It seems like LSU is the only team you can trust these days.
Saturday saw the end of two notable winning streaks: Wisconsin’s formerly longest active winning streak—fourteen straight wins—and USC’s home winning streak, which has stood since 2001.
The Badgers’ loss seemed to be the more impressive one in that it didn’t involve miracles or even a really close finish, just a good team playing a good game. I noted in this column last week that Illinois seemed primed for a win like this, and damn if they didn’t go and get it. The Illini dominated the Badgers for the majority of this game never trailing during the course of the game and jumping out to a 17-0 lead before Wisconsin was able to muster anything in the form of offense. However, Wisconsin did launch a comeback in the later stages of the game, but two fourth quarter turnovers (both interceptions) put an end to that.
The reason I say that USC’s loss wasn’t as big as Wisconsin’s loss is that this has been a common occurrence since the Trojans became a national power again: they lose the games you really don’t think they’re going to. Remember a few years back with the now-famous Cal loss? Nobody thought they were going to lose that one, and certainly nobody thought they were going to lose to a 6-5 UCLA team last year; but they did. And that’s exactly the fate that Pete Carrol’s team suffered against the Fighting Harbaugh’s formerly known as the Stanford Cardinal.
Late Dramatics Move LSU Past Florida
It was the game that the college football world was watching that ended up producing the day’s big drama. The ninth-ranked Florida Gators had dominated the #1 LSU Tigers in their first game as a number one in nearly 48 years through three quarters. But football is a four-quarter game.
The Gators held the ball for only 1:42 of the fourth quarter during the Tigers’ comeback, which resulted in Demetrius Byrd and Jacob Hester touchdowns, and a 28-24 come-from-behind win. The Hester touchdown was the icing on the cake for this one as not only was it the game winner, not only did it cap an eight-minute drive for LSU, but it came on a third and goal run that just screamed SEC football.
While LSU proved—for the moment—that they are clutch, there were things other than a last minute score that led to their win. The fact that they controlled the clock in the fourth quarter and the game (twelve minutes more than Florida) eventually wore down the Gator defense to the point that they succumbed to the Tiger offense that had been trying to get past that wall all game. The stat of the game for this one, however, does not involve passing or running or sacks or turnovers, but 4th downs. While Florida didn’t even attempt a fourth down the whole game, LSU went 5/5 on them with one resulting in the Byrd touchdown and two of those converted being on the game-winning drive. Either of those three miss, and we’d be talking about another big shakeup.
It’s Down to Three: Packers 2nd Half Collapse Ends With Bears Win
It should’ve been so perfect. The Chicago Bears came into Lambeau Field Sunday night, disillusioned after giving up 34 in the final quarter to Detroit last week, but also banged up still, and sporting a 1-3 record. The Green Bay Packers on the other hand came in as one of four unbeatens left in pro football with Brett Favre playing some of the best football he has in a long time.
So what happened? Because by the time the sixty minutes had gone by, the scoreboard sported what must’ve been a typo: Chicago 27, Green Bay 20.
The answer is turnovers, and plenty of them. Charles Woodson fumbled away a punt, Favre tied George Blanda’s INT record with two in this one, and James Jones lost two helping the Bears recapture the momentum and roll to a win. Momentum was all the Bears got out of those turnovers as the only turnover that was converted into points was Brian Urlacher’s interception, which lead to a Greg Olsen touchdown catch.
Monday Night Madness Propels Cowboys to 5-0
If you thought Chicago’s comeback against Arizona last year on Monday Night was bizarre, you don’t know what bizarre is. Rather than bore you with what was a fairly standard and dull football game through the first fifty-four minutes, let’s just fast forward to the final six where things got really interesting:
After a Terrence Newman interception and big return put Dallas in scoring range and a possible tie game, Tony Romo threw an interception—his fifth of the game—and all hope seemed to be lost. Romo also committed a turnover via fumble giving him six turnovers on the game and tying the Cowboy record for INT’s in a game.
However, Romo would have the ball at the end in two ways: the first coming after a Buffalo punt, the second coming after a successful onside kick. Romo drove the Cowboys 80 yards in just over three minutes while going 9/11 passing on the drive. It all culminated with Patrick Crayton catching a short touchdown pass from Romo making the score 24-22. T.O. was the obvious target for the two-point attempt and indeed the pass went to him, but T.O. could not fend off Jabari Greer who caused the incompletion. All hope was lost.
But then came the onside kick. How many times in football does an onside kick work? The answer is a number too insignificant to look up, but on this night not only did it work for Dallas, it couldn’t have been a more perfect (and lucky) execution of an onside kick.
After what seemed like more than just twenty seconds, and a booth review about a completion that wasn’t to T.O., Dallas rookie kicker Nick Folk stepped up and booted a career long 53-yard field goal. But wait, Dick Jauron called upon the NFL’s latest fad with coaches: calling timeout right before the snap of a game-winning field goal attempt. This is the most extreme way of icing a kicker for sure, but it has worked and despite the hatred people seem to have for it (it is a dick move to say the least), there’s nothing illegal about it. It wouldn’t matter as an unfazed Folk stepped up and booted another—this one official—53-yard field goal to lift Dallas to a 25-24 win.
This was one of the rare instances in pro football where a team can commit six turnovers and still end up with a win. The blame for the Bills loss shouldn’t rest on the defense that allowed Romo one great drive, but on the offense that gave the team no support whatsoever. The Buffalo defense converted two of Romo’s INT’s into touchdowns by returning them for touchdowns and giving them a 17-7 lead in the second. Then, in the third quarter, Buffalo gave themselves a 24-13 lead when Terrence McGee returned a kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown. Right there, 21 of the team’s 24 points came from defense and special teams. In the case of the Buffalo offense, they had the ball five minutes longer than Dallas did through the game, they just couldn’t make the big plays.
As for Romo, he was speechless after the game about his performance. In fact, he may have put it best when interviewed by ESPN after the game when the mention of his five interceptions Romo commented, “I thought it was seven.†Romo did show a lot of class in taking no credit for the win, instead laying that praise on the men who deserved it: his fellow teammates.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I wrote last week that the “real ride†began this weekend; in a way this has proven to be true. Wisconsin finally succumbed to their level of play, USC lost another weird one, LSU came through in the clutch, and South Florida survived to make it into the top 5. Amazingly nobody is talking about Boston College. BC has become the ACC’s ace, are still unbeaten, and are the obvious favorite to make it to the BCS from that conference. That’s as far as I’m going to go on BC, however, as nobody seems to be immune from the upset curse and if the Eagles make it through November, then we can talk. The same goes for LSU (my pick to take the SEC) as they have a tough road game at Kentucky this weekend that they very well could lose as well as the post-Thanksgiving meeting with Arkansas—at Baton Rouge. It is incredible that with all the stories, sub stories, and soap opera-like happenings in college football, it is pro football where I set my sights this coming week. The Battle of the Unbeatens is upon us as my Super Bowl pick—the New England Patriots—and the never more entertaining Dallas Cowboys bring 5-0 records into a mid-season meeting that is everything Florida/LSU should’ve been in the build-up. If it can be everything Florida/LSU was for drama, we may have pro football’s game of the year on Sunday. Tune in and find out.
