What we learned from Upset Saturday; more Overtime
Just how unpredictable were some of Saturday's upsets? Well, I thought I was being a tad conservative when I picked Oklahoma to beat Texas 30-13. Instead, at one point in the second half the widely dismissed Longhorns led their Red River rivals 29-13.
The highlights: Seven ranked teams lost; an unranked team (Utah) beat a top-10 opponent (then No. 5 Stanford) for the first time this season; the same Michigan kicker who won the Sugar Bowl in 2012 with a field goal in overtime missed two overtime field goals in a loss to Penn State; and a backup quarterback helped Missouri knock off then seventh-ranked Georgia. It was college football at its finest, and wackiest.
Let's dissect the aftermath of Upset Saturday.
• The SEC East is in shambles. The 2013 season began with three teams from this division (Georgia, South Carolina and Florida) ranked in the top 10. Now there are none, and No. 14 Missouri (6-0, 2-0 SEC), which just cracked the AP Poll for the first time last week, sits alone in first place following its 41-26 win over the 15th-ranked Bulldogs in Athens. While standout defensive end Michael Sam and the Tigers put on an eye-opening defensive performance, this game, like so many others in the SEC East this season, was defined by injuries. The decimated Dawgs not only played without injured tailbacks Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall, but also without three starting receivers. Mizzou also lost quarterback James Franklin for at least three to five weeks, according to coach Gary Pinkel.
The upshot is that no team from this division is likely to contribute to the SEC's vaunted BCS title streak. The Tigers will host Florida (4-2, 3-1) next Saturday in a showdown of backup quarterbacks. Missouri will follow that up with a game on Oct. 26 against South Carolina (5-1, 3-1), the healthiest of its division rivals -- despite all the fuss about Jadeveon Clowney's ribs. One of these four teams will get to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, but don't expect any to be in national title contention come December.
• Oregon is the class of the Pac-12. On Saturday, the conference's two top-five teams both played in challenging league road games. The No. 2 Ducks (6-0, 3-0) shined, riding stud quarterback Marcus Mariota to a 45-24 victory over then No. 16 Washington, Oregon's 10th straight win in the series. Stanford (5-1, 3-1), on the other hand, failed to convert on both third- and fourth-and-2 from the Utah six-yard line in the final seconds of a 27-21 defeat. The Cardinal, who were impressive in previous wins over Arizona State and Washington, were a trendy preseason pick to win the BCS championship. But with the loss to the underdog Utes (4-2, 1-2) Stanford sank from No. 5 to No. 13 in the latest AP Poll.
There are plenty of big conference games remaining, with No. 9 UCLA (5-0, 2-0) visiting the Cardinal and the Ducks in the next two weeks. And sneaky-hot Oregon State (5-1, 3-0) still has to play both Stanford (Oct. 26) and Oregon (Nov. 29) too. The Cardinal are still certainly capable of beating the Ducks on Nov. 7, but while Oregon is excelling on both sides of the ball, Stanford -- which opted to pass on those two last-second, short-yardage plays -- has not complemented its salty defense with a power-run game. This is the Ducks' conference to lose.
• Ohio State and Baylor are getting no help from their conferences. The fourth-ranked Buckeyes are 6-0 and are coming off consecutive wins over ranked teams (Wisconsin on Sept. 28 and Northwestern on Oct. 5) ... but their national title hopes are worse than they were two months ago. For that, Ohio State can blame the Big Ten. A schedule that was already perceived as weak just keeps getting weaker. Michigan (5-1, 1-1) was supposed to redeem the Buckeyes at the end of the season, but the Wolverines' mistake-filled 43-40 loss at Penn State (4-2, 1-1) on Saturday confirmed suspicions that they were not as good as their record. The Nittany Lions, who play Ohio State on Oct. 26, lost to lowly Indiana by 20 on Oct. 5. The Buckeyes have to hope that either the 25th-ranked Badgers (4-2, 2-1) win out and move into the top 10, or that possible Big Ten title game opponents Nebraska (5-1, 2-0) or Michigan State (5-1, 2-0) dominate en route to meeting Ohio State in Indianapolis on Dec. 7.
Meanwhile, No. 12 Baylor (5-0, 2-0) survived Kansas State 35-25 in the Bears' first road trip of the season. Baylor had been looking forward to a potential showdown of unbeatens with 18th-ranked Oklahoma (5-1, 2-1) on Nov. 7, but the Sooners got smacked down on Saturday by early-season punching bag Texas (4-2, 3-0). Now the Bears are fighting not only deeply entrenched public skepticism, but also the fact that the Big 12 stinks this year. The conference's current co-leaders are coach Kliff Kingsbury's still-unbeaten Texas Tech team (6-0, 3-0) -- which is off to a great start against weak competition -- and the Longhorns. Baylor needs some team -- the Red Raiders, Oklahoma, Texas or Oklahoma State -- to rise into the top 10 soon.
• Louisville has no shot at the national title. Given their wretched schedule, the eighth-ranked Cardinals (6-0, 2-0 AAC) need to dominate every chance they get in order to be taken seriously. While their defense did just that by hauling in four interceptions in last Thursday's nationally televised 24-10 win over Rutgers (4-2, 1-1), the voters demand blood. In other words, they want to see quarterback Teddy Bridgewater put up 40-plus points on everybody. Bridgewater passed for 310 yards, but he and his teammates also coughed up three turnovers in an underwhelming performance against the Scarlet Knights.
Boise State played under a glass ceiling during the Kellen Moore era, and Bridgewater is dealing with a similar situation -- if not worse. The Broncos at least went out and beat the likes of Oregon, Virginia Tech and Georgia. Outside of this Friday's matchup with UCF, Louisville's best hope for a signature victory comes Nov. 16 ... against Houston (5-0, 2-0).
Texas' Mack Brown gets redemption in Red River blowout
On Saturday at the Cotton Bowl -- the same stadium that has played host to some of the lowest moments of his career at Texas -- Longhorns coach Mack Brown enjoyed a sweet day of redemption. Texas finally looked like the team that their coach had been talking about all offseason. Running backs Johnathan Gray (29 carries, 123 yards) and Malcolm Brown (23 carries, 120 yards) bulldozed a previously stout Oklahoma defense. (The Sooners sorely missed injured star linebacker Corey Nelson.) Longhorns defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat had two sacks and defensive tackle Chris Whaley returned an interception 31 yards for a touchdown, and the talented pair terrorized Oklahoma quarterback Blake Bell all afternoon. And Texas speedster Daje Johnson returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown en route to a 36-20 Red River rout.
"I knew this was going to be a different mindset coming into this game because [our players] were not happy with the last two years and the way it has looked," said Brown, referring to the Longhorns' 55-17 and 63-21 losses to the Sooners the past two seasons. "Walking out of here last year there were a lot of things said in that dressing room that affected today."
The lazy narrative is that Brown "saved his job" with Saturday's win. That was never the scenario to begin with. My colleague Andy Staples described it best in his column from Dallas, comparing the victory to "that one sweet day" shortly before a couple's eventual divorce, where "it feels like the good old days before the union began to rot." Beating hated Oklahoma will allow Brown to help dictate his own exit in concert with retiring athletic director DeLoss Dodds, most likely in December. Brown has insisted repeatedly that he won't be fired, and he's correct, because Dodds was never going to fire him. But that doesn't mean Brown won't take the decision out of Dodds' hands.
Perhaps Saturday's performance was a breakthrough for Texas. At 3-0 in the Big 12 and having beaten one of the league's presumed contenders, Brown's repeated goal of a conference title no longer seems so far-fetched. Short of that, however, the season no longer feels like the colossal implosion it did a few weeks ago. The Longhorns should be able to bid Brown the amicable farewell he deserves.
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