2011 College Football: Grading the Top 25 Performances for Week 3

It's time again to grade the performances of the top 25 teams for Week 3.  Once more, the gladiators of the gridiron provided an exciting weekend of football action.

How do you see Oklahoma's 23-13 victory over Florida State?  How about LSU's 19-6 thumping of Mississippi State?

Besides those duels between ranked opponents, there was Ohio State traveling to Miami, Florida.  Michigan State went into South Bend to take on the Fighting Irish and Tennessee went to war with Florida.

Three was no shortage of good games and the pecking order is starting to become just a shade clearer.

No. 25 Mississippi State

Opponent: vs. No. 3 LSU

Outcome: Lost 6-19

The Bulldogs put up a fight throughout the first half.  After falling behind by a field goal early, they posted one of their own to tie the game.  At the half, they trailed by only another field goal, 6-3.

The third quarter was nearly identical as both teams could only manage a field goal to enter the final period with LSU hanging onto a thin 9-6 lead.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, LSU wore down the Bulldogs and grabbed the upper hand.  Ten points to the Tigers took away any hope of the Bulldogs pulling off the upset.

Hey, it was a good showing.  LSU's defense is tough to beat.  Unfortunately, down the stretch, Mississippi State's defense couldn't hang quite as tough.

The Bulldogs couldn't get the ground game going with any consistency and averaged just 1.5 yards per carry as a team and put up a grand total of 52 yards rushing. 

The air attack didn't fare a lot better.  Chris Relf completed 11 of 17 attempts for 96 yards but tossed up a pick. Tyler Russell added 45 more yards on four completions, but also tossed a pick.

Mississippi State also lost the turnover battle.  The Bulldogs took away just one interception while giving up two, and ultimately gave away an extra chance to score and potentially keep the game within reach.

They handicapped themselves, if only slightly.

Ultimately, we have to take into account the level of their opponent when grading the Bulldogs.  They fought hard against a tough opponent and made a great game of it.  They just came up short.

More success on the ground likely would have opened up more success through the air, or vice versa.  They just couldn't get enough of either to hold on with the Tigers.  Solid attempt for the Bulldogs, just not quite solid enough.

Grade: B

No. 23 Texas

Opponent: at UCLA

Outcome: Won 49-20

What do we make of this team? On the one hand, the Longhorns are 3-0 and have a couple of decisive victories under their belts. On the other, they narrowly escaped BYU 17-16 a week ago and left us wondering just how far this team is poised to go.

None of that really matters at the moment, however. We'll grade their future when we get to it.

As for this contest, it was all Texas, all day. The Longhorns jumped out to a 21-0 lead before finally allowing the Bruins to put points on the board. Even then, they went punch for punch with the Bruins, never allowing them to get within distance to make a real game of it.

QB Case McCoy looked a lot like another McCoy that used to don the burnt orange uniform, completing 12 of 15 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns. RB Malcolm Brown added 110 yards on 22 carries and another score. WR D.J. Grant also hauled in six catches for 77 yards and three scores.

The offense worked well against the 10th-ranked Pac-12 defense. That is, it worked well except for the two fumbles it lost.

The defense did enough early on, but barely held the Bruins below their 27 points-per-game average. The fact that it picked off three passes and took away a fumble dramatically helped it cause.

All in all, it was an up-and-down performance.  The offense did its job.  The defense did enough to allow the Longhorns to pull away.  It was a little sloppy, but effective.

Grade: B

No. 23 TCU

Opponent: vs. Louisiana-Monroe

Outcome: Won 38-17

*Note: Yes, there are two No. 23 listings. That is because both Texas and TCU were listed as tied for 23rd in the AP Poll heading into Week 3.  It's not a typo, but thank you for pointing it out nonetheless.

The beginning of this game didn't look too promising for the Horned Frogs. ULM struck first with a field goal and then TCU allowed the Warhawks to hang stride for stride with it throughout.

This is not the same Horned Frogs team we saw a year ago.

Still, as the game wore on, TCU took care of business. Its run defense still held ULM to fewer than 100 yards rushing and blanked the 'Hawks out of the second half as they pulled away for the comfortable win.

Here's the deal. The defense did its job. The offense ultimately did its as well. ULM was defeated 34-0 by Florida State, so the 21-point margin of victory isn't overly impressive, but it's not concerning either.

The fact that it took TCU two full quarters before it decided to take control of this thing is a little concerning. Handing over two fumbles is a little concerning, too.

This isn't the same TCU as a year ago and this wasn't the best we've seen from the Horned Frogs. It was a nice win, but it wasn't an A performance.

Grade: B

No. 22 Arizona State

Opponent: at Illinois

Outcome: Lost 14-17

Sloppy game? Yeah, a little.

That might be the best way to describe a game that saw the Sun Devils turn the ball over three times and commit eight penalties for 91 yards.

Illinois appears to be on an "up year," though I really didn't think Ron Zook had it in him for two of those in consecutive seasons. Still, that's no great excuse for letting things get away from you as Arizona State did.

QB Brock Osweiler completed 25 of 45 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown, but also threw away two picks. The Sun Devils also gave up a fumble.

As a team, the Sun Devils out-rushed Illinois by exactly one yard (106-105), out-passed it by 121 yards and controlled the time of possession by a margin of 31:40 to 28:20.

Yet, they lost.

Their defense didn't allow Illinois to put up staggering numbers or anything. Nathan Scheelhaase only threw for 135 yards and a touchdown, and he ran for just 67 more. The defense intercepted Scheelhaase once as well.

RB Jason Ford added only 58 rushing yards for the Illini, though he did find the end zone.

The Sun Devil offense just couldn't get anything meaningful going against Illinois' defense.

Since that was the case, the turnovers and penalties killed them. They—in effect—handed the game to Illinois.

Grade: C

No. 21 Auburn

Opponent: Clemson

Outcome: Lost 38-24

This was quite a game. Score aside, this was a battle all the way up through the third quarter. It just never materialized positively for Auburn. There are reasons for that, of course—namely, the Tigers were out-played by Clemson.

Auburn's offense put up 435 yards of total offense. Unfortunately, it allowed 624 yards. The Tigers passed the ball for 198 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately, they allowed Clemson's Tajh Boyd to pass for 386 yards and four touchdowns while Auburn QB Barrett Trotter threw an interception.

Michael Dyer had a solid day, running for 151 yards on 16 carries. He, along with his teammates, carried for 237 yards and Dyer scored twice.

It wasn't enough, though, as Auburn's defense had no answer for Clemson's Sammy Watkins, who hauled in 10 receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

In fact, it had few answers for Clemson's offense, which racked up 32 first downs to Auburn's 19, and also converted 14 of 18 third downs, compared to Auburn's five of 13.

Grade: C

No. 20 South Florida

Opponent: Florida A&M

Outcome: Won 70-17

Oddly, once upon a time, this would have been a snooze-fest for very different reasons than it was this time. South Florida used to be just another of those teams—like Florida International—that may be competitive in its little corner of the world, but would routinely get knocked around by the bigger schools.

That was a long time ago, though. In the last four years, the Bulls have put together three consecutive 8-5 seasons that followed a 9-4 2007 campaign.

Oh sure, that's nothing compared to what the Gators did over the majority of that time span. Still, they've come a long way and have established themselves as serious competitors, as their ranking would indicate.

Anyway, on to the present.

South Florida poured it on the Rattlers. The Bulls scored 21 unanswered points in the first quarter and answered the Rattlers' 14 points with 28 of their own in the second. For good measure, they put together 21 more points in the second half before finally allowing the Rattlers to lessen the margin by a meager three points.

All in all, South Florida out-paced Florida A&M 745 yards to 181.

However, South Florida did have three turnovers and nine penalties for 71 yards. No, none of those things even remotely hurt the Bulls, but those kinds of mistakes could have been deadly against a much tougher opponent. Call it a warning for the future.

Grade: A-

No. 19 Baylor

Opponent: Stephen F. Austin

Outcome: Won 48-0

As per usual, I've got a few numbers for you:

545-207: Those are the total yards Baylor put up versus the yards SFA put together.

21-of-24, 3, 0: Those are the completions for Baylor's quarterbacks, touchdowns thrown by Robert Griffin III and interceptions thrown.

8.9, 9.8, 12.2,8.8: Those are the yards-per-carry averages of the top five rushers for Baylor in this game. Each of them carried at least five times. Three of them scored touchdowns.

I could go on. It would really be pointless, though. The bottom line is: Baylor was up against a clearly inferior opponent and rolled out 48 unanswered points, dominating virtually every statistical category in the process.

Grade: A

No. 18 West Virginia

Opponent: Maryland

Outcome: Won 37-31

The Mountaineers backed up their claim to a top-25 spot with this tough-fought victory over Maryland.

West Virginia rolled out to a 27-10 first half lead, extended to 34-10 early in the third. However, Maryland stormed back with 21 points to close the gap to 34-31. Tyler Betancourt added a field goal to West Virginia's total with just under five minutes to go, and the Mountaineer defense held for the remainder of the game to secure the win.

Exciting football, if you didn't fall asleep early in the third. Oh yeah, and Maryland's uniforms were a bit more palatable this time around than those state flag deals were.

At any rate, West Virginia's pass attack was excellent as Geno Smith completed 36 of 49 passes for 388 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

The ground game, however, never got off the, well, ground.

Andrew Buie averaged an awesome 7.3 yards per carry, grabbing 51 yards on just seven carries and a touchdown. However, the rest of his team didn't fare so well.

The team managed a total of 92 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

The Mountaineers also coughed up three turnovers, even though they grabbed three of their own, including a pick-six by Terence Garvin.

Maryland is a decent opponent. West Virginia got a good win, but it wasn't all pretty. Winners win, but the grade is a...

Grade: B-

No. 17 Ohio State

Opponent: Miami

Outcome: Lost 6-24

My, my, how the mighty have fallen. Okay, that might be a little melodramatic.

Still, Ohio State sure didn't look much like Ohio State Saturday night against the Hurricane. Miami took it straight at the Buckeyes, putting up 14 first-quarter points. The second quarter saw two Buckeye field goals, followed by another from Miami.

The second half only saw Hurricane putting points on the board.

The Buckeye pass game was atrocious. Joe Bauserman completed just two passes on 14 attempts for 13 yards. Seriously, that's it.

Braxton Miller wasn't much better, completing 2-of-4 for 22 yards and an interception. Yes, the Buckeyes totaled a massive (read: sarcasm) 35 yards of passing offense.

The run game was considerably better, but it had to be, didn't it? It couldn't have possibly been as bad as the pass game.

Jordan Hall picked up 87 yards and averaged 6.2 yards per carry. Carlos Hyde added 54 more yards on 12 carries.

The Buckeyes just couldn't finish drives. The lack of a pass attack killed their drives as Miami was able to force the Ohio State into a one-dimensional offense.

The Buckeye defense picked off two Jacory Harris passes, but allowed Lamar Miller to rumble for 184 rushing yards and watched Harris bite them with a pair of passing touchdowns.

Ohio State players and fans swore the drama wouldn't affect this team and were insistent that the talent they've recruited would step up and keep the Buckeye winning ways in full swing.

Against Miami, Ohio State looked very, very average. It failed to impress in any real way and Miami exposed it as overrated.

Grade: D

No. 16 Florida

Opponent: Tennessee

Outcome: Won 33-23

How's this for a stat? Florida gained 134 yards running the ball while Tennessee's total rushing yards were -9. Yup. Florida held Tennessee to negative rushing yards over the course of the game.

The Gators gave up 288 yards through the air, but that tends to happen when your opponent throws the ball 48 times a game.

Chris Rainey carried the ball 21 times for 108 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per haul. John Brantley grabbed a couple of touchdowns through the air and was efficient with a 60.9 completion percentage.

The only thing Florida couldn't do was to keep Tennessee QB Tyler Bray under wraps, for all the good it did him. Well, that and they weren't too good at third-down conversions, picking up four of just 13.

Still, solid performance for the Gators. A few small flaws hurt their grade, but not badly.

Grade: A-

No. 15 Michigan State

Opponent: at Notre Dame

Outcome: Lost 13-31

It's almost as if we've seen this story before. A team that looks so solid on paper and has come away with a few great performances earlier in the year suddenly looks horribly overrated during a big game in prime time.

Actually, we've seen that story a number of times, but it's a rerun for Michigan State this year.

I won't batter on the Spartans for days long-gone-by. It does no one any good.

Notre Dame had their number this past weekend, though. It was a horrible showing for the men in green as Notre Dame hit them every way imaginable.

The Irish had a passing touchdown, a couple of running touchdowns, an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a field goal.

The Spartan answer?

A short touchdown in the second quarter and a pair of field goals.

Michigan State's run game was woefully stopped in its tracks. Edwin Baker and Le'Veon Bell combined for just 53 yards on the ground, but their teammates turned the yardage backwards, putting the team total at a whopping 29 yards.

So, they turned to Kirk Cousins, who completed 34 of 53 passes for 329 yards, but could only gain one touchdown and threw an interception. B.J. Cunningham racked up 158 yards receiving, but couldn't find the end zone.

Michigan State's defense had been somewhat suspect, but hadn't faced anyone who could really test it until this weekend.  It failed that test and now Michigan State has to wonder a little about just how capable it will be at stopping opponents in the future.

The running backs are talented, but they can be negated, we now see.

Michigan State was exposed and its future is suddenly a bit murkier than before.

Grade: D

No. 14 Arkansas

Opponent: vs. Troy

Outcome: Won 38-28

The Razorbacks were the second team to take down Troy this season. The first was Clemson. Not an easy start for the Trojans.

Arkansas jumped out early and ran up the score to 24-0 in the first half and kept it to 24-7 by the break.

The second half went a little more in Troy's favor. Arkansas added a touchdown in the third to extend the lead to 31-7, but then allowed the Trojans to score 14 points to close the gap to just 10.

Both teams scored in the fourth to end the game with the 10-point margin of victory in tact.

It really wasn't that impressive a performance by the Razorbacks. Though they jumped out to a large early lead, they allowed Troy to climb back into it and didn't really dominate any of the stats.

I don't really want to hear the argument that they took their foot off the gas after grabbing a convincing lead. Great teams may let up on lesser opponents, but they don't allow them to come back into a game like this and the stat sheets usually show how things went down.

Arkansas gave up three turnovers and allowed Corey Robinson to pass for 373 yards and three touchdowns.

Ronnie Wingo, Jr. did pick up 109 yards on 20 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Joe Adams also hauled in nine passes for 109 yards and another score.

It was a win, but it wasn't as convincing as it looked early.

Grade: C+

No. 13 Virginia Tech

Opponent: Arkansas State

Outcome: Won 26-7

The Hokies have to be wondering a little about QB Logan Thomas. In three games, the young man has thrown four touchdowns and three interceptions.

Two of those interceptions came in this game against Arkansas State. There's no doubting the Thomas' potential, but he's getting a little careless with the football.

Virginia Tech got off to a slow start, falling behind early. It crawled slowly out of the hole and pushed its way to a decisive victory.

It wasn't really pretty. The Hokies out-rushed the Red Wolves, out-passed the, and dominated the clock. Yet, they weren't rolling in points.

Thomas tossed a couple of touchdowns and David Wilson had a good day. Once the Hokies got rolling, they really rolled. It just took a while to get things in motion.

Grade: B

12. Oregon

Opponent: Missouri State

Outcome: Won 56-7

The Ducks gave up an early touchdown, but then clamped down and held the Bears scoreless the rest of the day while their offense took over and scored 56 unanswered points.

LaMichael James broke out for 204 yards on just 12 carries for an astronomical 17 yard-per-carry average. The Duck quarterbacks combined for five passing touchdowns and 265 yards.

Oregon also committed nine penalties for 81 yards.

What is there really to glean from this? Missouri State isn't even a FBS program. This was a layup—a warm-up game.

They woke up after allowing the Bears to strike first blood and had their way with the smaller team.

Grade: A-

No. 11 Nebraska

Opponent: Washington

Outcome: Won 51-38

Throughout the first half, the Cornhuskers found themselves in a dogfight. Washington just wouldn't go away. They gnawed and clawed at Nebraska and trailed by just three points at the half.

In the third quarter, the Cornhuskers opened it up and grabbed a lead Washington couldn't come back from. The fourth quarter was another fight, but the damage had already been done.

Here's the thing. I thought Nebraska's defense was supposed to be smothering and dominant. It hasn't been thus far, and it wasn't last weekend.

Nebraska picked up three takeaways, yet Washington was able to put up 420 yards and 38 points.

The saving grace for Nebraska is that Taylor Martinez and Rex Burkhead combined for 358 yards and five touchdowns.

However non-dominant Nebraska's defense may have been, Washington's had no answer for the Cornhusker attack, either.

It was a nice win for Nebraska, but there are as many questions as answers these days.

Grade: B

No. 10 South Carolina

Opponent: Navy

Outcome: Won 24-21

Holy moly, Mr. Lattimore! Can anyone say Heisman performance?

Marcus Lattimore rushed the ball 37 times for 246 yards and three touchdowns. Digest that a moment. Some teams run little more than 37 plays in an entire game. Lattimore did that all by himself. Several of the teams we've talked about today didn't get 246 yards of offense. Lattimore did that all by his lonesome, too.

It was an awesome display.

It was also yet another indicator of South Carolina's weakness. Lattimore is all it's got. Find a way to limit him and the offense is suddenly really shaky.

Navy has a tremendous run game of its own and it showed again this week. The Midshipmen ran the ball 47 times and grabbed 274 yards and three touchdowns.

For South Carolina, though, Stephen Garcia was okay. He completed 18 of 25 passes for 204 yards, but failed to throw a touchdown and instead threw a pick.

Of course, when you've got a guy like Lattimore, who cares, right?

Well, it was a good win over a good team. However, I see some trouble on the horizon for the Gamecocks.

Still, that performance alone should almost carry the grade. Why not, he's carrying the team.

Grade: B+

No. 9 Texas A&M

Opponent: Idaho

Outcome: Won 37-7

It was all A&M, all day. Nice to talk about the Aggies without the conversation slipping to conference realignment, huh? Oops...

Ryan Tannehill completed 26 of 39 passes for 337 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Cyrus Gray also ran for 101 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Aggie defense held the Vandals scoreless until late in the fourth quarter and also held them to just two third-down conversions in 14 tries. They allowed just 131 yards passing and only 56 running.

The Aggies did give up a couple of turnovers, but otherwise, it was a thoroughly dominant performance.

Grade: A-

No. 8 Oklahoma State

Opponent: at Tulsa

Outcome: Won 59-33

Tulsa is no slouch. Sure, it's 1-2, but those two losses have been to a pair of top-10 teams. It really is a fairly solid team.

Still, it's not a shining endorsement for the Cowboy defense that it allowed the Golden Hurricane to put 33 points on the board and 482 yards.

In the end, though, Oklahoma State's offense was far better than Tulsa's.

Joseph Randle ran for 128 yards and three touchdowns while Brandon Weeden passed for 369 yards and three more touchdowns.

Weeden also threw a pair of picks and the defense allowed Ja'Terian Douglas to rip off an 80-yard touchdown run.

However, most of Tulsa's points came after Oklahoma State had already put together a 45-6 lead and took its foot off the gas. That fact has to figure into the grade.

The six turnovers the Cowboys benefited from also has to fit into it.

Grade: A-

No. 7 Wisconsin

Opponent: Northern Illinois

Outcome: Won 49-7

Wisconsin just keeps on rolling. It hasn't faced anyone with a tremendous defense yet, but we can't grade on whom it hasn't played. At every turn, Wisconsin has been the dominant force in each of its games.

QB Russell Wilson had one of his best days as a passer, picking up 347 yards and three touchdowns with an interception. Montee Ball and James White picked up 91 yards apiece and combined for three scores.

Northern Illinois coudn't get anything going against the Wisconsin defense.

Another day, another win.

Grade: A

No. 6 Stanford

Opponent: Arizona

Outcome: Won 37-10

Those who have said Stanford would fall flat without Jim Harbaugh have yet to be proven wrong. Oh, it will fall flat eventually. It probably will, anyway.

It's still the team Harbaugh built, though, and it continues to look very good.

Arizona couldn't handle Andrew Luck's 325-yard, two-touchdown performance. More than that, it couldn't touch Stepfan Taylor's 153 yards rushing.

Nick Foles is a great quarterback and Stanford was bound to give up some yards. The Cardinal allowed him to pick up 239 yards, but only allowed one passing score. And they held the Wildcat run game to just 51 yards and no scores.

Arizona isn't as balanced and good as it was a couple of years ago, but this was a good win for Stanford.

Grade: A

No 5 Florida State

Opponent: No. 1 Oklahoma

Outcome: Lost 13-23

I have to admit, I wasn't sold on Florida State as a top-15 team going into this game, let alone a top-five team. It wasn't that it lacked talent, but that I had seen no clear evidence that it had gotten that talent developed enough to warrant such a lofty ranking.

I'm happy to admit that I was wrong. Wait—but the Seminoles lost.

Yeah, but they were taking on the top-ranked team in the country, and they were in the this game all the way up to the last two minutes. If that's not top-five material, then I don't know what is.

Okay, now that I've effectively eaten crow, this game wasn't quite that cut-and-dry. As exciting as it was, it was also sloppy.

E.J. Manuel was efficient, connecting on 13 of 19 passes, but for only 85 yards and he also threw two interceptions. After a bruised shoulder took him out of the game for a couple of series, Clint Trickett came in and ignited the offense.

Trickett was 7-of-15 for 134 yards and a touchdown, but he too threw an interception.

The Seminole running game was almost non-existent. Manuel led the charge with 49 yards and the team as a whole only managed 27 rushing yards.

A couple of stupid penalties also hurt the Seminoles.

This was a really exciting game and a ton of fun to watch, though it wasn't the most technically proficient game.

Grade: B-

No. 4 Boise State

Opponent: Toledo

Outcome: Won 40-15

I'd bet E. Gordon Gee is feeling just a little silly right about now. You know, after making the Little Sisters of the Poor comment a year ago, in regards to Boise State and TCU's opponents.

Let's see now. Last week, Ohio State escaped Toledo 27-22. This week, it lost to Miami while Boise State beats Toledo 40-15.

Hmmmm...

Kellen Moore put together another Heisman-type performance, completing 32 of 42 passes for 455 yards, five touchdowns and an interception.

The run game was serviceable, putting together 145 more yards and another touchdown.

Meanwhile, the defense held Toledo to fewer total yards than Moore accounted for through the air and allowed only 10 points until late in the fourth quarter.

Dominant win for the Broncos, who should at least hold their place in the polls on the heels of this victory.

Grade: A-

No. 3 LSU

Opponent: at No. 25 Mississippi State

Outcome: Won 19-6

LSU's offense isn't always pretty.  The thing is, it's effective.

More to the point, Les Miles understands one very fundamental truth: Your offense can be downright mediocre, yet you can win championships if you've got a rock-solid defense.

Through the first half of this game, the LSU offense was relatively mediocre.  The Tigers moved the ball against Mississippi State, but could only manage two field goals.

This, against a defense that has thus far ranked ninth in the SEC in points allowed per game (24.7). It didn't really matter because the Tiger defense held Mississippi State's offense to just one field goal.

And that fundamental truth remained true, as it did throughout the rest of the game.

QB Jarrett Lee was efficient, completing 77.8 percent of his passes for 213 yards, a touchdown and an interception. RB Spencer Ware was effective, running for 107 yards on 22 carries.

Together with WR Rueben Randle, they provided the spark to LSU's offense that eventually ignited the fire and led LSU to victory.

It was the defense that truly shined though. Morris Claiborne's two interceptions and the combined 15 tackles for loss helped hold the Bulldog offense well below their 33 points-per-game average and provided the time needed for Lee, Ware and Randle to put the game away.

Call it another solid performance that helps make the Tigers' case for remaining in the BCS title discussion.

Grade: A-

No. 2 Alabama

Opponent: North Texas

Outcome: Won 41-0

The Tide certainly didn't suffer any hangover from beating Penn State a week ago. Of course, North Texas wasn't expected to really challenge the Tide, was it?

Trent Richardson steamrolled the Mean Green to the tune of 167 yards on 11 carries and three touchdowns. Eddie Lacy added another 161 yards on just nine carries and two more scores.

North Texas managed just 169 yards of total offense and failed to score in any fashion.

The only semi-troubling aspect to this game were the two fumbles Alabama coughed up.

Okay, so nobody's perfect.

Grade: A-

No 1. Oklahoma

Opponent: Florida State

Outcome: Won 23-13

The top-ranked team stays undefeated. It looks pretty good for its resume that this go-round was a fellow top-five opponent.

As mentioned in the Florida State slide, however, it was also a somewhat sloppy performance.

Landry Jones threw for 199 yards and a touchdown, but tossed a pair of interceptions as well. The ground attack picked up a total of 111 yards, but little of it was impressive and the only rushing score came from Jones on a QB keeper in the first quarter.

Nine of the Sooners' 23 points came from Jimmy Stevens' leg.

Thankfully, the defense was strong enough to thwart the Seminoles and capitalize on their mistakes.

It's a quality win over an opponent that's tougher than I gave it credit for, but it was far from perfect.

Grade: B