CFB 2011 Week 9 Recap: Drama Club

Oct 31, 2011

If the pair of heart-stopping finishes in Week 8 didn’t quite satisfy your craving for college football drama, this weekend’s avalanche of awesome outcomes most certainly scratched that dramatic itch.

Six teams ranked in the top 25 toppled on Saturday, including fifth-ranked Clemson and previously unbeaten Kansas State.

And if the mere thought of ranked teams losing doesn’t grab ya, how about seven games that went down to the wire, including a triple overtime thriller in Pasadena and yet another gut-wrenching, last-second loss for Wisconsin?

Oh Week 9, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

1.) I’m not sure what was more thrilling, watching Ohio State and Wisconsin trade scores for the final three minutes of their incredible contest in Columbus, or seeing Andrew Luck toy with Tosh.O Kiffin and his USC Trojans.

The wild West shootout in the Rose Bowl made for thrilling television, with both teams combining for 60 points in the fourth quarter and overtime before the Cardinal got “lucky” when SC fumbled through the end zone while attempting to score and pull within two points at 56-54.

But nothing can match the agony of what the Badgers went through for the second consecutive week.

After rallying to take a 29-26 lead with 1:18 left despite trailing most of the game, Wisky thought it had put last week’s Hail Mary by Michigan State behind them for good.

But a terrific kickoff return by OSU set up another Hail Hail situation, and incredibly, Buckeye freshman QB Braxton Miller pulled off the stunning feat with a running heave from midfield that found Devin Smith open in the end zone with :20 seconds left for the win.

And from here on out, a Hail Mary shall be referred to as a Badger Beater.

2.) Missouri pulled out an overtime thriller of its own, dropping 16Texas A&M, 38-31 in one OT, thanks to the terrific play of quarterback James Franklin.

Trailing 28-17 in the fourth quarter, Franklin (295 tot. yds, 4 TDs) engineered two scoring drives in the final frame that gave Mizzou the lead. Although A&M tied the game at 31 with four minutes to play, Franklin found Marcus Lewis for an 11-yard TD in overtime to pull off the upset.

3.) Illinois’ third straight loss was Penn State – and Joe Paterno’s – big gain. The Nittany Lion legend moved into first place all time in Division I wins when the Illini allowed 10 points in the final five minutes, then watched as a 42-yard field goal attempt by Derek Dimke hit the upright to seal Joe Pa’s 409th victory. The win also put Penn State in the driver’s seat in the Big 10 Leaders division; it now enjoys a three game lead with just three games to play.

4.) The fact that Georgia Tech upended Clemson’s magic season wasn’t surprising in itself; it was how thoroughly the Ramblin Wreck ran over the helpless Tigers that raised eyebrows.

While Clemson was cruising to an 8-0 record, Tech had hit the skids following its 6-0 start. Two straight ugly losses, in which the Jackets were outscored 48-28, had fans clamoring for QB Tevin Washington’s head.

But Washington engineered a resurrection on Saturday night, rushing for 176 yards and a score while masterfully running the triple option attack, and the score was 24-3 at halftime before the Tigers knew what hit ‘em. A quick score after halftime got Clemson back in the game, but Tech immediately answered with a touchdown by David Sims, and just like that the dream season was over in Death Valley.

5.) I had a feeling Oklahoma was going to bounce back from last week’s curb stomping by Texas Tech. After all, the Sooners hadn’t lost consecutive games since 2000. But to to so thoroughly dismantle 7-0 Kansas State, 58-17, in Manhattan, was something not many people saw coming. Landry Jones threw for a OU record 505 yards, and the Sooners put up a staggering 690 yards of offense against a team that had outscored its opponents by 100 points coming into the game.

It makes you think, if Oklahoma had just played like this all season…

There was plenty of other action to talk about, like Arkansas squeaking by Vandy, Va Tech barely beating Duke, Nebraska stifling the Spartans, and Georgia exorcising some Cocktail Party demons, but I’m running out of space to discuss it all.

Let’s just hope out of the final five weekends of the regular season, at least one can match this one in terms of drama.