Recap: LSU Had No Answer For 'Bama; Michigan Manhandles Penn State

November 4, 2018 by Dave Congrove

Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa threw his first interception of the season,  but also his 26th and 27th TD passes, as the Tide shut out LSU 29-0 in Baton Rouge. In the process, Alabama joined Michigan, Ohio State and Texas as the only four FBS programs with 900 wins in college football. Alabama entred the weekended ranked first in the initial playoff committee rankings of 2018, while the Tigers were ranked 3rd.

The committee's second-ranked team, Clemson, played a much lesser opponent but showed no mercy in a 77-16 annihilation of Louisville, while their 4th-ranked team, Notre Dame, needed to fend off a stubborn Northwestern team for a 31-21 win in Evanston.

Meanwhile, No. 5 Michigan issued a statement with a 42-7 domination of No. 14 Penn State. And No. 6 Georgia methodically put away No. 9 Kentucky 34-17 in Lexington.

7th-ranked Oklahoma demonstrated that it still has no defense, even after firing the coordinator of that unit, Mike Stoops, on October 8. The Sooners still managed to pull out a 51-46 win in Lubbock over Texas Tech.

No. 8 Washington State downed Cal 19-13, and No. 10 Ohio State fought off a valiant upset effort by Nebraska 36-31.

Among the glaring takeaways from Saturday were a trio of games in the ACC. Virginia Tech fell to 1-3 at home (4-4 overall) with a 31-21 loss to Boston College; Miami (5-4 overall) endured a third-straight ACC loss, 20-12 at home to Duke; and Florida State sank to 2-4 in the ACC (4-4 overall) with a 47-28 loss at N.C. State.

Utah was a 38-20 loser at Arizona State, leaving no team in the south division with fewer than 3 PAC-12 losses. Colorado, which started 5-0, has now lost 4 straight after a 42-34 defeat at Arizona.

The biggest game in the Big 12 saw West Virginia pull out a 42-41 win at Texas on Will Grier's 2-point conversion scramble with 16 seconds left in regulation. Those points came after the first 2-point try was successful, but negated because the Longhorns had called timeout just before the snap.

Houston was a big upset loser in Dallas where SMU tamed the Cougars 45-31.

Missouri, as predicted by the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com, pocketed its first SEC win of the season by beating Florida in the The Swamp" 38-17.

UTEP, also as predicted by the computer, ended several losing streaks with a 34-26 win at Rice. The Miners had dropped 20 straight overall (FBS longest), 12 straight conference games (tied for FBS longest), and 13 straight road games (tied for FBS longest). Rice now has sole ownership of the longest current losing streak in conference games at 13.

Kent State also proved the computer right by ending its 13-game road losing streak by edging Bowling Green 35-28 on Tuesday.

FBS vs. FCS

New Mexico State was the lone FBS team facing a FCS opponent this week and the Aggies downed Alcorn State 52-42. FBS teams are 96-7 (.932) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,315-124 (.914) since 2003.

Here are all of the FCS victories over FBS teams, so far, in 2018:

August 30: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19

Streaks

UCF - Won 21 straight overall (FBS longest), Won 14 straight conference games including AAC title last year (FBS longest). Won 52-40 at home vs. Temple on Thursday.

Alabama - Won 23 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 29-0 at LSU on Saturday.

Oklahoma - Won 19 straight true road games (FBS longest). Won 51-46 at Texas Tech on Saturday.

Rice - Lost 9 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 34-26 at home vs. UTEP on Saturday.

Rice - Lost 13 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 34-26 at home vs. UTEP on Saturday.

Charlotte - Lost 11 straight road games (tied FBS longest). Lost 14-3 at Tennessee on Saturday.

San Jose State - Lost 11 straight road games (tied FBS longest). Lost 24-9 at Wyoming on Saturday.

UTEP - Ended streaks of 20 straight overall losses (FBS longest), 12 straight conference game losses (tied for FBS longest), and 13 straight road losses. Won 34-26 at Rice on Saturday.

Kent State - Ended losing streak of 13 straight road games (tied for FBS longest) with 35-28 win at Bowling Green on Tuesday.