Simulated Gameday Experience

Last week basically confirmed what we already thought: Alabama and Florida are playing for the SEC Championship.  As we move towards that inevitable showdown, the rest of the conference keeps on knocking each other down, as the recently-consistent Tennessee and Auburn outfits both lost on the road.   Further down in the conference, Arkansas keeps keepin’ on, and might actually be the most predictable team in the SEC on a weekly basis.

1. Alabama

Alabama completely dominated Mississippi State across the board in Starkville.  Averaging 7.6 yards per pass is normally a decent day (and certainly better than the Tide had seen recently); averaging 7.6 yards per play – as Alabama did – was dominance.  The defense forced three turnovers (all interceptions) and held the Bulldogs to just over three yards per rush.  Even the maligned Greg McElroy got into the action, hitting Darius Hanks and Julio Jones for two separate 45-yard-plus TDs.  Mark Ingram had the kind of day you’d expect (147 yards, 2 TDs), and Alabama shows no signs of slacking off on their way to the SEC title game.

2.  Florida

Florida’s win over South Carolina had the air of inevitability; South Carolina’s only real sign of a pulse all game came on a 15-play, 85-yard drive, and then Florida just slowly pulled away.   The final margin was only ten, but those ten points belied Caleb Sturgis’ 1-for-4 day kicking, shanking two kicks and getting a third blocked.  On offense, it was a mostly pedestrian effort again; Riley Cooper beat the entire SC defense on a 68-yard TD catch-and-run slant pattern in the first two minutes of the game, but aside from that Tebow had a 13-24 effort for only 130 yards.  The rushing game was lackluster – Emmanuel Moody’s 17-yard TD run outstanding, the Gators only averaged 3.2 yards per rush.  Once again, this victory goes to Florida’s defense, which forced three turnovers and only allowed the Gamecocks 55 yards on 33 carries.

3.  LSU

Let’s be honest; at this point, LSU’s here because nobody else really makes sense here.  LSU isn’t really doing much of note, but hey, sometimes that’s good enough for third.  The win over Louisiana Tech was the definition of lackluster, getting outgained both on the ground and through the air plus racking up 70 yards in penalties; quite frankly, I’m glad I didn’t see any of this game.  The one bright spot in the win was the emergence of Keiland Williams as a quality primary RB, although that was tempered by Jarrett Lee’s 7-22 (!) day.  On the plus side, at least Lee’s TD pass was to LSU, which …all things considered, that is a step up.

4.  Ole Miss

Dexter McCluster’s still running.  McCluster had whatever’s one step past a career rushing day, going for an insane 11.7 yards per carry, 287 yards total, and 4 TDs.  Other than that, the Ole Miss effort was good enough; Jevan Snead didn’t torpedo the Rebels’ chances and the defense did a good job slowing Tennessee down enough for Ole Miss to eventually pull away.  Still, the takeaway from this game was McCluster’s complete dominance of the game.

5.  Auburn

Auburn played great defense for three quarters against Georgia; the only problem was that their free quarter resulted in 17 Bulldog points.  The Tigers were able to sustain drives for the most part, but an inability to convert them into points (among other things, blowing 11 plays and 58 yards on drives that ended in interceptions, including the interception that led to UGA’s game-winning score) killed them.  When it mattered, Auburn could move the ball against Georgia for the most part, but going from 2^nd and 11 to 4^th and 23 when you need to score is just giving yourself an unnecessary degree of difficulty.

6.  Tennessee

Well, it took ten weeks but Ole Miss finally found a weakness in Monte Kiffin’s schemes: the turbo-spread.  It’s Gus Malzahn’s influences, but after Auburn spent most of their game running over the Vols, Dexter McCluster did the exact same thing on Saturday.  Blame it on injuries if you want (Tennessee lost yet another LB, putting them down to whatever’s one step above open tryouts on the depth chart), but the defense got dominated.  Tennessee’s offense didn’t do much of note, as they were only able to sustain four drives, two of which came in the fourth quarter after the game was realistically over.  All told, it was a bad effort from a Tennessee team that might’ve been the hottest in the conference at 11:55 EST Saturday.

7.  Georgia

What a strange game; after Auburn stormed out to a 14-0 lead, Georgia slowly came back, eventually finally pulling ahead on a big 24-yard TD run by Caleb King.  Even the defense had a semi-decent game, but I don’t know if the win over Auburn was a function of Georgia’s defense finally stepping up or Auburn’s occasional tendency to take their Howitzer of an offense and aim it at their foot.  When all things mean equal, I’m defaulting to the larger body of work – the body that says Georgia’s had issues through most of the season.  Oddly, they’re 4-0 in night games; maybe that’s the trick.

8.  South Carolina

South Carolina didn’t really have a bad effort against Florida; their clock-burning, 6 minute TD drive in response to Florida’s opening TD was impressive and may have been the best sustained offensive effort against Florida’s D this season.  However, other than that it was the same things that plague most teams playing Florida – getting absolutely dominated on the line of scrimmage (especially on offense) and being ground down by a predictable Florida offense.  South Carolina never really threatened in this game, and the South Carolina offensive line turned in another terrible performance.  South Carolina’s 31 sacks allowed on the season is the worst in the SEC and it isn’t particularly close.

9.  Arkansas

Go figure – Arkansas blasted an overmatched opponent through the air but got blasted in return.   Really, Arkansas’s been the most predictable team in the SEC this season: stellar passing, mediocre running, defense that shows up once in a blue moon.  The Razorbacks have a pretty decent shot at bowl eligibility, as they should be able to beat MSU next week; should they fail to do that, they match up decently with LSU although it’s an uphill climb.

10.  Kentucky

Kentucky ran wild over an overmatched Vanderbilt team this week, and when I say ran wild, I mean it; Derrick Locke had a career day and Randall Cobb rolled nearly 100 yards as well.  All told, the Wildcats had over 300 yards on the ground, which makes a 7-14, 2 INT day from the QBs (okay, 6-13; Locke had a halfback pass in that too) at least partly okay.  Still, Kentucky’s not that much better than the teams below them in the power poll, as they don’t really do anything well of note.  On the plus side, they’re bowl eligible once-again.

11.  Mississippi State

The Bulldogs are up against it, needing to win out on the road against Arkansas and against Ole Miss to get to bowl eligibility.  They did themselves no favors by getting beaten in all facets of the game against Alabama, posting their second-worst offensive totals of the season (the Florida game was worse) and getting outgained on a nearly 2-to-1 basis per play.  Heck, the Bulldogs didn’t even make the Crimson Tide work for it; three Tide TDs came on plays of over 45 yards.

12.  Vanderbilt

At this point, Vanderbilt’s well past whatever playing out the string is.  Whatever little bit of progress we thought we saw from the Commodores early in the season has been undone thanks to a complete departure of the passing game.  Larry Smith was supposed to assume the mantle of QB of the future, but with him out for the year (and quite frankly not doing much when he was healthy) we’re back to Mackenzi Adams struggling to crack 50% and 150 yards most weeks.  The defense can’t do anything to stop the run, and although Warren Norman and Zac Stacy may turn out to be halfway decent in a couple of years, they’re not there yet.

Tags: crosspollination, ESS EEE CEE SUPERIORITY, polls are dumb, power poll