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Explosive plays are the reason most of us watch football.
There’s nothing more exciting than holding your breath as your favorite quarterback lets one fly 50 yards down the field, or when the conference’s most exciting running back slips through a seam and has nothing but daylight in front of him.
So this season, we’re going to be tracking explosive plays for each team … how well they’re able to produce them, and how well they are able to defend them.
For the purposes of this story, SDS defines an explosive play as a run of at least 20 yards or a pass of at least 30 yards.
EXPLOSIVE PLAY MARGIN
This is the ultimate measure of how well a team is performing in the explosive plays department. It is simply a tally of explosive plays created measured out against the amount of explosive plays allowed. If your team has made more explosive plays than they’ve given up, there’s a good chance they are doing something right.
We’re halfway through the season, so every team in the SEC has played its share of non-conference games and tough conference games, meaning the numbers are becoming less and less skewed. With that said, it’s not surprising to see LSU rise to the top with a +14 margin in explosive plays. What is surprising is seeing Florida as one of only four teams in the league with a negative margin with the likes of Tennessee, Auburn and South Carolina.
Texas A&M and Arkansas have connected for their share of big plays, but they’ve also allowed a bunch, and that’s why they sit in the middle of the pack.
| TEAM | MARGIN | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LSU | +14 | 27 | 13 |
| 2. Mississippi State | +13 | 24 | 11 |
| 3. Ole Miss | +12 | 26 | 14 |
| 4. Alabama | +11 | 20 | 9 |
| 5. Georgia | +10 | 24 | 14 |
| T6. Kentucky | +8 | 20 | 12 |
| T6. Missouri | +8 | 13 | 5 |
| 8. Texas A&M | +3 | 20 | 17 |
| T9. Arkansas | +1 | 19 | 18 |
| T9. Vanderbilt | +1 | 13 | 12 |
| 11. Florida | -1 | 16 | 17 |
| 12. Tennessee | -2 | 19 | 21 |
| 13. Auburn | -3 | 12 | 15 |
| 14. South Carolina | -5 | 17 | 22 |
EXPLOSIVE PLAYS: OFFENSE
This will be the area in which we break down how the explosive plays are happening for each team.
The Tigers are also tops in the league in explosive plays now, with their 22 explosive runs ranking 2nd only to Georgia Southern’s 29 in the FBS. That’s certainly made up for their five explosive passes. Only Vanderbilt (four) has fewer.
The Gators should’ve taken notes from those Tigers last week because what’s really hurting Florida is exactly that: big runs. The Gators only have three runs of 20-plus yards this season, which is tied with Idaho for 2nd-fewest in the FBS. Only Central Florida has fewer, and it has zero.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LSU | 27 | 22 | 5 |
| 2. Ole Miss | 26 | 10 | 16 |
| T3. Georgia | 24 | 16 | 8 |
| T3. Mississippi State | 24 | 10 | 14 |
| T5. Alabama | 20 | 11 | 9 |
| T5. Kentucky | 20 | 9 | 11 |
| T5. Texas A&M | 20 | 9 | 11 |
| T8. Arkansas | 19 | 8 | 11 |
| T8. Tennessee | 19 | 10 | 9 |
| 10. South Carolina | 17 | 9 | 8 |
| 11. Florida | 16 | 3 | 13 |
| T12. Missouri | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| T12. Vanderbilt | 13 | 9 | 4 |
| 14. Auburn | 12 | 6 | 6 |
EXPLOSIVE PLAYS: DEFENSE
Much like the offensive rankings above, we’ve taken similar effort to breakdown exactly how the SEC defenses are allowing explosive plays.
Missouri’s defense doesn’t get hit for big gains very often as the Tigers’ five explosive plays allowed are four fewer than the next-best team in the league, which is Alabama. Mizzou and LSU have only allowed two runs of 20-plus yards, and only Iowa (1) has done better than that. Missouri’s three passes of 30-plus yards allowed is also tied for the best mark in the FBS.
Nobody’s been hit with big plays worse than South Carolina. Despite only surrendering four explosive passes, the Gamecocks have allowed a whopping 18 explosive runs, which is the most of any Power 5 school. Texas A&M has also been hurt on the ground, allowing 11 such runs, tied with Auburn for 2nd-most in the SEC.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Missouri | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2. Alabama | 9 | 3 | 6 |
| 3. Mississippi State | 11 | 6 | 5 |
| T4. Kentucky | 12 | 5 | 7 |
| T5. Vanderbilt | 12 | 8 | 4 |
| 6. LSU | 13 | 2 | 11 |
| T7. Georgia | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| T7. Ole Miss | 14 | 6 | 8 |
| 9. Auburn | 15 | 11 | 4 |
| T10. Florida | 17 | 9 | 8 |
| T10. Texas A&M | 17 | 11 | 6 |
| 12. Arkansas | 18 | 6 | 12 |
| 13. Tennessee | 21 | 10 | 11 |
| 14. South Carolina | 22 | 18 | 4 |
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
