A football game consists of two 30-minute halves. \u201cThankfully,\u201d Tennessee fans are saying today. \u201cAnd not a second more,\u201d Auburn fans are adding.\u00a0 After looking somewhat lost in the first half against Florida, the Volunteers promptly reeled off 38 straight points in the second half to win against the Gators for the first time since 2004.\u00a0 Tennessee finds itself at 4-0 for the first time since 2003 as a result of the win.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Auburn lost, then won against LSU when officials reviewed what appeared to literally be a last-second touchdown by the Bayou Bengals and nullified it, saying that the play had not started before the clock ticked down to zero.\u00a0 It was the first time Auburn won a game without scoring a touchdown since 2008 (the infamous 3-2 win over Mississippi State).<\/p>\n
So, how about Wisconsin, huh? After their scare against Georgia State, it was hard to imagine the Badgers walking into Spartan Stadium and coming out with a win.\u00a0 Not only did they do so, they did it in impressive fashion, with a 30-6 victory over Michigan State.\u00a0 The Badgers passed this test, but it was the first in quite a gauntlet for them.\u00a0 The next four weeks\u2019 opponents: At #4 Michigan, #2 Ohio State, at Iowa, #15 Nebraska.\u00a0 Those four teams have combined for a single loss so far this year.\u00a0 How are the Badgers doing it? Primarily the way badgers normally operate \u2013 scratching and clawing.\u00a0 In other words, stingy defense. They are currently 7th<\/sup> in the country in points allowed, at 11.8 per game, and haven\u2019t given up more than 17 to any opponent.\u00a0 They\u2019ll need that defense to be at their best, especially in the next two weeks: Michigan is fourth in the nation in points per game, and Ohio State is third.<\/p>\n The Badgers aren\u2019t the only \u201cW\u201d team with a bunch of Ws.\u00a0 Washington has started the season 4-0, and after a squeaker against Arizona on the road, the Huskies get to find out how good they really are.\u00a0 Stanford comes to Seattle this weekend in a top-ten matchup.\u00a0 If the Huskies win that, they\u2019ll have perhaps their best chance to beat Oregon in quite a while.\u00a0 The Ducks have won the last twelve games in that series, and during that stretch only last year\u2019s game was closer than seventeen points.\u00a0 Meanwhile, West Virginia is one of only two Big XII teams to remain undefeated at 3-0, after a tough win over BYU.\u00a0 The Mountaineers now enter the conference season against Kansas State.\u00a0 West Virginia has never won more than eight games in a year since becoming a Big XII member, but this year might be the opportunity for them to rise up \u2013 of the three currently ranked conference teams they play, only Texas is on the road.\u00a0 The Mountaineers also get Oklahoma at home.<\/p>\n In small-school news, Austin Ekeler has been tearing up the ground for Western State (Colorado) this year.\u00a0 Through four games for the Mountaineers thus far, Ekeler has rolled up 832 rushing yards, averaging out to a tidy 208 per game.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s his last two games that have been particularly impressive.\u00a0 After a 37 carry, 283 yard performance against Chadron State, Ekeler topped it this past weekend with a 32 carry, 316 yard day against Colorado Mines.\u00a0 The 599 yards total in those two games, if he were in FBS, would tie him for the national lead in rushing yards.\u00a0 As it stands, he\u2019s first overall in Division II by almost 160 yards over his nearest competitor.\u00a0 Western State takes on Dixie State (Utah) this week, who\u2019s only 135th<\/sup> in rushing defense this year in Division II.\u00a0 Looks like Ekeler has a chance for another really big day\u2026<\/p>\n Congratulations go out to GuidestoneRocks<\/strong>, who wins week 4 with 170 points! JagRag<\/strong> took second with 168, and there was a tie between maestro<\/strong> and Shame! Shame!<\/strong> with 166 points each.<\/p>\n Standings after four weeks:<\/p>\n This week features a slate of very intriguing games.\u00a0 Four games are top-25 matchups; two of them are top-10 matchups.\u00a0 Even some of the games that aren\u2019t between top-25 teams are good matchups \u2013 North Carolina-Florida State, Oklahoma-TCU.\u00a0 The first game this week is UConn at Houston, Thursday, September 29 @ 8 ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A football game consists of two 30-minute halves. \u201cThankfully,\u201d Tennessee fans are saying today. \u201cAnd not a second more,\u201d Auburn fans are adding.\u00a0 After looking somewhat lost in the first half against Florida, the Volunteers promptly reeled off 38 straight points in the second half to win against the Gators for the first time since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/sup><\/td>\n AllySun <\/strong><\/td>\n 849<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/sup><\/td>\n In Accord <\/strong><\/td>\n 848<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/sup><\/td>\n maestro <\/strong><\/td>\n 845<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/sup><\/td>\n bamaken <\/strong><\/td>\n 842<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/sup><\/td>\n Crimson Gator <\/strong><\/td>\n 840<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6th<\/sup><\/td>\n Shame! Shame! <\/strong><\/td>\n 838<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-7th<\/sup><\/td>\n Ralphie <\/strong><\/td>\n 836<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-7th<\/sup><\/td>\n JagRag <\/strong><\/td>\n 836<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/sup><\/td>\n TheColombian <\/strong><\/td>\n 834<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/sup><\/td>\n AUBrian <\/strong><\/td>\n 830<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n