#1 Alabama 38, #13 LSU 17
LSU gave
Alabama everything they had in the first half but as the game wore on it became
clear that Alabama was simply a better team and deserving of their No. 1
ranking.
Jeremy’s pick- Alabama, 27-20
Nick’s pick- Alabama, 31-21
#2 FSU 59, Wake Forest 3
Star
quarterback Jameis Winston and the offense sputtered a little against Wake, but
the Seminoles defense picked up the slack, stuffing the Deacons forcing seven
turnovers and scoring two touchdowns of their own.
Jeremy’s pick- FSU, 44-17
Nick’s pick- FSU, 48-10
#3 Oregon 20, #5 Stanford 26
Stanford
grounded the Ducks high-powered attack and completely dominated Oregon for 55
minutes. The Ducks made a late
rally but for the second straight year had their BCS Title hopes shattered by
the Cardinal.
Jeremy’s
pick- Oregon, 27-17
Nick’s pick-
Oregon, 31-28
#4 Ohio State, IDLE
Next game,
11/16 @ Illinois
#6 Baylor 41, #10 Oklahoma 12
Surely
Oklahoma will take care of business, restore order in the Big 12 and put Baylor
back in their place. Or not.
Jeremy’s
pick- Oklahoma, 37-34
Nick’s pick-
Oklahoma, 45-44
#7 Clemson, IDLE
Next game,
11/14 (Thursday) vs. Georgia Tech
#8 Missouri 48, Kentucky 17
Everyone
else in the SEC treats Kentucky this way, why not Missouri? The Tigers took another step closer to
a birth in the SEC Championship with this win.
Jeremy’s pick- Missouri, 35-20
Jeremy’s pick- Missouri, 41-28
#9 Auburn 55, Tennessee 23
I had to
talk myself out of taking Tennessee… Whew! Auburn continues to get better and better and their annual
showdown with Alabama in the Iron Bowl is gaining steam.
Jeremy’s pick- Auburn, 34-31
Nick’s pick- Auburn, 38-31
#11 Miami 24, Virginia Tech 42
Miami was
either going to shake off last week’s loss to Florida State and make a
statement against VaTech or implode.
They imploded. In a rainy,
messy game Virginia Tech took whatever was left of the Hurricanes and crushed
it.
Jeremy’s pick- Virginia Tech, 20-17
Nick’s pick-
Miami, 23-21
#12 South Carolina, IDLE
Next game,
11/16 vs. Florida
#14 Oklahoma State 42, Kansas 6
I think I
can see the KU students lining up for basketball tickets.
Jeremy’s pick- Ok St- 52-14
Nick’s pick- Oklahoma State, 63-20
#15 Texas A&M 51, Mississippi State
41
It what
might have been his last game in College Station, Johnny Manziel left a lasting
impression with 446 passing yards and five TD’s.
Jeremy’s pick- TAMU, 48-27
Nick’s pick- TAMU, 51-17
#16 Fresno State 48, Wyoming 10
Well, after
getting rid of their D coordinator two weeks ago after back-to-back 50+ point
games, the Pokes held Fresno to 48.
Too bad it was the offense that sputtered. The Pokes had been averaging 36.5 points per game but were
held to 10 points and less than 300 yards of offense by Fresno.
Jeremy’s pick- Fresno State, 45-41
Nick’s pick- Fresno State, 52-30
#17 Michigan State, IDLE
Next game,
11/16 @ Nebraska
#18 Northern Illinois, IDLE
Next game,
11/13 (Wednesday) vs. Ball State
#19 UCLA 31, Arizona 26
Arizona can
be a tough place to go in a get a win.
Credit UCLA for taking care of business and keeping ASU within striking
distance.
Jeremy’s pick- UCLA, 44-31
Nick’s pick- UCLA, 45-21
#20 Louisville 31, UCONN 10
31 points
against UCONN? Really
Louisville? Really?
Jeremy’s pick- Louisville, 41-10
Nick’s pick- Louisville, 48-7
#21 UCF 19, Houston 14
A surprising
defensive battle between two solid offensive teams. With the win, UCF takes sole possession of the American and
a BCS Bowl is within their reach.
Jeremy’s pick- UCF, 38-34
Nick’s pick- UCF, 40-31
#22 Arizona State 20, Utah 19
ASU survives
a trip to face a Utah team that plays on a whole other level at home.
Jeremy’s
pick- Utah, 31-30
Nick’s pick- Arizona State, 35-30
#23 Notre Dame 21, Pitt 28
I wasn’t
surprised to see Notre Dame struggle with a Pitt team that always gives the
Irish a game. I was surprised that
Notre Dame couldn’t hold off Pitt down the stretch. Whatever BCS dreams the Irish had just went up in smoke.
Jeremy’s
pick- Notre Dame, 31-24
Nick’s pick-
Notre Dame, 34-31
#24 Wisconsin 27, BYU 17
The Badgers
take care of a pesky BYU team as James White and Melvin Gordon combine for 233
rushing yards.
Jeremy’s pick- Wisconsin, 34-24
Nick’s pick- Wisconsin, 38-20
#25 Texas
Tech 26, Kansas State 49
What was
once a dream first season in Lubbock for Kliff Kingsbury has been turned on its
head as the former top ten team has lost three straight and is now out of the
ranking completely.
Jeremy’s pick- Kansas State, 31-27
Nick’s pick-
Texas Tech, 42-28
The Score-
Jeremy-
13/17
Nick- 12/17
Week 11 Winners
Florida State
The
Seminoles rolled to a 59-3 beat down on the road at Wake Forest, a place
they’ve struggled to win in recent seasons, in a game that saw their defense
force seven turnovers and score 14 points. More importantly however, was the loss Oregon suffered at
Stanford. If both FSU and Oregon
won out, the Seminoles would have been on the outside looking in in the BCS
Championship race. The Ducks loss
clears the way for the ‘Noles as long as they take care of business the rest of
the way.
Duke
Last week
Duke became bowl eligible for the second year in a row, something that has
never happened for the Blue Devils.
On Saturday, Duke collected their seventh win of the season and improved
to 3-2 in conference play. This is
important because with Miami’s loss over the weekend to Virginia Tech, Duke,
who beat VaTech a few weeks ago, now has a clear shot at winning the ACC
Coastal. Georgia Tech is currently
in first place in the division and has a win over Duke but the Yellow Jackets
travel to Clemson this weekend and a loss would put control of the division in
Duke’s hands. The Blue Devil fans
were calling on FSU after the win over NC State. They might get their shot.
Baylor
The Bears
have been in the national conversation and have gained a little bit more
momentum each week but after an impressive win over Oklahoma over the weekend,
Baylor now finds itself in the thick of the BCS Championship race. They still need a break or two from the
teams ahead of them (Alabama, FSU and Ohio State) and they have road games at
Oklahoma State and TCU before their season finale against Texas but this win
was a statement from the Bears that the Big 12 goes through Waco.
UCF
UCF has
quietly put together a 7-1 record and took control of the AAC over the weekend
with their win over Houston. The
Knights only loss is a three point loss against South Carolina and they have
solid road wins over Penn State and Louisville. With four games left, UCF is in the BCS mix.
Texas
We have
already covered the big winners from the weekend so how about some abstract
ones. The Longhorns got some help toward a Big 12 championship with the loss of
OU on Thursday night. I know Baylor and Texas meet up and control their own destinies
for the championship, but the way Baylor beat down the Sooners have to make the
Longhorns feel like they can beat Baylor the way they beat the Sooners.
Thursday Night Football
Can anyone
remember a bigger Thursday night of action? This was huge it reminded me of the
day when Virginia Tech was the only national power that wanted to play on
Thursday night. I know one of the games ended up being a blowout, but the other
was dominated for 50 minutes and got interesting in the end. I just love when
there are big matchups on Thursday nights. Let’s see some more of these conference
commissioners.
Losers
The Pac-12
My name is
Jeremy and I am a Pac-12 hater.
Okay, that might be a little extreme but for a conference that
continually screams for respect and likens itself to the SEC, the Pac-12 suffered
a pretty major loss on Thursday night.
The conferences only shot at a BCS contender went down in flames and
looked pretty bad in the process.
Forget the last five minutes of the game; the Ducks were completely
grounded against a physical, aggressive Stanford team that ran the ball right
down Oregon’s throat and stuffed Mariota and the Oregon offense. Now, the favorite to win the conference
(Stanford) has a loss to a Utah team that will likely be staying home for bowl
season. The favorites in the South
are UCLA, who got ripped by Stanford and Oregon, ASU, who snuck out of Utah by
the skin of their teeth, needed some officiating help to beat Wisconsin and
lost to a very average Notre Dame team.
Oh, and USC.
There are
some good teams in this conference, no doubt, but if they want the respect they
keep clamoring for they need to put a team in the BCS Championship game. Until then, shut up and play football.
Oregon
The nation
has been wrapped up in Oregon love all season. No one looks the
part more than the Ducks. They
play an exciting brand of football, they blow out most of their opponents,
they’re flashy and they create a lot of great hype. But, at the end of the day physical will always beat finesse
and until the Ducks can physically dominate teams they’ll never register in the
eyes of college football the way the teams that play the part do. For
a team that’s been shoved down the nation’s throat as the top contender, the
Ducks were exposed against a bigger, stronger, more physical football
team.
Oregon’s
season is certainly not over and a Rose Bowl birth is still attainable with
some help. However, any shot at a
BCS Championship died on Thursday and given what Stanford did to the Ducks, I’m
not sure we would want to witness what Alabama would have done to them.
Ohio State
Some of you
might be questioning this because an undefeated lost in front of the Bucks, but
hear me out. Even though Oregon lost and took one more unleapable hurdle out of
the way for a path to the NC title game, the Buckeyes are still getting to no
respect from the humans or computers in the BCS formula. Ohio State also now
has to worry about Baylor, because if it goes undefeated I think will jump the
Buckeyes for a national title appearance. Think about this Ohio State could be
on a 25-game winning streak and still get shut out of the national title game.
Here is a hint for you next year when the humans are picking if you are one of
the four best teams in the country Ohio State. Try scheduling someone beside
directional Michigan’s for your first four games.
Oklahoma
Big Game Bob
no more in Norman. How many of these big hyped games have Stoops and the
Sooners won in recent years? This team seems to be fine taking down the bottom
half of the Big 12, but when it comes to the big games that have conference
title implications the Sooners are no where to be found. The Sooner offense
looked woeful on Thursday night and its highly touted defense was gashed by a
quick Baylor offense.
Wyoming
Hey, Nick
and I are both Wyoming boys so it’s relevant to us. I didn’t think they had a great shot at Fresno but the
offense is explosive and in Laramie, you never know. Fresno snuffed that out and with it, any real shot at a bowl
game in Wyoming. The Pokes are now
4-5 with remaining games at Boise, home against Hawaii and at Utah State. I’m not sure I see two wins there for
this team.
I have to
echo Jeremy a little bit here and not to beat a dead horse, but this Wyoming
defense is about as bad as it gets. It has allowed 151 points in the last three
games. I will give it some what of a pass on the last two games as Fresno State
and San Jose State have great offenses, but it allowed 50-plus points to rival
Colorado State, which quickly erased the four-straight Boarder War wins. Back to
the Fresno State game Wyoming came out gang busters to a 10 point advantage,
but when its offense was slowed early in the second quarter, no adjustments
were made and it did not score again. Enough about my woe’s as a Wyoming fan
and finally, no to all the UW fans that are calling for Dave Christensen’s job.
I understand the frustrations, but the talent level has greatly increased over
the past five years, Christensen just needs to figure out how to translate that
into wins. Player development, player development, player development.
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