NCAA Football 2013: Week 6 Recap

Everything you need to know about some of the big games from Week 6 of the 2013 NCAA Football season, right here. 

Ohio State at Northwestern 

This one was a tale of two halves. Northwestern were all over Ohio State in the first half, playing with passion and energy. Ryan Field was up and about, and it didn’t seem that the Buckeyes were even aware there was a game going on. Their offense took until the early stages of the third quarter to score a touchdown – the prior OSU score had been a blocked punt touchdown, and added a defensive score at the game’s death – and with that first end zone trip for the offense, Urban Meyer’s men seemed to wake up. Braxton Miller had been indifferent and bordering on bad in the first half.

In the second, thanks to RB Carlos Hyde (a career day for the tailback, going 168 yards and three second half touchdowns and 40 receiving yards) both running the ball and as a very handy safety valve for Miller in the passing game, Ohio State came alive, and dominated the game offensively. There was little that Northwestern could do to stop them.

Concurrently, Northwestern moved the ball well throughout, but ground to a halt in the red zone too many times, settling for field goals on three occasions in lieu of being able to get the football into the end zone for six. It’s tough as an underdog to beat a Top 5-ranked team when you leave so many points on the field. In a game that ends 40-30, you can see where the Wildcats lost the game.

Once more, the Buckeye secondary was shown to be fragile. The Northwestern twin quarterback threat of Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian did what Wisconsin’s Joel Stave did last week, in making big plays.  They combined for 349 pass yards. Bradley Robey and his colleagues hadn’t had a particularly good couple of weeks. That porous secondary has to be the number one concern for Meyer and his coaching staff.

For Northwestern, the old saying ‘so close yet so far’ applies. As with a number of occasions last season, the Wildcats were leading in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t close it out. A tough blow for Pat Fitzgerald’s team in what was being called the biggest game in recent school history, not a stretch with ESPN’s GameDay on campus, too. Unfortunately, it’s back to the drawing board for the Wildcats. For Ohio State, the march to perhaps a season-defining tilt with Michigan in November continues in earnest. At the end of the day, Urban Meyer hasn’t lost a game as coach of Ohio State. 

Minnesota at Michigan 

The Little Brown Jug remains in Ann Arbor for another year after the Wolverines – looking a whole lot better than in their last two barely-won outings against sub-par opposition in Akron and Connecticut – capitalised on a dominant second half to get over the top of the Gophers 42-13. Just as well the defense played well in the first half, because Michigan seemed to be playing as they had in the last two weeks, with little offensive output. QB Devin Gardner just did not look good, coming of twin performances where he’s looked anything but the same signal caller who was so impressive beating Notre Dame in the Big House.

Rumour has it that Brady Hoke gave his team a serious blast in the locker room during the half time break, and it must’ve worked, because the Wolverines came out with far more purpose in the second thirty, getting points via their lumbering tight end, Devin Funchess, who caught 7 balls for 151 yards and a touchdown. Even so, a lot of Gardner’s throws were off the mark, forcing his receivers to break stride and adjust to make the catch. The key stat, though, is that Gardner didn’t turn the football over. The scoring was capped by a 72-yard Pick-6 touchdown return for Blake Countess (his fourth INT of the season) inside two minutes to play. Michigan need to get better still as they wade into Big Ten play, but this was a much improved performance, and they are still undefeated.

On the other sideline, Minnesota – the Gophers were without their head coach Jerry Kill who suffered another seizure and was resting at home – looks to have found it’s quarterback, with Mitch Leidner showing poise in the pocket and nice moves when running the football after the Gophers played disastrously against Iowa last week.  At 0-2 in the Big Ten, it’s probably too little too late for this year. 

Texas at Iowa State 

Mack Brown survives another week at Texas, but not without a giant assist from the Big XII officiating crew who quite clearly have lost their minds, as the Longhorns managed a 31-30 victory in Ames, but only because of a howler of a call from the video officials, who failed to give the football to the Cyclones after Texas RB Jonathan Gray had fumbled and incorrectly, been ruled down as he was stripped on his way into the end zone.

Had the instant replay people done their job, Iowa State would have been given the football back. Just how the crew who have access to an exhaustive amount of replays that can be slowed down to something approaching snail’s pace got this wrong is beyond me.

I could see it on the replay – the football was out before Gray was down, and it was in the hands of an Iowa defender. That’s fine: you give a pass to the on-field crew who have a lot to monitor and control during the course of any given play, and particularly when the game is on the line in the shadows of the end zone, but the instant replay crew exist for that very reason. They are the ones who are supposed to make sure that any contentious on-field decision is made right. In this case, it wasn’t. It was a terrible call and all those thinly-veiled suggestions that the Big XII is rigged for the Longhorns are bound to become a bit louder this week. Or maybe a lot louder. For Iowa State, it’s a heartbreaker that can’t be easy to digest.

As far as the game goes, Texas only just survived with their backup QB Case McCoy in for David Ash and their running game. Word leaked out in the post-match that Ash would not be available next week against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. You’d take the Sooners as favourite in the Red River Rivalry. If Texas don’t win – and it’ll be tough against an OU team that’s caught fire recently – it might be the end of Mack Brown’s reign. It would be his third straight loss against Texas’ biggest rivals.

It’s a shame that the game was decided not by what happened on the field but by the officials upstairs. 

Georgia at Tennessee 

A week after a back and forth battle against LSU, the Georgia Bulldogs found themselves in a similar contest, against unranked and unheralded Tennessee. It took a thrilling last-minute drive, on which QB Aaron Murray found WR Rantavious Wooten for two yards, tying the game 31-31 with 0:05 to play.

Then, OT and a heartbreaking play for Tennessee on their only possession, where Tennessee's Alton 'Howard lost control of the football in a dive towards the end zone. It was ruled a touchdown on the field, but turned over by the video review officials – to the screams of Iowa State fans everywhere – who ruled that he’d fumbled before breaking the plane of the goal line, resulting in a touchback.

A few plays later, as Neyland Stadium struggled to recover from the events that had turned seven Tennessee points into nothing but agony, Georgia’s Marshall Morgan kicked a 42-yard field goal to give Georgia a 34-31 (OT) triumph. Ominously for the Bulldogs, RB Keith Marshall injured his right knee in the first quarter, a week after RB Todd Gurley missed most of the LSU game. Murray was without TE Michael Bennett and WR Justin Scott-Wesley, too; both players were injured and left the field.

Heartbreak for Tennessee and another step towards the SEC Championship for Georgia. 

West Virginia at Baylor 

It was 56-14 in favour of Baylor at half time, and I’m sure that so many people turned off their TV sets after that. It was 66-21 at three-quarter time, and Baylor’s QB Bryce Petty (17-25 for 347 yards and two touchdowns) came out of the game. That disappearance was preceded by the disappearance of any sort of spark by about a quarter and a half.

An absolutely putrid effort from West Virginia, giving up 839 yards to Baylor along with a lazy 83 points. Dana Holgorsen was in trouble after the Mountaineers lost to Maryland two weeks ago, but probably redeemed himself – to a point, at least – after beating Oklahoma State last week, which was quite the upset, but he’s taken about twelve steps backward with this week’s effort.

I know WVU isn’t exactly a defensive powerhouse, but they gave up more than 600 yards and 56 points in one half of football. One half! There’s no excuse for that. You’d have to imagine that at least one coach on the defensive side will be scapegoated this week. That’s if Holgorsen himself doesn’t get the chop. Former Mountaineer QB Pat White is unhappy and said so publicly. You wonder how many others are feeling the same way. The less said about the performance of the Mountaineers today, the better.

Because the real story from this match-up is Baylor. Are they the best in the Big XII? Maybe. Sure, they’ve played only mediocre opposition, but they are scoring points like it’s going out of fashion – their total of 73 today is the biggest on the season for the Bears, who haven’t scored less than 69. It’s a juggernaut.

443 of Baylor’s total 839 yards came on the ground, with Heisman candidate Lache Seastrunk cashing in with 172 yards and two scores, so can you imagine what they might do to a team as susceptible to the run as Texas is. They might put 100 on Kansas. Offensively, this is a very scary football team. 

Good luck stopping them.