Real Kato Blog: College Football 2013: Week 3 Recap

Michigan narrowly avoids an embarrassing defeat.

Michigan 28, Akron 24.
Ugh. Just ugh. Not much went right for Michigan except the final series, where Akron had two cracks from inside the Michigan 5 yard line to pull of the unbelievable upset. Michigan blitzed everyone on the last play and Akron's pass attempt went just past the hands of the Akron receiver.

Michigan turned the ball over four times. More worrying, though, the offensive line couldn't open up inside running lanes against an undersized Akron defensive line; the defensive line failed to get pressure without a blitz; and Akron racked up 311 yards passing against a porous Michigan secondary. Against most teams, Michigan would have lost by a landslide.

Hopefully this will end up being a good reality check for Michigan, who was clearly still coming off the high of the Notre Dame win.

Heroes: Blake Countess, who made a key interception; Jeremy Gallon, who found ways to get open; Devin Funchess, who had a couple of big plays.

Goats: Devin Gardner, who was out of sync all day; Matt Wile, who had a bad day punting; and really, the entire team, because how can you pin this debacle on any one player?

Next week: At Connecticut.

Other Notable Games
#1 Alabama held off #6 Texas A&M 42-35 in a shootout. It was a pretty spectacular game, I have to say. Both teams certainly weren't perfect, with plenty of holes on defense. But it was quite an offensive showcase.

#2 Oregon crushed Tennessee 59-14.

#4 Ohio State beat Cal resoundingly 52-34, playing Kenny Guiton in place of the injured Braxton Miller. Ohio State finally gets a legitimately dominating victory.

#16 UCLA beat #23 Nebraska 41-21. Nebraska jumped out to an early lead but then their defense fell apart.

#19 Washington beat Illinois 34-24.

#20 Wisconsin lost to Arizona State 32-30 in bizarre fashion. With 18 seconds remaining, Wisconsin downed the ball in the center of the field to set up a winning field goal attempt. But rather than kneeling, Wisconsin QB Joel Stave placed the ball on the ground. Arizona State, thinking it might be a fumble, pounced on the ball. After some confusion, Wisconsin retained possession, but by the time play resumed, the clock ran out and Wisconsin was never able to attempt the FG. Should it had been a delay of game penalty on ASU? Perhaps. Should the officials have stopped the clock? Perhaps. But Stave should have taken a knee and handed the ball to the officials instead of placing the ball on the ground.

#21 Notre Dame barely beat a bad Purdue team 31-24. Perhaps Michigan's win over Notre Dame wasn't as impressive as we all thought.

#25 Ole Miss crushed Texas 44-23. Texas is in a death spiral.

Penn State lost to UCF 34-31. Those who thought Penn State was doing fine despite the sanctions might have spoken too soon.

Virginia Tech narrowly beat East Carolina 15-10. Wake Forest lost to Louisiana-Monroe 21-19. What in the heck is going on?

In four marquee games against the Pac-12, the Big Ten went 1-3. Combined with Michigan's narrow win and Penn State's loss, this definitely tarnishes the image of the conference. Let's hope for a better showing in the next couple of weeks.

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