Games I saw (some of):(long long day in/out of games)
(1) Miami 24-31 (11) Notre Dame
Notre Dame came to play, the Hurricanes did not. Miami was without their best offensive playmaker, but it also felt like Notre Dame could've run up the score if they wanted to. (Doesn't it stand to reason that Notre Dame needs to defeat Miami but they still need Miami to look more dominant than they are, so that Notre Dame's W goes further? Yeah, the convoluted logic of college sports....) These are both good squads, Notre Dame needed this more the Miani.
(2) Georgia 42-7 (10) Mississippi
Wow, Ole Miss never got going in this one. Pure unadulterated beatdown from the jump. One of the more impressive W's of the whole season so far, I'd say. Mississippi isn't this bad, curious to see how they bounce back. UGA is rolling, someone needs to throw their body on a grenade to slow UGA down.
(9) Brigham Young 20-28 (3) Utah
Utah jumped out to a 14-0 lead, then BYU was uo 20-14 at the half. Strangely enough Utah was clearly the better team for 3/4 of this match and yet BYU had all the momentum going into halftime. Weird game but when Utah pulled it together they were the better team.
(5) Alabama 31-13 (14) Louisiana State
This match was kinda close through 3 quarters, then LSU kinda fell apart and Alabama housed them down the stretch. Not as lopsided as the score suggests, but lopsided enough to show that Bama is better than LSU.
(6) Kentucky 6-34 Tennessee
For Kentucky fans this was reminiscent of the Alabama loss: pretty even contest for 3 quarters, then UK makes a fatal mistake and turtles up for the rest of the game--even though there were several minutes left to play. The score isn't indicative of the game (it was 13-6 in the 4th quarter--UT's TD up to that point was a single 60-yard breakout run, hardly sustained offensive dominance), the match was actually tight for the most part. But Kentucky's offense was non-existent, whereas Tennessee offense did eventually show up. Again: enough of a beatdown to show that Tennessee is better than Kentucky, but a closer game than you think.
(7) Texas 34-20 (18) Missouri
Again: close for the 3 quarters then Texas made plays and Missouri wilted.
(8) UCLA 34-20 Minnesota
Again! (sorta) Here the game was close until it dawned on UCLA that they could just score at will over the top. Minnesota kept it close but didn't have the firepower steal a W. Rugged Minnesota performance, but I am now finally impressed with UCLA, this was a good W.
(23) Oregon 41-28 (12) Ohio State
Yipes! You don't see the Buckeyes just get stomped (at home, no less!) like this. We'd given up on the Ducks but they've got a glimmer of a season left. Meanwhile, well, it's been a while since THE Ohio State was this irrelevant.
Texas Christian 28-29 (22) Arizona
All I saw was the very end of this game. Have a look:
Top 25
Handled their business
(2) Georgia, (3) Utah, (5) Alabama, (7) Texas, (8) UCLA, (11) Notre Dame, (13) Tennessee, (15) Texas Tech, (16) Wake Forest, (17) Houston, (19) Iowa, (21) South Carolina, (23) Oregon, (25) Boise State
Won but did not impress
(22) Arizona (TCU 28-29 Arizona)
TCU worked pretty hard for Arizona to get the W.
Bad beat
(1) Miami (Miami 24-31 Notre Dame)
On the one hand Miami was without WR Toney, their best offensive playmaker; on the other hand, it felt like Notre Dame kinda took it easy on the Hurricanes, so kinda 50/50. I call it a Bad Beat because the Irish needed this game more than Miami did.
(6) Kentucky (Kentucky 6-34 Tennessee)
Not a good look for the Wildcats, but UT is pretty good and @Tennessee is never easy. Kentucky still has the chance to play their way into the playoff.
(9) Brigham Young (BYU 20-28 Utah)
Utah felt like the better team at home. Tough L for BYU but not unexpected.
(10) Mississippi (Georgia 42-7 Mississippi)
Yipes! Ole Miss was never in this match at all. Bad L but UGA came to play.
(14) Louisiana State (Alabama 31-13 LSU)
The game was close til the 4th quarter and LSU still has opportunities on their schedule, so I don't think this L is all that damaging.
Not so good
(12) Ohio State (Oregon 41-28 Ohio State)
Like Ole Miss, they never got going; but unlike Ole Miss, the Buckeyes were the higher ranked team (at home), so this is Not So Good.
(24) Florida (Oklahoma 23-7 Florida)
The Gators got rolled at home by an unranked team. That's not so good.
Next week's intriguing matches:
(11) Wake Forest @ (25) SMU (the best team either of them have played all year, no?)
Missouri @ (1) Georgia (Missouri can still play their way back in, but a big W here would get them back in a hurry)
(15) Southern Cal @ (6) Indiana (I dunno, they're both ranked but I've been underwhelmed by both for most of this season)
Florida @ (13) Kentucky (Florida can play spoiler, not sure they can do much more than that; UK needs this W bad)
(2) Utah @ (22) Arizona (Arizona had to hold on against TCU, I think Utah will be a much tougher match; Utah needs to keep it going)
(8) Texas @ (24) Louisiana State (easy to say that LSU is cooked and Texas should roll, but I'm not sure; Texas is playing better but I think this is closer than you think)
(10) Texas Tech @ Oklahoma State (tough test for Tech)
My Top 12:
1) Georgia
2) Miami
3) Utah
4) UCLA
5) Alabama
6) Notre Dame
7) Tennessee
8) Texas
9) Texas Tech
10) Brigham Young
11) Kentucky
12) Wake Forest
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