College Football 2021: Winners, losers from Week 5 AP Top 25

Loser: Iowa State (Unranked)

The Cyclones were thought to be a darkhorse playoff contender, but any thought of that is now out the door with the loss to Baylor on Saturday. Iowa State outplayed the Bears in a lot of ways yesterday, but their inability to put touchdowns on the board doomed the Cyclones.

This is a team that is lacking explosive passing plays and that is something that concerned me heading into the season.

There is still an opportunity for Iowa State to make the Big 12 title game, but there are clear issues that are going to have to be fixed in order to make that happen. Brock Purdy is going to have to play better and make plays. This has definitely been a disappointing start to the season for the Cyclones.

Loser: Wisconsin (Unranked)

There were some truly poor performances on Saturday, but it was hard to top how terrible Wisconsin looked on Saturday vs Notre Dame. Wisconsin was supposed to be the favorite in the Big Ten West, but their offense has just been terrible. Graham Mertz has regressed as a QB and this offensive line is not getting the push that it needs to get its ground game going. They still have a good defense, but it is meaningless if Mertz can’t move the ball or stop turning it over.

There could still be some hope for the Badgers, as the Big Ten West is not overly impressive, but they might need to consider making a quarterback change for that to happen. For now, the Badgers have been one of the biggest disappointments this season.