The earth seems to shatter just about every week now.
The term “earth shattering upset” is thrown out there for those wins that are incredibly unexpected and may have even been branded impossible. Most of the time these upsets are in the college football world concerning top ten teams or teams with name recognition being beaten by those you wouldn’t even dream would beat them, and maybe even how they were beaten (see Michigan/Appalachian St. from 2007). With the increased parity football has experienced in recent years, the term has lost some of its value with upset after upset after upset taking up more and more of the football season. This past weekend was a weekend that demonstrated this with four of college football’s top ten teams going down, three to unranked foes. And even in the pro ranks there can still be some results that surprise you.
LIONS WIN! And the nightmare ends
The last time the Detroit Lions won a football game Brett Favre was still playing for the Packers, George Bush was still in the White House, and Tim Tebow had just won the Heisman trophy. Sunday, the Detroit Lions won their first football game in nineteen tries over the Washington Redskins 19-14.
Maybe it was destined as Detroit didn’t turn the ball over and in general didn’t make the mistakes that repeatedly had cost them football games. Matt Stafford didn’t throw an INT while going 21/36 for 241 yards and a touchdown passing.
Kevin Smith did a lot of the Lions’ work rushing for 101 yards on sixteen carries.
Kevin Campbell did his part in keeping Washington in the game going 27/41 passing for 340 yards and two touchdowns.
In the end, the Lions simply were able to keep Washington away for the ball holding it for almost fourteen minutes more than the Redskins.
Penn St. shocked by Hawkeyes for second straight year
We all thought it was the fact that it was a road game that Penn St. slipped up against Iowa last year. Saturday night we found out the Hawkeyes simply have Joe Pa’s number upsetting the fifth-ranked Nittany Lions for the second straight year when Penn St. has been in the top five against Iowa. The win was Iowa’s sixth in their last seven meetings with Penn St.
Chaz Powell’s 79-yard touchdown reception and a Collin Wagner field goal gave the Nittany Lions a 10-0 cushion after the first quarter.
The Hawkeyes proceeded to dominate the remaining three quarters scoring 21 unanswered points in various ways including Adrian Clayborn’s return touchdown of a blocked punt. The score put the Hawkeyes up for good with 12:21 to go.
Adam Robinson iced the game for Iowa with his thirteen-yard touchdown run the next time Iowa had the ball. Robinson finished with 88 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.
Mistakes sealed Penn St.’s fate in this one with Heisman hopeful Daryll Clark threw three interceptions, and with almost every other statistical category being close between the two, those turnovers became the x-factor in this one.
Favre does it again, this time for Vikings in final seconds
It was only a matter of time before Brett Favre had that game that solidified his arrival in a new setting. Last year Favre threw a career-best six touchdown passes early last season that jump started the Jets’ run towards the AFC East title that came up just short. Obviously the Vikings don’t plan on coming up short, but was it for sure is that Favre has arrived in Minnesota by following up a massively efficient passing day with a good passing day capped off by a last minute, game winning touchdown drive.
Favre finished the day 24/46 for 301 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
The final drive was classic Favre. Not only did Favre go 7/8 for 80 yards on the drive, not only did he throw the game winning score with just seconds to play, but he did it with no timeouts. The catch was possibly better than the whole drive with receiver Greg Lewis making a leaping grab and then just barely getting his left foot in bounds at the back of the end-zone while simultaneously getting his right foot down enough to graze the grass and make the catch, and touchdown, official.
Adrian Peterson had a less than stellar day rushing for 85 yards on 19 carries.
Vernon Davis did his part to keep the 49ers in the game with two touchdown grabs including the go-ahead score for San Francisco with just over eight minutes to play. Davis finished with 96 yards on seven catches.
Hokies stomp Miami amidst pouring rain
It was classic Virginia Tech football under Frank Beamer. The eleventh-ranked Hokies demolished the #9 Miami Hurricanes in a game that had ACC game of the year hype going in. Once the game began, the story was much different with the Hokies defense holding Miami to 209 yards of total offense, forcing two Miami turnovers, and forcing Miami to only 1/11 on third downs.
Hurricane Heisman hopeful Jacory Harris was the second such quarterback to go down Saturday. Harris went 9/25 for 150 yards and threw an interception.
A massive rainstorm that had the field soaked in rain to the extent that every step a player took looked as if it was into a puddle.
The weather conditions turned the game into a rushing battle with the Hokies being much more capable of playing that game.
Hokie running back Ryan Williams had a huge day running for 150 yards on 34 carries and scoring twice. Hokie quarterback Tyrod Taylor ran for 75 yards on ten carries and running back Josh Oglesby ran for 48 yards on four carries. The Hokies averaged 4.9 yards a carry for the game.
The telling moment of this game came in the second quarter when Matt Reidy returned a blocked punt for a Virginia Tech touchdown. Classic Beamerball. That score made the game 21-0 and Miami never had a chance from that point on.
Motivated Oregon shocks and stomps Cal 42-3
Oregon provided another in a long line of weird upsets. The team that looked to be still putting things together after losing LeGarrette Blount was able to man up in one of the most spectacular fashions destroying Cal and their Heisman Hopeful, running back Jahvid Best, to the tune of 42-3.
As if keeping Cal from scoring a touchdown was impressive enough, Oregon’s 42 points all came unanswered after Cal opened the day’s scoring with an early field goal.
Best finished with only 55 yards on 16 carries.
Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli reasserted his position as leader on the field by divebombing the Golden Bear defense to the tune of 253 passing yards on an impressive 21/25 passing, and three touchdowns. Even the Ducks’ backup put in a good day with backup quarterback Nate Costa going 4/7 for 35 yards.
Ed Dickson was the favorite target of Masoli’s as all three of the Ducks’ passing scores were to Dickson. He finished with 148 yards on 11 catches to go with the scores.
The Ducks have been more of a running team in recent years and even with Masoli’s big day that was the case last weekend. The Ducks rushed for 256 yards as a team to Cal’s 77. LaMichael James led the charge with 118 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown. Remene Alston Jr. also had a rushing touchdown to go with 42 yards on six carries.
Ole Miss brought down by South Carolina defense
The first major upset of the weekend was last week’s Thursday game with Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks upended the fourth-ranked Rebels of Ole Miss 16-10. The Gamecocks pulled off the upset with a defense that kept Rebel quarterback Jevan Snead in check and held Ole Miss to 1/13 on third downs and 1/4 on fourth downs all the while South Carolina’s offense didn’t produce nearly what they had in their beginning three games.
Snead finished 7/21 for 107 yards with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Markeith Summers in the fourth quarter. The score capped the day’s scoring.
The Gamecocks’ offense being unable to move the ball was the main thing that kept this game close as South Carolina went only 6/16 on third downs and rushed for only 65 yards as a team—equaling their penalty yards for the game.
The Gamecocks seemed content to play a defensive game relying on kicker Spencer Lanning for most of their scoring. Lanning kicked three short field goals on possessions where South Carolina was stopped in the Ole Miss red-zone.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite even more evidence of how things are completely opposite the preseason predictions, there were some things this past weekend that seemed normal. The Pats and Colts both were dominant and the Pats were even running the ball again! Brett Favre lead a game-winning drive, Florida, Alabama, and Texas all won convincingly, USC got back on track, and the Cowboys won on Monday night. For all things change, they still kind of stay the same, but it has still been impressive how things have not gone according to plan if you will with Denver starting 3-0 and Tennessee starting 0-3, and Michigan not folding in the final minutes of close games. All in all, the entertainment level of this football season has been up there, I won’t say unprecedented, but it’s getting there. In finishing this week, I would like to address the fortune of one Tim Tebow this past weekend. Tebow was taken to a nearby hospital in Kentucky after suffering a concussion during Florida’s 41-7 win over Kentucky. On the play, Tebow was sacked by Wildcat defensive end Taylor Wyndham and while the two were falling to the ground, Tebow hit his head on the knee of offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert, who was blocking somebody at that spot at that moment. Tebow was down for a good period of time, seemed groggy on the sidelines, and even vomited several times before being taken out of the stadium. I’m not going to go on a tirade about how this is a disaster for college football if Tebow’s out, etc. I will note that any talk of the hit being clean or not is complete nonsense as Tebow’s head against his teammate’s knee is what caused the concussion, past that the play was clean as a sheet and a nice sack at that. Tebow has had to prove his toughness and his will in the past and has come through with flying colors every time; this time will be no different. The fact that it came right before the Gators’ bye week shows that even while getting injured, Tim Tebow can do things right.
