NOFL Week 12 Has Started: Deadline is 10/9/08 at 10:00 PM

[Eaglesfan27]

Several big games this week, but the biggest is Sun Tzu's 8-2 Stanford Cardinal against the #1 team, 9-0 USC. If he beats them, KingNeb's Kentucky team has a real shot at making the National Championship Game.

[Eaglesfan27]

We get our 2nd recruit of the year in WR Darrell Martin. He doesn't have great skills yet, but he has excellent speed and could be a weapon down the road for QB Heath Sullivan who signed with us last week.

[SirFozzie]

One not so big game has occured, Texas A&M just basically doing what they like to Baylor, leading 35-0 at the half, playing all Subs through the fourth (McGee had a 309 yard passing game, and Lane had 100 yards through three), and winning 60-14, to move to 10-1 on the year, and setting up a huge game against Texas in two weeks to finish the regular season, a win will send the Aggies to the B12 Championship Game

[Raiders Army]

kcchief19, you have a PM for our game.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

We get our 2nd recruit of the year in WR Darrell Martin. He doesn't have great skills yet, but he has excellent speed and could be a weapon down the road for QB Heath Sullivan who signed with us last week.

Great job recruiting. I haven't had anyone commit yet but it looks as if you've got some really good pieces in place for next year and in the future.

[WVUFAN]

Arkansas picked up their second recruit, 4 star free safety Josh Walton from River Ridge, LA. He's the #3 ranking FS in the country, and boy can we use it.

Arkansas is on a bye this week.

[kcchief19]

Another disappointing loss. Picked off OSU's Robinson and was in the redzone with just over two minutes to play when an ill-advised option play led to an even more ill-advised turnover.

Great game, Aaron. I had no answer for Robinson and Woods. The OSU record book was rewritten today for passing and receiving yards. I really thought I was going to pull it off after I drove down the field near the end.

[Raiders Army]

kcchief and I played our game. It was really competitive the whole game. CU went up early 7-0 on their first drive, but Oklahoma State tied it up at 7-7. CU went up again on Oklahoma State 14-7. Oklahoma State then scored two touchdowns to bring the score 28-21 at the half. (By the way, I didn't know what yard line I was on when I tried to go for the field goal near the end of the half and then called a timeout to punt)

CU went ahead at the end of the third quarter 35-31. Oklahoma State won 45-35, but it was really in question until CU's QB fumbled (I think in the red zone) with about two minutes to go.

It was a good game and I wouldn't mind playing again. We just couldn't stop the pass.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Another disappointing loss. Picked off OSU's Robinson and was in the redzone with just over two minutes to play when an ill-advised option play led to an even more ill-advised turnover.

Great game, Aaron. I had no answer for Robinson and Woods. The OSU record book was rewritten today for passing and receiving yards. I really thought I was going to pull it off after I drove down the field near the end.

I thought you were going to pull it off too! Your option was devastating and I couldn't run to the left. After you sacked me on a play-action pass, I learned to hard count you so I would have enough time to get it off.

[kcchief19]

Once I got in the red zone, I wanted to try and drain the clock -- either I would score the TD or settle for a FG and overtime. I saw you were starting to clamp down on the option so I thought I would mix it up with a triple option play. When you bottled it up, the little voice in my head told me to just hold the ball and go down, but it looked like if I could get the pitch off I might be able to get the first down. Just a bad call.

It was a great game -- lot of offense. Turnovers helped keep the game close. That overturned fumble that let you keep the ball was huge. Good luck the rest of the way!

[kingnebwsu]

Greetings from North Carolina! Just logged in to NCAA and the BCS is jacked up like crazy. If Stanford can beat USC this week (please please please) then the BCS will most likely explode. Here are the BCS rankings:

1. USC 1.000
2. Purdue 0.994
3. Maryland 0.986
4. Kentucky 0.986
5. West Virginia 0.976

It's the weirdest thing. WVa and Maryland swapped places this week. I guess WVA is finally being punished for a lackluster schedule. It's the weirdest thing though, because none of the top 5 schedules are really that impressive. Even my brutal SEC schedule has me at 10-0 with only TWO wins versus the top 25. I will hopefully get another in the SEC title game, but we'll see.

My Kentucky squad is a distant 3rd in the media poll and a distant 4th in the coaches poll. At this point it appears that the spots in the championship game are there for USC and Purdue if they win out. They both have enough of a lead that they should play in the title game should everyone keep on winning. Hopefully the Cardinal will stick it to USC and throw a huge wrench in the BCS.

Remaining schedules:

USC: @ Stanford (8-2), vs Notre Dame (3-6), @ #16 UCLA (8-1)

Purdue: @ Iowa (3-7), vs Indiana (8-2)

Maryland: vs UNC (5-4), vs #24 Florida State (7-2), at Boston College (3-6), ACC Title Game

Kentucky: vs Vanderbilt (2-7), @ Tennessee (5-5), SEC Title Game

West Virginia: @ Louisville (7-2), @ #15 Pitt (8-0), vs USF (2-7)
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USC has by far the toughest schedule remaining. After that, I would have to say that W. Va. has the 2nd toughest. But the Big East isn't that strong, so I guess it's all relative. The conference title games for Maryland & Kentucky loom large.

Does it seem like Purdue is a lock to win out? They will probably make the title game should that happen. It just seems like it's destined to happen, but I guess IU could pull the upset in a rivalry game.

I will play my game either Monday or Tuesday. I won't be around much since I'm visiting family. I'm just glad I'm playing Vanderbilt since I'm not playing in my game room at home

[Kodos]

We actually outgained FSU, but 3 turnovers that went for scores erased any positives, and FSU crushed us 51-7.

[Sun Tzu]

I will be starting my game against USC in the next few hours. Hopefuly Andrew Luck can stick it to them, but DeTox I'm sorry to say that my starting HB Anthony Kimble went down with a sprained knee last week and is out for this game. My backup has decent speed but nowhere near the size or playmaking ability of Kimble. Even Luck, who is a 5* stud in every way, is only a freshman (a true freshman at that) and can get rattled easily. It will be nice to have my star CB back for this game, who has been injured for the last 4 weeks. Hopefuly I can get off to an early lead and then tear them up with short accurate passes.

I will post a recap after the game has been played.

[Sun Tzu]

I just played my game against USC. It was a VERY momentum heavy game. Whoever had the momentum at the time would smack around the other team without blinking. I'll post highlights soon enough.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Kodos

We actually outgained FSU, but 3 turnovers that went for scores erased any positives, and FSU crushed us 51-7.

Kodos, I think we need to make sure anyone who takes BC in future leagues has a padded controller. (ie, that sucker is going to throw his controller.)

[Sun Tzu]

The #1 ranked team in the Nation came into Palo Alto today looking to get one game closer to playing in the National Championship game. The #29 ranked host was looking to earn some respect and show a national audience what they were really capable of. Which team would ultimate win out? Lets find out.

1st Quarter - The Trojans would win the toss and elect to recieve. The local crowd was fired up like never before and tried to help their defense out as best they could, but it didn't seem to matter...at least not on this drive. USC took the ball down the field like they were playing a pop warner team. Sanchez completed pass after pass, and capped it off with a TD. The Cardinal would have to answer with an equally impressive drive if they were going to be in this game. Would the Five-Star Freshman QB Andrew Luck be up to the task? Well...aparently he would Luck marched his team down the field, and even though team speed was not on the side of the Cardinal, Luck answered with a TD of his own. USC drove a bit more but then stalled out and punted, and once again Luck drove his team down the field, the drive being capped by a 1 yard plunge from the FB.

USC - 7
Stanford - 14

2nd Quarter - Momentum was clearly on the side of the Cardinal as they stopped USC yet again and marched down the field. This time the drive stalled out and they were forced to kick a long field goal that made it over the crossbar by about 3 inches. USC managed a decent drive this time, but on a 3rd down Sanchez was forced into a bad throw and Wopamo Osaisai picked him off in the endzone. Knowing that they were going to get the ball in the second half, and knowing that the 10 point lead they had wasn't going to be enough against this team, Stanford began yet another march down the field. Luck connected with his recievers, tight ends, and backs out of the backfield over and over. With 5 second left in the half, backup HB Stewart who was filling in for the injured Anthony Kimble plunged in from 1 yard out to give the Cardinal a very surprising 17 point lead.

Halftime
USC - 7
Stanford - 24


Third Quarter - Here is where Stanford had their chance to REALLY take control of this game. Taking the openning kickoff with momentum on their side and a 17 point lead. What happened instead...is they went 3 plays and out. USC took over at their own 12, and here's what happened on the very first play.

EA SPORTS World: NCAA Football 09 Video

This is where the momentum shifted. The Cardinal could have come back with a long drive that shut down the hopes of the top team in the nation...but instead went 3 plays and out again. USC took advantage of the momentum shift and drove the length of the field with a vengeance. Just a couple minutes later USC scored another TD and brought it's deficit down to just 3 points. The Cardinal was now reeling on both offense and defense. Nothing they did seemed to work. Just 4 minutes into the second half the game seemed to already be slipping away. They had to score on this next drive to show they could keep up with these guys. They took over on their own 30 and...went 3 and out for the third time in a row. This was getting rediculous. After punting back to the Trojans, just 3 plays into the drive Sanchez dropped back and saw the oncoming blitz, he fired a rocket down the right sideline right into the waiting arms of...the Stanford star CB Wopamo Osaisai! Osaisai sprinted down the sideline and was tackled at the one yard line. 2 plays later the Fullback plunged into the endzone again and it certainly seemed that momentum was back on Stanfords side. Here's the ensuing kickoff...

EA SPORTS World: NCAA Football 09 Video

Was he down? Was it really a fumble? Will it be reviewed? No it will not! It's a touchdown for Stanford! That 17 point lead that was so quickly taken down to 3, had been extended back to 17 in just 15 seconds! Somebody call Sage Rosenfels! On the next drive the Trojans went back to playing like they had in the first half...mounting short drives that stalled out after 1 or 2 first downs. After taking the punt to the 28, Luck hit his wideout on a short curl route, after which he spun around the Cornerback juking him completely out of his shoes and sprinted 72 to yards to the endzone for the Touchdown.

Stanford - 45
USC - 21

4th Quarter - USC would dink and dunk their way down the field on a couple drives but it wouldn't be nearly enough to erase a 24 point deficit. The final score was Stanford 55, USC 42...

Stanford has beaten the #1 team in the Nation!!! We will have a new #1 team next week, and Kingsnebwsu now has a legitimate chance to play for a National Championship.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Kodos, I think we need to make sure anyone who takes BC in future leagues has a padded controller. (ie, that sucker is going to throw his controller.)

I seriously hate this team. Especially Crane. He flat out sucks.

[kingnebwsu]

Thank you Sun Tzu!!! That huge upset by Stanford is going to throw a huge wrench into the BCS. It also greatly increased the chances of my Kentucky squad playing in the championship game. I think the #1 result of that upset is that the championship game will have at least one (if not two) total surprise BCS teams. The current undefeated teams are now Purdue, Maryland, Kentucky, and West Virginia. I'm sure these were the top 4 teams we all had listed at the beginning of the season, right? It will be really interesting to see if the remaining undefeated teams survive AND how they will be ranked the rest of the season.

[kingnebwsu]

After some issues with the EA server today, Kentucky beats Vanderbilt 63-17. It looked like it was going to be a close one early, as Kentucky led 14-10 after the first quarter. Their offense was just unstoppable all day, as they scored TD's on their first 9 drives. We played our backups almost the entire 2nd half and escaped the game injury-free. I about had a heart attack when my starting RB went down in the 2nd quarter, but he only missed the rest of the game. Vandy wasn't so lucky, as their impact HB is out for the season (which is almost over for them anyway).

Kentucky is 11-0 and has a bye week before the big rivalry game at Tennessee. I am quite curious to see how the BCS will shake out after #1 USC went down. Will the 4 teams be closely ranked? Or will a new #1 step to the forefront (Purdue, maybe?).

On a conference level, the Stanford upset of USC had a huge impact over the Pac-10 race. USC would have about clinched the conference title with a win, but the Cardinal's victory means that USC, Stanford, and Washington all have 1 conference loss. I wonder how the game will handle the tie-breaker should they all finish with 1 loss.

I think 4 more people have stuff to do before we can advance. The Big 12 looks like it's shaping up to have a nice finish also. 2 of the top 3 ranked human teams (Okla. State and Texas A&M) both come from the Big XII. Plus we have 2 teams at the top of the Pac 10 and my Kentucky squad at the top of the SEC. Not a bad first year for us low-rated schools

[Sun Tzu]

How are we looking over here? Who has yet to play their games?

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm not sure who else has to play their games, but I still have to and won't be doing so until tomorrow evening as family stuff is hectic at the moment.

[BigDPW]

I ended up getting out in front of Wake in our game and held onto the lead despite a hard charge in the second half. We are now 5-5 and I am praying I can get a win against UNC to win the in-state title and make myself bowl eligible.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'll be playing in about an hour, maybe a bit less. If everyone else is done, I will advance right after my game. Either way, we'll advance by 10:00.

[Eaglesfan27]

Locker with a tremendous game in which he gained 178 yards on the ground (including a go ahead 56 yard TD run) and 182 yards in the air with 4 total TD's to lead us in the upset of UCLA, 28-25. I'm the last person this week, so advancing now.