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MRI Football 2010 - Rankings Week 2

September 27, 2010  |  By Benjamin Miraski

It was quite a week for the MRI with so many of the top teams facing their first real tests of the season.

The big winner was Stanford, who quietly put away Notre Dame and took over the top spot in the rankings for the week.

Oregon and Arizona, the two other Pac-10 heavyweights so far, both struggled to wins.

Oregon’s may have been a gift from Arizona State as the Sun Devils committed seven turnovers. The drop in offensive production for the Ducks definitely hurt their MRI score this week and sent then sliding back to No. 4.

Arizona played a slugfest deep into the night against Cal. The Bears will continue to be a dangerous team this season, and as we said last week, should pull off a few upsets during the year.

It was not to be on Saturday night as a late missed field goal by normally automatic Giorgio Tavecchio gave the Wildcats the ball in great position for a late drive. Add in a gorgeous 51-yard pass from Nick Foles to Juron Criner and you have enough ingredients for an Arizona gut-check win.

The two other top five teams last weekend also struggled, with Alabama needing Arkansas’s Ryan Mallett to basically give them the game late, and Nebraska taking it easy against 1-AA opponent South Dakota State.

And so with the refresh, we have a few new teams flying high this week. Who can maintain the momentum the rest of the season?

Check it all out in week two of the football MRI.

Posted September 27, 2010 5:00 PM