Headlines Week 5 2018

Haskins Overcomes Rough First Half to Lead Heroic Comeback

One of the greatest sights in college football is a White Out at Penn State.  Over 100 thousand fans clad in while, all shaking white pompoms.  It goes without saying the noisy generated by all these fans can be quite intimidating. The cheers had their desired effect as Ohio State's quarterback Dwayne Haskins looked rattled and off his game, making the offense so ineffective it was hard to watch. The Buckeyes defense picked up the slack holding the Penn State Nittany Lions to 13 1st half points and recovered a very important fumble late in the half.  Haskins completed a well timed screen pass soon after for a touchdown that pulled the Buckeyes within 6 heading to halftime.  The Buckeyes managed to score a touchdown on the first drive of the 3rd quarter but returned to their sluggish form until halfway through the 4th quarter. By that time, Penn State had a 12 point lead.  But Haskins respondee by stepping up his game leading two straight touchdown drives, the second being a game-winning march down the field starting at their own 4 yard line.  The Buckeyes strode out of the Nittany Lions' stadium having overcome the white noise.


Notre Dame Makes a Statement 

In the cross-regional rivalry between Stanford and Notre Dame, one team emerged with gusto.  That team was Notre Dame whose imposing 38-17 triumph stated the case that they belong in the playoff discussion.  A major part of Notre Dame's rise in recent weeks has been the stellar play of quarterback Ian Book.  In the past two weeks he has passed for over 600 yards and 6 touchdowns after being named the starter over the incumbent Brandon Wimbush.  The Fighting Irish will need to keep on winning to remain a playoff team by the end of the year, starting with a ranked matchup against Virginia Tech on Saturday Night.



Tumultuous Result of Quarterback Battle at Clemson Leaves Tigers Vulnerable

The big story for Clemson heading into last week's game against Syracuse was their quarterback situation. After a battle that raged for 4 weeks of the regular season between freshman Trevor Lawrence and senior Kelly Bryant, Head Coach named Lawrence the starter going forward. In a hasty and selfish decision Bryant decided to transfer the day after he learned the news.  That disappointing decision would hurt the Tigers against the Syracuse Orange.

Syracuse also came into the game undefeated and proved how capable they were by bottling up Lawrence and Clemson's talented running backs, allowing only 7 points in the 1st half.  Meanwhile, their offense led by senior quarterback Eric Dungey scratched together 16 points.  Making matters worse for the Tigers Lawrence went down after a hard hit just before the half and left the game with concussion-like symptoms.

It was now up to inexperienced freshman Chase Brice to come in and be the hero.  The stable of running backs behind Brice helped him out, helping the Tigers to two field goals in the third quarter.  But after a Syracuse touchdown early in the fourth quarter, things were looking desperate for the Tigers.  Fortunately, the Tigers responded quickly with a quick drive containing two good completions by Brice and a long touchdown run by Travis Etienne. 

Then, after a great effort by the Clemson defense, the Tigers got the ball back with 6 minutes to play.  Starting at their own 6-yard line Clemson drove the length of the field, moving the ball largely on rushes by Etienne and his fellow running back Tavean Feaster.  Brice came through as well, completing a critical pass on 4th and 7.  Etienne ran the ball into the end zone with 41 seconds left in the Tigers would go on to pull off a narrow victory that keeps them in the hunt for the playoffs.  Whether they can live up to that will depend on how quickly Lawrence returns from his injury.