SMQ: The anatomy of a college football trap game

Several teams played trap games on Saturday in Week 4. What constitutes a trap? Sunday Morning Quarterback breaks down the anatomy of a trap game.

On every weekend during a college football season, you can look down the list of contests and find trap games sprinkled throughout the schedule. In Week 4, there were games both early and late that could be classified as traps. Not every team actually gets snared in a trap game. But there are a few elements that help see whether a game offers the sort of upset potential that is inherent in a trap game.

Some teams survive the trap game, like Washington and Michigan did in Week 4. And sometimes the trap manages to take down a victim, as it did with Oregon in late #Pac12AfterDark action at Arizona State.

When we talk about a trap game in college football, there is no singular image that comes to mind. Traps are like snowflakes, in that each is a unique encounter. But just like snowflakes, they are all forged of similar ingredients.

Not every trap game will have every one of these ingredients. But every legitimate trap will have a combination of the following elements. Given the popularity of this term, let’s dive in and break down the anatomy of what constitutes a trap game in this week’s edition of Sunday Morning Quarterback.