Cool Greys Michigan State and Missouri Lose First

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Copyright ? 2010 Ed Bagley
Both unbeaten Michigan State and Missouri saw their national competition wishes disappear this week as the hard-nosed Iowa Hawkeyes dug in at home to trample the Spartans, 37-6, and the equally defensive-minded Nebraska Cornhuskers whipped the visiting Missouri Tigers,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 31-17.
When you join in appended losses along Miami-FL to Virginia, 24-19, and Florida State to North Carolina State, 28-24, then 4 of the 6 AP Top 25 teams with road games this week lost.
Road games are not effortless, and when you have a target on your back as one unbeaten group and/or a top-ranked team, away games are even more risky for visiting teams.
Michigan State's Spartans,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who put their absolute 8-0 jot on the line, never had a accident against Iowa. The Hawkeyes first personalty resulted in an impressive 80-yard drive followed by a field goal emulated by Tyler Sash electing off a Kirk Cousins pass at the Iowa 28 and chucking the ball back to teammate Micah Hyde, who meandered 66 yards for the interception return and score.
The result was a 17-0 guide that led to a 30-zip halftime advantage. Michigan State came from behind to knock both Illinois and Northwestern the final 2 weeks, but Iowa controlled both lines of scrimmage.
Cousins would throw 3 interceptions, and the Hawkeyes held the Spartans powerful running game to 31 yards. Iowa simply dominated always 3 phases of the game - offense, defense and special teams.
The triumph for adviser Kirk Ferentz was his biggest opposition a ranked team in his 12 seasons at Iowa. AP Top 25 Poll voters were not impressed with the Spartans rendition, dropping them from 5th to 16th place in the standings,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], this despite the fact that Iowa was 18th-ranked coming in; the Hawkeyes migrated up three spots to 15th now. MSU is now 8-1 and Iowa 6-2.
Missouri was 7-0 and ranked 7th ahead arriving by Nebraska. The Tigers scoring defense was ranked 5th nationally, giving up only 13 points a game, yet it was the Nebraska defense - and offense - that showed up.
The 14th-ranked Cornhuskers scored early and constantly.
Roy Helu dashed 66 yards to score, Alex Henery additional a 41-yard field goal, Kyler Reed caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Martinez,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and Roy Helu went 73 yards on another scoring run. Nebraska was suddenly up 24-zip before the Missouri Tigers realized they were in a football game.
Helu, a 6-foot, 220-pound senior, would score aboard distinct 53-yard scamper apt set a school-record 307 yards rushing above 28 carries (10.96 yards per carry) while scoring 3 touchdowns.
Taylor Martinez, Nebraska's freshman quarterback would leave with a bruised right thigh in the second quarter after working 6-for-9 for 115 yards and the TD strike to Kyler Reed.
Missouri, like Michigan State, had a large run, and now reality has set in. Missouri dropped in the rankings from 7th to 14th place, and Nebraska rose from 14th to 9th place - to the winners go the spoils.
Be advised that Nebraska is not move over.
The Cornhuskers are far extra balanced than observers extensive realize. They rank 12th nationally in scoring misdemeanour,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 16th in scoring barricade, 17th in absolute offense, and 19th in absolute defense.
Nebraska does no activity some pushover timetable like 2nd-ranked Boise State (7-0), 4th-ranked TCU (9-0), and 6th-ranked Utah (8-0), nobody of which are probably as good for their records would suggest. Nebraska's strength of schedule is currently 34th nationally, Boise State's namely 74th, TCU's is 72nd and Utah's is 98th.
There are now only 5 unbeaten teams left - Auburn and TCU are 9-0, Oregon and Utah are 8-0, and Boise State is 7-0.
Florida State, which had worked so hard to go 6-1 and ascend to 16th in the rankings, lost to 39th-ranked North Carolina State, 28-24. The Seminoles won the first half 21-7, and the Wolfpack won the 2nd half,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 21-3. Credit the upset to NC State's Russell Wilson and