NCAA Football Week 2 winners and losers: Who’s still standing after Blood Week?

Blood Week (Bləd Wēk):

As defined by the Shutdown Fullcast, Blood Week is when the hierarchy of the college football world is changed on one Saturday afternoon. Usually it consists of multiple ranked teams being upset by unranked opponents, most of the time consisting of top ten teams losing in such fashion.

Boy, did we have a Blood Week in college football on Saturday. Three top-10 teams lost, two of said top-10 teams lost AT HOME to unranked opponents, and the No. 1 team was almost upset in what was Fox’s most streamed football game. EVER. Like, in the history of Fox Sports. More people tuned in to see euphoric Alabama players immediately yelled at with the wrath of a thousand angry gods by Nick Saban, who may or may not have tried to crush his football team at Monday practice (more on that later).

The college football world was turned upside down before Halloween, and while it consisted of the craziest events happening, it sure was fun. Let’s get into some winners and losers.

Allow me to introduce y’all to whompin’. Whompin’ is more a way of life, mowing down whatever is in your way with a noticeable lack of grace but an exceptional amount of violence.

Arkansas, our creator and savior of whompin’, delivered the most delicious of ass-kickings to South Carolina on Saturday, beating the Gamecocks 44-30 in a game that was at one point 35-16 but Arkansas being the classy kings they are allowed South Carolina back into the game by simply choosing to avoid playing defense against the pass.

Arkansas ran for 295 yards on South Carolina, who is an SEC opponent by the way, at a 4.5 YARDS PER CARRY RATE. They literally ran them over with a steamroller and then put it in reverse to make sure they got everything. Offensive coordinator Kendal Briles does a great job of putting them in advantageous positions, but sometimes it doesn’t matter. Their offensive line creates such a surge at the point of attack and their skill position players make it so that if you hit them, you’ll feel most of that pain.

Quarterback KJ Jefferson and RB Rocket Sanders are both mammoth human beings (combined they’re the heaviest starting QB-RB duo in the nation), and they ran for 223 yards on Saturday. It wasn’t like they were grind it out, 3 yard per carry runs either. Rocket Sanders is 227 pounds and is still doing this:

Not to be outdone, KJ Jefferson is a 240-pound QB who runs like the bullet powerup in Mario Kart, people just bouncing off of him. He only ran for 67 yards but every single one of those yards was glorious:

Behold our glorious whompin’ kings.

Let’s play a game: look at these stats and tell me which one of these teams was ranked as the sixth-best team in the country and projected by many to play in a New Years Six bowl?

I wouldn’t blame you for guessing the team on the left, but you would be wrong. Texas A&M entered Saturday as the sixth ranked team in football, but made three critical mistakes:

Losing to App State at home while only generating 186 yards of offense and only crossing midfield twice has to be especially damning for Jimbo Fisher, who now has almost an identical record as his predecessor Kevin Sumlin, including bowl wins. The offense is stale and overcomplicated, and doesn’t allow for the best athletes to be on the field, because the offense is like trying to solve the meaning of life. But hey, those boats aren’t going to pay for themselves!

No, Texas is not back ... yet.

The Longhorns lost to No. 1 ranked Alabama in Austin in what was an intense, back and forth game filled with moments that will definitely not have Longhorn fans blaming the refs or Alabama’s deal with the Devil Saban signed when he took the job (the check is still cashing though).

For the entire game, Texas had Bama on the ropes. Wunderkind QB Quinn Ewers was playing fantastically before he got injured, but the biggest takeaway was how physical the Longhorns were. We all remember this moment from last year right?

Being called out for not being physical enough in football is like a chef being told his food sucks. On Saturday, Texas cooked up a gameplan up front that almost took out Alabama. Using slants up front of the defensive line (shoutout to defensive assistant Gary Patterson), a solid tackling performance all around, and an offensive performance up front that silenced a good Alabama defensive front.

Texas still isn’t back yet, but they’re physical, and that’s a good first step.

Oh man, Notre Dame. Losing to Marshall 26-21 after all of the preseason hype that the Irish got is...not great! Notre Dame committed three turnovers in the final minutes, including a pick six which sealed the victory for the Thundering Herd. I could write so many words about what happened in that game, but it’s clear the Fighting Irish offense lacks juice, especially in the passing offense.

The Irish came into the season needing a receiver to step up after injuries knocked out the depth on the roster, but the offense feels congested outside of star TE Michael Mayer. Notre Dame’s QBs threw for 221 total yards. If you take out Mayer’s receiving totals they threw for 118 yards. Once you get past Mayer and Lorenzo Styles’ eight and seven receptions, no other target had more than two catches. The Fighting Irish are in desperate need of a passing game that can generate explosives, and it’s put their season on life support already in Week 3.

You can go ahead and write Jordan Addison’s name in Sharpie for the first round of the NFL Draft. The former Biletnikoff Award winner transferred to USC in the spring, and with coach Lincoln Riley calling plays and Oklahoma transfer Caleb Williams throwing him the ball, he could win it again.

Against Stanford, Addison exploded for 172 receiving yards on seven catches, a cool 24.6 yards per catch. Stanford opted to social distance from Addison, and he made them pay. Riley is finding any way to get him the ball, whether it be on screens, where he speed and agility are on display:

Or they let him loose downfield, where his ball tracking is evident.

Despite having a smaller frame (listed at 6’0, 175), Addison has all the traits of a top tier NFL wide receiver. His ability to create separation plus breakaway speed put him on NFL scouts’ radars last year, and at USC he should entrench himself in the first round of the NFL Draft.

Travel with me to a land forsaken by God himself, where football goes to die. Yes, the Big Ten West. The division had a rough week 2, where all of their offensive ineptitude was on display like a streaker at a nude beach.

Wisconsin was ranked in the top 20, but were knocked off by Washington State 17-14. It’s rare that you see a Washington State win that isn’t one bazillion points to one million points, but Wisconsin avoids any offensive competency because, well, it’s the Big Ten West. There was a stretch in this game where Wisconsin turned it over, only to recover the fumble on the interception return, which led to a fumble mere plays later that would seal the game. Football is beautiful folks.

Northwestern lost for the THIRD STRAIGHT TIME to Duke. In football. Yes, Duke is now a football school. It’s not only the loss that hurts, but it’s the way the Wildcats lost that hurts me, as a Wildcat alum. Drink this in, while I drink away the sorrows.

Nebraska fired Scott Frost after losing 45-42 to Georgia Southern at home. Nebraska’s tradition of falling apart more often than a shonen anime main character was on full display, as the Cornhuskers failed to stop the Georgia Southern offense in any way. By the way, Georgia Southern was running the triple option last year, and is now throwing for 409 yards. Nebraska is gonna need more than the Corn kid to save them.

Finally: BEHOLD, EL ASSICO:

The Big Ten West, everyone.