#13 West Texas A&M (10-2, SR4 #6) at #7 Ashland (11-0 SR4 #2)

All right, so after a "week off" the GLIAC gets back to action as Ashland opens their 2012 playoff appearance at home against West Texas A&M. The Buffaloes were the only lower seed in the entire tournament to advance during last weekend's opening round, and they did so by knocking off the RMAC's second-place club in Chadron State, 38-30. They'll hit the road for a second straight week to find an Ashland outfit that is rested and surprisingly healthy for this time of year.

WT enters with the Lone-Star Conference's top rated offense, averaging 487.8 yards and 41.2 points per game. While they ran all over Chadron State last week to the tune of 311 rushing yards, the Buffaloes are typically led by quarterback Dustin Vaughan and their outstanding passing attack. WT led the LSC by slinging it for more than 340 yards per game this season, and that wide-open approach led to a lot of scoring...in fact, they averaged 41 points per game in their two losses. Now, let's not confuse that with a team that can't play defense. The Buffs allowed an LSC best 20.8 points per outing, so not everyone one of their contests was a total shoot-out.

Vaughan's favorite target when throwing the ball has been Torrance Allen. He had 142 yards receiving last week, and is over the 1100-yard mark on the year despite missing some time. He's not Vaughan's only option, however, as six of his targets have at least 32 receptions and at least 336 yards receiving on the year and seven pass-catchers have three TD's or more on the season. The Buffs distribute the ball well, so Ashland's defense can't key on any one guy in particular.

Oh, and let's not forget the ground game. Khiry Robinson has racked-up 1250 yards this year despite missing a couple of games, and he led the WT attack a week ago with 235 yards and three TD's. If rushing looks are there, WT can exploit them.

Defensively, WT has held some folks to lower scoring amounts at times, but have also been prone to giving up big days as well. They have allowed 28 points or more four times, and in their two losses they yielded 96 total points. For Ashland to succeed on Saturday, the offense will need to score early and often...and we're pretty confident they can do that. They'll need to protect Taylor Housewright, as the Buffs led the LSC by generating nearly four sacks per game. Ethan Westbrooks had 13.5 sacks this year, so blocking him up will be a key. What is mysterious is that for all of the pressure that WT has generated, that hasn't translated into tons of turnovers...they were toward the bottom of the LSC in takeaways, including only having seven interceptions. With the Eagles having only turned the ball over seven times in total for the year, we like how efficient Ashland has been with the ball to be a big advantage...WT will likely need some help to slow down Ashland, so as long as the Eagles don't provide any of that help they should be in good shape.

Provided Ashland doesn't come out rusty after the bye, the Eagles should be able to more than match-up with WT. Just as the Buffaloes were atop the LSC in most categories, Ashland did the same by scoring 42 points per game and yielding only 13.6. While WT's Vaughan is the seventh-rated passer in the country, AU's Housewright is fifth...and he has only been intercepted once this season. The main objective for Housewright and his main targets (Anthony Capasso - 59 rec, 887 yds and Eric Thompkins - 53 rec, 638 yds) is to simply stay in character and be efficient. And, to that end they'll have the advantage leveraging the one-two punch of a running game provided by Anthony Taylor and Jordan McCune. Taylor has over 1,000 yards this year, and McCune powered his way to nearly 900. The pair combined for 25 touchdowns, so this might be one of the best rushing attacks that WT has seen this year. Whether or not WT can contain these two guys and MAKE Housewright throw will be telling...if AU is able to maintain their typical offensive balance, it is definitely "advantage Eagles".

While this will be the biggest test that Ashland has faced in more than a month, we still think this is their game to win. WT likely hasn't seen a defense this good all year, so how Vaughan and Company respond will be telling. In addition, Ashland has shown they can score in bunches if need be...and do so without mistakes. As long as AU replicates their ability to play mistake-free football and set things up with a strong running game, we like the Eagles to advance. It won't be a snoozer by any means, but AU is the favorite. Ashland 35, WTAMU 28.