2017-18 NCAA Football (Week 4)

(16) TCU 44-31 (6) Oklahoma State
Hmmmm, Oklahoma State was one of those squads I was curious about because that offense looked unstoppable. But getting waxed at home by a conference opponent is a bad bad loss for them, gonna be tough to overcome that. They were in the hunt in the 4th but TCU was able to get the last score and that was enough. Great W for TCU.

(17) Mississippi State 3-31 (11) Georgia
Wondered how Mississippi State would handle Georgia...now we know. Losing on the road to a higher ranked team would generally earn a Bad Beat from me but because this is a grudge match conference foe, Mississippi State has got to get it done and they did not. Good win for Georgia.


Top 25
Handled their business:
(1) Alabama,  (2) Clemson, (5) Southern Cal, (7) Washington, (8) Michigan, (10) Ohio State, (11) Georgia, (13) Virginia Tech, (14) Miami, (15) Auburn, (16) TCU, (18) Washington State, (19) Louisville, (21) South Florida, (22) San Diego State, (23) Utah


Got it done but did not impress:
(3) Oklahoma 49-41 Baylor. Baylor has not looked good this year, not at all, not even close, not good at all, like kinda feel sorry for Baylor for how not good they are, like so not good that this couldn't even be considered a trap game. Its not like OU failed to get the offense going, so how did they let Baylor get so much done? This is a suspect result.

(4) Penn State 21-19 Iowa. Shouldn't diss this result, Iowa played well. But the Nittany Lion offense just never got going until that last drive. Not a bad loss for Iowa, might be the motivator they need for the rest of their season. May look back on this as a pretty good win for Penn State but it doesn't feel like it just yet.

(20) Florida 28-27 Kentucky. Kentucky led throughout, bumbled defensive assignments late, still had plenty of time to win (2 timeouts, 45 seconds on the clock, ball at midfield, needed an FG....should've won). Florida won this game by inertia, because beating Kentucky is muscle memory, not because they're an impressive side.

Syracuse 26-35 (25) LSU. Syracuse (a dome team) has not impressed this year at all, so going on the road to a battle-hardened SEC squad should not have been as close as this. LSU is not looking like a classic SEC West side.


Not so good:
(16) TCU 44-31 (6) Oklahoma State. Good for TCU, not so good for OSU.

NC State 27-21(12) Florida State. Dropping the first game to Alabama wasn't a killer, but it looks like losing their starting QB and getting postponed by Hurricane Irma took the sap out of this squad. Their special teams looked strong but the Wolfpack D-line lived in the Seminole backfield today (dang, that dude Chubb was all over the place!). I thought the Seminoles would've benefitted from running more, complexifying the running attack in the 2nd half would've given their Frosh QB a fighting chance. The QB is gonna take the blame but I thought this was a coaching loss. Seminoles are looking pretty well done for this season. NC State looked pretty good, not really sure what to make of their victory.

(24) Oregon 35-37 Arizona State. Alas, poor Oregon, we hardly knew ye.


Other interesting games:
Texas A&M 50-43 (OT) Arkansas. Looked like a fun game every time the score went by on the ticker.
Notre Dame 38-18 Michigan State. Yes, this is not a classic Spartan squad but I thought Notre Dame looked pretty good in this game.  Notre Dame should finish the season back in the top 20.


Next week's interesting games:
(5) USC @ (16) Washington State
(24) Mississippi State @ (13) Auburn
(2) Clemson @ (12) Virginia Tech