Week 5 recap: A taste of conference play.

There are still a few non conference games sprinkled in.  We're going to be looking at a pretty good one next week in Dallas when  Texas A&M and Arkansas meet up at Jerry World.  But by in large we're going to be watching conference match ups from now on.  We did get a little taste of it this week with 4 games featuring Big XII opponents.   It all started Thursday night as the above mentioned A&M Aggies visited Stillwater and the Cowboys.  The teams gave their best imitation of arena football as Okie Light hit a 40 yard field goal as time expired to escape with a 38-35 win.  The preseason pick for Big XII offensive player of the year, Jerrod Johnson turned the ball over 5 times to single handedly keep the Cowboys in the game.  That makes 9 turnovers for him in the last 2 weeks and I think the questions about his shoulders health have pretty much been answered.  This opened with OSU as a 3 point favorite.  I expected them to win and cover but they hit the spread exactly, so I started the week with a win straight up but a push on the spread.

The weekend opened up in Waco when Turner Gill was introduced to Big XII conference football.    This was a game that the Bears controlled from the second the last strains of the national anthem echoed throughout a half empty Floyd Casey Stadium.  Robert Griffin was unstoppable as Baylor rolled over a hapless kansas squad by a score of 55-7.  The Bears opened as a 9 1/2 point favorite and I had them covering and winning 34-21, but I didn't see anything like this coming.  This was really the first time I've seen ku play and man did they look mediocre.  Small and slow is no way to play college football.  With the Gill decisions on cell phones, profanity and no interaction with females after 10:00 pm, he could lose this team quickly.  Somewhere Mark Mangino is laughing over a plate of twinkies.
How fast the mighty have fallen, as perennial SEC big boys, the Georgia Bulldogs fell to former Big XII whipping boys, the Buffs of Colorado 29-27.  Georgia is now 1-4 on the season while Colorado improves to 3-1.  Suddenly their trip to Columbia next week doesn't look like such a cake walk for my Tigers.  I had Georgia to win this game, but fail to cover the 4 point spread so it was a win for me vs the spread, but a loss straight up.

In Ames, the Red Raiders of Texas Tech rode into town with the taste of a loss to Texas lingering in their mouths for the last 2 weeks.  Well, it's not going to get any better for them this week.  Tech opened as a 7 1/2 point favorite, and I picked them to cover 31-14.  Instead, the Cyclones were hitting on all cylinders offensively as Austen Arnaud threw for 4 touchdown passes and the Clones won 52-38.  A double loss for me but this one has to be crushing for Tech head coach Tommy Tubberville as he continues his quest to find a head job in the SEC.  Psst, Tommy, so far the audition isn't going so well.
In Dallas it was the weekend of the Red River shootout.  The game began like Oklahoma was going to take Texas to the woodshed but finished up a somewhat lackluster 28-20 win for the Sooners over a Texas team that really doesn't appear to do anything very well right now.  I had picked the Sooners to win and cover the 4 point spread fairly easily but this turned into a first class pillow fight.  But as Bob Stoops has to be saying to himself today, a win is a win.

There were a couple of really big games out of conference this weekend, and both were played at the same time.  It made for a nice evening of channel surfing.  In Tuscaloosa, the 2 big boys of the SEC got together when #7 Florida visited the top ranked Crimson Tide and Nick Saban.  Bama opened as a 9 1/2 point favorite and I believe I said something about this one being over by halftime.  Cue the blind squirrel and the nut comment.  The Tide scored early and often to win this one 31-6.  Saban has my vote for the best coach in America, and the only team that may have a chance against them in a title game was playing at the same time in Eugene, Oregon.

When Pac 10 teams get together, you know you're going to see plenty of offensive firepower and very little defense.  This was never more true in the Ducks 52-31 win over the Stanford Cardinal which was pretty much what I expected with just a touch more scoring.  I'm actually looking forward to the possibility of a Tide/Duck show in the national championship game.  But I don't want to get ahead of myself, we have a lot of good football to come before that.  Oh, and while I'd generally take this as an opportunity to include a photo of the Oregon cheerleaders, I thought I'd throw you a curve and include a shot of college athletics most disturbing mascot.    
For the week I went 5-2 straight up and an uncharacteristic 5-1 against the spread.  For the year I'm 42-7 straight up and moved above water at 21-20 with the oddsmakers.  I hope your weekend went well, and I think I'll bask for a couple of days before taking a look at next week.  It can't be too long though since we again have a Thursday night match up in the little Apple as hick nation travels south to take on Mr Burns and the Wildcats.  Have a solid week folks.