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SEC Football

Winners and losers after Week 2 in the SEC

Joe Cox

By Joe Cox

Published:


John Mellencamp once wrote, “There’s winners and there’s losers, but they ain’t no big deal.” Typical Indiana guy. He was actually 2/3 right — there are winners and losers. Here at SDS, we’re making a big deal about who ends up in which category for SEC Week 2.

Winners

Arkansas

This one was off the radar. Mississippi State had just knocked off LSU. The Bulldogs were dangerous. They threw for over 600 yards against a good team. And then they lost to Arkansas. Sam Pittman isn’t taking any shortcuts. It may be a grind in 2020 at times, but for the first time in a long time, Arkansas deserves to be optimistic about its program. Speaking of which, game ball to…

Feleipe Franks

In a league full of genuinely kind and decent people, few have done more to earn their moment than Franks. Embattled at Florida and then injured, many made Franks a laughingstock when he transferred to Arkansas. As he led the Razorbacks to a road win over a ranked team, passing for 212 yards and two scores, he laughed last. And deserved every minute of it.

Stetson Bennett

Similarly, you have to love a story like this. Georgia stockpiled 5-star QB recruits, then ends up having its season rejuvenated by a guy whose 247sports recruiting profile describes him as a “backup quarterback who will provide depth.” Bennett outdueled all-everything Auburn QB Bo Nix significantly in Georgia’s win, passing for 240 yards and a touchdown. For that matter…

Georgia

Sometimes, we were wrong. Might as well own it….

John Metchie III

Career entering Week 2 game vs. Texas A&M: 2nd season, 5 games played, 6 receptions, 65 yards. Saturday: 5 catches, 181 yards, 2 touchdowns — one from 78 yards, one from 63 yards. Just what Alabama needed, another playmaker, particularly one to line up across from Jaylen Waddle.

Kyle Pitts

Somehow, the outstanding Florida tight end was left off this list last week, when he caught 8 passes for 170 yards and 4 touchdowns. He caught another 2 touchdowns this week and there’s no wrong time to honor a tight end who has 6 touchdown grabs in the first two games of the season. That equals his total from his freshman and sophomore years combined. We honored Kyle Trask last week and he continued to be honor-worthy, but how about a shoutout to the tight end?

Gray & Chandler

It sounds kinds of like a law from a detective movie, but the Tennessee backfield duo of Eric Gray and Ty Chandler showed out against Mizzou. With a combined 35 carries for 195 yards and each picking up a rushing touchdown, these guys made a statement that UT looks kind of like old school UT: Beat you with the run, crush you with the pass.

Kentucky rushing attack

Kentucky ran gained 408 yards on the ground yet somehow fell to Ole Miss. UK had a trio of 100-yard rushers, which could well make them the only SEC team to pull off and yet find a way to lose the game. Still, a tip of the hat for the UK offensive line, piling up 7.3 yards per rush and helping Chris Rodriguez, Terry Wilson and A.J. Rose each break the 100 yard barrier.

Losers

Kentucky’s kicking game

Last year, it was a short field goal miss against Florida. This year, Kentucky’s kicking game provided a shanked extra point in overtime to lose to Ole Miss. It’s the routine stuff that suddenly can become not so routine…

https://twitter.com/mybookiebet/status/1312540541683298304

Auburn’s offense

No running game, flat work in the passing attack from Bo Nix and company. Giving up 27 points on defense may not have been brilliant, but scoring 6 points pretty much guaranteed that whatever the defense could do, it would not be enough against Georgia.

https://twitter.com/mister1smar/status/1312554088601706496

Texas A&M

No shame in losing to Alabama. The shame is in being completely outclassed and looking like a middle-of-the-pack team in a year when you started out as a top-10 squad with aspirations of potentially stealing the West. Can Jimbo Fisher turn this season around or is A&M continuing to slide into the middle of the SEC pack?

Mizzou’s handling of Shawn Robinson

The polar opposite of Franks, Missouri QB Shawn Robinson found himself benched in the second quarter of his second start . It’s a curious thing to bring in a big-time QB transfer, only to give him such a short rope. Backup Connor Bazelak was fine, but didn’t exactly engineer a comeback Mizzou win either. It’s not unusual in today’s college football to swap QBs, but if it only takes you five quarters to reassess directions … well, how well was the initial decision planned?

A.J. Rose

A.J. Rose’s 117-yard rushing day qualified him as a winner … yet, Kentucky’s running back also did exactly what you can’t do. Say it with us: You don’t celebrate until after the play is completed. You also don’t fumble the ball away two plays later.

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.

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