SEC Football: Power Ranking The Defenses Going Into Week 5
The SEC was not very strong this week defensively. There were a couple of great performances followed by a slew of mediocre to terrible performances. It would be great as an SEC fan if I could attribute some of the terrible performances to great opposing offenses but that is just not the case this time around. I’d love to give Kentucky a pass because they did play powerhouse Florida, but the Gator’s starting offense did not account for any of the 48 points hung on the Wildcats. Ole Miss struggled again against a WAC opponent and Tennessee made Conference USA opponent UAB look like a Sam Bradford led Oklahoma team.
Normally known for tough defense and grind it out offenses, the SEC did not live up to their reputation this week. It was hard to rank the defenses because the bottom five all deserved to be in last place. These teams, defensively, were an embarrassment to their institutions and an embarrassment to the Southeastern Conference. The level of play will need to step up if the SEC is going to be well represented during bowl season.
#12: Tennessee
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Tennessee’s showing against UAB gives me no choice but to drop them to the worst defense in the SEC at this point. 544 yards and only one turnover against a Conference USA opponent? That’s almost 100 yards less than they gave up to Oregon just two weeks ago. How’s that for consistency?
Well the good news for Tennessee is that they have LSU this week, who’s offense has been just short of horrific this season. If Tennessee struggles with LSU’s offense then there is real cause for concern for the Volunteers.
#11: Ole Miss
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The good news is that the Rebels were able to pull of a victory against another terrible opponent. The bad news is that again, it wasn't easy. They Rebels gave up 420 total yards and 390 passing yards against Fresno State a team only averaging about 210 passing yards per game coming into the match-up. It would be easy to say that Ole Miss is in trouble when they get into the heart of SEC play, but the Rebels have a history of showing up at the oddest times, so who knows? They may lose to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt and then beat Florida or Bama. One thing that can be said for sure is that Ole Miss is really bad right now and needs to improve quickly.
#10: Kentucky
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Allowing starting Florida quarterback John Brantley to complete 65% of his passes for 248 yards and one touchdown isn’t the worst thing a defense can do. It’s actually not that bad of a performance. However, allowing his freshmen backup Trey Burton to throw one pass for a 42 yard touchdown and rush for five additional touchdowns on five attempts is obviously not good. The freshmen backup touched the ball six times and scored six touchdowns. I’m not a defensive coordinator, nor do I play one on T.V., but I can promise you one thing. If a single player scored on my defense the first three times he touched the ball, he absolutely would not score again. The other 10 guys on the field may each score, but he would not. Obviously I’m not the defensive coordinator for the Wildcats, who allowed Trey Burton to achieve a quarterback rating of 452.80.
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#9: Vanderbilt
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Vanderbilt was off this week, saving themselves the embarrassment of having their defense analyzed. However, I still can’t rank them below Kentucky, Ole Miss or Tennessee after their terrible performances. The Commodores take on Connecticut this week in what is sure to be one of the least exciting games of the week.
#8: South Carolina
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Auburn is a good team, but not that good! The South Carolina Gamecocks were absolutely terrible against the run allowing 334 yards, most of which were account for by Auburn quarterback Cam Newton. Newton rushed for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns in the 35-27 victory over South Carolina. The Gamecocks will need to improve if they want to stay respectable in the SEC.
#7: Georgia
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In a battle of Bulldogs Georgia came out on the bottom. However, defensively they did not play all that bad. While they did allow 179 yards of rushing, they only allowed 314 yards total and had an interception. Unfortunately they don’t have an offense that could put up any points, so they still lost the game.
#6: Mississippi State
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Allowing starting Florida quarterback John Brantley to complete 65% of his passes for 248 yards and one touchdown isn’t the worst thing a defense can do. It’s actually not that bad of a performance. However, allowing his freshmen backup Trey Burton to throw one pass for a 42 yard touchdown and rush for five additional touchdowns on five attempts is obviously not good. The freshmen backup touched the ball six times and scored six touchdowns. I’m not a defensive coordinator, nor do I play one on T.V., but I can promise you one thing. If a single player scored on my defense the first three times he touched the ball, he absolutely would not score again. The other 10 guys on the field may each score, but he would not. Obviously I’m not the defensive coordinator for the Wildcats, who allowed Trey Burton to achieve a quarterback rating of 452.80.
#5: Florida
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The Gators did a serviceable job against a weak Kentucky Wildcat team, allowing 352 total yards with only 99 on the ground. The Gators also picked Wildcat quarterback Mike Hartline twice and took one of the picks 52 yards for a touchdown. Overall the Florida defense did a good job against an inferior opponent.
#4: Auburn
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Auburn did a great job this week against one of the nations brightest up-and-coming running back stars in South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore. The Tigers held Lattimore to only 33 yards on 14 attempts for 2.4 yard per carry, an average far less than his norm of 5.0 coming into the game.
The Tigers did not do as well against the passing game led by Stephen Garcia, who was 15 of 21 for 235 yards and three touchdowns. However, the Tigers did pick off backup Connor Shaw twice on eight attempts to seal their victory.
#3: Arkansas
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The Razorbacks looked good against the defending champion Alabama Crimson Tide, allowing 421 yards of total offense. The down-side is that 227 yards were on the ground. Granted, Bama has arguably the best rushing attack in college football, but to be a legitimate contender in the SEC, you cannot allow 200 yards rushing to any opponent.
The good news for Razorback fans is that the toughest game is out of the way and you showed that you can contend with the best. The bad news is that your team just blew a golden opportunity to take down the champions.
#2: Alabama
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421 yards to Arkansas? Is that a mistake? Unfortunately for Crimson Tide fans it’s not. But fortunately for Tide fans, most of that was in the first half, which seemed to be an anomaly. The second half was a different story, a familiar story for Tide fans in which Nick Saban’s team dominated the defensive side of the football and the team came away with the victory. A scary night for Alabama, but seems to have been just a slight bump in the road. Bama fans have no reason to be alarmed, but it was uncharacteristic of a Saban-coached team to have even a half of let-down on defense.
#1: LSU
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As usual, LSU’s defense was phenomenal but had to squeak out a win thanks to a poor offensive performance.
Led by standout cornerback (and now Heisman hopeful) Patrick Peterson, the Tiger defense held an explosive West Virginia offense to only 177 total yards and only 58 on the ground. LSU’s front seven controlled the run game and knocked out Noel Devine early with a couple of really hard hits (both flagged for personal fouls).
The West Virginia offense that normally spreads teams out and beats them with small but speedy receivers was no match for LSU’s size, speed and talent.
LSU remains one of the nation’s top defenses.
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