Make what you will of No. 15 Alabama’s 34-0 win against No. 17 Missouri.
This month has reinforced that no game is a given for the Crimson Tide, who in the past few weeks have sandwiched a narrow win against South Carolina with losses to No. 25 Vanderbilt and No. 8 Tennessee. After those two losses placed them on the brink of erasure from the College Football Playoff picture, topping the Tigers keeps the Tide on track for at-large contention in November.
And doing so while keeping the Tigers off the board gives Alabama a nice boost of credibility with the playoff rankings set to debut one week from Tuesday.
There’s another thing we’ve learned in SEC play: Missouri is not a real contender. Half of the Tigers’ six wins have come against Murray State, Buffalo and Massachusetts. The others are nip-and-tuck wins against Boston College, Vanderbilt and last week against Auburn. At very few points has Missouri resembled a team to take seriously in the SEC race.
That makes it difficult to make any grand takeaways for Alabama other than the importance of avoiding a fatal loss against an overmatched opponent.
But that alone is worth noting. The Tide took the Commodores lightly and suffered a humiliating loss. They messed around with South Carolina. They were irresponsible with the football against the Volunteers.
Alabama reversed that trend by capitalizing on Missouri’s turnovers. Any chance the Tigers had to score a road win disintegrated once injured starting quarterback Brady Cook was replaced by backup and former Notre Dame transfer Drew Pyne, who threw three interceptions in relief.
A run-heavy game plan saw four players run for at least 48 yards and Alabama run for 271 yards and four scores as a team. The Tide had gained a combined 263 yards on 2.8 yards per carry in the past three games.
Amid maybe the program’s roughest months in a generation, the rout helps Alabama turn the page on October and look toward the next do-or-die matchup in SEC play. After an off week, the Tide travel to No. 7 LSU on Nov. 9.
Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State lead Saturday’s winners and losers:
Winners
Penn State
Down 10-7 at halftime on the road against Wisconsin, No. 3 Penn State took control in the second half and pulled away with a big fourth quarter to win 28-13 and remain unbeaten heading into next weekend’s huge matchup with No. 4 Ohio State. And the Nittany Lions did so without the services of quarterback Drew Allar, who exited the game late in the first half and was replaced by backup Beau Pribula. All Pribula did was hit on 11 of 13 passes for 98 yards and a score while adding 28 yards on the ground. Most impressively, Penn State clamped down on a Wisconsin offense that had stirred to life in recent weeks and keyed a three-game winning streak. Winning amid adverse circumstances in a tough road environment says a lot about this team.
Texas A&M
What Mike Elko has done in his first year at No. 14 Texas A&M isn’t quite at No. 13 Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s level among new coaches, but it’s close. After inheriting a messy spot from Jimbo Fisher, the former Duke coach has the Aggies at 7-1 and on a seven-game winning streak after pulling away from No. 7 LSU in the late third and early fourth quarters of a 38-23 win. The biggest spark came from backup quarterback Marcel Reed, who stepped in for Connor Weigman and threw for 70 yards while running for 62 yards and three scores. With the victory, A&M becomes the only team still unbeaten in SEC play. There’s also the fact that at 7-1 and with this major test complete, the Aggies can really begin to picture a clear path to the playoff. From here, it’s South Carolina, New Mexico State, Auburn and Texas. A clean sweep guarantees a spot in the SEC championship game and a playoff berth; wins in all but the finale could or even should still land A&M an at-large bid.
Kansas State
No. 16 Kansas State waited for the inevitable Kansas mistake and took advantage to stretch its winning streak in the Sunflower Showdown to 16 in a row. Leading 27-26 with about three minutes left and needing only a few first downs to score a huge upset that could’ve changed the trajectory of a disappointing year, Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels fumbled the ball back to the Wildcats, who then drilled a 51-yard field with 1:48 left and then held on to score a 29-27 win. This keeps Kansas State right in the thick of things in the Big 12 race with a huge matchup against No. 10 Iowa State looming to end the regular season. Quarterback Avery Johnson had 253 passing yards and three total touchdowns, and DJ Giddens got back on track with 102 yards on 18 carries, helping move the Wildcats to 7-1. On the other side, this should-have-been win joins a long list of games the 2-6 Jayhawks have given away this season.
Notre Dame
Facing a ranked opponent for the third time this season — following earlier wins against Texas A&M and Louisville — No. 11 Notre Dame took advantage of Navy’s carelessness and rolled over the No. 24 Midshipmen in an impressive 51-14 win. Given this opportunity against an unbeaten opponent in the thick of the Group of Five’s playoff race, the Fighting Irish made a statement: Riley Leonard had 261 yards of offense and three scores, the running game finished with 265 yards on 6.6 yards per carry and the defense forced six turnovers.
Oregon
Oregon has pushed the pedal down and built on this month’s thrilling win against No. 4 Ohio State. After blanking Purdue last Friday, the Ducks bullied No. 21 Illinois in a 38-9 win that cements their place as the No. 1 team in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Coming off an impressive victory against Michigan, Illinois’ troubles began on the opening drive — an 83-yard touchdown march that set the tone for the afternoon — and didn’t get much better from there, as Oregon racked up 527 yards of offense, held the Illini out of the end zone until the end of the third quarter and continued to look like the team to beat in the Big Ten. Dillon Gabriel had another three touchdowns passes for the Ducks, giving him multiple scores in every game this season.
Texas
The No. 6 Longhorns avoided Vanderbilt’s upset effort and rekindled a winning streak after last week’s loss to No. 2 Georgia. The 27-24 final saw a bit of a return to form from Quinn Ewers, who completed 27 of 37 attempts for 288 yards and three scores, though he tossed two interceptions. The Commodores are feisty, though, and after falling behind 21-7 in the second quarter crawled back within a touchdown heading into the fourth. Thanks to some more heroics from quarterback Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt came within an onside recovery from potentially tying or even winning the game in the final minute. Here’s a sentence that explains how weird college football has been this season: Vanderbilt is the Longhorns’ best win on the year.
North Carolina
The clock may still be ticking on Mack Brown’s second tenure at North Carolina, but a 41-14 win against Virginia rights the ship on the heels of a four-game losing streak and puts the Tar Heels back on track for a bowl bid. Defensively, UNC gave up only 288 yards of offense after allowing 41.5 points per game during the losing streak, including 70 points to James Madison and 41 points last week against Georgia Tech. The Tar Heels had 10 sacks, forced a pair of turnovers and held the Cavaliers to just 7 yards on 29 carries.
Tulane
After competitive losses to No. 16 Kansas State and Oklahoma in non-conference play, Tulane has moved back into the playoff picture with four wins in a row in the American Athletic. The latest, 45-37 at North Texas, might be the Green Wave’s best of the year. To do so, Tulane had to hold off a late rally by the Mean Green, who trailed 45-24 after the third quarter but made things interesting with two scores in the fourth. While No. 19 Boise State remains in the driver’s seat after Friday night’s win at UNLV, the Green Wave are positioning themselves to take advantage should the Broncos trip on the way to the Mountain West championship.
Brigham Young
No. 12 BYU continues to prove the doubters wrong and make a completely unexpected push for an unbeaten regular season. After last week’s escape against Oklahoma State, the Cougars had a much easier time in a 37-24 win at Central Florida that included 266 yards of offense and three touchdowns from quarterback Jake Retzlaff. You may not totally buy into the Cougars as a legitimate playoff team; if so, you’re not entirely alone. But we all have to admit that this schedule makes that a real possibility: BYU takes on Utah, Kansas, Arizona State and Houston in November.
Losers
Ohio State
The Buckeyes’ 21-17 win against Nebraska should raise an eyebrow. This is a Nebraska team that lost 56-7 to Indiana last weekend and went into Saturday as roughly 25-point underdogs. That the Cornhuskers got back on track and even led Ohio State 17-14 in the fourth quarter may be a building-block moment for second-year coach Matt Rhule. But given where things stand for a program still crawling back toward relevancy, that the Buckeyes were nearly knocked off at home in their first game since losing to the Ducks doesn’t necessarily bode well for the trip to State College. Though a big scare as a heavy favorite at home might be what Ohio State needs to get jumpstarted before facing the Nittany Lions.
Oklahoma
For one half against No. 18 Mississippi, Brent Venables’ decision to replace offensive coordinator Seth Littrell seemed to have worked: Oklahoma had 235 yards of offense, including 125 yards on the ground, and led the Rebels 14-10. The Sooners would gain just 94 yards and fail to score a single point the rest of the way, though, in a 26-14 loss that illustrates the limits of what a midseason coaching change can achieve given the team’s lack of punch on that side of the ball. One positive was the careful play of quarterback Jackson Arnold, who had multiple touchdowns without an interception for the first time since the opener against Temple.
Florida State
After looking a little better last time out against Duke — they didn’t win, obviously — the Seminoles were back at it and back up to their old tricks against No. 5 Miami. To zero surprise, the Hurricanes made the Seminoles look inept in a 36-14 loss that drops their record to a remarkable 1-7 and officially ends any misguided belief that a second-half surge would bring FSU closer to respectability. FSU had 248 yards of offense, converted just three third downs, averaged 3.6 yards per pass attempt and never put up any fight against the current ACC front-runner. The best way to sum things up: The Seminoles are the first team in the past 70 years to start 1-7 after going unbeaten the previous regular season.
Kentucky
In a wacky, weird and unpredictable season, maybe no team has been as wacky, weird and unpredictable as Kentucky. This is a team that almost beat Georgia and did beat Mississippi while losing in a big way to South Carolina, Florida and now Auburn. Yes, Auburn, the team that has done almost nothing right under Hugh Freeze, topped Kentucky 24-10 to climb out of the cellar in the SEC. The offense was absent against the Tigers but the defense was somehow worse. Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter ran for an eye-popping 278 yards on 12.1 yards per carry, single-handedly outgaining the Wildcats by 54 yards. Kentucky will very likely miss the postseason for the first time in a non-COVID year since 2015, Mark Stoops’ third season.
Texas-San Antonio
UTSA owns the day’s most baffling loss, and not just because the loss came to Tulsa. The Roadrunners led 14-0 after the first quarter, 35-7 after the second and 42-24 after the third but were outscored 22-3 in the final frame for a 46-45 loss that might just be the worst in program history. Tulsa trailed 45-32 with five minutes left after a six-minute UTSA drive ending in a field goal. But the Golden Hurricane went 75 yards to make it 45-39 with 2:26 remaining, got a stop and then moseyed 92 yards in eight plays to take the lead with just over a minute to go. UTSA has been one of the top programs in the Group of Five since hiring former Texas assistant Jeff Traylor in 2020 but have been a major flop this season. Picked to finish second in the preseason American Athletic poll, the Roadrunners need to win three of four next month to make a bowl game.
(New information was added to this story.)