Week 2 PASS/FAIL Report: SEC

SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE

 

PASS: Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Kentucky

Alabama got three more TD runs from Derrick Henry this week, and Bama largely cruised against Middle Tennessee at home. This is hardly a surprise.

Georgia gets a tentative pass this week, as they beat Vanderbilt 31-14. The Bulldogs largely won on defense, and the run game once again, but the passing game looked seriously unstable with Greyson Lambert, and in my opinion, the QB situation is hardly stable.

LSU pounded out an ugly win on the road to open their season with a 21-19 win over Mississippi State, but that win nearly turned to a loss save for a missed FG by MSU as time expired.

Texas A&M dominated again in a home win over Ball State, and now have cruised to a 2-0 record. If they are for real, the Aggies could be a dark horse in the West

Ole Miss is only the second FBS team in history to score 70 or more points in consecutive games to open the season. The Rebels blasted Fresno State, but they really have not played anyone of caliber yet.

Kentucky gets the pass of the week, as they traveled to South Carolina and handled the Gamecocks 26-22 to get an early edge in SEC play with Georgia in the East. This UK football team has improved greatly.

FAIL: Auburn, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, South Carolina

Auburn nearly got beat by Jacksonville State this week, and Jeremy Johnson has now tossed five picks in two games. So much for national title hopes and Heisman concerns for Johnson. Auburn is in trouble, and has played two wildly questionable games in a row to open the season.

Mississippi State has Dak Prescott, and that’s about it. The Bulldogs have got to find some other weapons, or else they are headed to the basement in the West. It’s that simple.

Arkansas losing to Toledo this week has got to be a bottoming out for the league after the Auburn debacle. After they ran all over UTEP last week, Arkansas could not get off the Toledo chain in an embarrassing 16-12 loss to the Rockets of the MAC.

Tennessee led Oklahoma 17-3 for most of the game before imploding in the 4^th and in OT, as OU closed out the game by outscoring the Vols 28-7. You can say whatever you want about how great UT was for most of the game, when all came out in the wash, they blew it, chunked it, imploded, and finally failed.

Missouri may have won against Arkansas State (27-20), but that was hardly a great win for the Tigers, and even though they are 2-0 now, they do not have a quality win, and they look incredibly vulnerable with conference play looming.

Florida was largely lucky to escape with a win over East Carolina this week, and some of the issues we expected to plague the Gators have come to roost. The Gators are much improved, don’t get me wrong, but this game was ugly, and way too close.

South Carolina got lucky against UNC last week, and the luck ran out in their home opener, a 26-22 conference loss to Kentucky, where they also lose QB Connor Mitch for 4 to 6 weeks. Spurrier is losing this program right now, and the window has closed.