Saturday gave us the games. Sunday morning, we deal with the consequences.

And Week 3 gave us plenty to deal with.

We had a team somehow lose a football game it had basically already won. We had one of the most anticipated revenge games of the entire season actually live up to the hype. We had a top-10 team get smacked at home by a Kentucky team that had just gotten smacked itself. And here in Colorado?

Well...

Maybe we save that one for the end.

Welcome back to The Morning After, where the final score is only the beginning of the conversation.

MUSIC CITY MADNESS: Vanderbilt 35, NC State 31

There are losses.

There are bad losses.

There are losses that make you stare at the television and wonder what the hell you just watched.

And then there is what NC State did in Nashville.

NC State led Vanderbilt 17-0. They were up 24-7 in the third quarter. They held a 31-28 lead with six seconds left and had the football.

Read that last sentence again.

Six seconds.

Lead.

Football.

Game over.

Except somehow it wasn't.

The idea on fourth down was simple: CJ Bailey burns the remaining clock and takes the safety if necessary. Even if Vanderbilt gets the two points, NC State wins 31-30.

Instead, Bailey got hit by Miles Capers, the football came out in the end zone and Cayden Daniels recovered it for Vanderbilt.

Touchdown.

Ballgame.

Vanderbilt 35, NC State 31.

College football is the dumbest sport on Earth.

I mean that as the highest compliment imaginable.

This is why you cannot turn the television off. This is why coaches preach situational football from the first day of camp until the last snap of the season. NC State had basically every possible advantage you could have with six seconds remaining and still found the one path that led to losing.

But I also don't want the ending to completely erase what Vanderbilt did to get there.

Jared Curtis was making his first career start and finished with 277 passing yards, three touchdowns and another 64 yards on the ground. Junior Sherrill went over 100 receiving yards with two touchdowns. Vanderbilt kept fighting after falling behind 17-0 and then answered again when NC State pushed the lead back to 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Commodores scored 21 points in the fourth quarter.

That's the part that matters.

The final play was absurd. NC State absolutely handed Vanderbilt an opportunity that should never have existed.

But Vanderbilt was still there to take it.

They didn't quit at 17-0.

They didn't quit at 24-7.

They didn't quit at 31-28 with six seconds left and NC State holding the football.

And because of that, Vanderbilt is 3-0.

NC State gets to spend the rest of the season knowing it somehow lost a game that was over.

That is college football.

OXFORD REVENGE: Ole Miss 32, LSU 24

There wasn't another game on the schedule this weekend with more emotion attached to it.

Lane Kiffin returning to Oxford.

LSU on one sideline.

The program he left behind on the other.

Months of anger. Months of buildup. Months of Ole Miss fans waiting for their chance.

And then the Rebels came out and played like they had been waiting for this exact night.

Ole Miss jumped LSU 17-0 and carried a 24-7 lead into halftime. Trinidad Chambliss was dealing. The Rebels were moving the football. LSU looked overwhelmed.

And for about a half, it looked like Oxford was going to get the easiest revenge party imaginable.

Of course, nothing involving Lane Kiffin can ever be that simple.

LSU came roaring back.

Sam Leavitt ran one in. He connected with Winston Watkins for another touchdown. LSU eventually tied the game 24-24 early in the fourth quarter.

Suddenly, everything changed.

All that anger inside Vaught-Hemingway turned into anxiety.

And that's where this game became bigger than just the revenge storyline.

Because Ole Miss answered.

Chambliss led a 13-play, 75-yard drive and finished it himself with a 14-yard touchdown run. Ole Miss added the two-point conversion and suddenly the Rebels were back up eight.

Then LSU drove all the way back down the field.

Fourth-and-goal.

Season-defining atmosphere.

Chance for Kiffin to rip Ole Miss' heart out in his return.

Instead, Leavitt's pass was intercepted in the end zone.

Game over.

Revenge complete.

Chambliss finished with 363 passing yards and two touchdowns, and Ole Miss finished with 426 yards of offense.

More importantly, Ole Miss proved something.

This program did not disappear when Lane Kiffin walked out the door.

That's what this game was always going to be about.

Kiffin going back to Oxford was obviously the headline, but Ole Miss needed to show that its identity wasn't completely attached to the guy standing on the opposite sideline.

For one night, mission accomplished.

LSU deserves credit for fighting all the way back from 24-7. Plenty of teams fold in that environment.

But the moment Ole Miss got punched back, it responded.

That's a massive win.

And if we're being real, Ole Miss fans probably don't care what happens for the next 24 hours.

They got the one they wanted.

AGGIELAND AMBUSH: Kentucky 31, No. 9 Texas A&M 21

This is why September rankings can make all of us look stupid.

Kentucky entered Saturday coming off a beating.

Texas A&M was sitting inside the top 10, playing at Kyle Field and had every reason to believe it was taking care of business.

Instead, Kentucky walked into College Station and punched the Aggies right in the mouth.

And the craziest part?

At halftime, this was a completely normal football game.

7-7.

Then the third quarter happened.

Kentucky scored 21 unanswered points.

Kenny Minchey hit Kenny Darby for a 42-yard touchdown.

CJ Baxter scored.

Then Baxter scored again.

Suddenly it was 28-7, and Kyle Field had gone from expecting a top-10 victory to wondering what the hell happened.

Minchey was fantastic: 14-of-18 for 252 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Kentucky didn't turn the football over once.

Texas A&M did it twice.

That's how you pull an upset on the road.

No stupid mistakes. Hit your explosives. Make the other team chase you.

Meanwhile, Marcel Reed had to throw the ball 49 times for A&M and finished with two interceptions. The Aggies actually outgained Kentucky slightly, but Kentucky averaged more than seven-and-a-half yards per play.

That tells the story.

A&M had volume.

Kentucky had damage.

Texas A&M tried to make things interesting in the fourth quarter, but by then the hole was too deep. Kentucky added a 52-yard field goal and shut the door, 31-21.

The immediate reaction is obviously going to be about A&M.

How does a top-10 team lose this game at home?

Fair question.

But Kentucky deserves the spotlight here.

This wasn't some lucky bounce at the end.

They went into College Station and won the game.

After getting embarrassed the week before, that's one hell of a response.

THE 2-MINUTE DRILL

New addition to The Morning After.

Not every game needs a full autopsy, but there are too many good stories every Saturday to completely ignore them.

So let's go hurry-up.

Texas Tech Survives Houston, 28-26

Houston nearly stole this one late.

Conner Weigman threw his third touchdown of the night with 53 seconds left to make it 28-26, setting up a two-point conversion for the tie.

Weigman took off himself.

Stopped short.

Reviewed.

Still short.

Texas Tech survives.

Houston actually outgained the Red Raiders 458-425, but Tech did just enough to leave 3-0. Not necessarily convincing, but undefeated is undefeated.

Next.

Louisville 41, SMU 31

This game just kept swinging until Louisville finally landed the last punch.

SMU's Kendrick Raphael ran for 197 yards and three touchdowns, and somehow that wasn't enough.

Why?

Because Louisville had its own ridiculous rushing performance.

Keyjuan Brown: 10 carries, 163 yards, two touchdowns.

That's 16.3 yards per carry for anybody without a calculator nearby.

SMU turned it over three times. Louisville didn't turn it over at all.

There's your difference.

The ACC might be more interesting than people expected.

Alabama 50, Florida State 36

Florida State had Alabama down 21-6.

Then Alabama apparently remembered it was Alabama.

The Crimson Tide scored three touchdowns late in the second quarter and went into halftime leading 26-21.

Keelon Russell finished with 320 passing yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and added a 57-yard rushing touchdown.

Florida State put up 471 yards and still lost by two touchdowns because Alabama put up 567.

Absolute track meet.

And just like that, a game that looked like it might become a disaster in Tuscaloosa turned into 50 points.

Two-Minute Drill complete.

Take a breath.

Now let's talk about Colorado.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN WRECKAGE

I considered giving Colorado and Colorado State their own sections.

Then Saturday happened.

Neither one earned it.

So welcome to the first ever combined State of Colorado Football Misery Report.

Northwestern 41, Colorado 7

This was ugly.

Not “the score got away from them late” ugly.

Not “a couple plays go differently” ugly.

41-7 ugly.

Colorado actually finished with 348 yards of offense, which makes the final score look even worse.

The Buffs turned the ball over four times and failed on three fourth downs.

Seven possessions ending without getting to punt or score.

You aren't beating anybody doing that.

Julian Lewis finished 19-of-29 for 168 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. The lone bright spot was a 50-yard touchdown to Joseph Williams early in the third quarter.

For about four minutes, you could convince yourself Colorado might make it interesting.

Northwestern responded with two more touchdowns.

Conversation over.

Aidan Chiles shredded Colorado, completing 17-of-22 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns while adding two more scores with his legs.

Five touchdowns from one quarterback.

Colorado entered the weekend 2-0.

They left Evanston with a reality check.

There isn't much else to say.

Turn the ball over four times, allow five touchdowns from the opposing quarterback and score seven points?

You're going to get your ass kicked.

They did.

No. 11 BYU 41, Colorado State 23

And a few hours away, things weren't going much better.

Colorado State entered this game 2-0 with some legitimate excitement around the beginning of the Jim Mora era.

Then BYU needed basically one play to announce that this was going to be a different level of football.

LJ Martin went 56 yards for a touchdown on BYU's opening possession.

He wasn't finished.

Martin had three rushing touchdowns in the first quarter and finished with 176 yards on 15 carries.

BYU finished with 559 yards of offense and averaged nearly 10 yards every time it snapped the football.

That'll do it.

CSU did answer the first touchdown and tied the game 7-7, which at least gave Canvas Stadium something to believe in.

Then BYU scored the next 31 points.

By the time CSU put together some fourth-quarter offense, the competitive portion of the game was finished.

The Rams eventually used three quarterbacks. Hauss Hejny started and threw the first touchdown. K'saan Farrar got extended work. Darius Curry helped produce some late points.

None of it changed the bigger takeaway.

BYU was just better.

Faster. More explosive. More physical.

Colorado State is still 2-1, so I'm not turning one loss to the No. 11 team in the country into some declaration that the Jim Mora era is doomed.

That's ridiculous.

But it was a reminder of how much work is still left to do.

And when you combine it with what happened to Colorado?

Northwestern 41, Colorado 7.

BYU 41, Colorado State 23.

A combined 82-30.

Rocky Mountain Wreckage feels about right.

WHAT WEEK 3 TOLD ME

Week 3 was another reminder that college football refuses to operate logically.

NC State had won.

Until it hadn't.

Lane Kiffin had the chance to walk back into Oxford and complete the ultimate heel turn.

Ole Miss slammed the door.

Texas A&M was a top-10 team playing Kentucky at home.

Kentucky didn't care.

And Colorado football fans from Boulder to Fort Collins might want to pretend Saturday never happened.

Three weeks in, that's what I'm enjoying most about this season.

We think we know something.

Then Saturday shows up.

And apparently we're all idiots again.

Perfect.

That's why we watch.

What was the craziest moment of Week 3? Is Ole Miss a legitimate national contender? How worried should Texas A&M be? And which Colorado program concerns you more after Saturday?

We'll do it all again next Sunday.