3 SEC games make ESPN’s list of best games of the 2018 season
By Keith Farner
Published:
The 2018 season may have been a bit short on memorable upsets, but the SEC certainly delivered when it mattered most at the end of the season.
It seems like a long time ago since Cole Tracy’s dramatic last-second field goal to beat Auburn in Week 3, but it proved to be among the top 15 best games of the regular season, according to ESPN. In no surprise from a national perspective, the seven-overtime game between Texas A&M and LSU, and the SEC Championship win by Alabama over Georgia are at the top of the list.
Tracy capped a big comeback for the Tigers after Auburn held a 21-10 edge. Then Joe Burrow’s 71-yard TD pass to Derrick Dillon with 8:18 to play set the stage for a thrilling final drive, when Tracy hit a 42-yard field goal for the win.
The Hollywood-like script of Jalen Hurts replacing Tua Tagovailoa was just one of the reasons why the title game in Atlanta was memorable.
“It was the ultimate redemption story,” David M. Hale wrote, “and a perfect mirror to how last season’s national championship game unfolded, with Tagovailoa replacing Hurts for the comeback win.”
The historic overtime game in College Station drew fans well outside the SEC footprint, and was talked about for several days after the game.
“To paraphrase Stefon from “Saturday Night Live,” this game had everything: 146 points, seven overtimes, a premature Gatorade bath and that thing where a coach’s nephew reportedly gets into a fight with a guy who has a pacemaker,” Hale wrote.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
