Take a Look Tuesday: Week 9

What happened while LSU was taking a break

Welcome back to Take a Look Tuesday, a weekly look at what happened in the other games involving SEC teams. This was the final weekend before the Playoff becomes this all-encompassing beast overtaking college football discourse for the rest of the year. (Note: I remove sacks and sack yardage from rushes and rushing yardage when necessary to put stats in appropriate context.)

Arkansas 41 at Auburn 27

This was the final nail in Brian Harsin’s coffin. Auburn did a lot of nothing in this game, 468 total yards to score 27 points is underwhelming. It doesn’t help that the Tigers’ opening drive of each half ended in missed field goals, the second of which was blocked. Arkansas has gotten themselves back into a rhythm after they fell out of the rankings with a three-game losing streak by stringing together a second consecutive win. Arkansas RB Raheim Sanders has been tearing defenses apart this season. He has an SEC-leading 1,041 rushing yards on the season already, though he only has 7 rushing TDs. He had 171 yards on 16 carries in this game, yet he had no TDs. Freshman RB Rashod Dubinion came in and gobbled up a couple rushing TDs like it was candy corn, while KJ Jefferson scored the other two. Arkansas has a formidable offense when they click with KJ Jefferson and are better than their record gives off (a healthy KJ Jefferson beats Mississippi State). Auburn travels to Mississippi State Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Arkansas hosts AP #23 Liberty (yes, it’s real) Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

#1 Georgia 42 vs* Florida 20 [Jacksonville]

Georgia is still a beast, but they’re less dominant than last year. That means they’re still incredible, but they show signs of weakness. The beginning of the second half was a great example of this. Georgia held a 28-3 halftime lead, but Florida cut it to 28-20 with an opening-drive TD into forced fumble into field goal into interception into touchdown combo that Georgia broke when Daijun Edwards scored from 22 yards out. Georgia turned the ball over three times to Florida’s zero, too, so this wasn’t the cleanest win for the Bulldogs. This was a mediocre game that felt more like a stepping stone to this upcoming weekend than anything else. Florida travels to face Texas A&M Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Georgia hosts Tennessee in the game of the week of the year Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Missouri 23 at #25 South Carolina 10

South Carolina looked like a ghost of themselves. There’s no sugar coating it, the Gamecocks had their worst game of the year. They had 203 offensive yards, 103 fewer than they had against Georgia. Had Missouri’s final punt traveled a bit farther and run out the clock, South Carolina would’ve finished with 186 total yards. MarShawn Lloyd had been tearing it up the past few games, but the Tigers held him to 30 yards on 7 carries. Missouri played a great game of keep-away, holding the ball for 36:35 and finishing with a +2 turnover margin with a fumble and a pick. Also, Missouri kicker Harrison Mevis made a 50-yard field goal and missed a 21-yard field goal in the 3^rd quarter each from a bit inside the leftmost hashmark with what looked like the same kick on each. Kicking is weird. Seriously, though, were the Gamecocks ever truly worthy of their AP ranking? South Carolina looks to bounce back Saturday with a game at Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. Missouri hosts Kentucky Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

#3 Tennessee 44 vs #19 Kentucky 6

This was a true dismemberment. Kentucky came 2 yards short of 100 passing yards and finished with 205 total yards despite holding the ball for 35:11. Will Levis finished 16/27 for 98 yards and 3 INTs, equivalent to an NFL QBR of 27.0, worse than if he did nothing but spike the ball into the ground on every play. Kentucky’s only points came on a 3-yard TD run by Chris Rodriguez Jr. in the 1^st quarter that was followed by a blocked PAT. Tennessee looked every bit like the contender they’ve proven they are. This was the perfect example of a trap game right before the de facto SEC East championship game this upcoming weekend. They took the trap and snapped it over their leg like a wooden bat they’d use to lose to Tennessee Tech. Hendon Hooker had another fantastic game going 19/25 for 245 yards and 3 TDs. He’s looking like a Heisman finalist. One weird thing: Tennessee went 5/12 on 3^rd down (2/2 on 4^th down, granted), that’s gotta get cleaned up. Kentucky travels to Missouri Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Tennessee travels to Georgia Saturday at 2:30 p.m. for a legendary showdown.

#15 Ole Miss 31 at Texas A&M 28

Last week may not have been the silver bullet in Ole Miss’ chance at a division title. This win kept their chances within reach, but it wasn’t easy. Freshman QB Conner Weigman got the start for the Aggies and did quite an admirable job, going 28/44 for 388 yards and 4 TDs. Texas A&M did some accordion scoring (a term I coined to refer to when a team scores the same number of points in the 1^st and 4^th quarters and 0 points in the 2^nd and 3^rd) in this one while managing to keep Ole Miss close. One of my favorite things each week is highlighting the Rebels’ ridiculous rushing numbers because they are gorgeous. 399 yards on 62 rushes is incredible, but it gets more ridiculous when adding in Jaxson Dart’s passing numbers. He went 13/20 for 140 yards and 3 TDs (18 yards, 1 yard and 2 yards, respectively). Texas A&M is now tied with Utah State and New Mexico State for the best record among teams called “Aggies.” Texas A&M hosts Florida at 11:00 a.m. Saturday. Ole Miss is on bye.