After Alabama wins, Game Of The Century’, Ole Miss Macks Texas: Week 3 SEC Power Rankings

Sooo…..Alabama beat Texas A&M in the ‘Game Of The Century’, while Ole Miss beat Texas 43-23 to pour on the pressure on tired, beaten and sad-looking Mack Brown, and Kentucky surprised us by only losing to Louisville by 14. And Tennessee surprised nobody by getting annihilated at Oregon.

Anyway, here’s our SEC Power Rankings: 

1. Alabama – Alabama’s win over Virginia Tech and at Texas A&M is a better 2-game schedule than LSU’s wins over TCU, Kent State and UAB. The 49-42 victory over Texas A&M was actually more comfortable that the scoreline suggested – especially as they were up 42-21 at the start of the 4th. Can we start talking about AJ McCarron’s Heisman campaign please?

2. LSU – The 45-13 victory over Kent State wasn’t world-beating in itself, but Zach Mettenberger’s 13-18 for 264 yards and 3 TDs (and no picks) is showing an improvement. And some of the throws he made were pretty great, too. Having said that, there’s still a little worry about the injury to Odell Beckham’s finger prior to the Auburn game next Saturday. But it’s little. This team is young – and may be quite special. Too early to say though.

3. Georgia – With Mark Richt and Aaron Murray now having won a ‘big game’, what did Georgia fans do on their week off? Could it be that they relaxed?

4. Texas A&M – Wonderful putting up the yards but horribly weak defensively. You and I could run on the Aggies defense, sir (he said, talking to his 80-year-old grandfather). We said this repeatedly about the Aggies’ defense before the season but we were ignored or shouted down: THE AGGIES HAVE NONE. Oh, and if Johnny Manziel plays like he did against Alabama, he should get a Heisman again. There’s no doubting that.

5. Florida – Were on a break this week, which is nice, because they will be using it to correct their offensive awfulness that lost them the game against Miami. They don’t have to do a lot with the ‘D’, though, which is plain nasty.

6. South Carolina – They would be higher, but the way Carolina managed to try and fiddle away their big lead against Vanderbilt should definitely worry Gamecocks fans. Steve Spurrier made all the nice voices during his press conference, but you could see he wasn’t happy. At all. Oh, and the fact that Jadeveon Clowney needs an operation at the end of the season to deal with his bone spurs is hardly good news for, either.

7. Ole Miss – There’s a fire in Austin, and Ole Miss poured on the gas. It’s funny, because the 44-23 victory wasn’t really about the poorness of the Texas defense, it was more about Ole Miss’ opportunism when it came to grabbing turnovers (1), and a punt return taken back to the house (1). They still put up 449 yards of offense, mind. This team is going to be GOOD, folks.

8. Auburn – ‘War Eagle’ cried the crowd, and the Auburn Tigers roared. Sure, they should have lost to Mississippi State, but the last minute drive and victory with 10 seconds left (24-20) was vintage Malzahn. No, we don’t think they are going to trouble LSU on Saturday, but this Auburn team has won its first SEC game in over a season. And Auburn fans can celebrate that. Oh, and great play by Nick Marshall, too.

9. Vanderbilt – Nice comeback to make the loss at South Carolina respectable, but this 10-point loss and a 0-2 SEC start is hardly going to make James Franklin beam from ear to ear.

10. Arkansas – Pounding running game won’t make Vegas happy when people think that they’ll win every game by 30 (when they play poor teams), but Alex Collins is definitely good….even if Brandon Allen is a struggle.

11. Mississippi State– Should have won at Auburn, but lost in heartbreaking fashion. The defense definitely played well enough too, causing 3 turnovers, including 2 INTs. Dak Prescott at QB? We like his legs 133 yards, 2 TDs, far more than we like his arm (213 yards, 0 TDs).

12. Missouri – We just saw Tennessee’s defense for real. And now we’re pretty convinced that Mizzou is better than Tennessee.

13. Kentucky – Kentucky can come out of the 14-point local rivalry loss with their heads held high. The defense kept Heisman challenger Tedy Bridgewater pretty quiet, and they kept on going. The worry is – of course- the offense, which is still a struggle. Mark Stoops needs to decide on a QB – either Jalen Whitlow or Maxwell Smith.

14. Tennessee – Yay! Tennessee managed to keep the score to under 60 against Oregon! Seriously though: This should have been reported to PETA- it was cruelty to Smokey.