Here’s how the Top Ten fared last week:
- Ohio State Buckyes – Defeated Indiana 34-27 in Bloomington, Indiana: Over 100 penalty yards,
three turnovers, 13 first downs & only 2 of 13 on 3rd down typically get a team beat, especially on the road against an undefeated team with the nation’s top rusher. The difference is that the Ohio State Buckeyes have Ezekiel Elliott who firmly planted himself smack dab in the middle of the Heisman race with his 274-yard, 3 touchdown performance basically give Ohio State the big road victory. Yeah Cardale Jones have almost 250 passing yards in the game but that statistic is very misleading as Jones had as bad of a game as possible and his team still get the win. Hopefully, the worst is behind the Buckeyes but unfortunately the schedule won’t force them to be much better in order to be undefeated when Michigan State stumbles into Columbus on November 21st. - Michigan State Spartans – Defeated Purdue 24-21 in East Lansing, Michigan: It was the tale of two
halves for the Spartans on Saturday afternoon when they looked very good in the first half jumping out to a 21-0 lead. Then in the second half, the Michigan State Spartans who have cable trotted out onto the field and accumulated only 11 yards of total offense, kicked a field goal & squeaked out a three point victory over lowly Purdue. Spartan quarterback Connor Cook, who has looked pretty good this season thus far, looked terrible in the second half and should have thrown about five interceptions in the ball game but it was Purdue. After watching a good bit of this game on replay, I stand firmly that if Purdue had not turned the ball over three times, they would have won this game, but they are Purdue. Michigan State dodged a bullet on Saturday. - Ole Miss Rebels – Lost 38-10 v. Florida Gators in Gainesville, Florida: This game was never a game.
The Gators came out of the gate with their hair on fire and took a 25-0 lead into halftime. Gators quarterback Will Grier, who battled the flu all week, should have the flu more often because he looked like a league MVP with his 4 touchdown performance. The Gators have had a good defense for years but the offense is what has floundered the last couple. So far in 2015, the Florida defense is one of the nastiest that I’ve seen especially when given a lead late in the game. Florida made Ole Miss, the media darling for the last two weeks, look putrid offensively and they forced 4 turnovers including three fumbles. This was a 35-point lead for the Gators late in the 4th quarter and it will be back to the drawing board for the Rebels. - TCU Horned Frogs – Defeated Texas 50-7 in Fort Worth, Texas: Many of us saw this coming but we
didn’t want to admit it. If people unaffiliated with either team felt that way, how do you think Texas Longhorns fans feel now after a 43 point beatdown at the hands of a team that you refused to schedule for the better part of a half century who also scheduled you for their Homecoming. Ouch. TCU could have scored 100 points if they really wanted to but thankfully they showed some mercy; some. It was 30-0 at the end of the first quarter which included 3 touchdown passes from Heisman hopeful quarterback Trevone Boykin who finished the game with 384 total yards of offense and 5 touchdown passes. It’s imperative that I reiterate that TCU could have named their score in this game. The difference in the quality of the two teams was that distant. - Baylor Bears – Defeated Texas Tech 65-35 in Arlington, Texas: While the Horned Frogs were running
over Texas in Amon G. Gardner Stadium, the Baylor Bears were looking to make a statement of their own 25 minutes down the road at AT&T Stadium, aka Jerry World against the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. When the first quarter ended, the 56,000 people in the stadium finally got to exhale as the Bears led 28-14 on their way to a 30-point victory. Baylor quarterback Seth Russell didn’t wow anybody but he was efficient and tossed 4 touchdown passes but the real story was Bears running back Shock Linwood, who no one is talking about, and his 221 yards and 2 touchdowns on only 20 carries. The way this offense can throw the ball and the fact that they can run the ball as well as they can make the Baylor Bears very dangerous. - Notre Dame Fighting Irish – Lost 22-24 v. Clemson in Clemson, South Carolina: Hurricane Joaquin and the effects were very apparent in Saturday night’s showdown in Death Valley when the Clemson
Tigers held on to beat the Fighting Irish. Clemson took a 21-3 lead into the 4th quarter and looked like they were going to coast to an easy victory. Give credit to Notre Dame for fighting back and making a game out of it after not having much success offensively for the first three quarters. Notre Dame scored three touchdowns in the final stanza but in my opinion, panicked on the first one when they went for two and failed. Had they just kicked, they wouldn’t have needed a two point conversion with :07 seconds remaining to force overtime. But they did and they didn’t convert even though they had the perfect play called for the situation. Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer grew up a lot during this game. - UCLA Bruins – Lost 23-38 v. Arizona State in Pasadena, California: This was a classic trap game where the highly ranked and undefeated team just won a big road game in going away fashion and then
returned home to face a reeling unranked team before another big road game against a ranked opponent. The Bruins allowed 192 rushing yards and were held to only 62 rushing yards after rushing for 6 touchdowns the previous week. The Arizona State Sun Devils were expected to be pretty good this season but it’s taken them two losses to Texas A&M & USC for them to wake up and start playing up to expectations. UCLA did show some fight early in the fourth quarter and cut the lead down to four points but that’s when Arizona State stepped on the gas again on their way to the 15-point victory. - Georgia Bulldogs – Lost 10-38 v. Alabama in Athens, Georgia: Oh boy, most fans in the SEC have had their eyes on this one since it appeared on the schedule this time last season and when it arrived, some of us
needed to avert our eyes because it was ugly. The Bulldogs began the day on a sour note when they all ran over to bounce up and down in the face of the Alabama players as they ran onto the field for pregame warmups. They shouldn’t have done that. This thing was over in the second quarter when the Tide scored on a long rushing touchdown by Derrick Henry, blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone and then scored on a long play action pass play for a touchdown after a Georgia turnover. It was 24-3 at halftime and any glimmer of a comeback ended with Georgia quarterback Bryce Ramsey’s first pass attempt of the game when it was intercepted and returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Alabama safety Eddie Jackson. - LSU Tigers – Defeated Eastern Michigan 44-22 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: They should go ahead and change the name of the team from the Louisiana State University Tigers to the Louisiana State University
Leonard Fournettes because at this point it is literally him and a bunch of guys who aren’t very good. This was a 6-point ballgame at halftime and Eastern Michigan had the box stacked to stop Fournette which turned out to be a fleeting attempt as he reached the 200-yard plateau for the third straight game. Fournette is so good that we tend to ignore just how bad some of his teammates are playing. LSU quarterback Brandon Harris completed only 4 passes and his receivers didn’t help him as they were dropping balls left and right. LSU will have to play way better than they did on Saturday if they plan on staying undefeated. - Utah Utes – BYE WEEK
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