Three-Point Stance: Weekend CFB shine and shame, CFB Playoff picks

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s Three-Point Stance is here with Saturday Shine and Saturday Shame from the weekend as well as a revised look at the CFB Playoff.

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So what is Saturday Shine and Saturday Shame? Essentially it’s a look at the teams, and sometimes players, who should be proud or ashamed of their performances from the weekend. This includes Thursday and Friday games, of course. So let’s take a look at those that shined first.

- TCU – I doubted the Horned Frogs and Gary Patterson as they headed into the season and thought they’d struggle against power offenses like Oklahoma State. Clearly, I was wrong. They took away the big play from the Cowboys and Oklahoma State couldn’t handle TCU's offensive game plan. Great coaching.

- Georgia – The second-best team in the SEC by far? Yes. I love the way the Georgia defense flies to the ball and its offensive balance allows the team to play from ahead. The Bulldogs dominated a solid Mississippi State team.

- Bryce Love – Stanford has one big weapon and his name is Bryce Love. His 263 yards against an awful UCLA defense helped save Stanford's 2017 football season … for now.

- Penn State – The Nittany Lions keep finding ways to win, and winning at night on the road at Iowa is no easy task. The team cleared a big hurdle on the schedule Saturday night.

- Oklahoma's running game – When the Sooners needed it the most, the OU run game was there delivering crushing blow after crushing blow to Baylor. Baker Mayfield threw for three scores but the rushing attack led by Abdul Adams and Trey Sermon was huge.

- NC State – Despite being nearly a two-touchdown underdog to Florida State, the Wolfpack went in Tallahassee and took apart a talented Seminole defense while also playing well on defense themselves.

- Alabama – Some people out there, not me of course, felt Vanderbilt could give ‘Bama trouble. Those people should consider disabling all of their social media accounts for a week or two.

- Cal - It's odd seeing Cal play well again, huh?

- Washington rushing game – Finally! Myles Gaskin and the running game came alive against Colorado.

- Texas Tech – Remember when everyone had Kliff Kingsbury dead and buried before the season? The Red Raiders are 3-0 after ending Houston's 16-game home winning streak.

- Kellen Mond – The Texas A&M freshman has been thrust into the starting role and asked to do a lot, and he’s getting more and more comfortable each week. He got robbed of a long touchdown run by a horrid call but threw the winning pass in overtime in a must-win for the Aggies. Christian Kirk obviously belongs on here as well, but he's a superstar and Mond is a freshman.

- Auburn defense – The Missouri Tigers aren't great but they can put up points on offense if you don’t play them tough. The Auburn defense continues to impress.

- Greedy Williams – The LSU cornerback has enough interceptions (3) to put him on the LSU leaderboard as a receiver. That’s how good he’s been and how bad the passing game has been.

- Dexter Williams – Overshadowed by Josh Adams so far this season, he had a very good game in Notre Dame's win over Michigan State with a TD run and a great TD catch.

- John O’Korn – He didn’t look like a world-beater for Michigan, but he was certainly better than Wilton Speight has been all season long. He should be the guy moving forward.

- Oklahoma State – The Cowboys came out flat against TCU and were outplayed and outcoached. This was a potential season-crippling loss.

- Mason Rudolph – I defended him last week against NFL scout critics, so of course he went out Saturday and threw two picks and lost a fumble. Yuck.

- Butch Jones – UMass stinks and Tennessee still only beat the Minutemen by four points at home. Are you kidding me? The Vols look awful. UMass has a horrible rushing defense and had 12 tackles for a loss. Another potential nail in Jones' coffin?

- Florida State's defense – We knew the Seminole offense might struggle with a true freshman quarterback, but the defense was supposed to dominate the game against NC State and that didn't happen. This was my lock of the week for NC State to cover nearly two touchdowns, but for the Seminoles to lose outright? That’s bad defense. Florida State, one of my playoff picks, is 0-2.

- Clemson – The final score showed a 34-7 win over Boston College but the Tigers were tied 7-7 late in the third quarter and heard a smattering of boos from the home fans. They played a crappy game. Talent won out on Saturday, but the Tigers played down to their opponent.

- Oregon – Arizona State’s defense is terrible, simply terrible, but yet the Ducks defense was even worse, which is hard to do.

- Mississippi State – Coming off a signature win over LSU at home, the Bulldogs go to Georgia and completely lay an egg and are once again off the national radar.

- UCLA defense – How bad can this unit be? You have to feel for Josh Rosen and the offense as they always seem to be trying to overcome horrid defense lapses and playing from behind.

- Sam Darnold – Not all of the interceptions are his fault, but, c’mon Sam, nine touchdowns and seven interceptions so far this season is bad.

- Oklahoma defense – The improved unit didn’t look like it, giving up 41 points to a very bad Baylor team and almost losing a must-win game knowing that Oklahoma State had fallen to TCU. The Sooners made Zach Smith look like Tom Brady.

- Nebraska – The Huskers beat Rutgers, but it wasn’t easy. The Huskers actually trailed in the third quarter before eking out a 10-point win. And guess who threw another pick-six? That’s right, Tanner Lee.

- Maryland – The Terps had people believing after a 2-0 start and the win over Texas, but a embarrassing throttling at the hands of UCF brought them down to earth.

- North Carolina – Larry Fedora has gone from a hot coaching name to a 1-3 start with a win over Old Dominion and losses to Cal, Louisville and now Duke. Only Western Carolina looks like a game you can put in the win column for sure from here on out.

- Pitt defense – The Panthers continue to look horrible as Georgia Tech ran over them. Pat Narduzzi is a defensive coach and while the offense stinks, the defense looks equally bad.

- Missouri defense – Wow, does this defense really belong in the SEC?

- Florida – Remember when the Gators used to just throttle Kentucky easily and not have to rely on come-from-behind wins?

- Kentucky – The Wildcats handed the game to Florida by leaving not just one, but two receivers completely uncovered for touchdowns. That’s amazingly bad defensive coaching and a loss that will hurt for a while.

- Arkansas' offensive line – Isn’t this supposed to be the staple of the team, the tough-guy approach Bret Bielema prides himself on? The Razorbacks' offensive line looked awful and couldn’t protect the quarterback at all.

My preseason CFB Playoff picks, frankly, suck. One of my playoff teams, Florida State, is 0-2 and effectively eliminated from the playoff chase. Another, Ohio State, is beating up on bad teams but has to run the table after its loss to Oklahoma. And Oklahoma State, my most controversial pick, got drubbed by TCU. Only Alabama, a pick a toddler could make, looks good.

Suffice it to say, it's not been a great year for my picks after four weeks. So why not revise them? Here is how I see the CFB Playoff now…

Alabama – Toddler pick.

Penn State – I now believe more than I have before. The Nittany Lions just find ways to win as evidenced by winning at Iowa.

Clemson – A bad performance against Boston College but still a dominant defensive performance.

Oklahoma – Baker and the Boys just look too determined to lose this season.

And why no Pac-12? Washington's running game, although it came alive against Colorado, worries me. Turnovers and poor defense worry me for USC. The Pac-12 is going to get shut out of the CFB Playoff.