We’ve made it to another Sunday evening where we can digest the week that was in one, semi-coherent space. If unfamiliar, here’s Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 of this new tradition before getting into this week’s musings.

Alas, some order within the chaos.

Water found its level across the college football landscape on a Saturday that restored some sanity to what was a wild opening to the month of September. That said, things still got goofier than a purple monkey in a bubblegum tree.

We still had top-5 thrillers like No. 4 Ohio State’s near walk-off at No. 11 Notre Dame after No. 5 Florida State needed overtime to win at Clemson.

But other than 14th-ranked Oregon State falling to No. 21 Washington State, no ranked team lost to someone outside the top 25 or a team ranked lower.

A few prime examples.

• Colorado disruption tour ran aground at Oregon where the suddenly-establishment Ducks made its point. A 42-6 Oregon win saw the hosts outgain the Buffs 522-199 and could have been much uglier after taking a 35-0 halftime lead. It was a shame Travis Hunter was hurt but not sure he could’ve closed that gap.
• Alabama rediscovered its fire and ground game to wear down Ole Miss, 24-10. The Crimson Tide ran it 22 times after halftime after trying just 10 before it. Jase McClellan’s game-sealing touchdown run was an 8-yard bullying of the Ole Miss front. More significantly: The final play was a Jalen Milroe kneel down and he converted a third down on the previous snap. That came two weeks after Texas handed the Tide that indignity on their home field.
• Iowa didn’t score a single point in 60 minutes of football at Penn State.

So we’ve got our bearings back but that’s not to say the fun is over after a goofy September.

The top two teams in the polls still haven’t been tested and it’s not clear when that’ll happen.

CASAGRANDE: Lane Kiffin’s again the sad clown who can’t troll his way past Saban

There had been a low hum of buzz surrounding top-ranked Georgia’s visit to Auburn this Saturday but the curious optimism surrounding Hugh Freeze’s first Tiger offense fell flat Saturday. No doubt, future recruiting classes will light up that giant Jordan-Hare scoreboard moving forward, but oof, not this year.

The Bulldogs sleepwalked to a 24-14 win over South Carolina in its only game against Power 5 competition before allowing 21 points to UAB on Saturday. Can Auburn match that after managing just 200 offensive yards and the defense scoring its only touchdown in a 27-10 loss at Texas A&M?

Auburn opened as three-score home underdogs for the 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday home game. We learned this Tiger offense is still a recruiting class or two from getting Freeze what he needs and that point spread speaks to that.

The Bulldogs’ first meeting with a team ranked today is scheduled for Oct. 28 when it meets No. 22 Florida. That begins a stretch of four straight weeks playing teams ranked between 20-23 with Ole Miss, Missouri and Tennessee on tap. With the way things are trending, none of them are guaranteed to be ranked by the time they see Georgia.

CASAGRANDE: Auburn offense frozen in Aggieland as SEC reality hits hard

No. 2 Michigan, meanwhile, doesn’t face a team currently ranked until Nov. 11. It’ll close the season with No. 6 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State in two of the final three weeks in the most backloaded schedule you’ll find.

That absence of a challenge at the top leads to six teams receiving first-place votes in this week’s AP poll. It’s probably been a while since the No. 7 team (Washington in this case) got a No. 1 vote.

So, for all we’ve learned, there’s still some order to be disturbed as the leaves begin to fall.

Let’s talk about Bo Nix

It’s too easy to play the what-if game here, but it’s also really hard to ignore what’s going on in Oregon.

As Auburn’s lost in the quarterback wilderness, its former legacy golden boy is living up to his name. The son of a Tiger who began his Auburn career with a huge win over Oregon is now on a Heisman trajectory with Oregon. Nix completed 28 of 33 passes for 276 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in the Ducks blitzkrieg of Colorado in his latest statement.

GOODMAN: Low-talking Lane Kiffin doesn’t have much to say

The Pinson Valley product is completing a ridiculous 79.4% of his passes with 11 touchdowns to just one interception this fall. That’s a long way from his final season in Auburn when the success rate was just 61%. He had 11 touchdowns in 10 games, transferring away from the program of his dreams in what has to be among the most stinging indictments of the Bryan Harsin era.

Nix clearly bloomed in Eugene where he’s in the right offense and surrounded by the required talent. While engineered for a Freeze scheme, it’s impossible to truly say an alternate Auburn reality would replicate what’s happening out west.

But it’s enough to wonder what if?

Defense is having a moment

Let’s not pretend we’re going back to the cloud-of-dust days, but we’re not looking at video game scoreboards either.

Consider the following:

• Ohio State-Notre Dame classic ended with a 17-14 final.
• Alabama and Ole Miss played to a 63-48 track meet in 2020 but the Crimson Tide’s win Saturday was wrapped in a 24-10 bow. It’s an Alabama defense that allowed four touchdowns to Texas and two in the other three games combined.
• Utah beat UCLA, 14-7.

Through four weeks, there are six defenses allowing fewer than 10 points a game. No team has finished the year under that bar since Alabama’s 2011 title team surrendered just 8.2 points a game.

And while I wouldn’t put money on any of these six equaling this feat, it’s worth noting the defenses have come a long way from the HUNH assault on the craft.

Quick hits

Lanning’s mad: It’s hard to remember a coach being so outspoken, and frankly angry, about the hype surrounding an opponent. Oregon’s coach went off before playing Colorado about playing “for clicks” while they’d rather have wins. The fiery pregame speech followed the pattern of tweaking the Buffs and coach Deion Sanders for the unconventional route to national relevance. This is far from a complaint, we could use more of the realness from coaches instead of the canned pleasantries that mask how they really feel.

Day’s mad too: So much for these coaches saying they don’t hear or read anything. Ohio State’s emotional win at Notre Dame was punctuated by Buckeye coach Ryan Day ripping into former Irish coach Lou Holtz. The 86-year-old retiree apparently said something on a podcast that bothered Day enough to use that on-field interview with NBC to clap back. What a sport!

Jimbo’s jimbo: Still thinking about this bizarre scene when Jimbo Fisher got caught on the wrong side of the road with Auburn’s Eugene Asante returning a Texas A&M fumble for a touchdown. Also wondering how there wasn’t at least a sideline warning since such flags are common for far less than a coach standing in the middle of a play.

How about Penix? Most of the nation was sleeping while Washington and its transfer quarterback went to work. The Huskies didn’t punt until the third quarter and led Cal 45-12 at halftime before cruising to a 59-32 win. Penix, like Nix, traveled west after leaving Indiana. He was 19-for-25 with 304 yards, four touchdowns and an interception as his Heisman campaign gained steam.

— I stink: A week ago, I didn’t hide from the fact I went 2-8 in the AL.com staff picks against the spread. Well, I was 3-7 this week. Gotta disclose that while noting I’m paid to write, not see the future so lay off, haters.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.