News/Commentary

Week 6 Recap: Oklahoma Wins 4-OT Thriller; Missouri and A&M Score Upsets

October 11, 2020 by Staff

The early college football games on Saturday were just as crazy as the rest of the year 2020 has been, while 'Bama and Ole Miss served a tasty late course.

Only 56 FBS teams saw action.

Oklahoma coughed up a 31-14 lead with 5 minutes left in regulation, but won 53-45 over Texas in a fourth overtime when Sam Ehlinger was intercepted by Tre Brown in the end zone. One of the wildest Ride River Rivalry games - if not THE wildest - was played before a reduced crowd of 24,000 due to the Covid pandemic. The surrounding state fair grounds were quiet for the first time since 1945, the year World War II was won by America and its allies.

Missouri took advantage of its game with LSU being moved from Baton Rouge to Columbia because of Hurricane Delta. Mizzou matched the Bayou Bengals all day long, and won the game 45-41 despite allowing LSU quarterback Myles Brennan to throw for 430 yards and 4 TD passes. Missouri QB Connor Bazelak was nearly perfect, completing 29-of-34 for 406 yards and 4 TD's. LSU had first-and-goal in the waning seconds of the game and turned the ball over on downs.

Joining Missouri in the upset win column was Texas A&M, pulling off a 41-38 win over visiting Florida on Seth Small's 26-yard field goal as time expired. Gator TE Kyle Pitts was held to 47 yards and a TD on 5 catches, though Kyle Trask did have a 4-TD passing performance. But A&M QB Kellen Mond threw for 33 yards and 3 TD's and RB Isaiah Spiller proved to be the difference-maker with a 174-yard, 2 TD afternoon. Attendance was announced as 24,709 at Kyle Field.

Another early game on Saturday saw a ranked vs. ranked matchup in the ACC as North Carolina outscored Virginia Tech 56-45 in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels took advantage of the Hokies' depleted defense which, mostly due to Covid, was missing a slew of players for a third straight game (15 total). UNC opened a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and wound up with 656 total yards, led by RB's Michael Carter (214 yards, 2 TD's) and Javonte Williams (169 yards, 2 TDs). But Virginia Tech shredded North Carolina's defense, too, with just under 500 yards led by RB Khalil Herbert's 138 yards and 2 TD's. Bottom line is that neither of these teams will go far against the upper end of the ACC (i.e., Clemson and Notre Dame) until they resolve their issues on that side of the ball.

Speaking Of Clemson and Notre Dame....

The ABC-TV late game broadcast the Tigers getting their 25th straight ACC win as they methodically dispatched Miami (FLA), 42-17.

The night game on NBC had a somewhat better Florida State-Notre Dame tussle. The 'Noles proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated, but the Irish ultimately prevailed, 42-26.

ESPN had the best late game with the back-and-forth battle between Ole Miss and Alabama featuring Lane Kiffin against his former boss, Nick Saban. The Rebels scored first and didn't trailed until Najee Harris broke a 21-21 halftime tie with a 33-yard TD run on the fourth play of the third quarter for Alabama. But Ole Miss answered and the teams continued to swap touchdowns until a bad snap on 3rd down forced Kiffin to opt for a 39-yard field goal that left Alabama ahead, 49-45with 7:01 to play in the game. 'Bama scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive for a 56-45 lead, and after Ole Miss replied with another field goal but couldn't recover the onside kick, the Tide marched to another touchdown and the final 63-48 margin.

Among other games on Saturday, Boston College escaped with a 31-30 win over Pitt in overtime when the Panthers missed the game-tying PAT. Pitt lost the previous week by 1 point to NC State when the Wolfpack scored the go-ahead touchdown with 23 seconds left in the game, just a minute and 21 seconds after the Panthers had taken the lead.

Auburn eked-out a 30-28 home win over Arkansas on the luck of a blown call by the officials. Trailing 28-27 with 30 seconds left, Auburn QB Bo Nix fumbled the ball, regathered it and threw it to the ground to stop the clock. Only problem was he now had his back turned to the line of scrimmage so, by rule, he threw a backwards pass which is a live ball.

After a favorable replay ruling upheld the call, Anders Carlton kicked the game-winning 39-yad field goal.

This was the play in question.

In a game between two of the SEC East's heavyweights, Georgia broke away from Tennessee in the second half for a 44-21 victory. It was 17-all at halftime.

Kansas State, led by true freshman QB Will Howard, downed TCU 21-14 in a Big 12 clash. The Wildcats were listed as 10-point underdogs, largely because starting QB Skylar Thompson was injured last week and was questionable for this game. As it turns out, Thompson didn't even make the trip to Fort Worth. Howard had to replace Thompson for the second half of last week's 31-21 win over Texas Tech.

Temple finally opened its season, but Navy spoiled the occasion with a 31-29 win. The Owls could have sent the game to overtime, but a 2-point conversion attempt failed after a 1-yard TD run made it 31-29 with 1:01 left in the game.

Houston also finally played its opener and had a more enjoyable outcome with a 49-31 home win versus Tulane on Thursday night.

East Carolina ended a 6-game losing skid in the USF series with a 44-24 win in Tampa. It's only the 2nd win for the Pirates in their last 10 games.

FCS vs. FBS

31 FBS teams will play a total of 35 games against FCS schools this season. Army has 3 such games on its schedule.

Just two such games took place this week as Army subdued The Citadel 14-9 and Arkansas State held off Central Arkansas 50-27.

FBS teams are 24-0 in such matchups this season. Since we began tracking this in 2003, the FBS teams are  1,459-127 (.920).

Last year, FBS teams were 111-3 (.974) in such games.

These were the FCS wins vs. the FBS in the previous 2 seasons:

August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)

August 29: 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

CLEMSON - Won 33 straight regular season games (FBS longest) games. Won 25 straight conference games (FBS longest). Won 26 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 13 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 42-17 at home vs. Miami on Saturday, October 10.
Next: Visits Georgia Tech on Saturday, October 17.

AIR FORCE - 9-game over-all winning streak leads nation.
Last: Won 40-7 at home versus Navy.
Next: visits San Jose State on Saturday, October 24.

NOTRE DAME - Won 9 straight over-all (tied for FBS-longest)
Last: Won 42-26 at home versus Florida State on Saturday, October 10.
Next: Hosts Louisville on Saturday, October 17.

RUTGERS - Lost 21 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 13 straight road games (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 27-6 at Penn State on November 30, 2019.
Next: Season opener at Michigan State on Saturday, October 24.

AKRON - Lost 17 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 8 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 52-3 at home to Ohio on November 26, 2019.
Next: Season opener at home versus Western Michigan on Wednesday, November 4.