Ten Takeaways: Week Five

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1. What a week

Weeks like this are why the seventh-month offseason is worth the wait. It had a little bit of everything:

• Friday gave us two great games. Virginia took down No. 8 Florida State in double OT (more on that next), while Arizona State picked up a crucial Big 12 win over No. 24 TCU by scoring ten unanswered fourth quarter points.
• Saturday morning (for those of us on the west coast) provided an instant classic with Illinois' 34-32 win against USC.
• Indiana-Iowa, Tennessee-Mississippi State, Texas A&M-Auburn, and Georgia Tech-Wake Forest were games no one really talked about in the leadup to Saturday that nearly ended in upsets.
• Ole Miss secured a massive W for their eventual playoff resume against No. 4 LSU.
• Mid-card contests like BYU-Colorado, Cincinnati-Kansas, Cal-Boston College, Rutgers-Minnesota all came down to the wire with dramatic finishes.

Week five not only delivered from top to bottom, but set the stage for what should be an incredible October.

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2. Virginia outmuscles Florida State

You've probably forgotten more games than you can count where a potential upset got thrown in the trash. Games where the underdog had you excited by going up early, then crumpled just as fast and lost by multiple scores. That's exactly where Virginia-Florida State was headed after the Hoos' went up 14-0, then allowed 21 points in less than five minutes in the second quarter. Then, one of my favorite things in all of sports happened.

There's nothing like the moment where an underdog responds to what looks like too strong of a counterpunch from the favorite. For example, a 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament has their 15-point lead cut to 4, then hits an and-one three and the crowd goes berserk. It's the moment you start truly believing, "This could really happen." That's what J'Mari Taylor's 26-yard TD run right before half was for Virginia:

That one run was a microcosm of the UVA's 46-38 double overtime win. For four quarters and two OTs, they weren't scared to go right at the Noles. After halftime, UVA went on a 12-play, 74-yard TD drive. The final nine plays were all runs, post-QB Chandler Morris hurting his throwing hand. It was one of three UVA TD drives of double-digit plays:

Virginia piled up 211 yards and four TD on the ground thanks to great work up front, some truly atrocious tackling from Florida State, and Taylor trucking dudes:

I thought Tony Elliott already put some comfortable distance between himself and any true hot seat talk, but this win cements it. It's easily his most important win yet as a head coach, and stands next to the 2019 Virginia Tech win as the program's biggest W in at least a decade.

On the Florida State side, this loss swings the hype train pendulum on them back as much as the Alabama win swung it forward. I don't necessarily think that's the worst thing in the world for them, either. I never thought they were a top ten team, and playing East Texas A&M and Kent State their past two games didn't let us learn anything new about them. They're clearly much better than last year, I just feel like we don't know if that means they're actual ACC contenders yet. I guess we'll find out when they host Miami on Saturday!

3. Alright, I'll say something nice about Lane Kiffin