Thursday, November 7, 2013

November Is Big Game Month

At halftime of the Pac-12 Conference's biggest game of the season, and quite possible the biggest game in college football this season, Stanford retired John Elway's No. 7. After that the Cardinal retired the Oregon Ducks from playing in the BCS championship game, winning 26-20 in a showdown at Palo Alto, California.
With Oregon ranked No.3 and Stanford ranked No.5, no other team in the top 10 has played a more important game this season, and that includes Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State, and those teams that make up the rest of the rankings.
Thursday's night's game, which was televised on ESPN, kicked off a month a great match-ups that will continue into December with conference championship games. Oregon came into Stanford Stadium undefeated (8-0) while the Cardinal played the hosts at 7-1, their only loss coming at the hands of Utah three weeks ago in Salt Lake City.
Stanford jumped out to what appeared to be an insurmountable 23-0 lead late in the third quarter but Oregon fought back to close within six points before time ran out on the Ducks. The win give Stanford the inside track to the conference's North Division championship, and a chance to host the Pac-12's championship game on Dec. 7.
In a contrast before old school and modern-day college football, Stanford's pro-style offense and its hard-nosed, smothering defense prevailed over Oregon's fast-paced, a play every 13 seconds offense, which looked to be off-kilter on a beautiful night in the Bay Area.
It is too early to speculate how high Stanford will move up in the polls and, how low Oregon will fall. With games to be played on Saturday, especially a rivalry contest between LSU and No. 1 Alabama, the college football world will have to wait until Sunday for the release of the BCS standings, And this is only the second of five big weekends in November.


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