For a weekend that was supposed to be an ‘in-between’ week of college football action, this weekend turned out to be more than worth watching.
There are some things that I’m going to run through in greater detail in separate articles over the next couple of days, and there are some things that I’m saving for Monday’s Red Zone Rewind, but here are a few notable
Sluggish Saturday for Buckeyes: Underestimating one’s opponent can be a lethal mistake sometimes.
Whether it was underestimation, the absence of Chris Wells, or looking ahead to next week, Ohio State didn’t bring their ‘A’ game today against Ohio, and almost paid for it very, very dearly.
Ohio, who lost 21-20 to Wyoming last week, also lost their starting QB early in the game, but that didn’t stop the Bobcats from taking advantage of a pretty lethargic Buckeyes team to go up 14-6 in the third and lead 14-12 after three.
But, as expected, the Buckeyes rallied and scored the game’s final points to put away the pesky Bobcats to win it 26-14 and remain unscathed heading into next week’s matchup with the Trojans.
However, it won’t be a 1-2 matchup, unless the pollsters somehow generously reward the Buckeyes for a ‘plucky comeback’ against one of the MAC’s mid-pack teams, while #2 Georgia knocked the snot out of the MAC’s best team (Central Michigan, 56-17) and #4 Oklahoma beat a solid Cincinnati team 52-26. In fact, I won’t be surprised if the Sooners – or maybe even Florida – jump the Buckeyes on Monday.
Ohio State wasn’t the only ranked team that didn’t have their best game on Saturday. Alabama and Auburn both had their issues against C-USA foes, Oklahoma had trouble with Cincinnati before blowing them away in the second half, Texas Tech struggled with Nevada in a game that Graham Harrell threw for less than 300 yards in (the sky is falling!), South Florida needed overtime to beat Central Florida, UNLV hung with Utah until a 21-point third for the Utes, and in the ‘Game of the Week,’ Florida, well, keeping reading…
Speaking of the Gators…: Well, I’m sure our resident Gator fan is enjoying his bourbon tonight, because Florida’s finally broken their losing streak against Miami.
It wasn’t a ‘great’ performance for the Gators, by any stretch of the imagination, but they put away the Hurricanes in the end to win it 26-3.
You’ve certainly got to give UF a lot of credit for keeping the ‘Canes at bay and pulling away late, but at the same time, Randy Shannon has to be pretty happy that his young team did a pretty solid job of holding down Florida’s potent offense for a good while. The offense, however, still has a long way to go for Miami to at least be a bowl team this year.
Time to Believe in ECU? After upsetting Virginia Tech last week, East Carolina didn’t get top-25 love from the polls, landing in the cigar-less ‘receiving votes’ category in both of the major polls.
So, all the Pirates went out and did on Saturday was thoroughly dominate #8 West Virginia in a 24-3 win in Greenville, with Patrick Pinkney outplaying Pat White and the ECU defense slowing down both Pat White (97 yards) and Noel Devine (94 yards).
Skeptics might point to the fact that ECU didn’t get Virginia Tech (retooling on both sides of the ball) and West Virginia (coaching transition) at their best, but whether or not you want to be a believer, the Pirates are off to a terrific start. Can they keep it up? Won’t be easy, but I’m sure they’re enjoying it while it lasts.
Celebration Penalties A Little Too Harsh? You never want an official’s call to have a big hand in influencing the outcome of a game. Just ask the 2002 Miami team.
Unfortunately, that may have been the case in the Washington-BYU game. U-Dub was down 28-21 with seconds left, and QB Jake Locker took it in for a touchdown to make it 28-27 with two ticks left. Heading to OT, right?
Not so fast…
In the post-touchdown excitement, Locker was whistled for an excessive celebration penalty for tossing the ball in the air after he scored.
As a result, Washington was moved from the 3 to the 18, the extra point was blocked, and instead of a chance at a big, morale-boosting win, Tyrone Willingham’s Huskies are 0-2.
Now, there’s a chance that the extra point could have been blocked from the 3, but I like my chances a lot better from there than 15 yards back. And of course, in the end, the kicker needs to make the kick whether it’s 20 yards out or 35. So, with that in mind, the call only affected the outcome only so much.
But all hypothetical situations aside, that penalty was absolutely ludicrous. Now, while I’m definitely annoyed by the call, it was, as per the rule book, the right call, as Locker did toss the ball pretty high, and you’re not supposed to do that.
I can understand that officials want to operate on a ‘act like you’ve been here before’ rule when players score, but there are TWO SECONDS left, and you just scored a huge touchdown to give your team a chance to tie a highly-ranked team in a pivotal home game. There’ve been more rowdy celebrations after less exciting plays that have gone unpunished. In that situation, the officials should’ve just taken his excitement and the adrenaline into consideration and let it go.
Shoot, I don’t know if I should get excited watching the games at home now, for fear some zebra’s going to pop up from nowhere and flag me for it.
Who knows, maybe it was a crew full of Washington State fans…
If you want to see the play and judge it for yourself, here’s the vid via Youtube.
Razorbacks Slip By Yet Again: Two weeks, two 300-yard games for Casey Dick, two fourth-quarter comebacks for Arkansas over teams that should have been put away easily.
Last week, Arkansas trailed I-AA Western Illinois 24-14 in the 4th before coming back to win 28-24 on a touchdown run by Dick with less than two minutes to go.
This week, the Razorbacks trailed Louisiana-Monroe 24-6 in the third and 27-14 in the fourth before coming back for an even tighter 28-27 win. This time around, Dick hooked up with D.J. Williams for the big score with 1:22 to go, but the win wasn’t sealed without a score, as ULM kicker Jeremy Gener missed a 45-yard field goal on the ensuing possession.
In the end, a win is a win is a win, but you can imagine these close scrapes aren’t what Petrino wanted to see coming out of the gate. But, to put a positive spin on it, as is the case with the Ohio State-Ohio game (and for Notre Dame‘s close one against San Diego State), it’s not how you start, but how you finish, and good on the Razorbacks for battling and getting the win.
Score One for Me: I’ve got to give myself some props, naturally, for having Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant on my fantasy team, as Bryant racked up 236 yards receiving and four total touchdowns (three receiving, one punt) in OSU’s 56-37 win over Houston.
It was the shootout that I expected it to be, though it took a little while, as 63 of the game’s points were scored in the second half. All told, both teams accounted for 1,182 yards of total offense (OSU – 699, Houston – 483), both quarterbacks threw for more than 300 yards (OSU’s Zac Robinson for 320, three scores, and two picks, and Houston’s Case Keenum for 387 and four scores), and the Cowboys had a 200-yard receiver and rusher – Kendall Hunter ran for 210 yards and two touchdowns – for the first time in school history.
For all the points that Bryant did get me, I’m hoping it wasn’t all for naught. Oh, as for former OSU quarterback Bobby Reid, well, he and his new team, Texas Southern, were on the wrong end of an 83-10 mauling by Arkansas State, who, if you remember, beat Texas A&M in College Station last week. Guess there was no letdown for them, eh?
