Ugly Offense and Sweet September Defense!
by Mike Neri
You can't ignore defense and expect to win in football. You can't win in any
sport, for that matter. Many times we've seen teams with strong offenses run
up and down the field, but if the defense has a weak spot or is bad overall,
it will catch up with them at some point. Opposing teams, for instance, will
key in on one weakness and then exploit it. Other times, a great offense will
be out of synch one week, and not score as many points as they normally do.
And a bad defense will be at a huge disadvantage. Offense and defense work hand
in hand when it comes to winning.
This is especially true this early in the season. If you like to play totals,
the first weekend of college football saw a huge edge in games going under the
total. It was fun to watch Miami and Florida State put up endless drives and
plenty of points Monday night, but the fact is scoring was done this past weekend
in college football.
And this is nothing new. Defenses are often ahead of the offenses the first
few weeks of the season. Illinois was a big bust in the opener, not getting
anything going on offense despite a talented returning QB in Juice Williams,
scoring just 9 points in a loss to Missouri (sailing under).
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio is keeping mum on his quarterback situation,
declining to say whether Kirk Cousins or Keith Nichol will start against Central
Michigan, or set a deadline to name a starter. Speaking of the Big 10, keep
in mind that at least 10 Wisconsin players have flu-like symptoms and coach
Bret Bielema is limiting their contact with others this week.
There have been no confirmed swine flu cases, but the situation has been monitored
since two players displayed flu symptoms Saturday night. A team spokesman says
the majority of players who are sick are underclassmen who live in dorms on
campus. If you're a history buff, go back and look what happened in college
and high school football in 1918 during the serious Spanish flu pandemic - many
seasons were curtailed or cancelled.
Georgia was a big bust offensively in the opener, too. Senior QB Joe Cox (a
fifth-year quarterback) was just 15-of-30 passing for 162 yards, a touchdown
and a late interception against a suspect Oklahoma State defense. "The
offense looked good there for a minute, didn't it?" coach Mark Richt joked
after the game. "But I don't think we're far off."
Georgia will play rival South Carolina this weekend - a team that only scored
7 points in the opener, and still won! If history is any guide, the first team
to 20 wins. In seven of the past eight meetings in the series, the winning team
has scored 20 points or fewer. Since Steve Spurrier arrived at South Carolina
before the 2005 season, neither team has topped 18.
Even with stellar QB Matthew Stafford, last year's game was a 14-7 Georgia win.
After one week, Georgia and USC have the SEC's worst two offenses in every major
statistical category, so don't look for a 38-34 shootout like Miami/Florida
State!
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