TCU 45, Dusquesne 3
TCU leveled Duquesne 45-3. Max Duggan and the rest of the starters played only the first half, showcasing a reinvented offense under new/old offensive coordinator Doug Meacham. The offense was varied, with plenty of motion, a seemingly full route tree, and a lot (early on) of passes from Duggan.
In one half of play, Max finished with 14 completions on 19 attempts, for 207 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He also added a rushing touchdown to his ledger, opening the scoring for the Frogs with an 8-yard designed keeper up the middle.
#21 Texas 38, #23 Louisiana 18
The key moment early in the game came after Texas sophomore running back Bijan Robinson picked up 26 yards on a catch and a run before the drive appeared to stall just past midfield, when Sarkisian showed some aggressiveness on 4th and 6 from the Louisiana 45-yard line. Redshirt freshman quarterback Hudson Card rewarded his head coach’s confidence by scrambling for the first down and Robinson finished the drive with an 18-yard touchdown on a wheel route for his first score of the year and Card’s first touchdown pass on the Forty Acres.
Kansas State 24, Stanford 7
K-State did have four sacks, so it’s not as though they weren’t applying any pressure. But it took until the end of the third quarter to record the second of those four sacks, and that more than anything led to the 102 first-half passing yards Stanford earned. They only had 92 in the second half, and 55 of that was on the final drive with the game all but decided.
And on one play in the second quarter, Timmy Horne began a legend, obliterating three Cardinal linemen and allowing Cody Fletcher to post K-State’s first sack of the day.
Kansas 17, South Dakota 14
On a weekend where (so far) Tulsa, UNLV, and Colorado State have all lost to FCS teams, Kansas managed to avoid the upset bug and hold off a determined South Dakota team by a razor-thin margin.
Trailing 14-10 with a little over 5 minutes to play, QB Jason Bean led the Jayhawks down the field (with the help of a targeting penalty on the Coyotes) and eventually hit Lawrence Arnold on a 16-yard touchdown pass. The KU defense forced a turnover on down on the next series in four plays to give KU its first win since October 2019.
Iowa State 16, Northern Iowa 10
The Iowa State Cyclones beat the Purple Hawkeyes by a final score of 16-10 Saturday in a packed Jack Trice Stadium.
The game started slow, was slow in the middle, and closed out slowly as well. Directional Iowa scored first on a Will McElvain pass to Quan Hampton late in the 1st quarter, which sent CYHusker into a well-predicted spiral.
Baylor 29, Texas State 20
Texas State scored a touchdown with 1:19 left to make it 27-20. The Bears couldn’t convert a first down after RJ Sneed recovered the onside kick, and Baylor punted to Texas State with 20 seconds remaining. Texas State ended up trying a series of laterals that ended with the QB trying to pass in the end zone. That’s not allowed anywhere, which meant the game ended on a safety.
The biggest takeaways from today will revolve around Bohanon and Jeff Grimes, Baylor’s offensive coordinator. Using a wide zone offense, the Bears ran far more effectively than last season. Trestan Ebner and Abram Smith ran for over 100 yards. Grimes moniker is “reliable violent offense” and the pair lived up to that when handed the ball. Ebner looked at home in this offense. Smith fumbled early, but he scampered for 34 yards late and ran for a pair of touchdowns. Both of Baylor’s backs should have monster seasons. The Bears finished with 229 rushing yards and 5.5 yards per carry.
Oklahoma State 23, Missouri State 16
Out of 14 possessions (not counting the end of game kneel down), they managed just four scores, and only two of those came on sustained drives that started on their end of the field. Take away the two turnovers that gave OSU short fields and the drive chart looks like this:
- TD
- Punt (3 & Out)
- TD
- Turnover on Downs
- INT
- Punt
- Fumble
- Punt (3 & Out)
- Punt (3 & Out)
- Punt (4 plays)
- Punt (3 & Out)
- Punt (3 & Out)
#2 Oklahoma 40, Tulane 35
On a toasty Saturday afternoon, the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners survived a mega upset bid by the Tulane Green Wave after narrowly escaping with a 40-35 season opening victory. With the win, OU extends its overall winning streak to nine games and starts the 2021 campaign, 1-0. Still, this team clearly has a lot of soul searching ahead of them.
Texas Tech 38, Houston 21
Power Rankings
- Texas - honestly, they are the only ones who had a good win
- Texas Tech - handily beat a school
- Kansas State - solid opening win against a P5 school.
- TCU - demolished a bad school.
- Oklahoma - struggled against Tulane at home despite it being a “home game” for Tulane.
- Kansas - a win is a win.
- Oklahoma State - struggle win.
- Baylor - see above.
- Iowa State - E-E-K...
- West Virginia - way to go...losers.
Reminder that Power Rankings are fluid week to week and not based on anything factual.