By No. 1 Oregon secured a dominant 38-17 win over the defending national champion Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday, behind an impressive performance from quarterback Dillon Gabriel who threw a touchdown pass and ran for a score.
The win ensured that the Ducks improve to 9-0 on the season – only the third time in program history they have enjoyed such a long unbeaten start. In their first Big Ten season, they have now defeated both the conference’s traditional heavyweights – Ohio State and an admittedly underpowered Michigan to consolidate their spot at the top of the AP poll.
In Gabriel, Oregon has the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy – awarded to the most outstanding player in college football – and he once again orchestrated the Ducks’ offense to great effect, finishing 22 of 34 for 294 yards with 23 more yards rushing.
“I think everybody in the nation needs to recognize what kind of quarterback we’ve got,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning told reporters afterward. “He’s a really really special player.”
Other players stepped up for Oregon too in front of more than 110,000 fans at Michigan Stadium. Star receiver Tez Johnson went down injured in the first quarter but, in his absence, Traeshon Holden had six catches for 149 yards while Jordan James rushed 23 times for 117 yards.
Following the loss, Michigan drops to 5-4 on the season, 3-3 in Big Ten play.
Elsewhere, No. 3 Penn State lost its unbeaten record following a 20-13 loss against No. 4 Ohio State, whose solid defense led it to a first road win against a top-5 team since 2006.
Twice, Penn State were halted at the goalline without scoring, including in the final five minutes of the game, before Ohio State ran down the clock with its running game.
“We did some things that were good enough to win, other things we did not,” Penn State coach James Franklin told reporters afterward. “You can’t have the ball inside the 5-yard line twice and come out with no points.”
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard threw for 182 yards and two touchdowns, though he also threw a pick-6 on his first pass and fumbled just before the goalline in two potentially costly mistakes.
Despite suffering their first loss of the season, the Nittany Lions will still be confident of making the 12-team playoff with no AP Top 25 teams left to play. Ohio State, meanwhile, improved to 7-1 on the season and 4-1 in the Big Ten, keeping its playoff hopes alive as well as it chances of reaching the Big Ten Championship Game.
No. 2 Georgia secured a 34-20 win against Florida on neutral turf in Jacksonville, Florida, as quarterback Carson Beck recovered from three interceptions to throw for 309 yards and two touchdowns.
UGA was trailing 13-6 at halftime but rallied to score 28 points in the second half after Florida’s freshman quarterback DJ Lagway departed the game injured and backup Aidan Warner only completed 7-of-22 passes for 66 yards.
Even as Georgia recovered to down Florida, Beck’s three interceptions continued a worrying trend for the star quarterback who now has 11 interceptions in the last five games. The Bulldogs next have two tough games against ranked opponents on consecutive weeks and will hope that Beck can stem this streak of interceptions.
“We’ve got a really good quarterback. Some of the throws he makes are big-time, elite throws,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart told reporters afterward.
“He just has a couple of times where he threw the ball over the middle late. You can’t do that. You can’t turn the ball over and be a good football team; he knows that.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of decision making. I think sometimes he presses there, and it’s a big game to him; he’s from here. We don’t win that game without Carson Beck.”
Unranked South Carolina stuns Texas A&M
In the Southeastern Conference, the unranked South Carolina Gamecocks stunned No. 10 Texas A&M 44-20, after they scored 24 unanswered points in the second half.
Texas A&M falls to 7-2, 5-1 SEC while South Carolina improve to 5-3, 3-3 SEC and just one game shy of bowl eligibility.
A&M’s loss moves Georgia to the top of the SEC standings for the time being.
