College football Saturday, Week 3: Oh great, now Alabama will win everything forever

What went down at two AM eastern in the WISCONSIN-Arizona State game caused cheese curds to be projected from mouths all across Madison, nearly caused Wisconsin’s starting quarterback to haul off and punch a ref…

…and blew up Twitter.

Whether the opponent chooses guerrilla warfare in the jungle or tank battles in the desert, the Alabama High Command has the answers.

Texas A&M was able to beat Alabama in 2012, but the return engagement showed the strides that the Aggies will have to make under Kevin Sumlin to get to the point where they can approach the Tide on equal footing. A&M was able to move the ball on Alabama because of the combination of a sharp offensive scheme, a wide receiver whom the Tide struggled to cover, and the talents of a singular sensation at quarterback.

Reminder: We’re not talking about which conference is the best. We’re talking about which conference had the best weekend.

Alabama gave up over 600 yards of total offense and still won against Texas A&M, both preserving the conference’s best title hope and removing any doubt the Aggies are one of the country’s most dangerous teams. Tennessee and Kentucky lost out of conference, but neither was expected to win. Ole Miss routing Texas made the top five teams in the SEC West 14-0 on the year.

Agon. The fundamental conflict in a Greek drama or tragedy. I don’t know what makes a classic game, or a classic ending, period, but it has something to do with balance: at the end, did you feel like it obeyed its own logic? Did it run out the rules as they were laid out at the start, and at both ends was it consistent in its rationale?

The 2007 Fiesta Bowl is a classic game, and not just because of its ending, but the ending clearly matters. It’s not like Boise just pulled one rabbit out of its hat: it pulled three in a row in short succession, and got away with it because Boise was small, fast, and smart. Oklahoma was big, dumb, and ultimately slower on the brain-trigger than the wily opponent. Marinade the rest in a little luck, and you have a satisfying result. It was a conflict, is the point, and that conflict had rules.

The Pac-12 has made its feelings known on the controversial ending to Saturday night’s Wisconsin-Arizona State game, adding one more note to the discussion around a bizarre series of events that may have cost the Badgers the game.

What went wrong in the game’s final seconds was explained perfectly by Spencer Hall.

For the second-consecutive weekend, the commitment front was mostly quiet -- at least publicly.

The biggest commitment: Stanford added awesome defensive end Nifae LeaLao, a four-star out of Sacramento.

Purdue was able to score once more, but it would not prove to be enough, as Notre Dame took the 31-24 win.

Eric Murtaugh of One Foot Down is worried about the Irish offense, particularly in their ability to stop a pass rush.

After the game, Michigan head coach Brady Hoke gave a very loud speech to his players, detailing his unhappiness with their performance despite the win.

The Wolverines fell four spots, to No. 15, in the latest AP Poll following the win.

“First off,” Shaw said. “I don’t think there’s any excuse for our stands to be emptying out ... I was kind of disappointed in that.”

Running back Mike Davis, who is described as angry at the fans by the video’s title, was seemingly caught off-guard by the question and seemed to just be giving a plain, coachspeak answer.

The game Saturday between Alabama and Texas A&M pretty much lived up to its considerable hype, which is no small feat. It began much like last year’s meeting between the two, with the Aggies jumping out to a 14-0 lead. Then the Crimson Tide’s offense got into gear, helping Alabama reel off 35 straight points to take control. They’d have to withstand a fourth-quarter rally from Texas A&M, but they managed to hold on.

Somewhat surprising was the way in which Alabama began to turn the, er, tide. Once down 14-0, and perhaps feeling some added pressure from how good A&M’s offense had looked, the Crimson Tide put the game on AJ McCarron’s shoulders, and he delivered. Alabama threw the ball 14 times over its next four drives while running it just twice, and when that stretch was over, the Tide held a 21-14 lead.

In Thursday’s Alabama-A&M preview, I mentioned that the Alabama offensive line was facing more questions than it was used to facing after a lackluster performance versus Virginia Tech.

Remember when T.J. Yeldon was stuffed in the backfield near the A&M goal line in the fourth quarter and fumbled? Yeah, that was Texas A&M’s only play in the backfield all game. One tackle for loss in 36 rushes is a stuff rate of 2.8 percent. Combine that with the fact that A&M was officially credited with one quarterback hurry and no sacks in 29 McCarron pass attempts, and you’ve got one of the stories of the game: complete and total domination by the Alabama offensive line.

We mentioned yesterday that Alabama has a pretty smooth path to the BCS title game after surviving Manziel and Texas A&M on Saturday. But that’s nothing compared to Ohio State’s red carpet treatment.

After demolishing Cal in Ohio Stadium at Strawberry Canyon with backup QB Kenny Guiton, the Buckeyes are ready to dig into the Big Ten. And judging by how things went for the B1G on Saturday, it looks like the Buckeyes will dominate the conference again.

Things looked good for Texas through two quarters Saturday, as the Longhorns held a 23-17 lead over the visiting Ole Miss Rebels. After giving up two first-quarter touchdowns, the Texas defense seemed to settle down under new defensive coordinator Greg Robinson, giving up just a field goal in a dominating second quarter.

Then, everything went wrong. The Rebels scored four touchdowns in the second half while shutting out the Longhorns, as Texas fell 44-23 at home. After a 40-21 loss at BYU last week, that’s two straight big losses for Mack Brown’s squad, and Barking Carnival says it’s time for a change.

No. 1 Alabama held off Texas A&M in College Station Saturday afternoon, 49-42. Johnny Manziel threw for five touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as the Alabama offense matched him score for score and came out on top. It was the most-watched regular-season college football game since 2006 and was the rare GAME OF THE CENTURY that met its hype.

Here’s the official highlight video from the SEC:

Just four ranked teams lost in the third week of college football, leading to a mostly unchanged Coaches’ Poll.

Alabama holds on to the top spot after defeating Texas A&M on the road, while the Aggies have slipped a bit after the loss. Nebraska, who was ranked No. 15 last week, falls significantly after the loss to UCLA, who sees a rise in the standings.

Former college and NFL officiating executive Mike Pereira has weighed in on Saturday’s night frankly insane ending to Arizona State’s win over Wisconsin, saying Wisconsin should have been given one last play (to presumably kick what would have been a game-winning field goal).

Down two points in field goal range with less than twenty seconds, Wisconsin kneeled the ball to get in better position. An Arizona State defender jumped on it, mistakenly thinking the ball was loose. The clock was not stopped, and the Badgers watched as time ran out and the game was lost.

A fun Week 3 of college football saw a relatively stagnant AP Poll from Week 2 to Week 3, as just four Top 25 teams lost -- and two of those to higher-ranked teams.

After a seven-point loss to Alabama, Texas A&M has slipped a bit, while the Tide hold on strong to their top spot, claiming all but one first-place vote. Both Nebraska and TCU are out of the poll thanks to losses to UCLA and Texas Tech, respectively.

The months of hype for the Alabama-Texas A&M football showdown certainly paid off for CBS.

Alabama’s win over Johnny Manziel and the Aggies drew a 9.0 rating for CBS, making it the highest-rated regular season college football game in seven years. The game also drew higher ratings than all but three games from last season: the SEC Championship Game between Georgia and Alabama, the Rose Bowl and the BCS National Championship.

Despite giving up a school-record 628 yards and 42 points against Texas A&M, the Tide survived the one-man cyclone that is Johnny Football and will be back for a shot at a BCS three-peat. Well, likely will.

Alabama could face only two more ranked teams -- Ole Miss on Sept. 28 and LSU on Nov. 9, and both at home -- before the SEC Championship. The Tide do not play any of the top three SEC East teams (Georgia, South Carolina and Florida) in the regular season. All three look to be highly flawed, and each already has a loss. As for a challenge out of conference, they’ve got the Rams and Mocs left (I’ll let you figure out which universities those belong to).

What do you say when your team gives away a 21-3 lead by allowing 35 unanswered points, sending 85,000 fans running for the exits and effectively killing off your program’s national championship dreams? Take it away, Bo Pelini (video courtesy of the Omaha World-Herald):

Let’s count the clichés, shall we?

Texas is currently have a rough time of things. After an opening 56-7 win over New Mexico State, Mack Brown’s program is in turmoil, suffering back-to-back blowout losses to BYU and Ole Miss, the latter at home.

Luckily, Willie Lyles is here to help! Lyles is a talent evaluator and scout based out of Houston who was implicated in NCAA violations at Oregon. He and Texas have had a rocky relationship for years now.

Sometimes, you complete the pass, and sometimes, man, the pass completes you.

That’s Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall, completing a pass to himself for a 36-yard gain. The Tigers were trailing by six at the time, and ended up making a field goal on the drive.

Mack also stressed his players’ effort and pleaded with fans to show their support by buying tickets for next week’s game against Kansas State:

Brown was probably smart to channel his inner ODB and turn attention to “the kids.” Texas fans, who normally hold the 16-year head coach in reverence, booed Mack Brown’s appearance in a stadium public service announcement following a Longhorns touchdown. Texas is 88th nationally in scoring defense. The Longhorns are 121st in rushing defense; only Massachusetts and New Mexico State have been worse against the run.

The Tide have issues on both sides of the ball, and with a couple games under our belt, we have a better idea A) what those issues are, and B) which teams will probably have the best chance at exploiting them. Not necessarily beating Alabama, mind you, but at least giving the Tide a game.

Johnny Manziel was able to rush for 98 yards on 14 carries on Saturday, and in Alabama’s last two losses, quarterbacks have averaged over 67 rushing yards each.

The Crimson Tide got revenge for their only 2012 loss, recovering from an early 14-0 deficit to beat the Aggies in a game not quite as close as the score.

Then Johnny Football went absolutely nuts, completing this nearly-impossible play.