SEC Review: Week 12

The finish line is the next stop, but for now we’ve still got teams positioning themselves in the SEC’s year end pecking order. Here’s what went down this weekend:

Game of the Week

Tennessee 25, Vandy 24 - UT clung to its East lead by the slimmest of margins, and beat Vandy by 1 in a game the Commodores have made a career out of losing. After three quarters, Vandy led 24-9, but the Vols got off the mat with a 7 yard TD toss from Erik Ainge to Josh Briscoe. A few minutes later, Austin Rogers caught a 5 yard pass from Ainge, but a failed 2-point conversion left the Vols down, 24-22. A Daniel Lincoln FG won it with 2 and a half to play. How did Vandy get so bad in the fourth quarter? In the entire fourth, the Commodores got one first down, and that came courtesy of a UT pass interference call. This one is going to sting.

Best of the Rest

Georgia 24, Kentucky 13 - The Bulldogs took another step toward the BCS with a 24-13 win over Kentucky that was never over until the 2 minute mark, when Brandon Coutu hit a 46 yard FG to seal it. Things looked really bleak, as UGA trailed 10-0 late in the first half, but the ‘Dawgs trekked 80 yards in 4 minutes, getting a Knowshon Moreno 1-yard tumble to head to the locker room within 3. Then UGA took command, coming out gangbusters in the second half, forcing two three and outs and getting two quick rushing TDs to take command, 21-10. Moreno and Brown got a perfect 22-22 carry split, while the defense held UK’s rushing game to just 29 yards on 29 carries.

Arkansas 45, Mississippi State 31 - I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Arkansas actually beat a good football team on the strength of its passing game, not the running game. Casey Dick threw 14 of 17 for 199 yards and 4 TDs. Yes, I’m serious. Darren McFadden didn’t even get to 90 yards, but everything Arkansas tried through the air worked to perfection, including a D-Mac TD pass. Jamayel Smith, where have you been all my life? The MSU junior caught 10 balls for 208 yards, doubling his output on the year.

Ho Hum

UL-Monroe 21, Alabama 14 - I just want to go on record saying that this could have happened to any coach at any school. But for some reason, it’s just funnier that it happened to Nick Saban. Thank you, seniors, for your 4 years of toil. As a parting gift - you lose to UL-Monroe, a Sun-Belt squad fighting the war against mediocrity in its own league. Nevertheless, “flat” is a kind word to describe how Alabama played Saturday, turning the ball over 4 times and allowing Monroe to grind out 121 rushing yards. The average wasn’t great, but Monroe kept pounding, and Alabama couldn’t score after the 12 minute mark of the 2nd quarter. Ouch.

LSU 41, Ole Miss 24 - The Tigers haven’t been great for awhile, but luckily the brunt of their schedule is over. LSU got outgained by 70 yards and 4 first downs, but Ole Miss gave the ball away 4 times, and LSU benefited from Matt Flynn’s efficient passing. The Rebs got to within 10 with 9 minutes to play, but LSU milked some clock and got a 2 yard Jacob Hester TD run to really put it out of reach. Ole Miss rang up 466 yards of offense, and was solid with the ball in hand all day, but LSU’s attacking defense kept them from turning yards in to points.

Boooooooring

Florida 59, FAU 20 - This game has a scoring summary about as mercurial as they come. Florida scored the first 21 in a 7-minute first quarter flurry, before FAU roared back with 3 scores in 6 minutes to bring the margin to 21-13. By half it was 35-20 Gators, but the Owls wouldn’t score again. Tebow became the first player in college history to run and pass for 20 TDs in the same year, and pretty much wrapped up the Heisman Trophy with the achievement. FAU isn’t an awful football team by any stretch, but the ease with which the Owls scored in the first half has to trouble Gator fans a bit.