Know Thy Enemy: Homestretch Edition

Another week and another undefeated team or two go down in defeat. Florida showed that you have to at least have a little bit of offense to win games, and the real USC shows just how much they were overrated in the preseason. Despite the problems we had on Thursday, it was nice to come out of a Thursday night game with a win. Now we can move onto an important match at Duke on Saturday night.

As a reminder all rankings are from the AP Poll, and click on the team name for a game report article.

Georgia #7 (7-1):

The Bulldogs are back in the top 10 after a hard-fought victory over the Florida Gators 17-9. The Bulldogs forced 6 turnovers but were only able to score 17 points behind 273 yards of offense. The Gators gained 266 yards in the attack, but couldn't find the end zone quite as much as the Bulldogs. Georgia is now in the driver's seat in the SEC East, but let's be honest, the only prize they get is their ass getting handed to them in Atlanta against 'Bama.

Auburn Tigers (1-6):

I almost feel bad for Auburn fans at this point. But then I remember our loss to them because of Scam Newton and get over those feelings. Auburn is almost a lock to stay defeated in SEC play. Their remaining games are against Georgia and 'Bama. Heck after this one they may not beat the two scrub teams they have left to play. Texas A&M just abused the Tigers' defense as they put up 63 points and gave up over 600 yards on defense. I think Auburn is getting to the point where I don't write much about how they do, kind of like the next two teams on the schedule

Ball State Cardinals (6-3):

The Cardinals beat Army, I can't even pretend like this is an impressive result because they won by 8 points against frikkin Army. I think our second strings would beat Army by a few touchdowns. Our starters wouldn't, but that deals more with a lack of effort than talent.

Furman Paladins (3-6):

The Paladins beat Elon in the "Carolinas Prep Battle" 30-17. I could say more, but it is Furman and our schedule sucks enough as is without going into too much detail about how these guys did.

Florida State Seminoles #9 (8-1) (5-1) vs. Duke Blue Devils (6-3) (3-2):

There was a lot of anticipation heading into this game, but Floridate State made sure to get rid of it by the end of the first quarter, and at halftime any Duke fans in attendance had headed for the nearest bar to find a basketball game to watch. FSU went ahead early and never let up in their 48-7 victory. Duke did lose starting QB Sean Renfree in the 2nd quarter to a head injury and it will only help Clemson if he isn't able to play. Once again FSU put the ball on the gorund with 4 turnovers, and they also had 3 fumble recoveries. The only way FSU loses in ACC play is if a team can capitalize on these turnovers, but I don't see it happening.

Boston College (2-6) (1-4) vs. Maryland Terripans (4-4) (2-2):

This is another one of those games that the ACC offices should just pretend never happened. BC managed to continue their miracle hunt towards bowl eligibility as they beat the Terps 20-17. Chase Rettig scored a late touchdown to give the Eagles a victory over a Maryland team who I'm pretty sure went out to the local high school to find their starting QB. Caleb Rowe was the starter for UM, and despite being the fourth-stringer, he threw for over 200 yards and a few scores, but did get picked off 3 times. Note even the Associated Press only wrote a 4 paragraph article recapping this one.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (3-5) (2-3):

Wow, just when things look to be at rock bottom, the nerds find another way to lose. BYU came to GT for homecoming, and any alumni that went to Atlanta can't be happy with this performance. BYU spanked the yellow jackets to the tune of 41-17.Georgia Tech only had 150 yards on offense. Dabo needs to get some coaches tape of this game so he knows what discipline against the triple option looks like. If Paul Johnson didn't have such a big buyout, questions would have to be asked about his chance of returning, but the ACC will be forced to endure another year or two of this crap.

Virginia Tech (4-4) (2-2):s

The Hokies had a bye week to evaluate just where they stand for this season. I'll give you a hint, it isn't in Charlotte.

NC State Wolfpack (5-3) (2-2):

The Wolfpack suffered a shock 43-35 defeat to UNC that all but certainly eliminates them from the Atlantic division title. UNC did all their work in the first and fourth quarters with 25 and 18 points respectively. Both teams felt defense was optional as they allowed over 500 yards of offense each, but NC State was not able to overcome their 4 turnovers. NC State also lost the special teams battle when UNC star Giovani Bernard returned a punt 74 yards for the winning score

South Carolina Gamecocks #11 (7-2):

It wasn't pretty, and they lost their best offensive player doing it, but the 'Cocks got the win against the Vols in a 38-35 nailbiter. The big news is obviously the loss of Marcus Lattemore. Apparently he suffered a dislocated knee which means his season is done, but he should be able to come back from this. Wishing him a complete recovery and it'll be interesting to see how he does next year. As for the game, Shaw looked shaky once again when pressured, and if our offensive line can give us just a little bit of time to throw, Boyd should have a big day. It'll be interesting to see if the Chad tries to roll Boyd out at all to give him more time to throw.