LSU, UGA’s Secondary Whimpers While Texas A&M Roars: SEC Week 5
Everyone talked before this week started that Week 5 was going to be one of the duller on College Football’s calendar – and maybe in college football’s history (ESPN love to do overdo it, don’t they?). Many felt that College Gameday SHOULD have gone down South to Texas at Oklahoma State or Baylor at West Virginia, but instead went to Ohio State at Michigan State. Or to Sanford Stadium for the Tennesee – Georgia game.
But they whiffed. Instead they chose an out-an-out war between OSU and MSU, worthy of the ‘old days’ of college football where we loved brawn and battle, while all the three other games we’ve mentioned showed a ton of excitement and no defensive discipline at all.
Anyway, we’re just relaxing. Thanks for the memories, Week 5. And here’s our Top things on the SEC this week.
1) Make Florida a favorite over LSU: After back-to-back awful performances by the LSU Tigers, the pollsters have dropped LSU to No.4 in the Nation below mighty Alabama, Oregon and Florida State. This 38-22 win over Towson was enough to enrage any LSU fan, and shame any SEC fan. It simply wasn’t right how bad the Tigers were out there. And if you remember going to Death Valley when LSU was bad, then the empty seats and flat atmosphere on Saturday night must have brought back some bitter memories. We’re sorry. Anyway, LSU was bad enough that Les Miles pretty much apologised for the performance, and we think that unless they suddenly are a different team in The Swamp on Saturday, then Florida is a 3-to-6 point favorite. Like the rationale?
2) Giving it up on Saturday afternoon/evening were the defences of Georgia and Tennessee, who both played equally badly in a 51-44 UGA victory that did nothing except prove yours truly right about 13 points being too much for Georgia (thanks, we’re very happy). Seriously though, this game could have been out of sight at half-time if UGA hadn’t had one of the most awful five minutes in the Bulldogs sporting history, giving up 2 turnovers and going from 27-10 comfort to a 30-27 deficit. A field goal got the team back on par, but this was ugly. Georgia’s secondary – which was torched much of the time against the Vols (281 yards passing) – didn’t look clever. And as for Tennessee? The ‘D’ was horrible against the rush (282 yards conceded), although Mssrs. Gurley and Marshall should definitely stand up and take some applause.
3) Ole Miss! By Damn! OK, so we called Ole Miss to get 14 points, and we were lucky. But to the Rebels’ credit, they played out of their skin against Alabama, limiting the rushing game to just 125 yards and causing a fumble. Having said that, turnovers plagued Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace and Randall MacKay, who threw two in the second quarter with the game close. And while Alabama rolled to a 34-14 victory, the victory was moral in Oxford. Hugh Freeze’s team is coming along in leaps and bounds, folks.
4) South Carolina struggles, then roll: Steve Spurrier must have said something in the Gamecocks locker room at half-time, and we’re sure it wasn’t said in the nicest tone of voice and didn’t contain the nicest of language , either. Why? After the first half of nightmares where they could have easily been 24-7 down in Commonwealth Stadium (they were down 17-7), USC got into gear and destroyed the Wildcats, running out 38-17 winners. Connor Shaw is looking pretty good as QB, and should shine against – and have we mentioned this before – Georgia’s poor secondary.
5) Missouri steps aside banana skin: Vegas called UCF to lose this one, but Missouri managed to ignore the OTB crowd and come away from Florida with a 21-16 victory. This included a touchdown for rookie top-recruit WR Dorial Green-Beckham, who was again hardly-used in the game (his TD was his only catch). What has Gary Pinkel got against him?
6) Arkansas stumbles again: Someone said on Facebook about the Razorbacks: “We might be the worst team in the country right now”. While that might be a bit cruel, they would certainly get a ranking on the Country’s Worst Team Poll, for which I’d also like to throw out some love for Georgia Tech after the team’s laughable performance at home to might Middle Tennessee State. As for Texas A&M, there’s a lot of love for Johnny Manziel, who threw for 453 yards and 3 TDs in his sides 58-10 victory, completely out-shining Tyler Wilson, who you remember was a Heisman Contender Once all those years months ago.