Seven Teams
Suffer Their First Defeat
by Mike Mitchell
10/17/04 1:45 am edt
14 teams entered the
college football week with unblemished records and half of them
failed to survive as Arizona State, Louisville, Navy, Oklahoma
State, Purdue, Southern Miss, and Virginia all suffered their
first losses of the season.
There were three games where both teams entered the combat with
unbeaten records and two proved to be real barn-burners. Purdue
missed a tying field goal in the closing seconds and fell to
Wisconsin, 20-17. On Thursday night, Miami (Fla.) had to overcome
a 24-7 halftime deficit to edge Louisville 41-38 on Frank Gore's
1-yard plunge with 49 seconds left.
The third game between undefeated schools turned out to be a
rout when USC clobbered Arizona State 45-7.
Virginia figured to give Florida State fits in Tallahassee but
the Cavaliers went down without much fuss. The Seminoles sent
UVa packing with a 36-3 knockout. Of course, FSU had to do this
in the same week that I anointed Virginia as my top team in the
ACC and make me look like an imbecile. Thank you very much.
Oklahoma State didn't fare much better against Texas A&M.
The Aggies invaded Stillwater with a vengeance, jumping out to
a quick 20-0 lead before the Cowboys even got on the board. A&M
extended their advantage to 36-6 at the end of three quarters
and went on to capture a 36-20 victory.
A couple of other schools were not very competitive in digesting
their first losses, either. Navy was dismissed from the unbeaten
ranks by Notre Dame, courtesy of a 27-9 shellacking in East Rutherford,
New Jersey. And Southern Miss had their Golden Eagle wings clipped
by Alabama as the Tide rolled 27-3.
Meanwhile, Auburn ran its record to 6-0 with a 38-20 pounding
of Arkansas to remain the SEC's only representative on the short
list of teams with perfect records.
Boise State avoided its first loss by scoring 10 points in the
game's final 1:24, including the game-winning 46-yard field goal
with 3 seconds left, to slip past Tulsa by the uncomfortably
close margin of 45-42.
Oklahoma's win over Kansas State wasn't quite as close as the
Broncos' encounter, though the Sooners were in peril much of
the game. The Wildcats held leads of 7-0, 14-7 and 21-17 before
the Sooners struck for the game's final 14 points and escaped
with a 31-21 victory at Manhattan.
Utah had an easy time with North Carolina as the Utes piled up
a 46-16 win and improved to 6-0.
The seven teams that remain undefeated are Auburn, Boise State,
Miami (Fla.), Oklahoma, USC, Utah and Wisconsin.
In other games, Army won for the second straight week. The Black
Knights fell behind South Florida 21-7 but then rolled off 28
unanswered points and left Tampa with a 42-35 victory to end
a 9-game road losing streak. Army ended a 19-game losing streak
last week with a 48-29 home win over Cincinnati.
One of the biggest surprises of the week has to be Minnesota's
51-16 loss to Michigan State. Just last week, the Golden Gophers
were minutes away from being a 6-0 football team and in the hunt
for the Rose Bowl. Now, they find themselves at 5-2 over-all
and just 2-2 in the Big 10.
Certainly, Iowa's 33-7 annihilation of Ohio State was unexpected.
The Buckeyes are 0-3 in the Big 10 for the first time since 1988.
As quickly as Ohio State's fortunes ascended under Jim Tressel,
the wheels have abruptly fallen off.
On a lesser level, Arkansas State's 13-9 win over Troy was a
definite eye-opener. Troy began the year with wins over Marshall
and Missouri and played South Carolina tough. But their other
three games have resulted in an inexplicable loss to a pedestrian
New Mexico State team, a win over lowly Utah State, and now a
loss to the same Arkansas State team that was blown out 45-17
by Middle Tennessee last weekend.
Earlier in the week, UAB improved to 3-0 in CUSA and 5-1 over-all
with a 41-25 home win over TCU on Friday night. On Wednesday
night, West Virginia picked off Dan Orlovsky three times and
pocketed a 31-19 win over Connecticut in its Big East opener.
Computer Hits and Misses: The computer has a perfect
mark on straight up picks with 25 teams, including 5 in the PAC-10
conference. It has a perfect ATS record with just one team -
Fresno State - but has missed just one ATS pick with 11 teams.
The computer has not made a single correct ATS pick on Arkansas
games and has just one correct ATS pick with 14 teams
It is 35-18 ATS with Sun Belt teams.
Computer Nails The Upsets Again: The computer's weekly picks based on the Congrove Computer
Rankings picked three outright upsets against the Vegas
spreads. Over the last two weeks its upset picks have gone 7-4
SU and 8-3 ATS. This week, it nailed the "upsets" of
Akron over UCF, Iowa over Ohio State and New Mexico over UNLV.
No Blemishes: Seven teams have made it to this
point without losing a single game - Auburn, Boise State, Miami
(Fla.), Oklahoma, USC, Utah and Wisconsin.
Seven teams lost for the first time this weekend. Arizona State
lost to USC, Louisville fell to Miami (Fla.), Navy succumbed
to Notre Dame, Oklahoma State lost to Texas A&M, Purdue was
beaten by Wisconsin, Southern Miss was knocked off by Alabama,
and Virginia was dropped by Florida State.
There are no undefeated teams in the Big East, CUSA, MAC or Sun
Belt. Additionally, there are no unbeaten teams in the north
division of the Big 12 or the east division of the SEC.
Streaking: Boise State has won 17 straight games over-all,
22 straight at home, and 21 straight over WAC foes after a close
encounter with Tulsa which the Broncos won 45-42 on a last-second
field goal.
USC extended the nation's second-longest winning streak to 15
with a 45-7 dismantling of Arizona State which entered the game
undefeated and on a 6-game winning streak. The Trojans have won
18 straight home games and 10 consecutive PAC-10 games.
North Texas has won 20 straight over Sun Belt conference foes.
The Mean Green was idle this week.
Southern Miss has beaten 12 consecutive CUSA opponents.
Central Florida ran the nation's
longest losing streak to 10 games with a 26-21 home defeat to
Akron.
Iowa State has lost 13 consecutive Big 12 games after a 19-14
setback at Colorado.
Illinois has lost 12 straight Big 10 games after falling at 30-19
at home to Michigan.
Temple has lost 10 straight Big East games after losing 16-6
at Rutgers.
Goliath Slays David: Two 1-A schools took on 1-AA
teams this past weekend. Florida International, which will join
the Sun Belt next year, lost to future league rival Louisiana-Monroe
28-20. Florida A&M didn't fare nearly as well. The FAMU Rattlers
lost 62-0 at Virginia Tech. For the year, 1-A teams have won
44-of-50 games against their 1-AA brethren. Florida Atlantic
has notched half of the lower division's wins. FAU, a 1-AA team
transitioning into Division 1-A and joining the Sun Belt next
season, opened the year with consecutive road wins over Hawaii,
North Texas and Middle Tennessee. |