Saturday Sleepers: White adds balance to Crimson Tide pass attack
After every weekend of games, you always hear about the performances of stars like Amari Cooper and Shane Ray. But there are also the performances you don’t hear as much about, coming from some under-the-radar SEC players — the sleepers.
Who were the best of the Saturday Sleepers from the 2014 SEC championship game? Take a look.
RYAN ANDERSON
Anderson quietly emerged as one of Alabama’s top pass rushers in 2014, but there’s been very little buzz surrounding his name for much of the season. The sophomore linebacker played a major role in the Tide’s 42-13 shellacking of Missouri in Saturday’s conference title game, even though he only recorded one tackle during the action. His three quarterback hurries were second on the team, showing just how often Anderson could be found wreaking havoc in the Tigers’ backfield. His stats weren’t earth-shattering, but the impact he made certainly was, helping the Alabama defense lead the Tide to its third conference title in six years.
JIMMIE HUNT
Missouri’s No. 2 wideout played like a No. 1 target in Saturday’s loss, catching six passes for a whopping 169 yards to lead all receivers from both teams. Many of his catches came on broken plays on which Hunt was able to use his impressive speed to get behind the Alabama secondary. He overcame a performance filled with dropped passes in Mizzou’s regular season finale and was as sure-handed as any Tigers wideout on Saturday, and his bevy of big plays were the only thing keeping the Missouri offense afloat. Hunt’s productive day was one of few bright spots for the Tigers in their second SEC title game, but it wasn’t enough to keep the game close in the fourth quarter.
JK SCOTT
Alabama’s phenomenal freshman punter is almost too big a name to include among the “sleepers,” but we’ll throw him in with this week’s group following another inspired performance on Saturday. He averaged more than 43 yards per punt on his three punts against Missouri, landing two inside the 20 without a touchback. Scott flipped field position multiple times during the action and kept a struggling Missouri offense pinned deep in its own end for much of the day. He even made a great play out of his worst play of the game, recovering a mishandled snap and getting off a punt just before the Tigers could make a play on the ball. Scott starred as much as a punter can, earning recognition as a Saturday Sleeper once again to close the 2014 regular season.
LUCAS VINCENT
Shane Ray and Markus Golden received most of the credit for Missouri’s vaunted pass rush this season, but Saturday it was Vincent who led the Tigers defensive line in the trenches. The fifth-year senior led Mizzou with two tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry, doing most of his work after Ray was ejected for targeting in the first half. Missouri’s pass rush was unable to disrupt the Alabama offense the way it has with most other offenses this season, but Vincent was still a force to be reckoned with in what turned out to be a one-sided affair in Atlanta.
DeANDREW WHITE
Missouri began to shade its coverages in the direction of Amari Cooper, and White was among the greatest beneficiaries in the Alabama offense. He caught four passes for 101 yards on Saturday, including a 58-yard touchdown in the first half as Alabama was building its lead. White stretched the field and added balance to the Alabama passing game opposite Cooper, something the Tide have lacked at times this season. Alabama didn’t throw for 500 yards like it did against Auburn in its regular season finale, but it was just as effective in attacking through the air, thanks in large part to White’s contributions.