College Football - Let There Be No Doubt - USC Crushes Ohio State 35-3 and is Clearly No 1

By Ed Bagley

College football's 3rd week saw a dramatic decrease of quality teams playing cupcakes and 1-AA schools looking for a payday at the expense of a victory. Whereas last week 19 of the 21 ranked teams in the AP Top 25 Poll won, this week only 16 of the 21 teams won, and 6 of the 16 winners (37%) had real difficulty doing so.

The competition will get really fierce next week when more league and conference games begin in earnest. The easy wins on the schedule will be over for most contenders on the national scene.

The biggest winner this week was No. 1 Southern Cal and the biggest loser was No. 5 Ohio State as the Trojans crushed the Buckeyes 35-3 behind Mark Sanchez's 4 touchdown passes and Joe McKnight's 105 rushing yards.

Ohio State never got untracked as a holding penalty nullified a 2nd quarter touchdown, and Todd Boeckman's errant throw was intercepted and returned for a TD by Trojan linebacker Rey Maualuga. Despite the miscues, it was evident that Ohio State is not in the same league as Southern Cal. The Buckeyes were decisive losers in the last two national championship games, and clearly are not as good as advertised once again.

Three other Top 25 teams came up with egg on their face after getting beat. No. 13 Kansas traveled to No. 19 South Florida and quickly found out why South Florida is for real, losing 37-34. No. 15 Arizona State led unranked UNLV 20-10 going into the 4th quarter, but the Sun Devils let UNLV back into the game by giving up 10 points and then managed to blow the game in overtime, 23-20. No. 23 California traveled to unranked Maryland and was stung 35-27 by the Terrapins, proving again that it is harder to win away games.

Fifteen of the 16 ranked teams that won protected their undefeated records. The only team that did not was Illinois, which lost earlier in the season to Missouri.

They included No. 1 Southern Cal (USC) 35-3 over No. 5 Ohio State, No. 2 Georgia 14-7 over South Carolina, No. 3 Oklahoma 55-14 over Washington, No. 6 Missouri 69-17 over Nevada, No. 7 Louisiana (LSU) 41-3 over North Texas, No. 9 Auburn 3-2 over Mississippi State, No. 10 Wisconsin 13-10 over No. 21 Fresno State, and No. 11 Alabama 41-7 over 1-AA Western Kentucky.

No. 12 Texas Tech 43-7 over in-state rival Southern Methodist (SMU), No. 14 East Carolina 28-24 over Tulane, No. 16 Oregon 32-26 in double overtime over Purdue, No. 17 Penn State 55-13 over Syracuse, No. 18 Brigham Young (BYU) 59-0 over UCLA, No. 19 South Florida 37-34 over No. 13 Kansas, No. 22 Utah 58-10 over in-state rival Utah State, and No. 24 Illinois 20-17 over Louisiana-Lafayette.

The really impressive wins in away games were racked up by Oklahoma, Penn State and Utah.

The 6 teams that really struggled in winning included Georgia, Auburn, Wisconsin, East Carolina, Oregon and Illinois. Only Illinois was at home.

Georgia blew into Columbia a week after South Carolina was upset by Vanderbilt for the second straight year, and the Gamecocks' defense was tough on the Bulldogs. A 3rd quarter score put Georgia ahead and the Dawgs forced 2 turnovers in the 4th quarter to escape with a win. The loss was Steve Spurrier's 6th straight in SEC play.

Georgia felt the sting of South Carolina last season when the Gamecocks upset them 16-12, keeping the Bulldogs out of the SEC title race and national title contention. Give Georgia credit as the Dawg defense held SC to 18 yards on 16 rushes.

Auburn held Mississippi State to only 116 yards on offense but the Tigers committed 3 turnovers, missed 2 field goals and gave the Mississippi State a safety.

Wisconsin invaded Fresno State and used special teams play to win a tough one. A 2nd half field goal after a fumbled punt proved the difference as Fresno State's Kevin Goessling missed 3 field goals, including a 35-yarder in the last quarter and a 51-yarder after a blocked punt in the 3rd quarter.

East Carolina rallied to beat Tulane with a 24-yard TD strike from Patrick Pinkney to Jamar Bryant with 1:41 remaining in the game.

Oregon trailed 20-3 early in the 2nd quarter but came back to tie Purdue and win in double overtime on LaGarrette Blount's 3-yard touchdown.

Illinois had to recover an onside kick with 20 seconds left to stave off a home victory over Louisiana-Lafayette's Ragin' Caguns.

No. 4 Florida, No. 20 Wake Forest and No. 25 West Virginia did not play this week, and No. 8 Texas' game with Arkansas was postponed due to Hurricane Ike.

Keep an eye on 11 unranked teams that have taken care of business by quietly starting the season with 3 straight wins. They include Air Force, Ball State, Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, TCU and Vanderbilt. Three other unranked sleepers at 2-0 are Florida State, Notre Dame and Boise State.

Games of interest this week include unbeaten Wake Forest (2-0) at Florida State (2-0), unbeaten Notre Dame (2-0) at Michigan State (2-1), unbeaten Utah (3-0) at Air Force (3-0), unbeaten LSU (2-0) at unbeaten Auburn (3-0), and unbeaten Georgia (3-0) at Arizona State (2-1). Yes, fans, at least three unbeaten teams are going to lose this week, we just don't know which ones.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Read my other detailed, knowledgeable, interesting articles on college football, including:
"College Football - Week 2: East Carolina Smacks West Virginia, Upsets Its 3rd Straight Ranked Team"
"College Football - Week 1: No. 24 Alabama Stuns No. 9 Clemson, East Carolina Upsets No. 17 Virginia Tech"
"College Football - Preseason - Only 5 Games Highlight First Week, 29 Others Must Win Their Opener"
"Forbes Touts Alabama's Nick Saban as the Most Powerful Coach in Sports"

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http://www.edbagleyblog.com
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