Week Four of the 2018 NCAA Football season saw UCF’s unbeaten run continue in a Friday night game against neighbors Florida Atlantic. Who would have thought that an AAC v C-USA game would get be prime time billing. Thankfully it didn’t disappoint with the Black Knights winning 56-36. Result of the day and upset of the day has to Old Dominion (who were an FCS team not that long ago) They beat the then no. 13 ranked Virginia Tech 49-35 thanks to a wild 4th Quarter in which they scored 4 TDs.
Overall the week passed relatively uneventfully with 19 of the top 25 ranked teams winning, and with two of the games involving teams which were both ranked this meant that there were only 4 of the top 25 toppled by unranked opponents. The best of these was Texas Tech (TTU) following up last weeks wild win against Houston with a mighty impressive road win at Oklahoma State 41-17. TTU have now racked up 208 points in their first four games and are 3-1. Texas were also mighty impressive taking down TCU for their second straight wins over a ranked opponent.
The final two ranked losses were not really shocks (well not to us) as Kentucky moved to 4-0 with a win over Mississippi State and Boston College losing on the road against Big 10 opponent Purdue.
The top teams keep winning
Alabama 45, Texas A&M 22 For about 28 minutes it looked like this one would be close but 10 points in the final 2 minutes of the 1st half followed by another TD early in the 3rd ended the contest. Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa had a good day with 387 yards passing and 5 total TDs. A&M may be 2-2 however their schedule has been ugly with the other defeat being by 2 points against Clemson. Things get a little easier from here at least for the next 3 weeks.
UGA 43, Missouri 29 – Not a vintage performance by Georgia but they are 4-0 and a road win in an SEC game is still a plus.
Clemson 49, Georgia Tech 21 – Clemson move on to 4-0 with a more dominant defensive performance than the score board would indicate. Georgia Tech were held to 31 Yards passing and 177 overall. They were the nation’s leading rushing team until they met the Tigers defence.
Racking them up
Appalachian State 72, Gardner-Webb 7 – Don’t read too much into this GW are a mediocre FCS team. Still 692 yards of offence and 79 total points kept the crowd of just over 21,000 entertained.
Houston 70, Texas Southern 14 – Another mismatch between a decent AAC team and a struggling FSC one. Houston scored on their fires 6 possessions and were 49-0 up early in the 3rd Quarter. They added 3 fourth Quarter TD’s to run up the score.
Penn State 63, Illinois 24 – Looked like a shock was on the cards with the Fighting Illini leading 21-24; then Penn rack up 42 unanswered points! This was far from as clear cut stat wise as the score would have you believe. They are 4-0 but play like this in their next two games against OSU & MSU and they could be out of the playoff picture.
Notre Dame 56, Wake Forest 27 – A good win the ND against an ok ACC team and 566 of balanced offence should be enough to give them a little boosts in the rankings.
UCF 56, Florida Atlantic 36 – Cracking game with over 1000 yards of offence. Three turnovers by FAU certainly didn’t help. No one can accuse Lane Kiffin of not going for it with FAU they may be 2-2 but their other defeat was to Oklahoma. They will be a force in the C-USA again this season.
Michigan 56, Nebraska 10 – The Scott Frost era continues to be a bit of a damp squib at Nebraska 132 total yards of offence and 7 of their points in garbage time; should have stayed at UCF.
Duke 55, North Carolina Central 13 – Another let’s run the score board against weak FCS opposition game. Why do they keep scheduling these?
Is it Basketball?
Toledo 63, Nevada 44 – 1042 yards of offence 50 First Downs & 107 points. Loads of great plays (though not many on defence) including Toledos Diontae Johnson’s 99 yard kick off return which you can see here Unusual stat Nevada had exactly 230 yards Rushing and Passing.
Games of the Week Both in the PAC 12
Washington State 36, USC 39 – Tough loss for the Cougars who had a 13 point lead in the third quarter and had a late field goal blocked. No turnovers and plenty of passing yards – shame there had to be a loser.
Stanford 38, Oregon 31 (OT) – Oregon will be kicking themselves for letting this one slip away. They had the lead right up until Stanford’s game tying field goal as time expired and pretty much dominated play. The Ducks had over 10 minutes more possession & over 100 yards more offence, but +3 turnovers didn’t help. A thrilling game for the neutral though.
Performances of the Week – to the loser
Oklahoma 28, Army 21 (OT) – The Sooners were expected to stroll this one starting 31 point favourites, but Army obviously hadn’t read the script and totally dominated possession, controlling the ball for 44;41 minutes and actually out gained Oklahoma offensively. Sadly their passing game was off with only 40 net yards gained and Kevin Hopkins threw 2 interceptions. The Sooners nicked it in overtime to move to 4-0 but they will think they got away with one here. On this form Army will be going to a Bowl game and might even sneak double digit wins this season as their remaining schedule is a whole lot easier.
On the Up
LSU 38, Lousiana Tech 21 – The Tigers move on to 4-0 with 2 wins over then top 10 opposition -They have a tough schedule but they look like a team with a New Year Bowl in their sights.
UK 28, MIss State 7 – The Wild Cats are one of the surprise teams of the year 4-0 and 2-0 in SEC play. They are probably not going to overtake Georgia in the East but they have the head to head over Florida and a win over a ranked opponent. They have a few tough games ahead but they look to be on their way to a 3rd consecutive Bowl game.
Texas Tech 41, Oklahoma State 17 – Another high octane performance with Freshman QB Alan Bowman throwing for 397 yards. They have scored 181 points in their last 3 games.
Texas 31, TCU 16 – Statement win for Texas who had lost their 4 previous encounters with TCU by a combined score of 153-33. To early to be say they are conference contenders but certainly a step in the right direction.
Florida 47, Tennessee 21 – Florida’s defence stepped up in what was a closer game that the score suggests. The Gators forced 6 turnovers and generated 24 points from them in what will go down as a statement win in the SEC East.
Upset of the day
Old Dominion 49, Virginia Tech 35 – VT 28.5 point favourites in this Cross State game and were facing a team who were 0-3 on the season – Cake walk right? Wrong, having led for most of the first 3 quarters they succumbed to a stunning 4th quarter comeback which saw OD score 4 TD’s. Great game for the neutral with 1232 yards of offence including 495 yards passing for OD QB Blake LaRussa who wasn’t even the starter! One defeat doesnt make or end a season but VT can forget any slim hopes they had of making the playoffs.
A little disappointing
Washington 27, Arizona State 20 – The Huskies will need to be more impressive than this if they are going to get back into the Playoff conversation. Highlight of the game was Jake Browning becoming the second quarterback in Washington history to pass 10,000 passing yards.
South Florida 20, East Carolina 13 – USF moved to 4-0 but it was far from impressive.
Back on track
Wisconsin 28, Iowa 17 – The Badgers bounced back from last weeks shock loss to BYU in some style with a win at a good Iowa side who were 3-0 before this. They just about control their own destiny in the Big 10 West and who knows a win in the conference championship might just about put them in the playoffs (although we wouldn’t bet on it).
Keeping it close
SMU 31, Navy 30 (OT) – SMU sneaked past Navy with a gutsy 2 point conversion in over time in a game that was close all the way.
San Diego State 23, East Michigan 20 (OT) – SDS edged out East Michigan thanks to two field goals the first a 50 yard effort with 1.09 left on the clock to tie the game after EMU had rallied back from 17-3 down, and the second ion their first try in OT after they intercepted EMU’s effort.
North Carolina 38, Pittsburgh 35 – UNC got their first win of the season thanks to a strong 3rd quarter which gave them a 10 point cushion. Pittsburgh clawed it back in the fourth but with just over 3 minutes left UNC held on to the ball to run out the clock. Neither will be figuring in the ACC title race this year.
Back down to earth
Purdue 30, Boston College 13 – BC had high hopes this season and after going 3-0, and scoring 158 points in the process they went to Purdue as 7 point favourites. However they never got into the game and were 30-7 down before they made the score look slightly more respectful with a TD in the last few seconds. Their flirtation with the top 25 rankings should be short lived.
Image credit Evgenii Matrosov/Shutterstock
