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Explosive plays are the reason most of us watch football.
There’s nothing more exciting than holding your breath as your favorite quarterback lets one fly 50 yards down the field, or when the conference’s most exciting running back slips through a seam and has nothing but daylight in front of him.
So this season, we’re going to be tracking explosive plays for each team … how well they’re able to produce them, and how they are able to defend them.
For the purposes of this story, SDS defines an explosive play as a run of at least 20 yards or a pass of at least 30 yards.
EXPLOSIVE PLAY MARGIN
This is the ultimate measure of how well a team is performing in the explosive plays department. It is simply a tally of explosive plays created measured out against the amount of explosive plays allowed. If your team has made more explosive plays than they’ve given up, there’s a good chance they are doing something right.
Georgia overtook Mississippi State for the top spot thanks to the 4+ margin it gained against Southern last week. Despite playing a solid defense, Ole Miss picked up a +3 against Vanderbilt to rise into sole possession of second place.
There were only three teams in the negatives entering Week 4, but now there are twice as many. Auburn stayed at -6 to remain in last place.
| TEAM | MARGIN | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Georgia | +13 | 16 | 3 |
| 2. Ole Miss | +11 | 20 | 9 |
| T3. Mississippi State | +10 | 16 | 6 |
| T3. LSU | +10 | 14 | 4 |
| 5. Alabama | +8 | 12 | 4 |
| 6. Missouri | +6 | 8 | 2 |
| 7. Kentucky | +5 | 14 | 9 |
| 8. Texas A&M | +4 | 16 | 12 |
| T9. Arkansas | -1 | 12 | 13 |
| T9. Florida | -1 | 10 | 11 |
| T9. Tennessee | -1 | 10 | 11 |
| 12. South Carolina | -2 | 10 | 12 |
| 13. Vanderbilt | -3 | 7 | 10 |
| 14. Auburn | -6 | 5 | 11 |
EXPLOSIVE PLAYS: OFFENSE
This will be the area in which we break down how the explosive plays are happening for each team.
The Rebels tallied four more explosive plays in their win over the Commodores, two each via the run and pass, to stay ahead of the pack. Georgia and Texas A&M also recorded four to jump into a tie with Mississippi State for second. The Aggies got two of their explosive plays back-to-back to end the first quarter (Kyle Allen’s 36-yard pass to Josh Reynolds) and to start the second quarter (44-yard TD pass to Christian Kirk).
LSU had five explosive plays in last week’s win over Syracuse. The Tigers were the only SEC team without an explosive passing play, but they picked up two against the Orange. LSU and Georgia’s 12 explosive rushing plays are tied for fourth-best in the FBS.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ole Miss | 20 | 9 | 11 |
| T2. Georgia | 16 | 12 | 4 |
| T2. Mississippi State | 16 | 7 | 9 |
| T2. Texas A&M | 16 | 8 | 8 |
| T5. Kentucky | 14 | 8 | 6 |
| T5. LSU | 14 | 12 | 2 |
| T7. Alabama | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| T7. Arkansas | 12 | 5 | 7 |
| T9. Florida | 10 | 3 | 7 |
| T9. South Carolina | 10 | 7 | 3 |
| T9. Tennessee | 10 | 6 | 4 |
| 12. Missouri | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 13. Vanderbilt | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 14. Auburn | 5 | 3 | 2 |
EXPLOSIVE PLAYS: DEFENSE
Much like the offensive rankings above, we’ve taken similar effort to breakdown exactly how the SEC defenses are allowing explosive plays.
Amazingly, Missouri has only allowed two explosive plays all season, giving up its second in last week’s loss to Kentucky. Georgia has been equally good bottling up big passing plays, surrendering one so far. There’s only one school that hasn’t allowed a long passing play this season, and that’s Boston College.
Arkansas took a huge tumble into last place by allowing four — all through the air — in its overtime loss to Texas A&M, which has also struggled in this department. Meanwhile, Florida also allowed four last week but managed to win its game against Tennessee.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 20+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Missouri | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2. Georgia | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| T3. Alabama | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| T3. LSU | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 5. Mississippi State | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| T6. Kentucky | 9 | 5 | 4 |
| T6. Ole Miss | 9 | 5 | 4 |
| 8. Vanderbilt | 10 | 7 | 3 |
| T9. Auburn | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| T9. Florida | 11 | 6 | 5 |
| T9. Tennessee | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| T12. South Carolina | 12 | 9 | 3 |
| T12. Texas A&M | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| 14. Arkansas | 13 | 5 | 8 |
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
