SEC week two recap
The Hail State Pirate ship takes on water, Gators’ Heisman campaigns keep rolling, Bama rolls the Aggies, and Georgia thrashes Auburn.
By: The Waco Kid, The Hammer, Bossman Slim
Bad Pirate Leach memes will continue until morale improves.
Early Games
#3 Florida 38 - South Carolina 24
Surprise, Surprise Florida put the Gamecocks in their place: the middle to low end of the pack in the SEC East. Steve Spurrier was watching, in his Florida visor and South Carolina sponsored whitey tighties, and just like on the field, one was covered in crap. Florida came ready to play scoring double digits in each of the first three quarters. Kyle Trask threw for 268 yards, 4 touchdowns and only one interception, continuing his Burrow-esque campaign for the Heisman trophy and an undefeated season. The Gator’s fearsome tandem of Kyle squared connected for two more touchdowns to electrify an already spectacular start to the season. Florida’s offense is the greatest show on turf: college football edition. South Carolina’s defense is the worst show on turf: Will Muschamp edition.
South Carolina has yet to hold an opponent to under 30 points this season, which is surprising because Muschamp has always been known as a defensive mind. I guess when you’ve been the defensive coordinator at the University of Texas, this qualifies as a good defensive effort. The Gamecocks are putting up pretty good numbers behind the arm of Collin Hill. Hill threw for 212 yards and two scores but with a defense that couldn’t stop a toddler on the run, he will have to put up at least 350 yards and five touchdowns to have a chance to win a game. Wide receiver Shi Smith reminds me of Kevin Hart, he’s very good at what he does but is undersized and will not ever shut up. If he spent more time focusing on the ball and not talking trash maybe he wouldn’t have dropped a ball that Shaq could have caught and made a free throw with.
Next week, Florida pulls a Texas A&M team that should be angry and hungry after a humbling loss to Alabama. Expect Florida to score points but A&M’s defense to come out with intensity contradicting the attitude of Kellen Mond who will show up with his nonchalant manner and lackadaisical outlook on life. That game is at 12:00 ET on ESPN. South Carolina gets Vanderbilt next week to determine who will be the worst team, besides Mizzou, in the SEC East. If you like horrible football, tune into the SEC Network at 12:00 ET.
#21 Tennessee 35 - Mizzou 12
This could serve as a retraction paragraph due to my prediction of the game, but I regret nothing. The previous week, Tennessee barely survived a somewhat decent South Carolina team and Mizzou, expectedly, lost to Alabama. Pair those two games with Jarrett Guarantano’s insane superpower of being incredibly average, there was no telling what we were in store for. Don’t get me wrong Guarantano made strides this weekend, but little did I know that the Vols’ offensive line and rushing attack would more than make up for a lackluster passing performance. Cade Mays was back, and his impact on the line was evident throughout the game. The line went from good to great. There is still some work to be done in pass protection, as Jeremy Pruitt mentioned, but the bulldozers did their job on the ground accumulating 232 yards and 4 TDs on the day. Everyone loves a big man celebration dance and after that performance these guys should be dancing the night away.
While nothing coming from the opposite sideline was anything close to impressive, there was a silver lining: it seems Mizzou has found a starting quarterback in Connor Bazelak. The Tigers will have a tough season going forward and will look to be successful in at least one but no more than two games. Tennessee now somehow is tied for the longest winning streak in the nation with the Golden Domers of Notre Dame.
Tennessee looks to continue their winning streak next weekend when they play Georgia in Athens...hahahaha like that will ever happen. You can catch the game on CBS at 3:30 ET. Mizzou will look to continue their losing streak next weekend as they travel to Baton Rouge to participate in a Tiger battle that even Joe Exotic has no desire to see. Tune into ESPN at 9:00 ET to witness this slaughter.
The Waco Kid
Midday Games
#2 Alabama 52 - #13 Texas A&M 24
Nothing to see here, just Alabama dominating another opponent. This was a measuring stick game for A&M and they didn’t measure up to much of anything. Bama had better athletes all over the field and exposed the Aggie secondary. Mac Jones proved he can sling the ball all over the yard, and the Tide offense is not missing a beat in the post Tua error. Clearly, we were too high on A&M as evidenced by our prediction earlier this week. Whether Jimbo is the man for the job in Aggieland could (and is) being debated, but we know one thing for certain - A&M has not arrived yet. At least not to where their fan base expects.
Photo: Gary Cosby Jr., The Tuscaloosa News/USA Today Sports
Alabama has an incredible ability to make plays when needed, not hurt themselves, and capitalize when their opponent makes a mistake. A lot of A&M’s issues yesterday were self inflicted and Alabama took advantage. The game was tied 14-14 early in the second quarter when Bama took over. A Najee Harris touchdown run to go up 21-14 was followed by a pick-six, making it 28-14. Then the Aggies dropped an easy first down pass on 4th down, giving the Tide the ball back with a few minutes before half time. Of course, they drove right down and scored, effectively ending the game just before half time going up 35-14. It’s going to be very difficult to run the table in a 10 game all SEC schedule, but if any team can, it’s Alabama.
The Tide travel to Oxford next week to take on former Saban assistant turned thorn in his side Lane Kiffin at 6:00 ET on ESPN. The schedule lightens for A&M, as they get to try their hand at being Gator bait to #4 Florida at noon ET on ESPN.
Ole Miss 42 - Kentucky 41 (OT)
Tough start to the season for Kentucky. Lose a hard fought game to Auburn last week and now fall in overtime to the Rebels of Ole Miss. The Lane Train is going to be a problem for SEC defenses. These dudes can score on anyone and it will keep them in games. Matt Corral looked impressive again, throwing for 320 yards, four touchdowns, and adding 51 yards on the ground. As impressive as the Ole Miss offense has been, the defense has been equally unimpressive. Kentucky ran for 408 yards on Saturday, and had three players eclipse the 100 yard mark - Terry Wilson, Christian Rodriguez, and Asim Rose. This was all without starting RB Kavosiey Smoke, who didn’t play in the second half due to bruised ribs.
This game was back and forth all day and ultimately came down to a missed extra point in overtime. Heartbreaking way to start 0-2 for UK. Kentucky and Ole Miss will likely find themselves in a lot of these games this year. Kentucky’s running game and ball control should keep them in most contests, while Ole Miss can put up points against anyone. A big first win for Lane Kiffin against a solid Kentucky team.
Ole Miss hosts the mighty Crimson Tide next week for a night game at Vaught Hemingway, 6:00 ET on ESPN. Good luck. Kentucky gets to play the other Mississippi school, as they will host Mike Leach and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 7:30 ET on SEC Network.
The Hammer
Late Games
#4 Georgia 27 - #7 Auburn 6
Well, we were right about one thing: this game was won in the trenches. We were just disastrously wrong about who would own those trenches. The Georgia offensive line created holes all night long, and while no rusher surpassed the 100 yard mark, the team rushed for 202 and 2 TDs. The Dawgs O-line got the message in practice this week, turning in a much better performance than last week against Arkansas when the Dawgs only managed 121 yards on the ground. A telling stat: UGA averaged 7-yards per play on first down. Not only did they own the line of scrimmage in the run game, but they gave Tombstone actor Stetson Bennett plenty of time to throw on the most important down. You could write plenty of stories about Stetson Bennett, and they will be written (maybe by us...probably not...we’ll see). But he will go down in Georgia lore after a 240 yard, 1 TD, 91.6 QB rating night where he showed poise, moxie, and a step-on-the-gas mentality that will endear him to all Bulldog fans.
On the other side of the ball, Georgia was flying around all night. The D-line was in Bo Nix’s face the entire game and held the Tiger rushing attack to an abysmal 39 yards on 22 carries for an average of...1.8 yards per carry. Auburn has elite receivers - but Georgia DBs should be offended if anyone tells them that white covers rice better than they covered Auburn’s wide receivers last night. The scrappy DBs were in Seth Williams, Anthony Schwartz and Tank Bigsby’s grills, only allowing 171 yards through the air. In today’s pass happy age, that’s a win.
ESPN’s Peter Burns reminded us on Twitter just how dang good that defense was:
It was a spectacular performance by the Dawgs, a complete game. Questions abound for Auburn, who were soundly defeated in every aspect of the game. The only question for Georgia to me: is Stetson Bennett a comet who will shine bright and burn out fast? Or is he the final answer at QB for the Dawgs this year?
“Stetson Bennett - is that your final answer?”
Auburn gets Arkansas next week, who are higher than Snoop Dogg on 4/20 after sinking the Leach Pirate Ship for their first SEC win since the Civil War. That game is at 4:00 ET on SEC Network. Georgia gets the 3:30 ET game of the week slot on CBS against upstart Tennessee.
Arkansas 21 - #16 Mississippi State 14
I mean...who saw this one coming? After KJ Costello walked into Baton Rouge and torched the LSU secondary last week, catapulting him into the Heisman conversation, he followed it up with...a heckuva dud. Arkansas, a team that had not won an SEC game in 20 contests - or counted another way, since ol’ Bill Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas - finally found the winning recipe.
The Arkansas defense bent, allowing 313 passing yards, but didn’t break and came up with 3 INTs to keep the Air Raid in check. The upset alert was on early when Costello threw a bad 69 yard pick-six to Hogs DB Greg Brooks Jr. Then, more bad news for the Bulldogs came when star RB Kylin Hill went down for an injury and did not return. It was an injury that severely hampered Mississippi State the rest of the night, losing their most potent weapon.
And then there was the Arkansas offense. We have panned Feleipe Franks now for weeks, dumping on the poor man. But credit where it’s due - Franks looked good on Saturday, taking care of the ball, throwing for 2 TDs and 212 yards, and hitting the receivers when they were open - and MAN WERE THEY OPEN. The one problem with the Pirate at all his stops: the ship has a massive leak in the hull, which on this ship is called “defense.” The closest State DB to an Arkansas WR sometimes seemed to be in the next state over, especially on the TD passes.
Mississippi State still had some life left late in the 4th, but a muffed punt with 2:04 left was the final nail in the coffin, sans a prayer. All in all: big win for Arkansas. Sam Pittman has these kids buying in, and the culture is changing in Fayetteville.
Mississippi State looks to rebound next week at Kentucky on SEC Network at 7:30 ET, while Arkansas heads straight back into the SEC West meat grinder to face a pissed off Auburn. That game is on SEC Network at 4:00 ET.
#20 LSU 41 - Vanderbilt 7
It may have been a rough week for the B&S team on our picks - but on this one, this really-tough-to-call game...on this one, WE TOLD YOU SO. LSU rebounded nicely against Vanderbilt, handing out some creole-style whoop ass on the hapless Commodores. Thankfully we had better things to do than watch this entire game, but it was a cathartic way for LSU and their fans to take out their anger on someone.
Myles Brennan looked much improved this week, hooking up with Terrace Marshall Jr. and Jontre Kirklin for a pair of touchdowns a piece. The LSU defense did as expected against the Vandy offense, keeping them in check all night by forcing 2 turnovers and holding them to 222 yards of total offense. Giving up 151 rushing yards to Vanderbilt isn’t great, and it’s something that DC Bo Pelini will key in on as a point of focus for the Tigers next week.
LSU gets a Mizzou squad they should pummel in Baton Rouge at 9:00 ET. Vanderbilt looks to continue their winless season in Nashville against South Carolina at noon ET on SEC Network.
Bossman Slim