We all thought this was going to be an uneventful week in college football, but we were treated to several upsets, and several closer than expected games. Here's the rundown:
#1 Alabama 35 Western Kentucky 0
Solid performance by the new number one yesterday. The Tide defense allowed only 224 yards, and forced 4 turnovers. Meanwhile the Alabama offense struggled to run on the Hilltoppers, but QB AJ McCarron had a sterling day throwing 14/19 for 4 TDs. The Tide have a big matchup with Arkansas next week and this gimme game must have been nice after the emotional win last week against Michigan.
#2 USC 42 Syracuse 29
Probably a closer game than most expected, but a win on the road looks pretty good after several ranked teams fell to inferior teams. Matt Barkley padded his Heisman resume going 23/30 for 187 yards, 6 TDs and 1 INT. The Trojan faithful can't feel too good about being outgained by the Orange 455 to 445, or the 21-16 score at halftime. There's a bunch of teams that are worse off this week however, so you won't hear too much negativity in the press leading up to the Stanford game next week.
#3 LSU 41 Washington 3
We've heard more about Tyrann Matthieu than we have about anything the Tigers have done on the field this year, but obviously the Tigers aren't hurting too bad without the Honey Badger. Washington's offense was held to 183 total yards and a 1st drive field goal in this game while the Tigers rolled up 437 total yards on cruise control to take an easy one.
#4 Oregon 42 Fresno State 25
Oregon keeps doing what Oregon does. The Ducks ran out to a 35-6 halftime lead and cruised to the win and 532 total yards. The Bulldogs scored a bunch of points in the second half, but the game was never in doubt. The Ducks get another warmup next week, before taking on a resurgent Arizona team, to open up PAC-12 play.
#5 Oklahoma 69 Florida A&M 13
The Sooners rolled over an awful FCS team. Nothing too impressive here other than allowing only 61 rushing yards to the Rattlers. There's a bigger test next week against Kansas State.
#6 Florida State 55 Savannah State 0
The 'Noles held the Tigers to 28 total yards before the game was called in the third quarter because of rain. I hope Savannah State athletic department enjoys the fat checks it gets for being sacrificial lambs, because it sure as heck can't be good for the psyche of its football team.
#7 Georgia 41 Missouri 20
This was a 24-20 game going into the 4th quarter, but the the Bulldogs blew it open with 17 unanswered points in the first 10 minutes of the period to ice the game. Not the entrance Mizzou hoped to make in the SEC, but the Tigers have a chance to figure it out against Arizona State before traveling to South Carolina.
#8 Arkansas 31 Louisiana Monroe 34 F/OT
This was the biggest shocker of the night. Great win for the Warhawks who overcame a 28-7 mid-third quarter deficit. John L. Smith will probably have to win out to keep his job with the Razorbacks, but even that likely won't be enough. No recovery game next week as Alabama comes to town. If QB Tyler Wilson isn't fully recovered from his concussion, it's going to be a long night for the Pigs.
#9 South Carolina 48 East Carolina 10
The big news out of this game is that QB Connor Shaw did not play for the Gamecocks. The other interesting fact is that the Pirates held star RB Marcus Lattimore to 40 yards on 13 carries. However, starting a backup QB, the Gamecocks rang up almost 400 yards passing including 5 touchdowns. The South Carolina defense allowed 400 total yards, but 5 turnovers, including 4 picks, kept East Carolina off the board until late in the 3rd when the game was long decided.
#11 Michigan State 41 Central Michigan 7
We all wondered what Le'Veon Bell would do for an encore to his coming out party last week. Mark Dantonio was smart enough to rest his star RB and give his mistake-prone young QB a chance to shine. Bell had only 19 touches for 70 yards and 2 TDs, while Andrew Maxwell threw for 275 yards and 2 more TDs and no turnovers. The Spartans were cruising to a shutout, but backup QB Connor Cook threw a pick 6 with less than 2 minutes remaining, and the Chippewas were able to avoid the goose egg at home.
#12 Clemson 52 Ball State 27
Two weeks in a row without suspended All-American WR Sammy Watkins, two weeks in a row with no problems. Clemson QB Tajh Boyd is looking pretty good and the Tigers have another glorified scrimmage against Furman before a big showdown with Florida State that will go a long way in determining the ACC race.
#13 Wisconsin 7 Oregon State 10
Not a great week for the Big 10 overall, and definitely not against the PAC-12. Wisconsin is looking pretty punchless on offense and spoiled a pretty decent performance by their defense in the upset. RB Montee Ball gained only 61 yards on 15 carries, and probably wishes he'd followed his offensive linemen to the NFL last spring.
#14 Ohio State 31 UCF 16
The Knights were able to run with the Buckeyes for the first half, but Braxton Miller was able to pour it on in the 2nd half ending up with almost 300 yards of total offense. I understand that starting RB Carlos Hyde was hurt early on, but I don't think that running QB Miller 27 times was an appropriate response to that. Ohio State needs Miller for the Big 10 season.
#15 Virginia Tech 42 Austin Peay 7
What the heck is Austin Peay? Anyways, the Hokies probably weren't smart playing two games in 5 days, but if you're gonna do it, make sure you do it against a sad sack FCS team.
#17 Texas 45 New Mexico 0
You'd think 241 yards would get you at least 3 points, but not when you commit 8 penalties and 2 turnovers. For all the emphasis Texas is putting on developing a strong running game, they really don't have a lot to show for it: only 146 yards, 49 of which came on a scramble by QB David Ash. The Longhorns can't afford to look past Ole Miss next week.
#18 Oklahoma State 38 Arizona 59
How do you roll up 636 yards and still lose by 21 points? By committing 4 turnovers and 15 penalties on the road. Give the Wildcats credit, they did a decent job on offense too, but Mike Gundy has to feel like he gave this one away.
#19 Michigan 35 Air Force 25
Air Force's triple option attack rolled up almost 300 yards on the ground and were in position to pull off the upset in Ann Arbor, but they allowed Denard Robinson to run wild for 218 yards and 2 TDs on the ground. The Wolverines escape, but they need to improve their defense before Notre Dame comes to town in two weeks.
#20 TCU 56 Grambling State 0
How easy was this game? TCU QB's were 17/17 for 276 yards and 4 TDs on the night. The Frogs were just as good on the other side of the ball, allowing only 70 yards and forcing a turnover.
#21 Kansas State 51 Miami (FL) 13
I thought Miami would return the favor after K-State beat the 'Canes at home last year, but boy was I wrong. The 'Canes couldn't stop Collin Klein, or really anybody on the ground, as the Wildcats rolled up 288 yards and 6 TDs. Looks like Bill Snyder has a team to be reckoned with again. Or maybe Miami really is that bad.
#22 Notre Dame 20 Purdue 17
There was enough QB drama in this game to last the rest of the season. Notre Dame got the last laugh, inserting backup Tommy Rees into a tied game with 2 minutes left. Coach Brian Kelly is going to look smarter than he is, because Rees drove the field for the game winning FG and delivered the Irish from a nearly disastrous 4th quarter collapse.
#23 Louisville 35 Missouri State 7
The Cardinals quietly took care of business this week. They get a limping North Carolina team next week in an important status game for the Big East. Keep an eye on Louisville as we get into the season; they're carrying the torch for their dying conference.
#24 Florida 20 Texas A&M 17
Some may see this as a disappointing win for the Gators, but to go to Kyle Field and get a win is not an easy task no matter how good or bad the Aggies are. Ask Bo Pelini.
#25 Stanford 50 Duke 13
The Cardinal looked far more impressive this week, but the scoreboard is sort of deceiving. Stanford probably can't count on 4 turnovers by USC next week, and they'll have to tighten up their pass defense too.
Virginia 17 Penn State 16
Penn State's lack of talented skill players wasted another solid performance by their defense. Virginia finally got out of its own way long enough to win a tight one at home, but they can't feel too great about letting the Nittany Lions man-handle them for the bulk of the game.
Minnesota 44 New Hampshire 7
Who'd have thought the Gophers would be one of the most impressive Big 10 teams this week? Pretty good performance by Minnesota, albeit against an FCS program.
Indiana 45 Massachusetts 6
Pretty much everything I just wrote about the Minnesota game applies here too.
Iowa State 9 Iowa 6
Yuck. Iowa turned the ball over 4 times and managed 2 FGs and 236 total yards. This is not shaping up to be a good year for Kirk Ferentz, Iowa has scored 24 points in two games.
Northwestern 23 Vanderbilt 13
I've got to eat my words here. Nortwestern didn't play great defense, but used two turnovers to keep the Commodores out of the endzone after the first quarter. I thought the Wildcats would get dominated, but the Big 10 quietly steals one from the SEC on an otherwise horrible day for the league.
Arizona State 45 Illinois 14
I whiffed on this pick too. The Illini were hurting without starting QB Nathan Scheelhaase, the backups threw 3 picks and the Sun Devils ran through the Illinois defense for 510 yards. In case you lost count, that makes a 3 game sweep for the PAC-12 against the Big 10.
Middle Tennessee State 31 Florida Atlantic 17
Tough loss for Carl Pelini as his Owls were dominated in their Sun Belt opener. It doesn't get any easier for Pelini as they travel to Georgia and Alabama the next two weeks.
Ohio 51 New Mexico State 24
Frank Solich's Bobcats dominated the Aggies at home, rolling up 584 yards and holding NWSU to 206. Ohio needs to keep dominating in games like this, because they've already played the toughest game on their schedule. The Bobcats probably need some help to crash the BCS party.
Week 2 was memorable, but week 3 has a few more marquee games to get heart rates going before the fourth quarter. Look for my week 3 preview tomorrow, and thanks for reading
No comments:
Post a Comment