Week 4 Sunday Morning Thoughts

All right, I got my lamenting out of the way.  On to the week that was....

1) LSU makes a statement this week by going on the road and winning a big game over Auburn.  In a game that had much more offense than I expected it would (which I will be paying for this week by the way) LSU proved it can win a big road game with a young QB.  As this team continues to mature, watch out.  They still have some big games on the schedule and the SEC title game in Atlanta is always an extra hurdle but LSU established themselves as a team deserving of being in the national title hunt.  

2) Missouri struggled some this weekend and coach Pinkel is hoping it's due to Missouri looking ahead to Big 12 play.  The sloppy play let Buffalo hang around but Chase Daniel continued adding to his Heisman resume with another amazing performance.  In what appears to be a competitive Big 12, Missouri will need to make sure they don't perform like this against more talented competition or the end result might be a little different. 

3) The Pac 1 + 9 rears it's ugly head for the second week in a row.  With USC having the week off, the remaining PAC 10 teams were in full display this weekend.  ASU falls to Georgia in a game that was never competitive and Boise State knocked off Oregon in Eugene.  Throw in a 21 point loss by UCLA to Arizona and Stanford having to rally to beat San Jose State and it was another rough week for the PAC 10.  No other team appears to be even be on the same continent as USC right now and it could impact the Trojans national title chances.  At this point, there are teams in the SEC and the Big 12 who could go undefeated with tougher schedules.  The BCS formula will again cause a huge mess if that is the case.  

4) The Mid-Major BSC effort took a stumble this week as East Carolina lost to a banged up NC State team.  The previous wins over WVU and VT had already taken a hit with both schools struggling but the signs were on the wall last week when ECU struggled to beat Tulane.  Boise State and Utah both seem to be the two best candidates and a late season matchup between those two is looming large at this point.