Quick SEC reaction: Week 3

What a Week 3 it was. While Tennessee fans once again spat bullets about losing to Florida at home, they managed to drown their beers and sip some champagne as Lane Kiffin and No.2  USC lost at Pac-12 rival Stanford, we once again had evidence that there’s only one team out there in College Football at the moment: Alabama. The SEC has a lot to catch up.

Anyway, here’s the top 10 things about our SEC teams this week:

1) Tennessee lost the game against Florida because it had no running game and its wide receivers couldn’t make easy catches. And when we’re talking easy, we’re talking ones like Justin Hunter’s that absolutely killed the team’s drive. And also, the Vols incurred penalties that also helped to knife the team in the back. Also, the Vols’ nature for conceding the big play came back to kill them….twice. But Jeff Driskel proved to be a leader for the Gators, and Florida’s rushing game was fantastic. They really helped to shut up Big Orange. Sad day for Tennessee, but here come the Gators, folks!

2) Alabama may have destroyed Arkansas, but as John L.Smith says, the Razorbacks simply gave up. It was like a friend of mine’s middle school football game when they were down 20 and decided not to play anymore, and ended up losing by 50. Wow. Arkansas Razordbacks fans should ask for their money back after that – because this was the worst performance I’ve seen from a SEC team in a long time…. and there have been some pretty awful SEC performances in the past.

3) Oh, and as for Bama? This was a very impressive side, which was quick, great in a tackle, and almost perfect in every part of their performance. Even Nick Saban should have been happy with this performance.

4) Georgia and LSU surprised us early on by not wiping both Florida Atlantic and Idaho to the floor immediately, but both Bulldogs and Tigers both warmed up their act, and the rest was history. The atmosphere at both stadiums wasn’t great, though. No great surprise for bad, non-conference opponents, but still…(hint to both ADs: Schedule some big-time home and homes?).

5) Missouri managed to hold off Arizona State – just. We love Corbin Berkstresser, who replaced James Franklin, but the Tigers QB (the one who’s out), has got more to offer in the SEC schedule, in our opinion. Franklin gave Georgia’s defense fits at times with some of his play in Mizzou’s opening SEC game.

6) For those of you who thought Ole Miss was worth taking as a 10-point underdog against Texas, we did tell you not to bother (in more words). We told you that Ole Miss wouldn’t be a match for Texas’ running game (350 yards the Longhorns put up), although the fact that the Rebs put up 31 points is a definite plus – even if giving up 66 – isn’t.

7) Vanderbilt and South Carolina may have had a closely-fought encounter in Week 1, but when it came to playing Presbyterian and UAB respectively, both sides went through with little trouble. The biggest thing to trouble Steve Spurrier – although the play of Dylan Thompson may negate that – is the injury (once again) to Connor Shaw. We’re getting to point of yelling: “Steve! Why don’t you just close down Connor Shaw and let this Thompson kid play?”. As for Vandy, it was Presbyterian. A small round of applause for 50-odd points.

8) What was happening in Auburn? Auburn…..well, the field goal-in-overtime victory showed that the Tigers can win while they are down, but the muted reaction inside Jordan-Hare Stadium showed me that Tigers fans are preparing themselves for a long season. And Gene Chizik is preparing himself for a hot seat.

9) MSU survives Troy. Regardless of what people say, Mississippi State beating Troy by just 6 points is a bit of an upset, but here’s some love to Chad Bumphis, who grabbed three touchdowns. Still, the Bulldogs’ defense needs a bit of work…they conceded 572 yards of total offense.

10) What in the hell happened in Lexington? Well, it was a fun game in Lexington, where the mighty Kentucky lost to in-state ‘rival’ Western Kentucky in overtime to a fantastically-executed trick play. But should it have got this far? No. Joker Phillips will be lucky if he’s in the job by end-season, folks.

11) Nice for Texas A&M that the Aggies rebounded with a solid 48-3 victory on Saturday. On the road. Without any scares.