Bowl Pool Update: Five Games Down

We're five games in and a decent amount of weird shit has already gone down. Let's take a look at wha happen', in chronological order.

Temple 37, Wyoming 15
Temple got up 21-0 five minutes into the second quarter, but the game wasn't really over until they threw a 61-yard touchdown pass less than 40 seconds before halftime, and just one play and six seconds after Wyoming had scored to pull within fourteen. This game was a beatdown.

Ohio 24, Utah State 23
I am still not sure how Ohio won this game. Utah State rushed for 345 yards, outgained OU by 100 yards, converted 9 of 17 third downs (as opposed to OU's 5-for-14), and had a 6.4 to 5.1 advantage in yards per play. The Bobcats scored on a QB keeper with 20 seconds left and made the PAT for the one-point win, as Utah State continued their season-long trend of losing games they should win. Apparently this was Ohio U.'s first-ever bowl victory.

Louisiana-Lafayette 32, San Diego State 30
This was one of those "defense optional" bowl games. The teams conbined for 1,068 yards, 905 through the air. The game was inexplicably won on a 50-yard field goal as time expired, by a placekicker who had already MISSED TWO EXTRA POINTS IN THE GAME. Oh, and the kick just barely cleared the bar, which is significant when you take into account that the only reason it was a 50-yarder instead of 55-yarder was that SDSU got called for something called illegal spinning or stemming or skimming or something, after both sides seemed to jump across the line of scrimmage before the field goal attempt. You see what I mean by weird shit happening?

Marshall 20, Florida International 10
These teams combined for almost half the yards of the LaLaf/SDSU game. With neither offense able to do anything, the game turned on two big plays in the fourth quarter: with the score tied at 10 and under nine minutes to play, Marshall blocked an FIU punt and took over at the FIU 23-yard-line. That drive ended with a go-ahead field goal. On the ensuing possession, FIU drove out to their own 40-yard-line before fumbling with just under five minutes left. Marshall punched in a TD to put the game out of reach. After OU and LaLaf, Marshall was the third consecutive Vegas underdog to win this bowl season.

TCU 31, Louisiana Tech 24
I completely forgot about this game and didn't watch a second of it. In my defense, Kristin was out of town so I was a single father the last few days. Apparently Sean's Fightin' Male Lady Techsters put up quite a fight as an 11-point underdog, leading by seven going into the fourth quarter. TCU punched in two touchdowns in the final stanza, on drives covering 72 and 86 yards, respectively. La Tech's two drives over that span? A total of 2 yards and 2 punts. One team had another gear that the other didn't.

In the pick 'em, it's way too early to tell anything. Fred's in first and his only loss was his one-point game, so he's in the driver's seat. Both Todd and Katy Keenan are 2-3 but have only lost low-confidence games, so they're in great shape. At the other end of the table, four of the last five spots are taken up by people who did not change their confidence points at all, so these first five games were their 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-point games, and they've therefore accumulated very few points. The one person in the bottom five who DID adjust their confidence levels: Al. Who is winless. Derp.

As usual, top fifteen is below.

Rank	Team	Owner	Record	TOTAL	PERC.
1	I Just Want My Kids Back!	Fred	4-1	73	97.5
2	Probably not 8-0 good	Ene	4-1	72	97.3
3	ArmPunter	Donnie Smavels	3-2	70	96.8
4	DecidedSchematicAdvantage	Todd	2-3	64	94.3
5	Falcon Amazing	Aly	3-2	63	93.7
6	Skee Town Sizzlers	Wolfe	3-2	62	93.0
7	Which Way Do I Geaux?	Joel M.	2-3	61	92.1
8	Next Kansas Coach: Erin	Jeff	2-3	60	91.4
9	Thadurban	Ryan	3-2	56	88.8
10	. . 2nd name its M-E-Y-E-R	Chris C.	2-3	55	88.2
11	rustybaloonknot	K. Keenan	2-3	50	85.6
12	Make it Rainey on Dem hos	Tyler	3-2	49	85.1
13	Dantonio Banderas	Elliott	2-3	42	81.0
14	Picks? Nope: Chuck Testa	Yours Truly	2-3	40	79.2
14	Aww, Fuck It!	Christina	3-2	40	79.2
14	Dr. Bacon McBratwurst	Sean	3-2	40	79.2