The Scores Report - The National Sports Blog » 2009 College Football Week 10

Screenshots of Patrick Peterson’s interception

John Paulsen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:30:10 +0000

My esteemed colleague Anthony Stalter did a nice job of covering the immediate aftermath of the Alabama/LSU game, but I wanted to provide a few screenshots of Patrick Peterson’s interception that was ruled incomplete, even after replay.

I watched the game as an objective observer — I didn’t really care who won, and still don’t — but this was clearly a pick and I thought the Tigers got screwed on this play.

I’m not focused so much on whether or not he gets his right toe in. When I originally saw the play, I thought he clearly had possession of the ball and had his left foot in.

The first shot is from behind and establishes his position relative to the sideline. The ball is in his hands and his left foot is down.

The second shot is from the side. The ball is under his control and his left foot is down.

The third shot is from the front. At this point, Peterson has already caught the ball and is turning it to tuck it. His left foot is clearly down and his right one may be as well.

Alabama fans can rationalize it if they want — by point out earlier calls that went LSU’s way or by saying that officiating is never 100% correct. But the bottom line is that in this crucial point in the game, LSU should have been awarded the ball.

It’s one thing for a linesman to blow this call in live action, but there’s no excuse for the call to stand after the replay. What’s worse, the lead official didn’t even explain why the ruling on the field was confirmed, he just said that it was and went on about his day. Did he think that Peterson didn’t have possession? Or did he think that Peterson didn’t get his foot down?

Ridiculous.

Thanks to Vcize over on YouTube. I pulled these screenshots from his video of the play.

Gerhart goes off as Stanford shocks Oregon

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:03:37 +0000

Stanford running back Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns as the Cardinal shocked No. 8 Oregon 51-42 on Saturday.

From ESPN.com:

Andrew Luck completed 12 of 20 for 251 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions to lead Stanford past Oregon, 51-42. Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns.

Stanford finished with 505 total yards. Oregon had been giving up only 301 yards per game.

Sure, Oregon seemed to suffer a hangover from its 47-20 win over USC last weekend. But this was about Stanford’s offense dominating the Ducks defense, and the Ducks offense not being able to keep up.

What does it mean?

It means the Pac-10 is now wide-open. Arizona controls its own fate, but there is so much football left that it’s almost meaningless to speculate.

It means the Pac-10 is out of the national title hunt.

It means the Oregon vs. Boise State rankings debate ends.

And it means Stanford, at 6-3, is bowl eligible. The Cardinal haven’t gone to a bowl since 2001.

This had trap written all over it, although I still thought Oregon would prevail. The Ducks just couldn’t match the intensity it had from last week’s huge win over USC. They were emotionally spent and Stanford took full advantage of it but taking it to them for four quarters. Gerhart was amazing today and his performance may have catapulted him back into the Heisman race.

Boise State stands to benefit the most from Oregon’s loss. Some had started to question whether or not the Ducks deserved to be ranked higher than the Broncos, even though Boise routed Oregon in the opening week of the season. With the Ducks now out of the way, the Broncos can start working on that whole style points thing that they continue to struggle with.

Refs, Les Miles help Alabama beat LSU

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:06:58 +0000

Let’s get this out of the way first: Alabama is better than LSU. They play better defense, have more big-time playmakers like Julio Jones and Mark Ingram, and they’re a more complete team overall.

That said, the officiating in Alabama’s 24-15 win on Saturday was some of the worst in college football this season. And that’s saying a lot given how bad the officiating has been this year in the SEC.

Crimson Tide fans can spin it as much as they want, but Patrick Peterson intercepted that pass in the second half. He not only got one foot down, but two and the refs still got the call wrong. The play might not have wound up being a game-changing moment, but the bottom line is that ‘Bama got a field goal out of the deal, which made it a two-score game late in the fourth.

Granted, even if the call went LSU’s way, the Tigers were still losing, were in an obvious passing situation and might have still had trouble moving the ball. Plus, they still allowed ‘Bama to convert on a 3rd and 6 to pick up the first down.

Still, the call was wrong. It should have been an interception, it should have been LSU’s ball and the Tigers still should have had the opportunity to march up the field and score.

Speaking of bad calls, Les Miles had a few himself. He made a poor decision to go for two after LSU had taken the lead on a Stevan Ridley 8-yard touchdown run. His decision to go for two instead of going up 16-10 was dumb, but not as dumb as the poor clock management in the fourth quarter and a decision to punt on 4th and inches with no timeouts.

LSU deserved better from the refs and Miles tonight.

Monday Update: John Paulsen has posted screenshots of Peterson’s interception.

Iowa’s magic finally runs out

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:49:28 +0000

College football pundits and fans alike have been waiting for this day for weeks: Iowa finally fell. Northwestern topped the No. 6 Hawkeyes 17-10 on Saturday and dashed Iowa’s slim national title hopes.

From FOX Sports.com:

With that said, there’s no excuse for a loss at home to Northwestern, just as there was no excuse for such a lousy performance against Indiana. It’s not as if the Hawkeyes were playing the world-beaters, and it’s not as if the game were over after losing Ricky Stanzi to his ankle injury. Of course, not having the leader and No. 1 quarterback matters, but 1) Iowa was still winning when he got knocked out, 2) Northwestern also lost its starter, and 3) It … was … Northwestern.

This is a Wildcats team that sputtered and coughed against Eastern Michigan, one of the five worst teams in college football, and this is a team that can’t get a score without it being wrapped in a nice gift basket. If Iowa really were a national title-caliber team, it would’ve pounded away on the mediocre Wildcats D and come up with a point over the final 50 minutes. Pat Angerer and Jeremiha Hunter did their part, combining for 27 tackles, but the offensive line that did such a great job against Indiana struggled to get the running game going and James Vandenberg was miserable in place of Stanzi. And that’s it. That’s the difference between an all-timer of a season and being among the mere mortals.

As the article points out, does anything really change here? Even if Iowa ran the table, it would have had a hard time convincing voters that it deserved to play for a national title with teams like Florida, Alabama and Texas atop the rankings. So now the Hawkeyes can fight for the Big Ten title and the chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

Obviously the outcome today was a massive disappointment. But not all is lost.

Iowa’s Stanzi hurt against Northwestern

Anthony Stalter — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:24:15 +0000

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi left the Hawkeyes’ game against Northwestern early in the second quarter with an apparent foot injury.

Stanzi was hurt when Wildcats’ defender Corey Wootton sacked him in the end zone. He fumbled and Nwest Marshall Thomas recovered the ball in the end zone for a Northwestern touchdown to cut Iowa’s lead to 10-7.

Backup quarterback James Vandenberg immediately came in and threw an interception to set up another Wildcats score. Northwestern is currently up 14-10 at halftime and at least for the moment, No. 6 Iowa is once again in trouble.

Although hey, they’re always in trouble at halftime; they’ve trailed at halftime in almost every game this season.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Boise State won’t silence critics after marginal win over LA Tech

Anthony Stalter — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:07:33 +0000

No. 7 Boise State beat Louisiana Tech 45-35 on Friday night. Outside of three minutes in the first quarter when the Bulldogs held a 7-3 edge, the Broncos never trailed and are now 9-0 for the fourth time in six years.

But their performance was hardly enough to convince doubters that they should play for a national title. Boise held a 27-7 lead at halftime after absolutely dominating Tech (who didn’t have a first down the entire period) in the second quarter and they had a chance to come out in the second half and show a national audience just how impressive they can be. Instead, Tech got right back into the ball game thanks to a horrible decision by quarterback Kellen Moore, who was intercepted by Josh Victorian who returned the gift 75 yards for a touchdown to cut the Broncos’ lead to 27-14 early in the third.

Tech then found a way to cut the deficit to 30-28 early in the fourth thanks to some great running by Daniel Porter, a renewed sense of confidence by quarterback Ross Jenkins, an onside kick and some failures on the Broncos’ part.

One of those big failures was Boise’s inability to turn red zone opportunities into touchdowns. They settled for field goals three times on the night because their spread attack was neutralized close to the goal line. And with their inability to run the ball consistently between the tackles, Tech’s defense found a way to contain them and stay in the game.

Boise head coach Chris Peterson doesn’t want to talk about style points because he’s focused on winning games, which is the way it should be. But when his team has a 27-7 halftime lead on an inferior opponent in their house, they have to be able to finish. The Broncos had a similar issue against Tulsa earlier this season in which they allowed their opponent to get back into the ball game in the second half.

There’s nothing Boise can do about its weak schedule. They can’t schedule decent non-conference opponents because nobody wants to play them. But what they can do is take care of business on the field and unfortunately given their situation and the way the college football system is set up, simply winning games just isn’t enough.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

2009 College Football Week 10 Predictions

Anthony Stalter — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:00:55 +0000

I’ve been on a roll of late, going 8-0 straight up the last two weeks and 7-1 against the spread. Let’s hope I didn’t just pour a big cup of jinx over everything this week.

No. 9 LSU at No. 3 Alabama, 3:30PM ET
A win this week secures the SEC West title for Alabama, while a victory for LSU puts them in the driver’s seat in the West, as well as keeps their national title hopes alive. While they eventually won the game thanks to a blocked field goal, there were some glaring issues with Alabama’s passing game in their victory over Tennessee two weeks ago. Mark Ingram is one of the best players in college football, but he can’t be expected to carry the offense week in and week out. Quarterback Greg McElroy must become more efficient in the passing game and test defenses vertically more than he has. The Tide beat the Tigers last year, but they had previously lost five straight to LSU so that’s a concern for Nick Saban. I don’t think the Tigers have enough offense to overcome the Tide’s No. 4 ranked defense, but this game is going to be close throughout and this might be another contest that isn’t decided for ‘Bama until the final seconds.
Odds: Alabama –7.5.
Prediction: Alabama 16, LSU 13.

No. 16 Ohio State at No. 11 Penn State, 3:30PM ET
This was supposed to be the game that decided things in the Big Ten. But with how well Iowa has played this year, one of these two teams will likely be knocked out of contention with a loss. It’s hard to imagine that OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor will walk into Beaver Stadium the way that he has struggled this year and beat a good Penn State defense…with his arm. Pryor isn’t going to win this game throwing for 250 yards (does he ever throw for 250 yards?), but if he can keep the chains moving with his legs and not turn the ball over, I bet Ohio State wins this game with its defense. This is going to be your classic Big Ten defensive struggle and the Buckeyes are due to pull off an upset of this magnitude. Penn State knocked off Ohio State last year on its home turf, and I’m calling for the Buckeyes to return the favor this season.
Odds: Penn State –3.5
Prediction: Ohio State 17, Penn State 16.

No. 8 Oregon at Stanford, 3:30PM ET
This is right around the time that the college football gods send everything into a tailspin and Oregon is a prime target this week. They’ve coming off an emotionally home win over previously No. 5 ranked USC and now have to go on the road to play a Stanford team that is only 5-3, but has played opponents tough this season. This has trap written all over it but I’m actually going to go against my gut and stick with my head. The Ducks have been so explosive offensively the past two games and know that one slip up will cost them a chance to play in the title game since they already have one loss on their schedule. Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli will once again carry his team and while Stanford might keep things close for a while, I see Oregon pulling away in the second half.
Odds: Oregon –6.5
Prediction: Oregon 37, Stanford, 27.

Northwestern at No. 4 Iowa, 12:00PM ET
I can’t decide whether or not the Hawkeyes are the most impressive 9-0 team I’ve ever watched, or the least impressive. Either way, this team is battle tested and overcomes adversity better than any team in the nation. After Indiana gave them a scare last week, some believe that Northwestern could do the same, especially with the way the Wildcats hung with Penn State in the first half last Saturday. But I don’t see it. Just as I figured Florida would against Georgia last week, it’s high time Iowa blows somebody out and I think it’ll be this Saturday at home. While their passing game is decent, Northwestern won’t be able to run the ball on Saturday and once they fall behind early, I think the Wildcats will start turning the ball over. The Hawkeyes should cruise.
Odds: Iowa –16.5.
Prediction: Iowa 38, Northwestern 17.