SEC Review: Week 7

Week 7 was a classic SEC week; 5 conference games, only one decided by more 6 points. Throw in South Carolina’s 6 point border war win over North Carolina, and this was easily the best played week of the year in conference action. Let’s take a look around the conference:

Game of the Week

Kentucky 43, LSU 37 – Week? Try Year. The LSU-UK throwdown in Lexington represented this college football season in a nutshell. Vintage college power hits the road to take on resurgent upstart; 60 minutes and three overtimes later, upstart emerges victorious. The Wildcats put themselves right back in the SEC title and, frankly national title picture with a major league gut-check win on the backs of Andre Woodson’s 250 yard, 21 of 38 passing performance. Woodson threw a couple picks, but the defense was as good as one could hope, limiting the passing game to 130 yards, and stuffing Jacob Hester to just 61 yards on 18 carries. Wildcat kicker Lonas Seiber definitely gets a game ball for making all seven kicks, including three field goals in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Best of the Rest

Auburn 9, Arkansas 7 – As good as Kentucky/LSU was, this was the quintessential SEC battle of the week. The Tigers got a big time road win in the ‘Ville and kept the Hogs on the conference schneid with a major league defensive effort against Arkansas’ future top-pick tandem, Felix Jones and Darren McFadden. McFadden ran for just 42 yards on 17 carries, and Jones’ 42 yards on 6 carries weren’t enough to keep the chains moving. This is a really, really good Auburn defense, sure, but Arkansas logged just 193 yards and 11 first downs on their home turf. Once again, The Hogs couldn’t throw downfield at all, averaging just 4.4 yards per pass. Freshman Wes Byrum missed two kicks, but nailed his second game winner in three weeks, a 20-yarder with 21 seconds to play. Arkansas is really up against it now, getting all the bad breaks where they got the good ones last year, and sitting at 0-3 in the SEC with dates against South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU yet to come. The Hogs are looking at 6-loss season now, which would likely be the death knell for Houston Nutt.

Alabama 27, Ole Miss 24 – The Rebels outgained Alabama, and had the Tide right where they wanted with ten minutes left, but couldn’t finish, as a big Ole Miss pass play was overturned on replay in the final minute. Underwhelming would be a nice way to describe Alabama’s play in Nick Saban’s first year, but the Tide was able to capitalize on great field position, as their two fourth-quarter scoring drives 21 and negative 4 yards, respectively. Senior D.J. Hall really rose to the occasion, with 11 catches for 140 yards, but the Tide defense had no answer for Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis and the Ole Miss running game. Any conference road game is tough, but right now Alabama is .500 squad masquerading as a national power.

Georgia 20, Vanderbilt 17 – The Commodores almost got Georgia two years straight, but the Bulldogs got out of Nashville with a 20-17, come from behind win. It wasn’t pretty at all, but Georgia did what great programs do; eeked out a clutch victory they really needed. Down 17-7 at half, Mark Richt and the staff made the necessary adjustments, and Brandon Coutu knocked home a 37-yard boot as time expired to get the win. The passing game didn’t work too well, but Knowshon Moreno was a rock of ages in the run game, getting 28 carries for 157 yards.

Ho Hum:

South Carolina 21, North Carolina 15 – The Gamecocks are one of a dozen or more teams in the national title mix after all the attrition among top ranked squads. This was a nice, if not glamorous win over a UNC squad that has come to life in the last two weeks. Freshman Chris Smelley was once again pretty efficient, tossing 17 of 26 for 172 yards, 3 scores and a pick, but the USC running game never really got on track like it should have, and the ‘Cocks were outgained by 100 yards on the day. Once again, the star of the show was the SC defense, which got three big interceptions off hot hand T.J. Yates.

Tennessee 33, Mississippi State 21 – The Vols kept the ball rolling after last week’s bounce back win over Georgia with a going-away W over Mississippi State. Last week, the Bulldogs blew up a close game with UAB in the fourth quarter; this week, the shoe was on the other foot as the Vols turned a 24-21 lead in to a 33-21 win with a dominating fourth quarter performance and three field goals from Daniel Lincoln. This game really summed up the difficulties Sylvester Croom faces in Starkville. MSU played a good game; they ran well, they passed, they played decent defense. And they got beat by a team with better facilities, recruits, fan support that is underachieving this year.

Boooooring:

Not this week, haven’t you been paying attention?