College football rankings: Top 10 team performances of Week 6 – Matt Rhule has Baylor back

Traditional college football rankings don’t always reflect which teams played best, but we take a look through the Week 6 CFB Winning Edge Performance ratings to find out.

Since the invention of the College Football Playoff, the national conversation surrounding the sport has shifted. For better or worse (it’s worse), there is largely an all-playoff, all-the-time mentality throughout most major media outlets.

However, in part because of the playoff, there has also been a shift in focus in how we evaluate the most deserving teams. For decades, polls largely assigned titles and championship game opportunities to the teams with the best overall record. But now that four teams are invited to the dance, fans, analysts and the members of the playoff committee are forced to look beyond the wins and losses and dive into which teams have actually performed the best on the field (it’s better).

CFB Winning Edge takes a similar approach to its Team Performance ratings. Using a variety of statistics, with weights and adjustments made for opponent strength and home-field advantage, every FBS team is graded on a 60-100 scale in every game it plays. We can then average each Team Performance rating throughout the season to see which teams have played the best, and by what margin.

How did the playoff contenders fare in Week 6? And who has the inside track to a spot in the final four? We count down the Terrific 10 team performances from last weekend, as well as the best of the best so far this year:

The first half of the season was a virtual disaster for the Stanford Cardinal. David Shaw’s squad survived an ugly battle with Northwestern in the season opener and then lost three straight games – to USC, UCF and Oregon, respectively – all by double digits. Stanford then needed a last-second field goal to beat Oregon State. All the while, the Cardinal had been ravaged by injuries, starting multiple quarterbacks and several offensive line combinations.

Stanford was forced to turn to Davis Mills in Week 6 against Washington after starting quarterback K.J. Costello was ruled out for the third time earlier in the week. Mills suffered a lower-body injury against the Huskies, and the Cardinal also lost lineman Henry Hattis. Yet somehow, Stanford was able to run the football better than it had all season and beat Washington 23-13.

The Cardinal out-gained Washington 482-294 overall, and by an average of 1.44 yards per play, which is a major development given Stanford was out-gained by an average of 1.51 yards per snap through its first five contests.

Rutgers came at exactly the right time for a Maryland squad looking to bounce back from two embarrassing losses. Not only did the Scarlet Knights fire their head coach the previous Sunday, Rutgers announced its interim starting quarterback and top offensive weapon planned to sit out the remainder of the season and transfer.

Maryland capitalized. After the Terrapins held Rutgers to a failed field goal attempt on the game’s opening possession, Josh Jackson hooked up with Dontay Demus for an 80-yard touchdown on the team’s first offensive play from scrimmage. The running game took over from there, as Maryland racked up 290 rushing yards while averaging 7.1 yards per attempt. The Terrapins out-gained Rutgers by an average of 3.54 yards per snap overall, and also won the turnover battle 2-0. But unfortunately, Maryland lost Jackson to injury in the process.

The Pitt Panthers built a 23-point lead, blew it, and recovered for a 33-30 victory over Duke on the road. Pitt forced six turnovers, including three interceptions, and held the Blue Devils to 3.7 yards per attempt on 18-for-45 passing. The Panthers also limited Duke to just 2.8 yards per carry on 44 rushing attempts.

The performance was far from perfect. Pitt managed only 69 rushing yards on 35 carries (2.0 yards per attempt) and was penalized 15 times for 145 yards. The Panthers also lost two fumbles and quarterback Kenny Pickett was picked off twice. However, the defensive performance (including Paris Ford filling up the stat sheet with 12 tackles, two interceptions and a touchdown before being ejected for targeting) was enough to give Pitt the win.

The best win of the week goes to the Florida Gators, who beat Auburn 24-13 in The Swamp in upset fashion. Lamical Perine and Freddie Swain led the way for the Gators offensively. Perine ran for 130 yards on just 140 carries, with his 88-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter serving as the death knell to the Tigers’ undefeated hopes. Swain caught six passes for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Though the Florida offense turned the ball over four times (all lost fumbles), the Gators forced four takeaways on defense, including three interceptions of Auburn true freshman quarterback Bo Nix. Florida also sacked Nix twice and held him to 145 yards on 11-for-27 passing.

We’ve yet to see the Michigan offense reach its talented potential, but the Wolverines showed up defensively in a 10-3 victory over Iowa Saturday. Michigan held the Hawkeyes to just 267 total yards and an average of 3.63 yards per play, and forced four turnovers, including three interceptions. Most impressively, the Wolverines allowed one (1!) rushing yards on 30 attempts: an average of 0.03 yards per carry.

Fans obviously expect Michigan to be more effective at moving the football. The Wolverines averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and 5.7 yards per pass attempt. However, it’s worth noting Michigan still controls its fate in the Big Ten East, meaning a conference title – and even a playoff spot – is still within reach.

Similar to Stanford, Virginia Tech underperformed expectations through the first half of the season. The Hokies came into their Week 6 matchup with Miami 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the ACC Coastal. In an attempt to reverse his team’s fortunes (and perhaps his own), head coach Justin Fuente made the switch to redshirt freshman quarterback Hendon Hooker. It worked. Until it nearly didn’t.

Hooker started hot and led the Hokies to a 28-0 lead partway through the second quarter. In all, he completed 10 of 20 passes for 184 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, and also led the team with 76 rushing yards and scored once on the ground in a 42-35 victory.

Though Miami actually led 563-337 in total yardage and held a 27-17 advantage in first downs, Virginia Tech forced five turnovers. The 5-0 turnover margin, two holds in the red zone and a failed extra-point attempt after Miami tied the game 35-35 in the fourth quarter helped the Hokies earn their first conference win of 2019.

No surprise here. Ohio State continued its march toward the top four with a 34-10 victory over Michigan State. The Buckeyes were nearly unstoppable on the ground and racked up 323 rushing yards and an average of 6.59 yards per carry against a Spartans defense that had allowed only one opponent to gain more than 76 rushing yards (Northwestern, 139) through the first month of the season. Northwestern (3.16) was also the only team Michigan State had played that had averaged more than 3.0 yards per attempt.

Ohio State was nearly as impressive on defense. The Buckeyes sacked Brian Lewerke four times while limiting the Spartans to 67 rushing yards on 27 attempts (2.5 yards per carry). Lewerke threw for 218 yards and a touchdown, but also lost a fumble in the first quarter and tossed an interception in the fourth. Overall, Ohio State out-gained Michigan State 529-285 in total yardage, and by an average of 2.76 yards per snap.

Early on, it looked like Georgia might have a fight on its hands in Knoxville. The Bulldogs trailed 14-10 early in the second quarter, but the defense clamped down from there. The Dawgs scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half to take a 26-14 lead into the locker room, and then put the game away with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a defensive touchdown, in the 43-14 victory.

First-time starter and true freshman quarterback Brian Maurer was sacked three times, the last of which resulted in a 60-yard fumble return by Tae Crowder, and forced Maurer out of the game. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Georgia held a 526-343 edge in total yardage and outgained the Vols by an average of 1.98 yards per play. The Dawgs won the game at the line of scrimmage and averaged 5.8 yards per rushing attempt while holding Tennessee to just 2.4 yards per carry.

It took more than a month of solid yet understated play, but the Baylor Bears finally broke into the AP Top 25. Now 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 action following a 31-12 victory over Kansas State on the road, the Bears now rank No. 22 according to the writers, but climbed all the way to No. 11 in the country in Team Performance. With an average game grade of 89.41 this season, the Bears are now only a half-point behind Notre Dame for a spot in the Terrific 10 overall.

Baylor has played excellent defense this season, and the win over the Wildcats was no exception. The Bears held K-State to 3.1 yards per rushing attempt and 6.4 yards per pass and forced two turnovers from quarterback Skylar Thompson (one fumble and one interception).

Baylor isn’t just the No. 2 rated team in the Big 12 in Team Performance this season, the Bears rank No. 2 among Big 12 teams in Week 6. Texas Tech earned the top spot in a 45-35 upset victory over Oklahoma State in which it forced five Cowboys turnovers. The Red Raiders also bullied redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Sanders into making all five, intercepting three of his passes and recovering two fumbles.

Despite winning the turnover battle 5-0, the Red Raiders played unspectacular defense statistically and surrendered 509 yards of total offense including 156 rushing yards and three touchdowns by running back (and FBS rushing leader) Chuba Hubbard. However, Hubbard needed 34 carries against the bend-and-rarely-break Tech defense to do it.

Texas Tech also stepped up on offense and averaged 9.6 yards per pass and 4.6 yards per rushing attempt to out-gain the Pokes 586-509 overall. Quarterback Jett Duffey, who was the third Tech quarterback to start over the last three games, completed 26 of 44 passes for 424 yards and four touchdowns and added 16 rushing yards and another score to lead the Red Raiders to an important Big 12 victory.

Terrific 10: The 10 best teams so far in the 2019 season

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