The pressure of winning every single game can take its toll on even the best teams. While No. 1 Ohio State barely avoided the upset in a 20-13 win over Northern Illinois, there was a number of AP Top 25 teams that suffered tough defeats. Here is a look at the AP Top 25 teams that fell the hardest in Week 3 of the college football season.
Tide Fall To Ole Miss…Again
No team fell harder than Alabama did following its 43-37 loss to SEC rivals Ole Miss as they dropped from No. 2 in the country to No. 12. The Rebels actually received 11 first-place votes following that victory and climbed to No. 3.
That might be an overreaction but the reality is that the Tide have a number of issues that were on full display in the loss. They gave up a number of big plays, especially in the fourth quarter, weren’t able to play from behind and coughed up five turnovers that directly led to 24 points for Ole Miss. They also seem to have a quarterback controversy as Cooper Bateman actually got the start until Jake Coker was called upon to take over.
Derek Henry is still one of the most talented running backs in college football and there is enough talent on the roster for the Tide to turn it around, but another tough loss to the Rebels has them as the biggest losers from this past week.
Auburn Continues To Fail Miserably
The Auburn Tigers entered the season as the No. 6 team in the AP Top 25 but that might be one of the most inaccurate rankings we’ve seen in a long time. After a relatively impressive 31-24 win in Week 1, we saw some cracks in the armor in Week 2 when Auburn nearly suffered a historic home loss to Jacksonville State. While they dropped in the rankings after that win, the College Football Playoff hopes were still alive. However, any chance the Tigers had were demolished in their 45-21 loss to LSU. The Auburn run defense looked terrible as they were gashed for 411 rushing yards and five rushing scores. Remember that talk of junior quarterback Jeremy Johnson as a potential Heisman candidate? Yeah, that was clearly overstated. He was horrible for a third straight week. He only has 473 passing yards after three games while throwing just five touchdowns and six interceptions. Auburn dropped from No. 18 to outside of the AP Top 25 and there is a good chance they won’t appear in AP rankings again this season.
Trojans Prove To Be Overhyped
USC was technically the biggest loser from this past week according to the AP poll as they fell 13 spots from No. 5 to No. 18 following a surprising 41-31 loss to Stanford at home. The Trojans defense is an absolute mess and the decision to completely abandon the run in order to try and air it out on a tough Cardinal defense once again did not pay off. Expectations were clearly high for USC in the Pac-12 heading in to this season but another tough loss to a conference rival at home has put a damper on expectations. After his preseason inebriations and his in-season under-performance, the heat is on head coach Steve Sarkisian once again. This team is too talented to play like that.
[related_post_one]
Yellow Jackets Can’t Seize The Opportunity
The Yellow Jackets had an excellent opportunity to earn some major recognition with a win over a Notre Dame team that was missing its No. 1 quarterback and No. 1 running back this past weekend. Instead, they flopped on the big stage. They were gashed for 215 rushing yards and three scores on the ground and their triple-option offense was held to seven points through the first three quarters. Georgia Tech was fortunate to hang on to a spot in the Top 25 at No. 21 but it’s clear that Paul Johnson and company missed an opportunity here. This team is not a player in the BCS picture this year.
