This is a new feature here, where we break down the biggest moment of the week, considering it against the context of Auburn’s famous (or infamous, depending on which way your loyalties stand) Kick Six, which put one team in the national title game and kept another out. We’ll focus on what the biggest play was, why it was the biggest play, and what it means for the season and the future of the SEC.

The Background

The biggest play in Week 1 of the SEC season, oddly enough, took place in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The LSU Tigers entered Green Bay as the No. 5 team in the nation, a solid 9.5-point favorite over the underwhelming Wisconsin Badgers. But more than the ranking, more than the numbers, LSU was a popular pick to win the SEC West or somehow otherwise sneak into the college football Final Four. They have the best player on the planet in all-everything tailback Leonard Fournette. They have a big-time defense, a rough and tough offensive line, and even a couple of talented receiving targets in Malachi Dupri and Travin Dural.

The question for LSU, as it has been in recent seasons, is under center. Junior QB Brandon Harris has lots of weapons to succeed, and has the talent to occasionally look brilliant, but generally plays a frustratingly inconsistent brand of football that reduces LSU to a relatively conservative and dull brand of offense — fine against the Eastern Michigans and Jacksonville States of the world, but leaving the Tigers wanting against Alabama, or Arkansas, or Ole Miss.

But 2016 was going to be different. Harris was even chosen third team All-SEC by the media, although in all fairness, much of that was probably due to him being one of roughly four identifiable starters in the SEC’s quarterback derbies.

On Saturday, LSU fell behind Wisconsin 13-0, again despite having the best player in the nation, mostly due to Harris’s continued inefficiency. Against a Wisconsin defense that had lost coordinator Dave Aranda to LSU, Harris was 3 for 7 for 38 yards and an interception in the first half.

In the second half, LSU got a bit more artful and added a pick-six from stud CB Tre’Davious White. After the Tigers rallied to a 14-13 lead, Wisconsin answered with a long field goal, and with 3:47 to play, Harris took the field trailing 16-14, in the drive which would be his chance to showcase his growth into a quarterback who could effectively stay out of the way of the best offensive weapon in current NCAA football — or not.

The Play

Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was only too happy to chain LSU’s season to Harris’s scattered right arm. The Tigers began at the Wisconsin 25-yard line with a timeout and 3:47 to work with. The most talented college football player on planet Earth, Leonard Fournette, had 22 carries for 123 yards. Harris was 9-for-16 for 101 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

Cameron called on Fournette to run the ball one time on LSU’s final drive, with said run gaining 15 yards and placing LSU within the range of kicker Caleb Delahoussaye for a game winning field goal.

Five times, LSU and Cameron asked Harris to pass the football, which is like a blackjack player hitting on a high number again and again and again. The last pass came at the Wisconsin 35, after a false start penalty, with Fournette standing on the sideline, waiting to check back into the game. Harris could have spiked the football and LSU would still have had an excellent chance to win the game.

Instead, Harris dropped back, rolled out of pressure, set up to throw and gunned a pass in the vague vicinity of LSU receiver D.J. Chark at the 25. But if it was only in the vicinity of Chark, it was right to Wisconsin safety D’Cota Dixon, who gladly caught the ball like an unexpected Christmas gift, as he fell to the ground to preserve a Wisconsin win.

If the interception wasn’t bad enough, when Dixon jumped up, a finger in the air, and hurried to celebrate with teammates, he was decleated 10 yards downfield by LSU guard Josh Boutte, in one of the most vicious cheap-shots imaginable. Boutte was ejected, the Badgers ran out the clock, and Wisconsin upset LSU 16-14.

What It Means

First, Harris is not the answer to LSU’s offensive woes — again. Second, Les Miles’ seat went from hot to ablaze. Third, Miles looks bad not only for leaning on a wildly inconsistent quarterback instead of the best college player on planet Earth, but for seemingly losing control of his team, with Boutte’s flagrant cheap shot being glibly defended by Miles after the game, who assures us all that Boutte is a good guy.

The thing is, Miles is a good guy. He has an incredible feel for game strategy, is a great recruiter, and did amazing things in Baton Rouge until the past couple years. But unless he has a rabbit up his sleeve, Saturday night was the beginning of the end of the Miles era at LSU. It would help if the rabbit could play quarterback.

Kick Six Index

On a scale of one (for instance, Kentucky or Vandy losing a tough early game) to ten (Chris Davis’ Kick Six), this one is about a 5.2. It’s a non-conference game and it’s Week 1. In theory, LSU can right the ship. But a one-dimensional LSU team is doomed to eight or nine wins, which will result in a coaching change. It’s not a four-alarm disaster, but it’s a warning shot.

Honorable Mention

Tennessee’s Jalen Hurd turned in the second biggest moment of the week — not with his 110 rushing yards, but with his all-out dive on QB Josh Dobbs’s fumble into the Appalachian State end zone in overtime. In a game that pitted five stars against no stars, Hurd’s hustle play was the difference between UT getting a scare and getting a potentially season-turning loss like LSU. It’s a thin line, but it’s one defined by an incredibly timely play from a big-time player.