Posted: November 12, 2013

Oklahoma at Baylor – The Baylor offense came to play as we all expected they would. What was surprising was the Baylor defense. The Sooners struggled to get things going and were never able to find their offensive rhythm being held to 237 total yards and only 10 offensive points. The Bears move to 8-0 and now that their schedule has some meat to it, may finally get into the national title conversation.

Oregon at Stanford – For the second year in a row, the Cardinal has crushed the Ducks hopes at a national title. Stanford pounded on Oregon jumping out to a 26-0 lead before holding back a late rally by the Ducks. Time of possession in this game was 42:34 to 17:26. The Cardinal shut down the high flying offense of Oregon for much of this game and when it really mattered. It is going to take a very strange confluence of events for the Ducks to get back into the title discussion. Stanford, no matter how great they looked in this game, is going to be dragged down by that inexplicable (more so now) loss to Utah. Ohio State and Baylor could not have been more thrilled by the outcome of this game.

Vanderbilt at Florida – Not only did the Commodores win for the first time at Florida since 1945, they did it in a dominating manner. This game was an embarrassment for Will Muschamp and my beloved Gators. I am not sure what, but something needs to change in Gainesville. The Gators must now beat either South Carolina or Florida State (assuming they can beat Georgia Southern, which is not certain anymore) to reach a bowl. That’s a tall order and the faithful in Gainesville will not handle that well.

Virginia Tech at Miami – The Canes lose in a very sloppy effort, being out gained 549 to 352. The Hokies took advantage of every opportunity that Miami gave them and it yielded a comfortable win. The Hokies win creates an absolute mess atop the ACC Coastal as four teams have two loses. The Canes are now on a two game losing streak and will look to right the ship against Duke.

Notre Dame at Pittsburgh – The Panthers rallied from a 21-14 deficit to beat the Irish 28-21. Tommy Rees threw two fourth quarter INT’s to aid in the Panther effort to pull the upset. The Irish are not good enough to overcome such turnovers, even against a Panther team that is mediocre at best. Due to the peculiarities of the BCS scheme, I think the Irish can close with two more loses and still get a BCS bid. I am glad this is the last year of that.

LSU at Alabama – The Tide flexed their muscle in this game rushing for 193 yards on a solid Tiger defense. The Tide outscored LSU 21-3 in the second half to pull away after the break. LSU just did not have the horses to stay with this Alabama team. The only real hurdle for the Tide for the rest of the year is the Iron Bowl against Auburn and what will likely be an over matched team, likely Missouri or South Carolina, from the East in the SEC Championship game. Looks like the Seminoles and the Tide are on a collision course. I will toot my horn here because some of my other predictions were just lousy, but I had the Noles and Tide in the Championship game in my preseason predictions. All this means is one of them will lose. So then is it Baylor or Ohio State…if you ask me, the next best team is Stanford, but that loss to Utah prevents that.