Yep; I think they were fair both that game & UGA

UGA- even if Smart went overly conservative at home, we played a very good team that may well make the playoff right down to the wire, and I think we only dropped 3-4 spots, much like the Bush Push game where even friends who hate ND came away impressed.

We are on a family friendly board, so I'll just leave the Michigan game as unacceptable. They were somehow picked over OSU in the preseason, yet ended up being thumped by Wisconsin and dominated by PSU (I think this is the one game Patterson looked like the hype) for much of the game before, and then crushed by OSU last week, so this is far from our losses to very good teams like Alabama '12 or Clemson '19.

Your analysis is dead-on IMO, and it also didn't help to have UF with close losses to LSU/UGA but a quality win over Auburn, Michigan rightfully leveraging their win over us until last week's loss, Penn State & Wisconsin IMO leveraging their common opponent in Michigan over us, Utah and Oregon going on late runs, and USC/Stanford not being quality wins for us.