Photo: TheNewsStar.com
After the showdown last week between Alabama and Texas A&M, this week didn't provide that type of marquee match-up but still had two of the bigger games on Saturday with Florida/Tennessee and Auburn/LSU. How would those two games shake out and how would Arkansas and Missouri look in their road trips?
Vanderbilt 24 UMass 7: Vandy struggled out of the gates taking a 10-7 lead into half-time but found their groove late and put the game away with two fourth quarter TDs. QB Austyn Carta-Samuels led the way with 219 yards passing and 38 on the ground.
Georgia 45 North Texas 21: Georgia stumbled a bit on special teams as they gave up two TDs but their offense simply over powered the Mean Green. Aaron Murray finished with 408 yards passing including a 98 yard Georgia record pass to true freshman Reggie Davis. This was Davis's first career catch, how do you top that? Georgia out-gained the Mean Green 641 to 245 which is impressive but the Bulldogs will need to fix their Special Teams before the showdown next week with LSU.
Florida 31 Tennessee 17: Jeff Driskel went down early with a season-ending injury on a pick six but seldom used back-up Tyler Murphy came in and saved the day. This game was tough to watch in the first half but both teams settled down a bit and played a respectable second half. What did we learn? The Gators defense is really good. The Gators and Vols offense…not so much. Click here to read our re-cap of this game.
Rutgers 28 Arkansas 24: The Razorbacks looked like they had this one all but wrapped up as they led 24-7 in the third quarter. Rutgers came roaring back and scored three straight TDs to win this one and beat the Razorbacks for the second straight year. The Razorbacks played the game without starting QB Brandon Allen and couldn't get anything going on the ground with true freshman Alex Collins as they averaged just 3 yards per carry.
Texas A&M 42 SMU 13: There was no letdown for the Aggies after their loss last week to Alabama. Manziel and crew jumped on top 32-6 at half-time and never looked back. The defense gave up 434 total yards to SMU but held them to just one touchdown.
Alabama 31 Colorado 6: Nick Saban took mercy on his former Offensive Coordinator, Jim McElwain, and eased the Tide to a 25 point win. Don't read too much into this one.
Mississippi State 62 Troy 7: Somebody pissed off Dan Mullen and he took it out on the Trojans. The Bulldogs got the scoring started on a 70 yd pick six by Jamerson Love and then it snowballed downhill for Troy as the Bulldogs poured five second quarter TDs on them. QB Dak Prescott had 233 yards passing with one TD and also had 2 TDs on the ground.
LSU 35 Auburn 21: LSU jumped out on top 21-0 at half-time on the back of Jeremy Hill and held on after a late surge by Auburn. Click here to read our re-cap of this game.
Missouri 45 Indiana 28: This is not your daddy's Indiana team and a 17 point win on the road by Mizzou against them is a quality win. The Tigers put 623 yards of total offense on the board and Dorial Green-Beckham had 105 yards receiving and a TD.
Top Performer: Jeremy Hill, RB, LSU
Hill was the big reason that LSU jumped out to their first half lead against Auburn as he ran for TDs of 10 and 49 in the first quarter. He followed this up with a 6 yd TD run in the third quarter after Auburn had pulled to within two scores. Hill looked like a man playing among boys as he totaled 183 yards on 25 carries with 3 total TDs.
