Now That September is Behind Us….
Written by Wendi
In case you missed it Friday night, 10th ranked Utah got a beat down in Corvallis 21-7 against Sean’s almighty Beavers. I would say that Oregon State may win the Pac 12 Championship with the way they have been playing but it appears as that game has already been played with Washington State winning last week. The Pac 12 still has four undefeated teams heading into this weekend- USC, Oregon, Washington, and Washington State.
Speaking of USC, if you looked at halftime and saw the score 34-14 and tuned it out only later to see the score scrolling at the bottom of your TV screen, you may have noticed that Coach Prime’s team came roaring back within arm’s length of USC. I think USC thought it was going to be a blowout win and got lazy and did not intend on Colorado not going down that easy. Colorado scored the last 20 points of the game and barely lost 48-41. Yikes.
There were four SEC matchups on the picks. It started with a Gator beatdown in Kentucky where the Wildcats had their way with Florida. With a 33-14 win, that meant Kentucky has now beaten them three years in a row. Arkansas and Texas A&M met in Arlington for their annual game where the Aggie defense held the Pigs to only 174 total yards. If A&M can limit the mistakes, they could make it to Atlanta at the end of the season. Arkansas has now dropped their last three games.
With a combined total of 1343 yards and a final score of 55-49, it was quite the offensive showdown we expected between LSU and Ole Miss. Who said the SEC needs defense to win games? Ole Miss got off to a big start with three touchdowns in the first quarter but slowly unraveled. The Rebels finally put the Tigers to bed in the fourth quarter and yelled HOTTY TOTTY. Well maybe that is not what they yelled but I know Sean did because he laid 9 on them for his picks.
Still recovering from a loss to a terrible Florida team two weeks ago, Tennessee left no doubt they are still a good team. Donned in beautiful orange and black uniforms, they routed South Carolina 41-20. The Vols need a lot of things to go their way in order to win the SEC East, but they still have an undefeated Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia to contend with. And speaking of Georgia……..What was going on in Auburn? I am not sure what is funnier – Auburn thinking they were actually going to upset the #1 team or Auburn thinking Georgia was going to lose. See what I did there?
With Game Day making a first time appearance in Durham, NC for an unbeaten Duke team, the Blue Devils got off to a sluggish start as Notre Dame had a 10-0 halftime lead. Duke was able to take the lead in the fourth quarter but with a late TD from Notre Dame, the Irish won 21-14.
Boise State jumped to a 17-0 lead quickly only for Memphis to score 28 unanswered points leading into the fourth quarter which shifted the momentum to the Tigers. Boise State was able to score a couple more times, but Memphis was determined to get the win 35-32.
FUN FACT: There are only 18 undefeated teams left. Air Force, James Madison and Marshall are some of the ones people aren’t talking about.
On to Pick'em’s…..
I am not sure about you, but I struggled a lot trying to do my picks this past week. I thought that all of the games were a toss-up, and I thought for sure my picks were going to tank. Luckily, they did not and I was able to maintain first place with Noah tying me after having another good week. That boy needs to be grounded, spanked, or anything at this point. He has now won 3 out of 5 weeks making all of us adults look bad. Well, maybe not Adam.
David pushed himself further down from first by losing four games but his 7 and 9 picks were costly ones. But the good news is David, you are still doing better than nine other people. Didn’t you write a couple of weeks ago that it was embarrassing when Sam was beating me? Who is embarrassed now? <Editors note: Not me>
Mike, Adam, and Megan are still within reach for some prize money if they can keep up consistently with the top three spots and gain a few points here and there. But I just have a feeling at least two of them can’t hang for the rest of the season.
At this point in the season, something catastrophic would need to happen for the top seven in order for Stemple, Sean, & Marc to crack the top three. And yes, I am also including you Cindy since you seem to be content on where you stand as your line on the graph has still NOT moved. You have two 10-year-olds beating you at this point?
Mom and Sam are still trying to find their way and they’re not sure where they belong. After a fight at the Boys & Girls Club on Friday, Sam may not have any fight left in him. His football game Saturday morning was a little lackluster on his performance as well.
There is starting to be a little separation trickling throughout the ranks heading into week 6. If you are not at the top, you will need to be a little aggressive in your picks (not you Cindy) moving forward. This week looks to be another challenging week so pull up those big boy/girl britches and get to work.
Most points for the week: Noah got top spot with 43 points. How does he keep doing that? Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater! Someone needs to jinx his picks. Just saying.
Least points for the week: Are we really surprised to see Stemple’s name here? He was only able to get 22 points. I don’t know what game you are playing, but it is not the "opposite game”.
Best pick of the week: With Mom picking West Virginia over TCU, she was able to move up a couple of spots in the rankings and most of us lost out on some bigggg points.
Worst pick of the week: Who, and I mean who, thought it was a good idea to go BIG on Florida to beat Kentucky? That left Mom, Stemple, Sean and Marc starting their week off in a not so good way.
Here are the rankings:
1.Noah - 206 points
1.Wendi - 206 points
2.David - 194 points
3. Mike - 193 points
4. Adam - 188 points
4.Megan - 188 points
5.Sam - 185 points
6.Evelyn - 173 points
7.Cindy - 170 points (Still didn’t have to move your name)
8.Stemple - 166 points
9.Sean - 162 points
10. Marc - 161 points
Good luck this week! There is a 45-point difference from first to last.
