College Football Week 11

Oh well. It's disappointing, but the Buckeyes had to lose eventually. They'd been playing too well for too long. And whether it was the lack of competition, or a good team that overachieved, the fact that they rose as high as they did is something of an achievement and a surprise. But on Saturday it was Illinois that did everything right, played physically, and made the most of breaks and opportunities. 28-21.

For OSU it's a story of "if only"s:

• If only, the fumble on Illinois's first scoring drive had been called correctly.
• If only, Boeckman hadn't thrown 3 interceptions on 3 bad and poorly planned throws.
• If only, the vaunted Buckeye defense had made any worthwhile stops on 3rd down.

Illinois ran the spread offense almost as well as Florida did in the BCS game. The only surprise was that Laurenitis or one of the DBs weren't set up to spy the quarterback and running back on that same delay option draw play they kept running in the 4th.

But the good news is that the pressure's off and now the SEC and Big 12 and PAC 10 can go back to whining about the BCS. For Big 10 fans, the loss allows things to go back to normal:

Next week, Ohio State will play Michigan with the Big 10 title at stake, and a chance to play in the Rose Bowl. That's all we really care about anyway.

(Meanwhile, Colorado State lost again, this time to New Mexico -- will the season never end?).