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0 out of 4
Alabama QB Bryce YoungVasha Hunt / Associated press
In case it wasn’t clear already in September, the first college football on Saturday in October showed everyone fighting for third behind Alabama and Georgia.
AP No. 1 Alabama took a 35-0 lead over No. 12 Ole Miss before claiming a 42-21 victory. That game followed No. 2 Georgia who shut out No. 8 Arkansas in a 37-0 laugh.
Add Oregon’s No.3 to the unranked loss to Stanford on a day when six Top 15 teams bit the dust, and that gap between the top two and the rest of the country now looks like the Grand Canyon.
But, my friends, this race for third place has been and continues to be a lot of fun, and Cincinnati is an integral part of that conversation after their road victory over Notre Dame. Penn State and Iowa are also in the mix ahead of a massive one-on-one clash in Week 6. And while they don’t look impressive yet this season, the zero in the column Oklahoma’s losses keep the Sooners in the fight.
However, we are talking about more than the top five here. There was a lot of Week 5 carnage to sift through, but Bleacher Report CFB pundits Adam Kramer, Kerry Miller and Brad Shepard set a new Top 25 ranking.
Kentucky, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were big players, Florida and Texas A&M went down like a lead ball and Texas, Arizona State and SMU each jumped into our Top 25 after missing. the cut a week ago.
Top 25 after week 5 of B / R:
1. Alabama (Last week: 1)
2. Georgia (2)
3. (tie) Iowa (6)
3. (tie) Penn State (4)
5. Cincinnati (5)
6. Oklahoma (11)
7. Ohio State (10)
8. Michigan (13)
9. Arkansas (7)
10. Kentucky (18)
11. Oregon (3)
12. Notre Dame (9)
13. TODAY (15)
14. (tie) Coastal Carolina (14)
14. (tie) Ole Miss (12)
16. State of Michigan (17)
17. Florida (8)
18. State of Oklahoma (24)
19. Auburn (20)
20. Texas (NR)
21. Wake Forest (22)
22. (tie) State of Arizona (NR)
22. (tie) SMU (NR)
24. San Diego State (23)
25. (equality) State NC (NR)
25. (tie) UTSA (NR)
1 of 4
Cincinnati QB Desmond RidderSportswire icon / Getty Images
Over the past few years, whenever a Group of Five team has been good enough for at least a little consideration for the college football playoffs, the conversation has finally hit a brick wall. have played against no good “.
Basically, in order for a little guy like UCF, Boise State, Houston, Coastal Carolina or Cincinnati to have any hope of playing for a national championship, he had to not only lead the table but also beat a few Power Five enemies along the way. .
I have felt for a long time Impossible mission.
But the AP’s No.7 Cincinnati Bearcats have now cleared the two tallest hurdles on their way to an unlikely place in the playoffs.
Two weeks ago, they entered Bloomington and came out with a solid 14-point victory over Indiana. And in the biggest game of Week 5, Desmond Ridder and Co. claimed a colossal 24-13 road victory that set the schedule against No.9 Notre Dame.
In both of these matches, an opportunistic defense played a huge role. They forced four turnovers against Indiana and had three more takeaways in the opening 20 minutes against Notre Dame. Ahmad Gardner knocked out Jack Coan at the goal line in the game’s first possession. Early in the second quarter, an interception by Deshawn Pace came back to the Notre Dame 8-yard line and allowed the Bearcats to score their first touchdown. And Chris Tyree’s fumble on the kick-off that followed put the Bearcats in a perfect position to take a two-point lead early on.
From there, Cincinnati simply dominated a team that entered the afternoon with a 37-5 record and two trips to CFP since the start of 2018.
Ridder threw for 297 yards, rushed for 26 more and scored for Cincinnati’s three touchdowns, keeping himself very well in the mix for the Heisman Trophy. The defense stopped Kyren Williams (77 all-purpose yards) and frustrated the Fighting Irish passing game for four quarters.
It will be a few more weeks before CFP’s first Top 25 ranking for the 2021 season, but running their business against Temple, UCF, Navy and Tulane, and the Bearcats are unlikely to start in fifth place.
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Oregon Head Coach Mario CristobalAndy Nelson / Associated press
As impressive as Cincinnati has been so far, the real The reason the Bearcats have a shot at making it to the college football playoffs is because the ACC and the Pac-12 have already gotten out of the conversation.
Between those two Power Five leagues, the only team that entered this week ranked higher than 20th in the AP poll was No.3 from Oregon. And the Ducks are sure to drop into the next standings after their 31-24 overtime loss to Stanford.
Oregon wisely entered the race against a Cardinal defense who had allowed at least 185 rushing yards in every game this season. They ended up with more than twice as many rushing attempts (54) as overtaking attempts (26). However, the Ducks didn’t do it as well as they did a few weeks ago in that monumental win over Ohio State.
CJ Verdell was the star against the Buckeyes, but he only managed 63 yards on 17 carries before leaving the game late in the third quarter with an apparent left knee injury. Travis Dye (19 carries for 96 yards) was a bit more efficient, but even he was just OK against a defense that allowed USC and Vanderbilt to average 5.6 yards per carry.
Oregon’s racing game was fine, however. Not elite, but good. And that would have been enough for a win if they hadn’t made so many grueling and silly mistakes.
The game’s only turnover (an Anthony Brown interception) got Stanford an early 10-0 lead. At the end of the first half, the Ducks wasted an 80-yard practice when Brown was tackled for a loss to a 4th and goaltender from the 1-yard line. They inexplicably threw the ball (for a clock stop incompletion) on 2nd and 18 at the end of the fourth quarter while trying to bleed the clock with a 24-17 lead. Then, with Stanford pulled back to its own 4-yard line, the Oregon defense committed three massive penalties, including a defensive hold on what should have been the last regulatory play, then allowing the Cardinal to score the touchdown. equalizer on a time out.
It just wasn’t pretty football, and it resulted in the first instance of the season where a Top 5 team lost to an unranked opponent. Maybe Oregon could still mess around and reach the CFP if they rally to win eight in a row from here. Considering how they looked in that game and last week’s home game against Arizona, that seems unlikely at best.
3 out of 4
Nolan Smith from GeorgiaTodd Kirkland / Getty Images
Despite playing without regular starting quarterback JT Daniels (side injury), Georgia scored 37 points against what had been a strong Arkansas defense throughout September. Four different Bulldogs running backs carried the ball at least 10 times each en route to 273 rushing yards against a defense that had held three consecutive opponents below 273 total meters.
But the real story here was Georgia’s Herculean effort on defense in another shutout.
Arkansas averaged 261 rushing yards in their first four games, but they picked up just 75 yards on 29 carries in this one – and it was actually 23 carries for 34 yards up. to a few insignificant runs in the last four minutes.
It’s also not like Arkansas had a better shot at throwing the ball, handling just 162 total yards of attack and nine first downs in the 37-0 loss.
When the Bulldogs limited Vanderbilt to 77 yards of total offense a week ago, the overwhelming response from most opponents was, “Big deal. Vanderbilt stinks. UGA enemies were also quick to point out that Clemson’s Week 1 shutdown didn’t look as impressive now as it did then, given the foul state of Clemson’s offensive in recent weeks.
Hold Arkansas without a first down on six of its first seven possessions, though?
Still not entertained?
You have to look back in the fourth quarter of Georgia’s Week 3 victory over South Carolina to find the last time that defense allowed points. Over 130 minutes ago it was a touchdown in the trash, and it was the only touchdown this defense has allowed throughout the season.
Georgia dominated the country in defensive scoring two years ago (12.6 points per game), but their current rating of 4.6 is just ridiculous. The last team to finish a season with a defense of 10 points per game or better was Alabama in 2011, which won the National Championship 21-0 to finish at 8.9.
4 out of 4
Iowa QB Spencer PetrasGreg Fiume / Getty Images
Incredibly, the Week 6 games list could be even more filled with awesomeness than Week 5 was.
At the top of the list you have AP No.4 Penn State going to No.5 in Iowa for still early bragging rights in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions have three more crucial games to play against Ohio State (October 30), Michigan (November 13) and Michigan State (November 27). Meanwhile, Iowa could take a giant leap to clinch its spot in the Big Ten Championship by taking the home service. After that game, the Hawkeyes will end the regular season with six straight games against the Big Ten West Division, in which they are currently the only ranked team.
The Red River rivalry will also be huge. The Texas offense has looked really good for a third straight week, and this 32-27 win over TCU will likely be enough to bring the Longhorns back into the PA’s Top 25. Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s barely winning trend continued with a 37-31 victory over Kansas State. It was already the fourth time this season the Sooners had won with six points or less, but they could make up for lost time and tight appeals with a decisive victory over Texas.
In the SEC, Arkansas and Ole Miss hope to recover from eruption losses in Georgia and Alabama, respectively. Still, one of them will be on a two-game losing streak after the Rebels host the Razorbacks.
There’s also Alabama at Texas A&M in a game that will either virtually eliminate the SEC West Aggies or bring the Crimson Tide back into the field and set the stage for an exciting seven-week sprint to the finish line. And that’s not all in the SEC. We’ll also have Georgia in Auburn and LSU in Kentucky for the entire four-game pack.
And last but certainly the least, Connecticut to Massachusetts in a clash between two of the four remaining winless FBS teams. If you’ve spent part of your Saturday night watching UConn-Vanderbilt, here’s another in your back alley.
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