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The MRI Says...10/26/07
October 26, 2007
By Benjamin Miraski
Last night showed us that miracles can happen. Boston College's dreams of a National Championship stayed alive with a comeback win against Virginia Tech.
For three quarters, the rain soaked the Eagles' chances and Matt Ryan. When the rains finally let up, the country got to see why Ryan is being considered for the Heisman trophy. Or, they would have had the World Series not been going on.
Ryan made an amazing pass on the run to Andre Callender in the back of the end zone, over two Hokie defenders to grab the go ahead score with 11 seconds remaining. It was the type of pass, as the commentators said, that NFL scouts drool over. It was the sort of pass that wins you trophies, especially ones with a famous pose.
So, maybe Boston College is for real. Maybe some of the #2 over rated talk will stop. It certainly was not the outcome I expected last night (although all of Virginia Tech's losses on Thursday night have come against BC). But it was the outcome that the MRI predicted, albeit with a very tiny margin of confidence.
The MRI also predicted correctly the other game of the night, and got some help from Air Force's 5 turnovers. And with that good start to the week, time to look at what the MRI says about tonight's game.
#16 Boise State at Fresno State - For years, this has been the game in the WAC. It has supposedly been the game where Fresno State would be stepping up to stop Boise State's run to another WAC title. And yet, it hasn't happened.
This year doesn't seem to be headed toward a different result. Fresno State's defense has been fairly porous and that is a bad sign when you go up against the Boise State offense. The good news for Fresno is that the game is at home, so they don't have to contend with the curse of the Blue Turf which seems to plague the WAC. And Ian Johnson, the man whose name surfaces in Heisman talk and then disappears again just as quickly is expected to be out with a bruised hip. However, it still doesn't seem that the Bulldogs have the guns to run with Boise State.
The best bet for Fresno may be in keeping Boise State's offense off the field. They can do this with their running game led by the two headed attack of Ryan Mathews and Lonyae Miller. If that rushing attack is going, maybe they can control the clock long enough to win the the game. Maybe.
MRI Says: Boise State Confidence Factor: 53.97%
This Week: 2-0
Season Record: 159 - 69, 69.74%
Lifetime Record: 1521 - 643, 70.29%
All rankings are the current MRI ranking of the team
The MRI is a computer football ranking system. It has been picking games since 2003. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted October 26, 2007 12:25 PM