Dumpster Fires of the Week: Things stink at Texas A&M
A repeat customer followed by four new entries for the year.
1. Texas A&M
59-0. I think it’s safe to say Kevin Sumlin’s A+ credit rating from Johnny Football’s win in Tuscaloosa has expired.
A&M looks awful on defense, which is kind of expected, but the South Carolina game and the fourth quarter of the Arkansas game created some mirage about the offense’s execution. The SEC is getting better prepared every season for Sumlin’s spread as more teams in the conference use it and make adjustments. It’s getting so bad on offense that you have to wonder if Sumlin is considering going with super blue-chip quarterback Kyle Allen at some point.
A&M still has to play Auburn and could easily lose to LSU. Sumlin’s getting a huge contract to finish fifth in the SEC West with five losses.
2. Oklahoma’s kicking game
Short and sweet:
- Two makeable field goals, completely missed;
- One blocked extra point on an attempt that looked super low;
- One-point loss.
If OU was an NFL franchise, the special teams coordinator would be gone and new kickers would be evaluated. It was that bad a meltdown.
3. Florida
Some amazing stats for UF football fans. Missouri scored non-offensive touchdowns four different ways Saturday: punt return, kickoff return, interception return, and fumble recovery
return. I don’t think that has been accomplished in a BCS conference game before.
Before Florida added some late scores, Mizzou was beating the Gators 42-0 with less than 120 yards of total offense. Only twice in the last 10 years has a team lost when doing that. Both times the head coach was Will Muschamp. The rest of the coaches were 147-0.
The entire Swamp in Gainesville is on fire.
4. Stanford's offense
Now in the world of high-flying spread offenses scoring 40 points a game and passing for 400 yards routinely, the Stanford power rushing attack with seven offensive linemen and two tight ends used to be an amusing wayback machine for football purists. This year, it’s old, tired and unable to score.
In their three losses, the Cardinal have scored 10 points, 14 points and 10 points. Saturday night versus Arizona State, Stanford barely had more than 100 yards of total offense at half against an ASU defense that had been giving up nearly 28 points a game. Stanford ended up with only 282 total yards following a flurry of passing when the game was pretty much over.
Stanford’s out of the top 25 and still has to play Oregon and UCLA. No gimmes left on the schedule.
5. Oklahoma State
Admittedly, Mike Gundy has done a good job of getting OSU football to a very respectable place in the national football spotlight. Standard seasons with nine-plus wins, a conference title, a BCS bowl win, etc.
However, this year, things appear to be falling fast on both sides of the ball. OSU just got curb stomped by TCU on Saturday. The final score was 42-9, and it wasn’t that close.
After playing Florida State to open the season, the Cowboys have been skating by, playing a terrible schedule and getting the worst Big 12 teams in their first 3 games. That’s over, and now OSU faces a gauntlet where a six-game losing streak is entirely possible.
Even when OSU’s defense was horrible, the Pokes could rely upon scoring points with a good running game and a mobile QB passing the ball. It seems that ex-offensive line coach Joe Wickline took OSU’s running game with him to Austin. Meanwhile, the passing attack is nothing more than playground-type go routes thrown by Daxx Garman. I’m not sure if J.W. Walsh can return at QB for OSU this season, but his running might be the only thing that can salvage this season.
With many potential job openings and Gundy’s unhappiness in Stillwater the subject of persistent rumors, he picked a bad year to rack up some potentially horrible losses.
-Atlantasooner