Week Five of 2018’s college football season is now history and there seems to be no stopping UCF who extended their unbeaten run with a comfortable 45-14 win over Pittsburgh. Game and probably result of the week came at then no 9 Penn State as the no 4 Buckeyes somehow came back from the dead to sneak a 27-26 win. Its hard to see how Penn State comes back from this and in our Opinion Ohio State should be no 1 in the rankings.
With 10 of the Top 25 teams matched up against each other (including w top 10 ones), something had to give and although there were no major upsets Clemson’s stock fell as they narrowly scraped past Syracuse, while Notre Dame made a huge statement by manhandling then no 7 Stanford. Duke was the only ranked team to lose to an unranked opponent and their loss was no surprise coming against a good Virginia Tech who were still smarting from last weeks shock defeat at Old Dominion. They should be back in the top 25 this week.
Of the other all ranked games Washington’s easy dismissal of BYU by 35-7 stood out while West Virginia ended TTU’s recent good run beating them 42-34 in yet another high scoring game; the Red Raiders have now slipped to 4-2 (and back out of the rankings for sure), however, they have still racked up 242 points so far this season. In the final big game, Oregon bounced back from their OT loss to Stanford easily beating Cal 42-24.
The top teams keep winning
Alabama 56, Louisiana Lafayette 14 – the Crimson Tide racked up 600+ yards of offense in another easy win against mediocre opposition. Difficult to tell just how good they are.
Georgia 38, Tennessee 12 – a good win for the Bulldogs in an all-SEC clash.
Clemson 27, Syracuse 23 – Clemson were lucky to escape with the win having trailed 23-13 in the fourth quarter.
Ohio State 27, Penn State 26 – a great win for The Buckeyes, however, Penn State made some coaching howlers. As stated above we regard the Buckeyes as the number one team based on results and not reputation. Surprisingly Penn State might not even make a New Year bowl game now having been expected to be playoff contenders preseason.
LSU 45, Mississippi State 16 – it looks like LSU are for real and with a game against Georgia to come they have a good chance of pushing for a top-four place in the coming weeks.
Oklahoma 66, Baylor 33 – The Sooners bounced back from last week’s disappointing performance against Army. Quarterback Kyler Murray had a day to remember with 432 yards passing and six touchdowns.
Notre Dame 38, Stanford 17 – a huge win for the Fighting Irish, who move onto 5-0 for the first time since 2012, when they went on to play Alabama in the National Championship.
Racking them up
Georgia Tech 63, Bowling Green 17 – Georgia Tech racked up 372 yards rushing as the outclassed MAC minnows Bowling Green.
SMU 63, Houston Baptist 27 – SMU racked up the points against a very mediocre FCS team.
Wake Forest 56, Rice 24 – Wake Forest stormed into 42-3 lead by half-time before easing off a bit in their rout of the 1-4 C-USA Owls.
Florida International 55, Arkansas Pine Bluff 9 – FIU racked up 48 straight points at one stage against Arkansas Pine Bluff, who to be fair are struggling FCS team. To put this into perspective fellow FCS team South Dakota State beat them 90-6 back in week three.
Ball State 52, Kent State 24 – Ball State open their Mid-American Conference campaign with a comfortable win thanks largely to the efforts of quarterback Riley Neil who had 402 yards passing. This was his best ever performance and the first time the Cardinals had reached this mark since 2013.
Appalachian State 52, South Alabama 7 -Appalachian State cruised to a comfortable conference win in a game that was over as a contest by half-time at 42-7.
Arizona State 52, Oregon State 24 – the Sun Devils picked up a useful PAC-12 win thanks to a solid rushing performance which saw them pick up 396 yards on the ground. Oregon had 400+ yards of offense themselves and slightly more possession but couldn’t turn this into points with the same gusto.
Is it Basketball Award Goes to:
OHIO 58, Massachusetts 42 – 100 points and over 1100 yards of offense kept the 19,056 in attendance entertained. The game was quite close in the first half but Ohio pulled away in the second.
Liberty 52, New Mexico 43 – this deserves an honorable mention for being a highly entertaining game with 1148 yards of offense. Liberty raced off to 42-10 half-time lead only to see the Lobos fightback to get within six points before a near last-minute field goal made the game safe.
Games of the Week
Ohio State 27, Penn State 26 – the biggest game of the week lived up to the hype and a record-breaking crowd of 110,889 were treated to a back and forward game, which ultimately hinged on two terrible coaching decisions by Penn State. The Nittany Lions raced into an early 13-0 lead and looked to be in control until a fumble just before half-time allowed the Buckeyes to go in only trailing 13-7. Ohio State then took the lead 14-13 before the first coaching clanger fell. Towards the end of the third quarter with the ball at the Buckeyes 24 yard line Penn State inexplicably chose to go for it on fourth down rather than take the relatively easy field goal which would have put them back in the lead. The fourth-down attempt failed and Ohio took over on downs. Clanger two occurred midway through the fourth quarter when Penn State scored a touchdown, however some reason chose to go for two points rather than extend the lead. That point turned out to be crucial as the Buckeyes rallied to take a 27-26 lead. With time on the clock, Penn State drove the ball downfield but once more inexplicably on fourth and five chose to run the ball on fourth down. The play was stopped in the backfield and Ohio State ran out the clock. So overall a great game for the neutral but totally heartbreaking for Penn State and a huge wake-up call for the coaching staff, who were nothing short of shocking.
Washington State 28, Utah 24 – The Cougars won their 10th consecutive home game against a very good Utah side in a game that could have gone either way. Utah had the early lead but the teams went in tied in half-time and despite taking a 24-21 lead early in the third quarter they couldn’t hold off Washington and Gardner Minshew capped off a performance to remember with an 89-yard touchdown pass to win the game. He finished with 445 yards passing. A less enviable stat for Washington was the fact that they had 0 net yards rushing from 13 attempts.
Performances of the Week
Army 42, Buffalo 13 – Army rushed for 281 yards as they handed Buffalo their first defeat of the season. They kept the momentum going from last week’s excellent performance against Oklahoma and are now 3-2 on the season while Buffalo is now 4-1.
On the up
Cincinnati 49, Connecticut 7 – the Bearcats moved to 5-0 in the AAC with a convincing road win against Connecticut, in which they racked up 659 yards of total offense. Keep this up and they should see themselves creeping into the rankings.
Colorado 38, UCLA 16 – the Buffaloes have been flying under the radar in the PAC-12 but they are now 4-0.
Kentucky 24, South Carolina 10 – The Wildcats remain undefeated at 5-0 thanks to a purple patch in the second quarter where they scored three consecutive touchdowns, the pick of which was Benny Snell’s 99-yard run.
Upset of the day
Tulane 40, Memphis 24 – Tulane had lost the last 11 meetings between the two teams and were 14.5 point underdogs pre-game. It was close until the 3rd Quarter when the Green Wave racked up 23 unanswered points to put the game out of reach.
A little disappointing
Michigan 20, Northwestern 17 – The Wolverines were 17-0 down at one stage but rallied to snatch the win. Northwestern are no pushovers, however, any team with playoff aspirations should be winning these games more convincingly.
Texas 19, Kansas State 14 – Texas roared into a 19-0 lead and then nearly threw it away with poor second half play.
Florida 13, Mississippi State 6 – Florida didn’t look convincing and gave away too many penalties. Fortunately, their defense played lights out.
Back on track
Boston College 45, Temple 35 – A solid bounce back after last weeks poor showing against Purdue. Temple may be 2-3 but they play tough and this might looki like a better result come thye seasons end.
Keeping it close
Western Michigan 40, Miami Ohio 39 – came right down to the wire with the Broncos taking the lead with just under 3 minutes to play. Missing the 2 point try kept it interesting and Miami Oh misses a potentially game-winning field goal with 29 seconds left
Back down to earth
East Carolina 37, Old Dominion 35 – one week on from their landmark victory over Virginia Tech normal service is resumed as OD fall to 1-4.
Can We Go Home Now
Hawaii 44, San Jose State 41 (5OT) – 5 Overtimes says it all
Northern Illinois 26, East Michigan 23 (3OT) Honorable mention as 3 overtimes doesn’t turn up that often.
Image Evgenii Matrosov/Shutterstock
