Real Kato Blog: College Football 2016: Week 8 Recap

Michigan wins easily; NCSU gets demolished.

Michigan 41, Illinois 8
It's getting harder to write about these games, because there's not a lot new to say. Michigan was dominant on defense and the other team was not very good at football. This will be a recurring pattern for most of the games this year. This game wasn't even as close as the final store indicated; Michigan had a bunch of backups in the game early in the second half.

NC State 13, Louisville 54
Well, ugh. So much for my prediction that the Wolfpack would keep it close. Lamar Jackson made big plays through the air and on the ground and before you could blink, the game was 41-0. Meanwhile NC State's first play was an interception, and that was followed by 3-and-out, 3-and-out, 4-and-out, 3-and-out, interception, interception, 3-and-out. State showed some life in the second half, but the game was already effectively over. So, despite the progress State seemed to have made last week, there's a ways to go before this team will join the ranks of the conference elites.

It's hard to pin the blame on any one position, but the offensive line probably deserves a part of it; they gave up 8 tackles for loss and could not move Louisville's DL all day. On defense, the secondary was porous; this has always been a position of concern.

NC State is still a decent team. Losses like this are ugly but there's still hope for a bowl game. The next game against BC is very winnable. Florida State and UNC will be challenging; Syracuse and Miami are toss-ups. 7-5 is probably a reasonable goal for the rest of the season.

Notable Games
#1 Alabama beat #6 Texas A&M 33-14, and I'm beginning to lose hope that anyone is capable of beating Alabama. Maybe the SEC just sucks this year.

#2 Ohio State lost to Penn State in the biggest upset of the day. Penn State was outplayed in the game, but two big special teams plays (a punt block and a field goal block) led to 10 points and the winning margin. More importantly, though, Ohio State looked very ordinary, with cracks in both lines. Michigan's odds of beating them look significantly better now.

#10 Wisconsin beat Iowa 17-9 in a slugfest. Wisconsin is not a great team but their defense will keep them in a lot of games... if they can stop getting all of their best players injured. They face another stiff test against Nebraska next week.

#11 Houston lost to SMU 38-16. The luster is gone from Houston; the opening win against Oklahoma doesn't look quite as impressive as the season has gone on. It's still a good team, but not one of the bests.

#21 Auburn crushed #17 Arkansas 56-3. Auburn is a weird team; if they get the right matchup (a team with a poor rushing defense) they will absolutely destroy them.

#19 Utah beat a pretty good UCLA team 52-45.

#20 Western Michigan is still undefeated, and is the #2 FBS school in the state of Michigan. They beat Eastern Michigan, the #3 FBS school in Michigan, 45-31.

#25 LSU beat #23 Ole Miss 38-21. LSU remains a dangerous team.

Michigan State, the worst FBS team in the state of Michigan, lost to Maryland 28-17.

Colorado beat Stanford 10-5. This was an ugly offensive game.

Cal beat Oregon 52-49. This was an ugly defensive game. I think it's safe to say that Brady Hoke has not been a huge success as the Oregon DC.

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