Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/oklahoma-state-remains-at-no-18-in-week-6-ap-poll/
OSU-Houston will be a Top 20 matchup.
I had a feeling we would stay where we were, maybe get as high as 16, but Kentucky going to 15 from unranked is a joke. Anything to make the SEC look stronger.
4 Likes
Kentucky wins 2 one point overtime games and they are suddenly above us at 15. No respect.
1 Like
They’re looking at ranked wins at the time. We have one top 10 win and a demoralizing loss to Tulsa. Kentucky has two top 10 wins with their only loss being to Bama. Also, Kentucky is 5-1 while we’re 4-1. So naturally, they’re going to be ahead of us.
I can see where you could make a case that SEC teams probably shouldn’t be ranked that high based on performance. However, I believe if we just take care of business everything will iron itself out.
Based on what I’ve seen from the SEC it’s practically Georgia and Alabama. While teams like Texas, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, and Ole Miss are just fighting for 3rd place in that conference.
3 Likes
We seem to be ranked fairly. You can’t forget the loss to Tulsa. And the win against Oregon is still good, but Oregon is fading quickly, so that win isn’t as big as it once was. Our games against Houston and Texas Tech will be the real opportunities to move up.
4 Likes
Yes, and I still maintain WVU was a good win because of the spot, the long road trip, the environment, etc. but WVU is not doing us any favors and is quickly sinking to the bottom of the league.
2 Likes
Heck with Kentucky, why did Iowa pass us? They beat a mediocre Washington team. Media is biased. We beat Oregon with their starting qb. UCLA did not. I saw an article by Heather Dinch of ESPN that she tiered the potential playoff teams and under 1 loss teams she had both BYU and Texas Tech! Neither have lost. I realize the B10 & SEC are better conferences but go with the results on the field.
If I’m being brutally honest, I personally think we’re too high and we won’t be elevating unless we can really prove ourselves moving forward.
If you really look at the performances we’ve strung together, think we can all honestly agree that we have not put together any spectacular end-to-end games that would warrant us to be much higher than where we are. Yes, Oregon was a fantastic win (and yes I stormed the field) and it showcased what we can accomplish. But when you balance it against our Tulsa loss and some bad halves against West Virginia and UCF, we shouldn’t be surprised we didn’t climb.
Yes; The AP poll is flawed with biased and eye-test voters, and there are a lot of weird placements, but we have eyes on us… we just aren’t showing them that we can compete with the big boys because we aren’t beating the crap out of the lower tier teams in our conference. Our offense has been great, but our defense can’t seem to show up in the first half. If we can get that sorted out, we will be REALLY good and I’d be sold on top 15. If we want to be up there, we better punch Houston in the face and not let them into the end zone. If we can’t figure out the defense, we’re gonna get smacked.
Realize I’m likely gonna get some hate for this, so feel free to disagree, but calling it as I see it. Think we should probably be 20-22.
- Tulsa will always haunt us. Horrible in all phases. We can mask it a bit if we go 11-1 or beat the teeth out of the rest of our schedule, but it will linger and be our anchor.
- West Virginia was a great win in a rowdy environment, but we trailed at half and it took us until the 4th quarter to actually pull away. We couldnt stop the run at all in the first half, got bailed out with a turnover right before halftime and then the momentum shifted a touch. It also doesn’t help that it isn’t aging well either.
- Going punch-for-punch and giving up 28 points to a BAD UCF team who was without its starting QB and a lot of offensive and defensive players at home is 100% a black eye for us. Yes, we pulled it out late, but we were tied at half and only up 3 going into the fourth quarter… y’all can’t honestly tell me you weren’t a bit puckered until the scoop-and-score. We struggled with the run the first half (again) and there were a number of blown assignments the few times they did pass (thankfully most didn’t result in huge plays).
I’m really looking forward to our Houston game. I hope we see the same team that came out against Oregon and bullies them around the yard. Would speak volumes to voters IMO
1 Like
Because they have a top 25 win and a loss to Ohio State. I guess our loss is so bad that it can’t make up a justification for why we should be ahead of them 
.
1 Like
I agree with this completely. We need to put up a solid (not perfect) showing defensively in the first half. Another thing that’s concerned me since the Oregon game is the slow first quarter starts. 14-0 against Murray State, 3 against WV, and 7 against UCF.
Houston is not a team we need to be starting slow against. If we can just put forth a solid game on both sides of the ball from start to finish I think we can win that game by double digits. Luckily for us their pass defense is 115th nationally. I think we’ll struggle running. They’re 5th nationally in rush defense.
1 Like
Then why weren’t they ahead of us the week before? The only things that changed were us beating UCF and Iowa beating Washington. Both of those teams are now 3-3. UCF played without its starting Qb and the Huskies starting Qb went down early in their game. It’s just simple bias. No one is scared of Iowa. OU is playing like Iowa….strong defense, hoping 17-24 points is enough to win but not a threat to win a league or anything nationally
3 Likes
Fading if you forget that OSU beat them when they were at full strength, not with the current 3rd string QB. But you are correct, nobody will remember that factoid.
1 Like
Iowa was ranked 17 when they beat Michigan in the Big House, 14 against No. 5 Ohio State (a big loss) and then 20 when they took the belt to Washington. Don’t disagree that Washington isn’t exactly scary this year, but Iowa handled them pretty good on the road (not sure if you stayed up for that game but that score isn’t a reflection of the ass kicking it truly was). If OSU took the belt to a bad UCF team, think we’d be higher. We got the W, but we didn’t bury them like we should have. Iowa took it to Washington (who is likely much better than UCF) and think voters saw that.
If y’all haven’t seen it before, would encourage y’all to look at College Poll Tracker. Every ballot on display. The link below is the distribution view which shows how ballots “average” out. Per the above, looks like we’re very close to Iowa in the distro. One clown didn’t vote for us… which REALLY hurt us.
This is all fair. Our offense looks like a conference champion offense, but our defense does not.
1 Like
No hate from me. I agree 100%. Seeing a larger sample size has tempered my expectations a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised with a loss to Houston. Honestly I’m thinking Houston will be a bigger test than T-Tech.
2 Likes
I think you may be correct as Houston as a bigger test…
1 Like
Because a loss to a top 10 team is better than beating nobody in the bye week .
That was 2 weeks ago. Ohio St beat Iowa to drop the Hawkeyes from 14 to 20. So going into this past weekend they were 20th but passed us by beating Washington, while we beat UCF. Try to keep up with the season.