College Football Knockouts: Week 9

I saw a lot of clamoring during the day on Saturday that none of the games were good. Then, at night, I saw a lot of clamoring that the late games had more than made up for it. This morning, when I saw that Week 9 had nine games without a KO, the most since Week 2. Surely people just missed some good games early in the day.

Turns out two of the nine were on Thursday (Oregon-Arizona State and Buffalo-Miami (OH)). Four actually were at night. The other three either was close but low-scoring (Central Michigan-Akron), involved Auburn and the cynicism that comes with that this season, or was a TRIPLE OVERTIME THRILLER BETWEEN ONE OF THE WORST SUN BELT TEAMS AND THE BEST SUN BELT TEAM THAT ENDED WITH A FAKE FIELD GOAL. If you're not watching #FunBelt games, don't complain when your Saturday isn't as exciting as you want it to be.

Download .CSV file with KOs and Margin of Victory for Weeks 1-9

Ronda Rousey Award

(fastest KO)

Marshall nearly went undefeated last year. It only has one loss so far this year, so I'd say it's still pretty good. And they earn this week Ronda Rousey Award by knocking out Charlotte in less than six minutes.

Cincinnati scored was up 21-0 in the first quarter. Tubershell coming, right? Nope. Tommy's team scored 14 in each of the next two quarters to go up 49-0 before the start of the fourth.

Poor Kansas. It's bad, and it's been bad for a long time. In fact, Kansas ranks at the bottom in average KO time. On average, the Jayhawks are KO'd in the first five minutes of the second quarter and even that is skewed by it's game with Texas Tech that was close in the fourth quarter.

Floyd Mayweather Award (Week 9)

(win without a KO)

Like I said, there were a lot of games that went to the final play.

On Thursday, Oregon beat Arizona State in triple overtime with the help of some weird officiating. Even Addicted to Quack is admitting the replay official botched the call. Fortunately for the PAC12, their refs wouldn't be the only ones to make such a blunder in Week 9.

Auburn had the ball, down only by eight points, when time expired. Granted it only had eight seconds to go 66 yards, but, hey, Auburn's had some decent Hail Mary's in the recent past. Jeremy Johnson came in (presumably because his arm is stronger than Sean White's) but ran right into a three-man rush and then failed to get the ball even 20 yards down field.

Quick aside. That's was Auburn's fourth loss of the season, three of which were by exactly eight points. And this one was Auburn's second loss in a row that came down to the final play. Ugh.

Minnesota had 18 seconds to run a few goal-line plays, but instead put all its eggs into one basket of a play. Michigan stopped it, or as Maize n Brew put it, Michigan formed a dang wall. Game over.

New Mexico State got its first win in 18 tries by beating Idaho in overtime. All it took was an ankle interception.

Washington State had a shot to win a game it led most of the time with a 43-yard field goal attempt, but it was no good and Stanford remains the favorite in the PAC12 North. Still, for a team that has been rebuilding for several years now, Wazzu fans were encouraged.

The last one I'll mention is the Duke-Miami game. And I'll only mention it because this is as thorough of a breakdown as you'll need. You're welcome.