For a week where the teams know each other more than any other week of the year, the games weren’t that close.
The second to last week of November has always been reserved as the week for those games that hold a special place in the hearts of fans whose teams are involved: rivalry games. The games that bring out the hatred and passion in players and fans alike whether they’re at the stadium participating or at home watching, these games incite emotion no matter who’s playing or what the stakes are. Most of the time there are trophies to go along with the bragging rights, and plenty of times there are national title and bowl game implications. This week saw a healthy mix of both.
Bradford puts on another show stealer as Sooners run rampant on Harrell, Red Raiders
The anticipated showdown between Heisman hopefuls Graham Harrell of Texas Tech and Sam Bradford of Oklahoma turned into a showcase for the Sooners as a team and a night where the Red Raiders may have lost everything.
Bradford threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns on 14/19 passing having to do relatively little to ensure a Sooner victory.
Bradford was aided on offense by the two-man running attack of Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray who combined for 233 yards and five touchdowns on the ground, ensuring that the Sooners’ offensive effectiveness was not on the shoulders of Bradford alone.
Murray rushed for 125 yards on 18 carries scoring twice, both on one-yard runs, in the first half.
Brown would rush for 103 yards on 21 carries scoring three times on carries of 3, 4, and 2 yards respectively.
The Sooner defense was really the group deserving of the most praise on this night as the Sooners’ offensive explosion was half of the hype for this game; the Sooner defense prevented the other half from ever getting a foot in the door of this game: the Texas Tech offense.
The Sooners forced three Tech turnovers, scoring 21 points off of those; they also forced Tech to go 1/11 on third down and 3/6 on fourth down scoring 14 points off of those three missed fourth downs.
More importantly, the Sooner defense kept Graham Harrell off his game sacking him three times (he had been sacked only five times the whole season before this game), forcing him to throw an interception, and both Tech turnovers via fumble came off of passes from Harrell that were fumbled away by the receivers who caught the throws.
Despite all of this, Harrell still threw for 361 yards on 33/55 and three touchdowns.
However, the turnovers and missed fourth downs and poor tackling throughout the night became crushing blow after crushing blow that Tech crumbled under quickly and the proverbial avalanche didn’t stop until the time read all zeros after sixty minutes of play.
Buckeyes win another against the team from up North
This one was exactly what everyone though it would be.
The Buckeyes’ fifth straight win over the Wolverines (a rivalry record) was definitely the easiest of the five and probably the easiest win for the Buckeyes in this series since the famous 1968 game that saw Woody Hayes go for two with a five touchdown lead.
Beanie Wells was a big reason that the game wasn’t close as his first quarter 59-yard touchdown run set the pace for the rest of the day. The Buckeyes would rush for 232 yards as a team with 134 coming from Wells.
Buckeye running back Daniel Herron picked up the slack left by Wells, who didn’t play a lot of the second half, by rushing for two second half touchdowns, one from 49 that blew the game wide open and again from two yards.
Terrell Pryor was only able to dazzle through the air in his first outing against the Wolverines as he was sacked a number of times and did not run the ball very much. However he went 5/13 through the air for 120 yards and two touchdowns to go with one interception; a little went a long way for Pryor on this day. Pryor’s two touchdown passes were 53 and eight yards respectively combining for more than half of Pryor’s yards through the air.
The Wolverines’ only score came on a Brandon Minor one-yard plunge on fourth and goal from the one after three rushes from Minor failed to net the necessary yard. Minor set up the touchdown with a 32-yard run. He finished with 67 yards on 14 carries.
Utes clinch Mountain West, eligibility for BCS bowl game with win over BYU
The Utes had control of this one for the majority of the game and were able to finish it when it came time to do so.
With the 48-24 win, their first against BYU since 2005, the Utes completed a perfect 12-0 season and won the Mountain West conference, both firsts since 2004. And that year they went to a BCS bowl game trashing Pittsburgh in that year’s Fiesta Bowl. This year, Arizona could be their BCS destination as well.
Brian Johnson played the game of his life going 30/36 for 303 yards and four touchdowns, two of those coming in the fourth quarter to help seal the win. Johnson would add 28 yards rushing as well.
Three Ute receivers caught at least five passes in this one with Jereme Brooks catching five for 49 yards, Brent Casteel caught six for 60 yards and two touchdowns, and Freddie Brown caught eight for 97 yards.
David Reed would add four catches for 60 yards and a touchdown to cap the day of big Ute receiving performances.
The Cougars offense had to settle with an effective rushing day as running back Harvey Unga and quarterback Max Hall provided the bulk of the team’s 214 rushing yards; Harvey gained 116 and Hall gained 42. Unga scored two touchdowns while Hall would reach the end zone on an 11-yard run to make game 27-24 after three.
Despite the fact that BYU ended up with more total yards than the Utes, only controlled the ball for seven minutes less than Utah did, and the third and fourth down conversions were virtually identical, it was the Cougars six turnovers that did them in.
Cougar quarterback Max Hall became the biggest victim of the Utes’ defense’s big day as five of the six Cougar turnovers came on interceptions thrown by Hall making the beating he received at the hands of the TCU defense earlier in the year seem tame by comparison. Not only because this held the conference title in the balance, but because it was a rivalry game making it all the more the stakes all the more important and the results all the more painful.
White runs wilds on Louisville, breaks conference and NCAA records
While West Virginia has had their ups and downs this season, Pat White had stayed his usual dynamic self on the football field. The Mountaineers’ 35-21 win over Louisville in what has become a new rivalry with the battles between White and Brian Brohm was another example of White’s excellence.
White broke Donovan McNabb’s Big East record for most touchdowns responsible for as he threw for two and rushed for three on this day. White also broke the NCAA record for rushing yards by a quarterback as his career yardage on the ground stands at 4,292 at the end of this one.
After a first half that saw the Mountaineers miss a 21-yard field goal, have a touchdown overturned and on the next play have a touchdown rightly overturned, Pat White went berserk.
White ran for two of his three touchdowns in the third quarter and also connected with Dorrell Jalloh for a 28-yard touchdown turning a 7-7 halftime tie into a 28-14 Mountaineer lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
White would throw a 25-yard touchdown to Jock Sanders in the fourth quarter and ran for a 66-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
On the day, White went 6/11 for 122 yards through the air and ran for 200 yards on 21 carries.
Noel Devine contributed on the ground for the Mountaineers as well. Despite not getting into the end-zone (his “touchdown run” was overturned rightly at the end of the first half) Devine ran for 154 yards on thirteen carries.
Wolfpack eliminate North Carolina from ACC title chase
With a spot in the ACC title game on the line for the Tar Heels, NC State took it upon themselves to play spoiler in this in-state rivalry with a dominating 41-10 win.
A three touchdown third quarter, including two in a fourteen second span, sealed the game for the Wolfpack giving them a 31-10 lead after three. Jamelle Eugene ran in a touchdown from one yard, Andre Brown ran in a touchdown from two yards, and after North Carolina fumbled away the ensuing kickoff Owen Spencer caught a 21-yard touchdown for the Wolfpack.
Eugene would add another touchdown in the fourth while rushing for 56 yards on 12 carries for the game.
Brown would finish with 81 yards on 20 carries to go with his third quarter score.
For the Tar Heels, it was a day full of mistakes ending with six turnovers, three on fumbles and three interceptions from two quarterbacks. Starting QB T.J. Yates threw one interception and backup Cameron Sexton threw two.
The Wolfpack defense was also able to manhandle the Tar Heels forcing them to go only 3/11 on third downs, rush for only 56 yards as a team (to NC State’s 187 team rushing yards), but most importantly allow the Tar Heels to hold onto the ball for only 21:54 of the game. The Wolfpack controlled it for 38:06.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While the week was all about the rivalries being renewed, there were other events that made the weekend more entertaining then the slaughter after slaughter that the rivalry games gave the football world. The Wisconsin Badgers barely dodged their version of Appalachian St. beating Cal-Poly 36-35 in overtime thanks to a missed extra point in overtime and a missed extra point during regulation that helped send the game to overtime. Joe Paterno is going back to the Rose Bowl for the first time in fourteen seasons as his Nittany Lions left nothing to chance after losing out on a national title opportunity with a 49-18 spanking of Michigan St., a team that will have to settle on Orlando or Tampa as a bowl destination, but will likely be playing January 1 as well. Two rematches—Falcons/Panthers and Patriots/Dolphins—were the exact opposite of their earlier renditions with both being all out shootouts with Atlanta and New England getting revenge wins. Randy Moss and Terrell Owens both returned to old form with games that reminded people that they are still Randy Moss and Terrell Owens as both gained over 100 receiving yards in the same week for the first time in over a year. Plus, Adam Vinatieri added another notch into his “Mr. Clutch” belt with a 51-yard field goal at the final gun to lift the Colts past San Diego in a very interesting week beyond the main attraction. Oh and that Brett Favre guy helped the Jets give the Titans their first loss of the season in a rout from start to finish.
