Week 12 was expected to a tad bit on the ugly side, considering the slate of games we were expecting. It did live up to being part ugly; and crazy and wild too. It was just an all-around cluster.
Welcome to week 12 of the ugly.
Southern Miss:
Southern Miss came in Thursday night versus UAB the 20th ranked team in the country, hoping to continue their tremendous season, amd trying for a BCS bid. In the midst of it of looking ahead, Southern Miss forgot one thing; they still had UAB on the schedule.
Southern Miss was up 14-0 in the first quarter versus UAB. Everything seemed to be going the way of the Golden Eagles. UAB answered, quickly, with two scores of their own tying it up. It was a battle for the rest of the game.
Southern Miss gave up 425 yards, turned the ball over twice, allowed UAB to control the clock for over 36 minutes of the game and most importantly, gave up 34 points. Southern Miss lost 34-31, ending their hopes at the BCS and for now, a Conference USA championship as well.
Oklahoma St:
Until Friday evening, Oklahoma State – though it hadn’t played defense well the entire season – appeared to be focused at the task at hand, of just playing one game at a time. If the Pokes were looking ahead to Oklahoma, we will never know. One thing we do have clarity on, is Iowa State – with nothing to lose and everything to gain – played its heart out. Oklahoma State, which was two wins shy from clinching a berth into the National Championship game, lost control of their own destiny.
En route to a 37-31 double overtime victory Iowa State produced 568 total yards versus Oklahoma State. While the Cyclones did surrender 536 yards themselves, they rose to the occasion, forcing five turnovers and upsetting the No. 2 team in the country.
The December 3rd Bedlam game between Oklahoma State and the Sooners of Oklahoma has now lost it’s luster, but Oklahoma State will have to regroup in a hurry. There is still plenty to play for.
Oklahoma Sooners:
Not to be out done by Oklahoma State, the Sooners blew what opportunity they had left to play for the BCS National Championship when they traveled to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears.
Oklahoma only led for around 10 minutes of the game, and otherwise, Baylor did what it wanted to do. It didn’t hurt that Baylor had this guy named Robert Griffin III.
There were 1221 total yards produced by the two schools; 616 by Baylor and 605 by Oklahoma.
The difference in this game – outside of the Bob Stoops timeout blunder in the fourth quarter – was the three turnovers that Baylor forced of Oklahoma. Baylor had none.
RG3 (Robert Griffin III) made his pitch for Heisman, against a one loss Oklahoma team who had aspirations of still having a shot at a National Championship. Not anymore. RG3 was 21-34 for 479 yards and four touchdowns. His counterpart Landry Jones did throw for 447 yards, without any touchdowns but one interception.
Oklahoma did make a strong comeback in the fourth quarter. On the Sooners’ final drive, Landry Jones was 6-7 passing for 53 yards, driving the Sooners down the field on 10 plays for 77 yards in 2:38. Blake Bell took the handoff to the right for the touchdown, and Oklahoma was one point away from tying the game. In quite the intrepid move, Bob Stoops kept the offense on the field, planning to go for two and the win. Following a Baylor timeout, Oklahoma came back out to go for two. A false start penalty would move the Sooners back five yards and the point after try would have to be attempted.
Baylor received the kickoff with :51 seconds to go in the game, and its first play – a rush up the middle by Terrance Ganaway – proved that Baylor was suffice with going to overtime with the Sooners. Evidently, Oklahoma was not. From intrepid to absurd, Bob Stoops called a timeout. With RG3 at the helm, Baylor coach Art Briles decided to go for the win.
RG3 rushed on the next two plays for 30 yards, then completed a pass to Kendall Wright for 12 yards – getting the Bears to the Oklahoma 34 yard line. Go for a field goal? Oh no. RG3 – with a Heisman like throw, in a Heisman like moment – connected with Terrance Williams for the 34 yard touchdown. Oklahoma’s dreams were crashed, while Baylor were the kings of Waco Saturday night.
Oregon Ducks:
Saturday, a decision was made; no one wanted to play LSU. Lane Kiffin came out with a tremendous game plan versus the Oregon Ducks, attacked its weaknesses, and with the help of defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin (Lane’s father) did just the same versus the brains of the Duck offense Chip Kelly.
USC got up 38-14 lin the third quarter, before a frenzied comeback- aided by Trojan turnovers- allowed the Ducks to get back in it.
As for Matt Barkley, well, simply put he shredded the Duck defense throwing for 323 yards on 26-of-34 passing, and four touchdowns. In all, USC put up 462 yards on Oregon – knocking the Ducks out of contention for a National Championship appearance. We think. Final score USC 38, Oregon 35.
Farewell Houston Nutt:
Ole Miss sent Houston Nutt out in style, in his final home game in Oxford, Mississippi.
LSU only threw the ball eight times, completing them all for 105 yards. Ole Miss managed 195 total yards for the game. Slow clap for effort.
LSU had five different running backs go over 50 yards rushing – and the Bayou Bengals rushed for 353 yards on 50 carries, good for a 7.1 yard per carry average.
LSU demolished Ole Miss 52-3. Farewell Nutt. You nut.
Clemson Tigers:
The Clemson Tigers, who have already punched its ticket to the ACC Championship, were embarrassed by the NC State Wolfpack Saturday.
At the end of the second quarter it was 27-3 in the favor of NC State. The Wolfpack never slowed down.
Clemson only had the ball for 23 minutes versus NC State, and for an offense that has been much ballyhooed about this season, and very lucky along the way, had – by far – their worst performance.
Defensively, Clemson has been terrible for the better part of this season. Nothing changed Saturday.
NC State won the game 37-17, and now Clemson will go on the road – a horrible matchup for the Tigers – to face its in state rival, the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Nebraska Cornhuskers:
Nebraska came in versus Michigan 8-2 and 4-2 in the Big Ten, with hopes still remaining to earn a BCS bid, in their first season in the conference. Michigan foiled those plans.
Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has not exactly been a model for consistency this season. Versus Nebraska, he threw 18 passes, completing 11 for 180 yards. But Saturday Nebraska did not have many answers for Denard Robinson – or the Michigan offense overall – via the air or the ground. Michigan, showing signs of a return to “Michigan football,” ran the ball 61 times Saturday for 238 yards.
Nebraska simply could not get off the field. Michigan had the ball for 41 minutes Saturday – turning black shirts, to white.
Michigan – instead of Nebraska – took a giant step towards a BCS at-large bid Saturday defeating the Cornhuskers 45-17. Next week the Wolverines hope to exact some revenge against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Florida State:
After an early season lapse due in large part to E.J Manuel being injured, it appeard that Florida State had corrected its issues. Everyone who thought this, was wrong.
The Virginia Cavaliers did something Saturday it had never done- they notched a win in Tallahassee. UVA 14, FSU 13.
As much as FSU seemed to correct the running issues that had plagued them for the better part of the season, it all went out the door with other ineptitudes. Play calling and quarterback play were inexplicable at best. ACC officials did not help the flow of the game, on either side, but do they ever?
Florida State, still, has not defeated a team in 2011 with a winning record. Let that sink in a bit. Ugly right?
UGLY HITTERS:
- Another day, another victim of Case Keenum and the Houston Cougar offense. Houston beat SMU 37-7, and along the way produced 513 yards of total offense.
- Kansas is clearly playing for keeps, at the bottom. Texas A&M found the perfect team to take out some frustration on in the Jayhawks. A&M defeated Kansas 61-7, with the Jayhawks allowing 469 yards of total offense (which is actually above their season average), turned the ball over three times and were 9-of-20 on third down conversions. Beautiful.
- The 2-8 Buffalo – whatever they’re called – defeated the Akron (1-9) – whatever they are called – 51-10. Fifty-one points. Nothing else is needed there.
- Georgia Tech did defeat Duke 38-31 so yadda yadda yadda about whatever you want to say about that. The Ugly in this game came in a video that perfectly personified what it means to play football at Duke University. Take 10 seconds to watch.
- Miami versus USF. Final Score: Miami 6, USF 3. This was not the game of the century.
- Also in Miami news, the Hurricanes implemented a self-imposed bowl ban for the 2011 season. Of course, waiting until after they are 6-5.
- Troy – who is bad – defeated Florida Atlantic – who is something well beneath bad – 34-7. The perfect – winless – season continues for the F-A-U.
- Dennis Erickson lost his job Saturday, by the way.
THE BOTTOM FIVE:
The Five Ugliest Offense In America
116: Akron – 284..09 yards per game
117: Memphis – 282.73 yards per game
118: Kentucky – 263.64 yards per game
119: Kent St – 243.55 yards per game
120: Florida Atlantic – 242.10 yards per game
The Five Ugliest Defenses in America
116: Memphis – 486.55 yards per game
117: New Mexico – 487.45 yards per game
118: UAB – 491.91 yards per game
119: Ball St – 510.64 yards per game
120: Kansas – 531.45 yards per game
Regie Eller writes his “Not Good, Not Bad, Just Ugly” column every Monday on Crystal Ball Run. Follow him on Twitter @CFBRocker.
