1st Down- Week 10 Recap

Week 10 Recap

On the Money
Nick hit the nail on the head in last weeks 3rd down when he said Alabama-LSU will come down to which team makes the big plays on offense.  Going into the final drive it looked like that offense was LSU who out gained the 'Tide 435-331 yards and its surprise quarterback Zach Mettenberger who threw for a career high 298 yards and had one touchdown.  Despite that, it was Tide quarterback AJ McCarron who led his offense on a five play 72 yard, 0:43, game winning drive.  With all the great defense in the game, it came down to a couple of big offensive plays.

Biggest Surprise
Mississippi State- The loss to Alabama was expected but they way they got dominated by Texas A&M was not.  Johnny Manziel and the A&M offense torched what was supposed to be a solid Miss. St. defense for 693 total yards.  Clearly Mississippi State's ranking was a product of their soft early season schedule.

Florida Gators- It's reasonable to expect the Gators to suffer a bit of a hangover following their heartbreaking loss to Georgia last week.  What I didn't expect was for them to struggle so much against a Missouri team that had been beaten up by the other top teams in the SEC, and at the Swamp no less.  It took four, bad interceptions by Missouri's James Franklin, including one in the end zone on the final drive, for the Gators to hang on to the 14-7 win. 

Oregon's defense- This defense has been tauted all year as much improved from last season but facing arguably their toughest test of the season, the Ducks defense looked in over its head.  This team won't survive many games giving up 51 points.  This unit gave up 615 total yards, including 484 and five touchdowns through the air.  USC was able to push the Ducks front seven around most of the game and had it not been for an even worse Trojan defense, USC might have been able to establish a consistent rushing attached and taken control of the game.  The Ducks aren't going to put up 65 points on every team they face and will need to fix the leaks in the defense if they hope to make it to the BCS Championship.

Hat's Off
Kevin Sumlin- Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin is 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the SEC.  Not bad for a guy in his first year at A&M, which is in their first year in the SEC.  This team is off to a great start and has been surprisingly competitive in their inaugural season in the toughest conference in the nation.  A&M's only losses are a 3-point loss to Florida and a 5-point loss to LSU. 

Kenjon Barner- Barner had a career day against the Trojans, going for 321 rushing yards and five touchdowns as the Ducks, literally, ran away from what was supposed to be their biggest test of the season. 

Moving Forward
Going into November we were all looking at what was supposed to be a difficult final month for the Ducks. Looking at it now, it seems pretty manageable and pretty weak when it's held up to the microscope. The Ducks rolled USC this weekend giving the Trojans their third loss of the season.  Oregon have yet to face Cal (3-7), Stanford (7-2), OSU (7-1) and it's entirely possible that the best team they would have faced this season is a two loss Oregon State- assuming Oregon wins out (Stanford would get their third loss if Oregon wins out). Oregon State and Stanford play each other next Saturday, and it's not out of the relm of possibility that Oregon will end the regular season with a schedule that has no team with fewer than three losses.  Given their non-conference opponents, I'm not sure how favorably the computers are going to take this Ducks team.

Kinney vs. Kinney
Nick and I agreed on 14 of the 18 top 25 games played last weekend and were correct picking all but two of those 14- UT-TTech and SDSU-BSU. Of the four games we disagreed on (Clemson-Duke, MissSt-TA&M, Neb-MichSt. and WVU-TCU) Nick hit three of the four, missing only on Clemson-Duke... and should actually lose more than one point for picking Duke over Clemson (come on Nick!)

Week 10 Tally:
Nick- 15-3
Jeremy- 13-5

Season Tally:
Nick- 79-30 (.724)
*Jeremy- 64-27 (.703)
*no picks week 7

PICKS
#1 Alabama- 21, #5 LSU- 17
Roll Tide Roll!  Alabama took LSU's best shot but in the end, handed the Tigers their second loss of the season and kept it's BCS Championship homes alive with the win at Death Valley.
-Jeremy- Alabama, 20-16
-Nick- Roll Tide, 17-10

#2 Kansas State- 44, #24 Oklahoma State- 30
K-State keeps rolling despite losing Collin Klien late to injury.  A strong defensive effort and five Oklahoma State turnovers helped keep the Wildcats undefeated.
-Nick-K-State, 45-28
-Jeremy- K-State, 41-24

#3 Notre Dame- 29, Pitt-26 3OT
Luck of the Irish!  Notre Dame survives another overtime thriller against a Pitt team that gave them all they could handle. 
-Jeremy- Irish 31-13
-Nick-Irish, 31-10

#4 Oregon- 62, #17 USC- 51
3...2...1... GOOO!!  The Oregon Ducks continue to fly past opposing defenses with ease as they take care of the Trojans.
-Nick-Oregon, 52-45
-Jeremy- Oregon, 44-28

#6 Georgia- 37, Ole Miss- 10
Georgia seems to be hitting its stride at the right time and finally beat a team the way Georgia should be beating teams like Ole Miss.  After a rough outing a week ago against Florida, Aaron Murray lit up the Rebals for 384 yards and four touchdowns.
-Jeremy- UGA, 34-24
-Nick-Dawgs, 38-24

#7 Florida- 14, Missouri- 7
Florida needed some help from Mizzou quarterback James Franklin who threw four interceptions, including one on the last drive of the game.  The Gators survived a surprisingly close game at the Swamp.
-Nick-Florida 31-7
-Jeremy- Florida, 24-9

#10 Louisville- 45, Temple- 17
Louisville had one of its best wins of the season as they cruise past Temple.  Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater threw for 324 yards and five touchdowns as Louisville remains undefeated.
-Jeremy- Louisville, 30-17
-Nick- Louisville, 24-7

#11 Oregon State-36, Arizona State- 26
Oregon State rebounds this week with a win over Arizona State.  Cody Vaz seems to be the answer for the Beavers as he lead his team to victory after a 19-19 tie at halftime. 
-Nick- Oregon State, 31-17
-Jeremy- OSU, 24-23

#12 Oklahoma- 35, Iowa State-20
Oklahoma rebounded from their loss to Notre Dame and cruised past Iowa State.  The Sooners racked up 593 yards and held the Cyclones to 290. 
-Jeremy- Oklahoma 34-21
-Nick-Sooners, 45-28

#13 Clemson- 56, Duke- 20
What was that, Nick?  Duke over Clemson?  Not this week.  The Tigers were too much for the over matched Blue Devils. 
-Nick-Duke, 34-31
-Jeremy- Clemson, 44-31

#14 Stanford- 48, Colorado- 0
Ugh.  Colorado...
-Jeremy- Stanford, 34-17
-Nick-Stanford, 42-10

#15 Miss. St.- 13, #16 Texas A&M- 38
Johnny Manziel had a Man-sized performance against what was supposed to be a stout Miss. St. defense.
-Nick-Aggies, 31-27
-Jeremy- Miss. St., 31-30

#18 Texas Tech- 22, #23 Texas- 31
The Longhorns continue their up and down season with a big road win over Texas Tech.  That's three straight for Texas.
-Jeremy- TTech, 45-41
-Nick-Guns Up, 42-31

#19 Boise State-19, San Diego State- 21
Not on the smurf-turf?  Neither of us saw the Broncos losing at home to San Diego State?
-Nick- Boise State, 38-21
-Jeremy- Boise State, 34-10

#20 Nebraska- 28, Michigan State- 24
The Huskers stay in control of the B1G with their win over Michigan State.  It's entirely possible that they could face Indiana in the B1G Championship.   Yep, Indiana.  Thank you Jim Delany for providing us with the legends and leaders that is B1G Football...
-Jeremy- Michigan State, 21-20
-Nick-Nebraska, 28-21

#21 West Virginia- 38, TCU- 39 2OT
Good call, Nick.  That's three straight times I've picked West Virginia... and three straight losses.
-Nick-Frogs, 38-35
-Jeremy- West Virginia, 45-41

#22 Arizona- 10, UCLA- 66
Last week's voters must have meant UCLA #22 and not Arizona.  The Wildcats, after beating USC last week, seem to have forgotten that they had a game this weekend.  RichRod's boy's got steamrolled by a UCLA team that piled up 303 passing yards and 308 rushing yards. 
-Jeremy- UCLA, 38-35
-Nick-UCLA, 31-28

#25 Louisiana Tech- 51,  UTSA- 27
UTSA did its best to keep up with Louisiana Tech but the high flying Bulldogs were just too much for the Roadrunners.  UTSA was even at 14-14 with LaTech at the end of the first but the Bulldogs outscored the Roadrunners 37-13 over the final three quarters. 
-Nick-Louisiana Tech, 58-38
-Jeremy- Louisiana Tech, 54-28


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