Originally Posted by
gojetsgomoxies
while i'm bullish on App State, the App State as #20 team in a power ratings would be predicted on playing PSU tight and then that would be predicated on PSU being highly ranked at the start of the year (which is completely subjective, although reasonable opinion).....
OP, i tend to agree with your original thoughts but i also think posters contrary to your opinion make sense too.
oregon game was so strange. i probably wouldn't draw too much from it vis-a-vis stanford. i would say that people (including me) have been wrongly expecting stanford to decline substantially for about the last 7 years.
i think people expected PSU dropoff from low returning starters (doing this from memory) and barkley having been an extraordinary player. i think these alot of these high powered teams that kill lesser teams end up with similar points no matter what. it's just a matter of whether they do it early or late. PSU has started slower than before against opposition (like illinois).
anyway, there's not much data for anybody's opinions right now
I think you're underrating Barkley - he's the best running back to come out of college in over 5 years - he is faster than Odell Beckham and Ezikiel Elliot. He was a once in generation athlete who made Penn State much better than they should have been, Mcsorely can't carry this team against good defenses and the defense lost a lot of starters.