College Football Week 11 Recap

It was the best week of the season so far for my bold predictions:

1. Oregon gives Stanford taste of their own medicine with upset win over Cardinal

This may be my best bold prediction of the year to date, as not too many people were expecting the Ducks to compete, let alone win this game.  But win they did, with a score of 38 - 36, very close to my 37 - 34 prediction.  With Stanford and Utah both losing their second games of the season, it now looks like a very real possibility that the Pac 12 will be excluded from this year's playoffs.

2. Oklahoma gets revenge on Baylor with double-digit win

Another prediction that I nailed, as the Bears struggled to move the ball consistently against a decent defense, and eventually fell to the Sooners, 44 - 34.  There is still a lot of football to be played in the Big 12, but Oklahoma looks like they might be the top contender in that league.  Their season finale showdown with Oklahoma State certainly looks like it could be a huge game, with serious playoff implications.

3. Slobs pave way for 300+ rushing yards vs Illinois

The Buckeyes were close, with 283 yards on the ground, but the Illini defense played much better than I expected overall and busted this prediction as a result.  It's clear that the improved numbers for the Illinois defense show real progress on that side of the ball.  But on the other side, Ohio State dominated on defense once again, allowing only 3 points and keeping the Illini from ever really threatening to end the Buckeyes' win streak.  That said, OSU will have to be much better on offense going forward, as the competition gets drastically tougher from here on out, starting with Michigan State next week.  For now, the Buckeyes will enjoy the 28 - 3 victory.

4. Iowa falls to Minnesota

The Gophers came up just short once again in their third straight week facing a ranked opponent.  The Hawkeyes now need just one more win to clinch their division and a berth in the B1G championship.  But they're likely eyeing much more than that, as they appear on the cusp of a top-4 ranking after a 40 - 35 win over Minnesota.

5. Missouri scores points

The Tigers not only scored points, but they exceeded their season scoring average with an offensive explosion of 20 points.  And to top it off, it was even enough to beat BYU, who only managed 16 points.  Perhaps the turmoil at Mizzou brought the football team closer together, rather than divide them as I thought it might.  Or maybe BYU just isn't that good.

Week 11 record: 3 - 2
Overall record: 15 - 40

Check out my week 12 rankings

Other headlines from week 11:

Michigan survives 2OT thriller in Bloomington

It was another wild finish for the Wolverines, but this time they managed to come out with the win despite being down by 7 with five seconds to play.  They scored at the last possible moment, to send it to overtime and eventually came out on top.  Perhaps the most surprising part of the game was not that the Hoosiers took Michigan to the brink, but how they did it.  They ran on the Wolverines' vaunted rushing defense seemingly at will, especially late in the game.  Indiana racked up 307 yards on the ground - nearly four times the average allowed by Michigan.  It wasn't until Indiana finally attempted a pass in the second OT period, after 21 straight rushes, that the Hoosiers were stopped.

Harvard marching band pays tribute

A lot of university marching bands have done some pretty amazing stuff on the football field.  Why can't the Ivy League-ers get in on the action too?  Harvard did just that this weekend with this interesting formation.  Can you read what they spelled?

That's right, they spelled "PENN"!  They were of course honoring their opponent, University of Pennsylvania.  That is what you guessed, right?

Ref tells Central Michigan band, cheerleaders to shut up

Isn't making noise kind of the point of home-field advantage?  This ref doesn't think so and he was having none of it.