By Zack Steele
After three weeks of SEC football, a couple things are painfully obvious. First, there is little doubt that two teams in the conference are light years ahead of everyone else. Second, the SEC has seen better years in terms of defense.
Let’s get this out of the way, Alabama and Georgia are better than everyone else, though both looked beatable in moments this weekend. Georgia trailed in Sanford Stadium at halftime to a vastly improved Tennessee team. Alabama played arena football defense in Oxford, giving up 48 points. Georgia showed up in full force in the second half and destroyed the Volunteers thanks to turnover machine Jarret Guarantano. Oh, and Alabama also played arena football offense, hanging 63 on Lane Kiffen’s Rebels.
Georgia and Alabama are a level above everyone else in the conference. They will play two times this year and the good news is you will not have to wait till December to see the SEC Championship game, because Bama and Georgia play at Bryant Denny this Saturday.
Everyone else is playing for a decent Bowl game.
Florida was supposed to be a contender, but they aren’t. LSU 2020 is Auburn circa 2011. Auburn 2020 is just plain ole Auburn under Gus Malzahn. Texas A&M already showed last week against Bama that they are nowhere near ready.
One interesting thing about 2020 is that, other than Alabama and Georgia, anyone is capable of beating anyone on any given day. Well, maybe we can exclude Vanderbilt.
Moving on, the lack of defense in the conference is perplexing to me. I was flummoxed by Alabama’s inability to stop Ole Miss Saturday night. Some of that credit goes to Lane Kiffen, who obviously is a great play caller. But Bama defenders did something (or didn’t do something, I guess) Saturday night that you rarely see. They did not tackle well. Tide fans are predictably distressed by this fact.
To the lamenting Tide faithful: Boo. Freakin’. Hoo. Auburn fans got to see the Tigers blow a seventeen-point lead and kick a field goal in the waning seconds to steal a win from an Arkansas team who has won all of one conference game in three years.
Auburn’s offense is a mess. We all know that by now. Auburn’s defense is showing that it might not be so good either after Saturday. Kevin Steele’s defense continues to show an inability to get off the field on third down. Granted, they are beat up and banged up and depth continues to be an issue. Auburn’s offense needs to improve in a hurry if the Tigers have any chance to even be relevant in 2020. Raise your hand if you think that is going to happen. With this schedule, Auburn could wind up anywhere from 8-2 to 5-5. They travel next week to take on South Carolina.
It was a strange weekend in conference, but damned entertaining as Survivor: SEC Edition continues throughout the fall.
I could get used to this.