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Florida celebrated an SEC East championship on Tiger Stadium turf.
Vanderbilt just completely handed Ole Miss its scalp.
And this is a week after Georgia ruined Auburn’s championship hopes.
All of a sudden, the SEC East is showing some teeth in its games with its SEC West rivals. Just a few weeks ago, we were wondering if the West would ever lose a game to a team from the East this year.
Now? It’s back to being competitive.
Heck, maybe Florida will be ready to take Alabama to …
Well, let’s not get crazy here.
Alabama: You can’t always play at peak level as the Crimson Tide proved in a 31-3 subduing of FCS foe Chattanooga. After a series of convincing SEC wins, perhaps it was to be expected that Alabama would eventually have a game where it falls flat. And it’s fortunate for the Tide that the game came against an FCS team that, while competitive in its division, did not have the physical ability to take advantage of a lackluster effort. Look for Nick Saban to have his team dialed in again for the Iron Bowl.
Arkansas: The Razorbacks are 7-4 after a 58-42 shootout win over Mississippi State, and they can credit much of their success this year to Bret Bielema’s team rediscovering the physical offensive identity his teams have been known for. Rawleigh Williams rushed for 205 yards and Arkansas’ offensive front consistently won the line of scrimmage, something they’ve done better lately with the exception of last week’s run-in with LSU’s physical and talented defensive front. Arkansas still doesn’t have much to hang its hat on on defense, but if the offense can produce a balance between what Austin Allen gives it in the passing game and what talented backs give it in the running game, next year could be interesting.
Auburn: The injury-plagued Tigers were able to rest some banged-up players in a 55-0 rout of FCS member Alabama A&M, and the biggest takeaway from it is that long-forgotten backup quarterback Jeremy Johnson, who was starting for the injured Sean White, is still a viable option. He completed 14-of-19 passes for 147 yards and looked pretty good in his first appearance since early in the season. Auburn probably needs a healthy Sean White to have any shot in the Iron Bowl, but it was nice to see Johnson come back and look pretty sharp.
LSU: What we learned in Saturday’s 16-10 loss to Florida is how valuable Kendell Beckwith is to the Tigers. When Beckwith went out with a leg injury in the second quarter, the Tigers’ lost their physical up-the-middle presence, allowing Gators running back Jordan Scarlett to rush for 80 of his game-high 108 yards in the second half. Without the 250-pound Beckwith, the Tigers become a little small at linebacker, and ball-carriers tended to fall forward and drag tacklers. And, without Beckwith’s presence, 308-pound nose tackle Greg Gilmore all of a sudden starts looking too small for his position.
Mississippi State: When the talk turns to MSU’s decline this year, usually the phrase thrown out is the “post-Dak Prescott era.” And the Bulldogs definitely miss the best quarterback ever to wear maroon and white. But the 58-42 loss to Arkansas again showed that offense and quarterback play aren’t the areas where a decline is being felt the most. Nick Fitzgerald put up numbers Prescott would be proud of — 328 yards passing and 131 rushing — but the defense is where MSU is woefully lacking. MSU has the offensive foundation to bounce back, but Dan Mullen and his staff need to find answers on the defensive side of the ball if they are to be competitive again.
Ole Miss: Can we consider the Landsharks officially dead? After watching an anemic Vanderbilt offense tear through the Rebels for almost 500 yards in a resounding 38-17 beatdown, let’s go ahead and bury any nickname that would imply that defense is good. We knew this defense didn’t have the same personnel that made it a strong unit in recent seasons. But they also don’t play with the pride of a group trying to respect a legacy. So forget a nickname for this bunch and just call it what it is: a bad defense.
Texas A&M: Even though the Aggies beat Texas-San Antonio, 23-10, they obviously miss Trevor Knight. Jake Hubenak’s numbers (19-f0r-32, 248 yards) were not bad, but there’s no denying this is not the same, explosive offense it was when Knight was the guy running it. Despite that, at 8-3, A&M can still land itself in a sexy bowl spot — maybe even the Sugar Bowl with a win over LSU. And no matter how unattractive the Aggies look on offense, that would be a thing of beauty.
