Best football Thursday ever?

[wilson]

This is the best slate of games I can ever remember on Thursday. Two very big games involving undefeated teams, one with huge national championship implications.
I have to say I don't mind Oregon at all...how could you? Their mascot is Donald Duck.
3663
But I'd like to see an ACC team back in the title game, so for Florida State's sake, I'm rooting for Stanford tonight.
It's probably not the best thing that it somehow feels like a good Saturday afternoon schedule since I have to go to work in the morning, but at least tomorrow's Friday.

[OldPhiKap]

Go Stanford! I like Oregon a lot but FSU is my real rooting interest here.

[throatybeard]

Don't sleep on ULL-Troy. I'm kind of not even joking here. It's close.

Insert quip about how the two main college matchups are better than the Vikings-Redskins game.

It's killing me to mostly miss this, but the Met is giving Die Frau ohne Schatten for the first time in about a dozen years. So on the ground floor, I have Sirius on Dish. In the basement on the bigger TV (42", that's big to me, even though I know all the TV mavens say anything smaller than 60" is third-world). I like having rewind continuity, so about every fifteen minutes, I go downstairs to check on football.

How about Baylor!

[throatybeard]

It's interesting how people are rooting for FSU (in the Oregon game). I agree completely; the ACC needs to be relevant. What interests me is how the talk has changed since the 1990s. Back then, the ACC-8 spent a lot of time whining about how awful it was that FSU was beating all of us. I'm glad people recognize that the conference needs relevance, and this year, FSU winning and showing up against [presumably] Bama is the way to do it, and it would be good for all of us.

[wilson]

How about Baylor!I have to admit they've surprised me tonight. Turns out their offense really is that good. I have no idea what the Pac 12 race looks like, but it would be a hoot if Oregon and Baylor somehow ended up in, say, the Fiesta Bowl. Stanford sure is taking it to the Ducks right now.

[kAzE]

Even though it's two bad teams, this Redskins Vikings game is actually turning out to be a good one.

[kAzE]

Wow, I guess that's what Oregon deserved after talking so much trash earlier in the week.

[superdave]

Don't forget the Redskins Vikings game. A fun shoot out.

Makes me forget I used to spend Thursday nights watching The OC. Uhhhh.... Never mind.

[FerryFor50]

Don't look now but here come the Ducks!

[throatybeard]

Onsides kicks are a terrible idea. Except when they aren't.

[wilson]

Down go the Ducks. The Noles are sitting pretty.

[nocilla]

Down go the Ducks. The Noles are sitting pretty.

Everyone I heard on the radio this morning was saying that Baylor was now sitting pretty. FSU wasn't mentioned at all. Apparently if Baylor wins out their SOS will be better than FSU. After Duke beats Miami next weekend that probably will be the case.

[elvis14]

So I was watching 3 games: Redskins-Vikings, Ducks-Cardinal, Clippers-Heat. I'm a Redskins fan, always want them to win. I wanted the Ducks to win just because I like them and would have liked to see a Oregon-FSU shootout for the natty. I wanted the Clippers to win because JJ is playing for the Clippers and because the only thing I like about the Heat is Shane.

All 3 teams I wanted to win lost. I should root for Davidson tonight just to be safe.

[wilson]

Everyone I heard on the radio this morning was saying that Baylor was now sitting pretty. FSU wasn't mentioned at all. Apparently if Baylor wins out their SOS will be better than FSU. After Duke beats Miami next weekend that probably will be the case.I dunno about this. That's not what I heard on the radio this morning, and it doesn't seem to be the consensus on the interweb (for whatever that's worth). Here are a couple of examples:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9944784/acc-big-winner-thursday-night-pac-12-big-12-showdowns
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/bowls/predictions
Baylor's strength of schedule is, if anything, worse than FSU's. The computers also all like FSU a lot more than Baylor:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/bcs
Plus, Baylor looks to have more of a chance of dropping a game, with four reasonably good teams remaining on their schedule (including a road game at #14 Oklahoma State, the preseason Big 12 favorite). I'm not even sure Baylor is second in line...Ohio State isn't going to lose, and they were rather comfortably ahead of Baylor in the most recent standings. Even Stanford was ahead of Baylor in this week's BCS standings, and they'll certainly get a boost in the next standings. Baylor will still need a lot more help to get into the title game.

[loran16]

Everyone I heard on the radio this morning was saying that Baylor was now sitting pretty. FSU wasn't mentioned at all. Apparently if Baylor wins out their SOS will be better than FSU. After Duke beats Miami next weekend that probably will be the case.

Yeah this is wrong.

First of all, the BCS Computers are only 1/3 of the rankings: and both Harris and Coaches' polls will have FSU over Baylor.

Second, the computer rankings still really like FSU - Baylor was actually ranked 9th in those rankings prior to this game. The games will help, but FSU has a big lead over Baylor in the computers.

[nocilla]

Yeah this is wrong.

First of all, the BCS Computers are only 1/3 of the rankings: and both Harris and Coaches' polls will have FSU over Baylor.

Second, the computer rankings still really like FSU - Baylor was actually ranked 9th in those rankings prior to this game. The games will help, but FSU has a big lead over Baylor in the computers.

Well I only caught snippets so I probably missed important parts of the discussion. But what I did hear was that if Baylor wins out, beating Texas Tech and @ Ok St, then they would be in the discussion. It's possible that they were just refering to Baylor passing Ohio St though. I was surprised to not hear FSU, but maybe I just missed that part.

[Henderson]

Wow, I guess that's what Oregon deserved after talking so much trash earlier in the week.

Earlier in the week? How about for the past 10 years? I'm a Duck fan, so last night was tough. In January of 2011, my father (huge Duck fan) was dying of cancer at home in hospice care. The Ducks were playing Auburn for the national championship. My dad asked to be propped up so he could watch the game. When Auburn got without of reach, he asked that the TV be turned off. He died the next morning. So I was hoping for another shot this season for him.

But I find most Duck football fans insufferable. Every time I go home to Oregon and see all those people who never set foot on a college campus decked out in green and yellow, all I can think is, "This is how Maryland BB fans would be if that team ever achieved some success." I remember well the half-empty Autzen stadium for years when Oregon was bad.

I went to an Oregon-Oregon State basketball game a few years ago, and the Beavers were putting in a smack-down. I was sitting with OSU friends, and the Duck fans behind us were just abusive, notwithstanding the beating their team was taking. "Wait till football season! This is just basketball and doesn't mean anything! We'll shave your girlfriend's beaver!" Stuff like that. I was embarrassed. With Oregon's rise in basketball under Dana Altman, I'm guessing those same people will now discover college basketball and start trash talking about that.

My consolation prize from last night: the ACC bump. Go FSU!

[A-Tex Devil]

Baylor's offense is the real deal. Coach Briles' started tinkering with this in Texas High School football in the '80s and has come close to perfecting it. Top 2 running backs go down? No problem, have third string guy go for >125. Lose a Heisman winner, then another guy that broke all of said Heisman winner's passing records? No problem, plug in Bryce Petty, who may be the best passer of them all. Continue to turn three star WRs with sprinter speed into NFL draft picks, and voila!!

And now they *appear* to have a defense, although both Ok St. and Tech will challenge that.

All that said, if it wasn't already common knowledge, last night's Stanford game confirmed that the most important unit in college football is the defensive line. Just look at what 'Bama has done over the course of the last 5 years, recall what Auburn did to Oregon in the Natty, and now what Stanford has done the last two years. If you have a 4 man defensive line that can get to the QB and get to RBs for losses so that your LBs are clean to cover the run and your DBs can concentrate on the receivers, you can shut down the highest powered offenses. Especially if your offense on the other side can control the ball and the clock.

Baylor's offensive line is a lot better than Oregon's. I don't want to see Baylor/Oregon. I want to see Baylor against 'Bama, Stanford or FSU, and see if Art Briles offense is as unstoppable as it seems. And you saw what Johnny Football did to 'Bama two years in a row. Baylor's offense if better than that.