Week 3 - Week In Review

We put together a few quick highlights from this past weekend:

LSU Tigers Topple Bulldogs in Starkville

LSU proved that they are for real, at least on one side of the ball.  The vicious Tiger's defense held Mississippi State to two field goals, and 193 total yards - with only 52 on the ground.  We all know it's hard to win in the SEC if you can't run the ball, and the Bulldogs found that out first hand last Thursday night.  Meanwhile LSU's offense put up 19 points and 361 yards.  Their performance was neither terrible nor outstanding, and will leave some still wondering if LSU can win a championship with a mediocre offense.  But QB Jarrett Lee and company continue to improve, and Thursday night the Tiger's D made a strong case for a title based on their exceptional play alone.  The Tigers travel to West Virginia this Saturday with plans to keep on rolling.  

Point of interest: A fired-up Mountaineer squad looks to gain more momentum after a big win at Maryland, and will do everything they can to protect their turf from the Bayou Tigers.

Boise Bests a Feisty Toledo Team

What started as an uneasy feeling in Bronco fan's stomachs - watching a Toledo Rocket squad hold Boise to 3-and-out, then easily put up 6, shredding this hyped up Bronco defense - turned into another career day for Boise QB Kellen Moore.  What can this kid not do?  With 455 passing yards and 5 touchdowns, Moore made a strong case that, with a football in his hand, he can do just about anything.  Except of course turn down-field, but senior tailback Doug Martin has that part covered.  Martin was responsible for one of those touchdown passes, taking a screen pass 71 yards to the end zone.  With this 40-15 victory, Moore puts up his 40th win.  He is only 6 more wins away from passing Colt McCoy for most all-time.  With a fairly soft schedule ahead, that won't be too much of a problem. 

Point of interest: On October 1st, Nevada comes to visit Boise, Idaho.  Look for the Broncos to get revenge after last year's upset. 

Auburn Goes Down!

After the Wofford Terriers put up one heck of a fight at Clemson, conventional wisdom, in fact, plain common sense, told us that the Auburn Tigers would roll into Clemson and continue their winning streak that includes last year's National Title.  In this instance, common sense was wrong.  When the Clemson Tigers pulled up alongside the Auburn Tigers at 21 points going into halftime, it looked like the Auburn faithful would have to sweat out another close one.  But hey, they've seen close wins 17 times now, there's no real reason to worry.  Auburn will take care of things late like they always do… right?  Clemson QB Tajh Boyd had something else on his mind: the first 3-0 start by Clemson since 2007.  It took the Clemson defense holding Auburn to just a field goal in the second half, two touchdown tosses by Boyd, and a nail-in-the-coffin field goal to do just that.  Auburn goes down, 38 - 24!

Point of interest: How will Auburn recover in conference play?  They have an easy game against Florida Atlantic next week, but then SEC play hits full stride with games at South Carolina and at Arkansas.  Also, how far can Clemson go?  They have a tough test at home against a downtrodden Florida State team.  Can Clemson take advantage of the Seminoles while they're down, and move ahead in the ACC race?

Quick-Hits:

Oklahoma Isn't Going Anywhere

After a 23-13 victory in Tallahassee, it's clear that Landry Jones and the Sooners are going to stay on the national stage this year.  Jones came through when needed, but it was the outstanding Sooner defense that won the game.  They held the 'Noles to 13 points, and came up with a total of 3 turnovers that ultimately kept Oklahoma in position to stay ahead.  Look for FSU to try to bounce back at Clemson next week.  Oklahoma looks to slaughter a Missouri team after their confidence building win against Western Illinois.

Has Mack Brown Righted the Ship?

The Longhorn faithful may have been a bit nervous to travel to UCLA after last year's loss at the hands of the Bruins, but are feeling much better after a dominant 49-20 win.  The Longhorns led in every statistical category, with more points, yards, first downs, time of possession, and fewer turnovers and penalties.  The always-risky quarterback switch paid off, with Case McCoy leading his team to victory with 168 passing yards and two TD's.  The Longhorns look legit again, but after a bye-week they travel to upstart Iowa State, then face Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in their next 3 games.  That stretch will tell us a lot about how far last year's 5-7 Longhorns have come.

Are the Cyclones Legit?

Iowa State is 3-0 after last week's big triple overtime victory over the Hawkeyes and this week's win at UCONN.  Quarterback Jantz leads a fast, dynamic offense that bested a tough Huskie's D.  We will find out if the Cyclones are for real when they face Texas at home after a bye-week.

Notre Dame No Longer Losing

This time it was the Fighting Irish that were outgained and out-possessed but came up with the win.  The Irish still turned the ball over 3 times, but with 31 points to Michigan State's 13, they picked up their first win of the year.  After last year's embarrassing loss to Alabama, I didn’t trust the credibility of this Michigan State team, or their number 15 ranking.  I think this game says more about the Spartans than the Irish, and because of this I wouldn't necessarily call it an "upset".  The Irish travel to Pitt this weekend to try to up another W.    

Tressel No More
The scandals and loss of head coach Jim Tressel have left the Buckeyes in a sad state.  They put up a measly 6 points in a loss at Miami.  And this is not the Miami team of the 1980's, this is a sorry-looking Hurricanes team that lost at Maryland and will have a lot of work to do to be respectable in the ACC.  It's going to be a long season in the Big 10 for Ohio State.