Christmas displays in stores and Alabama beating LSU: it must be the week after Halloween. Here are my Week 10 Midweek Musings:
#6 Oklahoma/Texas Tech
Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray had a rough start, as the team’s first two drives ended in interceptions. However, Murray completed 20 of his next 33 pass attempts and threw three touchdowns, with no more picks. He also ran for 100 yards and another touchdown. Running back Trey Sermon had a career day with 206 yards and three touchdowns.
Texas Tech led by three points at halftime, but quarterback Alan Bowman didn’t return to the game. Bowman suffered a lung injury against West Virginia in late September and appeared to have re-injured it. A five-point loss, with their quarterback missing the second half (and remember, Bowman, was the backup to start the season), has to have the Red Raiders wondering “What if?”
#19 Texas
Ok, so maybe the “Longhorns are back!” talk was a bit premature. But they’re progressing. Already the ‘Horns have six wins, and while they’ve lost two straight, it’s by a combined four points. West Virginia needed a touchdown and two-point conversion with 16 seconds left for the victory this week. Tom Herman has Texas going in the right direction.
#10 Ohio State
If you felt a sudden gust of wind on Saturday evening, it was probably Buckeye fans breathing a sigh of relief. After losing to Purdue before the bye week, Ohio State narrowly escaped losing to Nebraska. Yes, the same Nebraska team that started the year 0-6 actually led Ohio State 21-16 at the half. In fact, the most the Huskers trailed by at any point in the game was nine.
Is Scott Frost‘s coaching finally kicking in at Nebraska? Was Ohio State maybe looking past this game a bit? I don’t know, but there have to be a lot of people in Michigan- some wearing green, some wearing maize and blue- licking their chops a bit this week.
Purdue
I know you can’t really afford to look back in sports, but the Boilermakers have to be kicking themselves over that 0-3 start. Two weeks after taking down Ohio State, they’ve knocked off #16 Iowa. Had they won even two of the first three games, I have to think they’d be ranked at this point.
Best of the Rest
#4 Michigan
So that “revenge tour” is going pretty well. I can’t help thinking that if Michigan and Notre Dame were to play now, rather than in week one, it would be an epic game.
Arizona State
The Sun Devils have had an up-and-down season, losing some games they probably should have won (San Diego State) and winning some games I don’t think many people expected them to win (Michigan State, this week against #15 Utah). I admit to thinking that Herm Edwards was an odd hire- not a bad one, necessarily, just strange. He had been out of coaching for several years, and out of the college game even longer. But I like what he’s done so far with this team.
#1 Alabama
What can you even say about the Tide at this point that hasn’t already been said? LSU’s defense should, frankly, be proud to have held them under 40 points. The only other team to do so this season was Missouri, allowing 39.
Those are my Week 10 Midweek Musings! Be sure to follow our college football coverage as we approach the Playoff.
