Mississippi Rolls: Week 8 SEC round-up
Another week, another incredible weekend for the State of Mississippi. Who would have thought that suddenly The Magnolia State would become the Disneyland of football?
Oh, and our ears are still ringin’….
1. Mississippi State
Despite not having their best day offensively what with all their turnover problems, MSU still came through to beat Auburn amid one of the loudest stadiums ever witnessed. It was awesome to see how pissed off the College Gameday guys were getting with all that clanging. We put Mississippi State up top because they’ve beaten three straight ranked teams- even though LSU really isn’t very good.
2. Ole Miss
Just destroyed Texas A&M in all facets of the game in a tremendous performance at Kyle Field on Saturday night. 35-20 just doesn’t indicate how close the game actually WASN’T. Bo Wallace is doing simple things with the offense, but dear God, that defense? It’s for real, yo. And Robert Nkemdiche looks like NFL-ready ALREADY.
3. Auburn
Terrible mistakes early on punished the Tigers, putting themselves in a 21-0 hole early on in the game in Starkville. Later, it was the refs who ‘punished’ the Tigers with some decidedly awful decisions, including non-existent pass interference calls or the same call that WASN’T made when Auburn receivers were getting mugged. Anyway, Nick Marshall had a good game, but Auburn’s going to be just fine.
4. Alabama
Bad doesn’t cover how awfully Alabama played at Arkansas on Saturday. They should have lost. Nick Saban looked ready to kill his team, as well as his coaching staff on Saturday night, as the sloppy Tide looked all over the place in a loud Fayetteville. Still, they came away with the 14-13 victory, but the bandwagon fans are beginning to leap across the border to Oxford or Starkville.
5. Texas A&M
Wow. So a noisy stadium doesn’t help you if your offense gets completely choked by a dominant defense and you can’t stop the offense? We learn something new everyday. This young A&M side will be fine in 2015, but right now, they’d be overjoyed with 8-4. Next week? Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
6. Georgia
No Gurley, no problem. The Bulldogs played the most complete game of any SEC team on Saturday, stunning Missouri on the road in a 35-0 trouncing. Nick Chubb took the rock at running back in the place of Gurley, carrying for nearly 40 times. Georgia fans will be praying he doesn’t get injured or suspended before the team’s monster road game with Arkansas.
7. Arkansas
For the second game in a row, it was the miscues that killed the Razorbacks against ranked opposition. They should be 2-0 against A&M and Alabama, but the mistakes ensure that they are 0-2. We believe in Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins at running back, but we don’t believe in the Razorbacks’ passing game yet. Still, there is time for Brandon Allen. Fayetteville will be rocking for the visit of Georgia on Saturday.
8. LSU
Les. F****. Miles. That’s all there is to say. We don’t know what deal he did with some Bayou Witch Doctor, but it must have been pretty good to get LSU past the winning post on Saturday at The Swamp. Easy dropped pass in the end zone? Check. 50-yard field goal? Check. Oh that, and LSU’s trip to Florida was the (unpredicted) SEC game of the week. We still don’t think LSU’s very good though.
9. Kentucky
Started poorly then hit second and third gear against ULM to win comfortably. Mark Stoops has got something going in the Bluegrass State, people.
10. Missouri
Mauk-Tober? Maybe next year. Comfortably beaten at home by Georgia. All Missouri seemed to do was turn the ball over. This is not a good team in a mediocre division.
11. South Carolina
Struggled with bye week, but came through eventually.
12. Florida
Heartbreaking home loss to LSU in the The Swamp, for a ton of reasons. This was a game the Gators should have won, but an easy dropped pass in the end zone KILLED them at the end. But thankfully (and more importantly), injured WR Latroy Pittman’s is out of hospital.
13. Tennessee
Coasted past Chattanooga 45-10 in a convincing victory. You know, as convincing as being a FCS team can be.
14. Vanderbilt
I’ll be honest: I’d never heard of Charleston Southern before as a football power, but they came within two points of beating the SEC’s very own Vanderbilt. To cap it all, Vanderbilt really sucks. This is the worst team in the SEC by quite a mile.