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    • Oregon, Dan Lanning defeated Ohio State for the Big Ten win
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    Oregon, Dan Lanning defeated Ohio State for the Big Ten win

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    A look back at the biggest moments from Week 7 in college football, starting with the biggest game of the day in the Big Ten.

    First Down: Oregon – to three, or not to three?

    Somewhere in the mass of humanity on the Autzen Stadium field late Saturday night, Oregon coach Dan Lanning stood, literally exhaling, after a brief television interview.

    You could see him say the word ‘whew’.

    He was lucky. Real happiness.

    This time he was not on the short end of the stick after a mistake in a big match. This time, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard lost track of time on the final play of the game and scrambled to the middle of the field to attempt a shorter field goal as the clock expired after Oregon’s 32-31 victory.

    The irony of it all is not lost at this point.

    Two years ago, Lanning came up short on an attempt to convert a fourth down late in the fourth quarter against Washington instead of kicking a field goal, and the Huskies got excellent field position and ultimately kicked the game winner. Last year, three failed fourth down calls – instead of short field goals – cost the Ducks a win over the Huskies.

    Both games were three-point losses.

    Fast forward to Saturday night, Oregon trailed 28-22 late in the third quarter, and instead of taking a short field goal and three points, Lanning attempted to convert from the Ohio State 2. The result was the same as last season: an odd play call that left the quarterback (Dillon Gabriel in 2024, Bo Nix in 2022-2023) with limited options.

    If Oregon had taken the points, it would have had a four-point lead on the final drive, and Ohio State would have needed a touchdown to win the game. The lead was instead one, and if Howard hadn’t lost track of time, it could have backfired again.

    HEIGHT AND LOW: Week 7 winners and losers in college football

    To be fair to Lanning, Oregon had a missed field goal and scored an extra point earlier in the game, and that could have been a deciding factor in its decision. Even with all that bad history in the near rearview mirror.

    The win was Lanning’s first against a top five team and moved him to 3-3 vs. Top 10 teams in Oregon. But the field goal drama isn’t over yet, y’all.

    Oregon and Lanning had another field goal problem against Washington in the Pac-12 championship game last year, and will most likely get another shot at Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. Maybe, just maybe, the lesson has been learned.

    Take the points.

    Second Down: The wild SEC race

    The big weekend arrived in the best conference in college football, and the only certainty is that No. 1 Texas remained undefeated.

    Furthermore, let’s just say it was a full plate of ugly.

    Alabama was a no-show for the second consecutive game, this time against a South Carolina team that scored all three points in a home loss to Ole Miss last week. Maybe at this point we should all accept that this is who Alabama is – a mid-tier SEC team.

    Everyone still believes Alabama is among the nation’s elite after back-to-back uninspired losses to Vanderbilt — which still happened a week later — and a last-second win over South Carolina that the Gamecocks gave away in the second round. half?

    “The little things add up,” first-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said. “And we are in a fight to the end.”

    That’s merciful for an Alabama offensive line that couldn’t protect quarterback Jalen Milroe (four sacks, nearly 50 percent pressure), and a defense that kept giving up big plays in big moments (blast plays of 36, 31 and 23 yards). ).

    In the meantime, we give you Georgia — which somehow lost to that same Alabama team three weeks ago. If you think that’s strange, consider the behavior of Dawgs coach Kirby Smart, who came way too close in the 41-31 win over lowly Mississippi State.

    With Georgia leading by 17 in the fourth quarter, Smart pushed Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren as he tried to argue with an official. And that was the most physical moment of the game for everyone wearing the ‘G’ logo.

    Then there’s Florida and Tennessee, whose bitter rivals have left football behind for decades with the ugliest game of the year with the worst coach. At one point, Florida had a field goal taken off the board in front of 12 players on the field late in the first half.

    On the field goal unit. After a stoppage in play. And I know this is going to shock you, but those three points were the difference in a game that Tennessee ultimately won in overtime.

    Things weren’t much better for Ole Miss in the first half against LSU. At one point, the Rebels had back-to-back drives that ended with a failed 32-yard field goal, and a loss at the Tigers 4 when it couldn’t gain yards.

    Not surprisingly, the game went into overtime — after LSU tied the score at the end of regulation — when Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Kyren Lacy.

    Moral of the story: get the points.

    Third down: Penn State(ment)

    First, the crucial part: Penn State went 2,000 miles and won a Big Ten regular-season game against someone not named Ohio State or Michigan. You know, what the Lions have done at every opportunity since 2021.

    But that’s not the story. Nor is quarterback Drew Allar’s career play in overtime against Southern California, or his elite play in a big game (a big ask for that).

    The story here is Penn State’s mountain tight end Tyler Warren (6-foot-1, 260 pounds).

    He flanked wide at the receiver. He took snaps of the quarterback and completed a nine-yard pass.

    And he caught 17 passes, an NCAA record for tight ends. Warren had 224 yards receiving and caught a 34-yard touchdown pass on a beautifully designed throwback play by new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.

    If you want to know why Penn State is now a legitimate threat in the race for the national title, it’s Kotelnicki and Allar — and the emergence of Warren, a nightmare for defenses. Oregon had success using Terrance Ferguson against Ohio State, but focused more on the wide receivers.

    Ohio State plays a majority two-level safety on defense and heavy zone coverage. That leaves the tight end to work on linebackers, a significant advantage for Warren and Penn State in the Nov. 2 game in Happy Valley.

    Fourth down: Welcome to the party, Pitt

    They had 277 total yards of offense. Quarterback Eli Holstein had the worst game of his short career.

    And Pittsburgh still found a way to build a lead and hold off California to move to 6-0 for the first time in 42 years. The Panthers did it like they have done for years under coach Pat Narduzzi: suffocating defense, and just enough offense.

    Pitt sacked Golden Bears quarterback Fernando Mendoza six times and increased its season total to 18. Since 2019, the Panthers have an NCAA-best 248 sacks. The difference this season is that they have a complementary offense for the first time since Kenny Pickett led the team to the 2021 ACC Championship.

    Pitt hasn’t beaten anyone of note and should be 7-0 heading into a crucial ACC matchup at SMU on Nov. 2. Pitt hosts Clemson at home on Nov. 16, but closes the season at Louisville and Boston College.

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