This Big Ten heavyweight bout went the distance.
In one of the marquee games of the regular season, Oregon hit a 19-yard field goal with just under two minutes remaining and held on to beat Ohio State to make a case for No. 1 in next week’s US LBM Coaches Poll.
On the game’s final drive, OSU drove into the Oregon red zone before a key offensive pass interference call doomed any chance of a potential game-winning field goal attempt. Lined up at the Ducks’ 38-yard line with six seconds left, the Buckeyes’ final snap ended with quarterback Will Howard scrambling up the middle and sliding to a stop as time expired.
It was a battle of quarterbacks, elite offenses, often incredible receiver play and just enough defense for the Ducks to earn maybe the most meaningful regular-season win in program history.
Howard was 28 of 35 for 326 yards and three touchdowns, one on the ground. Dillon Gabriel had one of the best starts of his well-traveled career, hitting on 23 of 34 throws for 341 yards and three scores of his own. The two teams combined for 963 yards of total offense.
The new-look Big Ten has a new leader. After spending most of the past few decades at or near the top of the Pac-12, the No. 3 Ducks are clearly built for life in this conference and for a run at the national championship.
The two teams could meet again in the Big Ten championship game, if not a third time in the College Football Playoff. But the immediate takeaway from Saturday night’s thriller is simple: These are two extremely elite teams worthy of being counted among the very, very best in the Bowl Subdivision.
Beating OSU gives Oregon enormous wiggle room when it comes to the playoff. Even with a collapse down the stretch, a two-loss team with this sort of win would have a very strong case for an at-large bid. That sort of stumble seems very unlikely.
While extremely survivable, the loss is humbling for the Buckeyes. Oregon was the newcomer; the Buckeyes were the established Big Ten powerhouse. The result tells us something about the Big Ten pecking order and how the league has been strengthened by this offseason’s expansion additions. The loss was Ohio State’s first in conference play against a team other than Michigan since losing to Purdue in 2018.
OSU and the Ducks lead the way for Saturday’s biggest winners and losers:
Winners
Texas
It wasn’t the prettiest performance, especially in a rocky first quarter, but No. 1 Texas took care of business with a 34-3 win in the rivalry against No. 16 Oklahoma to remain the only unbeaten team in the SEC. After missing two games due to injury, quarterback Quinn Ewers had 199 yards passing and ran and threw for a touchdown while the running game earned 177 yards on 30 carries. The Red River win saw another very good performance on defense from a unit that entered the weekend ranked second nationally in yards given up per play: Texas held the Sooners to 237 yards on 3.4 yards per play, with a good chunk of that yardage coming with the game already well in hand.
Iowa
Iowa scored 40 points in a very nice win against Washington, and if you don’t think that’s a big deal you might be unfamiliar with the Hawkeyes’ recent history. Iowa hadn’t scored 40 points against a Big Ten opponent since dropping 51 points on Maryland on Oct. 1, 2021. Last year’s team scored a grand total of 131 points in 10 league games, counting a shutout loss to Michigan for the Big Ten championship. While helped by a couple short fields in the fourth quarter, the Hawkeyes are clearly better on this side of the ball; that makes them a threat against just about every opponent the rest of the way.
Buffalo
Buffalo is making some major noise under new coach Pete Lembo. A few weeks after upsetting Northern Illinois, the Bulls took down the MAC favorite with a 30-15 win against Toledo. Two factors keyed the upset: one, a plus-two edge in turnover margin, and two, a dominant performance on both sides of the line. Buffalo ran for 230 yards on 52 carries while holding the Rockets to just 46 yards on 1.8 yards per rush. Lembo once worked wonders at Ball State and is doing the same with the Bulls.
Louisiana-Monroe
ULM has been to just one bowl game in program history, losing the 2012 Independence Bowl, but might be able to start planning a postseason trip after moving to 5-1 with a 38-21 win against Southern Mississippi. New coach Bryant Vincent has done extremely impressive work taking over a program with no recognizable track record of success and an even spottier recent past. ULM went 8-36 in the four years before his arrival, including a winless 2020 season that ranks among the worst season by a team in FBS history. Vincent was previously the interim coach at Alabama-Birmingham and was a contender for the permanent position that went to Trent Dilfer. How’d that decision turn out for the Blazers?
Vanderbilt
OK, so the Commodores are for real. If there was any thought that last week’s shocking upset of Alabama was a one-off, a 20-13 win at Kentucky solidifies Vanderbilt as a legitimate threat for six or more wins during the regular season. Diego Pavia was a little less flashy than against the Crimson Tide but was still terrific, hitting on 15 of 18 throws for 143 yards and two scores with another 53 yards on the ground. Defensively, the Commodores forced two turnovers, made two fourth-down stops and held the Wildcats’ passing game under wraps to win back-to-back SEC games for the first time since November 2022.
Losers
Alabama
Sirens, alarms, flares, cuckoo clocks – they are all going off simultaneously amid another eyebrow-raising result for Kalen DeBoer and the No. 7 Crimson Tide. Hey, at least they won this time: Alabama made a late defensive stand and held off South Carolina to win 27-25. That’s an improvement, of course, over last week’s loss to Vanderbilt. But there are so many signs of concern, including an offensive scheme that worked so well for DeBoer at Washington but has not translated well to the physicality and style in the SEC. Beating the Gamecocks keeps the Tide alive for the SEC championship and a playoff berth, but it’s becoming harder to see how they manage to steer through the regular season without another two or more losses.
Mississippi
Ahead 23-16 with just minutes left, No. 8 Mississippi gave up the game-tying touchdown to No. 10 LSU with under 30 seconds to go and then lost 29-26 in overtime. That’s a brutal result for two reasons: one, the Rebels had outplayed the Tigers and had chances to take a bigger lead into halftime than just 17-13, and two, a second loss at the midway point of the regular season basically serves as an eliminator for any realistic playoff hopes. This self-inflicted loss is embodied in a dismal possession in overtime that saw the Rebels commit multiple penalties before nailing a 57-yard field goal. LSU would answer with a touchdown pass on the first play of its possession to take the win. For all the hype and bluster around his program, Lane Kiffin has yet to get Ole Miss over the hump and into a permanent spot in the upper crust of the SEC.
Southern California
USC had No. 5 Penn State trailing 20-6 and on the ropes after a very effective first half but crumbled in the second, allowing the Nittany Lions to force overtime and eventually pull out a 33-30 win. Ahead 30-23 with six minutes left, USC gave up a pair of fourth-down conversions to help PSU draw even with about three minutes remaining. On the final drive of regulation, USC played for overtime instead of pushing the ball downfield for a chance at the possible game-winning field goal. After USC missed a field goal on the first possession of overtime, the Nittany Lions converted a 36-yard field goal to escape. For Penn State, the comeback win maintains some very strong playoff hopes and avoids the sort of loss that would’ve raised the stakes around November’s matchup with No. 2 Ohio State.
North Carolina
These aren’t normal losses. These are bad, bad, bad losses, each seemingly worse than the last. And that’s saying something given how North Carolina’s current four-game losing streak began with a 70-50 embarrassment at home against James Madison. And yes, the latest was worse. After tying Georgia Tech at 34-34 on a 26-yard field goal with 44 seconds to go, the Tar Heels allowed Tech running back Jamal Haynes to scamper 68 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the ensuing drive to lose 41-34. UNC is now 3-4 and winless in ACC play.
Oklahoma
There are too many flaws for this team to stay in the Top 25. The biggest issue with OU is an offense that has no quarterback and no surrounding skill talent — the receiver corps has been decimated by injuries — and looks like a yearlong problem. At quarterback, Brent Venables and his staff seem to have whiffed on former starter Jackson Arnold and don’t seem to know how to manufacture anything positive behind Michael Hawkins Jr., a more limited passer. The Sooners still have to face the Rebels, No. 18 Missouri, the Crimson Tide and LSU, so getting to six wins might be easier said than done.
(This story was updated with new information.)
