The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide rolled to another impressive victory in Week 8, sending another message to the rest of the college football world with a lopsided 33-14 win over No. 6 Texas A&M. The defending SEC and national champs are on pace to repeat both within their conference and on the biggest stage of them all. Meanwhile on the other side of the coin, the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes are coming off a brutal loss to Penn State that could very well turn out to be the dagger that ended their chances to get back to the College Football Playoff. Here is a look at the biggest losers from Week 8 of the college football season.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State’s second-half comeback versus Wisconsin is now a distant memory following a second-half letdown against Penn State that could keep them from reaching the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes led 21-7 in the third quarter but the Nittany Lions fought back with 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter including a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown with less than five minutes left in the game.
Ohio State’s season technically isn’t over yet but that one loss could loom large as they face a difficult road the rest of the way in the loaded Big Ten conference. However, the trend is not pointing in the right direction. Nearly losing to Wisconsin and then losing to Penn State shows that this team has more issues than we’ve noticed to this point in the season. They could have a tough time beating Michigan unless they straighten out a few things.
Houston Cougars
One of the biggest storylines heading in to this season was whether or not Houston would be able to get in to the College Football Playoff. The Cougars extended their overall record to 18-1 under Tom Herman a couple of weeks ago but the team has hit an absolute wall since that point. Houston lost to Navy two weeks ago and then barely managed to pull off a home win over Tulsa last week before losing again versus SMU. The Mustangs were just 2-4 and hadn’t won a game in a month but they somehow managed to shock Houston and send a reminder to the college football world for why smaller school teams often don’t get the credit they deserve during long runs of success largely against unproven opponents.
Oregon Ducks
The Ducks followed up a 70-21 blowout loss to Washington from Week 6 with a bye week, so the majority of college football experts figured they would be primed for a bounce back performance versus California this past weekend. Instead, Oregon fell behind 21-0 in the first two quarters and even after rallying back in the second half to take a 35-34 lead in the fourth, they couldn’t hold on. The Golden Bears registered 636 totals yards of offense with Davis Webb throwing the football 61 times for five touchdowns while running backs Tre Watson and Khalfani Muhammad each rushing for over 148 yards. The Ducks defense is an absolute mess right now and Oregon is in unfamiliar territory with an 0-4 record in the Pac-12 and a 2-5 record overall. It’s pretty clear that this team misses Chip Kelly in a major way.
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Razorbacks entered this past weekend with one of the worst run defenses in the country but somehow, they still seemed overrated by the time that they matched up with Auburn. The Tigers ran the ball down the throat of the Arkansas defense with 183 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter alone. They finished with a total of 543 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in a 56-3 blowout. The fact that the Razorbacks had no answer the entire game is a testament to the dire situation their defense is in and it could get a lot worse before it gets better for Arkansas with a tough test versus Florida this week followed by another date with a top-25 opponent in LSU.
Arkansas and Auburn was a matchup of two Top 25 teams. However, one team clearly won’t be in the Top 25 after that hideous performance. Bret Bielema and company need to regroup.
