Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football Week 11

Presented by Saucy Asian

New Season, New Conference, New Table. Let’s take a look around the ACC.

4 Miami at Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech wins 28-23)

Christopher H - It turns out that playing like garbage for most of the game and then getting bailed out by awful ref calls or opposing team meltdowns is not a sustainable strategy. Georgia Tech was kind enough to show Miami this year the proper way to kneel out a victory.

Piotr T Le - YELLOW JACKETS BABY. Doing the job Cal should've done.

TD_24 - About time Miami lost. Should've been Cal.

Nick Kranz - That Georgia Tech could find success and clock control by running the ball isn't a huge shock - it's what they build their team to do after all. But making Miami's offense inefficient by getting a bunch of 4th down stops isn't something I anticipated, and Tech needed both things to pull the upset.

Bk97 - I'm not even surprised. This was inevitable. Miami couldn't keep pulling off 10+ point 4th quarter comebacks all season.

Florida State at 10 Notre Dame (ND wins 52-3)

Christopher H - This is just a team that has absolutely quit in all phases of the game. The defense was awful, the offense continues to be awful, and even the coaching/play-calling is awful. FSU is just going through the motions at this point.

Piotr T Le - Cal offering itself to the Gods of Football to grant FSU it's only ACC/FBS win

TD_24 - *Ahem........WHY OH WHY OH WHY.

Nick Kranz - Not really the point in this game, but how weird is it that Florida State played their final conference game on November 2nd?

Bk97 - I still cannot believe we lost to that team.

Virginia at 18 Pitt (Virginia wins 24-19)

Christopher H - Although I think that some of the teams at the top of the ACC standings are overrated, there are some teams in the middle of the conference that are underrated, and I think Virginia is one of them. Pitt cruised through the soft part of their schedule, but they're likely to end this season on a big downslide facing off against the better ACC teams.

Piotr T Le - Pitt was gettable, sadly we couldn't generate any offense at all to get this win. Miami, FSU, ?NC State, and Pitt are another piece on the pile of Cal "What Ifs" this season.

TD_24 - Man if Cal could've (and should've) beat Pitt, things would be so different right now.

Nick Kranz - Turns out Cal largely shutting down Pitt's offense may have more to do with flaws in Pitt's offense than Cal's defense being dominant. This was basically the same game as Cal/Pitt except Virginia scored touchdowns in their few good drives rather than settling for field goal attempts.

Bk97 - Unfortunately for Pitt fans, that sinking feeling of doom that have had every since they became ranked is finally coming to fruition.

23 Clemson at Virginia Tech (Clemson wins 24-14)

Christopher H - This was a fantastic defensive performance by VT to limit the Clemson offense for as long as they did, but Clemson eventually wore them down with fantastic individual-effort plays: QB Cade Klubnik surviving a sack to launch a 41 yard TD pass, a ridiculous one-handed interception from freshman CB Ashton Hampton, TE Jake Briningstool carrying a defender into the endzone, and so on.

TD_24 - Clemson needed a performance like this after the disaster against Louisville. Really intrigued to see how the tiebreakers play out between them, Miami, and Pitt.

Nick Kranz - For one half, Virginia Tech did nothing on offense while Clemson moved the ball but self-sabotaged. Then Clemson stopped self-sabotaging and Tech had no answer.

Syracuse at Boston College (Boston College wins 37-31)

Christopher H - This game was a matchup between a team that can't throw the ball versus a team that can't run it. BC QB Thomas Castellanos has not looked like himself in recent weeks (at least since his injury in the beginning of October), and BC has pretty much been a run-only offense since. I've remarked about Syracuse's poor defense in previous weeks, but consider this: BC had a season-high 313 yards rushing to 65 yards passing, and had their backup QB in for the second half. Did they ever consider stacking the box to slow the BC run game and make the backup QB beat them through the air? Just a crazy idea.

Piotr T Le - Cuse is gettable if we can run the ball... damnit we can't run the ball.

TD_24 - As I type this, Kye Robichaux just ran for another first down. Syracuse is an enigma of a time, I really can't figure them out.

Nick Kranz - The difference in the game really was a Kyle McCord safety midway through the 3rd quarter that was the sandwich in a 16 point BC run that turned the game on its head. Absent that play, Syracuse might've been the slightly better team . . . but they also allowed 313 rushing yards, which doesn't win you many games. Sadly I dunno if Cal can replicate that particular path to victory over Cuse.

Bk97 - I'm so glad the ACC gifted us with the matchup between the team that can't pass and the team that can't run.

Duke at NC State (Duke wins 29-19)

Christopher H - Duke QB Maalik Murphy had a couple of nice throws in this one for big plays, but otherwise I think the credit for this one goes to the Duke defense. NC State should know you can't win games with field goals, and they struggled to keep drives moving and would stall out near the redzone.

Piotr T Le - Such is life in Eastern Europe of Cal's opponents losing games the same way they should've lost against Cal.

TD_24 - *Ahem......WHY OH WHY. In certain respect, I'm more crazy about the NC State loss.

Nick Kranz - What in the world happened to CJ Bailey in this one? I guess you can expect a young starter to eventually put up a clunker performance, but 16-39 for 184 yards and a pick is ROUGH.

Any other thoughts?

Christopher H - I'm just rooting for maximum chaos at this point. Four teams with just one conference loss, and the conference has to use questionable tiebreakers to decide who even gets to play in the championship game. Maybe then we can realize that mega-conferences are a mistake, and they move to a model where they sort us into smaller geographical divisions where everyone plays everyone and whose winner then plays in the conference championship.

TD_24 - Strike me with the FSU spear if Charleston Southern beats them.

Nick Kranz - Florida State, Miami, Pitt, and NC State all lose in ways that make you think GAH WE SHOULD'VE BEATEN THEM DAMMIT. Good times!