Winners:
Collin Klein (QB Kansas state). Could be at the top of the heisman race after he accounted for all 7 of Kansas state's 7 TD's in their rout of #13 West Virginia (4 rushing and 3 TD's). Unfortunately for K-state everyone in front of them won this week, so they'll remain in neutral at #4 in the BCS, but as long as K-state can keep winning the Wildcats will be in the running for the BCS championship game and Klein will be in the discussion for the Heisman trophy at seasons end.
Duke. Yes, they do in fact play football at Duke. Duke was rolling their rivals from 8 miles up the road; 23-9 at the start of the 4th quarter, had completely dominated the game and looked well on their way to securing the Victory bell (What UNC & Duke play for in football). However, the 1st play of the 4th quarter was a fake punt on 4th and 2 that went for no gain which gave UNC the ball in Duke territory. The Heels would score TDs on their next two possessions sandwiched between a Duke field goal left the margin at 3 points. Duke went 3 and out on their next possession and gave UNC the ball back, and following one of the craziest TDs I had ever seen, it looked like Duke football would fall back into the abyss. The Heel TE caught a perfect pass in the middle of the field, the ball bounced around for a while, a Duke DB tried to scoop it up and run with it instead of falling on it, ball went straight through his arms and into the arms of the UNC backup QB who took the fumble recovery 4 yards into the end zone for the touchdown. In previous years Duke would have folded the tent, but 2012 is a different Duke team. They marched down the field and on 4th & 2 from the UNC 5 with 23 seconds left they got the game winning touchdown to get them bowl eligible for the first time since 1994 and the Victory Bell for the first time since 03.
Big East ranked unbeaten teams. Cincinnati did lose (I'll get to them later), but Rutgers & Louisville both had come back wins to remain in the top 25 and remain unbeaten. Rutgers was down 10-0 at halftime to Temple and rallied to win 35-10; Louisville trailed USF 25-21 and scored the game winning TD with 1:35 left to remain unbeaten.
Toledo. Beat Cincinnati 29-23 to knock the Bearcats from the unbeatens and notch another quality win for the MAC this year. So far this year the conference has gotten wins against: the Big 12 conference, the Big 10 conference, and the Mountain West conference. Will probably be the best non BCS conference to watch this year.
Michigan. There was only 1 touchdown scored in the game, but Michigan got 4 field goals including the winner with no time left to defeat in-state rival Michigan state 12-10 to become the first college team to 900 wins.
Losers:
Texas A&M. Got the ball inside the LSU 20 yard line 3 times and only got 10 points to show for it. That and one of the worst games of the season for QB Johnny Manziel was the reason they were on the short end of a 24-19 loss to LSU which pretty much knocks them out of the SEC & championship game race.
Baylor's defense. In 3 Big 12 games they've given up 70, 49 & 56 points. Not good, and no wonder they've fallen to 0-3 so far in the conference.
Gene Chizik (Auburn coach). He did win the 2010 national championship but since that January 2011 win vs. Oregon, Chizik is a robust 9-11 since including 1-6 so far this year, the schools worst start since 1952. Its difficult to fire a coach 2 years removed from a championship, but you can't take losing in the SEC, and in Alabama where the rivals across the state have won 2 of the last 3 championships and haven't lost to a non SEC opponent since January of 2009.
California vs. top 20 teams. California's 21-3 loss to Stanford left them 0 for their last 8 against teams ranked in the top 20 with an average margin of defeat of almost 2 touchdown's (13.9 points).
Utah. They only lost 21-7 to unbeaten and #8 Oregon state but 2 of Oregon state's 3 touchdown's occured off of Utah turnovers deep in their own territory (1 was an interception at their own 16, another was a fumble at their own 10), and a 3rd Utah turnover (they finished with 4 alltogether) was a fumble at the Oregon state 5 yard line on the 1st drive of the second half when the score was 14-7. They may not have won the game anyways, but they certainly didn't help themselves.
Best game of the weekend:
North Carolina @ Duke. Rivalry game, the crazy Touchdown, Duke becoming bowl eligible
My predicted top 10 in the BCS:
1) Alabama
2) Florida
3) Oregon
4) Kansas state
5) Notre Dame
That was the top 5 last week and all 5 won and aside from Notre Dame all won convincingly with Florida & Kansas state beating top 13 teams in the process, so can't see how you can bump any of them down.
6) LSU
7) Oregon state
8) Oklahoma
9) USC
10) Mississippi state
LSU was number 6 last week; they won by 5 on the road, ND won by 3 at home doubt they jump into the 5. South Carolina was #7, they got crushed so they drop out entirely which bumps Oregon state, Oklahoma & USC up 1. I swapped Georgia (1 loss to South Carolina) and Missippi statet (0 losses) for the final spot. Even though Miss state has played nobody you play the hands dealt to you and no matter how bad the schedule is, you get rewarded in my book for an unbeaten record. The next 3 games for Miss state are against ranked teams with 2 on the road against top 6 teams so in the coming weeks they'll either earn this spot and then some or drop off the page entirely.
Other's receiving votes: Georgia, Florida state, Rutgers, Louisville, South Carolina, Texas Tech, West Virginia.
No comments:
Post a Comment