Collegiate Sports

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Winners and Losers: Week 2's great night of games delivered on its promise

https://sports.yahoo.com/winners-losers-week-2s-great-night-games-delivered-promise-050632447.html

College football’s biggest night of the season didn’t disappoint.

Yeah, it’s only Week 2, but we’re comfortable saying an evening slate that featured four top-25 matchups kicking off within 90 minutes of each other is the most stacked night of college football we’re going to see in all of 2017.

All four of those big games delivered too. Let’s start with the surprise, which was No. 5 Oklahoma beating No. 2 Ohio State 31-16 in Columbus.

After Ohio State beat Oklahoma a year ago in Norman, this was supposed to be an even tougher game for the Sooners. Oklahoma entered 2017 with a first-year head coach and needing to replace three of its best offensive players — three guys who were some of the best in college football.

But these transitions are a lot easier when you have one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football in Baker Mayfield.

Mayfield was magnificent, throwing for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns. And he delivered what could be the troll of the 2017 season after the game, putting an Oklahoma flag on the Ohio State logo at midfield.

Mayfield was a Heisman finalist in 2016 and is a great early-season bet to be back on the stage in 2017. He could be joined there by USC quarterback Sam Darnold, who helped his No. 6 Trojans put up six touchdowns in a 42-24 win over No. 14 Stanford.

Darnold threw two picks, but he threw just three other incompletions otherwise, going 21-26 for 316 yards and four touchdowns. He was boosted by a USC running game that thrashed a very good Stanford front for over 300 rushing yards. Yeah, the Trojans got off to a bit of a rocky start in Week 1, but if USC can put up over 600 yards of offense against Stanford, is there anyone standing in the USC offense’s way other than itself?

A matchup of the USC offense and the No. 3 Clemson defense would be a spicy College Football Playoff game. Clemson’s defensive line showed why it was the best in the country in a 14-6 win over No. 13 Auburn. Clemson racked up 11 sacks — one short of a school record — and prevented the Auburn offense from having any semblance of a rhythm.

With a Florida State team missing its quarterback, Clemson is the rightful favorite to win the ACC and get back to the College Football Playoff for the third-straight season.

The other top-25 pairing of the night was by far the most even. No. 15 Georgia used a late field goal to beat No. 24 Notre Dame 20-19 on the road. As Georgia’s two-pronged rushing attack of RBs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel combined for 136 yards on 26 carries, the Georgia defense held Notre Dame to 55 rushing yards on 37 attempts in the team’s first trip north of the Mason-Dixon Line since 1965.

The Bulldogs did it with a true freshman at quarterback too. After coming in for Jacob Eason in Week 1, Jake Fromm hasn’t been overwhelmed. Through two weeks the Bulldogs have looked like a steady force in what could be a messy SEC East. Maybe 2017 is the year we get the glimpse of why the Bulldogs fired Mark Right after a 10-win season in 2015.