Florida State Punches Ticket To Playoff
Jameis Winston's focus on the field in spite of all the distractions off the field is simply astonishing. Nothing gets to this guy. You know a player is special at the quarterback position when he throws a pick and people talk about how uncharacteristic it is for him to lose composure.
Notre Dame had a chance to win the game but had a touchdown called back due to an illegal pick play. This really brings up the dynamic of "let the players win it on the field" and officials doing their job and calling penalties when players break the rules. I think in this case the correct call was made.
The Irish outgained the Seminoles 470-323 and held them to 50 yards on the ground. Jameis Winston had some rough parts in the first half but was near perfect in the second half.
Florida State has a bye week before playing at Louisville, which is the last real challenging game of the year. They finish with Virginia, at Miami, Boston College, and Florida (who just threw up all over itself this weekend). The Seminoles will most likely win out and make the playoffs.
Alabama Isn't Out of it Yet
In hindsight, maybe the Texas A&M Aggies got too much credit for their win over South Carolina. I'm sure Johnny Manziel is laughing about the "system quarterback" comments he got because clearly there is some magic needed at the position.
Alabama demolished Texas A&M 59-0. This game was over almost as soon as it started. The Tide outgained Texas A&M 602-172, holding Kenny Hill to 138 yards through the air and an interception. ‘Bama had too many great performances to single anybody out statistically, but Blake Sims and TJ Yeldon made a lot of plays.
Alabama has Mississippi State and Auburn on the schedule so the SEC West, even though they are dominating the top 5, will soon be shaking themselves out in the standings. Saban will need Ole Miss to drop one of their games, either to Auburn on November 1st or Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
Georgia Surges
The Bulldogs might be better on offense without Todd Gurley. Freshman Nick Chubb carried the ball 30 times for 202 yards in a 45-32 win over Arkansas. The defense came up big holding the Razorbacks to 126 yards on the ground and forcing 4 turnovers.
Georgia is going to win the SEC East. Remaining on their schedule is Auburn between the hedges, which could leave them with two losses. I'm imagining a scenario where Georgia wins the SEC Championship game and beats an undefeated public school team from Mississippi and seeing how the committee gets that situation figured out.
Big-12 Gets Interesting With Oklahoma and Baylor Losses
West Virginia was the leading agent of chaos this weekend with their 41-27 win over undefeated Baylor. West Virginia had been sneakily challenging every team they've played no matter who it was.
Kevin White, receiver for West Virginia, had 132 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns while Clink Trickett went 23/35, 322 yards, and 3 touchdowns. The Mountaineer defense held Baylor to 95 yards on the ground, far off pace from the Bears' average of 229.1 yards rushing per game.
The Big-12 doesn't have a conference championship game so there's a possibility of a crazy tiebreaker brewing.
Oklahoma lost to Kansas State 31-30 after missing a field goal at the end of the game. Kansas State has one loss, out of conference, but still has Oklahoma State, TCU, West Virginia, and Baylor to go.
As with a lot of Kansas State upsets, the favorites turned the ball over too often. The Sooners committed three turnovers and had some kicking miscues, which bridged the gap between the 533-385 y yardage differential.
Playoffs if they happened right now
Mississippi State v. Oregon
Ole Miss v. Florida State