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5 Games I’m Keeping An Eye On—10/04/2008

Last week, I wanted to be slick and load the world-famous 5-Games report up using Monkey Joe’s wi-fi. Had it all typed out, ready to go. Get there, their wi-fi is down. Had some good picks going too. Oh well…This is one of those weeks where one of two things will be evident: Either a lot of upsets, or not very many at all. The Report this week will appear as if I’m “picking on” two particular conferences, and I promise you I’m not, these games just jumped out at me, they just happen to be Big Sky & SWAC games. Anyways….enjoy:

1. #3 Montana (4-0, 0-0) @ #38 Weber St (3-2, 1-0) – Strangely, this is the second time I’ve selected a #3 ranked team (NDSU was the other vs Y’town). First, California says it needs a $7 Billion bailout from the Feds, immediately the State of Montana jumped into the fray as they desperately need massive amounts of $$ to pay for UM’s second road game of the year. And, they have ANOTHER one next week @ Eastern Washington. Imagine: the Montana Grizzlies will have played 3 road games! Breadlines will be forming in Missoula soon...Now onto the game: WSU amazingly has an offense ranked in the Top 15, even though they’ve played 2 FBS squads. Their bread & butter is their aerial attack that garners 320 yds/game. Montana’s defensive weakness? Pass Defense. The Griz have won the last two meetings by a combined 11 points, both WSU teams weren’t very good. This is a classic “look-ahead” game for UM. Uh-oh.
2. #4 McNeese State (2-1) @ #23 South Dakota St (3-2) – In a strange twist of Mother Nature’s fate, this will be the Cowboys’s first FCS matchup of the season, and their first truly competitive game since Labor Day weekend at UNC-CH. It’s never good for football teams to essentially have an entire month off. SDSU has been playing some tough games against some tough teams (Youngstown, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois) without skipping September.
3. #36 Prairie View A&M (4-0, 2-0) @ #52 Grambling State (3-2, 2-0) –Remember the old adage: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”? This game is Exhibit 1a: PVA&M statistically has the #1 ranked defense in the country. They should: PVA&M has played Morehouse, Texas College and Texas Southern. I guess the Saskatchewan Normal School was all booked up.
4. #49 Southern (2-2) @ Jackson State (1-3) – Southern struggled to beat a bad Alcorn State squad by 3 points last week. Jackson State is coming off a bye week after suffering 2 heartbreaking HBCU losses.
5. Sacramento State (3-2, 1-1) @ #24 Northern Arizona (3-1, 1-0) – Talk about efficiency, the Hornets have thrown only ONE interception in 5 games so far this season. Both teams run the ball well, both pass the ball well, both are winning the turnover margin so far. They’ve played fairly similar schedules. Just call it a hunch.

Others to watch:

• #14 Villanova (3-1) @ #32 William & Mary (2-1) — this one came thisclose to making the Top 5
• #6 Richmond (3-2) @ VMI (2-2) – interesting to see Sparky take on a ranked squad at home
• #31 Youngstown State (2-3) @ Southern Utah (2-3)
• #35 Georgia Southern @ Chattanooga – Boy oh boy oh boy! Don’t you know the Fightin’ Gnats remember last year’s game!

Good write up!

what he said, good post you got there.

All I got to say is: Prairie View is 4-0?!? How the cr@p did that happen with ANY schedule? I still expect to see a big goose egg at the end of the year for them.

Not 4-0 for long. The Robinsons are going to DESTROY them.

In other games, NAU keeps wanting to talk up their vaunted defense, which held a few nobodies to negative yardage. That's going to come to a screeching halt against Sac, which has two out of three world-class backs racking up huge yards. McTeam, Montana, and Southern win your other choice games. In your honorable mention games, I STILL laugh at Richmond being that high. I take VMI, 'Nova, GA Southern, and the Poppers in those games.

I'm watching the Towson/NE game right now....sure are a lot of fans disguised as empty seats.....looks like a beautiful day in the Northeast....it must really SUCK to support a team with very little fan support. It must suck to PLAY for a team with very little fan support.

SuperHornet wrote:All I got to say is: Prairie View is 4-0?!? How the cr@p did that happen with ANY schedule? I still expect to see a big goose egg at the end of the year for them.

Not 4-0 for long. The Robinsons are going to DESTROY them.

In other games, NAU keeps wanting to talk up their vaunted defense, which held a few nobodies to negative yardage. That's going to come to a screeching halt against Sac, which has two out of three world-class backs racking up huge yards. McTeam, Montana, and Southern win your other choice games. In your honorable mention games, I STILL laugh at Richmond being that high. I take VMI, 'Nova, GA Southern, and the Poppers in those games.

You were saying???

Sac St thru 3 quarters - MINUS NINE YARDS RUSHING

Where are you world class Running Backs??

yeah, just making sure they didn't throw downfield, so let them have some 3-4 yards runs



Oh SuperHornet....

Jon: No excuses. We completely stunk up the joint. Kinda glad I didn't get to see it at the birthday party I was at. Good thing we have an off week to get Smith back; I guess it's just too soon for White.

I'm just hoping that the return of Smith will be enough to carry us over the line in Missoula for our first win over Montana EVER. I'm not exactly holding my breath, though...

SuperHornet wrote:Jon: No excuses. We completely stunk up the joint. Kinda glad I didn't get to see it at the birthday party I was at. Good thing we have an off week to get Smith back; I guess it's just too soon for White.

I'm just hoping that the return of Smith will be enough to carry us over the line in Missoula for our first win over Montana EVER. I'm not exactly holding my breath, though...

I will admit that i thought we would handle the running game, but didn't expect us to do so well.

Good luck with breaking more Montana streaks!