Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
I was 3-2 today. Wofford wanted it more and I doubted Mercer. Here's where I have at after this week. Numbers in parenthesis indicates how many wins they need to become playoff eligible against number of D1 games.
1) Wofford (2 of 6) - Now in the driver's seat after today's epic performance
2) Western Carolina (3 of 6) - Still in a position to get to the playoffs for the first time in awhile.
3) Samford (3 of 5) - Was the winner in this year's episode of "Brother vs. Brother"
4) Furman (4 of 5) - Manhandled the Mocs.
5) Mercer (4 of 5) - Got their first win vs. The Citadel
6) ETSU (5 of 5) - Cut a promo against Ro(bert)Mo(rris)
7) The Citadel (5 of 6) - Great start marred by two straight losses
8) Chattanooga (OUT) - Saw their playoff chances die today.
9) VMI (OUT) - Another week, another loss.
Predictions
VMI @ Furman - Paladins get a relatively easy win
ETSU @ Western Carolina - This one's for you, catamount man
Chattanooga @ Mercer - Bears avenge last year's beating
Wofford @ The Citadel - Terriers make it 2-for-3 in the space of a year
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
1. Wofford: Defense wins championships. I would be very surprised if we didn't at the least make the playoffs
2. Western Carolina: Great Great Offense. I think they'll make the playoffs. Their defense has problems though.
3. Samford: A solid win at VMI today
4. Furman: They're one of the hottest teams in the conference. The problem is, their starting QB got hurt today
5. Mercer: a dark horse playoff contender. They got upset against ETSU, but they can still make a run for the playoffs behind a solid defense and a great running game
6. Citadel: I think their defense is suspect and their offense needs to score more. Make or break game against Wofford in Charleston.
7. ETSU: They have a great great passing game, but they can't run the ball worth anything.
8. Chattanooga: They can't run the ball either (they are worse than ETSU, I didn't think that was possible), and their freshmen QB looked decent today but the OL can't protect him either. On top of all that, their defense is still very, very poor.
9. VMI: still a very bad football team
VMI @ Furman. Furman rolls
ETSU @ WCU. Western rolls against a defense not near Wofford's talent.
Chattanooga @ Mercer. I would be surprise if this is close after the third quarter, but if it is, Chatt may win.
Wofford @ Citadel. There's more pressure on the Citadel than Wofford to come out and perform. With that said, they're capable and they'll be motivated to avenge that playoff loss. Having said that, Wofford's offense is quietly improving over the course of the season and I think the Citadel's rush defense is suspect. Perhaps the fact that both teams can replicate the option at full speed in practice will offset that, but I think Wofford wins by two scores in a defensive struggle (think, 24-10)
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
Furman
Western Carolina
Mercer
Wofford
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Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
Re: Blazejowski.
Coach Hendrix said he had maybe a "slight sprain." During the 4th Q he was on the exercise bike and was walking around with ice on his knee. Hendrix said he probably could have gone back in.
My take is that Furman takes a wait and see approach. Fortunately for the Paladins, the weakest team on the schedule, VMI, is next on the docket. Never take an opponent lightly, but if there was a game where you needed to rest your starting QB, that'd be the one.
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
UTC reminded a lot of their teams from a number of years ago. Most athletic team in the conference, all sorts of talent, but disorganized and soft up front. Furman basically ran full back dive at them for 40 plays and pushed them around all night on both sides of the ball.
I expect they'll get the ship righted at some point. They are too talented to suck. I'm just glad they are in the rear view mirror before they figure things out.
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
Quote:
Originally Posted by
youngterrier
ETSU @ WCU. Western rolls against a defense not near Wofford's talent.
Giving your defense a lot of credit considering you still had 28 points scored against you and a couple throws away from even more. Which I blaming the weather!
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
I think the fundamental problem with UTC is that their OL is bad. Their lucky their new QB didn't get rattled tonight. He looked good though.
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Smitty
Giving your defense a lot of credit considering you still had 28 points scored against you and a couple throws away from even more. I'm blaming the weather!
28, 7 of which came on a short field, and an overall points per drive efficiency of about 40%, our defense did fine. Giving up 350ish yards to a team that averages over 500 and holding their run game at half the yardage they average isn't anything to sneeze at.
Both teams played in the weather, and Wofford dropped more balls. We forced turnovers etc etc. You can do the ifs and buts game all you want, but both teams made mistakes due to the weather. At this point it's a matter of statistics that we were best defense y'all played. Our performance was comparable and only slight not-as-good as Hawaii in terms of yards per rush, pass, and completion. But we were easily better than the FCS competition. I'm not insulting you at all, if anything it's a complement that on an "off" day y'all score 28 and get 350 yards of offense. That's probably more than most teams average.
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PaladinFan
UTC reminded a lot of their teams from a number of years ago. Most athletic team in the conference, all sorts of talent, but disorganized and soft up front. Furman basically ran full back dive at them for 40 plays and pushed them around all night on both sides of the ball.
I expect they'll get the ship righted at some point. They are too talented to suck. I'm just glad they are in the rear view mirror before they figure things out.
The Defensive line is good, They did look lost out there today. Lot of differences going from the 4-2-5 to a 3-4. The responsibility is more on the linebackers and we sure didn’t get it against a good TO team. We were missing 2 starting linebackers today and were just not that deep at that position anyway. Furman as good as anyone in the league on offense. The only weakness I see is your pass defense.
Re: Socon Week 7 pick em and power rankings
I think Furman is a 7-4 team. Which is good. I don't think they'll run the table with the rest of their schedule. Samford and Western have the capability to match them stride for stride on the offensive end and Mercer may well give them problems. That would still make them a playoff team, but I really don't want to play them again, so I hope they finish 6-5