College football: 10 worst team performances of Week 5 – Big Ten disaster

The Big Ten has Ohio State to prop them up but Week 5 was a disappointing showing for several Big Ten teams. College football team performance grades.

Week 5 brought a slew of big-time games, including a pair of high-profile matchups between ranked opponents, and a series of potentially tricky conference contests for College Football Playoff contenders. There was even a handful of important games played Friday night, which allowed us to kick off the weekend right.

Sadly, several teams fell flat on the big stage. The Big Ten was at the forefront.

Friday, Penn State beat Maryland 59-0 in what was supposed to be a coming-out party for the Terrapins in College Park. Instead, the Terps were completely outclassed and nearly outnumbered in the stands, at home.

Saturday, Nebraska, which hosted ESPN College GameDay and Ohio State, suffered a similar fate on national television in prime time.  The Cornhuskers forced their fans to hold onto their balloons until scoring with 2:07 left in the fourth quarter of a 48-7 loss.

Today, we count down and dive into the Terrible 10 CFB Winning Edge Team Performance ratings of the week among P5 teams. Maryland and Nebraska, joined by fellow Big Ten mates Rutgers and Purdue, all made the cut.

Now that the best-worst game of the season is behind us (UMass, which had ranked No. 130 in Team Performance through the first four weeks of the season, beat No. 129 Akron 37-29 despite playing without several suspended starters), we’ll turn our focus to the Power Five for the rest of the year. Further below, you’ll also see the worst of the worst for Week 5, as well as the full season to date, both among all 130 FBS programs and the Power Five.

Quarterback play is a common theme throughout the Terrible 10 this week, and several teams on our list this week were forced to play backup signal-callers. Kentucky’s troubles, which included 13 completions on 34 pass attempts and just 97 yards (2.9 yards per attempt), are especially concerning because the Wildcats’ turned to Sawyer Smith, who was largely considered to be a better passer than the usually fleet-footed and unfortunately injured Terry Wilson.

Smith completed just 11 of 32 attempts for 90 yards in the 24-7 loss to South Carolina Saturday, meaning receiver Lynn Bowden (2-for-2, 7 yards) posted a significantly higher passer rating. Passing issues played a huge role in the Wildcats converting a combined two of 17 opportunities on third and fourth downs.

Kentucky had some success running the football (115 yards, 4.1 yards per carry), but the Wildcats also allowed South Carolina to run the football effectively (247 yards, 5.4 yards per carry). Two Gamecocks’ ball carriers surpassed 100 yards on the ground.

Sometimes you run into a buzz saw. Texas Tech showed significant improvement defensively, statistically speaking, under new head coach Matt Wells during a 2-1 run through non-conference play. The Red Raiders allowed an average of 306.3 total yards per game and 4.57 yards per play before stepping up to play Oklahoma in Week 5. Following a 55-16 loss to the Sooners, the Texas Tech defense has now allowed an average of 390.8 yards per game and 5.90 yards per snap.

Oklahoma rolled up 644 yards of total offense while Tech managed just 314. Playing a pair of backup quarterbacks following a Week 3 injury to starter Alan Bowman, the Red Raiders were held to just 122 passing yards – its lowest total in more than a decade – and 4.7 yards per pass attempt.

Washington State was a fixture in the Terrific 10 early in the season as starting quarterback Anthony Gordon picked up right where Gardner Minshew left off. Gordon set a school record with 9 touchdown passes in a Week 4 loss to UCLA, so he certainly wasn’t to blame for the Cougars’ lapse last Saturday. But Week 5 was a different story.

Gordon was held to 252 passing yards and one touchdown by a renewed Utah defense in the Cougars’ 38-13 loss Saturday night. The Utes, who intercepted Gordon twice, limited Washington State to just 5.1 yards per pass and 4.97 yards per play. By contrast, the Cougars averaged 8.80 yards per snap through the first four games of the season.

Mike Leach then called his players “fat, dumb, happy and entitled” during his post-game interview, which, though it doesn’t factor into our Team Performance ratings, isn’t a good look for a head coach.

It didn’t take long for Kansas to reclaim a spot in the Terrible 10. The Jayhawks were on the wrong end of arguably the most embarrassing loss suffered by a P5 program this year (losing 12-7 to Coastal Carolina in Week 2). But Les Miles’ squad rebounded to beat Boston College two weeks ago and played West Virginia tight before falling 29-24 in Week 4. However, whatever progress KU made was quickly forgotten in a 51-14 loss at TCU Saturday.

Quarterback Carter Stanley completed just 12 of 29 pass attempts (41.4 percent) for 84 yards (2.9 yards per pass) and a touchdown. The Jayhawks also managed just 75 rushing yards (45 of which came on one play) on 18 carries. In all, KU was out-gained 625-159, converted just once in 11 opportunities on third down, and managed just eight first downs all game. Just like old times.

Duke is a good football team and consistently overlooked. However, Virginia Tech has no excuse for losing 45-10 to the Blue Devils, at home, Friday night.

The Hokies actually started off well as the Virginia Tech defense forced Duke to go three-and-out in each of its first two offensive series, and the offense capitalized on good field position to take a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. Unfortunately, an ill-timed fumble in the second quarter led to an easy Duke touchdown, and everything went downhill from there.

Virginia Tech lost the turnover battle 2-0 and was out-gained by the Blue Devils 422-259 overall. The Hokies completed just eight of 20 pass attempts, threw for 120 yards (72 of which came on one play), and averaged 3.2 yards per rushing attempt.

The day after it lost to Michigan 52-0, Rutgers became the first FBS program to fire its head coach. Chris Ash’s tenure ended with as many shutout losses on his record – eight – as wins. Ash posted a 67.54 Head Coach rating according to CFB Winning Edge, which ranked No. 129 among active head coaches. Only Walt Bell (67.37), whose UMass Minutemen Ash and the Scarlet Knights beat in Week 1, was worse.

As for the loss to the Wolverines, Rutgers was out-gained by an average of 4.13 yards per play. Only Maryland (-5.44), Nevada (-5.10) and Texas Tech (-5.08) were worse in Week 5. In raw numbers, Michigan held a 476-152 edge in total yardage. Quarterback Artur Sitkowski managed just 4.4 yards per pass attempt, and the Scarlet Knights were held to 46 rushing yards and an average of 1.6 yards per carry.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins, who was the head coach at Temple in 2017-18. The Owls, most of whom were recruited by Collins, held the struggling Tech offense out of the end zone all afternoon in a 24-2 victory in Philadelphia.

The overall yardage totals were similar. Temple out-gained Georgia Tech 322-305, and the Yellow Jackets actually threw for more yards (131) than the Owls (127). However, Temple forced three turnovers and returned a fumble 74 yards for a touchdown. Plus, a P5 program holding a talent advantage will always get dinged in our ratings for losing to a Group of Five opponent.

Similarly, because Team Performance accounts for opponent strength, had Nebraska been beaten by a lesser team, the Cornhuskers would have probably finished higher this week. The saving grace (if there is one in a 48-7 loss at home) is that Ohio State is a legitimate College Football Playoff contender with a strong case to be ranked No. 1 itself (the good No. 1, of course). But that won’t make the Huskers (or fans) feel any better.

Quarterback Adrian Martinez had arguably the worst passing performance of his career to date (though he threw for fewer yards against Michigan as a true freshman). Martinez completed just eight of 17 pass attempts for 47 yards (2.8 yards per attempt) and zero touchdowns. He was intercepted three times.

Martinez led the Cornhuskers with 81 rushing yards, highlighted by a 56-yarder. However, Nebraska was held to 3.69 yards per carry on its 38 other rushing attempts. Meanwhile, Ohio State racked up 368 rushing yards and averaged 6.9 yards per carry. Buckeyes QB Justin Fields also averaged 10.1 yards per pass with three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

It was somewhat surprising to see Purdue achieve the second-lowest game grade of the week. After all, the Boilermakers lost 38-31 to Minnesota, gained more first downs (28) than the Golden Gophers (21), and were out-gained by a relatively small margin in total yardage, 488-414.

However, diving deeper, we see a more troubling picture of the Boilermakers’ troubles. First and foremost, Minnesota led 28-10 at halftime and increased its lead to 38-17 by the end of the third quarter. The Gophers also gained 8.71 yards per play with quarterback Tanner Morgan throwing for 396 yards and four touchdowns while completing 21 of 22 pass attempts. Morgan averaged 18.0 yards per pass.

Making matters even worse, Purdue (which had previously lost star linebacker Markus Bailey to a season-ending injury) lost three offensive starters to injury during the game: All-American receiver and return man Rondale Moore, quarterback Elijah Sindelar, and offensive lineman D.J. Washington.

If there’s any silver lining in Maryland’s 59-0 loss, it could be that the game occurred on Friday night. There’s hope much of the college football viewing public was distracted enough to miss the game Friday, or at least forget much of the gory details following Saturday’s full slate of action.

But the numbers don’t lie, nor do they forget. Maryland was out-gained 619-128 by the Nittany Lions overall, and by an average of 5.44 yards per play, which was the largest gap of any FBS team in Week 5. The Terps were held to 2.21 yards per snap offensively – 2.8 yards per pass attempt and 1.8 yards per carry – and the Maryland defense allowed 10.5 yards per pass attempt and 4.8 yards per rushing attempt.

Penn State also converted 64.3 percent of its third-down opportunities (9-for-14), while the Terrapins were just 4-for-15 (26.7 percent). The Terps lost the turnover battle 3-1 and allowed 30 first downs to the Penn State offense while managing just 10 on offense.

Terrible 10: Team Performance ratings (full FBS), Week 5

121. Central Michigan Chippewas, 69.30
122. Old Dominion Monarchs, 69.11
123. Akron Zips, 68.55
124. New Mexico State Aggies, 68.51
125. New Mexico Lobos, 68.34
126. Georgia Southern Eagles, 67.48
127. South Alabama Jaguars, 67.17
128. Charlotte 49ers, 67.08
129. UNLV Rebels, 65.79
130. Nevada Wolf Pack, 64.30

Terrible 10: Team Performance, 2019 season to date

121. Connecticut Huskies, 70.27
122. FIU Panthers, 69.79
123. Bowling Green Falcons, 69.69
124. Rice Owls, 69.48
125. South Alabama Jaguars, 69.39
126. UTEP Miners, 69.19
127. UTSA Roadrunners, 68.65
128. Massachusetts Minutemen, 66.02
129. New Mexico State Aggies, 65.41
130. Akron Zips, 64.76

Terrible 10: Team Performance (Power Five only), 2019 season to date

84. Tennessee Vols, 77.19
86. Illinois Fighting Illini, 76.83
89. Arkansas Razorbacks, 76.52
90. Kansas Jayhawks, 76.49
92. Virginia Tech Hokies, 75.84
94. Purdue Boilermakers, 75.62
110. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 73.22
111. UCLA Bruins, 73.02
112. Vanderbilt Commodores, 72.69
113. Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 72.67

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