A weekly look at conquered favorites and other notables picking up the pieces of shattered ambition.

Thanks for the apology, Daryll, and yes, it is your fault. Off his worst statistical game of the season and a key interception that set up Iowa's game-winning drive, Daryll Clark is shouldering all the blame for Penn State's crushing last second loss, and Black Shoe Diaries wholeheartedly agrees:

From the opening series he seemed tentative and unsure of himself. He seemed like he was struggling with his reads, his timing was off, and he often overthrew his receivers. This is a problem that has plagued him all season. This week it finally bit him with the interception in the redzone.
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Final Grade: F

Receiver Deon Butler said losing after a 9-0 start is "like a huge bomb exploded," but a "lesser bowl" is out still out there, namely the Rose: The Lions are still Big Ten champs with a tiebreaker over Ohio State if they win their last two.

On that note, the big, ironic loser with PSU's loss: Michigan State. The Spartans had a fighting chance of coming out of a three-way tie with a Rose Bowl bid if they beat an undefeated Penn State in two weeks and wound up in an "A beat B who beat C who beat A" scenario with the Spartans, Lions and Buckeyes all stuck at 7-1. Now, assuming Ohio State beats Illinois and Michigan, an MSU win over Penn State would drop the Lions to 6-2 and leave only a two-way tie with the Buckeyes, who'd take the head-to-head tiebreaker courtesy of its blowout win over the Spartans last month; Penn State, correspondingly, controls its destiny because of its head-to-head win over OSU. But the only route to Pasadena for the Spartans is an Illinois or Michigan upset over Ohio State. Thanks a lot, Daniel Murray!

Will the real West Virginia please stand up? Bill Stewart was "proud of his football team," the local Charleston Gazette was disappointed to see such a stirring comeback wasted in overtime and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was straightforward about what has to happen for West Virginia to win the Big East after its home loss Saturday to new, surprise conference frontrunner Cincinnati. The Mountaineer blogs, on the other hand, were more to the point:

That's WVU offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen, and West By God Virginia would like to see him fired, please:

Sometimes we’re Texas Tech with 5 wideouts, sometimes we’re channeling 1970 in a single receiver, double tight end, I set, sometimes, we run fully loaded shotgun, sometimes we run half the team in motion. But every time, we suck.

Until the wild comeback in the last two minutes of regulation to force the ill-fated overtime, that's about covers it. The Mountaineers failed to reach 100 yards rushing for the first time in seven years, which hardly seems possible with Pat White and Noel Devine in the same backfield, and at one point in the second and third quarters went three-and-out six times in a row. Not that Mullen is under any kind of real fire from anyone who matters, yet, but White won't be around much longer, so just grit those teeth, WBGV, and learn to tolerate a little, you know, diversity.

We still support you. All 16 of us. This was the scene Saturday in Seattle for Washington's loss to Arizona State, the Huskies' eleventh in a row dating back to last year:

John of UW Dawg Pound was in the crowd, officially estimated at more than 57,000. Can you spot him?

Actually, the Seattle Times' Bud Withers thinks keeping the game close for three quarters represents some kind of progress at this point in the Huskies' interminable slide, as does the Worldwide Leader's Ted Miller. And the Sun Devils' 16-0 run to pull away in the fourth quarter? Let's just focus on the fun times, alright?

Elsewhere in Disillusion: Oklahoma State has to refocus its goals after being rocked at Texas Tech. ... Even reading an Aggie fan's recap of Texas A&M's 34-points loss to Oklahoma is painful. ... And Tennessee fans grade the Vols after their loss to Wyoming. Aw, y'all do still care.