College Football: Week 11 Wrap-Up

#5 Cincinnati def. #25 West Virginia 24-21
I had an absolute blast at this game. Our seats were at the 20-yard line, 13 rows up, which was perfect since the first ten rows pretty much had a butt view of the UC bench. Though it certainly wasn't the Bearcats best showing, Cincinnati has a spectacular offense made even better by the combination of Zach Collaros running the ball and Tony Pike throwing daggers. Isaiah Pead is also a pretty nice option on the running attack. The problem, of course, is on the other side of the ball. West Virginia had no pass attack to speak of. Actually, they had no offense at all outside of the extremely slippery Noel Devine and the occasional Jarrett Brown scramble. But the Bearcats still had a heck of a time stopping them, which isn't a good sign. Conclusion: dream season for UC, it's a blast to see how thrilled the students are, they'll have something of a challenge in Illinois and maybe a bit of a David v. Goliath at Pitt (really wish I'd seen that ND game!), and although I'm on the fan bandwagon for good, it's hard to see them avoiding a blowout at the hands of a big school. They'd have to score on pretty much every possession.


#12 Pittsburgh def. Notre Dame 27-22
Embarassingly, I got home on Sunday all excited to watch this game (and I had even managed to avoid finding out the score) and I didn't have it recorded. Not sure how that happened, but I am quite disappointed, particularly since Bill Stull reportedly had a good game and I'd definitely have to see that to believe it. Still, it sounds like I called it more or less right - Clausen was pretty good and kept 'em in it, but ultimately couldn't overcome their hapless defense. The road doesn't get a whole lot easier for Notre Dame, whose schedule was much harder this year than it originally seemed. Connecticut comes to South Bend this weekend and then the Irish close out the regular season at Stanford. They can take down Connecticut if they can stop turning the ball over, but Stanford should kill 'em. And I have to say, I think Charlie Weis needs both games to keep his job.

This Week's 'Yell at the TV' Moment: I caught the end of the Iowa-Ohio State game and am now weeping for the Big Ten. After Ohio State barfed up a 14-point lead in eight minutes in the 4th quarter, they got the ball with 2:42 left and the score tied at 24. Play selection: 3 runs, a 3-yard pass, and a pass stopped behind the line of scrimmage. Tressel-ball, my ass. That's just peewee football. Iowa's possession didn't make matters any better. After stopping the negative pass on 3rd down, Iowa calls timeout and gets the ball back on its own 33 with 52 seconds left. Play selection: rush, delay of game, rush to end game. Yeah, I know you got a freshman QB but a) he's played well and b) why not at least take a shot down the field with 20 seconds or so? All you need is a field goal! The general rule is that if you don't play to win, you won't, but I guess they couldn't both lose.

In other news: Good for Northwestern for beating Illinois. The Wildcats are never as bad as you think.....Cincinnati's stadium (second oldest to Penn) really is terrific. Right in the middle of campus, brick all around, small enough that every seat in the house has a great view - kind of felt like a high school state championship game.....Apparently, we were all part of the largest crowd in Bearcats history - just over 35,000.....What an incredible moment when Tony Pike returned for a touchdown pass a few minutes into the game. The crowd loved it!