Winners and Losers: Is the playoff already out of reach for these preseason contenders?

The first two years of the College Football Playoff have not featured a team with two losses.

Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Ole Miss all have two losses after Week 3. Are their playoff chances already done?

Two years is hardly a large enough data set to draw solid conclusions, especially given the week-to-week rankings fluctuation we’ve seen during the College Football Playoff committee’s tenure. But it’s a pretty safe bet that you can start preparing for a playoff without either of these three 1-2 teams.

Let’s start with Oklahoma. With Houston and Ohio State on the non-conference schedule, Oklahoma was set up to be in the strongest position of any team if it won its three non-Big 12 games and won the conference title.

But not only is Oklahoma 1-2 before Big 12 play has even begun, the Sooners haven’t even been competitive against either the Cougars and Buckeyes thanks to a host of big plays given up in each game. And can you imagine how much worse the loss would have been to OSU on Saturday had officials seen Joe Mixon’s dropped kickoff return?

The Big 12 is still in play for Oklahoma, though conference officials may not be too thrilled with that prospect. An Oklahoma regular season title could mean the Big 12 is shut out of the playoff for the second time in three years barring complete chaos in the other four Power Five conferences. What incentive would the committee have to take a two-loss (or worse) OU team over undefeated or one-loss Power Five teams (and Houston)?

Both Notre Dame and Ole Miss were much longer shots to make the playoff in 2016 but were considered contenders given their schedules. Not only are both teams now 1-2, their schedules don’t look as tough either.

The Irish, who lost to Michigan State on Saturday, end the season at USC. But the Trojans are now 1-2 as well after losing to Stanford. The launching pad of a big road win finale is now a baby trampoline at best. And Stanford still looms on Notre Dame’s schedule too.

For Ole Miss to get into the playoff, it needed to go 2-1 vs. Florida State, Alabama and LSU. After losing 48-43 to Alabama on Saturday, Ole Miss is now 0-2. And LSU isn’t the preseason juggernaut we thought it was after losing to Wisconsin and beating Mississippi State by three at home in Week 3. Oh, Florida State got demolished at Louisville on Saturday too. The Rebels’ playoff map is pretty much indecipherable.

Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers.

WINNERS

Lamar Jackson, Louisville: The dual-threat quarterback continued his sprint to the Heisman award ceremony with another incredible performance, this time vs. the No. 2-ranked team in the country. Florida State’s defense was no match for Jackson as the dynamic playmaker completed 13 of 20 passes for 216 yards and a touchdown while rushing for four more TDs. For the third week in a row, praise for the young QB filled Twitter feeds, including this comparison from a former No. 1 NFL draft pick:

K.D. Cannon, Baylor: In a game that featured former Baylor coach Art Briles in the stands and the Rice marching band mocking Baylor’s sexual assault scandal, K.D. Cannon’s on-field theatrics were a welcome sight. Cannon, who Pat Forde named as one of the most intriguing players in the nation heading into the 2016-17 season, thrilled vs. Rice on Friday as he racked up 213 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The wide receiver showed off his speed and athleticism when he capped a 28-yard reception by hurdling a defender to reach the end zone:

Jerod Evans, Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech quarterback Jerod Evans tied a school record with five touchdown passes in a 49-0 win against Boston College. Evans, a transfer from Trinity Valley Community College, completed 16 of 23 passes for 253 yards and he threw one interception in three quarters of work. He three two touchdown passes to Isaiah Ford, including his longest TD pass of 30 yards. Evans has now thrown for 688 yards and 10 touchdowns with one interception this season.

James Washington and Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State: Coming off last week’s brutal (and incorrect) loss to Central Michigan, Oklahoma State responded with a gutsy 45-38 win over a tough Pitt team. The Cowboys’ offense exploded for 640 yards in the win with quarterback Mason Rudolph putting up a program record 540 yards through the air. A lot of that production went to star receiver James Washington, who caught nine passes for a whopping 296 yards and two touchdowns, one of which was a 91-yarder on the first offensive play of the game.

Brandon Smith, Penn State: The Penn State defense has a ton of injuries through three games, so the Nittany Lions turned to a former walk-on Saturday against Temple. Junior linebacker Brandon Smith, filling in for injured senior Nyeem Wartman-White, had eight tackles in a 34-27 win over the Owls. Per Penn State SID Greg Campbell, Smith had only three defensive snaps and one tackle entering Saturday’s game. He played more than 40 snaps on defense against the Owls. Pretty cool.

Donnel Pumphrey, San Diego State: San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey set multiple records in Saturday’s 42-28 win against Northern Illinois. Pumphrey, who rushed for 220 yards and three touchdowns, ran for over 100 yards for the 24^th time in his career, which was a SDSU record. He also owns the all-time Mountain West rushing touchdown mark with 52. And it was his sixth career game with at least three rushing touchdowns. In fact, Pumphrey has rushed for three scores in each of his last two contests.

Overall, San Diego State won its 13^th straight game and completed its first unbeaten September since 1981. The Aztecs are 3-0 for the first time since 2011 and for just the second time in 35 seasons.

Chad Hansen, Cal: It turned out California needed a boatload of points in order to beat Texas late Saturday night and Hansen was happy to do his part. The junior wide receiver caught 12 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-clinching score with 3:41 left as the Bears held off the Longhorns for a 50-43 win in a wild, seesaw affair. And unlike his teammate, Vic Enwere, Hansen actually holds onto the ball until after he crosses the goal line.

BONUS WINNERS: Army, Navy and Air Force are all still undefeated at a combined 8-0. That’s just awesome. Army and Navy knocked off UTEP and Tulane, respectively, while Air Force had a bye.

LOSERS

Auburn: The Tigers’ offense was all out of sorts again Saturday night in a 29-16 loss to Texas A&M. While the rushing game tallied over 200 yards, QBs Sean White and John Franklin III each averaged less than five yards an attempt.

The loss continued another troubling trend for Tigers fans. It was Auburn’s sixth-straight home SEC loss — Auburn hasn’t won at home since beating South Carolina in 2014. That’s completely unacceptable for a team that’s supposed to have perennial division title expectations.

Will things get any better next week? Auburn takes on LSU, who survived and beat Mississippi State 23-20 at home. Expect the fan base of the losing team to go berserk following that game.

Missouri: These Tigers didn’t leave their heartbreaking ways in the Big 12. Missouri gave up a fourth down go-ahead touchdown to Georgia with 1:30 left but looked poised to get the win back immediately after the kickoff.

QB Drew Lock found WR J’Mon Moore wide open and into Georgia territory. But Moore dropped the ball when he got hit by a Georgia defender. The Bulldogs recovered and simply had to run out the clock to preserve a 28-27 win.

Missouri’s offense looked more than competent and did a great job stopping Georgia’s run game Saturday night. But the Tigers were done in by five turnovers, including three second-half interceptions from Lock.

Alex Furbank, Virginia: A tough start to Bronco Mendenhall’s first season at Virginia got even tougher on Saturday. Virginia trailed UConn 13-10 in the final seconds and sent out Alex Furbank for a 20-yard field goal attempt to send the game to OT. The clock continued to tick down, and a rushed Furbank, a walk-on playing in his first game, pulled the chip shot to the left, giving UConn the win. Virginia, which dropped to 0-3, has now lost 17 straight road games dating back to 2012. Looking forward, it’s hard to find a win on the Cavs’ schedule.

Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt was no match for Georgia Tech’s option offense on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets racked up 511 yards of offense in a thorough 38-7 beatdown of the Commodores. GT quarterback Justin Thomas threw an 81-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Marshall on the first play from the scrimmage and the Yellow Jackets never looked back from there.

Things are getting ugly for Derek Mason in Nashville, who is now 8-19 during his time with the program. His team averaged just 2.8 yards per rush on Saturday. Vandy, now 1-2, travels to Western Kentucky next weekend before entering SEC play. The season doesn’t look too promising.

Colorado special teams: Colorado had a chance to pull off one of the biggest upsets in its history, but errors on special teams stripped the Buffaloes of that opportunity.

Colorado took a 14-0 lead to start the game, but gave a touchdown back off a blocked punt that was picked up by Michigan and run into the end zone. Early in the second quarter, Colorado missed a 36-yard field goal that would have put the Buffs up 24-7. On its next possession, Colorado punter Alex Kinney shanked a punt into the back of a lineman for a loss of seven yards. Michigan scored a touchdown on the ensuing possession.

But the play that sealed the game came in the fourth quarter when Jabrill Peppers returned a Kinney punt 54 yards for a touchdown, essentially putting the game out of reach for the Buffs as the Wolverines won 45-28.

Illinois: After averaging 234 rushing yards in its first two games, the Illinois offense came crashing back down to earth on Saturday. In a 34-10 home loss to Western Michigan, the Illini could muster only three yards on the ground. Yes, three, on 15 attempts. That figure is distorted a bit by three WMU sacks that gave Wes Lunt -20 rushing yards for the day, but the Illini running backs had 21 yards on 11 carries. That isn’t much better.

Marshall: Marshall was a 17.5-point favorite at home Saturday against Akron and jumped out to a 21-7 lead after one quarter. You’d think things would go well the rest of the way, right? Wrong. Akron responded with 34 points in the second quarter alone and went on to win 65-38. The Thundering Herd defense surrendered 524 yards to Akron and turned the ball over four times on offense in the loss.

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