On Campus
By Jeff Kirik and Bob Jarzomski Erie Times-News staff bloggers
Erie Times-News staff writer Bob Jarzomski and sports editor Jeff Kirik team up to bring you On Campus,   Read more about this blog.
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Posts tagged ‘Zach Mettenberger’
Posted: November 6th, 2012

Let’s recap Week 10, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 1 Alabama at No. 5 LSU

Final score: Tide 21, Tigers 17

Pregame rant: As good as this game will be, we don’t want to see the Tide and Tigers play in the national title game again.

Alabama hasn’t lost since it fell 9-6 in overtime at home to the Tigers. The Tide dominated LSU in the national title game, but the Tigers can avenge that loss and really put themselves in the national title picture.

The Tide are first in the nation in run defense. LSU is eighth. So the team that has the better quarterback should win Saturday.

Edge Alabama.

A.J. McCarron has thrown 18 touchdowns, no interceptions and can make all the throws. If Zach Mettenberger is called upon to beat the Tide, it’s not going down.

Post-game commentary: McCarron wasn’t his best until it matter most.

With that Death Valley crowd roaring and ready to pounce on him for predicting the Tide would win, McCarron was 4-of-5 for 72 yards and a game-winning touchdown pass with 51 seconds left to beat the rival Tigers.

Mettenberger actually played well. Was 24-of-35 for 298 yards and a touchdown.

Truth be told, the Tigers had this game won. They had more yards, won the turnover and time ouf possession battle and limited Alabama to 1-of-9 on third-down conversions.

So why did they lose? Penalties and bad play calling.

The Tigers had seven penalties for 51 yards and LSU coach Les Miles called a fake field goal on a 4th-and-12 play down 7-3 in the first half.  It failed miserably.

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Posted: October 30th, 2012

Here are three college football games worth watching in Week 10.

Game of the week: No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC) at No. 5 LSU Tigers (7-1, 3-1 SEC), Saturday, 8 p.m., WSEE (CBS).

Pregame rant: As good as this game will be, we don’t want to see the Tide and Tigers play in the national title game again.

Alabama hasn’t lost since it fell 9-6 in overtime at home to the Tigers. The Tide dominated LSU in the national title game, but the Tigers can avenge that loss and really put themselves in the national title picture.

The Tide are first in the nation in run defense. LSU is eighth. So the team that has the better quarterback should win Saturday.

Edge Alabama.

A.J. McCarron has thrown 18 touchdowns, no interceptions and can make all the throws. If Zach Mettenberger is called upon to beat the Tide, it’s not going down.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: October 15th, 2012

Let’s recap Week 7, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 17 Stanford at No. 7 Notre Dame

Final score: Irish 20, Cardinal 13 (OT)

Pregame rant: The Irish have an offensive-minded coach in Brian Kelly, but have relied on their defense to win games. Allowing 7.78 points a game, Notre Dame is second only to top-ranked Alabama in scoring defense.

The Irish are first in touchdowns allowed with three.

However, Stanford has the type of offense that can grind it out and impose its will on a defense. Stepfan Taylor is 15th in the nation in rushing with 560 yards and five touchdowns. If the Cardinal can consistently block Irish senior stud linebacker Manti Te’o, who has 48 stops, Taylor will have room to run.

If not, it will be business as usual for Te’o and the Irish defense.

Post-game commentary: The debate over whether Taylor scored or not from the 1-yard line in OT is a valid one, but someone explain how you run the same play, bad weather or not, on 3rd and 4th down out of a tight formation with everyone in the box to stop the run.

What this game tells me is if you’re playing Notre Dame, better put them away early. The Irish have won three games by seven points or less. They beat Purdue 20-17, Michigan 13-6 and Stanford in overtime.

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Posted: October 9th, 2012

Here are three games worth watching in Week 7.

Game of the week: No. 17 Stanford Cardinal (4-1, 2-1 Pac-12) at No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, (5-0), Saturday, 3:30 p.m., WICU (NBC).

Pregame rant: The Irish have an offensive-minded coach in Brian Kelly, but have relied on their defense to win games. Allowing 7.78 points a game, Notre Dame is second only to top-ranked Alabama in scoring defense.

The Irish are first in touchdowns allowed with three.

However, Stanford has the type of offense that can grind it out and impose its will on a defense. Stepfan Taylor is 15th in the nation in rushing with 560 yards and five touchdowns. If the Cardinal can consistently block Irish senior stud linebacker Manti Te’o, who has 48 stops, Taylor will have room to run.

If not, it will be business as usual for Te’o and the Irish defense.

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Posted: October 8th, 2012

Let’s recap Week 6, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 8 West Virginia at No. 11 Texas

Final score: Mountaineers 48, Longhorns 45

Pregame rant: Could have easily chosen one of the two SEC match ups of Top 10 teams, but this Big 12 match-up is so intriguing.

Heisman Trophy front-runner Geno Smith is coming off an Megatron performance – 656 yards passing, 8 TDs – in last week’s 70-63 win against Baylor. However, the Bears came into the game ranked 113th out of 120 teams in pass defense.

Baylor is now last in the nation in that category.

Can WVU torch Texas, which is a modest 43rd in pass defense? Don’t think so, but I also don’t see the Longhorns slowing down Smith and Mountaineers, either.

Post-game commentary: Smith only threw four touchdowns for the Mountaineers in their Big 12 road debut against the Longhorns. Smith got some help from WVU’s run game in the form of Andrew Buie, who rushed for 207 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries.

On WVU’s game-sealing drive late in the fourth, Buie closed it out with five rushes for 42 yards and a touchdown. The Mountaineers are still suspect on defense, but made a big stop in the fourth to help them stay unbeaten.

 

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Posted: October 1st, 2012

Let’s us recap Week 5, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 14 Ohio State at No. 20 Michigan State

Final score: Buckeyes 17, Spartans 16

Pregame rant: First road of the season won’t be an easy one for the Buckeyes in their Big Ten opener. How well sophomore quarterback Braxton Miller handles this will determine if Ohio State remains unbeaten.

Miller has seven rushing TDs, seven passing TDs, but more importantly, he’s completing 61.2 percent of his passes. Last season, he only completed 54.1 percent of his passes.

He may find it much tougher to execute against the Spartans, who have only given up two passing touchdowns. Ranked sixth in the nation in total defense, Michigan State is giving up just 3.94 yards a play.

Post-game commentary: Michigan State intercepted Miller once, forced two more turnovers, but didn’t corral the Ohio State quarterback when it mattered.

Miller rushed for a game-high 136 yards, threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to give Ohio State a 17-13 lead late in third, but more importantly, picked up a big first down to help the Buckeyes close out the game.

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