Every season has at least one week where there are multiple ranked teams who fall, creating chaos in the polls. This week was definitely one of those weeks. What I will try to do here is make sense of the chaos (AKA every loss by a ranked team) and tell you how to interpret it.

#13 LSU 36 #2 Georgia 16

Georgia came into Baton Rouge and immediately ran into the buzzsaw that is LSU’s defense. Jake Fromm had his worst game of the year throwing the ball (LSU’s amazing pass defense played a part in that too). Georgia struggled to get anything going on the ground. Their offense could not go anywhere in the first half. Defensively, they often times were put in tough spots and could not get the job done. While LSU had to settle for a field goal more often than not, LSU made five field goals. Georgia struggled to stop the run as LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for 145 yards. They also provided too much comfort for Joe Burrow, and did not do enough to force him into bad throws. Georgia turned the ball over three times and were unable to force any out of LSU. Also Georgia now leaves this game with some questions at the quarterback position. Justin Fields was put into the game, but it was just for quarterback runs and read options, and he did not attempt a pass. While I think any Georgia quarterback would have struggled against LSU’s defense, there will be rumblings about whether or not to bench Fromm in favor of the more athletic Fields. All in all, I think both teams who played today are very good. I still think Georgia is an elite team who will win the SEC East and can compete with anybody, they just had a horrible day. Also LSU is starting to look scary, and their game with Alabama will be interesting.

Iowa State 30 #6 West Virginia 14

So I will start this with a PSA: If you are a ranked college football team, do not ever, under any circumstance, play a game in Ames, Iowa, especially at night. West Virginia’s offense could not get going on Saturday, as they barely surpassed 150 total yards. Iowa State sat on the ball, and was led by strong performances from third string freshman quarterback Brock Purdy, 189 rushing yards from David Montgomery, and 107 receiving yards from Hakeem Butler. West Virginia’s offensive line did not have a good day either as Will Grier was sacked seven times. Iowa State’s domination in terms of time of possession forced West Virginia to play in a way they were not used to, and they could not adjust. West Virginia is still a very good team, and one of the best in the Big 12. Iowa State is also a very scary team that I fear as a Texas fan.

#17 Oregon 30 #7 Washington 27

Oregon took back the upper hand in this rivalry after relinquishing it to Washington the last two years. Washington has been playing down to their competition all year and this has finally come back to bite them after this game. Washington’s defense was unable to slow down Oregon running back CJ Verdell, and receiver Dillon Mitchell despite 19 total tackles from Ben Burr-Kirven. Standout running back Myles Gaskin and backup Salvon Ahmed both were banged up during the game, and their rushing totals were down because of it. Oregon clearly wanted this game and it looks as though it might be the catalyst for Oregon’s return to elite status. Washington has a lot of talent, they just have not played to their potential yet this season. Oregon looks like a very good team now as well. The Pac 12 North race will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks.

Michigan State 21 #8 Penn State 17

The lesson to learn from this game is to never sour on Michigan State. After looking lost against Northwestern a week ago, Michigan State rallied to an ugly win over Penn State. Their defense sold out to stop Trace McSorley and it worked. While Miles Sanders had 162 yards on the ground, McSorley barely passed (definitely pun intended) 5 yards per attempt. Offensively, there were not any real standouts for the Spartans except receiver Felton Davis who had 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Michigan State also looks to have Penn State’s number as they have pulled off an upset win over the Nittany Lions two years in a row. This game solidifies the fact that Michigan State can never be counted out. Mark Dantionio can give his team a punchers chance in any game (except against Alabama as evidenced by the 2011 Capital One Bowl and 2016 Playoff). Penn State is still good, but they definitely have lost a step from the last two years.

#12 Michigan 38 #15 Wisconsin 13

This game may not seem chaotic, but I will vehemently disagree. I would have never in a million years, expected Michigan to put up 38 points in this game. Shea Patterson did what was asked of him in the passing game and Karan Higdon ran for 105 yards. Their offensive line deserves some credit as well for a solid performance and just their general improvement on the season. Their offense had a good day against a Wisconsin defense that now looks questionable. Defensively, they completely rattled Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook, who threw just seven completions for 100 yards in 20 attempts. Hornibrook (who also continued his stretch of horrible performances in Ann Arbor) also threw two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Lavert Hill. Michigan’s defensive line swarmed the ball, and did more than neutralize Wisconsin’s typically outstanding offensive line. Michigan dominated this game in every facet. Michigan looks like a different team than they did in the opener against Notre Dame, and have improved with each week. This team is quite deserving of a top 10 ranking and still can not be ruled out as a playoff contender. Wisconsin just looks like they may be in a down year.

Virginia 16 #16 Miami 13

(So Virginia finally beat a team ranked 16, good for them) Miami could not overcome three interceptions on offense, and were held to just 13 points by Virginia. N’Kosi Perry was benched at quarterback after two interceptions in his first six throws, but Malik Rosier did not fare much better. The Hurricanes put up a fight on defense, but it was not enough. Virginia had their own offensive struggles, barely topping four yards per pass attempt, and throwing three interceptions of their own. Virginia was just able to capitalize on Miami’s mistakes more than Miami could do with Virginia. Miami still is a good team with a very good defense, they just need to solve their issues on offense and find a go to guy. There also will be questions about who to play at quarterback. They benched Rosier for Perry earlier, and Rosier did not play well in the time he was given. Miami does have a bye this coming week to figure this out. Virginia is a team on the rise in the ACC. Bronco Mendenhall is slowly turning the program around, and Virginia will only continue to grow.

USC 31 #19 Colorado 20

While this game was not necessarily an upset, it did create some chaos. USC won this game 31-20, and shut down Colorado’s passing attack in the process, allowing just 3.6 yards per attempt. JT Daniels had three passing touchdowns, two of those to Michael Pittman Jr. who had 144 receiving yards. USC’s run defense had a good game, stuffing Travon McMillan, and kept the Buffaloes offense from getting much done until the fourth quarter. All in all, the Trojans had a very good day on defense with 16 tackles for loss. USC’s win here now creates some chaos in the Pac 12 South (there are like 10 sort of conceivable combinations of teams to play for the Pac 12 Championship). USC looks to be in the drivers seat of that division currently, but they have to face Utah still who recently upset Stanford. Colorado still can win the division, but has more of an uphill battle. Colorado is a good team still that just lost a game to a more talented team. Clay Helton’s hot seat for USC has cooled just slightly.

Tennessee 30 #21 Auburn 24

Since they beat Washington in the season opener, Auburn has not looked good, and has looked straight up bad in the last two weeks. Running the ball, they averaged just two yards per carry, and a lot of that is due to a subpar offensive line. Jarrett Stidham threw two interceptions, along with a fumble that Tennessee picked up and ran for a touchdown. Stidham just needs to play better for Auburn’s offense to be successful. Defensively, they allowed Tennessee to throw for 10 yards per attempt and two touchdowns. This game definitely heated the seat of Gus Malzahn. Auburn does play Ole Miss next week so their offense should look better. Tennessee should feel relieved after snapping an 11 game losing streak in the SEC. Jeremy Pruitt looks like he was a solid hire for the Volunteers.

Some Random Thoughts

1. Tuesday night college football is great. I love just randomly seeing that a game is occurring on Tuesday night. Also there will be at least one Tuesday night game that will have something ridiculous like six overtimes, an overall super high scoring shootout, or just general insanity happen.

2. As soon as Shawn Robinson reversed field scrambling on TCU’s last play, I knew it was going to end horrifically, and I was correct as he threw the weirdest looking pass I have seen and it was intercepted.

3. The ending to the South Florida victory over Tulsa was crazy. South Florida has played in quite a few close games, and I wonder how long it is until they meet their match.

4. Tulsa’s quarterback is named Seth Boomer, which is awesome.

5. Nebraska blowing a 14 point fourth quarter lead to remain winless was pretty gut wrenching to watch. Especially considering they stopped Northwestern’s run game, and Clayton Thorson just seemed to have a monster game. Flynn Nagel’s 220 receiving yards for Northwestern should be mentioned.

6. Georgia running a fake field goal where kicker Rodrigo Blankenship ran the ball was great, until he was stuffed. While people say it went horribly, Blankenship still managed to stiff arm Grant Delpit, who is a pretty good defensive back for LSU, so I think it is more than most kickers would have done.

7. UCF erased a 16 point deficit against Memphis to increase their winning streak to 19 games. UCF had to sweat this win out, but they still deserve their spot in the top 10.

8. Pittsburgh, California, Texas Tech, and Boston College have some nice throwback uniforms. Three of those teams (I love Texas Tech’s regular uniforms too much) could make these their usual uniforms and I would be alright with it.

9. Ian Book came back down to earth against Pittsburgh, throwing two interceptions, but he still completed 81% of his passes. I guess this was still a pretty good game for Book.

10. UCLA got their first win of the season by blowing out California 37-7. Dorian Thompson-Robinson looks like he could be a very good quarterback in the future. Josh Kelley also was a beast running the ball with 157 rushing yards. While the present may look bad, the future looks bright for UCLA.

11. College GameDay is going to Pullman, Washington for the first time ever next week. This is pretty awesome especially with the tradition of flying the Washington State (not the state itself I mean Washington State the college for those who are confused) flag until they are on GameDay. It is just all in all very cool, and I hope ESPN does not mess it up, but I am sure they will.

12. Iowa had a very un-Iowa like game against Indiana. By that, I mean that all six of their touchdowns were through the air. The one thing that did ensure me that it was still Iowa was that both of their tight ends had over 100 yards receiving.

13. Pittsburgh had an uncharacteristically good defense against Notre Dame on Saturday, allowing just 19 points to a very talented Notre Dame offense. It is unfortunate that their offense could not pull through in this game and secure a win.

14. Texas A&M had a close victory over South Carolina in a game where their tight end, Jace Sternberger, had 145 receiving yards. It seems like it was a good week for tight ends.

15. Sam Ehlinger’s injury against Baylor was quite concerning. I also plead for Texas to just for once, beat a bad team convincingly. Texas not playing down to the level of their competition will be a massive stride for the program, if and when they start doing it. Keaontay Ingram is a beast, and I will always feel confident in his ability to gain at least three yards every time he touches the ball. Collin Johnson is an NFL talent at receiver.

16. Iowa State’s band having having dancing T Rex’s was wildly entertaining to say the least.

17. Iowa State players singing Country Roads after their win against West Virginia was pretty great as well. Maybe this could be the start of a rivalry. Also I am terrified of when Texas plays Iowa State, but at least it is not a night game in Ames.

18. Memphis has some terrible uniforms. The tiger stripes on the helmet just look awful to me.

19. Rutgers quarterbacks were a combined 2/17 passing with eight yards and four interceptions in their 34-7 loss against Maryland in Saturday. That is mind bogglingly bad, then again, so is Rutgers football this season.

20. Kansas State seemed to mostly abandon passing the ball far downfield, and just adopted the strategy of giving the ball to running back Alex Barnes and hoping for the best against Oklahoma State on Saturday. Barnes touched the ball on 37 of Kansas State’s 76 plays that were not punts or field goals (I feel like that is really crazy for a running back, but I could totally be wrong). What is also crazy is that it worked as Barnes has 233 total yards and four touchdowns en route to Kansas State getting an upset win 31-12.

21. So Oklahoma State might just be bad. Their last four games have painted them as such. I think this is just a down year for the Cowboys, but fans must hope that Mike Gundy can steer the ship around (of course he can, he’s a man, he’s 40).

22. Utah State might be good. The Aggies (I will try to overcome my prejudices against another team named the Aggies when I write this section) sit at 5-1, with their only loss being a seven point defeat against Michigan State on opening weekend. There are a lot of interesting G5 conferences this year I have to say.

23. Bowling Green fired their coach already after a dreadful 1-6 start. I have to say Mike Jinks was not very high on my list of guesses for first coach fired.

24. BYU benched Tanner Mangum (who I think has been there for about 17 years) in favor of true freshman Zach Wilson. Wilson played well in BYU’s 49-23 win over Hawaii, and looks to be the starter going forward.

25. This sign with Dan Mullen is too great to not share.

26. Florida’s punter running for 18 yards on a fake punt was awesome. Also it seriously might have been a catalyst for their victory. Florida trailed Vanderbilt 21-13 when the play happened, and won the game 37-27.

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