Playing for the SEC championship, winning the SEC, even reaching the College Football Playoff: Nothing is certain for No. 2 Georgia after losing 28-10 to No. 12 Mississippi.
Now with two losses in SEC play, the Bulldogs will need help elsewhere in the conference to finish in the top two. While possible, focus should instead shift to securing one of the league’s at-large bids.
But after another flat Saturday in a season littered with less-than-impressive performances, Georgia can’t be seen as a sure thing to win out the rest of November given matchups with No. 6 Tennessee and rival Georgia Tech. Remarkably, the defeat snaps the Bulldogs’ 52-game winning streak against teams other than Alabama.
No team can compare with Florida State for the title of this season’s biggest disappointment. Another loss would put Georgia in that conversation, though, which speaks to both the program’s immense expectations under coach Kirby Smart and the way the Bulldogs have ceded away control of the SEC across the last month.
What has been most concerning is the continued ineffectiveness of senior quarterback Carson Beck, who began the year as one of the leading Heisman Trophy favorites. Mired in a constant battle with turnovers, Beck won’t even earn all-conference accolades in December.
He went 20 of 31 for 186 yards and an interception in the loss. After tossing six interceptions in 417 attempts last season, Beck now has 12 in 321 throws this year. He was also sacked and stripped with three minutes left, ending any chance of a late comeback.
Coinciding with Beck’s struggles has been the disappearing act of the running game. Last year’s team averaged 5.3 yards per carry with 40 rushing touchdowns and cracked the 180-yard mark eight times. This year’s squad went into Saturday averaging 4.5 yards per carry with a season high of 169 yards. On Saturday, the Bulldogs ran for 59 yards on 33 carries.
These aren’t the only problems for Georgia. Another has been the defense, long an area of total strength under Smart. This year’s defense has had moments of dominance, including in a vintage performance against No. 6 Texas last month, but was unable to stop Jaxson Dart and the Rebels.
Despite injuring his ankle early in the game, Dart returned and threw for 199 yards with a touchdown and ran for 50 yards. Overall, Ole Miss had 132 yards on the ground on 3.7 yards per carry.
This second loss will dump Georgia down the US LBM Coaches Poll and raises some serious doubts across the board. The Bulldogs lead Saturday’s winners and losers:
Winners
Alabama
No. 11 Alabama lost twice in October but looks like a different team in November. The Crimson Tide rode a brilliant game by Jalen Milroe and a suffocating defense to a 42-13 win at No. 13 LSU, landing the sort of victory that could ultimately land this team in the playoff. Milroe threw for just 109 yards but was unstoppable on the ground, racking up 185 yards and four scores on a whopping 15.4 yards per carry. On defense, the Tide had two interceptions and held the Tigers out of the end zone until a garbage-time score against the backup defense with just 11 seconds left. While there’s a logjam of two-loss teams in the SEC, Alabama made a statement in Death Valley and should see a major bump in Tuesday’s playoff rankings.
Army
No. 19 Army passed another test with a 14-3 win at North Texas that secures an unbeaten record heading into a neutral-site matchup in two weeks against No. 8 Notre Dame. The victory is only the Black Knights’ second against an opponent currently with a winning record, joining East Carolina. To combat the Mean Green’s high-powered offense, Army ran a ball-control offense that held possession for nearly 42 minutes while limiting North Texas to a season-low 55 plays. The Black Knights ran for 293 yards and have gained at least 288 yards on the ground in all but one game this season.
Kansas
This type of game had been brewing for Kansas. Every one of the Jayhawks’ six losses coming into Saturday was winnable, to put it lightly; several, including a recent loss to No. 21 Kansas State, was only made possible by unforced errors and turnovers in the fourth quarter. Against No. 18 Iowa State, the Jayhawks looked like the team that began the year in the Coaches Poll by taking a 31-13 halftime lead and weathering the Cyclones’ comeback attempt for a 45-36 win. While a bowl bid will take a borderline miracle — Kansas hasn’t taken four conference games in a row since 2007 — the win is a reminder of how good the Jayhawks can be when they get out of their own way.
Colorado
Iowa State’s loss simplifies the math for Deion Sanders and No. 24 Colorado. After beating Texas Tech 41-27 behind 293 passing yards from Shedeur Sanders and 99 receiving yards and a score from Travis Hunter, the Buffaloes can reach the Big 12 championship game and play for a playoff berth by winning out against Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State. Given how things started this season, with an ugly win against North Dakota and a brutal loss to Nebraska, that Colorado has climbed knee deep into this conversation should put Sanders near the top of the list for national coach of the year.
Penn State
The No. 7 Nittany Lions were held without an offensive touchdown a week ago against No. 3 Ohio State but rebounded in a big way against Washington, rolling up 485 yards of offense and dropping Washington 35-6. Drew Allar had 220 passing yards and a score but Penn State did most of its damage on the ground, with a combined 193 yards from Kaytron Allen and Corey Smith and 266 yards and four scores overall. Avoiding a letdown after last week’s emotional loss keeps the Nittany Lions on track for the playoff.
Losers
Miami
After escaping upsets against California, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Duke, the No. 4 Hurricanes were upended by Georgia Tech in a 28-23 loss. Miami had a chance for more fourth-quarter heroics with two minutes left but quarterback Cam Ward was sacked and fumbled, securing the Yellow Jackets’ win. Miami has that head-to-head tiebreaker with Louisville and a comparative edge against No. 17 Clemson thanks to the Tigers’ loss to the Cardinals, so the loss alone won’t keep the Hurricanes out of the ACC championship game. But they’ll have to keep rooting against No. 23 Pittsburgh this month, since the Panthers could edge past Miami should both finish the year with the same number of conference losses. In addition, the loss to the Yellow Jackets means a loss in December to No. 15 SMU could knock Miami out of the at-large playoff mix.
Oklahoma
Hello, rock bottom. That’s where you’ll find Oklahoma after a stunning 30-23 loss to Missouri that got wild in the final minutes. The Sooners scored twice in 78 seconds to go up 23-16 with two minutes to play only to see Missouri respond to tie the score with a minute left. Then, Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold was sacked and fumbled, with the loose ball scooped up by defensive lineman Zion Young and returned 18 yards for the game-winning score. In a nightmare season, this is about as bad a loss the program has suffered in years and years and it’s likely to end without a bowl game for the first time this century.
Florida
A few days after announcing that embattled coach Billy Napier would return for his fourth season, the Gators took on No. 5 Texas without starting quarterback DJ Lagway and were blown off the field in a 49-17 slaughter. Starting in place of Lagway, former Yale transfer Aidan Warner completed 12 of 25 attempts for 132 yards and two interceptions. His counterpart, Quinn Ewers, had 333 passing yards with a career-best five touchdowns. Getting to six wins a bowl game for the first time under Napier demands an upset of either No. 13 LSU or Mississippi along with a win against rival Florida State in the finale.
Michigan
The Wolverines are putting together one of the worst seasons by the defending national champions in modern FBS history. Michigan is now 5-5 and in realistic danger of missing the postseason after losing 20-15 to No. 10 Indiana, which earned the first 10-win season in program history and made another statement to the playoff selection committee. While the first team to slow down the Hoosiers’ powerful offense, Michigan was once again stymied by one of the worst offenses in the Power Four. With the Buckeyes looming, the Wolverines will have to beat Northwestern in two weeks to secure a bowl berth. The only defending champion in the modern era to finish with a losing record was Michigan State in 1967.
Minnesota
Losing 26-19 to Rutgers is a major letdown for what had been one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten. Minnesota went into Saturday on a four-game winning streak against Southern California, resurgent UCLA, Maryland and Illinois. But the Gophers ran for just 35 yards ― the team’s third game this season with 41 or fewer yards ― and allowed former quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis to throw for 240 yards and three touchdowns. With his team down 26-16 with just over a minute left, P.J. Fleck opted for a field goal to make a one-possession game, but the Scarlet Knights were able to recover on the onside attempt and take a knee to snap their own four-game losing streak.
Florida State
Every week brings Florida State closer to a humiliating designation: the biggest flop in modern Power Four history. The Seminoles are down to 1-9 after an embarrassing 52-3 loss to No. 8 Notre Dame and will need to sweep Charleston Southern and Florida to avoid the program’s first 10-loss season since 1974. This was never competitive, as the score suggests: FSU had just 88 passing yards and Notre Dame had 453 yards of offense and 22 first downs. What happened to a team that nearly made last year’s playoff? Attrition is only part of the story. FSU also misfired badly in the transfer portal and are shockingly lacking in depth given that this is coach Mike Norvell’s fifth season, not his first.
Pittsburgh
Hours after Miami’s loss opened a path to the conference championship game, Pittsburgh lost quarterback Eli Holstein to injury and then lost 24-19 to Virginia. Holstein’s backup, Nate Yarnell, hit on 4 of 12 attempts for just 44 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, the second coming with under two minutes to go. The loss is great news for the Hurricanes, who are back to controlling their destiny in the ACC, and painfully bad news for the Panthers, losers of two in a row. Pittsburgh has some nice wins, including a rout of Syracuse, but the strength of schedule isn’t there to be a factor in the at-large picture.
(This story was updated with new information.)
