All of California is Ablaze (Action Jackson Recap, Week 9)

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, October 29th, 2007

uscoregonIf there’s any consolation about this past weekend…no one else in California is cheering either. In fact, the metaphor of last week’s wildfires can certainly apply to all of California, as our rivals too fell into the flames.

USC? Finished! The walls have crumbled! Falls to Oregon 24-17, who ultimately beat themselves more than Oregon did. Three second-half turnovers doomed USC, who seem to have a great deal of trouble throwing to their team. Doesn’t look like Sanchez is the answer to the Trojans, who are reeling; one more loss on their schedule likely sends them packing to Vegas. The Pac-10 now is down to one title contender (ASU), one BCS hopeful (Oregon) and three dark horses (OSU, UCLA, USC). Mark down Saturday’s ASU-Oregon game as the one to watch. Conquest Chronicles isn’t thrilled with Pete Carroll.

UCLA? Broken to bits by the average Wazzu O-Line and Dwight “Never been” Tardy, who had 214 yards and 2 TDs (84.5 yards per game prior to this one). UCLA has now averaged 37.2 points in victory and 6.7 points in defeat. They finish up with Arizona State, Oregon and USC, and I’m sure they’ll beat two of them. They also play Arizona next week, where I’m sure they will get obliterated. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Karl Dorrell football! Third tier bowl appearances or your money back. Bruins Nation is…uhh, well…just see for yourself.

The Furd? DOWN! Crushed by Oregon State 23-6. The Beavers run D continues to impress, giving up 5 ground yards to Stanford. Oregon State looks to put the final coffin in Troy next week, heading down to the Coliseum to finish off a reeling Trojan team. The bad news is Stanford has three winnable games (at Wazzu, Washington, Notre Dame) before the Big Game (and they certainly have a fighting chance against us this year), which would make them *gulp* bowl-eligible. Not a pleasant thought.

So we get to all laugh at each other, like four kids who got their bikes stolen. Wait a minute, that isn’t funny at all.

Let’s look elsewhere around the country.

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Florida stomped Tennessee 59-20. Tennessee manhandled Georgia 35-0 before allowing two garbage TDs. Now the Bulldogs pull off a rare victory in the Outdoor Party, stomping the Gators and their disintegrating defense 42-30, completing the triangle of madness in the SEC East. Knowshown Moreno (an excellent name, two thumbs up) had 188 yards rushing and 3 TDs. EDSBS is exceptionally coherent about his performance. Georgia is now back to #10 in the polls, but they do not control their destiny…no, their fate is in the hands of…

The Tennessee Volunteers! They hold off South Carolina 27-24 after blowing a 21-0 lead and me blowing my stack at watching the spread nearly blown to pieces. But yes, despite losing to Cal by 14, to Florida by 39, and Alabama by 25, and nearly choking away a win at Neyland, Tennessee has the path laid out to the SEC East crown. Unfortunately for them? Arkansas, Vanderbilt (yes, Vanderbilt) and at Kentucky still remain.

I guess Kentucky will have to be content with playing spoiler, because their BCS hopes were pretty much extinguished with a loss to Mississippi State, 31-14. Always fun when redshirt freshman totally outclass Heisman candidates. Six turnovers in the second half tells you all you need to know about the Wildcat collapse.

#1 will stay right where they are. Buckeye Nation breezes through an underequipped Penn State team 37-17, and it looks like once again title hopes run through Michigan (who put the hammer down on Minnesota 34-10). What karmic justice it would be for Lloyd Carr to end his underachieving tenure with the Wolverines by taking their hated rivals out of the title game. Everyone else in the Big Ten stinks, so we will move on.

The Big 12 North is back, and dying Nebraska has nothing to do with it (although they did hold onto a 17-3 lead before ultimately folding the cards to Texas). Kansas went into College Station and laid the hammer down, scoring 19 unanswered in the 2nd half and holding on to win 19-11. Mark Mangino celebrated by drinking deep-fried Coca Cola. My Lord, that is a huge man. 1-8 Iowa State put up a frisky performance for the second straight week against a top 25 opponent, but ultimately fell to Missouri 42-28.

uconn

The curse of #2 seems to extend to the ungodly schools (BC is the school of Jesus, so no way they’re getting touched), as now South Florida has completely fallen out of the Big East race, losing to the fiesty UConn Huskies, who have the inside track to the Big East title. Great, another New England team succeeding. Just what we need. They’ll still have to go through West Virginia, who pummeled flatfooted Rutgers 31-3. So much for the genius Schiano, who will have all sorts of fun in the Car Care Bowl.



Topics: College Football, Pac-10, Sports

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