In a week of canceled games due to COVID-19, many of the storylines we hoped to have answers to after this week are still unresolved. However, we did learn a lot about many of the teams that did play this week, and it further sets up the stage for next weeks matchups. Let’s break it down.
Wisconsin shreds Michigan, as a new hierarchy takes effect in the Big Ten
It will take a long time before people forget the absolute destruction of Michigan at the hands of Wisconsin this last Saturday. The reason for this is because it took place in prime-time, when the other best game was a blowout between Florida and Arkansas, and an Oregon/Washington State game. If you are a College Football watcher, you definitely spent time watching the Michigan game at some point of the night. Michigan just looked terrible, and lost. The Quarterback play early was terrible, as Michigan Quarterback Joe Milton threw two interceptions before he completed a pass. Michigan couldn’t stop Wisconsin’s run, as they gashed them for 341 yards. Finally, near the end of the first half, Michigan was finally able to get something going, but they were already down 28-0 at that point. Such a remarkable change from Week 1 of the Big Ten Football, where the primetime matchup between Michigan and Minnesota appeared to have important Conference standing consequences, but it ended up being a game between possibly two of the worst teams. Moving west, Nebraska got their first win dropping Penn State to 0-4, along with Rutgers losing today to Illinois, and Michigan State getting shut out by top tier Indiana. Some combination of those 5 teams (except Indiana) are likely the worst in the league. However, at the top, next week Indiana travels to Ohio State, which suddenly looks like it could determine which of those teams travels to the Big Ten championship game from the East Division, and Wisconsin faces Northwestern, and we’ll see if Northwestern is actually a serious contender this year.
What’s up in the SEC?
This section of the column has been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. It hopes to return next week after leaving quarantine and testing negative with two different PCR tests.
ND didn’t have a let down game
Many people in the sports world (myself included) believed that Notre Dame would have a let down game, after their stunning victory against Clemson last week. In this context, it would mean a game where they fell behind early, and needed a last second push to win the game, or lose the game outright. The reason a Notre Dame let down game was so hyped was because the last time Notre Dame beat the number 1 team in the country, in 1993, the very next game they lost to… you guessed it, Boston College. Many people assumed, since it was 2020, some weird quirk of history would repeat itself. However, they were consistent through the entire game, and after getting a lead early kept expanding it, getting the relatively easy win. Next week Notre Dame has the bye, but after that they play a North Carolina team with an offense that this week allowed them to come back from down 21 points against Wake Forest, to win the game in the 4th Quarter.
PAC-12 officiating is truly horrible After a long day of college football, it is nice to sit back, relax, and watch PAC-12 after dark, which is a game that starts at 11:00 PM for people on the East coast, and is a great way to stay up late on a Saturday night. This week, it contained one of the worst calls I have ever seen in Football, where on 4th and 1 from the Washington 5, the Oregon State runner clearly got over the line for a 1st down, but somehow the spot of the ball kept him short, which turned the ball over on downs. Obviously, since Oregon State was down 3 points, and was about to get 1st and Goal from the 4 yard line, this completely changed the dynamic of the game. My best guess is that the officials, when seeing the runner down on the ground, saw that his hand carrying the ball was near the line of scrimmage, and thought that was the correct ball placement, instead of where his momentum had obviously carried him in the earlier play. Regardless, Oregon State was clearly robbed of a really good chance at a win, and this Washington team was not particularly impressive. USC needed late game heroics to beat an Arizona team that is not projected to be particularly great this year, and they will likely be tested by Utah next week (assuming the game happens, Utah’s game this week got canceled due to COVID). Nothing this USC team has shown so far in narrowly beating Arizona State and Arizona has shown us that this is a good team, and I believe betting against them seems to be a good strategy at this point, given how over inflated people have ranked them (#20 at the time of this writing).