Saturday in Review: Week 7

First, Florida broke Kentucky's hearts. Then they broke Tennessee's hearts. Now, their own hearts are broken, after falling 30-27 to LSU in the Swamp. As the score suggests, it was a closely fought game throughout. The Florida offense made great plays and terrible errors. The Florida defense made great plays and terrible errors. But the LSU offense and defense made great plays when it mattered most.

LSU did a great job running the ball, particularly with Leonard Fournette, against the Gator defense. For most of the night, Florida's defense did a great job limiting the LSU passing game. The one terrible error was with LSU on third and 25, Florida's secondary blew a coverage, allowing the Tigers to complete a 41-yard pass that led to their final touchdown. It didn't help that the Gators' star corner, Vernon Hargreaves, missed the entire second half after a blow to the head. Florida's offense often stuttered, and could not consistently sustain drives, but did make the occasional big play. Hampering Florida's offense was the second-half absence of running back Matt Jones, who went out with a knee injury. Andre Debose made a spectacular effort returning punts (one was for a touchdown, the other set up a 12-yard touchdown pass). Debose also got one touch on offense, but it went for a huge gain.

Jeff Driskel was the Florida offense on Saturday, with his combined rushing and passing yards accounting for about 82% of Florida's offensive production. The quarterback made several key plays and costly errors. The first error was a fumble that set up LSU's first touchdown. The second was the inexplicably terrible slant to Latroy Pittman on Florida's final drive that was tipped, intercepted, and returned to set up LSU's game-winning field goal. However, Driskel did his best to win the game on the Gators' penultimate drive. First, the quarterback completed an amazing 72-yard pass to Demarcus Robinson, setting the Gators up with a first and goal from the two. With the Gators trailing by three (due to a missed PAT by LSU which may have ultimately played in the Tigers' favor), Driskel threw a perfect go-ahead-touchdown pass to Tevin Westbrook on third down, which was dropped by the young receiver. Florida settled for the game-tying field goal rather than go for it on fourth down (barely two minutes remained at that point). Florida stopped LSU with a three-and-out on their ensuing drive, but Florida could only make one play before the game-ending interception.

What else happened this week? Well, many of my predictions came to realization. One notable one that didn't was the Georgia-Missouri game. Even without halfback Todd Gurley, Georgia utterly dominated the Tigers, shutting them out while scoring 34. Mizzou was outplayed from start to finish. Kentucky and Georgia are now the two teams from the East that "control their destiny". The Oregon-UCLA was the only other game I missed widely, with Oregon coming out with a decisive win.

Mississippi State, Alabama, and Ole Miss all won. However, it was the Bulldogs and the Rebels that looked truly impressive with their wins. Mississippi State thoroughly defeated the Auburn Tigers while Ole Miss crushed the Aggies in a sold-out Kyle Field. Alabama's one-point victory was decided by a blocked PAT. The SEC championship now runs through the state of Mississippi. Vanderbilt barely got away from Charleston Southern.

Baylor won a shootout against TCU, while Oklahoma just escaped the Longhorns. Besides Auburn and TCU, undefeated Arizona and Georgia Tech also fell (the former in a most heartbreaking fashion). Marshall remains unbeaten. Oklahoma State needed a late punt return to put away Kansas while Notre Dame survived a scare against North Carolina.

State of Florida:

• UCF (3-2) over BYU (4-2), 20-13 31-23 (OT)
• Miami (4-3) over Cincinnati (2-3), 38-21 55-34
• #1 Florida State (6-0) over Syracuse (2-4), 37-6 38-20
• #19 East Carolina (5-1) over South Florida (2-4), 28-13 28-17
• FIU (3-4) over UTSA (2-4), 31-27 16-13
• Florida (3-2) over LSU (5-2), 13-6 30-27
• Florida Atlantic (2-4), BYE

Southeastern Conference:

• #23 Missouri (4-2) over #13 Georgia (5-1), 34-31 34-0
• Kentucky (5-1) over Louisiana-Monroe (3-3), 31-14 48-14
• #3 Mississippi State (6-0) over #2 Auburn (5-1), 38-31 38-23
• Tennessee (3-3) over Chattanooga (3-3), 45-13 45-10
• #7 Alabama (5-1) over Arkansas (3-3), 35-31 14-13
• Vanderbilt (2-5) over Charleston Southern (5-1), 34-16 21-20
• #3 Mississippi (6-0) over #14 Texas A&M (5-2), 27-24 35-20
• South Carolina (3-3), BYE

Top 25:

• #5 Baylor (6-0) over #9 TCU (4-1), 38-30 61-58
• #6 Notre Dame (6-0) over North Carolina (2-4), 38-17 50-43
• #8 Michigan State (5-1) over Purdue (3-4), 45-17 45-31
• #10 Arizona (5-1) over USC (4-2), 38-31 28-26
• #11 Oklahoma (5-1) over Texas (2-4), 34-17 31-26
• #18 UCLA (4-2) over #12 Oregon (5-1), 28-27 42-30
• #16 Oklahoma State (5-1) over Kansas (2-4), 37-10 27-20
• #22 Georgia Tech (5-1) over Duke (5-1), 31-24 31-25
• #25 Stanford (4-2) over Washington State (2-5), 20-17 34-17
• #15 Ohio State (4-1), BYE
• #17 Kansas State (4-1), BYE
• #20 Arizona State (4-1), BYE
• #21 Nebraska (5-1), BYE
• #24 Utah (4-1), BYE

Week 7 Record: 16-6 (73%)

Season Record: 81-31 (72%)