What were the best SEC games of 2014?
With the madness of recruiting going on, we decided that it was high time to remember back a little bit to the best games in this 2014 SEC season.
Because there were a hell of a lot of them worth remembering. We also add in our top five WORST games of the SEC season. And yes, that includes you, Florida….
All games are in-conference SEC games, so don’t get upset if the Georgia-Georgia Tech game isn’t on the ‘Worst Games of 2015 list’, Bulldogs fans!
1) Ole Miss 23, Alabama 17
Katy Perry! Gameday! A beautiful day in Mississippi where The Grove seemed to get more publicity than the goddamned game itself! Ole Miss fans went into this game knowing that they had a legit chance of being the Gods of the SEC, Alabama. And in the best game of the season, they did with Senquez Golson picking off Blake Sims with 37 seconds left. After that, Oxford exploded.
2) South Carolina 38, Georgia 35
Rain. Lightning. Mud. A down South Carolina team who had just come from being stuffed by Texas A&M at home facing a Georgia team high on confidence after beating Clemson on the first day of the season. The game had everything, including missed field goals, bad plays from both sides, and more momentum swings that your average Big-12 game. And that’s saying something. Georgia fans are STILL pissed by refs not giving them the 1st-and-10 after they got a measurement to try and convert a 4th-and-1 late into the game. They should probably more pissed about the fact that their ‘D’ seemed unable to make a tackle. But what a game.
3) Auburn 35, Ole Miss 31
Will forever be remembered as the ‘Laquon Treadwell game’, where the Ole Miss wide receiver broke his leg while trying to go in for a game-leading touchdown late in in the fourth quarter. Auburn recovered the ball, and the rest was history. But as games go…what a game. Both sides put up a total of nearly 1,000 yards in offense. No side had bigger than four-point lead. The atmosphere was rocking. We couldn’t have asked for anything more….except the injury to Laquon Treadwell.
4) Texas A&M 35, Arkansas 28 (OT)
Arkansas had a huge lead before blowing it, although you’ve got to give the Aggies some credit for keeping going and their receivers making so huge play. Wonderful fun in JerryWorld in late September.
5) Texas A&M 41, Auburn 38
If you hated defense, then watching this game is all-important. Both defenses seemed to be more eager in not stopping the other won in the driving rain. This game was also about three huge momentum swings. A&M had the first half and went in 35-17 up. Auburn came back to make it 38-31, before Josh Lambo’s field goal gave the Aggies a 10-point lead. Nick Marshall brought Auburn back to within 3…. and was driving for the go-ahead touchdown before he and Cameron Artis-Payne contrived to butt-fumble it on the two. He then fumbled it with Auburn driving again on the 30, which ended the game.
6) Alabama 20, LSU 13 (OT)
LSU had a lead and perhaps the game until horrible coaching decisions and gameplay (tell me if you’ve heard this before) from the Tigers put this game into overtime. This included some poor defensive work, and one of the worst kick-offs you’ll see in a while that gave the Crimson Tide the room to tie it up. As atmospheres go, the place was rocking though.
7) Mississippi State 34, LSU 29
This game wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests, but we’ll put this as one of the best games of the year because it announced the arrival of Dan Mullen, Dak Prescott and the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who had spent so much time in the footballing backwaters they were beginning to stagnate. Well, stagnate no longer. The Tigers couldn’t stop Prescott or The Bowling Ball known as Josh Robinson, and the ‘automatic LSU home win’ that usually happens with Tigers play the Bulldogs of Starkville was no more.
8) Missouri 21, South Carolina 20
On a feisty night at Williams-Brice, Missouri comes back from the dead to defeat the Gamecocks, much to the joy of their travelling support, who’s reaction to the game-winning TD was more English soccer than it was genteel college football. Not that we care. That’s why we love the SEC.
9) Alabama 14, Arkansas 13
This might be the game where we knew that Arkansas was going to get its win….and they would have had it if their kickers had managed to actually kick between the uprights. Arkansas couldn’t convert numerous chances, but what a game.
10) Georgia 35, Tennessee 32
Although it wasn’t a surprise who came out of this game winners, it was a surprise about the fight that Tennessee put in, particularly because of the lack of it over the years of the Volunteers not really doing that. Todd Gurley had a monster 200-yard, 2 TD game and won the game ball, and also exorcised a lot of tension by converting a 4th-and-3 to confirm the Bulldogs’ victory. As for Gurley, the rest of the season was, er, history…..
TOP FIVE WORST GAMES
1) Florida 10, Tennessee 9 — Dear God.
2) Kentucky 17, Vanderbilt 7 — Eesh. Less ‘defensive war’ and more ‘offensive misery’
3) LSU 10, Ole Miss 7 – Unreal atmosphere….and then Bo blew.
4) Missouri 42, Florida 13 – We actually watched this game. The offense was terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible for the Gators. Never gave the Gators ‘D’ a chance. UF fans weren’t happy after this one, and apparently a few ‘F’ bombs were thrown out there. Unsurprisingly.
5) Alabama 42, Missouri 13 – As one-sided a SEC championship game as you’ll never like to see again. It felt like Bama was playing a FCS school out there, and that’s not right. Mind you, Vanderbilt played like a FCS school all season long.