#12 Notre Dame @ #24 Navy: 51-14, Notre Dame
Unfortunately for the Midshipmen, this one was never competitive. Notre Dame was the better team all afternoon, as Navy finally suffered their first loss of 2024.
Notre Dame quickly established themselves as the better team in this one. They led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 31-7 at the halftime break. It was obvious watching this game that the Fighting Irish were clearly the more talented team. Just as expected, they dominated up front and ran the ball for chunk play after chunk play. QB Riley Leonard and RB Jeremiyah Love combined for 185 rushing yards, three touchdowns, and averaged 8.4 yards a carry.
Navy, despite getting dominated, still had some positive plays. QB Billy Horvath had a great day running the ball, rushing for 129 yards and a touchdown. However, outside of Horvath, there were no other playmakers on the field for Navy. The Midshipmen still have a great chance to be 10-1 when they could potentially play Army in the AAC Championship Game.
Notre Dame will have a bye this week, and Navy will be at Rice.
#20 Illinois @ #1 Oregon: 38-9, Oregon
Simply put, the Oregon Ducks are the best team in the country right now. And they are getting better every single week.
Dillon Gabriel has quietly played his way back into the Heisman race. He has not had a game where he has put up gaudy numbers, but Gabriel just steadily posts a really good stat line every week. In the win over Illinois, he threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, while adding another score on the ground.
This Oregon defense is quite the unit as well. The Ducks held Illinois to under 300 total yards, forced two turnovers, and caused Fightin Illini QB Luke Altmeyer to have one of his worst games of the year. Altmeyer threw two picks, was sacked three times, and had a sub-50% completion rate. This Ducks Defense was a reason that people were ruling Oregon out as a national title contender a few weeks ago. Now, this defense makes them the favorite.
Illinois will host Minnesota this week, and Oregon will be at Michigan.
#5 Texas @ #25 Vanderbilt: 27-24, Texas
Was this the best game of the weekend? The Commodores sure made this one a lot closer than a lot of people (me included) thought it was going to be.
Vandy is now back to being unranked and has three losses just like we all thought they would be. However, this team is a lot more than what their record is. They have exceeded expectations by making it to five wins and defeating Alabama at this point. I know moral victories do not exist, but this game is as close as you can get to one. The Vanderbilt Commodores only lost to a top five Texas team by three points, and they played really well. QB Diego Pavia scored all three Commodore touchdowns, while the Vandy defense also forced two turnovers. However, Vandy gave the ball away three times. This was one of the biggest contributing factors to the three-point loss.
Texas by no means played their best football of the year, but they did not play horrible. QB Quinn Ewers threw two picks, but also three touchdowns. The Longhorns Defense did not record a single sack, but did add three takeaways. It was somewhat expected of the Longhorns to start slow, but they just never got going to their full potential against an above average Vandy squad. Texas had more talent on the field, and inevitably was able to win this one by the skin of their teeth.
Texas will have a bye this week, and Vandy will travel to Auburn.
