Week 3 Standings Update

Here are the standings through 3 full weeks:

OVERALL

MH	27	18	60.0%
RO	27	18	60.0%
MC	26	19	57.8%
MR	25	20	55.6%
SS	25	20	55.6%
JR	24	21	53.3%
GR	23	22	51.1%
AW	22	23	48.9%
JG	22	23	48.9%

Only 2 guys below .500, and that's only by 1 game. In total, we're hitting 54.6% of our picks...not terrible.

NFL

MR	6	4	60.0%
RO	6	4	60.0%
AW	5	5	50.0%
MH	5	5	50.0%
SS	5	5	50.0%
JG	4	6	40.0%
JR	4	6	40.0%
MC	4	6	40.0%
GR	3	7	30.0%

NFL has been a struggle. Only 2 guys above .500 and a total winning % of 46.7%

NCAA

MC	22	13	62.9%
MH	22	13	62.9%
RO	21	14	60.0%
GR	20	15	57.1%
JR	20	15	57.1%
SS	20	15	57.1%
MR	19	16	54.3%
JG	18	17	51.4%
AW	17	18	48.6%

Much better performance in the NCAA games. 56.8% is not too shabby.

GOPHERS

Well, they pissed a ton of people off by covering - not only in our pool, but all over the world. You guys should have known you were doomed betting against the Gophers and for Iowa...never a good combo.

My thoughts echo those that have been posted elsewhere, but here's what I think. First, this is from the LA Daily News:

"The defense also forged an impression by limiting Minnesota's offense to 83 yards rushing. The Gophers (1-2) entered the game rushing for nearly 243 yards and no one wanted to point out Minnesota did it against Middle Tennessee State and South Dakota.



With Gophers coach Tim Brewster fighting for his job, it was almost stunning how predictable his playcalling became against a marquee opponent. Brewster ran on first down on seven of the Gophers' first eight possessions.
"It was real surprising they went to the run, even after they got stuffed," USC nose tackle Jurrell Casey said.
USC's defense remained susceptible to the pass even if Minnesota would not (or could not) offer much in terms of explosiveness."

Predictable isn't a strong enough word. I get that you wanted to run the ball, but to do it nearly every 1st down and every 2nd down against 9 in the box is just plain insanity. You know that you can't outman USC up front, and even if you didn't know that, it should have been blatantly obvious after the first 1 or 2 possessions. Playcalling in games like this is a totally different animal than playing MDTN or USD where you have a distinct size advantage and can literally run it 30 times in a row and have some success. But the dreaed Mason big game play calling strategy of "run, run, pass...repeat" was fully in play on Saturday. When we threw it, against a team that doesn't defend the pass real well, we had some success. I've heard the control the clock, shorten the game, keep the D off the field arguments...well, that didn't work either. When you only run 3 plays per possession it doesn't help any of those plans. Clearly, we don't understand variety and using the pass to actually open up the run...sometimes the opposite is the way to go Timmy.

Defensively, we played better...but some of the plays we were beat on we just a simple numbers game. They would have a 4 blockers leading a runner out to the right against only 3 defenders on the whole side! Adjustments weren't there, and it caught up to us in the 2nd half. We also couldn't make the BIG play necessary to really make this a ball game early on. I think this Brew quote says it all (paraphrasing) "Who would have thought we'd be ahead in the 3rd quarter against a great team like USC."  Damnit Tim, you still just don't get it do you. This is not a great USC team, it's not even a good USC team. They could lose 4 P10 games this year, and they played poorly enough to be beat on Saturday. But that wasn't the plan, Timmy wanted to keep it close and hope for a miracle rather than jumping out and being aggressive and trying to actually win this game. Frankly, I think it's the last straw for me. I'm finding myself being critical of everything that is happening on the field at this point, and I'm fully convinced that Timmy is done here as a coach. The guy is just too clueless to get it done. We have big games with 5 ranked opponents left, how many do you think we'll win...I can't see one. Obviously, still a huge Gopher fan and want nothing more than to see the program succeed, but I'm very much done with Mr. Brewster.


Week 4 Lines coming out later today.