4 highly ranked teams (2 undefeated) win by a combined total of 12 points
Is anyone surprised that 4 ranked soccer teams, 3 of them highly ranked, won their games by a combined 12 points this week? It should come as no surprise that No. 1-ranked Oregon, third-ranked TCU, seventh-ranked Stanford, and 21st-ranked Nevada all battled long before finally prevailing.
The reason is simple: these 4 ranked teams only have a combined 5 wins against other currently ranked teams. In other words, their combined win-loss record is 39-2 BUT they haven’t played many competitive teams.
With the season winding down, they are now positioned against better competition and look much more vulnerable.
Take Oregon, the top ranked, for example. The Ducks ranked first in the nation in scoring offense (54+ ppg) and total offense (567+ ppg) and 13th in defensive scoring (17+ ppg) before facing California. The Bears, who were unranked in any major polls except Sagarin, which ranked California, a 5-4 team that has played the seventh-toughest schedule in the country, as the 24th-best team.
Oregon ultimately won this game 15-13 (a 2-point margin), but could have easily lost it as Bear’s 24-yard field goal late in the game was negated by an illegal movement penalty by the kicker, which failure. the 29-yard attempt on this second down. A successful kick would have given California a 16-15 lead that they could have held.
The Ducks scored 58 offensive touchdowns in their first 9 nine games and had 1 against California while posting their lowest point total in 10 years.
Can you beat Oregon? Despite the hype, of course the Ducks (10-0) can be beaten, and they still have to face Arizona and Oregon State in the state’s Civil War Game, a historically unpleasant game at best.
It could be argued that Oregon was lucky to win, and many fans, players and coaches would agree with you.
The third-place TCU Horned Frogs ranked first in scoring defense (8+ ppg) and total defense (215+ ypg), and eighth in scoring offense (41+ ppg) and total offense (492+ ypg ) before running into the unranked San Diego State Aztecs.
TCU’s impressive stats were mainly because they had played weak teams all year. Even last week’s 47-7 dismantling of then-undefeated sixth-ranked Utah looked far less impressive after Utah (now 8-2) was blown out this week by a hapless Notre Dame team 4-5, 28- 3.
is utah good? Are you kidding? The Utes’ unbeaten ride throughout the season was a fluke at best and a fraud at worst. Utah dropped from 6th in the standings to 15th last week to 25th this week. What’s next, a Utah loss to San Diego State next week?
TCU trailed by two touchdowns to San Diego State and was unable to take control of the game until late in the 4th quarter, holding off an Aztec charge to escape with a 40-35 victory (a 5-point margin).
All this talk about TCU being unstoppable and their defense being unstoppable is hogwash. TCU (11-0) has exactly one win over a currently ranked team this year, and it came against the imposter Utah Utes. ’nuff said.
The Horned Frogs’ final game is against a New Mexico team ranked 173rd out of 120 Division 1-A schools. There are 58 AA teams ranked ahead of New Mexico that could probably beat the Lobos any day of the week and twice on Saturday. New Mexico shouldn’t even be playing Division 1 this year.
All of this means that the TCU Horned Frogs will finish the season undefeated at 12-0 and whining if they don’t play in the national championship game.
Seventh-ranked Stanford Cardinal (9-1) nearly lost a fistfight with unranked Arizona State before winning 17-13 (a 4-point margin). Only Stanford’s defense and a long scoring drive in the fourth quarter saved the Cardinal from losing. The Sun Devils (now 4-6) played hard, leading 13-10 going into Stanford’s scoring drive.
Stanford still has to face California and Oregon State.
The Wolf Pack, ranked 21st out of Nevada, is high on offense and low on defense, and it showed itself against an unranked Fresno State team that came close to winning. Fresno State scored 10 points to take a 34-28 lead before Vai Taua’s 24-yard run put the Bulldogs out for good, 35-34 (a 1-point margin).
The Bulldogs put up 444 yards of offense to Nevada’s 416 yards, showing just how porous the Wolf Pack defense performs. When you give up 444 yards of offense and 34 points, you better have even better offense.
The bottom line is that the 4 unbeaten teams from last week are still unbeaten, but now they can clearly be beaten. Auburn and TCU are 11-0, Oregon is 10-0 and Boise State is 9-0.
Six ranked teams got off to slow starts before winning.
Baylor led 23rd-ranked Texas A&M 30-21 at the half, but the Aggies won, 42-30, holding the Bears scoreless in the second half. North Carolina led 16th-ranked Virginia Tech 10-9 at the half, but the Hokies rallied in the second half with 17 points while holding the Tar Heels scoreless to win, 26-10 . Kansas State gave a game to 20th-ranked Missouri, but lost in the end, 38-28.
Bo Pelini’s Nebraska Cornhuskers held Kansas to an 87-yard drive total as they won, 20-3. The Jayhawks got exactly 5 first downs and were sacked 6 times. Texas held 12th-ranked Oklahoma State to a 3-all tie after the first quarter, but the Cowboys scored 23 points in the second quarter and won 33-16.
Second ranked Auburn scored the opener and then saw Georgia drive 3 touchdowns before finally pulling away in the fourth quarter to win, 49-31. All week, Auburn and its star quarterback, Cam Newton, had taken a beating in the press with allegations of wrongdoing, but Newton, the Heisman favorite, took it all in stride.
Newton completed 12 of 15 passes for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns. More importantly, he rushed 30 times for 151 yards (5.0 yards per carry) and scored on runs of 1 and 31 yards. Onterio McCalebb added 3 short rush touchdowns. By winning against Georgia, Auburn becomes the SEC Western Division Champion and will face Eastern Division Champion South Carolina for the SEC championship and a spot in a BCS bowl game.
Seven other qualified teams posted victories by at least 20 points.
Really good wins included 4th-place Boise State on the road over Idaho 52-14, 5th-place LSU at home over Louisiana-Monroe 51-zip, 6th-place Wisconsin at home over Indiana 83-20, Ohio 8th-ranked State at home over Penn State 38-14, 11th-ranked Alabama at home over 17th-ranked Mississippi State 30-10, 14th-ranked Arkansas over UTEP 58-21, and 19th-ranked Oklahoma over Texas Tech, 45-7.
Among the 7 games, the one in Wisconsin was the most impressive. The Badgers’ 83 points scored were their best offensive performance in 95 years, the most points by a major school this season, tied for the highest scoring total in the Big Ten Conference since Ohio State’s 83-21 win over Iowa in 1950, and it was Wisconsin’s most points since an 85-zip win over Marquette in 1915.
Wisconsin’s Montee Bell rushed for 3 touchdowns in his first career start, James White rushed for 2 more, and Scott Tolzien threw for 3 touchdowns. The Badgers scored on all 12 of their possessions. Wisconsin up the score? Besides Indiana, who cares?
Penn State won the first half against Ohio State, 14-3, but the Buckeyes won the second half, 35-zip.
Five ranked teams were upset, costing virtually every one of them a higher-profile invite to a bowl game in the coming weeks. They included Iowa (now 7-3), Utah (8-2), Arizona (7-3), Florida (6-4) and Central Florida (7-3). All were outplayed by unranked teams except Florida.
Northwestern beat 13th ranked Iowa 21-17, Notre Dame beat 15th ranked Utah 28-3, Southern Cal beat 18th ranked Arizona 24-21, 22nd ranked South Carolina beat 24th ranked Florida 36- 14th, and South Mississippi beat 25th-ranked Central Florida 31-21.
The best upset came to South Carolina, as the Gamecocks (7-3 overall and 5-3 in the SEC) clinched the SEC East Division and snapped a 12-game losing streak to Florida.
Southern Cal’s win moved the Trojans back up in the AP poll at No. 20, and Miami’s 35-10 win over Georgia Tech gave them No. 24. To make room for these two returning Top 25 teams, Florida and Central Florida (UCF) were kicked out of the Survey.
By winning, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas A&M moved up the AP Poll, Southern California and Miami FL moved back up the Poll, and by losing Iowa, Mississippi State, Arizona and Utah all lost ground. significant.
No. 10 Michigan State and the unranked Washington Huskies were inactive this week.
Four unranked teams became bowl-eligible this week by winning: East Carolina, West Virginia, South Florida and Army.
Copyright © 2010 Ed Bagley