B&S Week 5 game-by-game recaps
Conference play delivered some great games last weekend.
By: The Waco Kid, The Hammer, Bossman Slim
A costly fumble from Will Levis seals the Ole Miss win. Photo via Thomas Graning, AP Photo
This sport never ceases to amaze me. Yet again, we saw chaos this weekend. Just when you think you’re starting to figure out these teams and this sport, a wild weekend occurs and you begin to realize that you don’t actually know anything. It’s a week to week game, and every week we see results that make no sense on paper. It’s maddening, yet beautiful. It keeps us all glued to the television on Saturdays (unless you have Dish Network).
No surprise here, we struggled again this week picking against the spread. The Waco Kid has the best weeking going 3-2, while Hammer and Bossman both went 1-4 ATS. I keep telling y’all to fade our picks, and if you haven’t heeded/headed/take headed of that advice yet you are missing out on cash money. Now, let’s dig into those recaps.
#14 Ole Miss 22 - #7 Kentucky 19
Bossman Slim: If it weren’t for those dang killer Kentucky mistakes, I would have been right! I picked Kentucky 27-24 and was feeling reaaaal good about my pick as the Wilcats were driving…and then Will Levis fumbled. Credit to Ole Miss for making plays when needed and gutting out a win. This Ole Miss rushing attack can’t be stopped. The Rebels are a team to be reckoned with in the West - I wouldn’t be surprised if Kiffin has them sitting right behind Alabama on that side of the conference come season’s end.
The Hammer: You cannot say enough good things about the job Lane Kiffin has done and continues to do at Ole Miss. His teams just find a way to win. Sure, Kentucky helped the Rebels win this one with some costly fumbles and a killer penalty that called back a Kentucky touchdown late in the 4th quarter. But Ole Miss did enough to win this game against a tough, physical and well coached Kentucky team. Give Kiffin and his staff credit for adjusting and playing to the strengths of their personnel. Jaxson Dart is still working out the kinks in the passing game, evidenced by a 15/29 for 213 yards and an interception stat line on Saturday. So Kiffin continues to lean on that running game heavily, rushing 39 times for 186 yards as a team against Kentucky. Quinshon Judkins has taken over as the feature back in Oxford and he delivered another good game, finishing with 106 yards and a TD on 15 carries. The Ole Miss defense continues to play well, limiting the Wildcats to just 328 yards of total offense. I did not trust Levis and the Kentucky offense coming into this matchup, and they showed why. The offensive line continues to struggle, Chris Rodriguez returning helped a bit but not nearly enough, and Levis is turnover prone. Plus, winning a game on the road in the SEC is tough. Ole Miss has as good of a case as anyone right now for the third best team in the SEC label.
#2 Alabama 49 - #20 Arkansas 26
Bossman Slim: Arkansas pushed the Tide for a bit after Bryce Young went down, but then Jalen Milroe settled in and got the job done. Milroe is a dadgum freak. The Tide are starting to look like the Tide again after pulling away from the Hogs late and dispatching of another solid opponent, even without their Heisman winner playing much of the game. Alabama gets Texas A&M next week and should roll (but don’t count your chickens yet…this was the same scenario last year, except Bama is at home this time). Arkansas has a tough Mississippi State team in Starkville.
The Hammer: What a game in Fayetteville. Alabama was dominating this game, then Bryce Young got hurt and Arknasas came storming back making it a 28-23 game before the Tide figured things out with Jalen Milroe at QB and pulled away. Alabama showed they are still a really good team despite the narrative they might be slipping after Alabama won a close game against Texas. Well, they just went into a hostile environment against a good Razorback team and ran all over them without their Heisman winning QB for most of the game. Another sobering reminder for Arkansas of just how big the gap is between them and Alabama. And likely between Alabama and the rest of the SEC West, but let's just focus on this week for now. KJ Jefferson, who also got hurt later in the game, and the Arkansas offense struggled in this one. Without the run game getting chunk yardage (187 yards on 51 carries overall), Jefferson and this WR group struggled to make plays down the field. Jefferson finished just 13/24 for 155 yards and one touchdown. That looks like a Texas A&M quarterback stat line. Jefferson was also limited to 38 yards rushing on 17 carries. Clearly Pete Golding and this defense were dialed in. Before closing this out, we’ve got to give Jahmyr Gibbs a shoutout as the transfer from Georgia Tech ran for 206 yards and two touchdowns. I picked Arkansas to cover here thinking Alabama could struggle some on the road like we’ve seen so often lately, but that wasn't the case here. I’m not ready to say Bama’s road woes are over, but they were nowhere to be found on Saturday.
Mississippi State 42 - #17 Texas A&M 24
Bossman Slim: For Aggies: yikes. For Bulldogs: another A&M win under your belt. Mike Leach still owns the Aggies. Texas A&M was manhandled by Mississippi State in all facets of the game on Saturday. Execution continues to be befuddling, as the Aggies rotate on who is going to have an off game. The offensive line is a mess, wide outs are dropping passes, and the defense was gashed in the run game by a team best known for slinging the rock. Jimbo Fisher’s offense continues to come under scrutiny as he rebuffs the need to make changes. For Mississippi State, Will Rogers showed out, the defense stepped up and frustrated A&M all day and held Devon Achane in check much of the game. Solid effort by the Bulldogs who are on the rise…it is year 3 of Mike Leach after all. Keep an eye on Starkville.
Hammer: Monster win at home for Mississippi State. They dominated this game and once again took down Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies. Cowboy Will Rogers gashed the Aggie secondary for 329 yards and three touchdowns on 31/45 passing attempts. A&M fumbled in the red zone, threw a pick six and allowed Mississippi State to block a field goal and return it for a touchdown in this one, and those mishaps were the difference. Just inexplicable mistakes from the Aggies and a job well done by the Bulldogs to capitalize. DJ Durkin was running a three man front most of the day and Mike Leach actually ran the ball some, punishing A&M in the A gaps for 144 yards rushing on 24 carries. Yet again, the A&M offense started really slow and never quite recovered. They had a couple of solid drives before Max Johnson left the game due to an injury to his throwing hand and completely fell apart once he left as Haynes King had a nice rushing TD before throwing interceptions on back to back possessions. No question about it, Mississippi State out played and out coached the Aggies on Saturday.
LSU 21 - Auburn 17
Bossman Slim: Woahhh boy. LSU narrowly avoided about 1,000 “famuhlee” memes flooding Twitter if they had lost this one. Auburn showed some fight, getting off to a three-score lead early before LSU wore them down and got the run game going. Jayden Daniels is going to have to improve if the Tigers have any chance to make noise in the SEC this year. Auburn continues their spiral…and get a pissed off Georgia Dawgs team next week Between the Hedges. LSU takes on Tennessee in what will be a huge game for both programs.
The Hammer: What happened here? Auburn isn't a good team and I’m surprised they haven't run out of gas and quit, knowing their coach will be fired at some point. I suppose that is a credit to Bryan Harsin for at least keeping his team engaged and playing hard despite the noise outside of the program. Auburn jumped out to a 17-0 lead here with just over 9 minutes to go in the second quarter before reality hit. LSU ran off 21 unanswered points and held on to win the game. Both teams looked really sloppy though. Neither squad was able to muster much on the ground and this ended up being a 60 minute rock fight. Winning on the road in the SEC is hard (shoutout Kirby Smart) so LSU fans will be hopefully the team looks much better this weekend against Tennessee.
#1 Georgia 26 - Missouri 22 (UGA - 27.5)
Bossman Slim: I’ll ask what Hammer just asked about the LSU-Auburn game…what happened here? Georgia was sleep walking almost this entire game. Mizzou is not a good football team and should not be on the field with Georgia this year. But that’s college football for you. It’s a week to week game as we mentioned at the outset, and Mizzou brought the fight this week. Credit to Eli Drinkwitz for getting his guys up to play. Georgia isn’t the machine we thought they were…well, they are, but the machine needs some fixing if the Dawgs are to repeat this year.
The Hammer: Moral victories stink and don’t help anyone, but it's hard to look at this game and not give Mizzou a shoutout. The Tigers were left for dead after giving the game away twice against Auburn last week, but they weren’t dead yet. Missouir was winning this game by 10 points in the 4th quarter! It wasn't a fluke, they were outplaying the Dawgs. Mizzou’s defensive line gave Georgia trouble all night, finishing with nine tackles for loss and two sacks. It’s still a loss at the end of the day, but if Mizzou can play like that moving forward they will sneak up and win a few SEC games. I’m not sure what to make of Georgia right now. I didn't read into the Kent State game at all, but this is a little more concerning. They need to clean up some things on the offensive line and find a playmaker on the outside not named Brock Bowers.