Nobody Knows Anything: Razorbacks blank LSU
This is the face of a winner. (Image courtesy: mercedsunstar.com)
This week's games that made no sense to anyone.
Wisconsin 59, Nebraska 24
Wisconsin has fixed its poor quarterback play by not passing the ball at all. Joel Stave threw the ball 11 times for 46 yards, and Melvin Gordon and Co. rolled up 581 yards on the ground.
Nebraska may finally lose fewer than four games under Bo Pelini, but this version of the Cornhuskers is still a notch or two below what the fans want. The good news is that the Big Ten West is going to struggle for the foreseeable future, so Nebraska should still be able to win eight-plus games a year for while.
What does this tell us about Wisconsin? I have no clue. Nebraska has not shown itself to be a top team under Pelini, and Melvin Gordon can’t run for more than 400 yards every week.
All this is to say that I’ll take Ohio State over the Badgers in the Big Ten title game.
Northwestern 43, Notre Dame 40
Notre Dame was never a top five team, but the last few weeks have been brutal. Everett Golson appears to be broken. With Louisville and USC left, a 7-5 season is a very real possibility.
Brian Kelly’s future at ND is going to start to become a question. He is one of the best coaches in the country, but I wonder how long he wants to stay at a job where recruiting is a lot of work, the academic standards threaten to take his best players every year and the expectations are probably unfair.
The NFL has come calling before. Maybe Kelly answers this year.
Arkansas 17, LSU 0
The Razorbacks had their worst offensive game of the year, and they beat the Tigers comfortably anyway. At 5-5 with games against Ole Miss and Missouri remaining, Bret Bielema is very close to taking Arkansas to a bowl game.
LSU continues to be the most confusing team in the country. The Tigers have reached the point where inconsistency is a fatal flaw. It's a talented team, but it's not a particularly good one. That is why they have four losses.
The SEC West is the best division in the country, but outside of Alabama, every team has serious flaws. The Tide outscored these teams in regulation by only one point combined, so maybe the idea of them being the obvious No. 1 team is misguided.