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Saturday rundown: Takeaways from Week 5's biggest games

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theScore runs down the top storylines and developments from Saturday's college football games and what they might mean moving forward.

Ohio State building a case for No. 1

Justin Fields extended plays and made flawless decisions. J.K. Dobbins rumbled to 177 yards. Ohio State's defense frustrated Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez like no one else has, holding him to 47 yards and picking him off three times.

This was a colossal statement - a 48-7 Buckeyes win in Lincoln that spoiled Nebraska's College GameDay celebration and made it known that Ohio State is still the class of the Big Ten. This game wasn't necessarily expected to be close - Ryan Day's team was a 17-point favorite - but it also wasn't predicted to be a complete demolition.

And with Clemson nearly losing to North Carolina on Saturday, Ohio State could make a case that it's been the nation's No. 1 team through five weeks.

Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Auburn are all off to impressive starts, too. But the Buckeyes have outscored their opponents 262-43. Fields has controlled every game, accounting for 23 touchdowns and no interceptions. And the defense entered the weekend first in sacks and second in tackles for loss.

Auburn ready for next ranked test

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The program with the strongest resume in the country put forth its best performance of the season Saturday night.

No. 7 Auburn may have been a little lucky when it topped Oregon in the season opener. But credit the Tigers for continuing to improve - and doing so rapidly. They swarmed Mississippi State from the start Saturday, blowing past the Bulldogs, 56-23. Quarterback Bo Nix threw for 335 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 56 and another score. Auburn rolled up 578 yards of offense.

The Tigers own victories over the Ducks, Bulldogs, and Texas A&M, plus a win over an underrated Tulane squad. They're beginning to look like playoff contenders.

Their next test comes in a week, when they travel to Gainesville, Florida, for a date with the No. 9 Gators.

North Carolina nearly defeats Goliath

An unranked squad hasn't defeated the No. 1 team in the country since Oregon State's upset of USC in 2008.

That statistic still holds true, but it wasn't for lack of a Herculean effort by North Carolina.

The Tar Heels led Clemson throughout the first half, didn't trail until the fourth quarter, and were just a two-point conversion away from an upset in a 21-20 Tigers win in Chapel Hill.

Mack Brown elected to go for two - and potentially, the win in regulation - after Javonte Williams scored a touchdown with 1:17 to play. Unfortunately, for UNC, running the option against Clemson's speedy defense was a poor decision.

UNC freshman quarterback Sam Howell (144 yards, two touchdowns) continued to impress, as he nearly led his third fourth-quarter comeback in five career starts. Former Tar Heels quarterback Chazz Surratt, now a linebacker, led the defensive effort with three quarterback hurries, two tackles for loss, and a sack.

Clemson, meanwhile, gets a bye week to work on its offensive woes. The 21 points were the Tigers' fewest against an ACC team since 2015.

Irish defense saves the day

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Notre Dame trailed by three points at halftime and failed to record a first down in the entire third quarter.

However, entering the fourth, that deficit had become a 28-17 lead for the No. 10 Fighting Irish.

The defense bailed out Brian Kelly's team in a 35-20 win over No. 18 Virginia. Notre Dame forced five turnovers, including two interceptions of Cavaliers quarterback Bryce Perkins. Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, Tua's cousin, came up with a third-quarter pick that led to a touchdown, and Adetokunbo Ogundeji returned a Virginia fumble 23 yards for a score.

Notre Dame's hopes of returning to the College Football Playoff are still alive despite last week's loss to Georgia. But the offense must improve. Quarterback Ian Book (17-for-25, 165 yards) completed only two passes longer than 20 yards Saturday.

The undefeated teams no one talks about

The first five weeks of the season have created some separation at the top, with teams like Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, and Ohio State appearing to be a tier above the rest. Others, like Auburn and Wisconsin, are building playoff-worthy resumes.

But there's another group of undefeated Power 5 teams that no one is discussing.

Wake Forest, now 5-0 with a 27-24 road victory at Boston College on Saturday, also owns wins over Utah State and North Carolina. It's one of only two ACC teams that is still undefeated (Clemson being the other).

Baylor, which blew a 20-point lead before converting a late field goal to beat Iowa State by a score of 23-21, can make a case for being the third-best team in the Big 12 right now. After going 1-11 in his first year in Waco, Matt Rhule has gone 10-6.

Minnesota is inexplicably 4-0 after winning its Big Ten opener at Purdue, 38-31. P.J. Fleck's team seems to be in a close one every week. The Golden Gophers beat South Dakota State by seven, went to overtime to defeat Fresno State, held off Georgia Southern by three, and hung on Saturday after leading by as many as 21 points.

Huskies could be Pac-12's best playoff hope

Oh, how Washington must wish it could have played California in a game which the weather was a non-factor. The Huskies lost their Pac-12 opener to the Bears after enduring a weather delay. Outside of that night, Washington has looked like the best team in the conference.

The No. 17 Huskies handled No. 21 USC on Saturday, 28-14, making third-string quarterback Matt Fink look mortal and enjoying a 153-yard day by running back Salvon Ahmed. The Huskies have responded to the Cal loss by beating Hawaii, BYU, and USC by an average of 24 points.

If UW runs the table, the way which the College Football Playoff committee looks at a strange night in September (and a one-point loss) will be one of the hotly debated topics.

Oklahoma's offense is absurd

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It didn't seem possible Oklahoma could be better on offense in 2019. Lincoln Riley already put together a unit in 2018 that averaged more yards per play with Kyler Murray than it did in 2017 with Baker Mayfield.

The Sooners haven't faced the toughest competition yet (we're still two weeks away from OU-Texas), but Riley's offense with Jalen Hurts at quarterback has been something to behold.

In No. 6 OU's 55-16 romp over Texas Tech Saturday, Hurts completed 16 of 23 passes for 413 yards and three touchdowns. He ran the football for 70 yards and another score. His receivers, Ceedee Lamb (183 yards, three TDs) and Charleston Rambo (122 yards), continued to wreak havoc.

In his three quarters of playing time, Hurts orchestrated an offense that accumulated 573 yards on 47 snaps - 12.2 yards per play. Per sports-reference.com, there have been only 11 games since 2000 in which a team averaged 12.2 yards per play.

Oklahoma has averaged at least 9.55 yards per play in every game this season, nearly a full yard more than last season's average (8.6).

2 scuffling teams provide a treat

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One week after it was embarrassed at home against San Jose State, Arkansas held a fourth-quarter lead over Texas A&M in AT&T Stadium.

While most of the games that kicked off at noon were snoozers, the Razorbacks and Aggies provided entertainment between a pair of 2-2 teams scrambling to turn their seasons around.

Although Texas A&M pulled out a 31-27 win after stopping Arkansas late, the Aggies hardly resemble the team we thought they could be in 2019. Once ranked as high as No. 12, Texas A&M has struggled to run the football and quarterback Kellen Mond has made more mistakes than expected. On Saturday, the defense allowed 395 yards and 26 first downs.

For the Razorbacks, the loss - an eighth consecutive to Texas A&M - won't feel good. But Arkansas was more than a three-touchdown underdog, so it could be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, there aren't more than a couple of winnable games left on the schedule.

Michigan bounces back in big way

Maybe the fix for No. 20 Michigan was as simple as moving its offensive coordinator to the sideline.

Or maybe it's Rutgers.

The Wolverines continued their recent domination of the Scarlet Knights with a 52-0 victory in Ann Arbor. Shea Patterson accounted for four touchdowns (one pass and a trio on the ground), helping Michigan get over last week's loss to Wisconsin.

The Wolverines have outscored the Scarlet Knights 256-37 in their last five meetings.

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