Winners and losers of the SEC after Week 6: Standouts, bouncebacks and an ugly scrum
Much of the SEC season so far has been back-and-forth close games, turning often on a missed call that favors Auburn. Well, that’s sort of a joke. But in any case, Week 6 didn’t get the memo. This week had two 11-point wins that weren’t really close were about as exciting as it got. Otherwise, the margins in question were 24, 33, 37 and 41 points. The good news is that Week 6 left us with plenty of winners and losers. Here’s our weekly deep dive.
Winners
DeVonta Smith
How do you handle losing a big-time wide receiver like Jaylen Waddle? If you’re Alabama, you just tell your other All-America level wideout to post a 200-yard game, grab four touchdowns and tie the school’s all-time career receiving TD mark. Smith is one pace to top 100 catches this season and if he needs a few more grabs in the post-Waddle world, well, he’s fine with it.
Elijah Moore
The guy who was the butt of the joke that led to Matt Luke’s firing has certainly turned over a new leaf under Lane Kiffin. Moore’s second 200-yard game of the season has him closing in on 1,000 receiving yards already. And the highlight of his 6 receiving TDs in 2020? Nobody will ever have to tell Moore to act like he’s been there again!
Florida defense
Just when we were wondering if this group actually existed, they showed up against Missouri. Granted, the Tigers won’t be mistaken for the late ‘80s San Francisco 49ers anytime soon, but holding them to 1.7 yards per carry and 248 total yards while forcing 2 turnovers renders Florida as perhaps a mild favorite to take down UGA next week.
Auburn offense
Speaking of much-maligned groups, the Tiger offense put it all together against LSU. Rushing for 200 yards is something Auburn should approach week in and week out. With Tank Bigsby developing by the week, that could well continue. Meanwhile, the ground threat opened things up for Bo Nix to post a 300 yard passing game, his first since a game against Ole Miss 364 days ago. Beating LSU wasn’t shocking, but steam-rolling them was a little impressive.
Kellen Mond
Other than DeVonta Smith, there’s a definite theme to this winners list. Every guy or group here has been maligned, has faced critics. Granted, most of them weren’t related to feigning urination in the end zone, but everybody has their own issues. As for Mond, he looked doomed to just never be quite good enough. A good game would be followed by a turnover-fest or an ugly grinder of a game. But in 2020, the Texas A&M quarterback has been rock-steady. On the night that he passed Johnny Manziel on A&M’s total-yardage list, Mond completed over 80% of his passes, averaged 10 yards per pass and avoided any turnovers. For the season, Mond is completing just under 65% of his passes, and his ratio of 12 touchdowns to 2 interceptions demonstrates his maturity and consistent excellence. Other guys will put up bigger stat lines (Mac Jones, Kyle Trask, etc), but Mond’s time is now.
Darth Mullen
What a weird season. In recent weeks, Mullen spoke out against fan limits, got COVID-19, fired up the home crowd after a halftime scrap, then went to his postgame press conference dressed as Darth Vader. Maybe Mullen has had the most on-brand 2020 season of any SEC coach.
Losers
The Missouri defense/bench-clearing scrum
Giving up 500 yards and 40 points wasn’t a good thing, but the reason Mizzou is here is the dirty hit on Kyle Trask that created a bench-clearing fracas. While it certainly takes two to tango, it’s not surprising that Florida took exception to the play. The whole thing was a bizarre moment of ugliness that we could all live without.
Air Raid in Starkville
After Week 1, the narrative was how nobody could stop Mike Leach and that the SEC wasn’t ready for his Air Raid offense. Halfway through the Bulldogs season, that theory hasn’t aged well. MSU is 13th in the 14-team SEC in scoring offense, a touchdown per game behind Kentucky and a field goal per game ahead of Vanderbilt. MSU is averaging 30 yards per game on the ground via 1.7 yards per carry. Meanwhile, though the Bulldogs are averaging 318 passing yards per game, they are dead last in pass efficiency because of 14 interceptions. That is more than Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M and South Carolina combined.
Kentucky offense
Dead last in the SEC in total offense, at 294 yards per game, the 2-4 Wildcats could well be 4-2 or even 5-1 had they brought just an average offense to this season. Frustratingly, Kentucky is 2nd in the SEC in rushing, but the passing game has been the worst in the SEC by 70 yards per game. Not only does the passing game not produce results, but it’s 13th in the SEC in pass efficiency. Kentucky is 3rd in the SEC in total defense, but games like Saturday’s, when UK had 229 total yards and exactly one play longer than 12 yards, have doomed UK to the lower half of the SEC.
LSU
They lost to one-win Mississippi State and two-win Missouri, then the Tigers got boat-raced by Auburn. Bo Pelini’s defense has faced the SEC’s 6th, 8th, 10th, 13th, and 14th scoring offenses … and has given up 33.6 points per game, good for 12th in the league. Coach Ed Orgeron wasn’t shy about indicating that Dave Aranda was at fault for a disconnect between that blazing Tiger offense of 2019 and the LSU defense. But while Aranda won a national title, the Tigers look certain to finish sub-.500 without him. Yes, some key offensive losses matter, as has the injury to Myles Brennan. But LSU is having a nightmare season and the Auburn game was an appropriate Halloween match-up.
We lost big, and it just wasn’t the defense. Pelini is obviously failing as the DC, but the OLine has had a couple of games where they were handily beaten. This was one of them. Other than young guys getting experience, there are just not a lot of positives for LSU this season.
How can a head coach that was responsible for the brawl be considered a winner. It was a cheap shot but what started the fight was Mullen losing it at mid field. His actions afterwards was just as classless.
Go back to Twitter
No doubt, the Missouri player had a late hit on Trask. But this has totally changed my view of Coach Mullen. He used it to whip up his team and fans.
Pathetic take for Auburn here. The offense was good, but the story of the day was Auburns defense in that game. You don’t address that because you have no retort for it. It’s easy to say Auburn won against a terrible defense because it fits the anti-Auburn narrative. But heaven forbid you mention the Auburn defense completely shut down LSUs offense that was supposed to be too much for Auburn to handle.
Just another example of a hobbyist fanboy playing professional journalist.
Part of it may be that LSU’s QB is hurt..
Funny, that wasn’t an issue for everyone going into the game. I seem to remember everyone picking LSU because Finley was gonna show Auburn up and Nix would be overwhelmed with that LSU pass rush.
Now you act as though Auburn should have won the game all along. So many bi-polar disorders coming to light this week.
You can get upset all you like but I just stated a fact… LSU’s starting QB was out. Their QB had one game under his belt against a terrible SC team…
Auburn was picked by numerous people to win, even 3 of the 5 on Gameday, and was favored at kickoff. So you remembering everyone picking LSU is just you being wrong..
LMAO, Auburn was not favored at kickoff. Probability didn’t shift to Auburn until we held them to a 3 and out to start the game. You can think I’m upset but you’re way off. That backup QB excuse garbage just doesn’t fly when the narrative was that that backup QB would have Auburns number. Now you all backtrack. LSU was heavily favored at the sports books. SECs pregame had the fan vote (57.6%), Jordan, and Tebow picking LSU. Harper picked Auburn while saying they had the most complete secondary in the SEC and I believe they showed it.
You can go right now and look at who was favored prior to kickoff…. Using ESPN Auburn was -1…
Also the game day crew was 3 to 5 in favor of Auburn… You’re really trying to make this out to be something crazy when it’s not some big upset win over a powerhouse opponent.
3 of 5….
“The opening line for Halloween on the Plains is a slim one.
Auburn opened as a two-point favorite against defending national champion LSU, according to VegasInsiders.com. The spread for the game has varied by sportsbook, with some opening with LSU as a slight favorite.”
That’s from AL.com… At most this game was a pickem with the odds makers when the lines initially released considering they went both ways…
By game time Auburn was the favorite…
Joe, that was a football play. And before you point the finger at the Mizzou D, you need to include the Refs, and Dan Mullen. Jefffcoat was a step late, but not a big deal. Happens all the time. Refs miss calls too, this also happens all the time. But running on the field the yell at the opposing players & coaches is not common. He did this before he even looked for the head referee. I’ve watched the video dozens of times today. Trask took the hit, got up didn’t say a word, wasn’t pissed, didn’t point fingers and started walking towards the locker room w his OL. Then out if no where Mullen runs in belligerent and hot headed and has to be restrained. His team saw this and rose up to rally around their coach. Words were exchanged between players and punches started flying. Tell the whole story Joe.
Dream season to nightmare season, and the “Nightmare on Elm Street” is in two weeks. Aranda’s defense looked bad several times last year but continued to improve, move players around but always gave up points, but to great offenses. This year’s just sad. Blame the coaches? To coach is to instruct players how to play… do you see any instruction anywhere? All I see is players chasing and not attacking. Evaluating at end of year equals, ” we gonna draw our paycheck till you fire us… 8 losses.”