It's really hard to win football games, and four other thoughts from Week 8
Week 8 of the college football season was in the books. Let's take a quick rewind through the day's events with five quick reactions from a full day of action.
1. It was a day of significant shake-up in the race for the College Football Playoff. Florida State solidified its place among the top three beyond being last year's national champions, Alabama, Kansas State, TCU, Oregon and Ohio State (not necessarily in that order) significantly boosted their chances while Baylor all but ended theirs, and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State absolutely ended theirs. For more on that, click here.
2. Let's play guess the score. Without knowing anything else, what would you say the score of this game was?
Maybe a 21-10 win for the home team, right?
Now let's add this:
Yeah, this is Florida-Missouri.
The Tigers built a 42-0 lead while impossibly scoring only one offensive touchdown - on a 19-yard drive - thanks to a 96-yard kickoff return, an 82-yard punt return, a 21-yard fumble return, and a 46-yard interception return. Defense has never been a problem for Will Muschamp's Florida teams, and now the program is to a point where defense is the only thing that isn't a problem. That's the only way you fall into a 42-point hole while holding the opposition to 2.4 yards per play.
Muschamp is now 0-2 when holding the opposition to below 120 yards of total offense at Florida. The rest of FBS is a combined 94-0 over that span.
3. Let's play guess the score one more time. Okay, there's noting deceiving about this box score. This is where Alabama and Texas A&M stood at halftime, a 45-0 Tide lead.
Alabama might really be this good, but there is no way Texas A&M is this bad. After eight straight weeks and three straight ugly losses, there is no team in college football more desperately in need of a bye.
4. It's really hard to win college football games. Case in point...
- Purdue, who led Minnesota 31-20 at halftime and 38-29 in the third quarter, and lost 39-38.
- Western Kentucky, who led Florida Atlantic on the road 31-14 at the half and 38-28 through three, and lost 45-38.
- Tulsa, who led South Florida 27-7 at the half and 30-14 in the third quarter, and lost 38-30.
- Notre Dame, who led Florida State five different times and even registered the game-winning touchdown, and lost 31-27.
- California, who led UCLA on three different occasions and was in position to try a game-winning field goal, but threw an interception and lost 36-34.
- Oklahoma, who had one of the best kickers in college football, until he misses two field goals (one essentially an extra point) and gets an extra point blocked, and the Sooners lose 31-30 to Kansas State.
- Iowa State, who fought back from deficits of 14-0, 28-21, 31-28, 38-31 and 45-38 to tie the game at 45-45 with 28 seconds to go, only to allow Texas to move 68 yards in 25 seconds and lose 48-45.
- Georgia Tech, who led 7-0, 10-7, 24-21 and 43-42 but couldn't get one last stop and North Carolina to notch the winning touchdown with 11 seconds left, losing 48-43.
- BYU, who led Nevada 28-13 at the half before surrendering four unanswered touchdowns in a 42-35 loss despite outgaining the Wolf Pack by 190 yards.
5. The officiating in the West Virginia's upset of Baylor was wilder than the game itself. The best thing officials have done this season was pull a rule out of the book. Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman was flagged for targeting on this violent but completely legal hit on West Virginia cornerback Terrell Chestnut, which meant Coleman was (temporarily) automatically ejected pending review.
After review the penalty was overturned. A year ago, Coleman would have re-entered the game, but Baylor would have still taken six points off the board (Antwan Goodley scored on the play) and had the ball placed at the 35. Instead, the points stood.
Still, it wasn't a banner day for the Big 12 refs in Morgantown.
Mike Pereria trolled the officiating crew later in the game after a flag was thrown on West Virginia for having an illegal man downfield on a 3rd-and-15 screen pass. They then reviewed the play, which you can't do. Thankfully they did though, because the pass was caught behind the line of scrimmage, which nullified the penalty. After the 324th (approximate) penalty/review of the day, West Virginia fans started throwing things (candy, most likely) on the field. In all, West Virginia and Baylor were tagged with 32 flags for 353 yards.
