Alabama Crimson Tides' Loss Tops 10 College Football Lessons From Week 6

What did Saturday prove about college football?

First, an ugly win is far better than a pretty loss. The best motto for a college football team is, “Win and move on.”

Alabama and Arizona are feeling the pain this week, but they should take comfort in knowing that the season is just half over.

Ohio State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Auburn, and LSU all have ugly wins over the last few weeks, but they are still undefeated. Just win, baby.

Second, penalties and turnovers allow bad teams to hang with good teams. Oregon coughed up the ball three times and had 80 yards' worth of penalties in their closer than expected win over Washington State. Keep doing that and the Ducks will lose at least one game in the very balanced Pac-10.

Auburn racked up 87 yards' worth of penalties in its last-second win over Kentucky.  With the game in hand, the Tigers went flat, which has been their MO all season long. Arkansas is up next, and Auburn better find a way to fix the long stretches of unfocused play, or they will lose.

Third, the game is 60 minutes, not 58:48. USC exchanged blows with Stanford all night long, and they took a two-point lead with 1:12 left to play in the game. Somehow the Trojans forgot to play defense on the last series, and the Cardinal drove down the field with ease to set up the game-winning field goal with four seconds left.

USC’s not the first team to take a lead late in the game and then turn around and blow it by playing soft defensively. Changing the scheme for the last minute of play is absurd. Man up and make plays.

Fourth, if you play against Les Miles, expect the unexpected. In another crazy finish, the Tigers faked a field goal with a lateral pass that bounced perfectly into the hands of the kicker, who marched just far enough to pick up a first down. Three plays later, Jarrett Lee hit Terrance Toliver in the end zone to seal another dramatic victory. The Swamp was hushed for just the third time in Urban Meyer’s tenure.

Fifth, Ohio State is officially a pass-first offense. You might be wondering whether or not Jim Tressel is still the coach, and he is. On the season, the Buckeyes have passed for 1,500 yards and rushed for 1,300 yards. Even though this is not a wide disparity in yardage, OSU thinks pass before run. Up next for the Buckeyes is Wisconsin, who is currently 54th in the FBS for passing defense. 

Sixth, Air Force and Utah are prepared to take down TCU in the MWC. The Falcons are 5-1 and played well enough against Oklahoma to prove they are a legitimate threat. The Utes thrashed Iowa State 68-27 on Saturday and beat Pitt in Week 1. Both schools can hang with any team.

TCU hosts Air Force and plays at Utah. If they win both, coupled with wins over Oregon State and Baylor, the Horned Frogs' résumé looks better than Boise State’s résumé. 

Seventh, the depth in the BCS conferences is greater than it ever has been. The middle of the pack/upper middle is jammed with solid teams that are good enough to beat, not just compete with, the one or two elite-level teams at the top. The exception might be the Big East, which is having an exceptionally down year, but the rest have more quality in their quantity.

Eighth, turning around an early season slump is possible. Virginia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina, and Notre Dame are getting better after subpar starts. This is a testament to the coaches who have motivated their players to stay hungry and not bag the season.

Ninth, special teams play is pretty important to the outcome of the game. Blocked punts, missed extra points, blown coverages, and poor tackling on returns seem to be occurring more frequently this year.

Tenth, championships are won in the trenches. It does not matter how athletic the QB and RBs are if they do not have time to pass or holes to run through. Conversely, if the defensive linemen cannot put pressure on the QB or help stop the rushing attack, the team will not be successful.