Four Better and Four Worse: Week Two Winners and Losers
Welcome to week two of "Four Better and Four Worse" a breakdown of those players and teams who helped and hurt themselves the most during each week of the College Football season.
This week is interesting because the team who might have had their title hopes take the biggest hit did so when they weren't even on the field. Since they didn't play, they won't get one of the "Four Worse" slots, but James Madison's win over Virginia Tech might have been devastating for them.
Virginia Tech was coming off of five days rest, and according to the James Madison head coach Micky Mathewson, did not bring their best game. Mathewson also stated on an ESPN radio interview that he felt that the Hokies were still suffering from the effects of the game on Monday night. e also stated that James Madison team sent four players to the NFL last season. James Madison is a good program. Those things might not matter to the public perception though. Boise State's big win is looked on as less impressive now that a FCS school has beaten the same team.
It's hard to believe that an undefeated team could have their hopes crushed on a bye week as a result of a game they have nothing to do with but the reality is, that might have blown their hope of getting into a championship game. Their may be some folks feeling blue in Boise this week.
Four Worse 4: Florida State
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Christian is going to have to ponder his performance for the rest of the season. He and the rest of the Seminoles had an opportunity to come out and make a statement, and they did. Unfortunately for Florida State fans the statement was, "We're bad."
Ponder only completed one pass for more than 20 yards, he threw back-to-back picks, and posted a dismal 58.9 QB rating. The rushing game combined for a meager 3.8 yards per carry, and that's with one carry for 34 yards included.
They gave up 40 unanswered points, and the final score 47-17, made it sound like a closer game than it really was.
They'd hoped to pull off an upset, but they weren't even competitive. There stands to be a good chance that they will drop out of the top 25 in next weeks polls.
Four Worse 3: West Virginia
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West Virginia went up against a team that was obliterated by Ohio State last week. There wasn't much obliteration this time.
West Virginia struggled through most of the game, and needed a 15-point fourth quarter rally, capped by a touchdown and two point conversion to tie the game and send it to overtime. Eventually they won, and you can say in thrilling fashion.
The problem is that if you're trying to work yourself into a BCS Bowl, you shouldn't be needing comebacks and thrilling victories over second rate Mid America Conference teams, particularly one that just got smoked the week before by another BCS Bowl looking team.
Four Worse 2: Minnesota
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As a Minnesota alum it pains me to say this, but the Gophers are looking like this year's Big Ten doormat.
If you were holding out hope that last week's struggles verse the not so intimidating Middle Tennessee State was an aberration, hope no more. Minnesota is bad, really bad.
They gave up 41 points to a FCS school. That's just downright ugly. Those weren't cheap points either as South Dakota nearly gained 500 yards. It's looking like Minnesota might be the worse BCS team in the country right now. It doesn't get more horrid than that.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Four Worse 1: Virginia Tech
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What, you were expecting, someone else? A team that seven days ago today was having visions of national championships dancing through their heads, is now 0-2 and just gave a game away to an FCS school, becoming only the second ranked team in history to do so.
Technically a BCS Bowl isn't beyond Virginia Tech, as they are 0-0 in conference play. They still have the personnel and the team that compete with anyone in the ACC. They just need to get their heads back on their shoulders right now.
Certainly they will drop out of the rankings this week and will not be back for at least a month. However bad this was for Boise State, it was worse for Virginia Tech.
Four Better 4: Oregon
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Can you say, "Wow!" Oregon's offense is looking just ridiculous. When they rolled up 72 points and 720 yards against New Mexico, it was impressive, but hey, it was New Mexico. They wouldn't be able to run over an SEC school like that, not one with the kind of talent Tennessee has though, right?
At first it looked to be true, as the Volunteers took a 13-3 halftime lead, but then lightening struck. Literally.
After the lightening storm play resumed Oregon scored 45 unanswered points. They may have the best offense in the nation and their defense isn't looking too bad either, surrendering only 13 points on the season so far. Oregon is certainly vaulting itself into the "best team in the country" conversation.
Four Better 3: Stanford
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Coming into this season the question for Stanford was how good they would be coming off their first bowl game in the Jim Harbaugh era without star tailback Toby Gerhart to lead the charge.
Fortunately, they don't need luck because they have quarterback Andrew Luck to lead the charge. On both sides of the ball Stanford dominated UCLA, delivering the Bruins their worst home loss since 1984, my junior year in high school. No, I don't remember it, but it was a long time ago.
Stanford stated itself as real contender in the PAC-10 race. Anticipating the question why I have Stanford ahead of Oregon, I'm not ranking teams by how good they are, but by how much they helped themselves.
Oregon's thrashing of Tennessee was more impressive and the Ducks look to be the better team, but we didn't have many doubts about them. Stanford just had further to move in the "improvement" conversation.
2: Denard Robinson
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It's hard to believe, but 10 days ago the new Heisman front runner was hardly known outside of Michigan—and he was controversial there. Wolverine fans weren't happy with Coach Rodriquez' choice for the No. 1 QB. I think they're fine with his decision now.
In two games Robinson has gained 433 yards through the air, completing nearly 70 percent of his passes for a 138.25 passer rating and accumulated 455 yards on the ground. He also has five combined touchdowns.
The word ridiculous comes to mind. It's hard to think of anyone who has done more to help himself with Heisman talk than Mr. Robinson.
Four Better 1: Ohio State
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Ownership has its privileges and since Saturday, Ohio State owns Miami. Apart from a couple of special teams plays and a garbage time TD, this game was utterly dominated by the Buckeyes. A cursory glance at the scoreboard showed a relatively close score of 36-24, but the game was not close, and not in doubt.
Ohio State proved they were bigger, faster, stronger and better than Miami, and they are one of two teams to be in the National Championship picture.
When you couple this with how Marshall, a team they dominated in week one, nearly beat another team with BCS Bowl hopes in West Virginia, and Ohio State looks like the clear No. 2 team in the country—at least.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
