Did You See That? Week Seven and Crazy Collapses
The Did You See That? column took a hiatus last week as life simply got in the way. We do our best not to let that happen around here but the hours just were not there. Which is unfortunate, really, because I didn’t get the chance to talk about Sark’s boozy termination or Steve Spurrier bailing on South Carolina midseason. We’re back, though, so let’s get to it.
Big Ten
Ohio State 38, Penn State 10 – I’ll just keep reminding you that Penn State football is remains a legend only in their own delusional minds. Christian Hackenberg was again terrible, going 7/13 for 120 yards and a sparkling 6.1 QBR.
Michigan State 27, Michigan 23 – I was watching this live and so even if you go back and relive the video, I think you’ll agree there is no substitute for having an amazing sports moment happen in real time.
There are so many amazing things here. Michigan milked the clock down, as MSU had no timeouts. Harbaugh carefully thought this all out… except, apparently, to remind his punter to fall on it if there is trouble on the snap. All he had to do was fall on it and then at least they still have a chance. Or run with it! It was only 4th and 2! Which brings me to what I was honestly thinking as they were lining up to punt. The ball was on the MSU 47 yard line. Why not line up and run a sweep right and get the first down and end the game? If you get stuffed, MSU would have at most a couple seconds – if that – to run a play and they couldn’t kick a FG from that distance. Punting actually seems like the riskier move here because if it went over his head and they fell on it, MSU would now be in FG range.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Dantonio’s work at MSU and so I’m fine with them moving to 7-0. Invariably, this will be pointed at in denigrating their season….like “Yeah, but they should have lost.” They shouldn’t care, though – that was amazing.
And, anyway, Gerry DiNardo thinks it was coaching and the “scheme” that won it on that final play. Then again, Gerry thinks Purdue is moving in the right direction. So Gerry probably needs a nap.
And if you missed it, this is why Jamal here is in the Grand Rapids media market. Just astonishingly lazy and incompetent reporting.
Iowa 40, Northwestern 10 – At what point do the Hawkeyes start getting some press? They’re doing everything Michigan State is doing and perhaps doing it in a more dominant fashion. Crushing a ranked team on the road by 30 points should get them noticed. And Iowa’s schedule the rest of the way is vs Maryland, @ IU, vs Minn, vs Purdue, @ Nebraska. Suddenly 12-0 and a slot in the Big Ten title game isn’t far-fetched at all. Can Hawkeye fans actually dream about the CFB Playoff?
Rutgers 55, Indiana 52 – Not content to let Purdue be the biggest mess in the state of Indiana, the Hoosiers managed to piss away a 52-27 lead. Rutgers had two PATs blocked and failed on two 2-point conversion attempts. No matter! The Scarlet Knights enjoyed a 22-0 4th quarter to send IU to their third straight defeat and suddenly make people question the Hoosiers making a bowl game.
This game was so weird – Rutgers led at the half 27-24, but then IU scored four TDs in the third quarter. I stopped paying attention at that point and didn’t look again until it was 52-all (thanks to another blocked PAT). Then the UM-MSU mayhem happened and so I’m sure a fair number of viewers missed the ending of this one. IU fans didn’t miss it and you have to wonder if Kevin Wilson is done now.
Nebraska 48, Minnesota 25 – You see, Purdue? This is what you do to a depleted Minnesota team. You crush their will. Purdue’s next opponent is this desperate Nebraska team, so that should go well.
Elsewhere
Stanford 56, UCLA 35 – Stanford isn’t messing around. Boom. But how the hell did they lose to Northwestern?
Utah State 52, Boise State – So much for this iteration of Boise. Sorry, media.
Houston 42, Tulane 7 – Houston has had several bursts of relevancy over the past 20-30 years. Here they are again, ranked and 6-0. But Purdue? Purdue can’t beat a MAC school.
Memphis 37, Ole Miss 24 – S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!
Notre Dame 41, USC 31 – Notre Dame has played five of seven games at home. Here, they got by a team that just fired its drunk coach and had its AD collapse on the sidelines.
Oklahoma 55, K-State – I guess the Sooners are sort of for real? Hard to say, since they lost to Texas.
Toledo 63, Eastern Michigan 20 – MACtion! Toledo is now ranked and 6-0. They used their win at a then-ranked Arkansas as a springboard to what could be a storybook season for them. Their remaining schedule – and path to an unbeaten season – is @ UMass, vs NIU, @ CMU, @ BGSU, vs WMU. So it’s not “easy,” to be sure, but they’re allowed to dream at this point.
Clemson 34, BC 17 – Dabo is still dancing. Oh, man, the fall is going to be so fun to watch. Especially his terse, pissy press conference afterwards. I can hardly wait.
LSU 35, Florida 28 –Hey, Colts, this is how you run a fake:
Once again, Les Miles has LSU off to a great start. The Tigers are 6-0 (4-0) and yet as I’ve talked about before, LSU fans never seem happy with this guy. I’ll never understand it. Hey, Les, come to Purdue and run roughshod over the Big Ten!
Georgia 9, Mizzou 6 – Thrilling!
South Carolina 19, Vandy 10 – I saw something written in the wake of Spurrier’s bailing that said in his many years of coaching, he’s never finished last. Maybe he was aware of that. Thankfully for USC, Vandy is in the SEC.
Washington State 52, Oregon State 31 – Vacant-eyed, serial-killer-looking Mike Leach is putting it together at Wash State.
Miscellaneous
Sam from SuperCuts – We see a lot of commercials over and over when watching CFB – live sports are the gold mine for advertisers, because they’re the one thing people don’t DVR and thus aren’t easily able to skip the commercials. And I just have to say, “Sam” from Supercuts really gets around (including Yankee Stadium, I see).
Back to the Future – If you’re like us, you grew up with BTTF. Well, the date Doc and Marty went ahead to in BTTF Part 2 is coming up fast. October 21, 2015, in fact. We then learned that the Cubs win the 2015 World Series. One of the things they couldn’t have seen coming, though, was the World Series extending into November and thus isn’t going to be over on October 21. Ah, bummer.
But Christopher Lloyd and Michael J Fox got together to talk about what they got right and wrong. And beyond that, there’s even a documentary coming out on the whole thing. Yes, I’m a BTTF nerd and yes, I’ll be watching.
BEISBOL!! – I know much of our readership are Cubs fans, because apparently Purdue misery and Cubs misery is a palatable mixture. However, co-editor Boilerdowd and I are somewhere between neutral and anti-Cubbies. I’d be entertained by seeing Chicago be burned to the ground if the Cubs actually won. However, my loyalty to New York has me actually happy for Mets fans, who are their own breed of miserable.
On the other side of the ledger, the Blue Jays and their fans can’t lose fast enough for me. Their behavior during Game 5 against the Rangers last week was abominable and reveals them as hooligans. People always like to make comments about “New York fans” in sports, but that kind of stuff simply doesn’t happen in New York. Fans don’t litter the field with debris or hurl things that could hurt people. The fans don’t riot when they win. And fans of opposing teams aren’t beaten nearly to death. That all happens in more enlightened places like Los Angeles and Toronto.
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And now, your moment of snark:
