Manti Te’o and the Irish defense showed why they’re among the best in the country in their huge win over the Sooners. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
The Good
Notre Dame: All week the haters were saying how there was no way ND’s D could stand up to an offense like that of Oklahoma or that the Irish would stumble against the Sooners. Besides Landry Jones, the Irish shut down the rest of the Sooner offense and held them out of the endzone until the 4th quarter. 17 points in the last 5 minutes of the game was just icing in the cake of the 30-13 victory. With this big win over a high profile opponent, maybe people will start taking Notre Dame seriously and not dismissing their success out of hand.
Arizona: Perhaps USC was looking beyond to next week’s showdown with Oregon? Whether it’s true they were upset in a big way by the Arizona RichRods. They gave up 345 receiving yards to Marqise Lee, but got an even bigger day from QB Mike Scott who had 369 yards through the air and 100 on the ground. It’s a signature win for Rodriguez in his first year at the helm in Tucson.
The Bad
Florida: The Gators had a chance to lock up the SEC East and a spot in the Championship game, but stumbled in a major way against Georgia. For all the talk of skill players like Jeff Driskel and Mike Gillislee, the offense could only muster 3 field goals and trailed the entire game. Their only SEC game left is Mizzou and winning that while hoping Georgia loses to either Ole Miss or Auburn is the only way they can win the division.
Rutgers: The ranks of the unbeatens thin a little bit more as the Scarlet Knights stumbled against Kent State. Despite getting on the board first, Rutgers let the Golden Flashes jump out ahead and could never catch up. It also didn’t help that that QB Gary Nova threw 6 INTs. At least this was a non-conference game, so the team is still undefeated in the Big East.
The Ugly
Marcus Lattimore: He was having a great game before suffering a truly gruesome injury. As he was being tackled after a run shortly before halftime, his right leg appeared to go in a different direction then the rest of his body. As he was being loaded onto a cart, the South Carolina players surrounded him as well as the Tennessee guys. That was a class act and here’s hoping Lattimore has a speedy recovery.
Colorado: Remember back when you were playing in Little League and they had the Slaughter Rule where a game could be called if one team was beating the other by like 10 runs? I bet Colorado wishes that could’ve had that in their game against Oregon. The Buffaloes were down 56-0 at the half via 8 TDs and ended up getting gashed for over 600 yards. On the bright side, at least the game is over.
Awards
The ‘Charlie Weis Ate My Cheeseburger’ Award for Defense: First time the award goes to an individual player instead of a team. However, Georgia’s Jarvis Jones definitely deserves it. He had 13 tackles, 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles including one that sealed the Bulldogs’ upset of Florida.
The ‘Surely You Must Be Joking?’ Offensive Performance Of The Week: Tajh Boyd. The Clemson QB came to play on the Thursday night game against Wake Forest. He threw for 428 yards and 5 TDs. The biggest beneficiary of his outburst was Sammy Watkins, who caught 8 of Boyd’s 27 passes for 202 yards and a TD.
The ‘These Are Not The Droids You’re Looking For’ Mystery Of The Week: What was Florida’s Jordan Reed thinking? He could’ve had a TD that would’ve pulled the Gators to within 2 against Georgia late in the 4th. Instead he tries to vault over a defender and ends up fumbling the ball and the Bulldogs recover in the endzone. It looked like he just chucked the ball forward though it might have been forced out by Jarvis Jones. On the sideline later he was seen crying and being comforted by teammates, or maybe they were protecting him from The Angry Muschamp.
