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The SEC West has continued to prove that it’s extremely hard to predict — outside of who will more than likely end up on top — how things are going to shake out this season.
Auburn fell to LSU, Ole Miss bounced back against Vandy and Texas A&M is now in consideration for the best team in the West besides Alabama.
Here’s a recap of what else happened this week:
Alabama
The Tide continued to roll on Saturday against Arkansas, putting up 41 points on offense while holding another SEC opponent to single digits (9).
It wasn’t the cleanest performance of the season, but it was just another example of why Alabama is the country’s best team right now.
Several players, including Damien Harris and Isaiah Buggs, got banged up, but Buggs was able to return and Harris says that he should be good to go moving forward.
Arkansas
The Razorbacks were on the receiving end of Alabama’s beatdown, but there were some bright spots.
Cole Kelley, starting in place of the injured Austin Allen, threw for 200 yards, including a 46-yarder and an impressive touchdown, and proved to be extremely tough to bring down. His surrounding weapons didn’t always help him out, but the future looks bright for Arkansas at the quarterback position.
CB Kevin Richardson was forced to leave the game due to injury, but the severity is still unknown.
Auburn
There is no other way to put this: Auburn blew it.
The Tigers went into Death Valley and had LSU down 20-0 early (giving them a 96 percent chance of winning), but they couldn’t hold on, losing 27-23.
Defensive players Marlon Davidson, Derrick Brown and Deshaun Davis all were forced to leave the game at some point, but all returned. Starting center Casey Dunn went down to injury (unspecified), and starting safety Tray Matthews sustained a right hamstring injury.
The Tigers have the Razorbacks in Week 8, then a bye week before starting a rough four-game stretch that includes Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama — three of the best teams in the SEC.
LSU
Don’t look now, but the LSU Tigers are 2-0 since losing to Troy in Week 5.
It was a fairly even matchup between the two Tigers squads of the SEC West. Time of possession was split 30:30 for Auburn and 29:30 for LSU, and the offenses put up 354 and 363 yards, respectively.
The offense still has work to do, but the team has seemed to come together since the embarrassing loss to a non-Power 5 opponent.
Mississippi State
A 35-10 victory over BYU might look good on paper, but it was a sloppy effort for the Bulldogs.
The offense did some good things, including 344 total yards and 4 total touchdowns from quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, but there were poor passes (including two interceptions) and drops that could’ve hurt State against a better opponent.
Holding BYU to 176 total yards is nice, but the defense didn’t play as well as it could’ve either.
We should get a better idea of where this team stands in its game against Kentucky next Saturday.
Ole Miss
The Rebels’ 57-35 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores might be the team’s most impressive win this season.
QB Shea Patterson bounced back in a big way, completing 62.9 percent of his passes for 351 yards and 4 touchdowns, while RB Jordan Wilkins finally found some consistent running room — adding 113 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Marquis Haynes seems to have finally come alive on defense. The team’s best pass rusher logged 3 sacks against Vandy. He only had 1.5 in the previous five games.
Texas A&M
Are the Aggies the second best team in the SEC West?
It still might be a little too early to make that call, but they are most certainly a team to be reckoned with.
A week after taking Alabama to the wire — the only team to do so this season, by the way — they went into The Swamp and got a 19-17 victory over the Florida Gators.
This victory goes to the defense and special teams, however. Kellen Mond only completed 33.3 percent of his passes, and the run game didn’t see even one player average more than 3.5 yards per carry.
The defense, on the other hand, racked up 5 sacks and intercepted Feleipe Franks twice, and Christian Kirk’s 43-yard punt return helped set up the Aggies’ game-winning field goal.
Quote of the week
“I heard Coach Saban said he thought we did a good job, and if he said that, I’m not going to disagree.” – Alabama RB Damien Harris following the 41-9 victory over the Razorbacks.
Tweet of the week
when i die at 38 due to long term exposure to auburn football, tell 2nd half auburn to be my pallbearers so they can let me down 1 more time
— blasting puddle of mudd on way to custody hearing (@GetRitchDieRyan) October 14, 2017
This whole thread is sadly hysterical.
Clint helps cover the SEC West for Saturday Down South. His work can also be found on USA TODAY Sports, The 'Bama Beat podcast and The Bullpen with TonyMac and The Lamb. Previous stops include SEC Country, 247Sports and Touchdown Alabama Magazine.
