10. North Carolina 59, Wake Forest 53
It feels like I spent all of last week telling Notre Dame fans that Boston College wasn’t the game to worry about. At North Carolina is up next, and at Wake Forest closes out the regular season – the Irish could lose either one, or both. Sam Hartman threw for 429 yards and four scores, but that gets lost because of the Demon Deacon collapse thanks to 550 yards and six scoring throws from Sam Howell.
9. Tulsa 28, SMU 24
Tulsa rallied back with 14 fourth quarter points to stun SMU, closing out with a Zaven Collins interception to all but seal the victory. The biggest winner? Cincinnati. Now Tulsa looks good enough make the regular season finale a massive deal with the Bearcats roll into town. First, the Golden Hurricane have to face Tulane and Houston, but with a win over UCF earlier, they’re in the American Athletic Conference’s No. 2 best-team spot at the moment.
8. USC 34, Arizona 30
USC games certainly aren’t boring, needing a last minute score to get by Arizona after needing a miracle to get past Arizona State last week. The offense doesn’t seem to have any tempo or energy, the 11 penalties were a problem, and the defense was hit way too hard, but once again, when the offense had to come through, Kedon Slovis was able to make the throws. No matter how you get to 2-0 in this weird year, take it. However, USC can’t play like this at Utah next week and win.
7. Northwestern 27, Purdue 20
Northwestern gave up a point in the second half – ten of them – for the first time all season, and it lived to tell about it. And how? The defense held Purdue to two net rushing yards, while the offense got 212 passing yards and three scores from Peyton Ramsey. Here’s the problem – 80 yards rushing on 40 carries. Purdue lived in the Wildcat backfield with 11 tackles for loss, and up next is Wisconsin and its killer run D. The Badgers have held the ball for over 40 minutes in their first two games, but Northwestern had it for over 35 against the Boilermakers.
6. Nebraska 30, Penn State 23
Everyone wants James Franklin fired, or moved on, or something after an 0-4 start, but it’s really not playing all that poorly – it can’t see to make its own breaks. Just like the Indiana when the Nittany Lions dominated statistically, they ran for 245 yards, threw for 256, outplayed the Huskers in so many ways, and yet needed to play catch-up because they were so bad in the first half. For the Huskers, it looks like Luke McCaffrey or bust going forward. He wasn’t amazing, but he threw for 152 yards and a score, ran for a team-high 67 yards, and he got the win.