This week helped shed a little more light onto who is inching closer to the Playoff Four, except teams we thought would be very good had bad games. I’m looking at you, LSU.
Here’s our power rankings for Week 4:
The Crimson Tide made plenty of mistakes in this game, but put everything together to eventually coast to a win. Alabama’s offense put up 645 yards Saturday, more yards than the Gators had ever allowed. The defense also held Florida to 200 yards. The talent level and the playmakers are there on both sides of the ball, which makes a hypothetically mistake-free Alabama terrifying.
Oklahoma got out of West Virginia 45-33. The game was the first true unleashing of freshman running back Samaje Perine, who gashed the Mountaineers for 242 yards and four touchdowns, further validating the Sooners as the team to beat in the Big 12.
Oregon is losing offensive linemen but as long as Marcus Mariota is upright and can throw, they can hang with anyone.
We’ve seen the Aggies blowout every opponent they’ve faced, never slowing down. But the SEC starts with Arkansas this week and follows with the Mississippi schools and trips to both Alabama schools.
The Tigers survived their weird Thursday night in Manhattan and will be better because of it. The offense isn’t fully formed yet, with Auburn unable to run the ball at times against Bill Snyder’s defense. But Nick Marshall has command of the team and he still has Gus Malzahn so they’re in good shape.
Jameis Winston or not, the Seminoles survived at the scene of a Clemsoning. The Heisman Trophy winner and town crier quarterback missed the game against FSU’s toughest conference opponent and will return to traipse them closer to the playoff.
The Bears had the week off but still scored a touchdown every two minutes. They have consecutive road games at Iowa State and Texas coming up so we’ll see where they stand then.
The Spartans made an example out of their stateside directional neighbor Eastern Michigan 73-14, but defense wins championships.
The Mississippi schools are starting to realize their potential. Memphis coming to town this weekend might be a trap game, then the Rebels welcome Alabama to Oxford the following week.
Because the SEC West wasn’t good enough already, the clangalanging cowbell congregation went into Death Valley and beat LSU. Nobody goes into Death Valley and beats LSU, especially at night. Texas A&M is up next, so we’ll see if Dak Prescott and the Bulldogs are on this list for two weeks in a row.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @Jonathan_Biles
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