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Sunday Morning Quarterback

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

SMQ HOMERISM
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Ah, the mid-week football collision! Many Tuesday nights young SMQ absentmidedly charted star systems and leafed through Camus while secretly dreaming of watching his favorite program travel to play another mediocre school for a disinterested national television audience. Thank you, World Wide Leader: you are the dream-maker!

What's at Stake: USM tries to stay on top of the C-USA East in the midst of a very odd road trip (four straight games away from home on four different days of the week - Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Sunday - including two games this week; after tonight, the Eagles travel to Houston Sunday for a make-up game delayed by Hurricane Rita). Marshall, at 4-4 with two league losses, can remain mathematically alive for the division title, but having already lost to co-leader UCF (who trails Southern Miss by virtue of head-to-head tiebreaker), is really looking to make its way into another unwatchable bowl game.
Southern Miss Wants: As Tim Doherty notes, early leads are a good thing. No need to let a potentially geared-up crowd (for the Herd's national TV "showcase") get going by letting an underdog hang around. Generally, Jeff Bower always wants to establish the run, but that aspect has been invisible (104th nationally, barely over 100 yards per game as a team), so - and close-to-the-vest Bower must twitch at the very thought, but - shoot it out! Given the Herd's scoring woes (a mere 18 points per game), tonight is the rare instance that actually favors an up-tempo, toss it around approach from the Eagles. Dustin Almond has already lit up UCF and UAB for relatively (for USM's low-octane attack) big numbers throwing largely to back-up wideouts (sophomore Chris Johnson, JC transfer Josh Barnes and especially lanky redshirt freshman "tight end" Shaun Nelson have been pleasant pass-catching surprises when go-to guys Antwon Courington and Anthony Perine have been hurt, or MIA), so the potential exists to outrace these guys on the scoreboard. If USM does get out to a nice lead, keep it - UAB pushed defibrilators to the limit and NC State came back to win after trailing by multiple scores in the third quarter the last two weeks. Force long drives from the pedestrian Herd offense; blown assignments, poor angles and weak tackling from the banged up secondary has led to too many big plays against this once-proud defense, which ranks 83rd (!) nationally. SMQ would like to see a lot of the old "organized chaos" - jumping around, no down linemen on sure passing downs, guys running everywhere before the snap - that has confused many a young quarterback, but expects more conservatism; when you're giving up a shameful 404 yards per game, bend but don't break is actually a welcome strategy.
Marshall Wants: Similarly, the old Pennington-Leftwich-Moss record-breaking days are well behind this offense, which wants to grind it out with Ahmad Bradshaw; the running back is also the team's leading receiver. Given the tremendous success of decent running backs against USM the past two seasons, and the slipshod effort that provided a breakout game for Andre Brown in the collapse at NC State last week, there is big potential in a clock-killing rushing attack; USM has been known to pressure better quarterbacks than Bernard Morris into mistakes when it hems up the run (see: Hackney, Darrell, the past three seasons), so getting Bradshaw going will be, as usual, priority number one. The less Almond has the ball, the better for the Herd.
The Pick: The Eagles rarely make anything easy, so even a nice, fast start is no guarantee of future results. Athletically, the defense should have enough of a speed edge to load up against Bradshaw while blitzing and playing man-to-man to keep Morris off-balance. Turnovers come, and turnovers=good position for Almond and Co. Even with three more games to go, a virtual must-win to kickstart the late drive for a championship game berth.
SOUTHERN MISS 27, MARSHALL 21
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e-mail Sunday Morning Quarterback at sundaymorningqb@yahoo.com

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PREVIOUSLY FROM SMQ:

2006 Preview
Anatomy of an Underdog
BlogPoll: 1-10/11-25/Roundtable
The ACC
The Big Ten
The Big XII
The Sun Belt

Running Departments
The Rap Sheet
July 29/Aug. 1/Aug. 9/Aug. 16/Aug.19/Aug. 25/Sept. 28/Oct. 4/Oct. 5/Oct. 18/Oct. 26/Nov. 2/Nov. 7/Nov. 8/Nov. 28/Dec. 2/Dec. 8/ Dec. 11/Dec. 18/Dec. 21/Feb. 6/Feb. 10/April 7/April 14/April 21/April 29/May 6/May 12/May 19/May 26/June 2/June 10/June 16/June 24/June 30/July 8/Aug. 4

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SMQ-APPROVED
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGES

News from the Big Guys
ESPN/ College Football News Wire
Sports Illustrated
FOX
CBS Sportsline
USA Today
Opinion: Columnists and bloggers
Around the Oval (Ohio State)
Badger Sports (Wisconsin)
The Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
Block U (Utah)
BoiFromTroy (Southern Cal)
Bruins Nation (UCLA)
Burnt Orange Nation (Texas)
The Corporate Headquarters of the San Antonio Gunslingers
Dave Sez (Virginia)
Dawg Sports (Georgia)
ESPN: Ivan Maisel/Pat Forde
Every Day Should Be Saturday (Florida)
FOX: Pete Fiutak
Golden Tornado (Georgia Tech)
Heisman Pundit
I'm a Realist (Georgia)
Journalism is for Rock Stars (Alabama)
Mark May Be Wrong
MDG CFB (Fresno State)
Mountain Lair (West Virginia)
MGOBlog (Michigan)
Orange::44 (Syracuse)
Paradigm Blog (Michigan)
Paul Westerdawg (Georgia)
Pitch Right (Navy)
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (Alabammer)
Section Six
Sexy Results (Virginia)
SI: Stewart Mandel/John Walters
Sporting Fools (Florida State)
Straight Bangin' (Michigan)
Texas A&M and Baseball, In No Particular Order (Texas A&M)
The 614 (Ohio State)
The House That Rock Built (Notre Dame)
The Sporting Gnomes (Clemson)
Tiger Pundit (Clemson)
We Must Ignite This Couch (West Virginia)
The Wizard of Odds

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The Blog Poll

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WANNA DO SOME RESEARCH? NERD! HERE'S SOME QUICK REFERENCES:

College Football Data Warehouse
College Football Research Center
College Football News
cfbstats.com
Football Commentary
THE STANDINGS
THE POLLS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
All-Purpose
Scoring
Tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Tackles For Loss
Field Goals
Punting
Kickoff Returns
Punt Returns
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushing Offense
Passing Offense
Total Offense
Scoring Offense
Rushing Defense
Passing Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense
Turnover Margin

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Past Seasons
2005
Thursday Morning Quarterback
Sept. 29/Oct. 6/Oct. 20/Oct. 27/Nov. 3/Nov. 10/Nov. 17/Nov. 24/Dec. 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Oct. 2/Oct. 23/Oct. 30/Nov. 6/Nov. 13/Nov. 27
Stat Relevance Watch
Part One/Part Two/Part Three
SMQ Bowl Blitz
New Orleans/GMAC/Las Vegas/Poinsettia/Motor City

SMQ's [Hurricane-Abbreviated] 2005 Preview
Top 25 Countdown/Methodology
All-America Team
ACC
BIG EAST
BIG TEN
BIG XII