Obsessing over the statistical anomalies and minutiae of close and closer-than-they-looked games that could have gone the other way. Be careful before you judge these games by the final score alone ...

North Carolina 29, Notre Dame 24. I got e-mails from Irish fans that bordered on threats if I didn’t include the Irish’s loss in Chapel Hill this week, but that wasn’t really necessary: outgain your opponent by 150 yards on the road and still lose by turning the ball over five times, and you’re up for the “Life on the Margins” hall of fame.

The Blue-Gray Sky is right that, under any circumstances, a -5 turnover margin is terrible performance, and you can"t "take away" the Irish miscues. Actually, only two of the giveaways -- the interception returned for touchdown by Quan Sturdivant on Jimmy Clausen’s first pass of the second half, obviously, and the fumble by David Grimes at the end of the oft-replayed fourth down catch to close the game, which could have put ND in a position to try for the winning touchdown on the last play – made an obvious, direct impact toward defeat.

Old-fashioned missed opportunities were just as a much a killer for Notre Dame: the Irish punted on UNC’s side of the 50 in the first quarter and scored zero points on three trips into Tar Heel territory in the fourth quarter, failing on fourth down at the end of a 52-yard drive, throwing an interception after 33 yards, and finally fumbling away one last shot at the end zone after moving 74 yards.

Carolina, on the other hand, had the ball six times inside Irish territory and came away with points on five of them. The only exception was at the end of the second quarter, when Notre Dame fumbled away a kickoff at its own 25, and Connor Barth missed the subsequent field goal as the half expired.

Minnesota 27, Illinois 20. Speaking of missed opportunities: the Illini were lousy with them, most notably on the 79-yard sprint to the Gopher goal line in the third quarter, where Illinois failed to punch the ball in from the five and Juice Williams’ 4th-and-1 effort, initially ruled a touchdown, was (correctly) overturned:

That clip is titled "Illinois-Minnesota Blown Call," but don’t by it: on TV, on multiple slo-mo replays, Juice was down. Get over it.

At least as damaging was the missed field goal at the end of the Illini’s 12-play, 70-yard opening drive, punts from inside Gopher territory in the first and fourth quarters, and, most crucially, the barrage of ill-timed second turnovers: Minnesota got gift touchdowns off a Williams fumble on the first play of the second half (and a subsequent eight-yard “drive”) and another Juice gaffe in the fourth quarter, which Willie VanDeSteeg scooped at the five-yard line for an easy score, then picked Williams off to end a potential tying drive that moved inside the Minny 30 with under two minutes to play.

If I was Illinois, I’d have mixed feelings about losing to the alleged Big Ten doormat: one, the Gophers obviously aren’t the pushovers they were last year, and two, the loss is largely on a few correctable mistakes; for the same reason, I’d hold off anointing Minnesota the conference up-and-comer, just a player or two away from storming the gates – you don’t recover two fumbles inside your opponents’ 10-yard line every week. The bad news for the Illini: three killer second half turnovers is the old Juice, and the new, Death Star Juice on display at Michigan suddenly looks more like a result of playing the worst Michigan outfit of the last half century than anything else.

Louisville 35, Memphis 28. Here’s an innovative approach to scoring from the Cardinals: forget the offense.

How do you get to 35 points with only two offensive touchdowns, one of which came on a short field (38 yards) following a big punt return? Well, big returns, for one – UL took a kickoff back 95 yards in the second quarter – and you get creative: Louisville’s final two touchdowns came off a blocked Memphis field goal in the second quarter, returned 60 yards by Brandon Heath, and a 21-yard fumble return in the fourth by Johnny Patrick to break a 28-28 tie, a sweet turnabout after the late interception return for touchdown by UConn that cost Louisville a Friday night game against the Huskies two weeks ago.

As for Memphis … oh, it's ugly. I watched part of the middle of this game, and the Tigers looked outstanding offensively, especially nicely-named quarterback Arkelon Hall, but they’re going nowhere with so much unfinished business: a fumble at the end of a 66-yard drive in the first quarter; a missed field goal after moving 56 yards just before the half (the block that was returned for a UL touchdown); a failed fourth down attempt to tie after moving 74 yards inside the Cardinals’ 10 in the fourth quarter. If you want to drop a safe on a good night, leaving 259 yards on the field with nothing to show for it is a pretty good way of going about it.