College Football AP Top 25: Winners and losers of Week 11
Loser: Ohio State Buckeyes (No. 3 down to No. 11)
This one was a toss-up. I could have either picked Penn State, which arguably saw its playoff hopes go up in flames with a loss to Michigan State, or Ohio State. The Buckeyes may have had more riding on a Week 10 road matchup and they came out and looked flat while Iowa looked like the nation’s No. 3 team in the AP Poll.
JT Barrett was coming off one of his best games as a Buckeye, beating Penn State while throwing just six incompletions on 39 attempts. He looked like the quarterback everyone had expected at the start of his junior year, but he took two steps back, at least, against the Hawkeyes.
In fact, he completed just 18-of-34 passes for 208 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions. He had just one interception coming into the game. Will this rattle him moving forward and destroy the confidence of Ohio State or will the Buckeyes rebound to take the Big Ten title?
Iowa flat-out out-played the Buckeyes in every facet of the game and it resulted in a 55-24 blowout in Iowa City. Urban Meyer is not used to losing to Big Ten teams not named Michigan State, but this loss essentially knocked his team out of playoff contention.