Week 8 Postlude

Not a whole lot to report this week. The weekend had a lot of close calls, but there was only one cigar to be had for the underdogs against the top 10. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet and fairly routine work for the top teams.

Florida State over North Carolina

I just wanted to point out that I used an absolutely ridiculous method for picking this game, and I was kind of hoping I was going to be wrong. No such luck. As much as I enjoy being right, I get squeamish when poor decision-making processes are reinforced.

Clemson over Miami

Some might say that this result cleared up the ACC Coastal race. I contend that there are still 5 weeks of Coastal race left, and I'm sure that this thing is going to get all jumbled up again. A lot of things can be said by people making fun of this conference, but you will never hear anyone call it boring. For Clemson, it was decided validation that they are still a player in their conference. For Miami, it was a reminder that they are not all the way back yet.

Alabama over Tennessee

As I have said before, the only concerns I have about Alabama are in regard to their depth, and the possibility that they may not have enough of it. Honestly, from what little I could tell, Tennessee's defense matches up pretty well against the style of offense Alabama plays, so it's hard to tell if the Tide was struggling because of real problems, or if they just ran into a problem of running directly into another team's strength—a team, I might add, who is one of their major rivals and was very fired up for this game. Any rivalry win is a good win in this game, so I will not attempt to make additional conclusions from this game. From this point on, however, I will start.

Florida over Mississippi State

I was at a beer-tasting event while this was happening, so I'm not entirely sure how this game went down. What I do know is that the Bulldogs have had a very stout defense for the last few years, so it was not surprising that they could keep the Gators under wraps for most of the game. And MSU has had a terrible, terrible offense for even longer, so it's no surprise that it was their downfall.

I did, however, see the fumble that was not a fumble and, in my estimation, it was likely a fumble. But the video evidence was not conclusive, and it must be conclusive to overturn a call on the field. If there was a camera right along the goal line (which is usually only there during goal line plays), then they would have had something conclusive. They didn't, so there was no way to honestly tell whether it was a fumble or not.

Though it should be said, I think that is one of those calls where the "right" call depends largely on who you are rooting for. It was, at best, iffy. For an impartial observer (which we all sincerely hope the referees are), you have to either say that you don't know for sure, or (as a referee would need to do) just make your best guess and run with it.

Texas over Missouri

This game got more hype than necessary. Texas wasn't great on offense last week, but they also had a very good defense on the other side of the field trying to stop them. Missouri does not have Oklahoma's defense.

Texas A&M over Texas Tech

On the other hand, rumors of Texas A&M's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Did not expect to see the Aggies show much against the Red Raiders, but they were wearing their butt-kicking boots on Saturday. It's surprises like this that really make this part of the year so worthwhile. And frustrating, depending upon your point of view.

TCU over BYU

I was expecting this to be a much closer game. It seems that TCU is better than I had thought. Or maybe BYU isn't as good as everyone else thought. But considering that TCU went on the road to beat a pretty good conference rival... well, I think we can say that they are every bit the real deal.

Penn State over Michigan

A lot of people (yours truly included) pegged this as a potential upset. Oops. Looks like Michigan still has a lot of work to do. Penn State, however, is pretty good, and they showed that they are still among the conference elite. They have one more week of tuneup before Ohio State, but they definitely look like they are ready to stay in the conference hunt.

Iowa over Michigan State

Of course, Penn State needs some help here, because Iowa just keeps finding ways to win. Unbelievable. I don't know how they keep doing it, but they keep doing it. They may not be overpowering, but they find the cracks and slide through them any way they can. Darned impressive stuff.

On the other side of this score, teams had better not fall asleep on Michigan State. They are always in the game, they just can't seem to finish it. But other teams had better beware, because they have been just one break away from a season-defining win a few times. Did you hear that Penn State?

Ohio State over Minnesota

In a smaller item in the Big Ten story, it's hard to say that we learned anything from the Ohio State win over Minnesota. Ohio State won convincingly, but Minnesota was working pretty hard to lose the game, too: dropped passes, turnovers, and penalties galore. To say nothing of Eric Decker's ankle/foot injury, which really gouged the heart out of their offense. It wasn't pretty for the Gophers by any means. But it should be noted that Terrelle Pryor, for all that has been said about him in the previous week, looked much more comfortable in the second half of that game than he has all year—including at any point in the Toledo game. And Ohio State showed several new plays and wrinkles that I had not previously seen from this offense. They may yet have much to say about the Big Ten and BCS. But, even if they don't, they are starting to put together the pieces of their offense.

Oregon over Washington

USC over Oregon State

While there was some trepidation about these games, both teams took care of business to set up a big battle in the Pac-10 next weekend. Things have been quiet for a while out on the West Coast, but that decidedly changes this week. Anyway, these were some good wins by both teams, and it is good to see that they got out of this weekend clean.