ACC Week 10 Review

The two favorites to make the conference championship have now been established, even though one of them got blown out on Saturday night.

Florida State continued to impress, although they only did it in the second half. Miami played very well in the first half, as they capitalized on two Jameis Winston interceptions, to get the game tied at 14 going into halftime. The second half was a much different story as Miami couldn't stop the Noles run game. Florida State ran the ball 44 times for 192 yards in the game, along with 4 touchdowns, 2 for Devonta Freeman, and 2 for James Wilder Jr. Miami suffered a major blow in the loss, as superstar running back, Duke Johnson will now be out for the rest of the year. It was a rough night for Miami, but they are still the favorites to get to the ACC championship and play Florida State again, mainly because their biggest competition, Virginia Tech lost against on Saturday afternoon.

Virginia Tech came into Saturday coming off of a 13-10 loss to Duke that made their offense look horrible. They lost again, showing that they might not be the contenders we though they were. It was a close, low scoring game all day, as is usual with Virginia Tech, but the Hokies were outscored 17-10 in the fourth quarter, and lost 34-27 to a Boston College team that was coming off a blowout loss to North Carolina. Boston College is continuing an up and down season. One week they are putting up a fight into the fourth quarter against Clemson, the next they are getting blown out by one of the conferences worst teams, and now they are beating one of its best. Virginia Tech will get knocked out of the ACC race if they can't beat Miami next week.

Clemson finally got back to its regular domination, beating Virginia 59-10. They let Virginia stay close for a little, as they only led 14-7 after a quarter, but they outscored the Cavaliers 21-0 in the second, which fueled them as they ended up winning big. Because of the loss to Florida State, the Tigers have almost no chance to get to the ACC championship, but if they can win out, they could still get into a BCS bowl game and have a good finish.

With Virginia Tech losing, Georgia Tech comes back into the fight for the ACC Coastal, as they were able to beat Pittsburgh in a 21-10 battle. It was another low scoring game for Pittsburgh, who scored a lot in the first part of the year. Since then they just can't seem to score. Georgia Tech is right back in the race as they have now won three games in a row. Georgia Tech is on the road against Clemson in their next game after a bye this upcoming week. That game should be huge in determining weather or not they can contend with Miami.

There was a big rivalry in the ACC Saturday, as North Carolina got their second win in a row, beating NC State 27-19. North Carolina started the season so bad, losing 5 of their first 6 games, and starting the year 0-3 in conference play.Since then, they have now won back to back conference games, against Boston College and the rival NC State, who still hasn't won a conference game. Neither team has a chance at a conference championship, or really a bowl game, but it was a good game and a big rivalry.

Finally, we have a great defensive performance from Syracuse. The Orange have been mostly known for their offense this year, but offense had nothing to do with their 13-0 win over Wake Forest on Saturday. They gave up only 213 total yards and held Wake to 4-18 on third downs. Wake Forest played their worst game of the year and it doesn't help that they now have to turn around and play Florida State next week.