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Week 11 action started with big action in Happy Valley, with Michigan beating Penn State. And after victories for Alabama in Lexington and Missouri in Columbia, the SEC championship game is set: Georgia vs. Alabama.
Follow the scores and schedule for the entire CFP Top 25 below and check back throughout the day for analysis of the biggest Week 11 storylines from our writers across the country.
No. 1 Ohio State 38, Michigan State 3
No. 2 Georgia 52, No. 9 Ole Miss 17
No. 3 Michigan 24, No. 10 Penn State 15
No. 4 Florida State 27, Miami 20
No. 5 Washington 35, No. 18 Utah 28
No. 6 Oregon vs. USC, 10:30 p.m., Fox
No. 7 Texas 29, TCU 26
No. 8 Alabama 49, Kentucky 21
No. 11 Louisville 31, Virginia 24
No. 12 Oregon State 62, Stanford 17
No. 14 Missouri 36, No. 13 Tennessee 7
UCF 45, No. 15 Oklahoma State 3
Texas Tech 16, No. 16 Kansas 13
No. 17 Oklahoma 59, West Virginia 20
No. 19 LSU 52, Florida 35
No. 21 Arizona 34, Colorado 31
No. 22 Iowa 22, Rutgers 0
No. 23 Tulane 24, Tulsa 22
No. 24 North Carolina 47, Duke 45 (2OT)
No. 25 Kansas State 59, Baylor 25
Washington plays with fire again and escapes unscathed
For a fourth straight week, No. 5 Washington made life undefeated uncomfortable. But once again, the Huskies found a way to stay intact. They are now 10-0 after another hard-fought victory, a 35-28 win over No. 18 Utah in Seattle. Great teams find different ways to win. After being gashed by the Utah offense in the first half and giving up 28 points, the Husky defense asserted itself in the second half, holding the Utes scoreless and under 100 total offensive yards during the period. of the last two quarters.
A quick glance at the box score would tell you that Michael Penix Jr. had another stellar day through the air, throwing for 332 yards and two touchdowns. The stats are still there, but Utah’s stingy defense made life difficult for Washington’s star quarterback. The takeaway for the Pac-12’s last undefeated team will be the second-half performance of the UW defense, which faces its toughest road test of the year next week when the Huskies will travel to face No. 12 Oregon State.
Quick note: Utah’s quest for a three-peat as Pac-12 champions ended on a humid day in Seattle. Despite missing so many star players for all or most of the season, the Utes fell, even blocking a Washington field goal to give themselves one last chance to keep those hopes alive. But Washington has extinguished this flame and remains in charge. — Christopher Kamrani
What do you think of Texas?
November is the time to separate the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six teams from the rest of the pack, and Texas just doesn’t pass the eye test as a national title contender. Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns made a concerted effort to remind us that their road win over Alabama is the most impressive performance anyone has had this year, but it’s impossible to square that game with some of the sleepy performances the last month. Houston went blow for blow with Texas, Kansas State brought it to the brink of a second loss and TCU countered that attack in the second half to climb back into a game that the Longhorns led by 20 after three quarters. Which Texas is real?
I’m going to co-opt my favorite Bill Parcells quote: You are what you constantly put on tape. Texas doesn’t finish drives in the second half and its offense puts undue pressure on its defense to maintain control. The reason last week was that starting quarterback Quinn Ewers would fix things when he returns from a shoulder injury that allowed Maalik Murphy to control the offense for more than two games. But tonight was much of the same, although Ewers connected with Adonai Mitchell on a third-and-12 that allowed Texas to run out the clock.
The Longhorns are loaded with talent at skill positions and can make explosive plays with anyone. But if you want to be in the conversation with the bigs this season, you have to put teams like TCU aside. Texas is good, but they are the most flawed of the current one-loss teams, and I think that margin is increasing. — Diante Lee
Moore and Wolverines make it happen
For Sherrone Moore, it was a turnaround. Michigan’s interim coach Saturday is also its offensive coordinator and the architect of the Wolverines’ back-to-back Joe Moore Award-winning offensive lines. Moore, who has already led the team this season due to a separate Jim Harbaugh suspension, did the same thing Harbaugh probably would have done…he challenged James Franklin to a fistfight.
Franklin said OK, and as was the case last season, Michigan had better stuff at the point of attack and behind the quarterback in the form of Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum. Penn State doesn’t have the horses up front to play like that against Ohio State or Michigan, no matter how many times Franklin tells himself that’s the case. Trusting your (exceptional) defense all game, then more or less giving it up with a fourth down of your own is pretty terrible. It was not a good year for Penn State.
Michigan is a very good football team. They have been a very good football team for two years. Cheating is cheating. But Michigan often wins games like this, and anyone who understands how football works knows why. The emotion Moore showed live after the match spoke volumes. Three rushing touchdowns, 227 yards, 46 attempts against a stacked defense that knew it was coming. Who are the Wolverines. Penn State also ran the ball well. But not good enough.
Michigan is one of the best football teams in the country, and it makes no sense to dispute that. —Nick Baumgardner
Alabama hides in the tall grass
This was supposed to be the Alabama they told us not to worry about. More Bryce Young. More Will Anderson. More Jahmyr Gibbs. Two new coordinators. This is the same team that lost to Texas at home and worked to beat South Florida. SOUTH FLORIDA! Yet here we are, mid-November, the leaves are falling, and the Crimson Tide have won eight in a row to capture the program’s 15th SEC West crown, with everyone ahead of them in the College Football Playoff rankings tossing a menacing look in the back window – Georgia included.
A week after Nick Saban’s team faltered all over LSU, Bama went on the road and bullied a good Kentucky team, going up 21-0 in the first 10 minutes and cruising to a 49-21 victory. Quarterback Jalen Milroe, once benched and maligned, had six total touchdowns — three passing, three rushing — and spent much of the fourth quarter watching from the sideline, his hands comfortably tucked in in his shoulder pads. Alabama outgained Kentucky 444 yards to 253 and held the Wildcats to 3 of 11 on third down.
With just a Chattanooga-flavored cupcake and struggling Auburn on the schedule, the Tide should head into the SEC championship game with 10 straight wins. Eliminating Georgia (most likely) won’t be easy. Nor will it be possible to navigate what is shaping up to be a playoff seed. But we’ve seen Alabama do this before: The 2015 team lost at home to Ole Miss in Week 3, then ripped off 12 straight games — seven against ranked opponents — to win the national title.
Either way, the tide seems to be peaking at just the right time, and no one wants to get caught in that path. —Justin Williams
Duke-Carolina always delivers
You need a lot of heroes to pull off a double-overtime victory against a rival — and that’s what North Carolina got against Duke, outlasting the Blue Devils 47-45 to keep its faint playoff hopes alive. ACC championship. As always, it all started with quarterback Drake Maye, who excelled in crucial moments and showed why he will be one of the top picks in next April’s NFL Draft, with 342 yards through the air and three total touchdowns, plus a tough run-and-throw for the two-point conversion that proved to be the difference in double overtime.
But the Tar Heels do not win without running back Omarion Hampton (31 carries, 171 yards, touchdown), receiver Tez Walker (seven receptions, 162 yards) and especially kicker Noah Burnette, who made 6 of 6 field goals , including a 43-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime. That helped the Tar Heels continue to take points away from Mike Elko’s stingy defense to weather the storm once the Blue Devils found an offensive rhythm. — Adam Jahns
(Top photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)