FOOTBALL

In college football this weekend, it was something that nobody could have predicted.  After Alabama lost last weekend, everybody thought their BCS Championship hopes were over, unless some crazy stuff happened.  And, well, some crazy stuff happened.

First up, it was #1 Kansas State vs. an unranked Baylor team with, supposedly, a putrid defense.  And you definitely need strong defense against the score-at-will Kansas State Wildcats.  Right from the get go, however, Baylor’s offensive machine was in full throttle.  Before the Wildcats knew it, the Bears had jumped out to 28-7 lead.  The Wildcats would cut it to an 11 point lead before the half and receive at the beginning of the second half, but it was no use, as Baylor just kept charging.  Kansas State kept thinking they were going to catch up, but the lead kept growing and growing, until finally the game was out of site.  Baylor didn’t just pull the upset of the year, they absolutely killed the #1 team in the nation.  When does that happen?  Wow!  Baylor 52, Kansas State 24.

So, that pretty much gave the reigns to #2 Oregon.  All they had to do was win, and they would be ranked #1 in the nation and presumably make their destiny towards a National Championship.  Oregon has been on fire this year, and the experts felt, with Alabama out of the picture, this was finally Oregon’s year to hoist the trophy.  Um, yeah, ask Stanford how they feel about that.  Stanford is known for their stone wall defense, but could it hold up against a seemingly unstoppable offense. The answer:  Yes.  The game was tied at 14 towards the end of the 4th quarter.  14!  For Oregon!  Wow!  The game would even need an overtime, and you had to assume that Oregon would own that.  Well, not exactly.  They couldn’t even get a field goal on their first possession.  And, mind you, this is AT OREGON, one of the hardest places to play in the country.  But Stanford got it, and got in position to kick an easy field goal to win the game and upset Oregon.  Oregon isn’t out necessarily, but they did drop out of the Top 5 rankings.  Wow, #1 and #2 fall on the same weekend.  That’s extremely rare!  So now Notre Dame is #1 and can control their destiny to play for the National Championship, and it’s likely they will play the winner of the SEC Championship between Alabama and Georgia.  Stanford 17, Oregon 14.

Finally, in the NFL, there was a thriller between Houston and Jacksonville.  Houston was coming off a triumphant win against a very tough Chicago Bears team, so they never expected that a lowly Jacksonville, playing with their back-up quarterback Chad Henne would give them such a fit.  For most of the game, the Jaguars were absolutely trouncing the Texans.  And the Texans have one of the best passing defenses in the league.  They allowed Chad Henne to throw for 4 touchdowns and 354 yards.  Plus, we got to see the breakout performance from the top wide-receiver in this year’s draft, as Justin Blackmon had 236 receiving yards on the day.  He was a beast out there.  However, the biggest hero of the day was Texans quarterback Matt Schaub who finally came alive, throwing for 527 yards and 5 touchdowns — the last of which was an overtime, game-winning toss to the immortal Andre Johnson.  With the win, the Texans remain atop the AFC.  Houston 43, Jacksonville 37.