No. 1 Oregon 53,
Washington 16
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Darron Thomas threw for a touchdown and ran for two more and top-ranked Oregon overcame a slow start to beat northwest rival Washington.
LaMichael James ran for 121 yards and three scores for the Ducks, who looked out of sorts in the first quarter when they were held scoreless for the first time this season. Their first points came on a 29-yard field goal early in the second.
Playing its first game since taking over the top spot in the BCS standings, Oregon (9-0, 6-0 Pac-10) struggled with all kinds of uncharacteristic penalties and mistakes before outscoring the Huskies 35-10 in the second half.
Redshirt freshman Keith Price made his first career start for Washington (3-6, 2-4) in place of Jake Locker, who watched from the sidelines with a broken rib.
Price held his own, completing 14 of 28 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown.
No. 2 Boise State 42, Hawaii 7
BOISE, Idaho — Kellen Moore threw for 507 yards and three touchdowns and Boise State rolled up a school-record 737 total yards.
Moore was spectacular, completing 30 of 37 passes and at one point hitting 19 straight in the first half to help the Broncos (8-0, 4-0 Western Athletic Conference) build a 21-0 halftime lead. He fired touchdown passes of 12 yards to Tyler Shoemaker and 43 yards to Austin Pettis, and his 83-yarder to Titus Young early in the third quarter put Boise State up 35-0.
The Broncos’ defense did its part in shutting down a high-scoring Hawaii (7-3, 5-1) offense. The Broncos sacked Bryant Moniz, the nation’s leading passer, seven times and held him to just 127 yards through the air.
The victory gave the Broncos 22 straight wins, the longest active winning streak in major college football.
No. 3 Auburn 62, Chattanooga 24
AUBURN, Ala. — Cam Newton passed for a career-high 317 yards and four touchdowns and ran for a fifth for Auburn.
The Heisman Trophy contender enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and a warm reception from fans two days after allegations came out that a man tried to solicit payment from Mississippi State when that school was recruiting Newton.
With that as a backdrop, Newton and the Tigers (10-0) churned out 48 points and 484 yards in the first half against the Football Championship Subdivision Mocs (5-4), who have lost all 21 meetings.
All of Newton’s TDs came in the first 17 minutes. He hit Darvin Adams for touchdowns of 30 and 39 yards and threw a 20-yarder to Emory Blake. Terrell Zachery then turned a screen pass into an easy 80-yard score.
No. 4 TCU 47, No. 6 Utah 7
SALT LAKE CITY — Andy Dalton passed for a career-high 355 yards and three touchdowns, and TCU looked every bit like a team worthy of busting into the BCS championship game with a 40-point demolition of Utah.
TCU receiver Jeremy Kerley, a quarterback in high school, threw a TD pass as the Horned Frogs (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West Conference) jumped out to an early 20-0 lead, quieting a sellout crowd clad almost entirely in black for the “blackout” showdown.
By halftime, the Horned Frogs had outgained Utah 328-72 en route to a 23-0 lead. The loss snapped Utah’s 21-game home winning streak and dropped the Utes to 8-1 (5-1 MWC).
Dalton, whose 39 career victories are the most in the nation by an active quarterback, made it look easy.
Utah’s Jordan Wynn, meanwhile, struggled to get anything going against TCU’s No. 1-ranked defense. He started 5 of 12 for 42 yards, with a sack and a fumble, then opened the second half with an underthrown pass that Tanner Brock intercepted and returned 57 yards to the Utah 4, setting up another TCU touchdown.
Wynn finished 16 of 35 for 148 yards, with one TD and two interceptions.
No. 12 LSU 24, No. 5 Alabama 21
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU twice rallied from second-half deficits and once again coach Les Miles employed a little trickery on fourth down, this time to deal a crushing blow to Alabama’s national title hopes.
Rueben Randle had 125 yards receiving to lead LSU (8-1, 5-1 SEC), including a 75-yard score on a pass from Jordan Jefferson.
The Tigers trailed 14-13 when Miles called an audacious reverse on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter. The 23-yard gain set up Stevan Ridley’s go-ahead, 1-yard plunge.
Greg McElroy completed 21 of 34 passes for 223 yards, including touchdown tosses to Trent Richardson and Julio Jones. But he was intercepted and fumbled on a sack in his own territory, which allowed the Tigers to take a 10-point lead with less than 6 minutes remaining.
Alabama (7-2, 4-2) could not recover.
No. 7 Wisconsin 34, Purdue 13
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Montee Ball ran for a career-high 127 yards and two touchdowns, leading Wisconsin past Purdue.
Ball, who got extra work because second-string running back James White was out with a knee injury, had scoring runs of 31 and 15 yards for the Badgers (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten). Leading rusher John Clay was held to 42 yards on 12 carries.
Purdue quarterback Sean Robinson passed for 141 yards and ran for 31 in his first start. He stepped in for Rob Henry, who sat out with a cut finger on his right hand. Antavian Edison had six catches for 73 yards for the Boilermakers (4-5, 2-3).
Purdue led 10-6 at halftime, but Wisconsin’s defense dominated in the second half. Antonio Fenelus returned one of Wisconsin’s three second-half interceptions 36 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Badgers scored 17 points off the miscues.
No. 9 Nebraska 31,
Iowa State 30, OT
AMES, Iowa — Eric Hagg intercepted a pass by Iowa State holder Daniel Kuehl on a fake conversion kick in overtime and Nebraska held off Iowa State in a thrilling final meeting between the two schools as Big 12 rivals.
Rex Burkhead ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns for the Cornhuskers (8-1, 4-1 Big 12), who played without star quarterback Taylor Martinez.
Burkhead ran for a 19-yard touchdown to start overtime, but Iowa State answered with a 9-yard TD pass from Austen Arnaud to Jake Williams.
The Cyclones went for the win, but Kuehl’s soft toss was picked off by Hagg near the goal line.
Iowa State rallied from a 24-10 deficit to tie the game early in the fourth quarter.
No. 15 Iowa 18, Indiana 13
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Ricky Stanzi threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Marvin McNutt with 2:50 left to push Iowa past pesky Indiana.
The Hoosiers had a chance to win it with 28 seconds left when Ben Chappell threw an 18-yard pass to Damarlo Belcher in the end zone. But Belcher dropped the ball and the Hoosiers turned it over on downs.
Iowa (7-2, 4-1 Big Ten) has won nine of its last 11 road games and managed to keep pace with the Big Ten leaders.
Indiana (4-5, 0-5) has lost 10 straight conference games and 11 in a row against ranked teams.
Stanzi was 22 of 32 for 290 yards with one TD and one interception. Iowa settled for four field goals in five red-zone trips and missed a short field goal the other time.
No. 16 Michigan State 31,
Minnesota 8
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Edwin Baker ran for 179 yards and four touchdowns, and Michigan State bounced back from its first loss of the season.
Baker scored twice on fourth down near the goal line to help the Spartans (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten) take a 21-0 halftime lead. Minnesota (1-9, 0-6) never threatened after that en route to its ninth straight loss.
Michigan State won its first eight games before being blown out 37-6 by Iowa last weekend. Baker turned things around with scoring runs of 30, 1 and 1 in the first half, and another 1-yarder in the fourth quarter.
Spartans quarterback Kirk Cousins went 9 of 20 for 131 yards with an interception, and his record-tying streak of 16 games with a touchdown pass came to an end. He shares that school record with Drew Stanton.
No. 19 Oklahoma State 55,
No. 22 Baylor 28
STILLWATER, Okla. — Justin Blackmon had 173 yards receiving and a touchdown and scored on a 69-yard run in his return from a suspension, leading Oklahoma State past Baylor with first place in the Big 12 South on the line.
Brandon Weeden threw for a school-record 435 yards and three scores and Kendall Hunter rammed in a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs for Oklahoma State (8-1, 4-1 Big 12), which opened a 34-0 lead on its way to moving past the Bears (7-3, 4-2) in the standings.
The Bears and Cowboys were picked to finish at the bottom of the division at the start of the season.
Blackmon came back from a one-game suspension stemming from his arrest on a DUI charge and surpassed 100 yards receiving for the eighth straight time, tying the school record set by Hart Lee Dykes in 1988.
Clemson 14, No. 23
North Carolina State 13
CLEMSON, S.C. — Kyle Parker threw for 214 yards and a touchdown as Clemson overcame several mistakes to beat North Carolina State for the seventh straight time.
The Tigers (5-4, 3-3 ACC) fumbled five times, losing two of them, threw an interception, had a touchdown called back on a holding penalty and missed two short field goals.
The crowd at Death Valley booed the Tigers several times. But the defense bailed them out, holding the Wolfpack (6-3, 3-2) to 275 yards, dealing a big blow to North Carolina State’s hopes to win the ACC’s Atlantic Division and keeping the Tigers’ faint hopes of returning to the title game alive.
Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson went 22 of 36 for 212 yards and was his team’s leading rusher with 29 yards.
North Carolina 37,
No. 24 Florida State 35
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — T.J. Yates threw for 439 yards and three touchdowns and Casey Barth kicked his third field goal of the game with 55 seconds left as North Carolina upset the Seminoles.
Florida State’s Dustin Hopkins missed two field goal tries in the fourth quarter, including a possible game-winner from 40 yards with 7 seconds left — wide right, naturally.
Florida State (6-3, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) took a 35-34 lead with 5:49 left on Lonnie Pryor’s second touchdown, which was set up by a botched North Carolina snap.
The Seminoles got the ball at the North Carolina 1 after Mark House’s snap sailed over the head of punter C.J. Feagles, who then illegally kicked the ball out of the end zone.
North Carolina (6-3, 3-2) trailed 28-21 at halftime.
No. 25 Nevada 63, Idaho 17
MOSCOW, Idaho — Colin Kaepernick threw a career-high five touchdown passes and Nevada piled up a team-record 844 yards of offense against Idaho.
Rishard Matthews caught two touchdown passes, ran for a score and had 151 yards receiving for Nevada (8-1, 3-1 Western Athletic Conference), which rolled to its highest point total of the season.
Idaho (4-5, 1-3), which came in averaging 30 points per game, endured a second straight blowout defeat. The Vandals lost 45-10 at Hawaii last weekend.
Kaepernick completed 20 of 30 passes for 320 yards and was not intercepted or sacked.