Winners
Iowa
Give the Hawkeyes credit. They fought back to rally in the fourth quarter to defeat Penn State for one of the biggest wins at Kinnick in years. The defense regrouped after Penn State quarterback was taken out of the game, and completely suffocated the Nittany Lion offense setting up short fields on numerous occasions for their offense. Would this game ended differently if Sean Clifford stay in the game? Probably, but you have to give Iowa credit, they got the job done.
Texas A&M
Zach Calzada was a backup quarterback thrown into a starting role and hasn’t looked good for two straight weeks, dropping back-to-back games against Arkansas and Mississippi State. The “Cuban Missile” was absolutely stellar against Alabama’s great defense on Saturday. He went 21/31 for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Aggie defense did just enough to hold on, giving Texas A&M a huge victory at Kyle Field against the Crimson Tide.
Oklahoma
The Sooners just kept hanging around against Texas in the Red River Shootout. The Oklahoma defense made some major changes in the second half and held the Longhorns to only 10 points in the entire half. The offense looked to back up quarterback Caleb Williams for some extra juice, and boy did they get it. Sooners scored 25 points in the 4th quarter alone to win the Golden Hat, and take full control of the Big 12 Conference.
Losers
Texas
Don’t believe there is a bigger loser this week than Texas. Started the second quarter up 28-7 and was in the driver seat, but let Oklahoma hang around. Although the offensive attack was solid, they could’ve stuck to the ground game more with Bijan Robinson. Texas’s offense didn’t have much of an answer for Oklahoma’s defense in the second half, and the Longhorn defense completely fell apart in the fourth quarter.
BYU
The Cougars were able to put up over 400 yards of offense but could only manage 17 points against Boise State. It was just one of those games where BYU couldn’t finish drives, and Boise State seemed to take advantage of every opportunity that they were in the redzone. This one hurts for BYU, they need every win they can get to get to a NY6 Bowl.