"Premature gray hair courtesy of the Griffons," Wes Bell said to me in the parking lot following Western’s 31-28 win over Fort Hays on Saturday.

Western’s defensive line coach wasn’t alone in blaming the Griffons for accelerating the aging process. Head coach Jerry Partridge said he doesn’t think his heart can hold out much longer if the Griffons continued this last-second drama each week.

They certainly don’t make it easy.

For a third straight week, the game came down to the final 10 seconds, and for the third time, the team on defense ended up winning. It just so happened to be the Griffons this time. Western certainly deserved a win. I’m just not so sure it was this win.

If Fort Hays had a true quarterback lining up behind center, I think the Tigers win. Anthony Smith was an exceptional athlete and elusive runner, but his three interceptions gave Western 14 points and rendered the Tigers one-dimensional. And even with an offensive game plan that essentially consisted of Smith scrambling all over the field from the spread formations, the Tigers nearly pulled off the upset.

That’s still not enough to get them out of the No. 10 spot in this week’s rankings.

Rank-LW-School-Record

1. (1) Northwest Missouri (5-1, 4-0) — Circle Nov. 29 on your calendars; I predict a Northwest-Abilene Christian rematch

2. (2) Pittsburg State (5-1, 3-1) — Second fiddles still get to the playoffs and maybe even win a game or two

3. (4) Central Missouri (5-1, 3-1) — Omaha’s demise makes Central the leading candidate for that potential third playoff spot in the MIAA — just don’t get hammered too hard by Northwest

4. (9) Truman State (3-2, 2-2) — Turns out Stokes Stadium isn’t just a house of horrors for Missouri Western

5. (5) Washburn (4-2, 2-2) — Surprising considering the vaunted players who suited up for the Ichabods defense recently, but Saturday was Washburn’s first shutout in 46 games

6. (3) Nebraska-Omaha (3-2, 2-2 MIAA) — I thought these types of collapses weren’t supposed to happen to the Mavericks until the playoffs

7. (6) Missouri Southern (3-3, 1-3) — Nothing says thank you to the faithful alums who made it back for homecoming like getting shut out

8. (8) Missouri Western (2-4, 1-3) — The Griffons’ 42-35 loss at Northwest is looking better each week

9. (7) Emporia State (3-2, 1-2) — Twenty-two freshmen played for the Hornets in a blowout loss at Central on Saturday

10. (10) Fort Hays State (2-3, 1-2) — For not having a quarterback, the Tigers played admirably Saturday and would’ve won with many of the backups in the MIAA