SEC Report Card, Week 4: Plenty of highs, plenty of lows
Week 4 of college football gave us plenty to think about. From offenses that were offenses to defenses that should’ve been called efenses (no D), there was plenty to mark down.
But there was Georgia’s big win, Auburn’s butt-kicking, an impressive performance by Mizzou, Florida rolling — there were plenty of bright spots. School’s in session and so is the SEC report card, where we grade every team and point out the best (Honor Roll) and worst (Detention) SEC units on offense, defense, and special teams.
West
Auburn: A-
This was an A early in the fourth quarter, but the bend-but-don’t-break prevent defense makes it hard to put the Tigers at the tip-top of the scale. Auburn was outgained 391-299, but this game wasn’t in doubt after the first series of the third quarter. Excellent win, with a dominating performance by both lines.
LSU: A-
The offense would certainly get an A, but the defense gives us a little hesitation. Sure, when the offense is putting up 599 yards, the defense will be on the field plenty. But Vandy could pass (229 yards), run (4.3 yards per carry), and score (38 points) — that worries us a little bit.
Alabama: A-
Typically non-competitive Bama non-conference game in which the talent gap makes assessment challenging. Bama was fine, fixing the run game (which means choosing to run the ball), playing solid defense, and generally looking fine.
Mississippi State: B+
It was a solid win for the Bulldogs, who passed for 180 yards and rushed for 241, despite starting a freshman quarterback who was once the third-stringer This was an odd game as the second half felt like State was one play away from blowing out Kentucky and one from being in danger of being upset. The two red-zone offensive turnovers will be something to clean up.
Ole Miss: C+
The Rebels outgained No. 23 Cal by 92 yards, won the turnover battle 1-0 … but lost the game. Yes, we’d give that officiating crew either an F or a Hawthornish scarlet letter of shame, and yes, we were impressed with backup QB John Rhys Plumlee. Playing well is fine, but the Rebels needed to win this game.
Texas A&M: C-
The Aggie defense wasn’t brilliant, but it was so much better than the offense. Here’s the rundown on A&M’s offensive possessions from the game’s first three quarters: Missed field goal, punt, field goal, punt, punt, punt, halftime, fumble, punt, punt. Yes, the 182 yards in the fourth quarter made the stat sheet look impressive, but with this bad of a running game and no real offensive continuity, this was bad.
Arkansas: F
No. You can’t lose this game, Chad Morris. You can’t give up 503 yards to San Jose State, you can’t go minus-4 on turnovers, you just can’t do this.
East
Missouri: A
Mizzou pretty much owned the game against South Carolina. The Tigers outgained the Gamecocks by 150 yards, won the turnover battle, scored two defensive touchdowns, and held the ball for almost 38 minutes. There’s not much more to say except “Good job.”
Florida: A-
A few things kept us from marking a 31-point win over UT as just a “taking care of business” A. The Gators outrushed UT just 3.5 yards per carry to 3.3. The Gators have to fix their running game. Also, three turnovers is a bad precedent. Granted, in this game, they could have given UT eight turnovers and probably still won.
Georgia: A-
Can a top10 win be underwhelming? Asking for a friend. Georgia was solid in all phases of the game: Passing for 187 yards, rushing for 152, playing solid defense, kicking the ball well — yet feeling a little relieved to hang on and beat Notre Dame by six at home. Odd, odd game, but at least it was a W.
Vanderbilt: C
Give the offense an A- or a B+, give the defense a day to get out of town. Yes, the Commodores have played three tough offenses in this young season, but they don’t seem to be getting any better — if anything, maybe worse.
Kentucky: C-
Kentucky seemed emotionally hung over and disinterested in a pivotal SEC game. A week after looking talented but occasionally unlucky against Florida, Sawyer Smith alternated between throwing nice passes that were dropped and terrible passes that were nearly picked off. The Wildcats rushed for 5.5 yards per carry and still flirted with getting blown out for most of this game.
South Carolina: D+
A week after we gave South Carolina kudos for losing competitive vs. Alabama and looking good in the passing game, well, the Gamecocks lost more or less non-competitively to Missouri and did not pass well. Ryan Hilinski completed 43% of his passes and gave up two defense touchdowns. The Gamecocks rushed for less than a yard per carry, and even the Dowdle/Feaster tailback tandem had 14 carries for 31 yards. Yuck.
Tennessee: F
The Vols couldn’t run (3.3 yards per carry), they couldn’t throw (just over 5 yards per attempt and an interception every 9.3 passes), they couldn’t defend, they famously couldn’t answer an old-school telephone on the sideline. At least we know that wasn’t a bowl rep calling.
Honor Roll
Offense
LSU
Y’all are going to start thinking they’re a teacher’s pet. But hey, a school record six touchdown passes and 66 points in a conference game has to get you to the head of the class.
Alabama
As usual. Good to see the run game (176 yards) looking healthy again.
Mississippi State
Yes, there were a couple of bad red-zone turnovers, but you have to give credit to a team with two 100 yard rushers (QB Garrett Shrader with 125 yards, Kylin Hill with 120).
Defense
Missouri
An alert fumble recovery score from Cale Garrett and a pick-six in the second half landed Mizzou here. So did holding South Carolina to 16 yards rushing.
Auburn
For three quarters, they absolutely slowed the Aggies to a halt. At that point, A&M had three points, barely 200 yards, and no real hope of winning.
Florida
Yes, UT is awful, but Florida certainly did its part on defense: Four sacks, eight tackles for loss, three interceptions and only three points allowed.
Special Teams
Georgia
Can we put the same unit in both the honor roll and detention? Rodrigo Blankenship continues to be among the most dependable kickers in the nation, and that certainly mattered in a six-point win.
LSU
Nice blocked punt TD and a good kick return as well from Micah Baskerville. The Tigers can beat teams in all three phases of the game.
Alabama
It was a dozy week on special teams. Alabama did not miss any kicks and Jaylen Waddle had a nice punt return, which gets the Crimson Tide on the honor roll.
Detention
Offense
Tennessee
To review the Vols drives: Punt, interception, interception, punt, punt, field goal, interception, punt, fumble, punt, end of game. Yes, Florida is good. Yes, Tennessee is that bad.
Arkansas
It’s a rare thing for your offense and defense both to make detention, but Arkansas earned both. Yes, the 487 total yards and 356 passing yards were nice. But FIVE interceptions against San Jose State? At one point, Arkansas QB Nick Starkel threw interceptions on three straight possessions.
Georgia
Yes, this feels odd, because Georgia’s offense won’t be in detention again anytime soon. Maybe the blame is the expectations of people like me, who thought Georgia might rush for 400 yards. Maybe it was Kirby Smart and the coaches, who shackled their team to a conservative game plan. Georgia wasn’t awful, but the Dawgs were incredibly bland and unimpressive. Given the talent they have, that doesn’t feel right.
Defense
Arkansas
San Jose State passed for 402 yards, and the Spartans also averaged 4.2 yards per carry. That’s not the ranked Cal team that Ole Miss played, that was San Jose State. The Spartans lost to Tulsa by 18 and then beat Arkansas.
Vanderbilt
Yeah, the Commodores were facing LSU. The Tigers are good now, we got it. But 66 points is more than a little embarrassing.
Ole Miss
If you don’t give up 373 passing yards to Cal, then you don’t need a last-second play to rescue your team.
Special Teams
Kentucky
The Wildcats struggled to score points, which wasn’t helped when starting kicker Chance Poore missed two field goals, one from 26 yards. This came a week after Poore’s late game miss helped seal a defeat to Florida.
Ole Miss
Two missed field goals were pretty critical in an eight-point loss. Had the Rebels connected on those, that last drive would have turned into an easy field goal try.
Georgia
Yes, they were on the honor roll. But the punt return game was brutal, giving up a fumble that led to Notre Dame score. The Bulldogs failed to cover up another punt that rolled for about an extra 15-20 yards. Smart has to get this unit moving in the right direction.