It’s been just a few days since the first College Football Playoff rankings were released, and we already have chaos.
On Saturday when only one game was played between ranked teams, we quickly realized that we were all in for a fun day of college football.
Besides No. 1 Georgia, no team in the top six of the CFP ranking impressed, with quite a few surviving scares.
Let’s take a look at the best from week ten of the college football season.
North Carolina ends Demon Deacons’ undefeated season
It may have strangely been a non-conference game between two ACC opponents, but Saturday’s matchup between Wake Forest and North Carolina had major implications for the Demon Deacons.
Undefeated, ranked in the top ten, and with an eye on the CFP, Wake Forest had a chance to send the playoff committee a message with a visit to Chapel Hill.
There was a message, but it wasn’t the one Wake Forest was hoping to send.
The Demon Deacons blew an 18-point third quarter lead, losing in a shootout to the Tar Heels 58-55, ending their undefeated season and any hope of making the College Football Playoff.
“It just felt like a rerun of last year’s game,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said.
North Carolina running back Ty Chandler rushed for 213 yards and four touchdowns, including a 50-yard back-breaker with 1:12 left in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“It’s a great feeling,” said North Carolina safety Cam’Ron Kelly, who had a pair of interceptions. “Them being ranked 9, 10 — I don’t even know.”
Ohio State survives in Lincoln
Poor Scott Frost. Nebraska’s defense played a ‘bend but don’t break’ game, but the Cornhuskers offense couldn’t capitalize, missing two field goals and managing to get into the endzone just twice in a 26-17 loss to the Buckeyes.
“I hate losing more than anybody in that locker room,” Frost said. “But I just love being the coach here, I love these kids. They battled through a lot. This is going to pop at Nebraska. It just is. We’re doing too many good things right. We have too many good young players. We’re putting ourselves in position to win too many games and just not making a play or catching a break.”
The victory for Ohio State won’t win any style points, but a win is a win, and it’s the seventh in a row for Ryan Day’s squad.
“It’s hard to win in this conference,” Day said. “It’s hard to win on the road. Coming off an emotional game, a late two weeks in a row, coming in here, 11 a.m. kick, it was going to be a challenge, we knew it. And certainly too many penalties on offense, just shooting ourselves in the foot across the board. I thought the drive at the end was huge to go force a field goal to make it a two-score game.”
Ohio State threw the ball 54 times, with quarterback C.J. Stroud completed 36 of those for 405 yards and two touchdowns, but only managed two field goals in the second half.
Purdue does it again, hands Michigan State first loss
Following a comeback win against their in-state rival, we should have known a letdown was on the horizon.
The Boilermakers upset a top-five team for the second time this season, ending Michigan State’s undefeated run in a 40-29 win.
Purdue pulled out all the stops, running a double-reverse fleaflicker for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Purdue with the double reverse flea flicker screen for 40 yards pic.twitter.com/GCFag0yXSL
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) November 6, 2021
“We run a multitude of trick plays, you guys have seen that,” Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm said. “This is one we do, kind of double reverse stuff, you know, throw it behind the line of scrimmage. To be honest with you, I stole it from a YouTube video of a high school team years ago and the first time we ran it, it went for a touchdown.”
The loss will drop Michigan State out of the CFP top-four, giving a handful of teams a legitimate argument to be the next team in.
“OK, so this is what I told our team: We didn’t make enough plays, we didn’t execute well enough to win the game,” Spartans head coach Mel Tucker said. “They out-played us, they made more plays than we made, so we gotta give them credit. They played a heck of a ballgame.”
Cincinnati wins but does not impress
When you aren’t one of the big boys on the block, you have to take advantage of opportunities to make a statement.
Cincinnati had such an opportunity on Saturday — with Tulsa and College Gameday in town — and failed to deliver in a wild 28-20 win.
With just over a minute to play, Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder fumbled on his own two-yard line down, giving Tulsa a chance down eight points. But Tulsa running back Steven Anderson fumbled into the endzone on fourth-and-goal and Cincinnati escaped with a win.
Cincinnati needed a Tulsa goal line fumble to get the win. Definitely playoff worthy 😂 pic.twitter.com/KIzr2kVnNf
— Barstool OSU (@BarstoolOSU) November 6, 2021
“Well, that was a wild one,” Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said. “It’s about winning against a team that is a much better football team than their record shows.”
With Michigan State’s loss, and Ohio State struggling with Nebraska, it will be interesting to see where the Bearcats land in Tuesday’s CFP ranking.
Alabama survives strong effort from LSU
Nearly 30 point favorites, most expected Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide to roll over LSU. Not so fast.
Alabama held on late, beating the Tigers 20-14 at Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday night.
Alabama’s defense held LSU out of the endzone midway through the fourth quarter, who had a first-and-goal from Alabama’s eight yard line.
“There was no way we were going to let them score at the end,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “I think the defensive players stepped up, and that was great competitive character. It’s always good to beat LSU. I knew this was going to be a tough game. I knew they would play their best game of the year against us.”
Alabama missed a field goal and an extra point in the game, allowing LSU to hang around.
Oregon survives sluggish start to beat Washington
It took Oregon until midway through the second quarter to take the lead over an unranked Washington team, but the Ducks were able to pull away on the road for a 26-16 win.
“Proud of the way our guys came out and showed our prowess in handling inclement weather,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said. “We continued to play hard throughout the entire game making sure every critical situation our team responded really well.”
Oregon running back Travis Dye rushed for 211 yards, the most for an Oregon running back against Washington since 2007.
Other scores:
No. 1 Georgia 43 Missouri 3
No. 7 Michigan 29 Indiana 7
No. 10 Notre Dame 34 Navy 6
No. 11 Oklahoma State 24 West Virginia 3
TCU 30 No. 12 Baylor 28
No. 14 Texas A&M 20 No. 13 Auburn 3
Arkansas 31 No. 17 Mississippi State 28
Tennessee 45 No. 18 Kentucky 42
Illinois 14 No. 20 Minnesota 6
Boise State 40 No. 23 Fresno State 14
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Source: Dailywire
