ESPN: The NFL's bitch, but College Football's king

Wait, so LSU beating TCU by 10 means gives an indication of TCU's worthiness, but Washington beating Boise by 32 doesn't affect Boise's standing?

 

38-6 is a little different from 37-27.

We've known what TCU is for the last 5 years, especially on defense. Keeping pace with LSU isn't surprising in the least.

But when's the last time Boise got absolutely drilled? It may have been that '03 game at Georgia.

It's hard to know if Boise will be a stinker in '13, if this was a 1-game anomaly and the Broncos finish 11-2 and play in the Holiday Bowl, or if Washington was just freakin' tired of losing to Boise and kicked their ass in their refurbished stadium in a rematch of last year' 28-26 bowl loss.

For Boise State, losing 38-6 is a rarity. Going to be hard to know what to think for a few weeks probably.

 

Boise lost 24-10 at Washington in 2007. Two touchdowns is a significant margin-of-defeat, especially if you only score 10 points.

They lost 27-7 at Fresno State in 2005, the same season they lost 48-13 to Georgia (the Fresno loss was later in the season).

But they hadn't lost by more than four since 2007 before Saturday.

As for when we'll see if that was the real Boise, it's hard to know, since they won't play anyone from a Big 5 conference the rest of the year.

 

But going back to what I said, I don't think there's much anyone can take away from week 1 games, particularly long-term takeaways.

My only point here is that if a result doesn't necessarily determine the distance or lack thereof between one set of teams in a game (Washington and Boise St.), it shouldn't do anything to determine it for another set (LSU and TCU).

 

Thank you for the correction. I keep saying '03 but I guess it was '05. I've looked at a lot of Boise numbers the last few weeks.

That's a helluva run -- 6 years without losing by 10 points.

 

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Kansas State (yes, after the loss to NoDakSt) would be head and shoulders above everyone in the non-Boise MWC in almost all years, barring anomalies. West Virginia and Baylor would be there many seasons. TCU already was. Texas Tech would be top 3 most years with occasional runs to the top. Iowa State and Kansas would be the only programs not consistently contending for an MWC title.

They're not the SEC, but they're a heck of a step up from the MWC.

 

Wanted to see what happened in that Washington game. Wiki:

24-10. Washington snapped the Broncos 14 game win streak. The Broncos were held to their lowest point total since losing 27-7 to Fresno State in 2005. Ian Johnson was held to 81 yards on 20 carries and Taylor Tharp went 29/47 for 281 and 3 interceptions and lost a fumble when he fell down while attempting a hand off in the loss. Washington started the game fast, jumping to a 14-0 lead. Boise State returned a kickoff for a touchdown after Washington's first score, but it was called back. Boise State never recovered.

Neither team scored in the 2nd half.

 

Just FYI, TCU's defense didn't look good Saturday. For one thing, the Frogs simply could not cover LSU's wideouts. At least three times, a receiver was wide open behind the defense but the ball was either dropped or underthrown.

 

Disagree, daman. I thought TCU covered very well. TCU is a team that puts 8 in the box as a rule, so the onus is on the front 7 to disrupt.

If you are playing that game and don't disrupt, you could have Patrick Peterson, Deion Sanders, Ronnie Lott and Ed Reed in the secondary and receivers are still going to get open all day.

Mettenberger got sacked a couple of times and did have to run around a few times, but for the most part, he was able to drop back and step into his throws on time. And that was with 7-8 guys in the box, including 5-6 coming after him.