friday funday!

Fri, Oct 26, 2018
by IcePalace253.cappertek.com

so a few thoughts for the evening.  

first off...whats goin on the ice.   all 4 games i have up this evening go on my basic premise...totality of the work wins all.  3 weeks into the season, we're starting to see the teams worthy of season long consideration, the "ok...i'll keep an eye on these guys" teams, and the not this year crowd (sorry detroit...this unfortunately means you).  what sticks out to me in particular is what is going on with my vegas golden knights.  after coming within 3 games of lord stanleys cup a year ago, the knights are coming out like i thought they would last year...slow out of the gate, trying to figure out just where they fit in the big leagues, and doing enough to hang in the fight, but not breaking away.  now...lots of season left, so i'm not gonna bail out on my guys and i definitely would'nt advise anyone else to do that.  i'll revisit this after new years day with my half season report card.

next up...college football.  my big focus this year has been playing the PAC 12 (since i'm a WSU alum).  i have 4 plays on the line this weekend, starting tonight with utah and ucla down in pasadena.  so, i'm just gonna say this.  the utes are just the superior team hands down.  the performance from the bruins last week looked like things were getting put in order...even though it was arizona, but a win is a win.  consider this...a oouple more breaks and ucla could have potentially taken out washington.  ucla is good enough to hang with the mediocre teams in the pac, but not quite ready for the big boys.  

utah on the other hand, is running at full speed and is not going to slow down.  through the air, ground, and foot, the totality of the work so far just cant be ignored.  these guys could very well be playing back here again come new years day.  but to do it, they will most likely have to get through either washington or WSU...which will not be easy.  as for this week...not much of a question who to take.  

the other one that i want to mention is my cougs goin down to the farm.  now, i would like to know...how can you possibly make WSU a 3 point dog after what they did to oregon last week?  stanford is going to be without a fully healthy bryce love (he will play, but about 80% is what i'm hearing right now) to lean on when the passing game eventually goes south.  the coug D is very good and will find their way into the stanford backfield and keep bryce love bottled up, just as they did last year in pullman.  and then there is rico suave running the coug air raid (in case you dont know who that is, its gardner minshew).  this guy just doesnt cough up the ball and is a ideal fit for the wazzu offense.  teams have had significant problems just slowing him and the rest of the offense down and thats not gonna change this weekend.  

so i really cant say much about stanford, so i'm just gonna keep it short.  in order for the trees to have any chance here, they have to be able to force turnovers like they did in the USC game, get bryce love and the run game going, and try to wear down the coug speed D.  if they cant, the 100's of people inside stanford stadium might want to go to their favorite wine bars by halftime.  

as for the NFL.  i'll put up some things about that tomorrow night.