Many prognosticators predicted that \u201cRoad Test Saturday\u201d would bring an end to more than one undefeated season, and they were right; the number of undefeated teams was cut almost in half as a result of four teams taking their first losses in opposing teams\u2019 stadiums. Boise State suffered perhaps the toughest way to drop their first game, losing to Wyoming 30-28 on a safety with a little over a minute to go in the game. One team of Broncos\u2019 loss is another team of Broncos\u2019 gain: Western Michigan now finds themselves as the only undefeated Group of Five team, and the one with the inside track to an automatic New Year\u2019s Six bowl bid.\u00a0 The biggest hurdle that couldn\u2019t be overcome belonged to Nebraska, which faced the unenviable task of going into Camp Randall Stadium and beating a Wisconsin team whose two losses were to Ohio State and Michigan by a combined 14 points.\u00a0 The Huskers made a valiant effort but couldn\u2019t match the Badgers\u2019 score in overtime, and lost 23-17. Wisconsin still needs one more Nebraska loss to take the lead in the Big Ten West and have a shot at a rematch against either the Buckeyes or Wolverines.<\/p>\n
Everyone talks about Alabama\u2019s defense in the SEC, and they make a lot of headlines with turnovers turned into touchdowns.\u00a0 But don\u2019t sleep on what Florida is doing down in Gainesville. The Gators, now 6-1 following a 24-10 win over rival Georgia, have only given up 82 points all season, the lowest figure in the country. Their points allowed per game of 11.7 is one-tenth of a point behind Michigan for the national lead in that category, and they\u2019re also second to Michigan in total defense. All of that defensive prowess was on display in Jacksonville. Florida held Georgia to just 21 yards rushing on 19 attempts, 164 yards total and eight first downs in the win. Florida\u2019s road doesn\u2019t get any easier going forward, as they still have several tough SEC games and Florida State left on the schedule, but that defense will keep them in every one of them.<\/p>\n
Speaking of strong defenses, let\u2019s head northeast and talk about two schools off of the national radar that have really strong ones this year. \u00a0Boston College finally put together enough offense to go with that defense and snapped a 12-game conference losing streak.\u00a0 They beat NC State 21-14 for their first win in the ACC since beating Syracuse in 2014.\u00a0 Boston College has the seventh-best total defense in the country, but they will be tested greatly in the next two weeks: first against Lamar Jackson and Louisville, then at Florida State.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Temple is quietly having another solid year.\u00a0 The Owls beat Cincinnati 34-13 in Philadelphia this past weekend to move to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the American Athletic Conference East Division. Temple held the Bearcats to 186 total yards in the win, moving them to 11th<\/sup> nationally in total defense.\u00a0 Coach Matt Rhule has the Owls three wins away from another shot at a conference title after having come up just short last year against Houston.<\/p>\n Other notes: California is the only team in the country without a winning or losing streak greater than one. The Bears\u2019 eight games thus far have gone W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L. That might change soon \u2013 Washington is next on their schedule\u2026Army, currently 5-3, can make it to a bowl game for the first time since 2010 with one more win \u2013 over an FBS school. The Black Knights can\u2019t use a win over Morgan State, because they already have one win over an FCS opponent (Lafayette). \u00a0They must defeat at least one of Air Force, Notre Dame, or Navy to qualify\u2026the only FBS team this year that hasn\u2019t converted a fourth down attempt is LSU; they\u2019re 0-3. Western Michigan has converted 12 of their 13 attempts; South Florida has converted 11 of their 12\u2026Troy has put together a 6-1 year thus far, their only loss being by just six points to Clemson. One more win, and the Trojans are guaranteed their first winning season since 2010, the year they also won their last conference title. Four more wins would give them their first 10-win season since 2000, when they were still in what was known as Division I-AA\u2026<\/p>\n In small-school news, the major service academies aren\u2019t the only ones playing great \u201cmilitary-style\u201d football this year. The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, has a traditional military team game plan \u2013 run the triple option and play sound defense.\u00a0 This year it is being done with high-level precision. The Bulldogs are 8-0 and ranked #7 in the latest FCS poll, including having given #8 Chattanooga their only loss to date. The Citadel is 2nd<\/sup> in the FCS in rushing yards per game at 362.9 yards per game, 13th<\/sup> in total defense, and 7th<\/sup> in scoring defense. At this rate, a second straight Southern Conference championship and FCS playoff berth are within reach, but a foe familiar to those of us in Birmingham makes its way to Charleston this week. Samford, with its 6-2 record and offense averaging 40.6 points per game, comes to Citadel\u2019s Johnson Hagood Stadium. If the Bulldogs from South Carolina can beat the Bulldogs from Alabama, only a win over VMI in the traditional \u201cMilitary Classic of the South\u201d rivalry stands between them and the outright conference title.<\/p>\n Congratulations to AUBrian<\/strong>, who takes week nine by virtue of tie-breaker over Crimson Gator<\/strong>!\u00a0 Both finished with 142 points.\u00a0 In third place was maestro<\/strong>, with 137 points.<\/p>\n Standings after nine weeks:<\/p>\n Lots of games are on the docket this weekend; there are only two matchups between ranked opponents. But as we all know, anything can happen, and with this many points at stake, it\u2019s going to be more important than ever to pick wisely!\u00a0 The first game this week is Oklahoma at Iowa State, Thursday, November 3 @ 7:30 ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many prognosticators predicted that \u201cRoad Test Saturday\u201d would bring an end to more than one undefeated season, and they were right; the number of undefeated teams was cut almost in half as a result of four teams taking their first losses in opposing teams\u2019 stadiums. Boise State suffered perhaps the toughest way to drop their […]<\/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-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","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=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/sup><\/td>\n maestro <\/strong><\/td>\n 1618<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/sup><\/td>\n Crimson Gator <\/strong><\/td>\n 1602<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/sup><\/td>\n AUBrian <\/strong><\/td>\n 1591<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/sup><\/td>\n JagRag <\/strong><\/td>\n 1590<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/sup><\/td>\n AllySun <\/strong><\/td>\n 1586<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6th<\/sup><\/td>\n Shame! Shame! <\/strong><\/td>\n 1585<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7th<\/sup><\/td>\n Ralphie <\/strong><\/td>\n 1582<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8th<\/sup><\/td>\n Jeff4Bama <\/strong><\/td>\n 1569<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/sup><\/td>\n JagAL <\/strong><\/td>\n 1568<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/sup><\/td>\n bamaken <\/strong><\/td>\n 1561<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n