Cornhuskers head into Blacksburg for big game

Nebraska @ Virginia Tech (1-1)
Saturday, September 19, 2009 - 3:30 p.m.
Lane Stadium - Blacksburg, VA
Virginia Tech -6

Trends
After losing opening week to Alabama, the Hokies smoked Marshall 52-10 last Saturday...

Last week the Cornhuskers' Zach Lee threw for 340 yards and 4 TDs in the Nebraska's 38-9 win over Arkansas State...in week 1, running back Roy Helu Jr. rushed for 152 yards and 3 TDs in the Huskers 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic...the Huskers defense held FAU QB Rusty Smith, who is one of the better quarterbacks in football, to 152 yards passing and 2 interceptiions...

Last season Nebraska faltered at home to the Hokies 35-30...Nebraska found themselves down 28-10 late in the 3rd quarter but their comeback fail short as they fumbled on the last play of the game...overall, the Huskers are 10-5 all-time in the regular season vs. the ACC...

PointWise Prediction - Virginia Tech 35 Nebraska 24

Nebraska Game Notes...

Game Notes

Virginia Tech Game Notes...

Game Notes

Brian Rosenthal of the Lincoln Journal Star writes how the Huskers are preparing for the scrambling ability of Hokie QB Tyrod Taylor... "Taylor ran for 87 yards and threw for 171 in Virginia Tech’s 35-30 victory against Nebraska last season in Lincoln. He finished the season with 1,036 passing yards and 738 rushing yards, including three 100-yard rushing games." ...

Brian Rosenthal

Steven Sipple of the Lincoln Journal Star writes how Husker running back Roy Helu Jr needs a big game to be ranked with some of the nation's best backs... "Yards probably won’t come easily for No. 19 Nebraska, considering Virginia Tech has produced a top-seven defense each of the past five seasons. Helu will be tested thoroughly. Hey, nobody said becoming a star was easy." ...

Steven Sipple

Aaron McFarling of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot writes how an Hokie O-lineman is hoping for a job other than the NFL... "Taylor's desire to be an air marshal - or an FBI agent - stems from his upbringing and his experiences at Tech. He said his father fought in the Persian Gulf War and his grandfather served in Vietnam." ...

Kyle Tucker

Happy Birthday Ignatius George

HAPPY 78th BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD - IGNATIUS GEORGE!!!

Navy sails into the confluence to take on Pitt

Navy (1-1) @ Pitt (2-0)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Heinz Field - 6:00 p.m.
Pitt -7

Trends
This is the third straight year these two teams hook-up...in 2007, Navy won at Heinz Field 48-45 in 2 overtimes...the game was tied 6 times with Navy holding Pitt on a 4th and goal in the 2nd OT...last year the Panthers went to Annapolis and won 42-21...overall, Navy has lost 5 of the last 6 in this series...

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo is in his second season at the helm...last season Navy was 8-6 overall and 6-5 ATS...

Pitt game notes for the Navy game...

Pitt Game Notes

Navy game notes for the Pitt game...

Navy Game Notes

Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes how the Panthers secondary is hurting... "As if Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt and defensive coordinator Phil Bennet didn't have enough of a headache thinking about what has gone wrong with the Panthers' secondary, yesterday they received this news -- starting free safety Andrew Taglianetti is out for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee." ...

Paul Zeise

Zeise writes about the Panthers defense and their mental mistakes.... "Though he said after watching film he found that nearly every big play the Bulls made was a result of a mental breakdown by Pitt's defense, those things are easily correctable. And the Panthers must correct them before Saturday when they play host to Navy given the Midshipmen's precision and efficiency on offense." ...

Paul Zeise

Bill Wagner of the Annapolis Capital writes about the Midshipmen's victory this past Saturday... "Green's message to his unit between the first and second defensive series: Stick to the game-plan and execute your assignments. "For the rest of the game, we did a better job of keeping the throws in front of us, running to the football and getting guys on the ground." ...

Bill Wagner

Ohio State - USC thoughts

On Saturday I attended the Notre Dame-Michigan game in Ann Arbor therefore I was unable to watch the USC-Ohio State game that night...I did set the DVR and just finished watching the game...here are some thoughts:

Many Ohio State fans are complaining that the better team did not win...maybe in their mind...if anything, USC is not receiving enough credit for winning a game in a hostile environment against a very good team...

I have seen many Ohio State games and their crowd is usually very boisterous, however, the Buckeye fans were even more riled than usual...for a true freshman quarterback to go into "The Shoe" in his second game and have the composure to come out with a win really says something about Matt Barkley...

Also, enough credit is not given to Pete Carroll...more OSU fans are saying that Gentleman Jim Tressel lost the game...but Carroll was the coach who kept his players composed and prepared for this game...

Some Ohio State fans and even players stated how they stood "toe-to-toe" with the 3rd ranked Trojans who were a 7 point favorite -- this was a moral victory...how quickly they forget that just one week earlier, little ole Navy stood "toe-to-toe" with Ohio State who was a 22 point favorite at home...the Midshipmen were just 1 play away from sending the game to overtime...in the end, Navy had to accept a tough loss just as Ohio State has to accept the loss to USC...

At the conclusion of the game former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit stated that these two teams can play again this year in the Rose Bowl...it is possible, but I don't see Ohio State running the table and winning 10 straight games...they are a team with flaws...don't get me wrong, they are a good ballclub, but I don't see them going perfect in the Big 10...

Thoughts on Week 1 - Stokley's miracle catch!!!

I'm a little late posting today, but here are my thoughts about this weekend's games...

- At the beginning of the Chicago-Green Bay game, Cris Collinsworth was saying how Brian Urlacher is in the best shape in a few years...Urlacher played a half and is now out for the season after having wrist surgery...

- Jay Cutler looked like the quarterback who has a .500 record as a starter...

- San Francisco's defense put the clamps on the Cardinals offense...

- I think Jake Delhomme is done as a starting quarterback...he looked awful...

- The Giants Mario Manningham, of Warren, Ohio, had a nice TD reception...he showed nice footwork...

- What a smart play by Denver's Brandon Stokley...he was fortunate to catch the deflected pass, but he was headwise in running parallel with the goal line in order to run down the clock when he realized there were no Bengals pursuing him...

- I knew I should have taken Drew Brees in the first round of my fantasy draft...

- Florida State goes to BYU this week...

- I'm a little surprised that Notre Dame dropped out of the Top 25...the Irish lost with 11 seconds in the game...

- A sneaky good game this week is Navy at Pitt...

- Oklahoma State's defense has not gotten better...Okie State was at home playing a Houston team with a good quarterback in Case Keenum...Keenum threw for 366 yards and 3 TDs...Okie State's Kendall Hunter did not play the whole game because he got hurt...

- The 2 college games being previewed later in the week will be Navy-Pitt and Nebraska-Virginia Tech...

Below is a 1:30 clip of Stokley's miracle catch and smart run...