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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.
Mississippi State climbed into a tie with LSU for the best margin in the SEC. The Bulldogs were +3 in their win over Kentucky last week. Ole Miss is right behind its in-state rival at +14, picking up +2 in last week’s 23-3 win over Texas A&M.
Florida and Georgia meet this week, and while the Gators may be favored, the Bulldogs are hoping to pull off the upset with the help of big plays. Georgia has done much better than Florida in that regard this season, posting a +10 explosive plays margin. Meanwhile, Florida is one of only four SEC teams with a negative margin.
| TEAM | MARGIN | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1. LSU | +16 | 31 | 15 |
| T1. Mississippi State | +16 | 29 | 13 |
| 3. Ole Miss | +14 | 29 | 15 |
| T4. Alabama | +10 | 21 | 11 |
| T4. Georgia | +10 | 24 | 14 |
| 6. Missouri | +9 | 15 | 6 |
| 7. Kentucky | +5 | 22 | 17 |
| 8. Texas A&M | +1 | 21 | 20 |
| T9. Arkansas | 0 | 19 | 19 |
| T9. Vanderbilt | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| T11. Florida | -1 | 16 | 17 |
| T11. Tennessee | -1 | 21 | 22 |
| 13. Auburn | -2 | 13 | 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.
LSU’s 23 runs for at least 20 yards are tied for 3rd-best in the FBS this season. The only teams with more are Georgia Southern (32) and Houston (28). The Tigers added four explosive plays last week against Western Kentucky, but three of the four actually came through the air.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LSU | 31 | 23 | 8 |
| T2. Mississippi State | 29 | 13 | 16 |
| T2. Ole Miss | 29 | 12 | 17 |
| 4. Georgia | 24 | 16 | 8 |
| 5. Kentucky | 22 | 11 | 11 |
| T6. Alabama | 21 | 12 | 9 |
| T6. Tennessee | 21 | 11 | 10 |
| T6. Texas A&M | 21 | 9 | 12 |
| 9. Arkansas | 19 | 8 | 11 |
| 10. South Carolina | 17 | 9 | 8 |
| 11. Florida | 16 | 3 | 13 |
| 12. Missouri | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| 13. Vanderbilt | 14 | 10 | 4 |
| 14. Auburn | 13 | 6 | 7 |
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 has only allowed six explosive plays in eight games this season. One of them surprisingly came in last week’s 10-3 loss against Vanderbilt, which was next-to-last in big plays a week ago. Commodores RB Ralph Webb rank 46 yards after being stopped with one second left before halftime, but Vanderbilt kicker Tommy Openshaw missed the ensuing 45-yard field goal.
Despite that play, Missouri and LSU have only allowed three rushes of 20-plus yards this season. The only FBS team to allow fewer is No. 10 Iowa, which has only allowed one all season long. However, LSU has been hurt by big plays through the air this season. The Tigers have allowed 12 passes of 30-plus yards, and only Arkansas has allowed more with 13.
Tennessee and South Carolina are last in the league in total explosive plays allowed with 22. The Gamecocks’ 18 runs of 20-plus yards surrendered is 2nd-most among Power 5 schools. Only Texas Tech (22) has allowed more.
| TEAM | EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED | RUSHES FOR 20+ | PASSES FOR 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Missouri | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 2. Alabama | 11 | 4 | 7 |
| 3. Mississippi State | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| T4. Georgia | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| T4. Vanderbilt | 14 | 10 | 4 |
| T6. Auburn | 15 | 11 | 4 |
| T6. LSU | 15 | 3 | 12 |
| T6. Ole Miss | 15 | 6 | 9 |
| T9. Florida | 17 | 9 | 8 |
| T9. Kentucky | 17 | 8 | 9 |
| 11. Arkansas | 19 | 6 | 13 |
| 12. Texas A&M | 20 | 13 | 7 |
| T13. South Carolina | 22 | 18 | 4 |
| T13. Tennessee | 22 | 11 | 11 |
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.
