Well, I got a couple of things right about #19 South Carolina upsetting #1 Alabama. I said that Alabama would struggle early, and they got down 21-3 a minute and a half in the second quarter. I said that the one thing that would keep South Carolina in the game would be sacks, and they sacked McElroy SEVEN times. But I also said that Alabama would settle down after a quarter (which they did) and that the game would be over by the third quarter with Alabama winning by a lot. Give a ton of credit to South Carolina for staying ahead of Alabama. South Carolina is now in the driver's seat for the SEC East. They have a few easier games now playing Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee before they play Arkansas and Florida. Their game against Florida could decide the division.
The top teams in the Big Ten are still looking good, as #1 Ohio State and #20 Wisconsin both won without any problems against Indiana and Minnesota. Northwestern finally got a loss against Purdue, and they'll continue to lose. The big game was between #17 Michigan State and #18 Michigan. I was right in saying that Denard Robinson would be the key to this game. But I was wrong about who he would be key for. Michigan State did a phenomenal job shutting down Robinson's big rushing play capabilities, and his longest rush was for 16 yards. He still gained 86 yards on the ground, but at only 4.1 yards per carry. Easily his lowest of the season. This forced him to throw the ball, and without the threat of him breaking off a big run he was unable to throw the ball effectively, throwing three interceptions. Two of the interceptions were in the endzone. There were no real standouts on Michigan State's offense, but they worked together as a unit and got the job done, scoring 34 points without any turnovers. Michigan State also had the ball for 10 minutes longer than Michigan. The game ball of this game really goes to the entire Michigan State team for playing as a complete unit on both sides of the ball. MSU's struggles in the past have been closing out seasons, so we'll see in the coming weeks how they do. They really just need to not mess up. They have already beaten Wisconsin and Michigan and they don't have to play Ohio State. They have 6 conference games remaining, but the only really difficult game should be Iowa. There's a good chance that we'll have two undefeated Big Ten teams at the end of the year in Ohio State and Michigan State.
Oregon is still atop the Pac-10 after avoiding a scare against Washington State. They had a lot of star players go down due to injury (including Kenjon Barner taking a trip to the hospital) and got down early 14-8. But eventually they held together and ended up with a 20-point win. I'm sure it was disappointing for them to struggle against a team like Washington State, but they got the win and are still undefeated and it looks like they could be headed to the national championship if they keep winning. Oregon State is looking good after their upset of undefeated #9 Arizona, but they just got hit with the biggest blow of their season with James Rodgers going out for the year with a knee injury. They will likely be 7-0 in the conference at Thanksgiving but then they play Stanford and Oregon in their last two weeks of the season. Without Rodgers it will be very difficult to win those games.
#8 Auburn continues to win close games. Wins over Mississippi State, Clemson, South Carolina, and now Kentucky have all come down to the end of the game. Cam Newton threw for 210 and rushed for 198 yards and had 4 rushing touchdowns and carried the Auburn offense. At the end of the game it looked like their offensive strategy was to not let anyone else touch the ball unless Newton felt like throwing it that play. It worked, and his runs set up the game winning field goal as time expired. Auburn is looking extremely good right now, but their next 2 games are against #12 Arkansas and #9 LSU. They're both at home and I expect Auburn to win both games. I'm sticking with Auburn and Alabama playing for the SEC West title on November 26. And I just realized I'll be driving back from Colorado that day.
#12 LSU got lucky once again and beat #14 Florida 33-29. These two teams are incredibly overrated and LSU will be irrelevant in a few weeks. Florida may be relevant at the end of the season if they can beat South Carolina and squeak into the SEC championship game.
USC lost on a last second field goal for the second week in a row as #16 Stanford beat them 37-35. They still have yet to beat anybody decent but three out of their next five opponents are ranked, so if they can win a couple of those games they might be looking alright heading to the end of the season but they cannot play in a bowl game.
#23 Florida State is looking really good, you have to wonder what happened when they got blown out by then #10 Oklahoma. They have won big in every other game. They slammed #13 Miami 45-17, but they only forced one interception from Jacory Harris (I said he'd throw at least 3). He did only complete 19 of his 47 passing attempts and FSU leaned on their running game (likely because it was 31-7 early in the third quarter).
#10 Utah scored the most points since 1983 while beating up Iowa State 68-27, thanks to 31 second quarter points. They have now outscored their opponents 101-7 in the second quarter. They looked perfect in every aspect of the game aside from the two early turnovers which handed Iowa State two touchdowns and a 14-10 lead in the first quarter.
Now for a rundown of the remaining important undefeated teams. It looks more and more like Nebraska and Oklahoma are going to end up undefeated going into the conference title game. Oklahoma could struggle against Oklahoma State at the end of the season so watch out for that game. Nebraska still plays undefeated Missouri but they should easily win that game. There are only two undefeated teams left in the Big Ten (Ohio State and Michigan State) and they do not play each other. In two weeks, there will be one or less undefeated teams in the SEC after Auburn and LSU play. Boise State and Nevada play November 26. Neither team should lose a game besides that all season, and that game could be a toss up since it is being playing in Reno. Oregon has bean Stanford and it looks like Arizona is probably the only team standing in the way of their undefeated season now. Utah and TCU should be undefeated when they play in Salt Lake City on November 6. The winner of that game will likely stay undefeated. I give Utah the edge in the game simply because it is a home game for them. If it was played anywhere outside of Salt Lake City, I think TCU wins.
My pick right now for the national championship: Oregon vs Nebraska
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