Monday, September 24, 2007

Free fallin'

One week after falling two spots to #9 in the AP poll, Wisconsin fell two spots to #9 in the coaches poll yesterday. Last week, I understood, we beat The Citadel by two touchdowns (although the game wasn't that close). This week, I don't. We beat a tough team, although we didn't look good doing it. The teams that jumped over us in the coaches poll, California and Ohio State, beat Arizona and Northwestern, respectively. Nice wins, guys.

In the end, the rankings as they stand today are probably pretty accurate, and if we keep winning everything will work itself out. But a little consistency here, voters.

Also: anyone else having trouble shaking Iowa's last play of the game? The image of that receiver running free behind FOUR of our DBs? How in the world did that happen? Made me remember that bowl game Iowa won three years ago over LSU on a similar play ... reminds you that these are still just 20-year-old kids out there.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Taps-
I agree that the arbitrariness (sp?) of the drops in the polls seem odd and a bit shortsighted, but don't you think there is something just a bit off with this team? I've seen 3 of 4 games, and never have I been totally convinced of their Top 10-ness. Reading the headlines too much? Overconfidence? Too many ladies in the Regent? Who knows. At least they didn't break out an alternate jersey on Sat and get whipped under the lights, a la 1994. For what it's worth, I really agree with your earlier post about slipping into an underdog role in the league. I much prefer that, especially in the trap games that lead up to Mich/OSU.

One thing that stuck with me from Saturday: I agree that K-Herb was crap, but he (or the producers) made a good point of showing how Donovan missed guys on those two longer pass incompletions. I feel like Stocco, despite his shortcomings, was always good for 3-4 long pass plays a game, enough to keep the safeties if not honest, at least nervous. This part of the game seems to be missing (save for the Wazzou game and Swan, I guess). Maybe I'm just grasping, (where are my pass charts!), but it certainly hasn't all come together for them yet. Let's hope it does soon.

Nice blog, by the way. Looking forward to playing along.

Anonymous said...

Robby couldn't figure out how to post comments (I think it's all set up now), so I'll do it for him:


I am 100% behind voters dropping teams after a win based upon their performance relative to other ranked teams. I think Cal has a better body of work than UW so far (including a win over Tennessee) as does Ohio State (beat Washington soundly and pounded NW). If I had a vote, I would put UW #9 as well. But like you said, I think if voters are going to do this, they need to do it consistently for all teams.

Coach Scott Tappa said...

Regarding Donovan: one story last week touched on whether he was locking in on Swan too much. His response was that Swan was usually open. Good point. But he won't always be open, nor will Beckum for that matter, and TD's maturation there will hold a big key to the season.

Anonymous said...

I think the rankings are justified for UW...although I can't recall a team dropping like this each week after wins!

Unknown said...

It's funny, I can't recall a team dropping spots like this when they win! But I still think UW at #9 is right at this point.

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