WOW! Well, folks, that was Shakeup Saturday! Courtesy of surprising (AKA shocking!) losses by No. 1 Kansas State and No. 2 Oregon, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, sensationally, are the lone unbeaten team - no one's counting ineligible Ohio State - should be No. 1 in the BCS rankings tomorrow, and now have the inside track to reach the BCS National Championship Game. Yet, Kansas State had that last week, and then Oregon had it momentarily tonight after K-State lost. All the ducks needed was an OT win vs. Stanford...but look what happened to them tonight...
Oregon vs. Stanford
In scenes eerily similar to a year ago, Oregon lost in sensational circumstances and, in the process, seemingly dropped out of the chance to play in the BCS National Championship Game.
Unlike last year, it wasn't the high-flying USC offense led by Barkley, Lee and Woods. This was a plucky, disciplined Stanford team who held the ultra-potent Oregon offense to just fourteen points. The Cardinal, thought to be Pac-12 no-hopers following the graduation of their superstar quarterback Andrew Luck, survived three turnovers and rode their fair slice of good luck all the way home, enabling another BCS shake-up on Jordan Williamson's 37-yard field goal in overtime. He'd missed a 43-yard attempt in the first quarter. That doesn't matter anymore, not now that Stanford are 17-14 victors.
Like the Ducks were stunned last year by USC by way of a missed field goal that would have taken the game to overtime, Oregon went one step further this year, but their kicker Alejandro Maldonado missed a forty-one yard attempt. Two years running for the kicker. Surely, he'll be haunted by these two games for as long as he lives.
Just like that, the 13-game - lucky thirteen? - win streak for Oregon is over, and the looks of utter shock and grief in the stands at Autzen Stadium told the story. Perhaps there had never been a better chance for the Ducks to win a National Championship, with those good SEC defenses out of the way, and Notre Dame not expected to figure in proceedings. It's all over now. Kenjon Barner was held to 66 yards (he averages 136) and the star running back, touted as a Heisman candidate, had good company. The ground game for Oregon collectively was quiet, notching only 98 yards (they average 325).
Down 14-7, Stanford came back, converting on a fourth-and-one at the
Oregon 12, made that, and then freshman QB Kevin Hogan - 211 yards
through the air, and 30 on the ground - and the tossed the all-important
game-tying score at the death, a 10-yard shot to Zach Ertz with 1:35 in
regulation. Yet it was not that simple. Ertz fought for control as he
fell to the artificial Autzen Stadium turf. The play, ruled incomplete on
the field, was reviewed and changed: Touchdown, Stanford. Cue a week
or two of debate on this one. I thought that the right call was made,
but there's two sides to every story.
If both Stanford and Oregon win in their final games next weekend - Oregon against Oregon State and Stanford against the resurgent UCLA - both teams will finish with one conference loss. That means Stanford, holder of the head-to-head decision, will go on to the Pac-12 championship for a chance to
play in the Rose Bowl. They need to beat UCLA twice in a row to be in Pasadena on New Year's Day.
You just can't make this drama up...
Baylor vs. Kansas State
For the first time since 2007 when LSU lost to Arkansas in triple OT and Missouri lost a week later to Oklahoma, the No. 1-ranked team in the BCS standings has fallen in consecutive weeks. And what a fall for Bill Snyder's Kansas State Wildcats, soundly beaten 52-24 by an unlikely Baylor Bears team. For K-State, the way seemed wide open, even easy, for a National Championship appearance. Beat Baylor and beat Texas Tech - two teams with zero defense, or so it seemed - and without a Big XII championship game these days, they would be there. Probably against Oregon or Notre Dame.
Not anymore. Further proof that nothing in this sport is easy. From somewhere, Baylor found defense and Art Briles' squad put the cleaners through a Wildcat team that didn't look like themselves. For starters, they gave up a whopping fifty two points, having not given up basically half that many all season. The defense that was such a cornerstone of this team crumbled. Aside from 52 points on the big board, the sturdy, even vaunted Wildcat defense let Baylor run up 580 yards and go 9-14 on third down. Granted, they were missing some good players, but lapses in judgement and dumb penalties that we haven't seen all year can't be easily explained away. Perhaps it was the pressure heaped on this team from within and without. Whatever the reason, Kansas State's quest for perfection and for the crystal football imploded in Waco, Texas, tonight. Baylor, like Texas A&M last week, became Giant Killers.
Baylor QB Nick Florence was wonderful: 20-32 for 240 yards and 2 TDs (with 2 INTs), driving the Bears offense so remarkably well against a defense that's been able to lock down on other powerful attacks - look at how they handled West Virginia and Oklahoma. Florence was ably supported by RB Lache Seastrunk who had 183 yards (9.6 yards per carry) and when he ripped off an 80-yard TD run, the game was as good as over. With that score, Baylor became the first team with a losing record to beat a No. 1-ranked team. Amazing!
How about that Baylor defense? Much maligned all year, giving up yards in great chunks and today they came up big, holding a potent K-State squad to 24 points and 362 yards. They also forced three turnovers. For the first time that I can remember, even last year during RGIII's run, the Baylor D backed up their potent offense. Of all the teams to have that happen against, Kansas State? It makes no sense. But...that's the great thing about college football. You just can't take anything for granted.
As big of an upset as Texas A&M getting Alabama or even Stanford getting Oregon tonight, this is the biggest of the season - and the biggest in some time. A team with a losing record, with no defense really worth mentioning, pulled it all together on primetime TV and threw even more chaos into the BCS mix. I guarantee you, Alabama, Georgia and Notre Dame loved every second of this.
For Art Briles, here is another signature win. He can point out to all the naysayers that this one happened without Robert Griffin III.
USC vs. UCLA
Maybe, just maybe, the football monopoly in Los Angeles is over. At least for the next three hundred and sixty five days, the Bruins of UCLA rather than the Trojans of USC can exercise bragging rights, for they are the victors in the annual Battle of Los Angeles, and a season that started out so full of hope and promise for the Men of Troy has come crashing down around them and, particularly, around their now-embattled head coach, Lane Kiffin. For USC fans - I am unashamedly one - this is a tough day. Not just because we lost to our cross-town rivals, but because any last semblance of hope of a Rose Bowl appearance on New Year's Day 2013 was well and truly extinguished.
While UCLA, with their 38-28 win, have secured their second-straight appearance in the second ever Pac-12 Championship Game, the Trojans will be left to return to the post-season in a lower-tier bowl, a giant fall from grace for a team ranked No. 1 in the preseason, and favoured by many to make the BCS National Championship Game. Now, the most likely Pac-12 team to play for the crystal football - and for undisuputed college football supremacy - will be Oregon.
Simply put, today the Trojans were not good enough. They started slowly, and looked unenthused about playing football - how you can be unenthused in the single biggest game of the season is beyond me, but I digress - allowing the Bruins to race to a 24-0 lead that was fuelled, mostly, by turnovers and horrible defense. The Trojans just didn't look motivated and the Bruins, likely remembering their 50-0 drubbing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last year, jumped all over them. The freshman QB Brett Hundley showed more of the poise that's helped UCLA open their season 8-2. As USC was renergised by Pete Carroll, UCLA has been energised by first-year head coach Jim Mora. Stand by for more washed-out NFL coaches turning up if the records of Carroll and then Mora are any indication.
At times, USC played some of the worst defense I've seen: disinterested and bored. The Monte Kiffin era has not been good for Southern California, and you get the sense that if Lane Kiffin isn't relieved of his duties at the end of this season, then his father might be. What worked well for the defensive guru in the NFL just hasn't translated to the college game, and USC has suffered. A friend at the game today texted me saying, "If USC had LSU's defense, they would be unstoppable." That's true. It would be scary-good thing - scary for opposing teams, good for USC supporters.
Yet the defense isn't soley to blame. There will be questions asked of the younger Kiffin, too. Lane's play-calling at various critical junctures of the game was...well, interesting to say the least. And the performance by Matt Barkley will be looked at harshly, too. His two turnovers gave UCLA a short field and allowed them to post critical points. In the end, the team with the better all-around performance won the game. Congratulations to UCLA. After last year's beat-down, this was an astute bounce-back effort by them. They deserved the win where USC did not. Simple as that -- unfortunately.
Michigan vs. Iowa
This Saturday's Ohio State - or, Ohio, if you're Brady Hoke - vs. Michigan game just got a whole lot more interesting. The Wolverines are coming off their best offensive performance of the season, with their 42-17 win over Iowa at the Big House, and although Denard Robinson returned to rush for 98 yards, it was some of the interesting formations that Brady Hoke put on the field, lining up Robinson at running back behind QB Devin Gardner, who looked impressive in his third consecutive start, toying with the defense at times.
It's true that Robinson, still troubled by a nerve injury sustained in the Nebraska game, didn't throw the football, but Ohio State's defensive coaching staff will have something new to game plan for in the coming week. There's a possibility now that Robinson, with another week to recover, will be in a position to make throws from the quarterback position, and that is a very dangerous, very interesting combination with Gardner. Although, you get the feeling that Robinson doing more than running the quarterback design run, or making a late pitch or one of those pretty cool triple reverse plays might not be on the horizon - maybe in time for a bowl game, who knows? - as ESPN's broadcast noted that Robinson carried the ball with the opposite hand to usual today. That's a sure sign that the elbow still isn't quite right.
Yet, it hasn't stunted Michigan offensively much at all. Not with fill-in Gardner playing lights-out over the last two weeks. It could have been absolute disaster for the Wolverines when Michigan went down, but the QB-turned-WR-turned-QB has been great. Especially today, when his strong arm and, particularly, his escapability were on prime display as the Wolverines scored touchdowns on their opening six possessions and Gardner had a hand in all of them - running for three and throwing for three. He became the first Michigan quarterback to account for six TDs in a game since
1983, when Steve Smith three and three in a game
at Minnesota.
The only blight on a positive Senior Day for a Michigan class - and, particularly it's defensive players - that had taken knock after knock under Rich Rodriguez, only to know redemption and victory under Brady Hoke, was the loss of RB Fitzgerald Toussaint. The starting tailback was tackled by two Hawkeyes and had his leg snapped between ankle and knee, and he was on the way to hospital for surgery before the first quarter ended. Hopefully this isn't the end for the talented running back, who has one season left of eligibility.
Quick Screens
Klein: no. Te'o: no. Barner: no. I have a feeling that Johnny Football himself, Texas A&M's electrifying freshman QB Johnny Manziel might be sitting pretty at the head of the Heisman Trophy race.
Late word from Southern California. QB Matt Barkley, who left the game late after taking a sack, appeared at the post-game press conference with his right shoulder hidden. Citing the team's non-disclosure of injuries, the senior signal caller didn't say much. One thing's for sure, without Barkley under centre, USC has no hope of beating Notre Dame next week. Boy, can the Trojans make a mess of their - other - arch rival's National Championship hopes with a win at the Coliseum next Saturday night!
Ohio State survived Wisconsin, winning 21-14 in OT to set up a mouth-watering showdown with Michigan next Saturday. It;s a pity that the school didn't voluntarily place a bowl ban on itself last season when the team was in limbo. Had they done that, they'd be right in the middle of the National Championship hunt. As it is, they're mostly forgotten nationally. And Michigan can wreck it all for them next week.
Boise State found some offense, scoring 35 points in a ruthless first half to oust the hapless Colorado State Rams 42-14 in Boise, posting 502 total yards of offense in the process. This still doesn't quite have the same feel as those great BSU teams led by Kellen Moore and that great defense, but they appear to be getting there.
Close but no cigar for West Virginia, whose losing streak continues. It's at 5 now, and the Mountaineers still aren't Bowl eligible after being 5-0. It's quite an unbelievable fall for Dana Holgerson's team, and it's basically all on what has to be one of the worst defenses in the country. Oklahoma QB Landry Jones threw for 554 yards and 6 TDs, including the game-winner to Kenny Stills with 0:24 to play for a 50-49 win. I wonder if Holgerson's in any trouble in Morgantown?
No comments:
Post a Comment