LSU PASSES CLEMSON IN AP POLL
The formally number five LSU Tigers football team has jumped up to the number two spot on the latest AP Poll by defeating the number 7 Florida Gators by a final score of 42-28, which hit the 14 point spread right on the head, but went over by 15 points in a hard fought contest in Baton Rouge.
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, who was already way up there on the Heisman Trophy hopeful list, passed for 293 yards and three touchdowns completing 21 of 24 passes and rushing for an additional 43 yards on the ground. Running Back Clyde Edwards-Helaire racked up 134 yards of his own and scored 2 touchdowns in the winning effort by LSU at homecoming.
The ‘Bayou Bengal’ Tigers have now moved past Georgia, Ohio State and Clemson, for three very different reasons. Ohio State was idle this week but lost ground anyway.
Coach Will Muschamp brought his South Carolina Gamecocks down to Athens, Georgia with his team believing they could actually pull off an upset win against the number three ranked Georgia Bull Dogs last Saturday, and they did it! Anyone having the foresight to bet the Gamecocks came out big time! South Carolina led most of the game but it got very tight there at the end.
The ‘Dawgs’ were only 21.5 point favorites going into the game with the over and under set at 53 points. In the end only 37 points were scored in a tight game that went into double overtime before South Carolinas’ place kicker Parker White knocked in a 23 yard field goal during the second overtime period to send the Gamecocks up by three at 20-17.
The tenacious Bulldogs got the ball back for their turn from the 25 yard line and but failed to advance the ball any further on the first three downs. Out comes the now famous Roberto Blankenship in his black horn rimmed glass to ice another game for Georgia from 42 yards out. This guy just does not miss, right? Not until last Saturday anyway, the football sailed wide left off of his flat toed shoe and the South Carolina Gamecocks had defeated the mighty Georgia Bulldogs.
So Georgia has dropped all the way down to number 10 in both the AP and Coaches Poll this week and LSU has been vaulted up to number two right behind their good ole buddies from Alabama. That matchup is coming up on November the 9th when the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Nick Saban and his perennially strong Crimson Tide team.
The voters for the AP poll didn’t seem to think much of Clemson beating up on an already wounded Florida State team this week. The game was not pretty to watch and the victory was unimpressive. Nobody likes a bully but Clemson has been making a living beating up on their weaker ‘compadres’ in the ACC for years now…. wonder how they would fair in the SEC?
The annual Red River Rivalry was held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas this year with the highly ranked Oklahoma Sooners traveling down to meet the Long Horns of Texas for the yearly collection of rodeos and livestock shows that also includes a really big football game.
The Sooners came in as 10.5 point favorites and statistically outgunned the boys from Texas who had only lost one game to LSU in the first game of the season. Both quarterbacks were borderline sensational during the game with Heisman candidate Jalen Hurts completing 16 of 28 passes for 235 yards and scoring 3 touchdowns.
The Sooners won 34-27; however, they did not cover the 10.5 point spread or come very close to the highly ambitious 78 point over and under set for the game. Oklahoma now holds on to the number 5 spot in the AP poll while Texas, now at 4-2, only fell to 15th.
Back to the SEC and the number one team in the land with Tua Tagovailoa and his Alabama Crimson Tide who seem unstoppable so far this year, as if that is anything new! The Tide went down to College Station, Texas to take on Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies of Texas A&M as 17 point favorites and every expectation of coming out on top in the contest. And, as usual, they did, easily covering the 17 points and surpassing the 62 point over and under.
These rankings are not likely to change very much after the upcoming week of NCAA action as there are no really significant matchups between highly ranked teams scheduled over the weekend.
