CFB Week 9 winners, losers: Notre Dame's playoff chances rise while Missouri's craters

Another week of college football is in the books.

On a Saturday featuring several big blowouts, here are Week 9's winners and losers.

Winner: Notre Dame

The Irish continued to make amends for their humbling early-season home loss to Northern Illinois (4-4, 1-3 in MAC) with a dominant 51-14 win over Associated Press No. 24 Navy (6-1, 4-0 in AAC).

No. 12 Notre Dame (7-1) has won six in a row by an average of 31.3 points per game. Quarterback Riley Leonard has looked more comfortable in the Irish offense by the week. Against the Midshipmen, the transfer quarterback was 13-of-21 for 178 yards and two touchdowns, adding 83 yards and a rushing touchdown on 10 carries.

Defensively, Notre Dame forced six turnovers after Navy entered the Week 9 with two turnovers and none over its last five games.

Notre Dame's day got even better when Texas A&M, which it defeated in Week 1, beat LSU in the battle of the last SEC undefeated teams. (More on that later.) The Fighting Irish are compiling a resume that could lead to them hosting a playoff game in December.

Loser: Missouri

The Tigers' playoff hopes went down the drain with a 34-0 road loss to No. 15 Alabama (6-2, 3-2 in SEC). 

Missouri's chance of winning on Saturday sunk when Brady Cook (ankle) left the game. His backup, former Notre Dame and Arizona State quarterback Drew Pyne, was 6-of-12 for 42 yards and three interceptions.

No. 21 Missouri (6-2, 2-2 in SEC) gained 239 yards, 32 less than Alabama gained rushing. Alabama had 486 total yards as Mizzou lost its second game decisively in the SEC. The Tigers lost to Texas A&M 41-10 in Week 6, giving them two blowout losses that might be too big to overcome when the playoff committee decides the 12-team playoff in December.

Winner: Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed

The Aggies were in rough shape in the second half against No. 8 LSU (6-2, 3-1 in SEC). The Tigers held Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman to 6-of-18 passing for 64 yards before being pulled for Reed, who may have altered the playoff picture.

The freshman quarterback was 2-of-2 for 70 yards, doing most of his damage on the ground. He gained 62 yards and scored three touchdowns on nine rush attempts in the Aggies' come-from-behind 38-23 win. 

No. 14 Texas A&M (7-1, 5-0 in the SEC) is the last SEC team undefeated in conference play. It has road games against South Carolina (4-3, 2-3 in SEC) and Auburn (3-5, 1-4 in SEC) remaining before a potentially massive regular-season finale against No. 5 Texas (7-1, 3-1 in SEC).

Head coach Mike Elko has done a masterful job in his first season, and Reed's dual-threat ability gives him a playmaker at a quarterback capable of leading the Aggies to their first SEC title game appearance.

Loser: Nebraska in one-score games

The Cornhuskers added another chapter to their brutal recent history in one-score games, losing to No. 4 Ohio State 21-17.

Nebraska (5-3, 2-3 in Big Ten) showed much more fight than the previous week against No. 13 Indiana (8-0, 5-0 in Big Ten), losing 56-7. The Cornhuskers erased an early 14-3 deficit to take a 17-14 fourth-quarter lead against the Buckeyes, 

But that grit highlighted how snakebit Nebraska has recently been in close games. Per The Athletic senior college football writer Chris Vannini, the Cornhuskers fell to 4-19, including 1-2 this season, in one-score games since the start of 2021.