2015-11-02 20:53

Schrecksekunde (means moment of shock)

Halloween had some scary moments for some teams, but none was scarier than being a Duke fan and seen Dukes last kickoff and the return following that.

Duke did play Miami (Fla.) at home.
Yes, that Miami, which did fire their HC, which is not that good this season and which did fight till the end of that game.
Prior to the kickoff did Duke score in front of 30.000 Blue Devils fans a TD and a 2-point conversion for the 27:24 lead.
There were 6 seconds left on the clock.
Usually that means, squib kick, invade the field while the return teams try to collect the ball, tackle the poor guy picking it up and win.

Well ....



Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Scary.

The fun (or if you are a Duke fan, not so fun) part is, that the zebras did oversee 4 possible penalties, one that hard that it would have ended the return deep in Miamis half and Duke would have won.
As consequence of that bad decision making did the ACC suspend the crew for 2 games.
The win stays with Miami however.

Scary for Duke, funny for Miami.

Some other teams got also some scares, but were able to avoid the upsets.
Especially all leading playoff contenders got away (or dominated).

As news did come up this Monday, that Frank Beamer, the coach of Virginia Tech with the longest career with 1 team among all active coaches will retire after the season.

And another coaching job will there, since Hawai'i did fire Norm Chow after the 2-7 record of that season and basically no progress over the last 4 season.
Chris Naeole, the OL-coach, will be interim coach for the remaining games.

Now let's have a look at the BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 9

Thurs. Oct. 29 - 7:00 pm ET
North Carolina @ #23 Pittsburgh
My picks did not start good, when Pitt did take a dive against the Tar Heels on my Thursday-Special!.
On paper, this looks exactly as a game where errors do cost you more than usual.
Both teams did start good enough to finish the 1st quarter 3-3.
UNC did score a TD in the 2nd and Pitt did answer with a blocked field goal. Strike One.
UNC did score a field goal on their next try and Pitt did answer with fumble 2 plays in their drive on their own 30. Strike Two.
UNC did score a TD on the next drive and Pitt was not able to answer until halftime. They were stopped at UNCs 18 yard line and did not try a field goal. Strike Three.
All after that was even game, with a slightly advantage for Pitt.
It came down to a TD less than a minute to play and Pitt did cut the Tar Heels lead to 7.
So onside kick and it failed, game over.
That 2nd quarter did really hurt Pitt and even if it's not all over, UNC has now a 1 win lead against Duke and Pitt for the division crown.
North Carolina 26 - Pittsburgh 19 -> Jacks Score: 24-10

Sat. Oct. 31 - 3:00 pm ET
USC @ California
The season does look more and more grim for Cal.
They started 5-0 and are now 5-3 after a loss against USC on Saturday.
USC did mix their offense very well and did Cal not score too often.
Overall did both teams not score as many points as expected.
Both teams will be hard to play on the remaining games.
USC 27 - California 21 -> Jacks Score: 24-11

Sat. Oct. 31 - 3:30 pm ET
Georgia vs. #11 Florida
Oh man, that party was so one-sided, I think I would have left the building late in the game.
Georgia did play bad on offense and did more or less gave Florida the game.
Georgias HC did start the 3rd stringer against one of the best defenses in the country and it did hurt, a lot.
Fumbles, Interceptions, you name it, you saw it.
Not all this on offense, but at the end the Bulldogs had 5 turnovers.
I'm sure this defense of the Gators is good, but they looked great today, because of that bad offense performance.
Florida did not had to do much to win, just keeping the pressure on defense and score the easy points on offense.
Some do say Mark Richt, the Georgia HC is toast now.
I'm not sure, he is in this very long time and it's not that he is a bad coach.
I can't say if Georgia will really switch coaches, but my guess is, they will not do this now.
It might happen in off-season, but the relationship is so deep, I doubt a quick hit on the fire button.
Georgia 3 - Florida 27 -> Jacks Score: 25-11

Sat. Oct. 31 - 8:00 pm ET
#9 Notre Dame @ #21 Temple
Aaaaaaaaaaaah, Temple was close.
With under 5 min. to play did Temple score a field goal for the 20-17 lead.
Notre Dame went over the field and scored a TD with a bit more than 2 min to play for the 24-20 lead.
But the Owls were not done.
The went to mid field, where they made 2 major errors.
At 3rd and 2 did a Temple player commit a personal foul.
And the 3rd and 17 did force the QB to a bad throw and the ball was intercepted.
Over.
Temple did go out of this game with their heads up.
The rankings did honor that game, that loss, by letting them drop 1 spot, still in the TOP25.
Notre Dame 24 - Temple 20 -> Jacks Score: 26-11

Sat. Oct. 31 - 10:30 pm ET
#8 Stanford @ Washington State
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Even closer.
At some point did Wazzu lead 22-10, then came Stanford and the game got close.
The Cardinals did score 17 unanswered points and took the 27-22 lead.
Wazzu did answer and scored a TD for the 28-27 for the Cougars.
Stanford on the other side had in the next drive nothing, but intercepted the WSU QB and did hit a FG for a 30-28 lead.
The Cougars were not done.
Under 2 min. to play did they cross the whole field until they had 4th and 1 at the Stanford 27 with 4 seconds to play.
The field goal team came on the field, the ball was snapped and was kicked wide right for a Stanford win.
Stanford 30 - Washington State 28 -> Jacks Score: 27-11

More interesting results:
Oregon did battle down Arizona State 61-55 in 3 OTs.
Louisville did escape Wake Forest 20-19.
UConn did beat East Carolina 31-13.
Another highscoring game was Oklahoma States win against Texas Tech, 70-53.
Utah did rebound from their loss last week with a win over Oregon State 27-12.
Michigan did need an impressive goal line stand on their last play to secure their win over Minnesota 29-26.
Houston did shut out Vanderbilt 34-0.
Gunner Kiel, the Cincinnati QB had a perfect game against UCF, connecting 15/15 passes for 319 yards and 5 TDs. The Bearcats did win 52-7.
Purdue has won against Nebraska 55-45.
Virginia did win against Georgia Tech 27-21.
Iowa State handed Texas the next loss, winning 24-0!
North Texas got their 1st win, beating UTSA 30-23.
Also New Mexico State did win the 1st time this season, beating Idaho 55-48.
And Washington did beat Arizona 49-3.

'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE

Tags: Block of Granite, News