ACC Power Rankings, Week 2: Clemson sloppy as FSU, Louisville roll

Here are ACC Power Rankings after Week 2 saw Deshaun Watson and the Clemson Tigers get another sloppy win while Lamar Jackson and Louisville look unstoppable.

In a week where many of the 14 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference pretty much took time off based on the level of competition they faced, we still learned a lot about the league entering the middle of September.

For starters, we learned that Clemson may still be hung over from last year’s title game run. We also learned that you probably shouldn’t leave maybe the best defensive player in the conference in a 42-6 game against an FCS opponent in the second half. Plus, we learned that someone should probably stop Lamar Jackson if they actually want to beat Louisville.

As for the rest of the conference, we saw teams fall to opponents from the Pac-12, AAC and SEC. To say this wasn’t exactly a banner week for the ACC would probably be an understatement.

Here’s a look at our ACC Power Rankings following Week 2.

It’s not just that the Blue Devils lost for the first time this season. It’s not even that they lost an ACC contest, which they should do several times this year. The fact that they lost to Wake Forest of all teams is enough to get them in the cellar for at least the next seven days.

Last week, Virginia enjoyed that last place spot in these rankings thanks to their wonderful showing against FCS opponent Richmond. This week’s loss was at least to a ranked team on the road, so we’ll give them a slight bit of credit heading into next week.

As for the Wolfpack, they went across the state and got owned by an East Carolina team that loves to show teams from the ACC and SEC that they belong with the big boys. If N.C. State wants to compete in the Atlantic Division, they need a much better showing against better teams.

In case you haven’t noticed, we like to give credit to the level of play when it comes to the power rankings. Thus, I’m not going to totally slaughter ‘Cuse the way they got slaughtered on the field this past game – because it was against the juggernaut called Louisville.

At the same point, Wake Forest doesn’t get more credit for their first conference win of the season because of two reasons – it was against Duke and because they are Wake Forest.

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