2) Florida State Seminoles (beat No. 7 Miami Hurricanes 41-14 at home)
This game was about as dominant as many people predicted. While Miami was able to point some points on the board, Florida State was just too good on both sides of the ball to allow Miami to make this a game. While Jameis Winston was forced into two interceptions, he still completed over 70% of his passes for 325 yards and a touchdown. He kept the chains moving and set up the running backs. None of the running backs really wowed, but they collectively gained almost 200 yards which helped Florida State control the ball for 38 minutes of this game. On defense, Miami was not able to get that much going. While Stephen Morris did throw two touchdowns against them, he could not get anything done in the second half and was held to under 200 passing yards. Duke Johnson was having a decent game against them, but he wasn't able to rattle off any explosive plays and was forced to leave the game with a season ending ankle injury. Florida State has a clear shot at remaining undefeated until they travel to Gainesville on November 30.
3) Ohio State Buckeyes (beat Purdue Boilermakers 56-0 in West Lafayette) Maybe not as convincing as what FSU did to Miami, but in the last two weeks OSU has outscored it's opponents 129-14. For whatever reason, Ohio State has a tendency to struggle against Purdue, especially when playing at Purdue. This time was different though, as the Buckeyes took the first pass thrown by Purdue back to the house and had basically ended this game by the first quarter. Ohio State cruised to 640 total yards behind the arm of Braxton and the legs of Carlos Hyde, who continues his dominating return from an early season suspension. By the end of the day, Braxton was 19-23 for 233 yards, four touchdowns and one pick. He only had to run the ball once as Hyde was averaging almost 14 yards a carry on eight runs. The Buckeye's defense was just as dominant, keeping Purdue quarterback Danny Etling to 89 yards on 13 completions and holding the running backs to a collective 27 yards. Purdue was just overmatched before this game even began, so while this was impressive, it was very indicative of where OSU stands right now with the rest of the unbeaten teams. And with Michigan's season dropping quickly, we may not until they play someone in a BCS Bowl game.
4) Oregon Ducks (idle this week; next game 11/7 against No. 5 Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto)
5) Stanford Cardinal (idle this week; next game 11/7 against No. 2 Oregon Ducks at home)
6) Baylor Bears (idle this week; next game 11/7 against No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners at home)
7) Auburn Tigers (beat Arkansas Razorbacks 35-17 in Fayetteville)
I really wonder how long the Tigers can keep winning games using nothing but the rush. Quarterback Nick Marshall only had to throw the ball eight times and complete seven of them for Auburn to crush Arkansas. That stat is in contrast to the 46 rushing attempts by Auburn, 32 of them coming by Tre Mason. Mason has really come on this year after being such a coveted recruit a couple of years ago. The junior used those 32 rushes to gain 168 yards and four touchdowns, propelling them to victory. The team has been riding on his abilities for most of the season, but they really need Marshall to step it up if they want to beat Georgia and Alabama at home in the last two games of their season. Georgia is very vulnerable, but Alabama's strength this year as it has been is stopping the run. If Auburn can't start to take advantage of weaker secondaries, their season could come to a disappointing end after such a great, inexplicable start.8) Clemson Tigers (beat Virginia Cavaliers 59-10 in Charlottesville)
At this point, it really doesn't even matter for Clemson. They can only hope for an at large bid to a BCS Bowl game, but with Florida State staying behind Oregon in the polls they could be headed for another mid tier bowl. The story of this game was really Tajh Boyd to Sammy Watkins, who connected eight times for 169 yards and two touchdowns, including a 96 yard touchdown on third and 15. Overall, this game isn't that telling as Clemson was supposed to destroy Virginia in this game. Clemson won't get a chance to win back any voters or gain national attention until they take on South Carolina in Columbia on November 30.9) Missouri Tigers (beat Tennessee Volunteers 31-3 at home)
Again, nothing that telling about this game. Tennessee has been relegated to the bottom of the SEC for some years now and really is of little consequence in their own division. Missouri was expected to run over them, which is exactly what happened. Despite still having to play true freshman Maty Mauk, Mizzou passed for 160 yards and ran for another 340. They have some very capable receivers to take pressure off of Mauk, especially Dorial Green-Beckham who can stretch the field vertically and make a lot of moves with the ball in his hands. Missouri has a tons of talent on defense to keep up with whichever variation of offense is thrown at them. Giving up 20 points a game might like a bit much given who Missouri has played so far, but they won't face another potent offense until getting Texas A&M at the end of the season. Because South Carolina owns the tie-breaker, Missouri definitely needs to win out to get into the SEC Championship game since I can't see the Gamecocks losing to Florida to earn another conference loss.10) Texas A&M Aggies (beat UTEP Miners 57-7 at home)
For the final time, does this really warrant a write up? UTEP is a 1-7 team that probably doesn't have the talent to compete with the Aggies third string players. Right now, A&M can really only play spoiler to other teams' season. Primarily, the team listed above who also defected out of the Big 12 last year. From this point on out, Aggies fans better enjoy watching what will probably be the last of Manziel's time at College Station.
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