Loss costs Tennessee spot in CFP
It was right there, Tennessee.
Given all the chaos in college football over the last few weeks, all the Vols had to do was beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt, then kick their heels up and watch championship weekend from their couch. If they won both games, a berth in the College Football Playoff was all but locked up.
So what does Tennessee do? They didn’t just lose Saturday to South Carolina, they got absolutely exposed and embarrassed, 63-38, proving that coach Josh Heupel— and his ballyhooed offensive system — just wasn’t ready for prime time.
South Carolina scored touchdowns on its first five offensive possessions, then got into the end zone on four straight trips in the second half after Tennessee pulled within 35-31. In the end, a South Carolina team that had just 237 yards of offense last week against Florida (and just 203 in a home setback to Missouri on Oct. 29) came up with 606 yards against a team that many pundits and Vol fans already had penciled into the semifinals. That will leave a mark.
Though this season was an overall net positive for the Vols after the clown show this program has been for the last 15 seasons, the way this season developed was a rare opportunity. Under Heupel, the Vols looked almost unstoppable offensively at times and had notched wins over Alabama and LSU. Even with just a little bit of help, their playoff argument was strong.
But Tennessee just completely fell apart under pressure and suffered one of the most lopsided losses in the modern era for a team that was favored by three touchdowns. In the process, quarterback Hendon Hooker suffered what appeared to be a pretty serious leg injury in the fourth quarter.
In other words, pretty much every dream Tennessee fans had for this season — a playoff berth and a Heisman Trophy win for Hooker — vanished in the span of a couple hours. And to think, all they had to do was beat South Carolina
and Vanderbilt.
That’s why the Vols are No. 1 in this week’s Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst about the state of their program.
Four more in misery
North Carolina: Basketball season has started, which means Tar Heel fans are no longer beholden to the sport they hold in lesser regard. However, their football team going into championship weekend with a remote chance to make the College Football Playoff would have demanded at least a bit of their attention span during the holidays. No need to worry about that anymore, though. The Tar Heels posted perhaps the most humorous result of the season in a 21-17 loss at home to Georgia Tech, giving fans a permission slip to check out on whatever happens from here.
You can’t really call North Carolina a fraud, since fraud implies that people thought this team was actually capable of doing something special. In reality, the
Tar Heels were always a team with a questionable defense whose 9-1 record before this weekend was a castle built of sand. After blowing a 17-0 lead to Georgia Tech, whose search for a new coach will ramp up significantly over the next couple weeks, North Carolina fans can now put their entire focus on trying to get back to the Final Four.
Stanford: There has been increased speculation recently about whether this might be David Shaw’s last season on The Farm. It should be. Whether it’s a firing (less likely) or Shaw stepping away to do something else (more likely), the joy and promise of what Stanford football can be is gone.
It’s remarkable to think about how close Stanford came to playing for a national title under Shaw between 20112015. With a little luck, it could have happened three times. And as college football was evolving into a more wide-open game, Stanford was a fun-to-watch antidote that simply wanted to beat the crap out of people at the line of scrimmage.
But those days are gone, and they’ve been gone awhile. Stanford’s 27-20 loss to Cal dropped the Cardinal to 3-8 overall and 1-8 in the Pac-12, its worst season since 2006 under Walt Harris (who was fired that year).
Michigan State: There is something oddly appropriate about a coach whose contract broke the entire salary structure of college football coming back the next year and missing the postseason. That is the likely fate for Mel Tucker, whose Spartans were shocked by Indiana 39-31 in double overtime and will be 5-6 when they head to Penn State next weekend.
Tucker’s 10-year, $95 million contract, which was earned on the basis of exceeding expectations last season, truly looks like the sport’s version of cryptocurrency: All hype with nothing of substance backing the asset other than speculation that it will grow in value.
To be fair, writing off Tucker as a Big Ten factor over the long haul would be foolish. Michigan State is not a blue blood, and there are going to be some ups and downs. Whether Tucker can successfully navigate them, however, is a total unknown — yet he is being compensated like a coach with a track record of national titles.
That shouldn’t be the expectation for Tucker. But part of being a really good program, and having the elite contract that his more accomplished peers have, is producing year-to-year consistency.
Florida: Do you remember when we were talking about the Gators as a sneaky SEC East contender and quarterback Anthony Richardson as a guy who could win the Heisman Trophy? It wasn’t actually that long ago — Sept. 3, in fact — when Florida started the Billy Napier era with a 29-26 win over Utah.
What’s happened since, though, isn’t a good look. The Gators are as milquetoast and mediocre as a blue-blood program can be. After falling 31-24 to Vanderbilt — yes, Vanderbilt — for just the second time since 1988, the Gators are 6-5 and staring at one of those seasons that have gotten several recent Florida coaches fired.
Of course, that’s not going to happen with Napier. He’s in his first year, and there was an understanding when he came in that the program’s talent base had declined under Dan Mullen. Still, it’s Florida! You can’t be 6-6 at Florida, which is the likely outcome after next week’s game at red-hot Florida State.
Commanders 23, Texans 10: Taylor Heinicke threw for 191 yards, Kendall Fuller returned an interception for a touchdown, and the Washington Commanders rolled to a 23-10 win over the hapless Texans on Sunday in Houston.
Heinicke, who started a fifth straight game for the injured Carson Wentz, had another solid performance to help the Commanders (6-5) build on last week’s victory over Philadelphia and win their fifth of six.
Davis Mills threw two interceptions and Houston mustered a season-low 148 yards of offense as the Texans (1-8-1) lost their fifth straight and remained the NFL’S only one-win team.
Washington led 20-0 at halftime behind Fuller’s pick-6, a TD run by Curtis Samuel and a historically bad first half by Houston’s offense.
The Texans were outgained 246-5 in the first half, their fewest net yards in a half franchise history, passing the 8 they managed in the first half of a 40-0 loss to the Bills last season.
Falcons 27, Bears 24: Younghoe Koo’s 53-yard field goal gave Atlanta the lead with less than two minutes to play and the host Falcons overcame another impressive game from Chicago’s Justin Fields to beat the Bears 27-24 on Sunday.
Fields ran for 85 yards with a touchdown, but the Bears suffered their fourth consecutive loss. Chicago (3-8) has lost six of seven.
Fields’ pass for running back David Montgomery was intercepted by Falcons safety Jaylinn Hawkins with 1:07 remaining. A 26-yard run by rookie Tyler Allgeier allowed the Falcons, who rushed for 149 yards, to wind down the clock.
Marcus Mariota ran and threw for touchdowns for Atlanta (5-6), which pulled within one-half game of Nfcleading Tampa Bay on the Buccaneers’ bye week.
Atlanta running back Cordarrelle Patterson, who played for the Bears for two years before signing with the Falcons in 2021, set the NFL record with his ninth career kickoff return for a touchdown. His 103-yard return in the second quarter broke a tie with Joshua Cribbs and Leon Washington for the mark.
Saints 27, Rams 20: Andy Dalton passed for three touchdowns, Mathew Stafford left the field to be evaluated for a concussion in the second half and the host New Orleans Saints defeated the reeling Los Angeles Rams 27-20 on Sunday.
Stafford’s departure from the game came two days after he’d been cleared to return from the NFL’S concussion protocol.
Stafford was effective in the first half, after which the Rams led 14-10, and he left the game having completed 11 of 18 passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns, including a 62-yarder to Tutu Atwell.
He appeared to hit his head on the Superdome turf during a third-quarter possession and was subsequently sacked by blitzing linebacker Demario Davis and defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon to end the last drive he played before walking down the tunnel toward the locker room.
He was replaced by Bryce Perkins, who led the Rams to a field goal on his first series, but struggled thereafter and was sacked twice to stall his third series late in the fourth quarter, all but sealing the game’s result.
Eagles 17, Colts 16: Jalen Hurts ran for an 8-yard touchdown with 1:20 remaining, and the Philadelphia Eagles rallied past the host Indianapolis Colts 17-16 on Sunday.
Coming off their first loss of the season, the Eagles (9-1) trailed 13-3 in the fourth quarter. Hurts threw for a touchdown early in the period to get Philly within three.
The third-year quarterback was 18 of 25 with 190 yards through the air and rushed 16 times for 86 yards as the Eagles won their seventh straight road game.
Indianapolis (4-6-1) never trailed until Hurts’ scoring run. Interim coach Jeff Saturday evened his record at 1-1 since taking over for the fired Frank Reich.
Hurts did it all, routinely burning the Colts for big runs. And on third-andgoal from the 8-yard line, he found a seam in the middle and sprinted across the goal line for the decisive score.
Lions 31, Giants 18: Jamaal Williams ran for a career-high three touchdowns and the Detroit Lions stunned the host New York Giants 31-18 Sunday, posting consecutive roads wins and their first three-game winning streak since November 2017.
Williams ran for a 4-yard TD and two 1-yard scores and the Lions’ much-maligned run defense shut down NFL leading rusher Saquon Barkley and forced three turnovers on a cold, blustery afternoon at Metlife Stadium.
Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, the No. 2 overall pick in the draft in April, intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble to help set up 14 points. Jared Goff and the Lions’ offense didn’t have a turnover for the second straight game.
Michael Badgley added a 24-yard field goal for Detroit (4-6), which until last week had not won a road game under second-year coach Dan Campbell.
The mistake-prone Giants (7-3) got 3-yard touchdown runs by Daniel Jones and Matt Breida. Jones also threw a meaningless late TD to Richie James but also was intercepted twice, his first picks since Week 3.
Ravens 13, Panthers 3: Lamar Jackson ran for a 1-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and the host Baltimore Ravens forced three late Carolina turnovers in a 13-3 victory Sunday.
Justin Tucker kicked two field goals, including a tiebreaking 37-yarder with 8:27 remaining. Then Marcus Peters forced a fumble by Shi Smith, giving the Ravens the ball at the Carolina 31. Baltimore (7-3) took advantage of a short field, finally reaching the end zone on Jackson’s run with 7:16 to play.
Marlon Humphrey, who recovered Smith’s fumble, later added an interception. Jason Pierre-paul also picked off a pass in the final minute. It was the 12th straight game Baltimore forced at least one turnover.
The AFC North-leading Ravens won their fourth straight despite being stuck in neutral offensively for much of the game. Jackson threw for 209 yards with an interception and Demarcus Robinson caught nine passes for 128 yards, but that was about all that was working for either team offensively on a chilly, windy day in Baltimore.
Tucker and Eddy Piñeiro traded 32yard field goals, leaving the score tied at 3 through three quarters.
Patriots 10, Jets 3: Marcus Jones returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown with 5 seconds remaining and the host New England Patriots outlasted the stunned New York Jets 10-3 on Sunday.
Jones’ score was the lone TD of the game and broke a stalemate on a day when both offenses struggled to move the ball.
It was the third straight win for the Patriots (6-4) and their 14th straight over New York. They also denied the Jets (6-4) a chance to move into first place in the AFC East this late in the season for the first time since 2010. Instead, New York dropped to last place.
The Jets haven’t won in Foxborough since the 2010 playoffs when they knocked out the Patriots in the divisional round.
Bills 31, Browns 23: Josh Allen threw a go-ahead, 5-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs late in the first half and Buffalo beat the Cleveland Browns 31-23 on Sunday after the NFL moved the Bills’ home game to Detroit due to several feet of snow blanketing western New York.
The Bills (7-3) avoided blowing a third straight halftime lead by scoring on all five of their possessions in the second half and doing a better job protecting the ball.
Cleveland (3-7) rallied within eight points, setting up an onside kick in the final seconds that Bills receiver Gabe Davis failed to grab and running back Taiwan Jones knocked out of bounds.