College Football: 2017 Week 8 AP Poll winners and losers

Loser: Clemson Tigers (from No. 2 in the AP Poll to No. 7)

The Clemson Tigers’ playoff hopes look to be in jeopardy after they sputtered in Week 7. Quarterback Kelly Bryant entered the game a bit banged up and things went from bad to worse when he suffered a concussion just before halftime.

Backup Zerrick Cooper was sacked three times in the place of Kelly Bryant. Cooper still threw for 88 yards on 10-of-14 passing but was unable to get the job done in the end.  Running backs Tavien Feaster and Travis Etienne still did what they could. Feaster had a 37-yard rush for a touchdown on their first drive of the game to knot things up 7-7. Etienne had a 52-yard run for a touchdown in the third quarter to tie the score 24-24.

The Tigers put up a valiant effort, tying the game up four times before the Orange went up for good in the end, but a few miscues told the story in the end.

Kicker Alex Spence missed a 35-yard and 38-yard field goal in the third quarter. A failed fake-punt attempt by the Tigers gave the Orange the ball back with 6:10 remaining. Syracuse would go on to run out the clock and pull off the upset victory.

The Clemson Tigers have a bye week so there’s time for them to recover and get healthy but they’ll have to be ready to play when they face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Oct. 28.