- #1 Alabama survived a huge scare on the road with its 13-point come-from-behind victory over Arkansas. The Crimson Tide took advantage of three Ryan Mallett interceptions, and the running game pounded out 227 yards on the ground for 5.7 yards per carry, and went exclusively to Heisman winner Mark Ingram for the winning score after Mallett’s second interception.
Next up in the buzzsaw that is SEC conference play: #9 Florida comes to Tuscaloosa in another battle of Top 10 teams.
- Boise State got the national spotlight on ABC, and certainly had the aerial assault to fit the billing. But if you could look sloppy in winning 37-24, they did so against Oregon State. Between some dumb penalties, late hits that weren’t called, and bad special teams play, this game was a lot closer than it had any right being. But the Beavers couldn’t get anything going on offense, and Boise State did what they needed to do in their last non-conference test of the season before the bowls.
Boise State now has entered the “Win and Pray” portion of their schedule, where they have to win out to attempt to keep their #3 ranking, hope that Ohio State or Alabama gets knocked off in conference play, and that Virginia Tech, Oregon State, Nevada and Fresno State all win a lot to help their strength of schedule. VA Tech especially came up huge in showing that their loss to James Madison might have been a fluke, and they could potentially run the table in the ACC.
- The Big Ten certainly got a ton of style points for most of their Top-25 teams. Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa all blew out the candles on their cupcake matchups, and a couple Heisman hopefuls got some gaudy numbers out of it (Terrelle Pryor, Denard Robinson). Penn State survived a scare from Temple and made the comeback to stay in the thick of things, and Northwestern held off a late rally to win 30-25 over Central Michigan to stay perfect on the season at 4-0.
Next week the tests start coming in conference play, as OSU goes to Illinois, Michigan goes to Indiana who is 3-0, and you have Penn State-Iowa/Wisconsin-Michigan State in Top-25 matchups next week.
- The SEC had its big week this week, as LSU held off a late surge by West Virginia to win 20-14, Auburn ran all over South Carolina in a 35-27 comeback win, and Florida aced its warmup for Alabama by stomping Kentucky.
Overall a good week for the SEC, as their two in-conference Top 25 matchups were tight games, and their two Top 10 teams held serve for another big matchup next week.
- Big winners this week have to include: Boise State (not only got the W but VA Tech got a big win in conference play and Nevada continued to stay unbeaten for a potential Top 25 matchup down the road) and Stanford (passed a huge test for the program in going to South Bend and whooping on the Fighting Irish before their matchup with #5 Oregon next week).
But the biggest winner has to be UCLA, who absolutely curb-stomped a sloppy Texas team 34-12, forcing seven turnovers in that game and winning a huge matchup on the road. No rest for the weary either as Texas gets #8 Oklahoma next week in a huge rivalry game that will probably determine which team is the Big 12 frontrunner for the rest of the year.
- Biggest losers, besides the Big Ten’s cupcakes, have to be: Arkansas (lost a huge opportunity to make a lot of noise nationally), Notre Dame (rebuilding year anyone? Also some defense please?), and the Big 12 (Texas losing right before the marquee game with Oklahoma, Nebraska looking sloppy in its win).
Another big weekend next weekend, and you’ll hear from me then!
~ David
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