(09-15-2018 10:44 PM)Antarius Wrote:  Calvin Anderson on the verge of his first top 25 win.. (and top 50 too..)

And Top 75, for that matter, but who's counting?

(09-15-2018 09:39 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 06:38 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Re: Hawaii, Rice would beat them at home.

And this is based on what? Army was 65 in the ratings while Hawaii was 70.

Rice is 127.

Glad everyone is enthusiast, but facts seem to go out the window at the first opportunity here.

Ok here’s a couple facts:

127 includes results from last year.

Not everyone is an enthusiast.

(09-16-2018 01:28 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 09:39 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 06:38 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Re: Hawaii, Rice would beat them at home.

And this is based on what? Army was 65 in the ratings while Hawaii was 70.

Rice is 127.

Glad everyone is enthusiast, but facts seem to go out the window at the first opportunity here.

Ok here’s a couple facts:

127 includes results from last year.

Not everyone is an enthusiast.

Sure. I'll assume these to be additive to my list, since they certainly dont contradict anything I said. That and home field doesnt give one a +15 point advantage anywhere.

(09-16-2018 02:00 AM)Antarius Wrote:  

(09-16-2018 01:28 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 09:39 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 06:38 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Re: Hawaii, Rice would beat them at home.

And this is based on what? Army was 65 in the ratings while Hawaii was 70.

Rice is 127.

Glad everyone is enthusiast, but facts seem to go out the window at the first opportunity here.

Ok here’s a couple facts:

127 includes results from last year.

Not everyone is an enthusiast.

Sure. I'll assume these to be additive to my list, since they certainly dont contradict anything I said. That and home field doesnt give one a +15 point advantage anywhere.

First off, Army is not a bad team. They have a terrific coach who has improved the program leaps and bounds over the past several years. Second, it's never easy playing on the road, especially when traveling several time zones east. Just look at USC losing badly to UT last night. I saw the Trojans first hand last week vs. Stanford, and they're a much better team than the way they played last night.

(09-15-2018 06:23 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 05:41 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 05:26 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 03:44 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  UNT perhaps just had one of the greatest trick plays I’ve ever seen.

A fake fair catch.

Wow. Props to the refs for having enough imagimation to not blow the whistle too soon.

https://twitter.com/ConferenceUSA/status...4884152320

It takes a bold (or stupid) returner to sign up for running that fake. All it takes is one well disciplined coverage player to blow it up for a promo video hit. There are good reasons why the fair catch rule exists.

Well, that returner is going to have a rough year. If I were him I would be expecting to get my head ripped off on any fair catch this year. Return defender can easily justify 'not seeing if the hand was up or not' and/or 'dont care if I have to stop or not' to his return coach on any ensuing penalty.

Actually, I am sure every return defender will be shown that clip over the next 7 days. And every special teams coach will mutter to his team 'if there is a catch and you do not hear a whistle tear their heads off.'

Yes, that return play strikes me as creating the wrong incentives for safe play, going forward.

(09-16-2018 07:31 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 06:23 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 05:41 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 05:26 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 03:44 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  UNT perhaps just had one of the greatest trick plays I’ve ever seen.

A fake fair catch.

Wow. Props to the refs for having enough imagimation to not blow the whistle too soon.

https://twitter.com/ConferenceUSA/status...4884152320

It takes a bold (or stupid) returner to sign up for running that fake. All it takes is one well disciplined coverage player to blow it up for a promo video hit. There are good reasons why the fair catch rule exists.

Well, that returner is going to have a rough year. If I were him I would be expecting to get my head ripped off on any fair catch this year. Return defender can easily justify 'not seeing if the hand was up or not' and/or 'dont care if I have to stop or not' to his return coach on any ensuing penalty.

Actually, I am sure every return defender will be shown that clip over the next 7 days. And every special teams coach will mutter to his team 'if there is a catch and you do not hear a whistle tear their heads off.'

Well, then they'll draw the 15 yard penalty. It's all good.

Special teams play is not for the risk-averse.

(09-15-2018 05:10 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 04:41 PM)TFW Wrote:  Vanderbilt 17, ND 22. Q4.

Vandy couldn't get any closer.

Vanderbilt 17, ND 22. Final.

Goliath beat David today.

You should watch Malcom Gladwell's Ted talk. Goliath beating David is what Army did to Hawaii.

(09-15-2018 05:26 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(09-15-2018 03:44 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  UNT perhaps just had one of the greatest trick plays I’ve ever seen.
A fake fair catch.

Wow. Props to the refs for having enough imagimation to not blow the whistle too soon.

I don't like exploiting a rule that is created for the returner's safety.

The problem is that to defend this play, you almost have to have the coverage team plow into UNT returners. What you should probably teach is to get your hands on the ball on every return that you think is a fair catch. If it was a fair catch, the returner has no reason to let go, and you will probably not get called for a penalty. If it's not as fair catch, then you have a good shot at shifting the field 45 yards.

Hopefully see Rice on a list like this again...

@Brett_McMurphy
12h12 hours ago

Power 5 losses so far today vs. Group of 5:

Akron 39, Northwestern 34
Troy 24, Nebraska 19
USF 25, Illinois 19
BYU 24, Wisconsin 21
Temple 35, Maryland 14
Nevada 37, Oregon State 35
North Texas 44, Arkansas 17
Fresno State 16, UCLA 0 (2nd quarter)

(09-16-2018 09:37 AM)I45owl Wrote:  I don't like exploiting a rule that is created for the returner's safety.

This, 1,000,000 times

Interesting article about the fake fair catch:

SBN article

Special Teams Coordinator, Marty Biagi, says it was something about the way Arkansas covers punts that inspired the play (though he won't say what).

The coverage player that ran up to Brewer actually asked him, "Why aren't they blowing the whistle?"

Texans lose on a boneheaded play. Watson wastes 17 seconds playing Barry Sanders on first down. Eventually completes the pass but time runs out.

Yeesh.

(09-16-2018 03:15 PM)Antarius Wrote:  Texans lose on a boneheaded play. Watson wastes 17 seconds playing Barry Sanders on first down. Eventually completes the pass but time runs out.

Yeesh.

There was a bizarre play that led to Tennessee's go-ahead FG. Gabbert (the Titans QB) ended up attempting two forward passes (he passed the ball, it was tipped back to him, and he threw another forward pass) which resulted in a penalty. But that particular call is only a 5 yard penalty (unless you're across the line of scrimmage when the 2nd pass occurs in which case it's also a loss of down).

The truly bizarre thing about the call is that they could have easily called intentional grounding too - which absolutely is a loss of down (unless you can't call that on a 2nd forward pass??). Bill O'Brien was livid but they tried saying the call was penalized correctly. It's probably something the rules committee will change during the off-season

Technically the play didn't cost the Texans the game as Tennessee got a 1st down on the next play (which was 2nd and 12 instead of 3rd and 12) but you do wonder if things would have played out differently if it had been 3rd down instead of 2nd.

There was a receiver in the vicinity of his second pass (which was left handed) so therefore no intentional grounding. I think obrein thought he would get the loss of down. Obviously at that point you want to decline a 5 yd penalty and send the Titans to 3rd down because the texans needed to force a punt and preserve time on the clock. Terrible decision to accept that penalty.

I also though the decision to punt and not kick a 54 yd fg on the prior possession was sub-optimal. It was made even worse by the atrocious special teams play when the punter booms the punt into the end zone and the gunner gets a penalty for illegal touching. They only gained 12 yards of field position for not kicking a 50/50 fg to take the lead.

What a bunch of bozos.

The Texans also allowed a 68 yard TD pass on a fake punt early in the game by not even covering the outside man on Tennessee's punt formation. That was just horrid coaching on their part (but at least Larry Izzo can't be blamed anymore - he's now in Seattle). I added a link to the punt if you haven't seen it yet - again that's just terrible, terrible special teams coaching.

O'Brien seems completely over his head as a head coach so why in the world he's allowed to both be the head coach and offensive coordinator is just mind-boggling.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/09/16/titans...arter-lead

The poor results by our schedule so far dropped us two spots in the S&P+. Prairie View, Hawai'i, and Houston all lost. We're now 128 of 130, ahead of only UCONN and dead last UTEP. Conference mates UTSA and Charlotte are also in the bottom 10, giving C-USA more of these uncoveted spots than any other conference. There's also two Sunbelt (GaSt, TxSt) and one each American (UCONN), MAC (Bowling Green), MWC (San Jose State), and independent (NMSU).

(09-16-2018 03:39 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(09-16-2018 03:15 PM)Antarius Wrote:  Texans lose on a boneheaded play. Watson wastes 17 seconds playing Barry Sanders on first down. Eventually completes the pass but time runs out.

Yeesh.

There was a bizarre play that led to Tennessee's go-ahead FG. Gabbert (the Titans QB) ended up attempting two forward passes (he passed the ball, it was tipped back to him, and he threw another forward pass) which resulted in a penalty. But that particular call is only a 5 yard penalty (unless you're across the line of scrimmage when the 2nd pass occurs in which case it's also a loss of down).

The truly bizarre thing about the call is that they could have easily called intentional grounding too - which absolutely is a loss of down (unless you can't call that on a 2nd forward pass??). Bill O'Brien was livid but they tried saying the call was penalized correctly. It's probably something the rules committee will change during the off-season

Technically the play didn't cost the Texans the game as Tennessee got a 1st down on the next play (which was 2nd and 12 instead of 3rd and 12) but you do wonder if things would have played out differently if it had been 3rd down instead of 2nd.

Was a bizarre play indeed. I was convinced it was loss of down, however was not aware of the nuance loss of down only applying past the LOS.

Likely will be changed in the off season as, while rare, it does open a loophole allowing a QB to escape with a mere 5 yards (thereby diminishing the defensive effort of blocking the pass) vs. having to escape and run or take a sack.

Still am mortified by the lack of onfield presence by Houston at the end of the game. On first down, throw it away or run out of bounds. It wasn't like this was a hail mary situation.

I wouldn't put much stock in those rankings. Charlotte beats ODU and they lose 2 spots while ODU gains 10 spots and is ranked 111th, 9 spots ahead of Charlotte?? That should tell you all you need to know about the rankings.

BTW, Joseph Duarte ranks the D1 teams in Texas for the Chronicle each week, and he has Rice 8th (ahead of SMU, UTSA, Texas State and UTEP - he also has UNT 3rd behind A&M and TCU).

(09-16-2018 08:01 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  The poor results by our schedule so far dropped us two spots in the S&P+. Prairie View, Hawai'i, and Houston all lost. We're now 128 of 130, ahead of only UCONN and dead last UTEP. Conference mates UTSA and Charlotte are also in the bottom 10, giving C-USA more of these uncoveted spots than any other conference. There's also two Sunbelt (GaSt, TxSt) and one each American (UCONN), MAC (Bowling Green), MWC (San Jose State), and independent (NMSU).

Massey has us holding at 127 (4th from the bottom). IMO, this is a perfectly reasonable rating given how we are 1-2 and barely scraped by a FCS team.

That said, I expect us to be bad this year. Rebuilding takes time (especially when starting from where we were). The good news is C-USA is just as bad, so I expect us to improve and win a few games.