Upon Further Review (Week 4)

Alleged Experts Getting Stupider

Alleged TV analyst Bob Davie opened the telecast of the Florida-Kentucky game on ESPN 2 by asking,
"How will Florida bounce back from their ten point win over Tennessee?"

Bob, how do you bounce back from a win? Why do the alleged experts continue to treat that game as if it were a loss? Look at the box score. Please. Florida scored more points than Tennessee. The outcome was never really in doubt.

But when Michigan needs a touchdown with 2:29 left in the game to beat Indiana 36-33 in Ann Arbor, ABC's John Saunders later says, "the Wolverines continue to roll...." Really?

Indiana had 467 yards of total offense and scored 33 points. They had more trips into the red zone (5) than Michigan (2), but settled too often for field goals, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.

Meanwhile, Michigan's defense is currently ranked 89th in the nation. In October, they play at Iowa and at Penn State. That's when we'll find out if they're on a roll, John.

(Photo courtesy of ESPN.com)

It's Tough at the Top

Last week was not a good time to be ranked in the Top 10 in college football. Number 4 (Mississippi), 5 (Penn State), 6 (California) and 9 (Miami) all lost. And number 7 (LSU) needed a late goal line stand to preserve a win over Mississippi State.

Mississippi's loss to South Carolina (Thursday) was the 4th time this season that a top 5 team has lost to an unranked opponent.

With drama from the top of the ranks to the bottom, it was another extremely entertaining week in college football. Georgia beat Arizona State 20-17 with a field goal on the last play of the game. Houston's 29-28 win over Texas Tech was really fun to watch. Boston College squeaked by Wake Forest 27-24 in overtime. NC State rallied from a 31-17 deficit to beat Pittsburgh 38-31. Purdue fell behind 17-7, then came back to take the lead, and then choked it away in a 24-21 loss to Notre Dame. Which leads me to...

The Bone Head Call of the Week

Nursing a 21-17 lead with :37 remaining, Purdue stopped Notre Dame on the 2 yard line on 2nd and goal. The Irish had no timeouts left, and almost no option but to scramble to line up on 3rd down and spike the ball to stop the clock. That would leave them one shot at the end zone on 4th down.

For reasons that only he knows, Purdue coach Danny Hope decided, at that moment, to call a timeout. Thankfully, I was watching at home alone, and nobody heard the things I screamed at the TV.

Never mind the chance of a miscue on a hurried shotgun snap to a hobbled Jimmy Clausen. Never mind the idea of making Notre Dame scramble to line up correctly - they had already been called for three illegal formation penalties in the game when they had tons of time to line up.

Oh no. Timeout, Purdue.

I guess he wanted to make sure his defense was organized, but what he did was allow Notre Dame the luxury of running two plays rather than just one.

They needed both of them. The 3rd down play was an incomplete pass, but, on 4th down, Clausen threw a touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Rudolph. The Irish win.

After the game, Hope said, "If I looked at the situation again, maybe it wasn’t a great idea."

Ya think?