(10) Michigan State 34, (2) Ohio State 24
Pope Urban’s team proves to be the fraud we all thought they were. Thankfully the country isn’t subject to another Buckeyes blow-out in the National Championship game.
The loss breaks the Buckeyes 24 game winning streak under Meyer.
MSU started off hot and built a 17-0 lead thanks to two long TD throws by Connor Cook. Cook has come a long way in college. He looked poised and ready for the big moment in this game. The Buckeyes stormed back late in the second and through the third quarter. Braxton Miller made his best pitch for the Heisman trophy. Miller led the Buckeyes to 24 straight points. Miller combined for 243 yards and three touchdowns against the stout Spartans defense.
Sparty owned the fourth quarter. The total yards in the fourth quarter were 174-23 for MichiganState. MichiganState took the lead with just under 12 minutes to play when Cook found TE Josiah Price wind open from nine yards out. The Buckeyes had one more chance after Ryan Shazier deflected a punt. OhioState got the ball at the MSU 47. The Buckeyes went four and out. Braxton Miller was stopped on fourth and one. Jeremy Langford then sealed it with a 26 yard run with 2:16 to play.
Spartans came in with the number one defense in the Big 10 and with a chip on their shoulder according to comments made during the week by star CB Darqueze Dennard. Dennard backed up his words. He was fantastic and in our eyes has passed OhioState’s Bradley Roby at corner for the NFL draft.
(3) Auburn 59, (5) Missouri 42
Remember when the SEC snobs use to make fun of these games when the Big 12 or Boise would play them. Well now this is SEC football. Auburn does have that team of destiny feel to it. First was the prayer at Jordan-Hare and then the “Kick, Bama, Kick” game. The SEC claims that they should have their divine right to defend their title. They will get their chance as Auburn and FloridaState will square off for the title.
To the game, the Auburn running game is something special. Tre Mason rushed 45 times for 303 yards. Missouri strength is rushing the passer and that didn’t help them in a game where Auburn rarely passes. Missouri came into the game with a three man line. It was a disaster. The only time they stopped Auburn was when they stuffed the box and over committed to the run. Problem we saw was that Missouri didn’t seem to make any adjustments during the game. They came in with a bad game plan and stuck with it. Auburn is on the cutting edge of something new and taking full advantage that teams don’t know how to stop it. Gus Malzahn is playing a type of fast paced running attack that you expect many to try to emulate in the coming years. That includes the NFL.
Auburn rushed for 532 yards in the game. It’s hard to blame the Missouri offense. James Franklin threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns. The game was back and forth into the fourth quarter. Auburn led 45-42 going into the fourth. Auburn went on an 8 play 75 yard drive to go up by 10 with 11 minutes to go. Auburn’s defense then finally came up with some stops and put the game on ice.
The only thing worse than the defensive play in this game was announce team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson fawning over Auburn all game long. When did they become the Auburn announcers? It was disgusting!
Better not keep Auburn out of the national championship game. Did you see what happened last week to an Alabama fan?
We realize the State of Alabama loves Football even more than suppressing voter rights; after all, a crazed Crimson Tide fan recently fatally poisoned Auburn’s sacred Oak Trees.
But even we were mildly surprised when a woman shot and killed another woman in the YellowhammerState at a post-Iron Bowl House Party when she declared that the victim and her friends were not “Real Alabama Fans” because they were not upset enough after the Tide loss to Auburn.
Since any form of gun control appears dead on the keyboard in 2013 America, …. maybe we should start banning football, …. because:
“Guns don’t kill people, but Head Coaches who don’t assign the proper personnel for possible missed field goal returns that could be returned for Touchdowns do!”
(1)Florida State 45, (20) Duke 7
Biggest news of the week of course was that Jameis Winston was not going to face charges for sexual assault. The game was almost secondary. This game was close for the first half. Duke played inspired football in the first half and made the FSU offense look bad. They were hitting the FSU WR’s very hard and jarring the ball loose. Jameis Winston looked like a freshman for the first time all year. He was confused and made some poor decisions. Problem for the Blue Devils was their offense couldn’t do anything against the best defense in the country. Duke had only 94 total yards at the half. The Seminoles defense held Duke to 239 yards for the game and forced three turnovers. Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Pruitt deserves credit for the Seminoles being at the top of the nation in almost every defensive category.
Winston did get his act together in the second half and wound up throwing for 330 yards and three touchdowns. Duke’s David Cutcliffe correctly won the Walter Camp Coach of the Year honors this week.
(7) Stanford 38, (11) Arizona State 14
Stanford won the first contest easily. The Cardinal led 39-7 going into the fourth quarter.
So naturally we were shocked that ArizonaState was a field goal favorite in the return contest. We turned out to be correct. This had a very similar feel to the first contest. Stanford jumped out to a big lead early. The ASU defense looked lost in the first half. Stanford led 28-14 at the break. Sun Devils blew it in the third quarter. ASU had two long drives in the quarter. The first they blew a chip shot field goal and the second they were stopped at the Stanford one yard line.
Tyler Gaffney pounded the ASU defense with 133 yards and three touchdowns. Stanford made some big plays in the passing game as well. Cardinal QB Kevin Hogan completed only 12 passes but he threw for 277 yards.
(16) UCF 17, SMU 13
UCF had nothing to play for and it showed in another sloppy performance by the Knights. Last week they over came five turnovers to beat a poor South Florida team. This week they were playing in the coldest game in school history. Game time temperature was only 25 degrees in Dallas. Fewer than 1,000 fans attended the game. This is after SMU officials allowed anyone to attend for free. In the first half it didn’t look like the Knights wanted to be there. SMU was playing for a bowl game. SMU led 13-10 late in the third quarter when Knights QB Blake Bortles scrambled 15 yards for a touchdown. SMU was already without starting QB Garrett Gilbert. With 8:22 left in the fourth his replacement Neal Burcham was injured. That sealed their fate. There is no way a third string QB was going to come in cold and lead them to victory. UCF improves to 11-1 but beware, they aren’t playing their best football.
(17) Oklahoma 33, (6) Oklahoma State 24
OklahomaState had everything on the line, they were at home, they had the lead and they blew it! If the Cowboys had won they had an automatic BCS bid. Instead the Sooners have the bragging rights yet again in the Bedlam War. Bob Stoops is now 8-1 lifetime against Mike Gundy.
Ironically the best thing that could have happened to the Sooners was getting QB Trevor Knight injured. Blake Bell stepped in and led a game winning 66 yard drive to take the lead. The Cowboys had taken the lead 24-20 one a one yard run by Desmond Roland. The Sooners got the ball back 66 yards away from pay dirt but only 1:35 left in the game.
Bell went 5 of 8 for 58 yards including a seven yard strike to Jalen Saunders with 19 seconds to go. The play that could have saved the season for the Cowboys was a near interception by CB Jason Gilbert. Bell under threw WR Lacoltan Bester and Gilbert almost came up with the int. The Sooners would end the game with a fumble recovery for a touchdown. This one will hurt for a long time in Stillwater. Have to hand it to big game Bob Stoops. He manufactured a win with inferior talent. A punt return for a TD by Saunders and a fake field goal for a TD kept the Sooners in the game.
(9) Baylor 30, (25) Texas 10
This was the final game at Floyd Casey stadium for Baylor and it was one that they will remember for a long time. The reason is with the win combined with the OklahomaState loss they will be going to a BCS bowl game. Maybe more importantly they hope is a changing of the guard with recruits from Texas. Baylor is making a strong case under Art Brilies to get the prize recruits from the LoneStarState. This might be the biggest reason that Mack Brown needs to go at Texas. Texas no longer owns the state of Texas when it comes to recruiting. Texas A&M and Baylor have surpassed the Longhorns.
The weather conditions were poor and the first half was boring. Baylor took control of the game in the third quarter with 17 straight points. Bryce Petty threw two touchdown passes in the quarter. Petty has come down to earth late in the season but he was the much better QB on this day. Case McCoy was brutal. He threw 34 passes and had only 54 yards passing on the day. The win gives the Bears their first 11 win season in school history.
(23) Fresno State 24, Utah State 17
Could Fresno avoid the double let down of being knocked from the ranks of the unbeatens last week by San JoseState? They barely got by a gutty UtahState team that lost their starting QB and four starters on their offensive line to injury this year. The Aggies are a great story of perseverance. Dalen Jones intercepted Aggies QB Craig Harrison at the Fresno 17 with 58 seconds to go to preserve the win for Fresno. Harrison was in the game as the Aggies third string QB. The back-up Darell Garretson (Yes grandson of famous NBA referee), was injured early in the fourth quarter on a helmet to helmet hit by Jones.
Derek Carr provided just enough offense for the home team Bulldogs. Carr threw for 404 yards and three touchdown passes. The Bulldogs built a 24-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter before the Aggies rallied. Have to hand it to the Fresno defense that responded after giving up 62 points last week to San JoseState. They had eight sacks in the game.
Finally:
Steelers’ Coach Mike Tomlin has been fined $100,000.00 for his tap dancing feint on the sidelines last Thursday that distracted Jacoby Jones enough on a punt return that he failed to score.
NFL Commisioner Roger “Goody Two Shoes” Goodell was not pleased with the Rosey Ruiz inspired antics of the Pittsburgh Coach and has threatened even further action, including loss of Draft Picks.
The Commish has been very sensitive to bad publicity & cheating in the League he professes to Love, but not always forthcoming with the fans regarding what actually is going on.
Yes he seems to care about the Concussion/CTE Issue now, (at least to recognizing the fact that it will affect future Revenues) but he and his Henchmen went to great lengths to discredit the people who initially brought the health issue to light over more than a decade and we don’t see any apologies or responsibility regarding those issues coming to light anytime soon.
In “Spygate” Mr. Goodell went “Rosemary Woods” with all the taped evidence accrued by by Belichick & his trained deep cover operatives.
In “Bountygate” nobody really understood or had seen much of the actual evidence that was accumulated & used for the Generalissimo’s Draconian punitive measures that were handed down to Saints’ players and coaches.
In this case, the Commissioner has acted quickly & severely, and like the unassailable conclusions of “The Warren Commission” has pinned this heinous act totally on the shoulders of the Steelers’ Head Coach.
So we have no idea as to how this conclusion was reached, the extent of the investigation, the motives in this crime, and whether Coach Tomlin may have incorrectly been labelled a “Lone Gunman” or scapegoat patsy in this crime
1.) …. possibly he was working for a very wealthy but extremely poor Gambler who had the “Under” wagered on the Ravens/Steelers game,
2.) …. speculatively speaking, …..Coach Tomlin could have been a brainwashed Manchurian Candidate being controlled by some mysterious foreign clique ( likely with Kenyan birth certificates ) that is working to discredit American football to ultimately establish the Worlds’s Number One Team Sport “Futbol” more effectively into the lucrative American market, …. and at the same time turning everyone into radical Islamists, establishing Khrushchev Era Communism, Obamacare, Gay Marriage and forcing U.S. citizens into mandatory Military Service into United Nations black helicopter squadrons.
3.) …. or, …. he was executing plan “B,”…. when plan “A,”…. the sniper behind the stadium scoreboard, …. failed to execute his mission with long range tranquilizer darts due to sleeping in after watching back-to-back training assignment videos the night before, ….. “Two Minute Warning” and “The Package.”
