What weâve learned about Alabama, Auburn on Ides of October
Let’s try something new this week.
We’re going to take a new approach with our Sunday review and that means heading to the buffet. How about going full lightning round the whole way to munch on nuggets and observations instead of going full narrative hunting?
This is somewhat of a hybrid of what we’ve been doing in this space every Sunday and the Sunday film reviews I did in the past as a beat writer. Feel free to let me know if this is a more enjoyable format or if the old way was better because this is somewhat of a democracy.
Let’s get right to it.
— The tush push revolution came to Tuscaloosa as Jalen Milroe rode the wave for a one-yard touchdown “run.” Would love to see a full possession in the tushy formation just for the sport of it.
— Mad respect to the specialists. Arkansas brought a few leg cannons in kicker Cam Little and punter Max Fletcher. Little drilled first-quarter field goals of 55 (that would have been good from 65) and 49. Fletcher averaged 53.9 yards in his seven punts with a long of 70. He had four downed inside the 20 and four of 50-plus yards. Alabama countered with James Burnip’s 49.9-yard average on seven tries — five of which went 50-plus with two downed inside the 20. Saban had mentioned wanting more hang time and Aussie appeared to do that job. The fact Arkansas netted just five punt return yards speaks to that. Also, Will Reichard nailed a 30-yard field goal on the day he became the SEC’s all-time leading scorer.
— Penalties brought a classic good news/bad news. They were down to five for 45 yards after the nine pre-snap flags last week at Texas A&M. That’s good. The bad? Both defensive penalties — a face mask on Jaylen Key and a pass interference came on third downs on drives extended resulting in an Arkansas touchdown. And the pre-snap offensive infractions were down to two, but one came on a kneel down play that sent Saban into a sideline frenzy.
— “Let me put it like this, imagine me having to tackle Will Anderson,” Alabama’s Dallas Turner said of the task of taking down Arkansas’ 6-foot-3, 247-pound quarterback KJ Jefferson.
— Saban had the quote of the day on that. “When a quarterback can take a major college football player and sling him off like a gnat on a fly’s ass. I mean, a fly on a, a gnat on a cow’s ass, I mean that was one of the most impressive plays I’ve ever seen a player make.”
— On the flip side of that, ESPN Stats and Info had an ominous stat for Alabama. Milroe was sacked four times in the first half marking the fifth straight game of four-plus sacks allowed by a team. That ties the longest such streak in the past 20 years in the FBS, according to ESPN.
— It’s all or nothing when the Tide throws the ball. Of the 238 passing yards, 193 came on the five passes of 15-plus yards. The game would look quite different if Arkansas didn’t bust the coverage on the 79-yard touchdown pass to Kobe Prentice on a ball Milroe perfectly rainbowed into the sophomore’s breadbasket.
— And it was a tale of two passing halves as Milroe was 7-for-10 in the first 30 and 3-for-11 in the second.
— The plea for patience continues as the growing pains and side effects of a prior failed coaching experiment remained after the open week. The one-year turnaround still isn’t in the cards.
— What worked the best? The Robby Ashford to Brandon Frazier connection. Auburn’s backup QB’s spot duty resulted in a 3-for-4 passing line for 52 yards and each of those three completions went to tight end Frazier. The first converted a third-down deep in LSU territory in a drive ending in a touchdown. And the 39-yard-yard heave in the third quarter was the longest play of the Tigers’ night in Death Valley.
— This was an LSU defense in free fall after allowing 706 yards at Ole Miss (8.0 per play and 527 at Missouri (7.8 per play). Auburn’s inconsistent-at-best offense went for 293 yards (4.8 per play).
— The Auburn output was on par with the 307 it gained the last time out against Georgia (307 total, 4.9 a play). This is an offense that just feels like has to work incredibly hard to align the stars to unlock a successful drive. The third possession was one such example of putting it together as it followed consecutive 3-and-outs with an 8-play, 75-yard march. Starting with plays of 15, 12, 3 and 10 yards to open got Auburn into the red zone where Jarquez Hunter took the Wildcat snap two yards to make it 20-7.
— Passing the ball is the greatest chore with this group. On a positive note, the 154 passing yards were the most Auburn tallied against Power 5 competition this season. The bad news, it was by a lot and still not substantial. Through four games against top competition, Auburn’s averaging 98.0 yards through the air. Even including the 203 recorded against UMass and 340 against FCS level Samford, the Tigers are No. 123 of 133 FBS teams in terms of passing yardage. Three of the 10 below the Tigers are service academy teams while a fourth is Iowa. Not sure which is worse.
— The Auburn defense had been the reason for competitiveness early in the season but LSU’s No. 2 offense was a different animal. Where Texas A&M and Georgia combined to score six touchdowns in the previous two games, LSU hit that number by itself. The 563 total yards surrendered were a season high by a margin of 143.
— Another number of note, Auburn was 3-for-12 on third downs to push its season average to 33.3%. That’s 110th in the nation and a recipe for opening SEC play 0-3 for the first time since the 2012 disaster.
Meanwhile, elsewhere …
— Washington’s Michael Penix is your October Heisman. The numbers back up the eyeball test you saw in Saturday’s win over Oregon. The Indiana transfer is completing 72.1% of his 215 throws in an offense that’s not exactly dink and dunk.
— LSU’s Jayden Daniels could enter the conversation despite the two early losses. His 197.74 QB rating leads the nation while his 22:3 touchdown to interception ratio betters Penix’s 20:3 at this point.
— The search for an elite team remains. There was a point when No. 1 Georgia trailed Vanderbilt at the same time No. 2 Michigan fell behind Indiana. Of course that’s not indicative of much but Georgia’s 37-20 win at lowly Vandy wasn’t as inspiring as last week’s beat down of then-ranked Kentucky.
— The status of Brock Bower’s ankle sprain will be a storyline to watch as the Bulldogs enter a four-game stretch with Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee. This was a Georgia team that led Vanderbilt just 30-20 late in the fourth quarter before adding a late touchdown. Each of those next four are capable of anything in a SEC season devoid of clarity even as we hit the Ides of October.
— That 20-13 Tennessee win over Texas A&M was maddening for a true appreciator of offensive efficiency. Each scored one offensive touchdown apiece on an afternoon that included four field goals and a punt-return touchdown. That 52-49 final in last year’s win over Alabama would take a month to achieve this year.
— Flipping storylines, Colorado (4-3) continues to be the most entertaining team of the season because every game is flat out insane. It blew a 29-0 halftime lead late Friday night to lose 46-43 to a below-average Stanford team in double overtime. This was the second OT game of the season with five of the seven games being determined by less than a touchdown. Four of the final five opponents are currently ranked so buckle up for more madness from Coach Prime and his rebuilt Buffs.
— On that fourth-down decision by Oregon up four at Washington, I’m split. Don’t hate the decision to go for the kill but the play call for Bo Nix didn’t feel right. Also wild considering all the times Oregon passed up chip-shot field goals would have made the difference when it called on its kicker for a buzzer-beater from distance to send the game to OT.
As always, what a sport.
Let’s do this again next week.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.