Week 11/11/11/11...

I sadly have to start this post with what you’ve all heard about all week; that being Joe Paterno and the Penn State “Incident.” I have never had any love for Penn State or Paterno, however, I do feel a little sad that his amazing career as a football coach came to an end like this. But, having said that, if he did in fact have anything to do with the cover up of those horrific crimes against children, I hope that the government prosecutes him and anyone involved to the fullest extent of the law. Child molesters and those who would cover up their crimes in order to save themselves should be shot. While Paterno may have brought Penn State to national prominence over the last several decades, nothing (not his name, the Penn State brand, college football, sports in general) is worth sacrificing our basic human decency. The man who committed those crimes should be stung up in those same showers and those who covered up his crimes should be forced to watch and then banished from our society.

You can read a timeline of just how far all this goes back (well over 10 years) with Penn State and Jerry Sandusky here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/penn-state-scandal-timeline-jerry-sandusky_n_1084204.html?ref=mostpopular

With heartfelt sorrow for those children, let’s get on with what was otherwise a great week…

GAMES OF THE WEEK:

#7 Oregon over #4 Stanford 53-30
Ka-Boom! If last week the big game was in the SEC this week it was the PAC-12’s turn to show the nation their top two teams and dream boy do all QB Andrew Luck versus an Oregon team that refuses to go away. Oregon is on fire after losing to back-to-back SEC opponents (Auburn in last year’s title game and LSU to start the year). Since then, they have been calm on the surface but paddling like hell underneath. Stanford’s last loss before this game? Yeah, it was against Oregon. Just too many missed tackles and too many turnovers (5) for Stanford on Saturday. Luck was in the driver’s seat for the Heisman Trophy but last night it was the LaMichael James show as he ran for 146yds and 3 TDs. Oregon can now go on to the PAC-12 Championship and Stanford can wonder how close they could have been to playing for a National Championship had they just been able to beat Oregon.

Unranked TCU over #5 Boise State 36-35
Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes!!! What’s purple and eats flies that get in the BCS ointment? A TCU horned frog. Remember last year when Boise lost to Nevada because of a missed kick? Yeah, it happened again. This time however, it happened on their home blue turf which means that the Nation’s longest home winning streak (35 games) is now over. BSU also hadn’t lost a home conference game since 1998. Wow. This was a great game though. TCU scored to cut the lead to 36-35 with just over a minute to go and coach Garry Patterson made a huge call to go for two and the lead rather than the tie. They made it and went up by one giving Kellen Moore the ball and a chance for immortality. Didn’t happen though. While Moore got them down the field, the last-second 39-yard FG attempt went wide right and with it a chance for any major Bowl appearance for Boise State.

#14 Kansas State SURVIVES Texas A&M 53-50 in 4 OTs!!!
Kansas State needed a win after back-to-back losses. Texas A&M wanted to get bowl eligible off a conference opponent and make some kind of statement. But, down 14-0 K-State tied it up at 14 before halftime. Then down 31-21 with under 6 minutes to go they came charging back overcoming turnovers and poor defense to tie it up at 31 with about 2 minutes to go. And, as we all know, anything can happen in overtime. (Hence why I believe TCU went for two). The four OTs in this one went: TD/TD, FG/FG, TD/TD, FG/TD. K-State winner winner.

Honorable Mentions this week go to:
#9 Clemson surviving Wake Forrest 31-28. Wake had one hell of a 3rd quarter, but got shut down in the 4th.

#13 South Carolina surviving Florida 17-12. Man, Florida with all that speed just can’t get it together this year.

#15 Georgia (winners of 8 straight now) laying a WHOPPIN’ on #20 Auburn 45-7. It’s ‘The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry’ and it rarely disappoints. Georgia has the inside track to the SEC title game and is only a win over Kentucky away from playing in Atlanta in December. GO DAWGS!
UPSETS OF THE WEEK:

Unranked Missouri over #16 Texas 17-5
5? Really Texas? 5? Missouri (who was 4-5 coming into this game) lost their starting running back and all you managed was a field goal and a safety? You only had 247 total yards? This was the first time since 2004 that Texas hadn’t scored a touchdown. I know they have some injury concerns, but… Wow.

#19 Nebraska over #12 Penn State 17-14
After Nebraska’s loss to North Western last week, I thought they would probably pack it in and not have enough to beat PSU on the road this week. However, with all that’s gone on at PSU, you could kind of see this one coming. It’s wasn’t like the PSU players could get on a ‘win one for the coach’ type ride and they just didn’t have anything really to offer Nebraska this week despite a pretty good effort in the second half.

PILLOW FIGHT OF THE WEEK:

Toledo over Western Michigan 66-63
Wait… How can two teams with a combined 11 wins be in a pillow fight? Well, one they only have a combined 11 wins and two they scored 129 points and didn’t play any defense! Oh, and three it’s a MAC game. A whopping 16,000 fans came out on a Tuesday to watch Toledo rebound after losing to N. Illinois last week 63-60. Toledo is now 8th in the nation in scoring but 96th in the nation in points allowed. I mean what is going on in the MAC? I get that nobody would watch their games on a Saturday so they move the marquee matchups to Tuesdays to get some TV time, but what their playing isn’t football. It’s like those old Madden games where you have 4 downs to get a touchdown or you turn the ball over. 1,439 total yards??? Really!? Just let the feathers fly in the ol’ MAC I guess.

BEAT DOWN OF THE WEEK:

#2 Oklahoma State over Texas Tech 66-6
Um, yeah. I started watching this game and then I stopped. It was one of the early contests so I thought I’d look in to see if Texas Tech could possibly pull another upset or to see just how good OSU is since they may just end up playing for the National Championship. I think I turned it off about a minute into the 2nd quarter when OSU was up 21-0, kicked off, TT fumbled the kickoff and OSU scored. It was ugly. That ball laid there for about 10 seconds with two Tech players looking for it before an OSU gunner ran up, picked it up and walked into the end zone to put the Cowboys up 28-0 with over 14 minutes still left to play in the second. It’s down to Oklahoma in two weeks to stop the Cowboy’s run, but I really don’t see that happening right now.

BIGGEST LOSER:

No clear candidate this week aside from the obvious that I spoke of in the introduction. So, we’ll just give it to: Texas, Stanford, Boise State, Toledo and Texas Tech’s defenses, and this guy…
Have a good week everybody!