The Monday Read believes in the truisms of the human experience: death, taxes, and Oregon coach Dan Lanning being aggressive in big games, results be damned.
Lanning's built a team who understands that the process of maximizing ways to win a football game outweighs the risk of failure. Process-driven thinking is against popular thought -- especially in college football, where the results are binary. Bad results can cost games, championships and jobs. They spawn TV talk show segments with analysts who misunderstand analytics, and therefore misunderstand how teams actually implement them. That creates a negative feedback loop around the topic.
In reality, there's a fundamental difference between a coach's decision and the execution of it by his players.
Nearly 365 days ago, Oregon played Washington in a shot-for-shot slugfest. In that game, the Ducks went for it on fourth down three times and failed each time. They lost by three (36-33). Against Ohio State last Saturday, Oregon went 1 of 2 on fourth down, with both attempts coming on the second drive of the second half. The attempt that failed was a result of quarterback Dillon Gabriel not finding a wide open Tez Johnson in the end zone.
Oregon also deliberately went for a 2-point conversion in the second quarter, down 14-12 after botching an earlier extra point attempt. Lanning's management of this situation is key to understanding how his team cut into its early deficit. The Ducks failed to convert on the 2-point attempt -- a swinging gate play -- but because Ohio State committed a penalty on the touchdown itself, they opted to take the penalty on the kickoff instead of moving their 2-point try up to the 1-yard line. That moved the kickoff to midfield, and the Ducks attempted the tricky squib kick that bounced off a front-line Buckeyes player that the Ducks recovered.
"Do you take that penalty and get a little bit closer to the end zone for the opportunity to go for two? But that probably eliminates that kick from the 50 where we're hitting a player," Lanning told reporters after the game. "A great example of our guys not flinching. They knew when we were kicking from the 50 exactly what the plan was: 'Hey, we're going to try to kick one right off this guy. If it doesn't hit him, we have an opportunity to pin them deep, you know, inside, inside the 20,' and they executed a really high level."
The risk paid off. Oregon stole a possession back and kicked a field goal to go up 15-14, which more than made up for the two failed attempts earlier. These are the edgewise decisions that win games when teams are otherwise pretty evenly matched.
Final score: Oregon 32, Ohio State 31.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten, fourth0down aggressiveness was also rewarded in Los Angeles. Penn State went for it twice on fourth down (with nine and 10 yards to go, respectively) with all three timeouts and the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter. Even CBS analyst Gary Danielson admitted he would have punted in the situation, but the Nittany Lions kept their drive alive and eventually scored a touchdown to send the game to overtime, where Penn State ended up winning 33-30.
So much for conservative Big Ten football, huh?
Historic ranking of the week
The Black Knights and Midshipmen combined to outscore UAB 85-28 over the last two weeks. Both started 5-0 for the first time since 1945. Navy was off in Week 7, but both will take the field in Week 8 with numbers next to their names; both are ranked at the same time for the first time since 1960. It's a historic start that continues to be a cool story.
Selfie of the week
Nothing like maximizing the time spent doing cardio like Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson does here while on the bike staying loose.
Team captain performance of the week
Much was made about Malachi Moore's antics on the field while Alabama was losing to Vanderbilt. It was conduct unbecoming of a team captain, and Moore eventually apologized after wearing the criticism all week. But he showed his leadership in a massive way that flew under the radar as Alabama eked out the win out over South Carolina by two points on Saturday.
As Domani Jackson goes into the end zone with the interception, it's Moore who dissuades him from taking a knee and avoiding a potentially disastrous situation. The referee's beanbag was on the field outside of the end zone, which means Jackson established himself in the field of play when he caught the interception. Though Jackson's momentum meant the ball would have been placed at the spot of the pick*, according to national coordinator of officials Steve Shaw, Moore's presence of mind helped the Tide run out the clock. Moore's lapse of judgment last week was noteworthy, but so was his leadership there.
Koi Perich interception of the week
All the Minnesota safety does is end games against Southern California teams. This time, his pick assured a victory over UCLA and earned him a record in the process.
Notable quotable
Football coaches are creatures of habit with tunnel vision, so when Brent Venables and Steve Sarkisian were asked ahead of the Red River Rivalry if they'd ever had a corn dog at the Texas State Fair outside the Cotton Bowl, their responses were funny and predictable:
"My body might shut down with one of those fried corn dogs," Venables said. "We get a W, I'm going to have one."
Sarkisian answered similarly: "Maybe if we win, I'll try to find a corny dog or something."
On Saturday to the victor went the golden hat and the golden fried stick of processed meat.
Research note of the week
Look, it's not exactly a distinction Georgia wants to have against moribund Mississippi State, but one could argue QB Carson Beck had the most statistically proficient game in the history of Georgia football in the win against the SEC's other Bulldogs.
Beck ties the school record for most completions in a game with 36, and he had the fourth-most passing yards for a single game in school history (459).
Heisman (or Mackey Award) performance of the week
The Monday Read must constantly resist the palpable urge to just give this award to Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, so this week it will recognize Tyler Warren, Penn State's tremendous pass-catcher who tied an FBS record for receptions by a tight end with 17 and came close to setting the tight end yardage record with 224. He also snapped a ball and caught it on the same play against USC.
Week 8 CFP projection
It's halfway into the season, so let's start weekly snapshots of the CFP race:
- Oregon (auto)
- Texas (auto)
- Miami (auto)
- Iowa State (auto)
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- Indiana
- Boise State (auto)
First four out: Tennessee, LSU, Kansas State, BYU
Meal of the week: Charred eggplant at Place des fetes (Brooklyn)
Charred eggplant pureed with black garlic, alliums and activated charcoal (which gives it its color). It's built like a hummus and topped with sautéed pickled fairytale eggplant. To dip, grilled flatbread from the plancha cooktop in the kitchen.
Thing TMR is already excited to watch next week
There hasn't been an update on Travis Hunter's health yet, but if he can go this week against Arizona it sets up a tremendous good-on-good matchup between Hunter and Wildecats receiver Tetairoa McMillan. Get your popcorn ready for that if it happens.
*Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated that kneeling in the end zone would have resulted in a safety for Alabama.