2016 Week Two CFB Bullets
[Sarah Phipps – The Oklahoman]
It might have been the worst week of matchups on paper, but in classic college football fashion, Week Two held some surprises in store for us: look no further than the game pictured above in which Central Michigan won on a controversial long hook-and-ladder type play with no time left to upset Oklahoma State, who was favored by three scores. In a weekend in which no two ranked teams faced each other, there obviously weren’t any high-stakes matchups, but college football always somehow manages to deliver some excitement if you’re willing to sit in front of a TV for long periods of time, tirelessly flipping through the channels to find it.
Big 12
--- Firstly, we must salute our in-state brethren, the CMU Chippewas, for stunning OKLAHOMA STATE on what will surely prove to be one of the season-defining plays of 2016. After the game was extended due to an officiating error (Oklahoma State threw the ball away on fourth down as time expired and were called for intentional grounding, and the refs mistakenly gave Central an untimed down), Cooper Rush heaved the ball downfield to Jesse Kroll short of the end zone, who pitched the ball to Corey Willis, who reversed field and just barely got over the goal line to seal the 30-27 upset. It would have been a disappointing performance from the Cowboys even if they’d won (OSU had 1.9 yards per rush, and conceded four touchdowns and a ton of passing yards to Rush), but they lost in brutal fashion. Central joined its rival, Western Michigan, in upsetting a Power Five foe on the road who’d won ten games the year before. Oklahoma State looks to rebound next week against a pretty decent Pitt squad.
[more after the JUMP]
--- More on this game in a little bit, but TCU was the other ranked team to lose, though dropping a thrilling OT contest against former SWC rival Arkansas is probably better than losing to a MAC team. The Frogs were held scoreless in the first half, but they managed a comeback behind better quarterbacking from Kenny Hill (who wound up having a great day statistically – 470 total yards, 3 total touchdowns) and some electric plays from KaVontae Turpin. Unfortunately for TCU, a would-be go-ahead touchdown in the fourth was overturned on review and they were forced to attempt a last-second field goal, which was blocked, before losing in overtime.
--- Those weren’t the only Big 12 teams to lose: TEXAS TECH ran out of gas in a wild 68-55 loss late at night against Arizona State – a game in which the offenses were as good as the defenses were bad (and Texas Tech’s D was especially terrible); KANSAS lost to Ohio (not Brady Hoke Ohio) at home in a game that wasn’t competitive; IOWA STATE was utterly destroyed by rival Iowa in El Assico, 42-3, and could be headed towards a winless season. Simply put, Week Two was bad and the Big 12 should feel bad. Fun fact: the MAC finishes 2-0 against the league this year.
--- Of course, a couple teams handled their business. TEXAS and OKLAHOMA easily dispatched UTEP and Louisiana Monroe respectively. BAYLOR and WEST VIRGINIA each started slowly – and were tied at halftime against clearly inferior opponents (SMU and Youngstown State) – but pulled away to win by several scores.
[Paul Moseley – SI]
SEC
--- The best result of the weekend goes to ARKANSAS, who somehow conjured up a very entertaining contest with TCU after a pedestrian first three quarters (after which the Hogs led, 20-7). They eventually conceded three straight touchdowns to the Frogs and lost the lead; first-year starting Arkansas QB Austin Allen led the team down the field in the two minute drill and wound up catching the conversion on a two-point trick play after having thrown a touchdown the play before. After TCU kicked a field goal at the beginning of the second overtime, Allen punched in a touchdown on the following drive to give Arkansas the 48-31 win. The game itself was a contrast in styles between the pass-happy spread hurry-up typical of the Big 12 and Bret Bielema’s brand of lumbering Hog ball – and with the win, Bielema has assured himself of the first decent-at-worst start of his tenure in Fayetteville. Since LSU and Ole Miss lost their big non-conference tests, one could argue that Arkansas has as good of a shot as anybody at finishing second in the SEC West behind Alabama.
--- In the gimmicky-but-cool Battle at Bristol, TENNESSEE got back on the right track: Virginia Tech led 14-0 after a quarter, but the Vols outscored the Hokies 45-10 over the next three to emerge with a comfortable victory. It was definitely a better showing for the presumptive SEC East favorites than their Week One scare against Appalachian State; the final score might be somewhat deceptive as VT actually outgained Tennessee by 70 yards – five lost Hokie fumbles made a huge difference there. Senior QB Josh Dobbs was the leading rusher for the Vols (with 106 yards) and scored five total touchdowns. The sad footnote to this game is that the attendance number (156,990) shattered the previous record, which was held by Michigan.
--- The SEC, which had a league game last week, followed it up with two of them in Week Two: FLORIDA dismantled KENTUCKY 45-7 and MISSISSIPPI STATE recovered from a Week One upset to defeat SOUTH CAROLINA 27-14. Florida may very well be Tennessee’s top challenger and they looked great; on the other side of that coin, Kentucky turned in a horrible, horrible performance and it looks like the Mark Stoops era could be on the ropes – he has an eight-figure buyout but will almost definitely have a losing season in year four of his tenure. South Carolina found some life with Brandon McIlwain in at QB in relief of Perry Orth, but Will Muschamp’s squad didn’t have the juice to pull off a comeback.
--- ALABAMA, OLE MISS, TEXAS A&M, LSU, VANDERBILT, AUBURN, and MISSOURI all were pretty unbothered en route to comfortable wins against overmatched opponents; perhaps the biggest story out of any of those teams is that Les Miles turned to Purdue transfer QB Danny Etling, who did marginally better than Brandon Harris with a line of 6/14 for 100 yards, a TD and an INT. GEORGIA almost suffered what would have probably been the biggest upset of the season – they defeated FCS Nicholls State 26-24 and while a win is a win, the good feelings from the Week One win over UNC evaporated quickly.
[Mike Freed – Post-Gazette]
ACC
--- With all the wonderful college football rivalries falling into the dustbin of history, it’s always especially nice when one is revived: PITT renewed its series with its proper in-state rival, Penn State, and held on to win 42-39. The Panthers were dominant on the ground early (and featured some goal line H-back sweep plays with a large blocky catchy gentleman) and, even after running out to a 28-7 lead early in the second and slowing down on the scoreboard, they totaled 56 carries for 341 yards (6.1 yards per carry) and three touchdowns. Still, Penn State had the ball with a chance to tie with a field goal or take the lead with a touchdown late in the game, but Trace McSorely threw an interception after DaeShon Hamilton dropped a wide-open bomb earlier in the drive. The Nittany Lions preferred to air the ball out, but SaQuon Barkley netted five touchdowns (all of them), mostly on goal line carries. It’s too bad Pitt can’t get West Virginia back on the schedule as well.
--- The other games between ACC teams and other Power Five conference opponents were the aforementioned VIRGINIA TECH loss to Tennessee, a 44-26 loss from VIRGINIA on the road against Oregon (how this wasn’t a bigger blowout is a legitimate question), and, on the positive side of the ledger, NORTH CAROLINA went on the road to beat Lovie Smith’s Illinois, 48-23. The Tar Heels got back on track after the UGA loss and the game between they and Pitt in two weeks in Chapel Hill will determine the Coastal frontrunner. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the edge should go to Pitt in that matchup, especially because they’re generally able to pound the ball on iffy run defenses and UNC definitely has one of those.
--- There were a few conference games in Week Two: LOUISVILLE torched SYRACUSE, 62-28, in the Carrier Dome, and while Lamar Jackson added to his September Heisman campaign (510 total yards, 5 touchdowns), the degree of difficulty will ratchet up quickly when the Cardinals welcome FLORIDA STATE to town next week (the Noles beat up on a suspension-depleted FCS foe after their Week One prizefight vs. Ole Miss). Louisville – FSU is a fantastic matchup, maybe the best of this young seasonIn what comes as a bit of a surprise, WAKE FOREST defeated DUKE, 24-14 – the offensive output from the Demon Deacons was exponentially better after putting up seven points (and winning!) against Tulane in the opener. WF is now 2-0 after being one of the worst Power Five programs over the last few years.
--- MIAMI, GEORGIA TECH, and BOSTON COLLEGE handled some lower-level opponents without difficulty. NC STATE didn’t and eventually lost a back-and-forth battle on the road against East Carolina. The Pirates are 4-0 against the ACC over the last three seasons, and in a fairer world with conference promotion and relegation, ECU would be treading water in the middle of the ACC instead of futilely lobbying the Big 12 for membership. CLEMSON looked poor for the second straight weekend in a home win over Troy, and the Tigers look like a shadow of the team that was expected to spend most of the playoff race in the front of the pack.
[uncredited – Fox Sports]
Pac-12
--- Unsurprisingly Texas Tech’s defense did its best wet tissue paper impression in a 68-55 loss to ARIZONA STATE, but even with ample caveats about opponent quality, Kalen Ballage had a day: the Sun Devil goal line wildcat back scored seven rushing touchdowns (and caught another), mostly as a battering ram near the goal line – though he did have 75-yard TD scamper to seal the game in the fourth quarter. ASU gave up 540 yards and 5 touchdowns passing, but two critical second-half interceptions helped keep Texas Tech at arm’s length in what resulted in a two-score win. With uncertainty across the board in the Pac-12 South, the Sun Devils could be a contender, though their secondary’s flammability has to be a concern.
--- UTAH escaped with a win over hated rival BYU after a last-minute two-point conversion attempt that would have likely won the game for the Cougars failed. Even though the Utes accounted for six turnovers on offense, they were able to mitigate the fallout with solid defense and some turnover-forcing of their own (three picks from BYU QB Taysom Hill). As always, the Holy War is a hard-hitting, intense game, but this year’s game was far uglier than usual. Still, with the poor play design on the conversion attempt, the Utes bested their enemies at home by a single point.
--- Two Pac-12 teams traveled to good Mountain West opponents and both lost narrowly: WASHINGTON STATE went down big against Boise State but had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead as the game ended; CAL was absolutely eviscerated by San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey (29 carries, 281 yards, and 3 touchdowns), but hung around with their potent passing offense – QB Davis Webb threw the ball 71 times on Saturday. To say that either of these results were unexpected would be wrong – Boise State and SDSU are top-tier Group of Five teams and Cal and Wazzu are middling-at-best Pac-12 teams.
--- The Pac-12 did have some easy wins: WASHINGTON clobbered Idaho, USC crushed Utah State, COLORADO waxed Idaho State, and OREGON was always comfortably ahead of Virginia in a three-score win. It was a little tougher for UCLA (which needed two 4th quarter TDs to pull away from UNLV) and ARIZONA (who needed a big comeback against Grambling, an overmatched HBCU FCS program).
[Nam Y. Huh – AP]
Big Ten
--- Many people thought NORTHWESTERN’s 10-3 record last year was deceptively flattering and so far, they’ve been proven right: in Week One, they lost a tight game to Western Michigan, and in Week Two they one-upped themselves, losing a hideous 9-7 contest to FCS Illinois State on a last-second Redbird field goal that went off the upright and between the goalposts. Northwestern, which was held off the scoreboard until about midway through the fourth, ran the ball for just 2.8 yards per carry and quarterback Clayton Thorson threw for a 41% completion percentage without any big plays on 41 attempts. Chicago’s Big Ten team is now the clear disappointment of the young season, and with road games against Michigan State, Ohio State, and Iowa, bowl contention will be a challenge for NU.
--- The other conference losses in Week Two came from ILLINOIS, PENN STATE, and PURDUE – each against what are probably quality opponents (UNC, Pitt, and Cincinnati). It should be noted that Purdue’s 38-20 loss was considered a better-than-expected showing for the Boilermakers.
--- Some Big Ten teams feasted on their cupcakes just fine. MICHIGAN and OHIO STATE kept it rolling with blowout victories against overmatched opponents; the Buckeyes get a tough test in a marquee road game against Oklahoma on Saturday. As mentioned earlier, IOWA throttled Iowa State, 42-3. WISCONSIN, INDIANA, MARYLAND, and NEBRASKA defeated teams from the Group of Five. RUTGERS struggled early, but eventually trounced an FCS opponent; MINNESOTA handled theirs easily.
September 13th, 2016 at 5:15 PM ^
September 13th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^
No mention of MICHIGAN STATE in the Big Ten recap? DISRESPEKT!
September 13th, 2016 at 5:21 PM ^
Isn't that in Utah or something?
September 14th, 2016 at 7:57 AM ^
I thought they played Idle, out west somewhere?
September 13th, 2016 at 5:22 PM ^
The intent of the rule is simple; if you get rid of the ball instead of just falling on it, you're trying to stop the clock so part of the penalty is to keep the clock rolling. This doesn't consider fourth down situations when the next down is played by the opposing offense, let alone the last play of the game. It basically allows a team to seal the game by committing a penalty. The decision to toss was inexplicable and I seriously doubt it was intentional with awareness of the rule. In this specific instance, the other team SHOULD get a stopped clock/untimed down as part of the penalty, because it's the opposite of what was being attempted.
If this was some kind of serious social issue I'd be all civil disobedience, but this is sports, the rules are the rules, and the refs got it wrong. But it was only the third mistake of a really bizarre situation (decision to toss, dumb rule, officiating mistake). Anyway, there's no way OK State gets out of that game looking good.
September 13th, 2016 at 5:31 PM ^
September 13th, 2016 at 11:08 PM ^
He can handle it.
September 14th, 2016 at 9:53 AM ^
He probably makes more in a year or two than I'll make in my lifetime.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:17 PM ^
The intent of the rule is that an offense can't benefit by getting to run another play. The rule specifically mentions penalties where "loss of down" is involved. Intentional grounding is only one of these penalties, and actually, it's probably not necessary. There are other situations where you absolutely need this though:
A quarterback finds his team down four points with one second left on the clock. He lines his offense up and snaps the ball for the final play, but is forced to scramble. He crosses the line of scrimmage. The defense closes on him. He realizes he will be tackled and the game will end, so he throws an illegal forward pass. His receiver catches it in the endzone.
Without this rule, the defense is sort of screwed. If they decline the penalty, they lose. If they accept, the other team loses a down, but gets another crack at the endzone. Worse, since it's a spot foul, the untimed down might occur from better field position! You could concievably devise a strategy to string games out by constantly making illegal forward passes (or at least improve your odds by threatening to do it). That's crazy. Thus, the rule is added to prevent the offense from running an untimed down when loss of down is involved (as it is on an illegal forward pass).
But with intentional grounding, this makes no sense. If the offense is ahead when grounding occurs, the opposing team would *always* want an untimed down. If the offense is behind, the defense can always decline the penalty and end the game. It's kind of murky when the score is tied (what the defense wants probably depends on field position), but by running an untimed down if the penalty is accepted, you always give the defense the choice, which is what you want.
So yeah. What happened wasn't by the rules, but it actually was just (in a cosmic sense), and I'd love to see the NCAA address this by saying that there's always an untimed down after intentional grounding. In fact, I think it might make sense to just change the rule so that the team against whom the penalty was committed simply gets to choose in *all* situations if there is an untimed down or not. Never let a team benefit from a penalty.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:45 PM ^
September 13th, 2016 at 7:07 PM ^
Actually the QB didn't have to do anthing more. How about have the WR jog down the field toward the ball half-assedly and all is fair and lovey-dovey.
September 13th, 2016 at 5:26 PM ^
Purdue was at home against a team that honestly isn't all that good themselves (how good can a team coached by Tommy Tuberville really be), and yet they lost by 18.
September 13th, 2016 at 5:34 PM ^
September 13th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^
September 14th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
While I agree with the majority of your points, the fact is CMU should never have gotten the final play of the game. That's the rule, it was misinterpreted and the Chips made the most of it. Whether or not Oklahoma St "deserved" to lose, the refs botched the call and got suspended for it. If this happened against Michigan, I feel like we'd taking OSU's (not that OSU) stance on this.
And also, I think Ok St handled this fairly well... The AD did his job by asking for the result to be overturned, and Mike Gundy did take it like a man in the postgame presser, where he took the blame for the play call. I know he said something the other day about only using Power 5 refs for future games, but can you blame him?
September 13th, 2016 at 5:54 PM ^
I kept changing to Penn State/Pitt during the commercials of our game and as much as I hate PSU and want them to lose every game forever, you have to give them credit for coming back from a 28-7 deficit and actually having a chance to win. They looked so awful at home against Kent State, I was surprised how hard they fought in that Pitt game. It would seem our game with PSU is just like our future games against Colorado and Wisconsin. All looking more difficult than originally expected.
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September 13th, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^
NASCAR isn't a sport and any football attendance record in a NASCAR (stadium?) track? doesn't count.
BOOM #hottake
September 13th, 2016 at 6:20 PM ^
September 13th, 2016 at 11:28 PM ^
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September 13th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^
Might be too early to tell, but the Big-12 and Pac-12 are looking weak at the top, and both may not send a team to the CFP. With a strong Alabama, FSU/Clemson, OSU/Michigan/MSU, Houston, ND; it's possible they both get left out.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:20 PM ^
Big 12 looks to be in a lot of trouble, especially without a championship game. I'd bet they're left out.
The winner of the Pac 12 North probably has the only chance there. Stanford and Oregon would be tough to leave out if they have one or zero losses, but Washington would be in real trouble with a loss. Their schedule is worse than ours. A one loss Washington probably wouldn't get in over a one loss B1G team (unless it's Iowa) or undefeated Houston.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:15 PM ^
One loss Washington doesn't get in over a one loss ND either.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:31 PM ^
Especially since that ND loss would be in 2 OT, on the road, in the first week of the season.
I never like to look on the positive side for ND, but they are in the best position of any 1-loss team if they win out from here.
September 13th, 2016 at 10:26 PM ^
I think ND makes it over a one-loss Washington, but they definitely wouldn't make it over a one loss OU or Ole Miss if those teams win out. A whole slew of other teams could lose once and make it over ND. Notre Dame's schedule isn't looking that good. ND would need MSU, Miami, and USC to all finish well, probably ranked, and none of those teams is a gaurantee. Their schedule is fairly iffy with NC State, Duke, VT all looking pretty mediocre.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:16 PM ^
PAC-12 and Big 12 look very weak.
I think OSU rolls Oklahoma this weekend. I also think Stanford will dispatch USC easily; the PAC 12 South looks especially bad this year (zero ranked teams currently).
Stanford or Washington seem to be the West Coast's only shot at a playoff team, but I'm still not fully sold on Washington as a legit contender. All up to Stanford, but they usually lose one to a middling PAC 12 team.
It looks very likely that either a conference could get two teams in or Houston makes it, and honestly the Big Ten seems to have the best chance of two. Clemson looks much, much weaker than expected so I think that the loser of Clemson/FSU won't have as good a chance as a potential one loss loser of OSU/UM, especially if the loser is OSU with a non-conference road win over OU. SEC only has 1 team in the top 14 and Ole Miss and LSU (the two most likely candidates besides Bama) have already lost.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:32 PM ^
If we lose a close game at OSU as our only loss, I could see us making it as the second B1G team - if the Big 12, Pac 12 and Group of 5/ND can't produce at least two one-loss teams. It would be a heated debate whether to put a one-loss division runner-up against a two loss conference champ.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:34 PM ^
Maybe, but it will be a lot harder for us to make it if we weren't undefeated than it would be for Ohio State.
Their schedule is definitely harder than ours overall. And they also will get more benefit of the doubt because they already won the playoff two years ago.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^
will have absolutely no bearing whatsoever. I do agree with you that their schedule is more difficult which probably gives them a slight edge over us as a one-loss division runner-up trying to make the playoff, but that gap closes a little if their loss is a home loss and ours is a road loss.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:54 PM ^
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September 13th, 2016 at 8:27 PM ^
They would deserve it if that happens.
September 13th, 2016 at 10:38 PM ^
any one-loss winner of the ACC Atlantic division is going to the playoff if they win the conference title. In that scenario, the question would be whether the winner of FSU/Clemson has a shot if they're one-loss division runners up. That division is like the Big Ten East.
September 14th, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^
I meant Louisville as a one loss runner up, but yeah, unless there's some situation where the ACC winner picks up two losses, the league champion is virtually guaranteed a spot.
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September 13th, 2016 at 11:26 PM ^
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September 13th, 2016 at 7:07 PM ^
Remember when Taysom Hill was going to be THE ANSWER for us?
Me neither.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:15 PM ^
We still have the record for attendance at a game held in an actual college stadium.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:58 PM ^
Need a full MACTION recap.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:06 PM ^
All week long, at any mention of this game, I couldn't help but think of:
September 13th, 2016 at 10:19 PM ^
in the last 3 seasons. Now they lose to Wake and last I saw, they were a 6 point dog to a team that only scored 7 last week while losing to an FCS team.
September 14th, 2016 at 9:09 AM ^
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