Week 6 Recap

Some weeks I feel like I'm so far off. I'll let you be the judge of that. Here's the recap of my games to watch from Saturday:

Michigan @ Michigan St. - I called for it to be a battle. And that it was. But unfortunately (for me at least), Michigan St. came out on top. But I was right about one thing... Remember that post about Quarterbacks? Tate Forcier responds to pressure. How about a touchdown pass to tie the game with 0:02 left on the clock? Getting the ball back with 4:47 left in the game, Michigan was down by two touchdowns (20-6). That's when Forcier stepped up and led his team down the field, not once, but twice, tying the game on the last play of regulation to send it into overtime. But it's hard to win in overtime when you're the visiting team. Michigan lost, but I'm still impressed with Forcier.

LSU @ Georgia - Defense. There wasn't a touchdown scored until the 4th quarter of this game. Then Georgia scored; Then LSU; Then Georgia; Then LSU. The two teams started trading touchdowns in the 4th quarter, but the clock ran out before Georgia had another chance. This game came down to the last minute, and both teams looked solid, but I do think LSU has a little more muscle working for them. They'll get tested again next week though when undefeated Florida comes to town.

UCLA @ Stanford - Maybe Stanford is for real. I still think they'll struggle against the likes of Oregon, Cal, and USC (and perhaps ASU too), but for now they look good, starting out their conference play at 3-0. Stanford's Gerhart seemingly ran all over UCLA, chalking up 137 yards on 29 carries, and Stanford walked away with the W.

Washington @ Notre Dame - A win over the one-fluke-big-win Huskies still wasn't enough to get the 4-1 Fighting Irish into the AP top 25 this week, but I was spot on on this game; it was a great game to watch as a football fan. Down by 5 with three minutes left, Clausen went out on the field and put together a great would-have-been game winning drive scoring a TD and getting the two-point conversion. But Notre Dame left Locker too much time on the clock, and he came back and led his team down the field to tack on a field goal to tie it and send the game to overtime. When it was all said and done, ND walked away with the their first overtime win in 5 years.

Ohio St. @ Indiana - Did being the visiting team slow down Ohio St. any? Not really. Ohio St. was out to a 24-7 lead at half time, and it wasn't much of a game after that. Makes me a little nervous for Michigan.

Oregon St. @ Arizona St. - I didn't see any of this game. I only even listened to that last few minutes of it, but as far as I understand, poor ASU was never really in it. A pair of costly mistakes early in the 1st qtr gave Oregon St. great field position, which they capitalized on and got out to 14-0 lead real fast. Before the first half was even over, chants of "We want Brock" [referring to the second string quarterback Brock Osweiler] we coming from the large student section at Sun Devil Stadium. Here's the thing though, I don't blame Sullivan for this game. Want to see something surprising? Sullivan was 32-58 with 338 yards in this game. He threw one interception, but nothing came of it. The mistakes were from 2 things: special teams and, I'm hesitant to say it, perhaps the play calling. Where's the offense? 17 points against the Beavers? And the defense gave up 28 to the Beavers? What?

USC @ Cal - Here's the thing - 3 weeks  ago, i was excited about Cal. The whole country (if not the whole Pac10) was excited about Cal. Today... we're not. I've pretty much all but dismissed Cal. Their all-star running back Jahvid Best has merely looked good in their last few games. Honestly, I was at least expecting a fight against USC, but it was Trojans all the way. Blown out. Jahvid Best was (is?) supposed to be one of the top running backs in the nation, but guess what, after 5 weeks, it's a different  Pac10 running back who leads the nation - Stanford's Toby Gerhart. Where did you go Cal?

Oklahoma @ Miami - I watched this game last night (since I didn't get to on Saturday), and it was a great game. All kinds of Defense AND Offense. How can there be both? Well, it went in waves. First, it was Oklahoma, showing off their very tough defense and quieting the Miami fans, while at the same time, going up 10-0. Then it was Miami's turn, stopping the Sooners drive after drive. I saw some weaknesses in the Canes' secondary, but they're front four were putting on the pressure up front without needing help from a blitz anywhere. Jacory Harris threw 2 interceptions on their first two possessions, which obviously shook up the offense's confidence, but they got back in rhythm and before the game was through, Harris had thrown 19 for 28 with 202 yds and 3 TD's. One word - Composure. He's really a young player, and I was impressed with his ability to keep his composure after throwing two big interceptions early in the game and then get back on his horse and throw 3 TD's.

Upset Update

Alright, it was a rough week in college football, and let's start with telling you who got upset...

ME!

All the teams I like, and wanted to win, lost. And all the teams that should have won lost. It was rough.

Let's start with those 5 games I was looking forward to:

Indiana @ Michigan - I've got mixed feelings about this game, but overall I'm happy about it. It was a rainy day in Ann Arbor, rather dull really. The 3rd quarter could be described the same way. But the 4th quarter was exciting! With 9:15 left, Michigan drove the ball down the field and Tate Forcier flew (literally) into the endzone on a seven yard run. He went airborn over the defender and was carried into the endzone by his teammate. The 2-point conversion went about the same, with Forcier going up and being pushed across the goal line while in the air. Michigan 29-26. In less than two minutes though, Indiana broke through on an 85 yd TD run to go back up 33-29. The final Michigan drive was epic, as Tate Forcier led the Wolverines to a second come-from-behind win.

See the highlight film HERE (and don't forget to laugh at the fit the Indiana coach throws at the end)

California @ Oregon - No mixed feelings about this one, I was disappointed. Final score: Cal 3, Oregon 42. This wasn't just an upset, this was a blowout. Cal didn't even show up. I mentioned last week that the Ducks would be looking to live up to their pre-season expectations... well, they did. They've even got themselves in the Top 25 now.

Florida @ Kentucky - I'm gonna say i was partly right about this game. The Gators came out swinging. End of first quarter: Gators up 31 - 0. The slowed down after that, finishing with a 41-7 win after Tebow got knocked out (literally) in the 3rd quarter. He was able to walk off the field, but ended up being taken to the hospital in an ambulance and staying there for the night. I hear he'll be back and ready for LSU in two weeks (they're off next week). They'll need him too, LSU is looking like a solid team so far.

Arizona State @ Georgia - Did you know they weren't even showing this game on regular cable? You had to have ESPNU to watch it. Well, we worked it out so we could watch it, and I'm glad we did. It showed me a lot about my Sun Devils. The second half was great, especially the 2 minutes where ASU went from being down 14-3 to being up 14-17. Jarrell Holman's interception return for a touchdown was amazing! And I'm not just saying that because he's a Sun Devil. In the end, it was missed opportunities (and a missed field goal) that I think cost us the game, but I'm still glad I got to watch it. Look for a separate post about my favorite team's Saturday performance later today; I've got a lot more to say about ASU.

Miami @ Virginia Tech - I almost don't want to talk about this game, but you've got to give Virginia Tech credit. They ran all over the Hurricanes. It was embarrassing. It was one of those games that you just want to turn off, but you leave it on thinking that it just has to get better - it can't possibly get worse - but things never get better. From start to finish the Hurricanes looked terrible. I take that back... they came out of the locker room at half-time and put up a great TD drive that looked like they were ready to play, but it was just a facade. It was a rainy day (I think it was raining across the entire East Coast/Southeast - every game over there was rainy this week), and Miami could NOT tackle. It was worse than a High School football game. It was like they forgot how to tackle. I was pretty embarrassed, but watched till the end. Really I don't think Miami's that bad of a team, and I think they'll bounce back. It was just rough watching them go down 31-7 like that.

Real quickly - A few other disappointing games/upsets from this week:
South Carolina over #4 Mississippi 16-10 - Ole Miss couldn't get any offense going. It was rough to watch.
South Florida over #18 Florida St. 17-7 - S. Florida might actually be a good team. They sure looked like it against Florida St.
Iowa over #5 Penn State 21-10 - When I watched Iowa beat Arizona 2 weeks ago, I thought they looked good, but everyone said it was only because it was Arizona they were playing. But I was right.
Stanford over #24 Washington 34-14 - Maybe WA was only ranked because they beat USC on a USC off-night, but still, you shouldn't turn around and lose to Stanford. Maybe I only consider this an upset because it has Pac10 implications though.