College Football 2017: Ranking the 3 worst losses from Week 5

When Memphis headed to Orlando for a game against UCF that had been postponed by Hurricane Irma, the two teams were both undefeated. Each came into the contest with statement wins over Power Five teams already on their respective resumes. It was supposed to be a highly-pitched interdivisional battle between two contenders for the American Athletic Conference crown.

Initially, it seemed as though everything was going to form. UCF scored on its opening drive, but failed on a two-point conversion. When Memphis scored on the next drive, the extra point put the Tigers up 7-6. The back-and-forth shootout that everyone had hoped to see appeared to be going right on schedule. After that the defenses took over, and Memphis remained ahead by one point with less than five minutes before halftime.

Then the Knights rolled off 17 straight points before halftime to take a 23-7 lead into the locker room at the intermission. Then UCF added 17 more after the break to roll up a 40-7 lead and put the game out of reach. Memphis managed to add a late touchdown as time expired, but the damage had long been done in a 40-13 rout.

The Tigers headed back to Memphis with tail twixt legs. It was just one loss in the AAC standings, but psychologically a loss of this magnitude could derail a promising season. Mike Norvell will need to get his team back on track as soon as possible after one of the worst losses of the week, as they have a short week before heading to Connecticut for a Friday-night showdown.