Week 6: Defense Wins Championships

Your Top 25:

Even touchdowns are bigger in Texas.

Rk	Δ	Team	Pts
1	+5	Baylor	75.0

The Baylor-Kansas game was competitive for about half a quarter and then the Bears' point-a-minute offense flipped on the nitrous, putting up 66 points and 644 total yards. But it's their notoriously porous defense that earned the Bears the #1 spot, limiting Kansas to just 7 points and 69 rushing yards.

2

+3

Michigan

74.0

Jim Harbaugh is a meme, and that meme is Insanity Wolverine:

The insanity is infectious. After the previous week's game against Maryland, NT Maurice Hurst was upset that "we had a couple of plays where they got first downs." The insanity is working. Michigan pitched its third consecutive shutout, the first time any FBS team has done so in twenty years, and Wolverines are revising their reasonable expectations upward. Anything less than seven more shutouts on the way to the Rose Bowl would be a disappointment. You do not want to disappoint Harbaugh.

3

+8

Clemson

72.4

Clemson easily handled Georgia Tech, winning 43-24 and holding the Yellow Jackets' vaunted rushing offense to just 71 yards on the ground, enough to boost the Tigers into the Top Five and above Florida State.

4

-2

Utah

71.6

Utah held on against Cal 30-24 in a turnover-filled game. (Utah had three, and Cal had six.) RB Devontae Booker looked impressive, rushing for 222 yards and receiving for 45 more.

5

-1

Florida State

70.1

Florida State held on against Miami (FL) 29-24 in a turnover-less game. RB Dalvin Cook looked impressive, rushing for 222 yards and receiving for 47 more.

6	+4	LSU	69.6
7	-4	Alabama	67.4
8	+15	TCU	64.6
9	+5	Boise State	64.4
10	+8	Notre Dame	63.0
11	-10	Houston	62.9
12	0	Ohio State	62.8
13	+2	Texas A&M	62.5
14	+3	Toledo	62.2
15	+4	Florida	61.4
16	+5	Duke	60.9
17	+5	Memphis	60.2
18	-9	Navy	59.7
19	-6	Stanford	59.6
20	-13	Northwestern	58.7
21	-1	Ole Miss	58.1
22	+9	Oklahoma State	58.0
23	+2	Iowa	56.5
24	+10	Temple	56.4
25	+3	UCLA	54.3

See full rankings here.

Teams falling out of the Top 25:

• (28) Oklahoma
• (31) Georgia
• (38) West Virginia

Teams worse than the average FCS team: Just North Texas who lost 66-7 against FCS Portland State, earning head coach Dan McCarney an instant firing.

Largest improvement in rank: +24 Penn State had little trouble against Indiana (except for kicking extra points), winning 29-7 in a game the Math thought they'd lose by two.

Largest drop in rank: -20 Middle Tennessee ceded 52 points to Western Kentucky in the first half alone (and nearly 600 yards total).

Conference Rankings

Conference	Average
SEC	44.65
Pac-12	43.50
Big Ten	42.77
ACC	42.66
Big 12	42.49
American	35.32
Mountain West	27.57
MAC	25.78
Conference USA	21.75
Sun Belt	19.93