Projected College Football Playoff rankings after Week 11: No. 10-9
10. Oregon Ducks
For as well as Bo Nix and the Oregon Ducks had been playing, the one thing that was hard to shake about the team’s success since getting destroyed by Georgia to start the year was that they’d been up against just one quality opponent. Granted, they got the win over UCLA (which looks worse after Saturday), but the question was how the Ducks would fare once they got tested again.
That was answered by Washington after the Huskies went on the road and took down Oregon in Autzen. Nix was good not great and got banged up late, which reared its head when they needed a drive in 51 seconds to try and get into field goal range and tie the game. The Ducks still look formidable. However, their dark-horse argument for a College Football Playoff might’ve died on Saturday night.
9. Alabama Crimson Tide
On the heels of the loss to LSU, I guess you’d say that a ranked win has to feel good for Alabama. It probably does on some level. When you zoom out a little bit, though, we saw many of the same issues with the Crimson Tide. Bill O’Brien continued to make Bryce Young be a hero, the defense gave up big chunk plays too often and Nick Saban’s team was thoroughly tested in the narrow win over Ole Miss.
Make no mistake, Young is good enough to be relied upon the way that he was. However, Bama has just been suspect in true road environments and their warts were showing in Oxford. This team very well could’ve lost on Saturday and it’s to their credit that they escaped. But it’s becoming clearer that their two losses on the year were not flukes.