NCAA Week 4 in review

There were some upsets and near upsets among the Top 25 and very-close-to-Top 25 teams.  It caused some shakeup in the rankings.

Top 25 [Last week's position]
1. Alabama Crimson Tide (4-0) [1]
2. Clemson Tigers (4-0) [3]
3. Oklahoma Sooners (4-0) [2]
4. Penn State Nittany Lions (4-0) [4]
5. Wisconsin Badgers (3-0) [5]
6. Michigan Wolverines (4-0) [7]
7. Washington Huskies (4-0) [8]
8. Virginia Tech Hokies (4-0) [13]
9. TCU Horned Frogs (4-0) [17]
10. Georgia Bulldogs (4-0) [14]
11. USC Trojans (4-0) [11]
12. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-1) [12]
13. Ohio State Buckeyes (3-1) [16]
14. Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-1) [6]
15. UCF Golden Knights (2-0) [15]
16. South Florida Bulls (4-0) [20]
17. Washington State Cougars (4-0) [21]
18. Auburn Tigers (3-1) [18]
19. Texas Longhorns (1-2) [19]
20. Utah Utes (4-0) [23]
21. Mississippi State Bulldogs (3-1) [10]
22. Navy Midshipmen (3-0) [22]
23. Louisville Cardinals (3-1) [NR]
24. Minnesota Golden Gophers (3-0) [NR]
25. Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1) [NR]

Dropped off: Michigan State Spartans [#9], UCLA Bruins [#24], Maryland Terrapins [#25]
On the Edge: West Virginia Mountaineers (3-1), Miami Hurricanes (2-0), Texas A&M Aggies (3-1), Memphis Tigers (3-0), Stanford Cardinal (2-2)

Big Ten Report
The games went pretty much as expected, expect for two large blowouts.  Michigan State's defense was completely useless against Notre Dame, and Maryland's offense could do nothing against the might of UCF's defense.  Iowa played Penn State tough, but that was not too surprising.  They did the same thing against Michigan last year at home; some national analysts were predicting an upset.  Nebraska was the only real surprise, as they found some offensive footing last week.  We'll see if that continues this week.

Upset Alert
The upsets began Friday, as Virginia completely bullied Boise State on their own blue turf.  Then, on Saturday, TCU rolled over Oklahoma State, Georgia nearly shut out Mississippi State, Notre Dame embarrassed Michigan State, and Arizona State squeaked past Oregon.  FCS Southern Illinois pulled off a near-upset against Memphis, which knocked them out of Top 25 contention for a while.

Poor Performers
For poor offensive performances, I'd say two excellent examples this past week were Maryland and Vanderbilt.  The Terrapins were battling a decent defense in UCF, but they were making too many mistakes on their own.  The Commodores, an impressive 3-0 coming into a game against Alabama, could barely get first downs and found little traction against the Tide.

Defenses were not immune to poor performances this week.  Two of the most blatant examples were at Oklahoma and Michigan State.  Baylor had struggled mightily this season, yet they made it look easy against the Sooners.  Michigan State had the highest ranked defense in FBS coming into their game; they didn't have it when they left.

Great Performers
Not too many surprises last week.  USC had their second amazing fourth quarter of the season, and Iowa's defense was amazingly tough.  We'll see if some surprises pop up this coming week.