College football week 8 is in the books. After every week fans can take away things from what happened on the field. Here are 5 things learned from college football week 8.
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Ohio State hosted Penn State in the biggest game of the week. Although the Buckeyes have been known for their offense over the last several seasons, this game was a defensive struggle. Ohio State was able to win the game 20-12, as their defense shut down the Penn State offense.
While their offense will have to play better to reach their goals this season, their defense being improved really helps. In the last few seasons, their defense let them down in big games. Now, they can count on the defense to be a bigger factor. They allow just 10 points per game this season and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles deserves a lot of credit. Now, the Buckeyes can see if the defense can hold up against Michigan at the end of the season.
In the history of the College Football Playoff, no two-loss team has ever made it. That is not to say that it is impossible, as chaos could happen like when two-loss LSU made the BCS Championship following the 2007 season. That result is unlikely though and because of that USC is now out of the CFP picture after suffering their second loss of the season.
The Trojans lost their second straight game. After losing to Notre Dame last week, they were defeated by Utah in week 8. USC’s defense gave up 34 points to the Utes, who have been starting a former walk-on Bryson Barnes at quarterback this season. With all of the hype surrounding the Trojans, the Caleb Williams‘ era will end without him making the CFP.
Riley Leonard was a game-time decision to play against Florida State this week. He ended up playing, but was removed from the game. When he was in the game Duke was winning over the Seminoles. After he came out, the Blue Devils could not move the ball and ended up losing the game.
It’s not a foregone conclusion that the Blue Devils win that game against Florida State with Leonard healthy, but they sure had a better chance. Duke’s defense is good, but when Leonard is out, Duke goes from a team that deserves to be ranked to a team that is a below-average power five team. For Duke’s sake, hopefully Leonard is able to return to the lineup soon.
Iowa has been highly criticized for their offensive struggles over the last few seasons. Offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz must have the offense averaging 25 points per game or he is being fired at the end of the season. Despite the Hawkeyes not reaching that number, the Hawkeyes were 6-1 heading into their game with Minnesota. There was talk of Iowa riding their defense to a Big Ten Championship appearance, but that will now be harder to do after they lost to Minnesota 12-10.
The team is averaging 19.5 points per game. Their defense had them in a good position to win the game. A punt return by Cooper DeJean was nullified by an invalid fair catch signal that looked questionable at best. If it stood, Iowa likely wins the game. At the end of the day, Iowa can’t count on their defense and special teams to play perfectly every week for a chance to win.
Clemson headed into week 8 with just two losses. They lost to Duke and Florida State who were both solid teams. Losing two games early in the season isn’t something Clemson has done a lot under Dabo Swinney. They played Miami this week and ended up losing in double overtime for their third loss of the season.
Although the Tigers moved the ball, they had some crucial turnovers in the red zone that cost them a chance at points. The offense has failed at crucial moments, while the defense has been expected to be life savers too much. Clemson is not the same team that would perenially make the playoffs and they need big changes fast. With some tough games still on the schedule, there is a chance this program regresses from being undefeated in 2018, to one loss in 2019, to two losses in 2020, to three losses in 2021 and 2022 to even worse this season.
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