Week 4 had a couple of big matchups, but not many. There were 8 games between the Big Ten and the MAC. The MAC surprisingly won two games, with two other games being with 10 points. This shows how bad the bottom of the Big Ten is, with Purdue losing to Toledo (Arizona won at Toledo 41-2 this year) and Northern Illinois beating Minnesota. Both wins were by 11 points. One of the biggest stories in the Big Ten came when #21 Michigan QB Denard Robinson went down with a knee injury in the first quarter while Michigan was leading 21-0. He was checked out on the sideline and ended up with just a twisted knee, but immediately after he went out Bowling Green scored two touchdowns. After that, Michigan settled down and proceeded to rout the Falcons.
There were a few teams that surprised me in a good way this weekend. I had predicted #1 Alabama to beat #10 Arkansas by at least two touchdowns. But Arkansas got off to a quite start scoring less than a minute into the game. Alabama's first lead of the game came on the game-winning touchdown by Mark Ingram with just 3:18 left in the fourth quarter. If it wasn't for Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett's three interceptions, I would think that he is for real this year. But again, I feel like he is just another mediocre quarterback in a pass happy system.
Another team that surprised me was Florida. They finally started playing Urban Meyer football and demolished Kentucky. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but Kentucky's offense had been putting up some pretty impressive numbers (admittedly against some pretty bad teams). Stat of the day for that game: Backup Florida QB Trey Burton had five rushing touchdowns on five carries.
San Diego State deserves some recognition. They have been playing extremely athletic football and beat Utah State who has been on the rise 41-7 (it was 28-0 at halftime). The Aztecs are 3-1 going into conference play and with horrible teams like Colorado State, New Mexico, and UNLV in the Mountain West, they should be headed to a bowl game for the first time in over a decade.
A couple teams have been surprising me in a bad way, too. #8 Oklahoma beat struggling Cincinnati by only two points. Earlier this season they beat Utah State at home by 7 and Air Force at home by 3. By they also slaughtered Florida State 47-17. They're 4-0 but in a very puzzling way.
BYU, where is the offense? The Cougars are currently 95th in passing and 118th in rushing and are 1-3. With San Diego State on the rise and road games against Utah and TCU, they'll struggle to make a bowl game on their farewell tour as they will be independent next year. I'm sure this is not how they wanted to leave the conference. The good news is that they get the three worst teams in the conference before their final game of the season at Utah.
#7 Texas got blown out by UCLA 34-12 at home. Despite Texas outgaining the Bruins by 58 yards, it was never close after the first quarter. Texas had 4 fumbles lost.
There were a few good matchups, at least. #17 Auburn and #12 South Carolina came right down to the wire. South Carolina was leading 27-21 at the end of the third quarter, but they turned the ball over on all 4 of their possessions in the fourth quarter and Auburn scored on two of their three fourth quarter drives to take the win 35-27. The schedule sets up nicely for Auburn to go at 10-2 this season. Their road games this season are Mississippi State, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and #1 Alabama. They also don't need to play Florida. They're tough games will be at home against Arkansas and LSU and at Alabama, but they should only lose 1 or 2 of those 3 games. It should be a great year for the Tigers.
Teams at the top of the Pac-10 struggled, but won. #5 Oregon had trouble putting away Arizona State, as did #16 Stanford with Notre Dame. And #14 Arizona needed a touchdown with 1:11 remaining to pull off a 10-9 win over Cal.
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