Georgia's Collapse Jackpot for SEC West's Playoff Hopes

Florida and Georgia met in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida, and the bouncer sent the Bulldogs home early.

Georgia's playoff hopes, which were intact coming in, disappeared at the hands of a punishing Florida attack that racked up 418 yards on the ground in a 38-20 loss on the first coast. Florida's attack was easy to diagnose. The game featured virtually no aerial threat from quarterback Treon Harris, who completed three of six passes in his first career start for the Gators.

According to Muschamp (via Nick de la Torre of GatorCountry.com), the plan was to throw a little more:

He didn't need to.

Kelvin Taylor rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns, and Matt Jones added 192 and two touchdowns against the soft Georgia front seven to pace the Gators to an easy win—just like everybody expected (sarcasm very much intended).

Talk about demoralizing for head coach Mark Richt's crew. Florida was one-dimensional by necessity, and it simply didn't matter. Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt took full responsibility, according to Seth Emerson of The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph: 

It wasn't Georgia not playing with fight; it was Florida surgically removing the fight from the Bulldogs.

The game served as a three-hour reminder to the SEC West that, while the path to Atlanta is treacherous in the nation's toughest division, the road to the playoff won't be once the division winner steps foot in the Georgia Dome.

While Georgia was busy getting stomped in Jacksonville, Missouri won an ugly 20-10 game over Kentucky, "asserting" itself as the SEC East favorite in the final month of the season. The Tigers have games with Texas A&M, Tennessee and Arkansas left, which isn't exactly the most rigorous stretch in the world. 

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Whoever wins the West will either get a Missouri team that is Jekyll and Hyde offensively and lost at home to Indiana or a Georgia team that is softer than a room full of pillows in the middle of the defense.

That's a win-win in every possible way.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The best-case scenario for the SEC West contenders—especially Auburn, which gets to play Georgia in the regular season too—is having the SEC East's perceived favorite to develop problems not related to running back Todd Gurley in the midst of his four-game suspension for taking money for autographs.

Can Auburn exploit the Bulldogs like Florida did? Yep. Alabama and Mississippi State? Absolutely. The only team that might struggle is Ole Miss which struggles between the tackles, but even the Rebels could find a little success against that run defense.

The last thing an SEC West foe wants to see in Atlanta is Gurley on the other sideline, because the threat for him to take over the game and—most importantly—keep his own defense off the field would be terrifying. That's less likely now, and the West contenders have Pruitt's defense to thank.

The SEC West is cannibalizing itself with its strength, while the East is cannibalizing itself with its weaknesses.

As the season has gone on, that door to the inaugural College Football Playoff keeps swinging wide-open.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.