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Opening week had come and gone in the SEC. Pretty much every scenario possible happened to at least one team in the SEC. The come from behind loss, the overtime win, the blowout, the mid major scare... It was all there this week.
The Winners
This may be a preview for tomorrow’s power Rankings, but Alabama and LSU were absolutely dominant in big wins over FBS P5 opponents. Alabama’s win over the Seminoles was really all about the Special Teams play.
Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt were all dominant in wins over non-P5 and FCS opponents.
Ole Miss, Mizzou, and South Carolina were all winners in decidedly less defensive games. Mizzou had 815 total Yards while holding Missouri State to 492. South Carolina’s defense got torched for 504 Yards, but used short fields and a kickoff return to win by 7. Ole Miss gave up 27 points while holding South Alabama to 374 yards, but gave up scoring drives of 95, 40, 56, 75, and 72 yards.
The Close Finishes
Texas A&M has had some pretty big comebacks in recent Arkansas Texas A&M games, but the reverse happened to the Aggies as they surrendered 35 unanswered points in the final 19 minutes of the game. If you haven’t seen the Fake Spike, then by all means, go check it out. We’ll wait.
Volunteer fans are all going to the doctor this morning for extra blood pressure medication. Tennessee’s win over Georgia Tech was wilder than the Arkansas TCU game from a year ago. Georgia Tech held Tennessee at arm’s length for much of the game, but a pair of 4th quarter touchdowns and a blocked field goal allowed the volunteers to go to overtime.
The Losers
Florida, was winning at halftime, but couldn’t score in the 2nd half. I just can’t get behind any team the shuffles quarterbacks and doesn’t give trust to one guy as the starter. I watched it for years down in Baton Rouge, and it’s just too much tinkering. Florida played well in the first half, and it remains to be seen what that team can do when they aren’t suspending large portions of the team.
It’s not the SEC, but we need to have a special shout out to the Maryland Terrapins for making all college football fans happy with a win over Texas. BarkingCarnival is making the best of it by trying to spin some successes out of a disaster.