Tis The Season: Week 7 Takeaways
Every year in CFB there’s one weekend that you can point to where shit just starts to unravel. Sure, there are always upsets along the way, but there’s a difference between upsets and chaos. When chaos happens, you start to realize picking playoff teams is a lot harder than we think. That we don’t have it all figured out. (Which is why the committee doesn’t release their rankings until November).
That was this weekend.
Four top ten teams lost. There were fights. Near upsets. The leading Heisman candidate left the game with an injury. It. Was. Wild.
Here are my biggest takeaways from the insanity:
1. Michigan is a really good football team. (and Ann Arbor is really fun).
Listen, I can give Dave shit all I want about his claim that Michigan’s “control their own destiny” thing. But he’s 100% right. This team is rolling right now. Shea Patterson doesn’t have to put up massive numbers either. He just has to continue to look comfortable and make good decisions. Add that to Harbaugh-built running game and a really fucking good defense and this is a team to reckon with.
And PS: each week Notre Dame wins, the stronger the Wolverine’s resume gets.
On the flip side, it looked like Wisconsin just quit. What an embarrassment.
2. LSU deserves a ton of credit.
LSU now has three top-10 wins. After a let down loss to Florida (who nearly lost to Vandy), Coach O’s team came roaring back.
The Tigers just simply out-played and out-coached Georgia. Not only did Jake Fromm and company struggle mightily, but UGA’s defense was completely caught off guard too. Joe Burrow had a much better week. DBU is still rolling. Coach O made little adjustments that made huge impacts.
Hand up, I thought Georgia was running away with the east. My bad. In the spirit of trends, I’ll say they still control their own destiny. They overcame a loss to the west last year too. But with how bad their offense looks, that destiny is much tougher with the Florida game looming.
3. The luck of the Irish is real, my friends.
Notre Dame didn’t look like a playoff team on Saturday vs Pitt, but an escape W is a still W. Survive and advance. The Panthers made some big time mistakes and the Irish did just enough to squeak by. With other teams falling out, the Irish still are in a good spot if they can avoid the sloppy play for the rest of the their schedule.
(Also, shout out to my new Twitter best friend Conor McGregor for sharing the luck of the Irish with the Dallas Cowboys. ‘Preciate ya, Champ.)
4. Yikes, Penn State.
HOW DO YOU LOSE TO THIS MICHIGAN STATE TEAM?!
5. The Pac-12 is likely to miss the playoffs.
With Oregon taking down Washington, it’s difficult to see a clear cut path for the Pac-12 to claim one of the 4 coveted spots. For those keeping track at home, this would be the third time in five years they’d miss out. Washington’s loss to then top-10 Auburn looks really bad now. Oregon is good, but took a emotional beating in that loss to Stanford. USC isn’t good. UCLA really stinks. So on and so forth.
6. Meanwhile, in the SEC…
I like Dan Mullen, but I’m taking Derek Mason in a fight 9/10. Credit to Florida for pulling out a W. It looked pretty ugly for a while.
And don’t forget that Tennessee got it’s first SEC win since 2016 over Auburn. Gus Malzahn’s hot seat is scorching. You know it’s bad when you have fans starting GoFundMe’s to buy you out.
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7. Who is the best team in the Big 12?
Texas struggled against Baylor. Undefeated West Virginia got destroyed by Iowa State. Texas Tech beat TCU at home. Oklahoma is coming off of a bye after taking an L. Cannibalism at it’s finest.
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I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to the people in Ann Arbor this weekend. What a time. Thanks for all those who came out to the show and to those who kept us running on shots and Bud Light. Wild time.
Jacksonville, you’re next.