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.

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.

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]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/07/boise-state-does-little-to-help-their-cause-in-win-over-la-tech/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/10/31/iowa-has-giant-fourth-quarter-defeats-indiana/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/10/31/iowa-has-giant-fourth-quarter-defeats-indiana/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:26:12 +0000 Christopher Glotfelty http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=27897

This game wasn’t pretty. Actually, it was downright brutal at times. There were nine turnovers in total, but this isn’t to say either Indiana or Iowa’s defenses were stellar. Indiana exposed the Hawkeyes’ defensive weakness throughout the first three quarters. Yet, Iowa’s offense exploded out of nowhere in the fourth, leading their team to a 42-24 victory.

Nevertheless, people will continue to downgrade Iowa’s high ranking. Now with a 9-0 record, it’s tough to devalue their season. We’ll see how the rest of today’s games play out, but Iowa is currently one of seven undefeated teams in the Top 25. They don’t demonstrate great football by any means, but damn are their games exciting to watch. They have trailed in eight of their nine competitions this year, and have managed to come back to take each one.

Nevertheless, Iowa and quarterback Ricky Stanzi were shoddy at best until the fourth quarter. People will cite this as justification to knock Iowa down a few slots in the rankings. I completely agree with that sentiment. Iowa, the No. 4 team in the nation, should not trail a meager Indiana squad for most of the game. Stanzi threw five (I know) interceptions today. That’s inexcusable — he would be benched if it wasn’t for their record. But how in the hell have they managed to remain undefeated? The fourth quarter.

Somehow, Stazi came out with an undeterred confidence and immediately connected with star receiver Marvin McNutt for a 92-yard touchdown pass. Minutes later, Stanzi found Derrell Johnson-Koulianos for a 66-yard touchdown. By then, Iowa had found their groove. Stanzi continued to feed the ball to running back Brandon Wegher, who is subbing for the injured Adam Robinson. Wegher exceeded expectations, scoring three touchdowns on 119 yards and 25 carries.

While Iowa fans are drunk on happiness, detractors of the BCS system are fuming. With their improbable season, Iowa’s game against Ohio St. is going to be essential viewing. Who expected that?

In the past two weeks, Frank Beamer’s Hokies have seen their season implode. After winning five straight to get to 5-1 on the season (they dropped the opener to Alabama), Virginia Tech was soundly defeated by Georgia Tech last Saturday and then was shocked last night by North Carolina, 20-17.

How do the Tar Heels walk into Blacksburg and earn a victory you ask? Well it helps when quarterback Tyrod Taylor starts the game 3-for-9 passing and finishes with only 161 yards and no touchdowns. He was highly inaccurate all night and often put the Hokies in third-and-longs by taking unnecessary sacks instead of getting rid of the ball.

That said, North Carolina’s defense deserves credit for pressuring Taylor the entire night and not allowing freshman running back Ryan Williams to run wild. He finished with 96 yards on 23 carries and no touchdowns, which is certainly respectable, but a far cry from some of his previous outings.

The Tar Heel defense stepped up big time in the first half while their offense sputtered, and then held on in the second half when the Hokies tried to make a run. Jheraine Boyd’s 13-yard touchdown pass from T.J. Yates right before the half gave North Carolina the momentum and confidence it needed to compete with the Hokies in the second half.

Not to crap on North Carolina’s accomplishment, but this wasn’t a favorable outcome for the ACC. VA Tech’s loss will likely drop them out of the top 25 and probably out of the top 15 of the BCS standings. That leaves Georgia Tech as the only ACC team in the top 15, and chances are the conference won’t have two BCS bowl teams.

But as they say: Oh, well. For a struggling North Carolina team to upset Virginia Tech on the road is quite an accomplishment and the bigger picture in the ACC shouldn’t tarnish what the Tar Heels did last night.

Nobody should be surprised at the outcome in Starkville on Saturday night. No. 1 Florida (which has struggled in Starkville since its last win there in 1985) got a great effort from its defense, but the Gators struggled at times offensively and Mississippi State gave them a fight before finally falling 29-19.

But if Florida was looking to silence its critics, it certainly didn’t do even tonight to accomplish that. Outside of gaining 88 yards on 22 carries and one rushing touchdown, Tim Tebow wasn’t very good. In fact, one could argue that the only reason this game was close was because Tebow kept the Bulldogs in it by throwing two interceptions that Miss State returned for touchdowns. (He also took a truck load of sacks by holding onto the ball too long.)

Even though the Gators only held on to a 13-10 lead at halftime, this game was never really in doubt. The Bulldogs were horrid offensively and couldn’t sustain drives. Again, the only reason they were even in the game is because their defense gave an outstanding effort and managed to produce two touchdowns.

That said, did Florida do enough to remain No. 1 in the BCS standings? Before you say no, remember that Alabama wasn’t that impressive either. The Tide needed a blocked field goal to hold off Tennessee at home, as they too struggled offensively. No. 3 Texas might have an argument after routing Missouri 41-7 on the road, but it’s highly unlikely that the conservative BCS voters would make a move like that and rank the Longhorns No. 1.

Chances are that Florida will find itself atop the BCS standings for a second consecutive week. But for the second consecutive week, the Gators weren’t all that impressive either.

Even those that think they’re the most overrated team in college football have to admit how remarkable the Iowa Hawkeyes have been this season.

No. 6 Iowa stayed perfect on the season thanks to an improbable 15-13 win over Michigan State on Saturday. Both teams struggling generating any kind of offense until less than three minutes remaining when Iowa took a 9-6 lead on a 20-yard Daniel Murray field goal.

The Spartans then marched up the field (thanks to a great hook-and-ladder call) and scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Blair White with only 1:37 remaining in the game to put MSU up 13-9. Iowa answered back with a drive of its own, capping it off with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Ricky Stanzi to Marvin McNutt on a 4th and goal as time expired.

Iowa is 8-0 on the season and in all but one of those wins (a 35-3 rout of Iowa State), the Hawkeyes battled some kind of adversity. Whether they’ve been trailing at the start of the game, at halftime or late in the fourth quarter, Iowa has found a way to win and for that, voters must keep them ranked high.

I would be willing to argue with anyone who said Iowa isn’t impressive. Are they dominating opponents? No. Are the playing top-notch teams every week? No. Should they have probably suffered a loss at this point? Yes, if not several. Did Michigan State choke several times on the final drive? Absolutely.

But isn’t the point of the lame, stupid, idiotic BCS system to win games? Isn’t the point to treat every week like it’s a playoff game where victory reigns supreme? It’s not like the Hawkeyes play in the Big East or the Mountain West – they play in the Big Ten, where Ohio State has made a living off playing in BCS games or the national championship with one or no losses.

Iowa could lose next week and be dropped so far down in the polls that they would need a sniper lens just to see the top. But for now, they’re undefeated, are the team to beat in the Big Ten and will continue to be in BCS contention.

Go figure, Miami faces four ranked teams to start the season (Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma), manages to win three of those games, but then suffers its second loss of the season to an unranked Clemson team at home.

A pesky Tigers team knocked off the No. 10 Hurricanes 40-37 in overtime on Saturday, thanks in large part to Kyle Parker’s big passing day. The freshman quarterback completed 25 of his 37 pass attempts for 326 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. His 26-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Ford in overtime gave Clemson the victory.

Heisman candidate Jacory Harris made a slew of mistakes in this game and just couldn’t recover. He threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns, but his three interceptions doomed Miami as the Canes turned the ball over a total of four times.

With Miami’s loss, Georgia Tech now becomes the outright leader in the Coastal Division by a wide margin. The defeat also opens the door for the Yellow Jackets to leapfrog the Hurricanes in the BCS standings, which is obviously critical.

The “O” word will start to be thrown around Miami now. Their win over Florida State at the start of the season doesn’t look as impressive now as it did then given how the ‘Noles have stumbled. Of course, their win over Georgia Tech holds strong, especially considering how the Jackets continue to climb the rankings.

Still, with two losses in the ACC, the Hurricanes look rather average right now, don’t they?