The Hangover: Nuggets and tidbits from Week 6 in the SEC

It’s an abbreviated version of The Hangover for Week 6, as only eight of the 14 teams in the SEC were in action Saturday.

In addition to byes scheduled for Ole Miss and Missouri, Georgia-South Carolina got moved to Sunday and LSU-Florida was postponed due to Hurricane Matthew. We’re still unsure of when the Tigers and Gators will actually play.

All eyes were on College Station, where East leader Tennessee battled West co-leader Texas A&M. It took nearly five hours to complete one of the wildest games in recent memory, but the Aggies pulled out a double-overtime win over the Volunteers. A&M survived another insane comeback effort — aided by seven takeaways — from the Vols.

Aside from Texas A&M, Alabama is the only other unbeaten team left in the conference. The Crimson Tide went into Fayetteville and unleashed their special blend of hell on Arkansas, scoring two more defensive touchdowns.

Program by program, here are some of the more memorable nuggets and tidbits that I scribbled into my Week 6 notebook.

#RollTide

Even though Alabama gave up an even 400 yards passing to Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen, it’s a largely empty statistic.

Ten minutes into the first quarter, the Crimson Tide already led the Razorbacks 14-0. Before the midway point of the second, ‘Bama had widened its advantage to 28-7. For the most part, Allen was in desperation mode.

Most important, the Tide took away yet another team’s running game and made it one-dimensional. The Hogs, not nearly as imposing along the offensive line this season — replacing three quality starters from a year ago will do that — only rushed for 73 yards on 36 carries, so too much responsibility was put on Allen’s arm.

He put up big yardage and fired three touchdown passes, but Allen was also intercepted three times. Two of his turnovers ended in Alabama points, the first a fumble return by linebacker Tim Williams (above) and the second a pick-six by cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick.

The Crimson Tide are once again the top rushing defense in the league, which has become a yearly staple under coach Nick Saban.

#WoooPig

The lack of protection for Allen so far this season is alarming, as the junior signal caller was again terrorized in the passing game.

Allen was knocked down more than two dozen times vs. Alabama, and the cumulative effect of those hits add up over the course of a game — over the course of a season, too. He’s been bruised and battered most of 2016.

The young man has shown tremendous guts more often than not, continually peeling himself off the turf and coming back for more. However, left tackle Dan Skipper is the only senior for what looks to be a quintet that isn’t improving.

If Allen goes down due to injury, Arkansas will likely nosedive offensively. The Hogs simply don’t have enough up front to make up for his loss.

#WarEagle

Head coaches with long résumés as offensive coordinators tend to be control freaks when it comes to calling plays.

Such has been the case with Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, who made a name for himself coordinating a Tigers offense that won the national championship with quarterback Cam Newton in 2010. He’s continued to call plays as the top guy.

But Malzahn finally surrendered play-calling duties recently to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who drew up a fabulous gameplan Saturday in a blowout — on the road, no less — of Mississippi State. Even with leading rusher Kerryon Johnson departing early with an injury, the Tigers moved the ball at will.

Quarterback Sean White only needed to throw 18 passes, but he registered 14 completions. He got chunk plays too, averaging 11.3 yards per attempt. Kamryn Pettway pounded the rock 39 times for 169 yards and 3 TDs.

Lashlee used misdirection beautifully on several occasions and seemed to catch the Bulldogs asleep at the wheel every time.

#BBN

Kentucky, still fighting for bowl eligibility at 3-3 after beating Vanderbilt, needs to get Drew Barker under center again.

When Barker injured his back in the New Mexico State game in Week 3, backup Stephen Johnson threw for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns without a turnover off the bench. But to say he’s been ineffective since is an understatement.

While Johnson (above) is 2-1 as a starter, all against SEC competition, he’s beaten South Carolina and Vandy — the two bottom-feeders in the East. Even in victory Saturday, it was the second straight game he was held under 90 yards passing.

He did use his feet well with 55 yards and a TD on 10 carries against the Commodores, which is an element Barker doesn’t offer.

#HailState

Even in today’s pass-happy environment, Mississippi State’s offense is simply too reliant on the quarterback position.

This just in: Nick Fitzgerald is not Dak Prescott. Fitzgerald has already been benched twice this season. Saturday probably should have been benching No. 3. He was an ugly 7-of-18 for 61 yards in the first half — and it looked even uglier.

Sure, Fitzgerald can be an effective rusher at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, as his size enables him to do some Prescott-like things with his legs. But he carried the ball 17 times for 61 yards against Auburn. The rest of the offense combined had 16 carries for 42 yards. No other player had more than 4 rushing attempts.

As far as his right arm is concerned, Fitzgerald is light years behind where Prescott was a season ago. He locks onto his primary target and hardly ever looks away, plus so many of his throws appear to be predetermined at the snap.

There’s just no way for the Bulldogs to win unless Fitzgerald is dual-threat dominant. He wasn’t even single-threat competent vs. the Tigers.

#GBO

Coming into this matchup with Texas A&M, Tennessee was last in the SEC with 15 fumbles in its first five games.

Through some combination of skill and luck — heavy emphasis on luck, naturally — the Volunteers had only lost three. That actually ranked tied for fourth in the conference. Florida, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt had coughed up just two.

But the bounces tend to even out over time in football, as UT put the ball on the deck six times against the Aggies and squandered five of them. A&M deserves some credit, especially when safety Armani Watts ripped the ball away from Vols tailback Alvin Kamara at the end of a long catch-and-run, but several of them were careless.

It’s nothing short of a miracle that Tennessee led in overtime following five fumbles lost and two INTs thrown by quarterback Joshua Dobbs.

#GigEm

Texas A&M quarterback Trevor Knight has cemented his reputation as an inaccurate passer. The sample size is big enough.

With a 17-of-34 performance through the air against Tennessee, he’s now failed to have a completion percentage of better than 57.5 in any game this season. That’s hard to do operating what tends to be a QB-friendly scheme.

Former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel completed 68 percent of his passes in 2012 and 69.9 in 2013. Kenny Hill — eventually yanked after a hot start — and Kyle Allen combined to connect at a 64.7-percent clip in 2014. Even the happy-footed Kyler Murray was a 59.5-percent passer a year ago before deciding to transfer.

When Knight (above) can loft the ball downfield and back-shoulder throws to his athletic receivers outside the numbers, he makes a lot of big plays. But short- and intermediate-range balls that require timing and precision tend to be misfired.

Even more dangerous, Knight is starting to make some head-scratching decisions reminiscent of what ended his tenure at Oklahoma.

#anchordown

It’s now fair to wonder if Year 3 will be it for coach Derek Mason at Vanderbilt. He’s yet to win on the road in league play.

He won’t get a better chance than he did Saturday, as Kentucky is also apparently stalled in the middle of yet another rebuild. The Wildcats turned away the Commodores despite only throwing for 49 yards in the game.

Nobody questions Mason’s defensive mind. Vandy is a tough unit on that side of the ball and fields a genuine star in linebacker Zach Cunningham — 10 more tackles and a pair of TFLs for him. It’s all for naught, though.

Can another coach turn the ‘Dores into big winners? Probably not. But the administration needs to see progress under Mason, and right now it’s not.

Sweet Tweet

Tennessee’s Danny O’Brien took a hit to the helmet in what was a brutal game, with players from both sides dropping like flies. There were injuries from start to finish, but none scarier than the one suffered by the Vols defensive tackle. He was motionless on the field for several minutes before being immobilized and moved to a stretcher.

Source tells me Danny O'Brian is doing ok. Taking him from hospital to team plane as we speak ? @SEConCBS @Vol_Football #DannyOBrien

— Allie LaForce (@ALaForce) October 9, 2016

Fortunately, CBS cameras caught O’Brien moving his hands before he exited the field of play. Later reports confirmed that he had feeling in all of his extremities. Hopefully, it was just precautionary and he’ll be fine.

Sweet Stat

Fitzpatrick had all three of Alabama’s interceptions against Arkansas, including one he returned from goal line to goal line 100 yards for a touchdown. He finished the contest with 114 yards on INT returns and showed a nose for the end zone on that TD.

Alongside ArDarius Stewart (5 catches, 120 yards) of the Crimson Tide and Jared Cornelius (5, 146) of the Hogs, Fitzpatrick was (sort of) the game’s third 100-yard receiver.

Sweet Quote

“We need to finish. We’re a work in progress there. Trust me, I would’ve rather not gone into double OT.”

— Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin

Pick Six

• The myriad injuries at the tailback position may turn out to be a good thing for Alabama in the long run. Bo Scarbrough, Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs have all been the featured ball carrier at some point this season as a result. That trio combined for 235 yards on only 23 carries against Arkansas.
• Deatrich Wise Jr. was a complete non-factor for the Razorbacks, tying a season low with only 2 tackles. Coming into the ‘Bama contest, he had recorded at least half a sack in four of five games. The Hogs as a team didn’t sack Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts once, though.
• Auburn’s Carl Lawson, on the other hand, had a big day rushing the passer against Mississippi State. He was credited with 2.0 sacks, another QB hurry and a forced fumble against the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-2, 253-pounder is hot lately, as that’s 5.0 sacks in his last three games.
• He scored a meaningless touchdown trailing 35-7 in the fourth quarter, but MSU receiver Fred Ross couldn’t have been less effective for long stretches facing the Tigers. An All-SEC performer, he dropped at least three passes and also fumbled twice. While he didn’t lose either of them, Ross seemed disinterested at times.
• Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett is clearly hampered by a lingering ankle injury, but Tennessee’s Derek Barnett looked like the best pass rusher in the conference Saturday. Like the aforementioned Lawson, Barnett now has 5.0 sacks in his past three games and couldn’t be blocked more often than not.
• Aggies kicker Daniel LaCamera missed a 38-yard field goal with 4 seconds left that would have defeated the Volunteers in regulation, so imagine the nerves he felt lining up for a 34-yarder a few minutes later. Had he missed again, A&M would have lost 38-35. Instead, he nailed it to tie the score 38-38 and force a second overtime. Knight and Co. did the rest.

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John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.