Crim: Georgia on every college football fan’s mind as best team after throttling Tennessee

What did we learn last weekend in college football?

Defending champion Georgia is clearly the best team after throttling the high-powered Tennessee offense, Alabama is no longer invincible after losing on the road for the second time, and Illinois is not quite ready for prime time after falling at home to a struggling Michigan State team missing eight suspended players.

And, of course, there is Missouri. Only the Tigers, whose fans have endured the agony of the “fifth down” and the flea kicker, could see their chance of victory snuffed out by a roughing penalty in the waning minutes after a snap sailed 30 yards over the head of the opposing punter.

Tennessee entered Saturday’s game against Georgia with the No. 1 offense in the country, averaging 553 yards and 49.4 points per game. The Vols catapulted to the top of the initial College Football Playoff rankings by virtue of a narrow win over Alabama and dominant victories over LSU and Kentucky.

The shelf life at No. 1 proved short.

The smothering Georgia defense took away explosive downfield plays and limited quarterback Hendon Hooker, a trendy Heisman Trophy pick, to 195 yards passing and sacked him six times. The Dawgs didn’t allow a touchdown until late with the game already decided en route to a 27-13 win.

If Tennessee runs the table, it could still be in the playoff mix at 11-1 — especially if the final spot comes down to a choice between the Vols and Oregon, which was whacked 49-3 Georgia in Week 1.

Barring an unlikely meltdown in the season’s final three weeks, Georgia punched its playoff ticket with the victory. And Kirby Smart is fast becoming the next Nick Saban in the SEC.

The Crimson Tide saw their playoff hopes all but dashed by a 32-31 overtime loss to LSU. Their defense had no answers for Tigers quarterback Jayden Daniels, and Brian Kelly — often ridiculed after leaving Notre Dame for LSU, and deservedly so for his Southern accent attempt — may have cemented his coaching legacy with the gutsy decision to go for two and the victory in overtime.

According to The Athletic, it marked the ninth time LSU has beaten an Alabama team ranked in the Associated Press top 10, but just the second time at home. All nine wins have been by 10 points or less. Alabama is 7-2 for the first time since 2010, the last time it lost to the Tigers in Baton Rouge.

LSU, which already handed Mississippi its lone loss, only needs to beat Arkansas and Texas A&M to win the SEC West title and advance to the league’s title game. And if Alabama beats Mississippi this weekend, the Tigers will only need to win one of those road games to secure a berth, most likely opposite Georgia.

(Speaking of three-loss Notre Dame, the much-maligned Irish all but eliminated the ACC from playoff consideration by upending fourth-ranked Clemson.)

Michigan State entered its game against Illinois as a 16-point underdog and losers of five of its previous six games. It also was missing eight players suspended after an ugly brawl following its loss to in-state rival Michigan.

But Illinois, with visions of improving to 8-1 and continuing its march up the national rankings toward a late-season showdown with Michigan, turned the ball over on downs three times in Spartans’ territory, lost a fumble and had a punt go off a blocker to help set up what turned out to be the game-winning score.

Presto, a puzzling 23-15 loss.

The good news for Illinois is that it still controls its destiny in the mediocre Big 10 West. If the Illini beat Purdue and Northwestern and lose, as expected, to undefeated Michigan, they will have the tiebreaker in the West by virtue of a 6-0 division record.

Missouri, meanwhile, lost to Kentucky for the seventh time in their last eight meetings, 21-17, wasting yet another solid defensive effort. And the game ended in bizarre fashion, which, unfortunately, the Faurot Field faithful have become all-too familiar with.

To recap, Missouri’s defense forced Kentucky to punt from the Wildcats’ 42-yard line with 2:25 remaining and trailing by four. An errant snap sailed over the head of punter Colin Goodfellow, who tracked down the ball at his own 4-yard-line.

A split second before being tackled by Will Norris, which would have given the Tigers the ball with a golden opportunity to punch in the winning touchdown, Goodfellow managed to turn and kick the ball out of bounds short of the line of scrimmage. Even then, Missouri appeared to have great field position and plenty of time.

But hold on. The NCAA rule book states a punter “does not automatically lose his protection unless he carries or possesses the ball outside the tackle box.” Because the snap went directly over Goodfellow’s head and he immediately kicked it, rather than running toward either sideline, he was considered in the tackle box.

So, Norris was flagged for roughing the punter, allowing Kentucky to keep the ball and run all but 13 seconds off the clock, outraging Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz.

“How can a guy still be a protected punter 50 yards down the field and how is our guy supposed to know he can’t tackle him is beyond me,” said Drinkwitz, whose contract was extended by two years to 2027 before the game.

A stupid rule that should be changed. Imagine if that had happened in a national championship game?

Instead, it was another brutal loss for the Tigers, whose defense has surprisingly been better than the offense this season. And they had chances to win Saturday’s game before the head-scratching roughing call.

They lost 17-14 at Auburn after missing a chip-shot field goal at the end of regulation and then seeing Nathaniel Peat drop the ball inches before crossing the goal line with what would have been the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Then they failed to hold a 22-7 lead against Georgia, losing 26-22. And there were missed opportunities in a narrow 24-17 defeat at Florida.

Instead of potentially being 8-1, Missouri finds itself 4-5 and needing to win two of its final three games to become bowl eligible. That means beating New Mexico State at home and either Tennessee or Arkansas on the road.

Elsewhere in sports:

Kudos to Quincy Notre Dame soccer coach Greg Reis. One of the finest players in school history, a two-time high school All-American, he never got to savor a state championship as a player. The Raiders lost 1-0 to Palatine Fremd on penalty kicks after eight overtimes in the single-class 1984 title game, his senior season, but he now has three state championships to his credit as coach of the Raiders.

The Bears lost for the fifth time in six games, but quarterback Justin Fields became the first player since at least 1950 with at least 150 yards rushing and three TD passes in a game, according to ESPN. Fields ran for 178 yards, the most by an NFL quarterback in a regular-season game, and a touchdown in a 35-32 loss to Miami.

Now that the Packers have lost five consecutive games and are averaging a paltry 17 points per game, will Aaron Rodgers’ weekly musings on the “Pat McAfee Show” be less newsworthy? Detroit picked off the $50 million quarterback three times Sunday after entering the game with only two interceptions all season.

Houston’s World Series victory over Philadelphia once again proved that good pitching beats good hitting. And the best team won.

Kansas ended a 45-game losing streak to AP-ranked opponents by thumping Oklahoma State 37-16. It was the Jayhawks’ first ranked win since September 2010 and snaps the longest bowl drought (since 2008) of Power 5 teams.

Third baseman Nolan Arenado has decided to remain in St. Louis through the 2027 season and not exercise his opt-clause. He explains why in an exclusive interview with The Athletic. Click here for the story.