When the 2016 season was all said and done, each team in the SEC had a season-defining stat. Today, we look at the teams in the West before looking at the East on Friday.

Alabama

The Crimson Tide routinely found their way into opposing backfields, but they also let a lot of teams into their own.

Alabama averaged 7.9 tackles for loss per game, which was 11th-best in the FBS. However, the unit allowed 7.2 per game, which was 108th in the country, ninth-worst among Power 5 teams and second-worst in the SEC behind only South Carolina.

Alabama allowed 7 TFL in the national championship game against Clemson, which didn’t record fewer than that in any game this entire season in racking up 8.7 per game, third-best in the nation.

Arkansas

Negative plays, specifically sacks, were also an issue for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas had led the conference in sacks allowed each season from 2013 to 2015. The school had only allowed 54 total sacks from 2012 to 2015, 27 fewer than the next-best team (Georgia) over that same span.

But Arkansas allowed 35 alone in 2016. The team’s 2.7 sacks surrendered per game was second-worst in the SEC (South Carolina) and tied for 103rd in the FBS.

Auburn

The Tigers have lost to their two biggest rivals, Alabama and Georgia, in three straight years. You better believe that doesn’t sit right with the people on The Plains.

The last time Auburn lost three straight to the Tide and Bulldogs in the same year was 1966-68.

Auburn’s last two losses to Georgia came by 6 points and 7 points, respectively. The loss to the Bulldogs this season especially hurt as it was the last obstacle in the way of a potential winner-take-all showdown with Alabama for the SEC West title.

LSU

The Bayou Bengals capped an outstanding year on defense by holding Heisman winner Lamar Jackson and Bobby Petrino’s high-octane offense to three field goals in the Citrus Bowl win over Louisville.

There was only one game in which LSU allowed more than 21 points, the fewest such games in the country, and that came against Texas A&M, a game they won, 54-39. That’s impressive for a defense that was playing its first year under new defensive coordinator Dave Aranda.

It’s also worth pointing out that LSU led the SEC in yards per play at 6.7, the first time in exactly 10 years that LSU led the league in that department.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs had a memorable 17-16 win over Miami (Ohio) in the St. Petersburg Bowl, but fans in Starkville will probably remember the 55-20 win over the Rebels for years to come.

Mississippi State’s 35-point win was its largest margin of victory in the Egg Bowl since 1916.

QB Nick Fitzgerald set a Bulldogs single-game record with 258 rushing yards in that game, punctuating a year in which he fell just 13 yards shy of the SEC rushing title (Derrius Guice, 1,387 yards) and just 17 yards shy of the single-season MSU rushing record (Anthony Dixon, 1,391 yards in 2009).

Ole Miss

The Rebels’ season was defined by missed opportunities, mostly due to an inability to finish.

Only looking at games against FBS teams, Ole Miss ranked 13th in first half points per game (21.5), but the Rebels were tied for 98th in the country in second half points per game (10.5).

Ole Miss failed to outscore its opponents after halftime in nine of 12 contests.

Texas A&M

A lot was made in the offseason about Texas A&M struggling against the run in the previous three seasons, but teams preyed on the Aggies through the air in 2016.

A year after ranking second in the SEC in passing yards allowed per game (166.3), the team ranked next to last (250.0) behind only Mississippi State.

The best example of Texas A&M’s porous pass defense came against LSU, which put up 324 yards despite not throwing for 300 in any other game this season.