The SEC East was supposed to bring a little more weight to the playground seesaw this season.

That didn’t get off to the greatest start when the division favorite, Tennessee, needed a missed extra point, a rally from 10 points down and a recovery of a fumble in its own end zone to survive in overtime against Appalachian State.

Some trolls from outside the conference were merely giggling before their Twitter fingers turned serious, and people began asking what channel the Tennessee game was on as the Mountaineers’ lead was still holding up.

They were also likely asking because they were subjected to a game about as unwatchable as this year’s presidential election over on ESPN between South Carolina and Vanderbilt. A game with two combined offensive touchdowns and only five total drives that didn’t end with a punt, fumble, missed field goal or a turnover on downs.

The bright spot so far? Missouri, and not its defense, but the offense. Drew Lock’s 152 passing yards were more than Missouri had in eight full games last season. Still, Missouri punted or fumbled on six of its first seven drives, while missing a field goal from 24 yards — yes, 24 yards — and only coming away with 3 points at halftime.

And that’s where we stand right now as Missouri enters halftime down 13-3 to West Virginia in the SEC East, folks.

The lack of offense isn’t surprising as all seven East teams finished seventh or worse in the conference in total offense last season, also holding down the worst four spots.

A division that has failed to win the SEC championship in seven straight seasons, a conference-record drought for a division, has to be better than this. It only sent three of its seven teams bowling a year ago, while the West sent all seven … for a second straight season.

By the way, that’s something that no other Power 5 division has done even once with the exception of the ACC’s Atlantic Division in 2008.

However, it’s not so much about comparing the East to the best group of teams in college football. It’s simply about regaining its own shattered credibility.

What’s really surprising is how bad the teams have been early in their respective games. Through eight first-half quarters, four different East teams have combined for 16 points, and Vanderbilt has 10 of those.

On the other side of the ball, Missouri’s defense was one thing the division could hang its hat on. However, it’s been a disappointing performance so far with West Virginia on pace to put up 464 yards, which would’ve been a season-high vs. the Tigers last season. To put that into perspective, Mizzou only allowed 300 yards or more in half its games in 2015.

Luckily, we still Florida, Georgia and Kentucky who could still salvage what’s been a pretty horrendous Week 1, not that beating UMass or Southern Miss would be a huge feather in the helmet.

Nonetheless, we’ll keep watching with the hopes that the other half of the best conference in college football starts playing like something other than “the other half.”