Hindsight is 20/20 - Week 8

Week 8 Record: 6-4
2010 Record: 54-26 (67.5%)

Week 8 Stream of Consciousness: Oregon has scored 368 points in 480 minutes of football... Iowa State pulled off the shocker beating Texas, but should it have been so shocking? Apart from a (defensively-only) dismantling of Nebraska, the Horns have looked average at best this year... Called the spread! Wisconsin nudged Iowa by 1 due to the hard-nosed Badger running backs... Oklahoma State broke Nebraska's 21-or-less streak, but Nebraska QB Taylor Martinez broke the all-time Nebraska record for total offense by a freshman, with 435 yards, and became the first Husker QB to run for over 100 and pass for over 300 in a game... Baylor racked up the yards on the startlingly slow KSU D, passing for over 400 and rushing for almost 300 yards... Mizzou took it to the Sooners (who should have led by multiple TDs at the break), who wore down as the game went on. Next up, at Lincoln for all the Big 12 North marbles... Arizona QB Nick Foles out? No problem... Illinois put together its  most complete game thus far. That loss to Missouri looks better and better now doesn't it?... Clemson got revenge for the twice-over beatings by GT last year. This year, there won't be a rematch in the ACCCG. And there was much rejoicing.

This week's sign of the apocalypse:
Baylor is sitting alone on top of the Big 12 South. Let me repeat that. The Baylor Bears are a half-game ahead in the Big 12 South. Looking down on OU, OSU, UT, A&M, and TT. Alone at the top. The Bears achieved bowl-eligibility Saturday, beating KSU 47-42, for the first time since 1995. They racked up more  rushing yards than ever before in a Big 12 game. Ranked 25 in the BCS (!!!) and #21 in the CFB Project Top120, they travel to Austin to take on the 4th-place #46 Longhorns. Look at your preseason predictions. Now reread that sentence. At the predictions. Now back at that sentence. Sadly, you did not read that sentence before the season, or you would be rich. And that... is this week's sign of the apocalypse.

Week 8 WTF?!?
WTF, Bob Stoops? Calling for a two point try down by 9 with 6 min left? Take the points, get the ball back, you're still down just a score. Don't make it, and the demoralization sets in. It's over.... because the next time you got the ball...
WTF, Bob Stoops? You punted on 4th down. Were you resigning yourself to defeat? Seriously? Every win matters, every week changes a season, and you chose to get out of town? There's a reason you haven't won a BCS championship in 10 years.
WTF, "Big" East "Conference"? Note the quotations. Two weeks ago I was content to question the size descriptor. Now I question the conference. Your best team record is Syracuse, of all teams, at 5-2. Not a single team is bowl-eligible, and your conference leader is 4-3 Pitt, with losses to MtnWest #2 Utah, ACC #2 Miami (badly. At home.), and a bad (#54) Notre Dame. How does a 8-4 Pitt team justify taking a BCS bid from a 11-1 Utah team that beat it, or a (gasp!) 12-0 Boise team edged out by TCU? The horror! Perhaps when the Big 12 champ beats you by 50 in the Fiesta Bowl you'll reconsider your "conference" status.


GOTW! Auburn 24, LSU 17.
GOTW Record: 6-2
Why I was right:

• Auburn whipped LSU at the line of scrimmage, gaining 440 rushing yards against the previously stingy LSU D.
• Cam Newton put on a show with his legs, rushing for over 200 yards.
• The LSU offense sputtered, as usual. This time, the defense wasn't there to pick up the slack.