and the VT/NC State game last night - a real defensive struggle that was fun to watch (not painful, like the SU/WVU game).

The gap has definitely widened.

-- We need to let go of the ACC/BE football comparsions....although this has been traditionally the league we have compared ourselves with..it really isn't fair to do that anymore...they have two superpowers and we don't have any....All of there programs except perhaps Duke and Wake Forest have solid football tradition and we have two schools who have brand new football programs and two others who haven't had a chance to recruit with the BCS bid yet.....and if truth be told we only have 4 schools that have had any kind of tradition of success in football...the ACC has 10

--What we need to so concertrate on is trying to close the gap between us and the Pac 10...hopefully UL can stay in the top 10 and be our USC this yr and one or two more of our programs step up


Jackson

Exactly, the what the ACC is doing on the field has no bearing on us now. If the ACC becomes the runaway best or 2nd best football conference the Big East becomes the clear cut 5th or 6th best conference I would take that any day of the week! Things go in cycles. I remember a few years back when the Big Ten was having down years and Wisconsin and Northwestern were collecting championships. I'm just more concerned with the Big East. Take care of business and we'll be fine.

We are being too hard on ourselves. Rutgers choked its game away. Obviously the Pittsburg game was a huge disappointment for the league, but the Panthers will be just fine. It's unfortunate that Pitt had to play Notre Dame in its first game of the season.

Louisville lost its intensity at halftime, but I still like Louisville's chances to finish in the top 10. West Viriginia has an outstanding defense, and its offense is going to improve as the season moves along. Virginia Tech struggled last night, and I don't see a lot of difference between #8 Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

I'm down here in Big 12 country, and it's not great down here either. If Texas loses to Ohio State on Saturday, the Big 12 will be out of the championship picture after 2 weeks of the season. Big 12 football is not that great this year.

Quote:Jackson1011 Posted on Sep 5 2005, 04:47 PM
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Quote: 
WVU and SU played a horrible game in front of a national audience yesterday (an audience I'm sure that abandoned the game by the half if not sooner). I mean seriously, would you have stayed in and watched this game on a beautiful Sunday afternoon of a long weekend if you weren't a fan of the two teams or perhaps of the BE?

While both defenses are good, the truth of the matter is that the Eers' offense was a bit inept (stupid penalties and to's at crucial points) and SU's offense was non-existent. Had either team been facing a Utah offense from last year, both would have lost by at least 2 TDs. All this game did was re-inforce the notion that the BE plays 'ugly' football and lacks playmakers at the skill positions. The next 'big' game for both squads comes on September 17th when SU hosts Virginia and WVU plays at Maryland. Both will need to improve significantly on offense to win those games. I have much more hope of the Eers doing this than SU. Bednarik showed a lot of promise.

-- Did you expect anything different? Considering the youth on our sidelines and the fact that SUs system is brand new that is exactly what should have been expected...by fans, TV networks etc

No, we discussed this game being a close defensive struggle beforehand. But it was still an ugly game. Nothing that would enhance the BE's reputation - which was the point I was trying to make.

Quote:-- If truth be told I am very pleased by WVUs performance...Colson will never have that kind of day again and to come out of the Carrier dome with win with a ton of players who had never played any serious action is a great way to start the season

Well, I'm sure you are happy with the win, as I would be if our positions were reversed. Just not sure that game told us much about either team. I think our September 17th match-ups will tell much more.

Best of luck the rest of the way.

Cheers,
Neil

Omni,

I didn't think the West Virginia-Syracuse game was an ugly football game that detracted from the image of the Big East. If you classify the game as ugly, then I saw a lot of ugly football this weekend.

It's unfortunate that the Moutaineers and Orange had to play such a crucial game as their first game.

We all need to lighten up.

The Syracuse/West Virginia game was fine. The problem is that people like offense over defense. If it were a shootout people would talk about pretty football. But because it was a defensive struggle it was ugly football. That was an outstanding defensive game. UC's staple in football and basketball has always been defense, so we know a good defensive game when we see one! :)

the game was sloppy but what do you expect its the first week, syracuse represented itself and the be very well by packing the carrier dome and the fans were really into the game, complete 180 from the cuse-temple game last year. hopefully you all can keep up the enthusiasm after the loss. i think we're being a little too hard on l-ville, kentucky was playing the game of their lives in front of 70,000 people, the offense looked as good as advertised albeit their pass defense was atrocious. pitt was a big disappointment, their defense is incredibly slow, but palko was exciting to watch, unfotunately there's not much else to get excited about, i don't see them winning the nebraska game, hopefully it doesn't become a joke like the notre dame game. as for rutgers, what can you say, rutgers has a lot of talent and they are exciting to watch they have a good qb and their wide receivers were impressive. it wasn't schiano's fault his te can't catch the ball, but that game pretty much sealed his fate. if rutgers wins that game i would've considered this weekend a success, the pitt game was a tossup all along.

One thing is clear: The BE cannot afford another weekend like that the rest of the season.

I agree....week 1 was a bit disappointing but a week does not a season make.........

I think WVU will end up having a good year as will UofL....remember, UofL was playing pUKe and this IS a rivalry...usually rivalries mean good close games regardless of which team is really better.

USF lost at Penn St. by 10 because they didn't give up and I think USF will have a decent year.....

UC looked like a team that had 3/4 of the team playing in their first college game...I don't expect a happy outcome at Penn State in Week 2.... but UC will be a great team in a year or two...mark it down.

Cuse needs more time...new offense schemes etc. and the same could be said for Pitt.....Honestly, the Big East has a lot of teams that are either Young (UC/USF) or have new coaches/schemes (Pitt/Cuse)...so what could we really expect after week 1 anyway....

The big disappointment was Rutgers...blowing a large lead and losing a game they should have won...

Let's see where things are in a bout 5 more weeks before we really say the conference sucks this year....

if anything we didn't increase paterno's popularity in happy valley, this was supposed to be their breakout year and their offense could only really generate 10 points on us and they turned the ball over 3 times. their two true freshman looked way in over their heads, justin king had that reverse but was caught from behind by one of our d-backs and j. peyton caught 2 jumpball td's over him, our other d-back shut down d. williams. our o-line didn't allow a sack and gave julmiste all sorts of time to throw. they may beat cinci but with a tough big ten schedule i don't see them winning much more than they did last year, paterno may be as good as gone after this year. as for usf, we have something to build on for the rest of the season and we should have an easier time with our next two games, before we head to miami.

Well most people consider the BE the #6 conference. If you look at winning % after week 1 the BE is the 6th best. I understand the weekend was disappointing, but there is no need to panic.

UL owned UK in the 1st half and fell asleep in the 2nd half. I'm sure they learned their lesson. I do think they need to find a goto receiver and throw the ball down field more.

Although the MWC had a few good wins this weekend, I still don't see another conference moving ahead of the BE.

Your absolutely right? Coach Petrino said he did not want to go down field alot in the game because he didn't want our qb to panic in his first game against a rival. Now that I think about it; it makes a little sense, for example look at Oklahoma, Auburn, and Miami. When you are playing a green qb you want to give them a chance to gain confidence. I seen so many new qbs in week 1 with 3 and 4 interceptions because they were going for the "big" play. Sometimes that can bite your team in the ****** if you have a green qb under tremendous pressure. As the season goes along you will see our qb going downfield a helluva lot more because that is one of his strengths. Also Petrino was saying that he was taking what the UK defense was giving him, they barely had 8 men in the box and the safties were playing deep the whole game. We were running the ball pretty successfully during the game. I feel like you though I would have liked to see him spread the field and go downfield just to keep there secondary on there heels. I'm just telling you why we didn't per coach petrino. He didn't wanted to play call to where brohm would be mistake free. I think in the second half he just over threw and under threw some balls to wide open receivers. Plus momentum is so big in rivalry games, it can take alot out of a team. Our problems are fixable, so I'm not really worried about it, anytime you can go to your rivals homefield and get a win is always good. Especially a rival who soaked up the under-dog roll, they played that card to there advantage to hype up there players. We did enough to win the game and thats all I can ask for.

For the record I don't agree with Cardinal empire, you don't have to score a million points to be a good team. The patriots practically won every game last year by a field goal or seven points. I like games like WV vs Syr and Miami vs FLa St. Those games in my opinion seperate the real from the fake. Your defense is what is going to carry you, and if you can't stop teams from scoring then you might as well hang it up. I would rather have a ok offense and a dominant defense. If your defense is shutting teams down then all you have to do as a offense is be mediocre and score. If you are going to rely on Offense then you better have a spectacular offense where you are scoring damn near every possession. I love offense but as the old saying goes "defense wins championships". Thats why I'm not worried about WV or Syr as long as there defenses step up there offenses will gel by mid-season. To be honest the only great offense I seen in week 1 was Bowling Green, they were doing whatever they wanted to with Wisconsin, but they couldn't stop an all female football team if they wanted to, there defense was terrible. It will be interesting to see how each team will be looking in mid-season form. We just need big wins against big time opponents.

kardphan Wrote:For the record I don't agree with Cardinal empire, you don't have to score a million points to be a good team. The patriots practically won every game last year by a field goal or seven points. I like games like WV vs Syr and Miami vs FLa St. Those games in my opinion seperate the real from the fake. Your defense is what is going to carry you, and if you can't stop teams from scoring then you might as well hang it up. I would rather have a ok offense and a dominant defense. If your defense is shutting teams down then all you have to do as a offense is be mediocre and score. If you are going to rely on Offense then you better have a spectacular offense where you are scoring damn near every possession. I love offense but as the old saying goes "defense wins championships". Thats why I'm not worried about WV or Syr as long as there defenses step up there offenses will gel by mid-season. To be honest the only great offense I seen in week 1 was Bowling Green, they were doing whatever they wanted to with Wisconsin, but they couldn't stop an all female football team if they wanted to, there defense was terrible. It will be interesting to see how each team will be looking in mid-season form. We just need big wins against big time opponents.

Don't get so disappointed in Rutgers come to expect us to do that kind of stuff. Until Schiano is gone thats all we're ever gonna do, show flashes of complete brilliance. We actually have a talent and experience level that we can safely say is underachieving big time.

Don't get me wrong Brista I wasn't dissappointed in Rutgers overall talent, you can see the talent is there. I was just dissappointed they got complacent it seemed. The only team I was truly dissappointed in was pitt because I expected much more, but I was more dissappointed with my own team than Rutgers. Pitt just seemed like they did not show up. I know Notre Dame has a helluva offensive line but Pitt could of made that game respectable.