Just like that, we’re past the strange midway point of 2023.

No, we’re not reaching 2007 levels of strange, but we had plenty of that going around on Saturday. Vanderbilt had a chance to make it a 1-score game late against Georgia. Alabama nearly surrendered an 18-point lead in the final 20 minutes at home against unranked Arkansas. We had Tennessee win a game while only scoring 20 points. Shoot, Florida did something away from The Swamp.

Strange was watching the Tiger Bowl not get strange. Yeah, weird.

Here was 1 thing I learned about each SEC team on a strange Week 7:

Alabama — That 4th quarter trend from 2021-22 is worth revisiting

What am I referring to? Well, after the Tide nearly surrendered an 18-point lead in the final 20 minutes, we saw a 1-score game in the 4th quarter. Alabama fans are used to that. Like, really used to that. Since the start of the 2021 season, Alabama has been in a 1-score game vs. SEC competition a whopping 15 times in 20 games. That’s been the case in 3 of 4 SEC games this year. Granted, Alabama is now 4-0 in SEC play and 17-3 in SEC play in that stretch. Life could be worse.

Alabama got there on Saturday by losing contain of KJ Jefferson defensively and inexplicably abandoning the running game on offense. Jalen Milroe got off to a fantastic start by making Arkansas pay for a pair of busted coverages, but he was held to 3-for-11 for 23 yards in the second half. The good news was that he showed grit on that last drive to put the game away, most notably with a first-down conversion to Amari Niblack. Embarrassment was avoided, but any hope of an easy win against a reeling Arkansas squad faded in a hurry.

Arkansas — There’s still fight with Sam Pittman’s team

Down 24-6 late in the 3rd quarter, Arkansas was staring at a second consecutive quarter without a first down. Then Jaylen Key had a facemask penalty and the Razorback offense took off. The Hogs scored 15 consecutive points thanks to a never-say-die mindset from KJ Jefferson. What do I mean by that? This:

Jefferson took hit after hit, and that ground game was nonexistent for most of the day without Rocket Sanders, who was a surprising late scratch. And that defense, which was gashed multiple times for long scores in the first half, put the clamps on. Landon Jackson had 3 sacks of Jalen Milroe and Arkansas allowed just 23 second-half passing yards on 3 completions. No, it wasn’t a victory. A 5th consecutive loss won’t sit well with the Razorback faithful. But the remaining slate is much more favorable. Any question that Pittman lost his team should’ve been gone by day’s end.

Auburn — Auburn can indeed throw for 100 passing yards vs. Power 5 competition

Hey, that sounds like putting lipstick on a pig because Auburn had 154 passing yards in a 30-point loss, but consider the circumstances. Entering Saturday, these were the 6 passing game performances against Power 5 competition in the post-Bryan Harsin era:

  • 2022 at Mississippi State — 7-22, 75 passing yards 0 TDs
  • 2022 vs. Texas A&M — 6-13, 60 passing yards, 1 TD
  • 2022 at Alabama — 11-23, 77 passing yards, 1 TD
  • 2023 at Cal — 10-17, 94 passing yards, 2 TDs
  • 2023 at Texas A&M — 9-23, 56 passing yards, 0 TDs
  • 2023 vs. Georgia — 11-20, 88 passing yards, 0 TDs

I put the years next to those games because if you didn’t know any better, you would’ve assumed those were from the 1920s, not the 2020s. But I digress. Auburn was facing the No. 121 pass defense in America, and LSU still got the last laugh.

Florida — The Gators can have a pulse away from The Swamp

Who knew? Not me. I outlined all the issues that Florida had away from The Swamp in the Billy Napier era. Entering Saturday, the Gators were 1-7 in those spots under Napier having averaged just 23 points and still working for their first lead in a non-home game this season. Better late than never? Not only did Florida get a lead, but it got perhaps the best moment of Graham Mertz’s career with a comeback drive to win it. Trailing by 10 with under 5 minutes to play, Mertz and Ricky Pearsall flipped the switch. And let’s also not forget that Florida’s defense got a stop to allow for that game-winning drive to happen.

This felt like a monumental game for Florida’s hopes of showing actual improvement in 2023. With games still left against the likes of Georgia, Mizzou, LSU and Florida State, there would’ve been some major lingering doubt if Florida didn’t find a way to overcome a poor defensive performance with a comeback in Columbia. Perhaps that’s the turning point of the Napier era.

Georgia — Brock Bowers is human (and injured)

Ugh. Welcome to life at the tight end position. Just as Bowers moved himself firmly into the Heisman Trophy conversation, he got his leg rolled up on as he went down on a reverse. Go figure that it was a play that Carson Beck was actually called for a holding penalty. Bowers slammed the turf in frustration, but got off the field under his own power, and he limped to the injury tent. Kirby Smart’s early diagnosis at the halftime interview was that UGA believed Bowers had a low-ankle sprain, and that Bowers said that he’d be fine, but that they’d get X-rays on it.

Here’s the good news. Like, besides the fact that the Dawgs didn’t need Bowers in the second half of that game, though he would’ve helped at times during some of those offensive lulls. The bye week came at a perfect time. The Dawgs are off next week ahead of the Florida matchup in Jacksonville. Fingers crossed that will prevent Bowers from missing any action.

Kentucky — That sloppy, undisciplined performance last week wasn’t a Georgia thing

It was a Kentucky thing. The issues that many wondered about during that 5-0 start have been on display for the last 2 weeks. The costly penalties were a constant, the ball security was an issue and UK again dealt with drops. It was bad all around. And sure, Mizzou responded extremely well by dialing up that fake punt that totally flipped the momentum of the game after a blistering start from Kentucky. But still, the lack of poise and identity was obvious. The passing game has no rhythm, the offensive line struggles in pass protection and the defense is a penalty waiting to happen.

Here’s the issue moving forward. Kentucky has a bye week, and it closes the season without any gimmes. It’s hard to pencil in any game on that remaining schedule, which still includes home games against Alabama and Tennessee, for the Cats. A 1-4 finish to play in the Liberty Bowl is starting to feel like the most likely outcome after falling to Mizzou at home for the first time in the Playoff era.

LSU — A get-right game for the LSU secondary?! It exists!

Granted, it came against the aforementioned Auburn passing offense who hadn’t passed for 100 yards against Power 5 competition in nearly a full year, and that ended on Saturday with 154 passing yards. But hey, progress is progress when you’re the No. 121 pass defense (Auburn was the No. 121 pass offense). Harold Perkins looked like Harold Perkins because he was able to rush the passer from a variety of spots and he harassed Payton Thorne while Zy Alexander stepped up with a team-high 9 tackles and 2 pass breakups.

After allowing an average of 363 passing yards the previous 3 games, LSU didn’t allow Auburn to figure things out in the passing game. The group who surrendered as many 20-yard passing plays as any Power 5 team (it was tied with USC entering the day) only allowed 2 such plays. Assuming a meltdown is avoided against an equally passing-challenged Army team, there should be much more confidence in that group heading into Alabama.

Mizzou — Luther Burden III can be contained and Mizzou can still find a way

By “find a way,” I mean that Mizzou can find a way to dominate. Well, that was the case after the fake punt that went for a touchdown and totally took the soul out of Kroger Field. That’s all Mizzou needed to win its first game in Lexington since 2013. Never mind the fact that the nation’s leading receiver, Burden, was held to 2 catches for 15 yards and he briefly left the game. Nope. Didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter that Brady Cook was held in check with 5.6 yards per attempt. Instead, Mizzou stymied the UK passing attack while UK proceeded to shoot itself in the foot with drops, turnovers and penalties.

It was arguably the most impressive road win of the Eli Drinkwitz era. That was his first SEC road win against someone other than Vanderbilt or South Carolina. The fact that it clinched bowl eligibility to match his win total from each of the past 2 seasons had to be even sweeter on the heels of that draining LSU loss. The Tigers kept their division title hopes alive in convincing fashion.

South Carolina — There was a new low for the defense

It’s hard to imagine that the Gamecocks are such a defensive liability when that group started SEC play by going into Athens and holding Georgia to 3 first-half points. Since then? The Gamecocks surrendered 133 points in 14 quarters against conference competition. That averages out to 38 points per game vs. SEC foes. Yeah, that won’t cut it, and neither will a bottom-20 ranking in yards/play allowed, which will be South Carolina’s new reality after entering Saturday ranked No. 110 in that department. Shane Beamer talked at length about how frustrating it is to have guys in the right defensive spots, only to watch them not execute.

I mean, Graham Mertz and Will Rogers both went into Columbia and threw for over 400 yards. That’s an issue. Without any lockdown corners left in Columbia, we’re seeing that group struggle tremendously when it can’t generate takeaways. It puts far too much pressure on Spencer Rattler, who is watching a vastly improved season go to waste.

Tennessee — Josh Heupel can win a defensive struggle

Think about this. Entering Saturday, Josh Heupel had never won a game in which his team had failed to score 30 points. It was 0-6 in those spots at Tennessee and it was 0-3 at UCF. The Vols had 1 offensive touchdown all day, yet they found a way to beat Texas A&M thanks to some dominant defense, an effective run game and a timely punt return score from Dee Williams. Meanwhile, Joe Milton had a day to forget and continued his underwhelming season. It was also the first time at Tennessee that Heupel’s squad overcame a halftime deficit.

The outlook for this version of Tennessee is much different than last year’s squad or really any that Heupel has coached. It isn’t going to continue the trend of top-8 scoring offenses, and expecting the passing offense to suddenly light the world on fire feels misguided, especially post-Bru McCoy injury. But in mid-October, Tennessee still has division title hopes alive and it has one of the best defenses in the SEC. Life could be worse.

Texas A&M — The Aggies lost twice with those defensive injuries

What’s worse — losing on the road for the 8th consecutive time or losing 3 defensive players to injuries? What about both? That was A&M’s reality by day’s end. Albert Regis, Edgerrin Cooper and Walter Nolen all went down in Saturday’s loss in Knoxville. Just brutal. That’s for a front 7 that entered the day ranked No. 1 in tackles for loss and sacks. That group again played well despite those injuries. There were no updates after the game, but it’s worth noting that Nolen was carted off the field.

Awful. You can’t pin loss No. 3 totally on the injuries, but any hope of a New Year’s 6 bowl looks all but gone. A&M might be lucky just to get to the 8-4 jokes, especially if all of those defensive injuries result in significant time missed.

Vanderbilt — The plan with the QB situation is … reevaluate during the bye week

Clark Lea said this week that AJ Swann was “back to his normal self,” yet he was merely a healthy backup for Ken Seals again. Not only did Seals help Vandy score a touchdown against Georgia for the first time since 2018, but he also made it a competitive game in the 4th quarter. He finished the day with 209 passing yards and 2 touchdown passes (and an interception). That’s pretty impressive considering how much UGA bottled up the ground game while keeping top target Will Sheppard to just 1 catch.

Lea said that the plan would be to reevaluate during the bye week. It’s hard to imagine that game hurt Seals, given the circumstances. Swann’s ball-security issues and injury might’ve given way to Seals to regain the QB1 status that he had as a true freshman in 2021.