Things are going to get more real and a lot more confusing from here on out.
After a week that saw an offensive explosive rare amongst top 25 teams as well as this explosion extending to the pros with San Diego & New Orleans lighting up London and the Colts and Titans scoring more than a listless Colt offense and a conservative Titan offense should have, the football world saw the beginning of November initiate the point in the season where the smooth and sometimes bumpy road turns into a full on roller coaster ride.
Crabtree gives Texas Tech first ever win over #1 team ending Texas’ unbeaten season, possibly McCoy’s Heisman chances
Graham Harrell became a bona fide Heisman candidate while Michael Crabtree became a hero all in one night.
Seventh-ranked Texas Tech claimed the school’s 500th football win and its first against a top-ranked foe in defeating formerly unbeaten Texas 39-33 in one of the most dramatic finishes of the year.
After McCoy lead the Longhorns to a score to claim a one-point lead with a minute and a half to play, Harrell lead the Red Raiders down the field, the drive ending with Crabtree’s climactic 28-yard touchdown grab that saw him break a tackle and nearly step out of bounds on his way into the end-zone for the win.
Crabtree ended the night with 127 yards receiving on 10 catches to go along with what could be the most famous catch of his career.
Up until Crabtree vaulted himself into lore, the night was about the Colt McCoy/Graham Harrell shootout that saw the two quarterbacks combine for 768 yards passing (474 for Harrell, 294 for McCoy) with two touchdown passes apiece. McCoy went 20/34 through the air while Harrell went 36/53.
Jordan Shipley had another breakthrough game beginning the Longhorns’ comeback with a 45-yard punt return early in the third quarter. Shipley ended the game with 162 combined yards—75 on kickoff returns, 45 on his punt return touchdown, and 42 receiving yards.
Edward Britton became the Red Raiders second big weapon for Harrell as he caught seven passed for 139 yards.
The Red Raiders burst out to a quick 19-0 leading scoring touchdowns on the ground and through the air, getting a field-goal from contest winner Matt Williams, and beginning the night’s scoring by sacking McCoy in the end-zone for a safety. Tech would end up with a 22-6 halftime lead, the biggest halftime deficit of the year for Texas.
It would appear that by the time the Longhorns took their first lead of the game they had spent all they had while Harrell and the Red Raiders had plenty of time and plenty left in the tank that a score was almost anticlimactic. It was the how that became the climactic moment of the game.
Gators get revenge in devastating fashion 49-10 over Georgia
After being embarrassed by the whole-team celebration after Georgia’s first score against them last year, the Florida Gators vowed revenge. They got in a fashion that most predicted by blowing the eighth-ranked Bulldogs away by 39. While the Bulldogs did come into this game beaten up by injuries, it hardly would’ve made a difference.
Tim Tebow broke Florida’s all-time touchdown mark in route to a big day that saw last year’s Heisman winner go 10/13 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 39 yards and three scores. While Tebow is a dark horse pick at best to repeat as Heisman Trophy winner, this performance did vault him back into the race and a month for the ages could make things difficult for those voting for college football’s highest individual honor.
Percy Harvin continued to be the dual threat he’s always been catching and rushing for touchdowns while putting up 89 combined yards—52 receiving, 37 rushing.
Mohamed Massaquoi was the only bright spot for the Bulldogs pulling in five catches for 112 yards.
The Bulldogs’ only scores of the game came on a Blair Walsh field goal in the second quarter and an Aron White touchdown catch with 3:09 remaining.
The story of this game was the Gator defense getting to Matt Stafford all day and keeping Knowshon Moreno in check forcing four Bulldog turnovers—three interceptions, one fumble recovery—all coming from Stafford. Those turnovers resulted in 21 points creating the rout.
After slow start, Giants rebound to easy win as Dallas still ailing without Romo
The Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback situation has gone from bad to catastrophic in the course of a few weeks continuing with this past weekend’s poor showing in a 35-14 home loss to division rival the New York Giants.
Brad Johnson shared the quarterbacking duties with Brooks Bollinger with neither proving effective. Johnson went 5/11 for 71 yards with two interceptions while Bollinger was able to throw a touchdown on 9/16 for 63 yards, but also threw an INT.
Eli Manning on the other hand had his usual efficient day throwing 16/27 for 147 yards and three touchdowns with an interception that proved meaningless.
The Giants running attack proved to be the main source of their offense in this one as they rushed for 200 yards as a team with Brandon Jacobs rushing for 117 and Derrick Ward gaining 63.
Despite the domination, the mistake count was virtually even as Dallas had only one more penalty than the Giants, 9-8. In turnovers, the two teams combined for seven in the game with Dallas committing four to the Giants’ three. And the teams were virtually identical on third downs with the Giants converting only one more third down than Dallas with the same amount of third downs for both teams.
Colts stop losing skid with close win over Patriots
What would you call a game with two admirable quarterback performances, but most of the scoring coming from the kickers? You would call it the Sunday night game this past weekend as the Indianapolis Colts got back to .500 with a close 18-15 win over the New England Patriots. The game that still provided the importance it usually does, but this year the importance was felt only amongst the two teams rather than across the league as it has in the past.
Manning went 21/29 for 254 yards and two touchdowns in one of his best showings of the year.
Matt Cassel continued to prove his worth to New England with another solid outing going 25/34 for 204 yards, but the lack of a touchdown pass and an interception would help make the difference.
A Randy Moss fumble would also prove costly, as it would be on what would be the final play of the game.
The game winner came from Adam Vinatieri from 52 yards with 8:05 to play.
In the end, this game was simply an well played chess match as the two teams rung up plenty of yards (over 600 combined), there were few penalties, third downs were pretty efficient, but the few mistakes that were made were on one side and fitting—as in a game of chess—that the one side that makes the big mistakes ends up on the losing end.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This weekend, as good and exciting as it turned out to be, is only the appetizer to what is to come. It’s not coincidence that a weekend full of last second finishes and exciting games began the month of November. November is the month when everything begins to take shape, and that includes the NFL. While the NFL goes to the end of the year with its regular season, this is the part of the year where the pretenders are filtered out and the wildcard races that usually provide the end of the regular season’s excitement begin. In college football, it’s the month where dreams come true one week and turn into nightmares the next. It’s a month where anything can happen and everything does happen. It’s a month where rivalries dominate the end of the month bringing out those buried emotions of hatred between cities and states and provides the synopsis for the same story that is rerun every year, but never gets old. It’s the month of November and it’s the best month for football. Be prepared or get ready to grab the oxygen.
