It was with no shortage of pleasure that I watched Oklahoma’s season explode into a ball of flames against Texas Tech on Saturday night.@@http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/_/id/2641/texas-tech-red-raiders@@
The monthly cycle of Bob Stoops’ pained facial expressions reached its full moon and a long-overvalued team had finally been exposed. That it took a 30-point underdog Texas Tech team was the only surprising part of the whole matter.@@http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/stoops_bob00.html@@
I’ve argued all year that Oklahoma was overrated, though my vindication wasn’t the real story of the night. The Sooner apocalypse, coupled with Wisconsin’s failure to bat down a Hail Mary, proved a point that many have argued and one that I’m only just coming around to.@@Awkward lede?@@
Oregon is the best one-loss team in the nation.
That may sound like a dubious distinction, particularly in the eyes of fans spoiled by last season’s undefeated run. But the dream of another undefeated season went out the window as soon as Oregon fell to LSU at the beginning of the year and “most capable one-loss team” is the best that the Ducks can hope for at this point.
Truthfully, even that half-baked honor is something I had just about written off as I departed Cowboys Stadium on that early September night. Having watched the game in person, it felt like the Ducks had been exposed and I even wrote as much in this space. With that and the Auburn loss back in January still fresh in mind, I began to wonder whether Oregon was built to handle these mammoth SEC squads.
I still have questions, but as the season has progressed, the LSU loss looks more and more impressive. The Tigers are unquestionably the best team in the nation and proved as much just this past Saturday in a 45-10 shellacking of, ironically enough, Auburn. Only West Virginia has come close to matching the 27 points Oregon scored against LSU in the season-opener — and that was before the offensive line truly came into its own and before De’Anthony Thomas learned how to properly hold a football.@@http://www.lsusports.net/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=5200&SPID=2164&SPSID=27811@@
With hindsight (and admittedly, the ceaseless badgering of fans who disagreed with my initial reaction), I’ve come to realize that the LSU game could have turned out very differently. Oregon did in fact belong on the same field as the LSU @@I put that second LSU in for clarity@@Tigers, just as they did in the National Championship Game against the Auburn Cam Newtons (er, Tigers).
Which brings us to this, the final week of October, as the Ducks sit comfortably at No. 7 in the BCS rankings. The Stanford game looms large, particularly after Andrew Luck and co. hung 65 points on a presumably capable Washington squad. (There’s a decent chance that Washington was grossly overrated, but that’s a topic for another day.) But right now, on the wings of Oklahoma and Wisconsin’s blunders, the Ducks can lay a solid claim as the best of the not-quite-perfect teams.@@http://www.google.com/search?q=stanford+football&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a@@
Let’s break this down, shall we? The Sooners, as we established earlier, were always a mirage and losing at home to a 30-point underdog eliminates any credible argument that they belong at the top of the one-loss heap. Wisconsin has a better case, as that loss was the definition of “fluky,” but truly great teams take care of business on the road against lesser-ranked squads. Plus, the Badgers haven’t faced anything close to the challenge LSU posed.
So who’s left? Well, there’s Arkansas (which struggled to beat Ole Miss on Saturday), Michigan State (lost to Notre Dame), Virginia Tech (eliminated by the “plays-in-the-ACC” rule), South Carolina (lost its best player) and Nebraska (see: Oct. 1 against Wisconsin). Even the world’s most spiteful Oregon State fan would have a hard time arguing with Oregon’s credentials against these squads.@@http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=54&gs_id=1&xhr=t&q=Arkansas+%28which+struggled+to+beat+Ole+Miss+on+Saturday&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&site=&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=Arkansas+%28which+struggled+to+beat+Ole+Miss+on+Saturday&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=5a58fc1d47d7af92&biw=1680&bih=845@@ @@http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2011/09/the_real_notre_dame_shows_up_t.html@@ @@http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/marcus-lattimore-out-year-south-carolinas-sec-title-hopes-finished@@ @@http://www.huskers.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=100&SPID=22&SPSID=3@@
So where does this leave us? Well, at the risk of sounding maddeningly indecisive, it’s impossible to tell right now. What is certain is that by next weekend, there will be at least one less undefeated team, as LSU and Alabama meet in the primetime spotlight. Either Oklahoma State or Clemson will stumble, as both have been wont to do. A win at Stanford and suddenly Oregon is looking pretty good in the national spotlight.@@http://www.lsusports.net/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=5200&SPID=2164&SPSID=27811@@
This is all hypothetical and Oregon’s chances at another BCS title berth are still exceedingly slim. But after such a demoralizing loss to start the year, the Ducks are right back in the hunt and that’s all any fan (or self-serving journalist) can really ask for.