Lambert Meadowlands Trophy Week 5: The One In Which Rutgers Climbs Into The Top Spot

Keeping track of how the 10 programs vying for this year's Lambert-Meadowlands trophy fared last week, and a look ahead to next weekend's action.

Standings

Week 5 Results

Northwestern 29, Penn State 6
Rutgers 31, Tulane 6
Temple 36, Connecticut 10
Akron 21, Pittsburgh 10
Colorado State 24, Boston College 21
Buffalo 35, Miami (Ohio) 27
Notre Dame 31, Syracuse 15
Yale 49, Army 43 (OT)
Bowling Green 47, Massachusetts 42

Last season, Penn State won its eleventy billionth Lambert Meadowlands trophy rocking the lowest winning percentage (7-5, .583) in the trophy's 78-year history. If week 5 is any indication, we're probably headed down that same path this season.

First one to 7-5 wins...

Really, truly a disastrous week for college football in the Northeast. The lone remaining unbeaten team, Penn State, got waxed at home by a thoroughly mediocre Northwestern team, spoiling the Lions Homecoming weekend. The boys over at Black Shoe Diaries don't even want to talk about it.

Anyway, we all saw the game, or, if you didn't, well, you're one of the lucky ones, and I'm not going to taint your Saturday--because, by definition, whatever you did other than watch this game was an improvement by default--by talking about it at great length. Suffice it to say that it was everything we've come to know about this 2014 Penn State team writ large: An impossibly slow start, a defense that was unimpeachable against the run getting gashed in the middle of the field, a #2 cornerback getting targeted and beat whenever the defensive line failed to bring sufficient pressure. Bob Shoop's defense continues to start too slow, and the losses of Nyeem Wartman--and, potentially, Brandon Bell--will hurt more in the coming weeks than they did against Northwestern's pass-first spread offense.

I mean, good thing the Joe Out wasn't last weekend. Yikes. Moving right along...

I know folks are feeling pretty down about BC's last minute loss to Colorado State and all, but things could always be worse. You could have lost to Akron, at home, by double-digits.

Look, I don't know where to go here and my guess is that most of you don't, either. I started my day off with yard work, so let's just say I'm in twice as much pain as I did from when I woke up.

Pitt's 21-10 loss to Akron today is perhaps the most disappointing thing we've seen in the Paul Chryst era. I'm going to write more about this later today, but this loss trumps any prior low point that Pitt has endured since Chryst took the reins from Dave Wannstedt Mike Haywood Todd Graham.

The frustrating thing to me is that Pitt refused to put together even one good quarter of football today against the Zips. Losing focus and bumbling your way through a bad quarter happens to everyone. Pretty frequently, actually. Through a half? Eh, still happens. More than that? That's an issue.

R.I.P. James Conner for Heisman.

Surely we can find a favorable result this week amongst Lambert Meadowlands eligible teams, right? Right?

Syracuse was hoping to get national relevance by pulling an upset in an NFL stadium. Instead, the Orange got a beat down by a team with NFL talent.

Everett Golson completed 33-of-40 passes and the No. 8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish swept past the Orange with a 31-15 victory in MetLife Stadium. He took advantage of a shaky Syracuse secondary by completing 26 straight passes, tying an FBS record. Syracuse has had its fair share of trouble with mobile quarterbacks, but it was Golson's arm that made the difference. His speedy wide receivers, namely William Fuller, didn't help matters either.

Oh.

Maybe we can find a winner down in Storrs East Hartford...

It is important to keep in mind that this is a very young team, and usually in a rebuild it needs to get worse before it gets better. We aren't as bad as this final score indicates, but in case there was any doubt we can confirm that UConn is in the early stages of a full-on rebuild. While some of us thought that Diaco could bring this team to decency relatively quickly, myself included, that will not be the case here.

Nope.

UMass QB Blake Frohnapfel threw for 589 yards and 5 TDs in the school's FBS McGuirk Stadium debut...and still lost, falling 47-42 to Bowling Green. The Minutemen fall to 0-5 on the year.

Finally, in what is most assuredly the nadir of Lambert Meadowlands / Northeast college football, Army not only lost to an FCS school; the Black Knights lost to an FCS school that does not offer football scholarships. The Black Knights fell to Yale, 47-43, in overtime and fall to just 1-3 on the year. So much for receiving that win as bowl eligible waiver from the NCAA.

There were, in fact, winners in week 5. The former Fightin' Addazios pasted Connecticut, 36-10, in the only matchup between Lambert Meadowlands eligible teams. Buffalo notched a 35-27 victory over Miami (Ohio) in the Bulls' MAC opener.

Rutgers beat Tulane, 31-6, to move into a tie with Penn State for first place. Rutgers. First place. Idk either, man.

Week 6 Schedule

Michigan at Rutgers
Pittsburgh at Virginia
Buffalo at Bowling Green
Louisville at Syracuse (Friday)
Ball State at Army
Massachusetts at Miami (Ohio)

Only six games this week and none pairing Lambert Meadowlands trophy eligible teams. Rutgers can gain sole possession of first place with a home win over Michigan, which seemed crazy at the beginning of the season, but is probably possible because Michigan.

Other games this week: Pittsburgh looks to bounce back with a Coastal Division road game at Virginia, Buffalo is at Bowling Green, Syracuse hosts Louisville on Friday night, Army hosts Ball State and Massachusetts hits the road to face Miami (Ohio).