NCAA Tailgate Cleanup: Week Nine
Published October 30, 2006
With Missouri losing, Nebraska knew they only needed a win for sole possession of the lead in the North. However, after getting out to a 23-13 lead with less than a minute to go in the first half, they allowed Oklahoma State to come right back. The Cowboys scored 28 unanswered points and took the contest, 41-29. Dantrell Savage had 117 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns in the victory. The losses by both Missouri and Nebraska back them into a big game next week when the two meet in Lincoln. The winner will have the edge in the North and a downhill road to a berth in Kansas City.
South division leader Texas hadn't lost to a Big XII foe other than Oklahoma since 2002. The team that managed to beat them then was Texas Tech. Through the first quarter on Saturday, it looked as if Texas Tech might just beat the Longhorns again.
Texas turned the ball over twice in the first 15 minutes with both miscues resulting in scores for the Red Raiders who jumped to a 21-0 lead. Colt McCoy settled down enough to get Texas back within 10, at 31-21 entering halftime, by throwing three touchdown passes.
Texas fumbled the ball away twice more in the second half but kept Texas Tech off of the scoreboard. A McCoy pass to Quan Cosby early in the fourth quarter put the Longhorns ahead for the first time all day, and they held on for the 35-31 victory. McCoy finished with 256 yards passing, 68 more rushing, and four touchdowns on the day with only the single interception against him.
In other action, Texas A&M held off surprising Baylor for a 31-21 win and sole possession of second place in the South Division. The Aggies close their season with a string of games against three ranked teams beginning with Oklahoma next week. Despite giving up a 95 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Kansas was able to hold on and beat Colorado 20-15. The win was Kansas's first victory in the conference this season. Iowa State remains the only team in the conference without a Big XII victory as they lost to Kansas State, 31-10. The Wildcats scored 31 straight points after falling behind 10-0 after the first quarter. Iowa State faces Kansas and Colorado over the next two weeks for a chance at their first conference win.
Big East
This sets up the important Thursday game. But also allows Rutgers to play a factor by playing both teams in the upcoming weeks.
Matt Sussman is the sports editor of BC Magazine and also writes for Deadspin, SPORTSbyBROOKS, The Futon Report, and the Toledo Free Press. Catch him Mondays and Fridays at 8 p.m. ET with asst. sports editor Tuffy on Treehouse Fort, the official show of BC Sports. E-mail sports-related inquiries (or inquiry-related sports, such as full-contact Twenty Questions) to matt.sussman@blogcritics.org.
- NCAA Tailgate Cleanup: Week Nine
- Published: October 30, 2006
- Type: News
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Sports: College, Sports: Football (American)
- Part of a feature: BC Tailgate
- Writer: Matthew T. Sussman
- Matthew T. Sussman's BC Writer page
- Matthew T. Sussman's personal site
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Reader James Rishel alerted me of my screw up on the PSU/PU recap. I don't know what I was doing when I wrote that game up. I even watched the game; well, I flipped back and forth between the five 12:00 Big Ten games. Honestly, that game was the most boring of the five, so I spent the least amount of time with it. I was trying to finish my column before going to the Browns game and that's where my egregious error came to play.
Here's what happened in real life, not in my head:
PSU won with two field goals and a touchdown by Tony Hunt with a missed two point conversion.
Aw, you and your "facts" when it comes to my impeccable analogies.
Each week, there's at least one conference game that is absolutely unbearable to watch. I think I tricked myself into thinking it was worse than what it really was. Four field goals is far more boring than a touchdown, missed PAT, and two field goals.
Least informative blog on sports I've ever seen.
You guys don't know anything about football.
Why keep trying??? Go back to flipping burgers.
Hey Adam (Pac-10 writer),
There's this thing...it's called the Internet...you might want to consider using it for research before you post false information.
In the case of a tie, the Pac-10's Rose Bowl representative is determined by the winner of the head-to-head match-up. Period. That's it. If there's a three-way (or more) tie and each team has equal records against the others, they go to a comparison system vs. the other teams in the conference.
Only as a last resort is the "who hasn't been in the Rose Bowl the longest" rule applied. And that will never happen, especially now with the 9-game schedule in place.
Check it out for yourself at pac-10.org
Sorry about the tiebreaker error. I stand corrected.
Adam,
Don't apologize to that Pac-10, Bruin Lovin' fan. He likes the Pac-10. Does it really matter what the tie-breaker of the worst conference in all of collegiate sports is? They could flip a coin or throw darts at all of the teams and the nation would even bat an eye.
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When did Krispy Kreme start serving turnovers?