The Fraud Five
By Mike Kern for PhillyCollegeSports.com
October 7, 2018 Edition
Mike Kern’s Fraud Five, for Glenn.
1. Michigan State — Maybe Sparty was glancing ahead to at Happy Valley. Whatever the reasons, you shouldn’t be losing at home to Northwestern, which admittedly had almost beaten Michigan the week before at home, when you’re ranked 20th. And I’m not sure how good Michigan is anyway. Northwestern, which was 1-3, rushed for 8 yards against the nation’s top-rated run defense. But it threw for 373. And it had lost to Akron. Just saying.
2. David Price — How can a pitcher who makes that much not be able to win a postseason game as a starter (now 0-9)? This time he didn’t even make it through the third inning in Fenway against the dreaded Yanks. Wonder what the Sox will do it this series goes to a Game 5? Sometimes it doesn’t have to make much sense. So what do those 108 regular-season victories mean at the moment? Only that Game 5 could be back in Boston. If of course it gets that far.
3. Oklahoma — It’s OK to lose the Red River game to Texas, which hasn’t lost since opening with a loss to Maryland, after taking six of the previous eight encounters. It happens. But more often than not it seems to happen to the Sooners at some point. Usually when you’re just starting to feel good about them. And they were losing by 21 in the second half before going down on a late field goal. So much for the Big 12 getting a team into the playoffs.
4. Oklahoma State — When you’re ranked 24th and playing at home, you shouldn’t be losing to a 1-3 Iowa State team that was without its leading rusher. Good thing the Cyclones also ended up using their third-string quarterback. It was OSU’s second straight home loss (also to Texas Tech, by 24, two weeks earlier).
5. Louisville — Cards were a slight underdog at home to Georgia Tech and went down 66-31. What else do you need to compute?
Dishonorable Mention:
Brigham Young — For a team that beat Wisconsin (and I’m still not sure how good the Badgers are either), you probably shouldn’t be losing at home to Utah State by 45-20. Utah State?
Navy — Losing by four touchdowns at Air Force, and only scoring seven points in the process, isn’t what we’ve become accustomed to out of Annapolis. And the Middies host Temple this week. Good thing the Air Force QB was making his first career start.
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