In a game that featured two touchdowns by defensive linesmen, Texas bounced back to avoid losing to arch-rivals Oklahoma three years in a row. QB Case McCoy played the best game of his scattered Texas career, throwing two touchdown strikes in the 36-20 win at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, whilst running backs Jonathan Gray and Malcolm Brown each ran for more than a hundred yards.
After
coming close to losing to both Akron and UConn in recent weeks, Michigan’s unbeaten streak finally came
to an end on Saturday night, far later than anyone expected that the result of
this game would be known. It took four overtime periods and missed (or blocked)
field goals a plenty before Penn State
dropped the Wolverines to 5-1 on the season, sending Beaver Stadium into the
sort of victorious rapture we haven’t seen since the days of Joe Paterno. This
might’ve been Bill O’Brien’s first signature win with the rebounding/rebuilding
Nittany Lion program. For the Wolverines, it was a case of too many missed
opportunities. With that loss probably goes any thought the Big Ten had of
getting an undefeated Ohio State into the BCS National Championship Game.
They’ve
been close all year, and on Saturday night Utah
pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season, beating highly-fancied Stanford 27-21 after a dramatic
late-game stop by it’s defense, who stood up against the Cardinal passing
attack after Stanford QB Kevin Hogan had taken Stanford to the Utah 6-yard
line. From there, it was all the Utes. Hogan overthrew WR Devon Cajuste
on 4th down to preserve a famous victory in Salt Lake City, which
sent thousands of fans onto the surface of Rice-Eccles Stadium.
In their first game under interim head coach Ed Orgeron, USC made a series of big plays early,
and outlasted a fast-finishing Arizona
offense in the dying moments at the LA Memorial Coliseum to record a 38-31 win.
The Thursday night victory was easily their best offensive showing of the
season, even without All American WR Marqise Lee in the line-up. QB Cody
Kessler instead found WR Nelson Agholor seven times for 161 yards and a score.
Arizona’s late threat was perhaps more an indicator of USC’s limited depth than
anything else. The Trojans will be tested in that regard for the next few
years.
Business as usual for Oregon,
who were on Upset Alert in Seattle against the Washington Huskies, but instead scored an impressive 45-24 victory,
declaring themselves as the best team in the Pac-12 (more so after Stanford’s
alter loss) and as legitimate BCS National Championship contenders. Seeing game
action in the fourth quarter for the first time all year, Oregon QB Marcus
Mariota continued his hot start to the season, throwing for 366 yards and three
touchdowns, adding one more on the ground. But the most impressive performance
in this game was by the Oregon defense: they held the Husky offense to just 24
points. This unit will get more credit as the season draws on.
Homecoming in Fayetteville wasn’t the memorable occasion it
was supposed to be for Arkansas. Not
after Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina
Gamecocks had rolled through. DT Jadeveon Clowney returned, but was
overshadowed by QB Connor Shaw’s four touchdowns in the 52-7 rout, which was
South Carolina’s largest road victory under Steve Spurrier. The Gamecocks won
their fourth straight game after a loss to Georgia in early September. Arkansas
committed three turnovers and managed only seven first downs all game.
Whilst they didn’t come close to scoring 70 points or
rolling up 700 yards of offense, Baylor
left Manhattan, Kansas, site of their first road game of 2013, with a win in a
potential trap game against Kansas State,
in which they showed they can play a little defense, too. Indeed, it was a
last-gasp interception from DB Ahmad Dixon to snuff out the last Wildcat drive
of the game. The 35-25 score line was markedly different to the basketball-like
scores the Bears have been putting up this year, but one thing that remained
the same was the performance of QB Bryce Petty: he was excellent again, throwing
for 342 yards and three scores. 184 of those yards went to WR Tevin Reese.
After a slow start (they trailed into the fourth quarter),
leading to some very nervous fans inside Memorial Stadium, Clemson switched into gear and blew past Boston College 24-14, behind 334 passing yards from QB Tajh Boyd,
which were enough for him to become the school's all-time leader in passing
yards, surpassing former star Charlie Whitehurst. You wonder how much the
Tigers were looking ahead to their mega ACC showdown against Florida State next
weekend.
Wisconsin, even without star WR Jared Abbrederis, who
was injured in the second quarter, look pretty much unbeatable at home. Ask Northwestern, who led early on in the
first, and were blown away with 21 unanswered points, setting up a 35-6 win for
the Badgers. RB Melvin Gordon ripped off 172 yards and a touchdown whilst
rapidly-maturing QB Joel Stave threw for three scores as the Badgers gained
more than 500 yards of total offense against a Wildcat defense that seemed
unable to make big plays when it really mattered.
This is
more like it! An SEC defensive struggle in Baton Rouge! There were no
eye-popping offensive numbers between Florida
and LSU, and it was a throwback to
the league that used to be known for knock-down-drag-out trench battles. It was
so tough out there for offenses that none of the three men who threw passes
(two for Florida, and Zach Mettenberger for LSU) managed a touchdown pass in
the 17-6 LSU win, where the Tigers lent on their running game and a supposedly-vulnerable
defense en route to the win.
The
signature SEC victory that Missouri had
been waiting on for a season and a half finally happened. In between the hedges
at Sanford Stadium, the unbeaten Tigers won a football game and some respect
from the more established members of their conference, comprehensively handling
QB Aaron Murray and the Georgia
Bulldogs, who were guilty of four turnovers, to the tune of 41-26. It was a
bittersweet win for Missouri, whose QB James Franklin left the game in the
fourth quarter, and may be in doubt for a showdown with Florida next week.
Missouri are serious SEC title contenders at the moment, proving that last
year’s poor season was an aberration, brought on by a rash of injuries. This
was a good victory in a very tough place to go in and play well.
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