Halfway through the season, the College Football Playoff field is beginning to take some shape. There's a whole back seven left to play, and this sport is consistently inconsistent, but a few teams are pulling away.

Namely, Alabama.

The Tide dominated in every aspect of the game in a lopsided 49-10 victory over Tennessee. Other teams weren't quite as convincing. Ohio State and Clemson needed overtime to beat Wisconsin and NC State. But such is the survive-and-advance life in college football.

With so much action happening around the country, we here at CBS Sports want to get you caught up on all the noteworthy things that happened -- both the good and not so good.

What were the highlights from Saturday of Week 7? What were the moments some programs want to forget? We hash out the best and worst below.

Winner -- Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett: It wasn't pretty to start, but Barrett showed why he's one of the most valuable players in all of college football. The Buckeyes signal caller totaled 318 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-23 overtime win over Wisconsin in a possible preview of the Big Ten Championship Game. Lamar Jackson may still be the Heisman favorite, but Barrett closed the gap with a strong performance in a big game.

Bonus Winner -- Ohio State coach Urban Meyer: Meyer is one of the best coaches in college football for a reason. Meyer is now 19-8 in games between top-15 teams and 8-3 in such games at Ohio State, according to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports. Meyer is also 20-0 on the road with the Buckeyes. Those are practically unimaginable numbers.

Loser -- This negative 1-yard punt (seriously): You could say UCLA punter Austin Kent didn't get off to the best start Saturday night against Washington State. Kent's first punt of the night went for minus-1 yard and finally was knocked out of bounds at the Bruins' 42-yard line. And by "negative punt," we mean the ball rolled back a good 15 yards or so. UCLA was facing a fourth-and-11, and it was just a cruddy bounce. Still, coach Jim Mora lit into Kent on the sideline.

Winner -- Alabama's perfect 10: It has now been a full decade since Tennessee last beat Alabama. Each of the losses has been frustrating in its own way, but this was as dominating a win as the Tide have had in this series. The 49-10 win didn't unveil many weaknesses. Quarterback Jalen Hurts continued to impress with 275 yards and three touchdowns. The Tide also recorded their 10th and 11 non-offensive touchdowns of the year thanks to a pick-six and punt return. Every team has flaws, and Alabama is no different, but this an impressive football team that should be No. 1 next week.

Loser -- Tennessee's Lane Kiffin curse: It's one thing to lose to Alabama. It's another to lose 10 times in a row. But it stings worst of all when Lane Kiffin, Tennessee's one-time coach in 2009 and noted visor tosser, is the Tide's offensive coordinator. The bad blood between the two has been well documented. If there's a silver lining for Tennessee, it's that it might get another shot at Alabama if the two meet up in the SEC Championship Game -- that is, if Tennessee wants to face Alabama again.

Winner -- Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon: With a slow start to the season behind them, the Sooners look every bit like the preseason Big 12 favorites they were picked to be. A 38-17 win over Kansas State had a business-as-usual feel, which is impressive given the recent history of road victories in this series. Mixon totaled 148 yards and two touchdowns -- one receiving and one passing. Yes, passing.

Loser -- Notre Dame (again): If it wasn't panic time before for Notre Dame, it is now. A 17-10 loss to a Christian McCaffrey-less Stanford drops the Irish to 2-5, meaning this team must win four of its final five games to be bowl eligible. Barring a miracle, that doesn't look likely. Coach Brian Kelly's decision to sub Malik Zaire for Deshone Kiser at quarterback backfired. There are a lot of problems with the Irish -- more than what can be expressed in a few sentences here -- and it's beyond fair to believe this team will continue struggling as the year goes on.

Winner -- West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson: WVU's 48-17 thrashing of Texas Tech was as impressive as any defensive performance this year. The Red Raiders, owning the best scoring offense in college football, were held to a pair of touchdowns. Based on the Big 12 defensive grading curve alone, Gibson probably doesn't get enough respect nationally. That should change after Saturday. West Virginia's defense had variety, discipline and got eight stops on 11 drives. Against an offense like Texas Tech's, that's flat out remarkable.

Loser -- Giving up a third-and-29 for a touchdown: However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Mountaineers completely botched this third-and-29 touchdown pass. Yes, a third-and-29, as in one yard under 30. It's not quite as bad as allowing a score on third-and-45, but it's close. C'mon, y'all.

Winner -- Northwestern's Solomon Vault: Just as it appeared Michigan State was creeping its way back 33-31 in the third quarter, Vault took a kickoff 95 yards back for a touchdown. That, you could say, vaulted* Northwestern to a high-scoring 54-40 win for the Wildcats (which, by the way, was a historically bad home loss for the Spartans). Vault now has four career kickoff returns for scores.

*Sorry for the dad jokes, everyone.

Loser -- Rutgers' offensive futility: The Scarlet Knights scored a real, actual touchdown during the fourth quarter of a 24-7 loss to Illinois. How rare is that? Rutgers had been shut out of the end zone (and scoreboard) in its previous 11 quarters. The last time Rutgers scored a touchdown was on Sept. 24 against Iowa. Playing Ohio State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks doesn't help, but this is a team that has scored 14 points in the past month.

Winner -- Vanderbilt: There's a crusade being led by yours truly to see Vanderbilt get to a bowl game without scoring 200 points on the season. (Ideally, this would happen without the Dores scoring 100 points, but we've passed that benchmark already.) Vandy is halfway there with a 17-16 win over Georgia. Derek Mason's team needs to win three of its next five games to be bowl eligible, which means it will have to knock off one of the following: Auburn, Ole Miss or Tennessee. That's a tall order, but Vandy also needed to beat a team like Georgia or Florida to make some noise in the SEC East. At 131 points on the season, Vanderbilt needs to average 13.8 points per game to reach this goal. Let's make it happen.

Loser -- Diagnosing Clemson: Seven games in, it's still tough to know what to make of the Tigers. They have arguably the best win of the season over Louisville but have been sluggish in practically every other game. That trend continued in a 24-17 overtime win over NC State. Clemson can move the ball well enough, but finishing drives was a problem, along with turnovers. The defense is doing its job, but Clemson is just ... sluggish, an enigma. Given all the talent this team has, it should not be cutting it this close nearly every week.

Winner -- Nebraska wideout Brandon Reilly: How about the concentration by Reilly on this catch vs. Indiana? Normally, we talk about tip drills favoring the defense, but this is some quality hand-eye coordination by Reilly.

Here's another angle ...

Loser -- Playing football in the center of the sun: If you've ever wanted to know what the melting point of college football is, we might have found it. It was apparently 137 degrees on the field during Saturday's game between Arizona and Southern California. One hundred. Thirty. Seven. Really. There's photographic evidence and everything!

That's not "football weather," just like playing a game in a blizzard isn't "football weather." That's stay inside and don't even try anything weather. USC didn't get that memo, though. Sam Darnold accounted for five total touchdowns in a 48-14 win for the Trojans.

Winner -- Louisiana Tech receiver Carlos Henderson: He simply did his best Julio Jones fantasy football impersonation with 12 catches, 326 yards and five touchdowns in a 56-28 win over Massachusetts. For context, that's 58 percent of the yards he already had on the season and matches the five touchdowns he scored previously.

Loser -- Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke: This should probably be credited to Michigan State's offensive line, but it's Lewerke who's going to feel this vicious hit on Sunday ... and probably Monday ... and maybe Tuesday. Goodness, what a shot. That's arguably the hit of the weekend. Kudos for holding on to the ball, though.

Winner -- South Dakota State: Oh yeah, we're dipping into the FCS. With a 19-17 win over North Dakota State, the Jackrabbits beat the Bison for the first time since 2009. Keep in mind North Dakota State has won five straight national championships, so this is the FCS equivalent of upsetting Alabama. And yes, this is the same South Dakota State team that gave TCU all kinds of hell in Week 1.

Loser -- Iowa State's second-half struggles: This much is obvious: Iowa State is improving steadily under first-year coach Matt Campbell. The Cyclones have been a far better team over the past month and carried halftime leads in each of their past three Big 12 games against Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas. However, Iowa State has lost all three of those games, including Saturday's 27-6 loss to the Longhorns. In the second half of those three games, Iowa State has been outscored 72-28. Campbell can coach, but there's not enough depth to finish out games.

Winner -- Orange you glad you hired Dino Babers? Syracuse still has work to do before it's bowl eligible, but a 31-17 win over No. 17 Virginia Tech is a nice victory for Babers. It represents the first win over a ranked team for Syracuse since joining the ACC. As for Babers, he's still building this program up, but it felt like he was going to knock off one or two favorites this year. He might not be done.

Loser -- Missouri-Florida and the art of the interception: Florida's 40-14 win over Missouri wasn't a piece of art, unless you enjoy defensive scores. In that case, Florida's defense was van Gogh. Tigers quarterback Drew Lock threw not one but two pick-sixes -- one to Quincy Wilson and one to Teez Tabor -- on consecutive series. Not that Florida was much better: Quarterback Luke Del Rio, in his first game back from a knee injury, had three interceptions and probably should have thrown six.

Winner -- South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers: There have been some spectacular touchdown runs this season, but Flowers' 54-yard touchdown run against UConn is up there with the best. The sheer juking ability Flowers has here is impressive. There were at least a handful of players who had a chance at him, but no one could bring him down. Unreal.

Loser -- Officiating at the end of Tulsa-Houston: Houston's goal-line stand to beat Tulsa 38-31 was one of the most dramatic finishes of the day. It was also the most controversial -- at least after the fact. On the play before Houston stopped Jesse Brubaker at the inch-line as time expired, the Cougars had what appeared to be too many men on the field. Multiple players were also offsides. Here are some screengrabs which show, at the very least, that Houston was in the neutral zone ...

How these would-be penalties would have affected the outcome will never be known. Maybe it wouldn't have changed a thing since Tulsa would have moved about a foot forward and the Golden Hurricane were clearly panicked. But this was an egregious missed call all the same.

Winner -- Temple's last-second heroics: It didn't register on many radars, but Temple's game-winning touchdown over Central Florida with one second left was one of the most exciting finishes of the day. The Owls got the ball back down 25-20 with 70 yards to drive and 32 seconds to get the job done. Temple covered all 70 yards on just four plays, scoring the game-winning touchdown pass (from Phillip Walker to Keith Kirkwood) with one second remaining.