Now that the dust has settled on the college football landscape http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/charles-clay-jersey-authentic , we have a better idea of which teams weren’t given a fair shot before the season started and which teams were frauds. No. 9 Florida and No. 6 Texas represent the former. They came into the season with low expectations by most experts, but both have been on winning streaks and can boast of signature wins against quality opponents. Penn State and N.C. State represent the latter. They have had recent losses that have called into question the hype and fanfare they received in the preseason. This week, both teams also have a chance to right the ship against winnable opponents. As always, let’s talk about the games, leave questions on prospects, and enjoy the weekend!Keep your eyes onDE Brian Burns (Florida State)By all accounts an athletic freak, Burns has been on a tear recently with four sacks and five tackles-for-loss combined in the past two games. Watching to see how he chooses to attack Clemson tackle Mitch Hyatt on Saturday will be interesting. Burns has more than enough talent to out-maneuver the big tackle with his speed rush, which could force Hyatt to overcompensate, opening up the potential for counter moves.Other prospects to watchRB Justice Hill (Oklahoma State)One of the few jitterbug runners in this year’s class, Hill excels in small spaces and is an exceptional receiver for the Cowboys. He’s been bottled up for the past two weeks, and going against the Texas run defense this Saturday isn’t going to do him many favors. Watching his play to see how he deals with the adversity will be one of the main draws for scouts.C/G Elgton Jenkins (Mississippi State)Mississippi State is working through a disappointing season, but the interior offensive line and Jenkins in particular have been something the Bulldogs can hang their hat on. This week, his challenge is a Texas A&M team that’s on the rise along with highly-rated defensive tackles Kingsley Keke and Daylon Mack. Both players pose serious challenges to effectively running the ball so Jenkins will be tested in that realm.WR N’Keal Harry (Arizona State)One of the premier wide-receiver prospects of the 2019 class, Harry has had a solid but not necessarily spectacular season so far. The junior has been productive in the red zone with five touchdowns, but he really hasn’t gone over 100 receiving yards since the first game of the season. USC sports NFL-caliber players at both corner and safety, so Harry will have a battle on his hands all game long. He did throw an interception against Stanford last game. So, there is that.ER Sutton Smith (Northern Illinois)Smith is your classic small-school tweener, at 6’1” http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/phillip-gaines-jersey-authentic , 237 pounds. He’s is too small to play a role as a full-time edge rusher, but he has a proven history of production with fourteen sacks in 2017 and already seven this year. How Smith deals with physically imposing offensive lines will be huge in determining his professional future, so this Saturday’s game against BYU is massively important for the senior. CB Amani Oruwariye (Penn State)Although he’s not the twitchiest athlete at the position, scouts will be intrigued by his above-average size and long arms. The senior excels at sticking his hands into the receiver’s chest and breaking up passes at the last moment. Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley has been on a roll lately, so a lot will be asked of Oruwariye in this week’s game against the Hawkeyes. It’ll also be interesting to see if he is matched up against their pair of tight ends.Game of the weekNo. 9 Florida vs. No. 7 GeorgiaSaturday, 3:30 PM, ESTCBSThese two SEC teams are headed in the opposite direction. Georgia is coming off a disheartening loss to LSU while Florida has been riding high on a five-game winning streak. The teams are similar given that most of their NFL prospects are on the defensive side of the ball. Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker is among the best in the country, while his teammate, defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter, reminds this writer of former Bulldog who’s now with the New York Jets, Jordan Jenkins.Florida pass rusher Jachai Polite is one of the biggest risers this season and has started to garner first-round buzz, while the Gator’s secondary, anchored by safeties Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and sophomore Brad Stewart, is one of the deepest in the conference. In what turned out to be a shockingly close game (for three quarters anyway) between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots there’s a natural element of “what if.” In the case of penalties we often wonder if one more clean play or two may have changed the outcome. For this week the answer is “no.” Penalties didn’t significantly alter the game. We’re gonna discuss them regardless. Traditional and Advanced MetricsPenalty CountThe Bills and Patriots were nearly even on assessed count. Six for the Bills and five for the Patriots is neck and neck. Both teams were under the league average for assessed count. When it comes to total flags, it’s dead even at eight. This is for all intents and purposes perfectly average at the moment. There were no offsetting penalties in this game so the five extra between the two teams were all declined. As a reminder, penalties are declined when something worse happened so the three penalties that didn’t “count” for the Patriots still represent times where they made a bad play. Penalty YardsThe Bills are slightly below average on assessed yards. The Patriots are quite a bit under. Don’t buy into the gap here though. The Patriots negated 18 yards of offense via flags which brings them right up to where the Bills landed. When it comes to penalty performance it’s still a wash at this point. Penalty HarmNew England PatriotsWe have quite a few boo-boos here. Three declined penalties naturally had zero penalty harm. A false start and an illegal formation both had 0.5 Harm as a result of yardage only. Note that there were two illegal formations (the other was one of the declined penalties). This infraction has been hounding the Bills this season and if there’s a silver lining to this game it’s that perhaps the curse has been passed along. For more serious flags, Chris Hogan wiped out a nine-yard gain. Paired with the ten yards assessed it receives a 1.9 Harm rating. LaAdrian Waddle’s holding penalty also wiped out a nine-yard gain. Based on field position this penalty was half the distance to the goal for an assessed nine yards. It also negated a first down from second. So 9 assessed yards + 9 negated yards + 1 down = 2.8 Harm. Last but not least we have Julian Edelman’s unsportsmanlike conduct. This occurred on a punt and field position again mitigated the damage. At half the distance to the goal from the nine-yard line it pushed the Patriots back 4 yards. There’s more to the story in my opinion so let’s look at this one. Edelman has called for the fair catch which establishes him as “untouchable” which is critical for this rant. Lafayette Pitts very clearly starts decelerating to avoid contact and has no reasonable expectation that he should be getting hit by Edelman. As Pitts approaches, Edelman launches helmet-first into Pitts’ facemask. The refs call unsportsmanlike conduct for blocking after a fair catch is called. This should have been unnecessary roughness and an ejection. This passes all of the tests for a roughness call including that the person being hit has no reason to think contact is coming. Roughness calls by rule include “using any part of a player’s helmet or facemask to butt http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/jordan-mills-jersey-authentic , spear, or ram an opponent.” That happened for sure. If a penalty is egregious it is grounds for automatic disqualification. Remember, Edelman signaled a fair catch which created the situation in which Pitts was actively attempting to avoid contact. If establishing yourself in a position where your opponents are avoiding contact and then headbutting a guy in the facemask isn’t “egregious” I don’t know what is. The NFL claims to be worried about player safety. “Plays” like this can’t be acceptable. Anyway, 6.1 Harm for the Patriots on Monday Night Football. Buffalo BillsWe have a pile of boo-boos over here too. The two declined penalties are zero, of course. False starts continue to have no need to be discussed and there were two of those. LeSean McCoy’s holding penalty was assessed yards only. Logan Thomas was called for unnecessary roughness on the kickoff to open the second half. At least according to the play-by-play. The call on the field was a personal foul for an illegal block. From the one available angle it appeared to be a block to the back. This spot foul occurred at the 22-yard line and was therefore assessed as eleven yards or half the distance to the goal for 1.1 Harm. Tremaine Edmunds was called for defensive holding. The five yards was exacerbated by an automatic first down from second. 5 yards + 1 down = 1.5 Harm. Kelvin Benjamin was flagged for an illegal blindside block. This ended up as assessed yards only. McCoy was credited for his run and the first down it earned. After the penalty the Bills were first and ten, just 15 yards behind where McCoy had taken the ball. This one seemed ticky-tack live and Benjamin was eager to plead his case. Let’s take a real close look and see what happened. To understand the call we turn to the rule book. Except for specific limitations, blocking is generally allowed (pass interference, holding, etc. are all limits on acceptable blocking). For the flag here, illegal blindside blocks establish the person being blocked as a defenseless player. It’s similar to how normally legal contact becomes illegal when a quarterback is in a throwing posture or a receiver is going up for a catch. For the rule, it’s clunkily worded by identifying a person as defenseless when “A player who receives a ‘blindside’ block when the path of the blocker is toward or parallel to his own end line.” As the blocker, Benjamin’s trajectory is clearly heading toward his own end line (or end zone) and passes that part of the test. The other component is that the contact has to originate from the person’s “blindside.” This isn’t defined by the NFL so a common meaning interpretation is the one that applies. If defined by an actual “side,” Benjamin hits him on the front. On the other hand, if defined as “blind to the direction the hit came from,” I don’t think Devin McCourty had any clue what happened until the replay. Personally, I think the refs got this right. Now for the drum roll. Up until now the Bills and Patriots were neck and neck using penalty measurements. The Patriots had 6.1 Harm as noted above. The Bills? Also 6.1 Harm. Neither team had an advantage based on penalty using any metric seen above.