CFB weekend preview #10

#1 Alabama at #5 LSU

In the game of the century pt. 3 Alabama goes to Death Valley currently being favored by 8. First let's look at some of these juggernauts Alabama has had to get through to get to where they are today:

Sat, Sept 1	vs #8 Michigan*	W 41-14	1-0 (0-0)
Sat, Sept 8	vs Western Kentucky	W 35-0	2-0 (0-0)
Sat, Sept 15	@ Arkansas	W 52-0	3-0 (1-0)
Sat, Sept 22	vs Florida Atlantic	W 40-7	4-0 (1-0)
Sat, Sept 29	vs Ole Miss	W 33-14	5-0 (2-0)
Sat, Oct 13	@ Missouri	W 42-10	6-0 (3-0)
Sat, Oct 20	@ Tennessee	W 44-13	7-0 (4-0)
Sat, Oct 27	vs #11 Mississippi State	W 38-7	8-0 (5-0)

Not exactly anything to brag about but I guess they've done what you'd expect them to do. Alabama has the #1 overall defense but the #41 overall offense. LSU has the #3 overall defense and the #74 overall offense.  So, like last year we can expect this to be a real low scorer. I'm really inclined to go Alabama outright on this one. In case you haven't notice Zach Mettenberger is not very good. He's only thrown 7 TDs to 4 ints and been sacked 18 times to date. That tells you the LSU O-Line isn't that good. LSU has been getting by off of capitalizing on the other team's mistakes and if there's one thing we can say about Alabama, besides all the other things of course, is that they don't make mistakes. So, like I said, I'm taking Alabama out right.

#4 Oregon at #17 USC

Oregon is favored by 8 in this one and this could be the easiest pick of the weekend. OREGON OUTRIGHT, STUPID! We all know Oregon has been "stepping off the gas" to this point at about the 2nd quarter. That has all been to lesser opponents. Do you think The Ducks are going to do that against a traditional powerhouse like USC on national TV? Of all the games this one is the one where you're most likely to see Oregon drop 100 on someone, it should be pretty interesting.

#24 Oklahoma State at #2 Kansas State

As you hopefully know by now I'll basically be taking Kansas State the rest of the season. Right now they're favored by 9 against OSU which sounds fine to me. I'll still be taking them outright. Oklahoma St is 64th in passing defense and 32nd in rushing defense. There are two things Collin Klein excels in so I expect him to have a pretty good day.

#20 Nebraska at Michigan St.

I feel incredibly bored just looking at this match up. Nebraska is favored by an incredibly boring 1 1/2 points and I think they'll cover. Really it comes down to the fact that Nebraska is just a more talented team. If that Michigan St running game decides to play like he did last year that could make things much more different.

My totally biased and completely non-objective look at Illinois at Ohio State

After last weeks beat down of Penn State my faith in the Buckeyes is renewed. However, one disturbing trend I've noticed this year is Ohio State's tendency to play down to their opponent. In games where they should win handily like Purdue and Indiana they let them score a butt-load of points, I guess to keep things interesting. The line currently favors Ohio State by 27 1/2 and frightfully I could see Ohio State either easily covering or once again getting in a shootout with an inferior opponent. That being said Indiana is really not THAT bad of a team, at least by Big 10 standards while Illinois is terrible. So I think OSU will cover.