There’s only one two more weeks that stand between us and the final month of the regular season. Week 7 was total chaos around the SEC. This week has several other monster games on the docket as well. Here are three key matchups in Week 8.
1. LSU run defense vs. Byrum Brown and Auburn
Auburn has put up 100 yards or more in every game so far. Most of their rushing attack has been spearheaded by QB Byrum Brown. The game against Georgia was especially impressive. Auburn lined up and ran the ball 46 times for 192 yards against Kirby Smart’s defense. That was again spearheaded by Brown. He had over 100 yards in each of his last two games including 115 yards on 26 carries on Saturday.
The narrative on Blake Baker as a defensive coordinator is that what he struggles defending the most are mobile quarterbacks. The front seven for LSU is beaten up very badly with at least two starters out for what will most likely be the regular season. Depth has been a concern and that was before Princewill Umanmielen was injured last week. The Tigers defense has allowed 100 yards or more on the ground in each of their last three games as well. They’ll need to stop Brown’s legs if they want to stop Auburn.
2. Alabama’s OC Ryan Grubb vs Mike Elko
The book is out on Ryan Grubb, and it’s not very long and it’s not very good. Alabama entered the Georgia game with the No. 3 scoring offense in America at 49.6 ppg. Since then they’ve scored 17 and 10 points. Grubb has been awful as of late and the play calling has been really bad at generating any sort of comfort zone for quarterback Keelon Russell to thrive in.
Even worse, he’s been terrible at being on script. The last 14 opening drives against Power Four competition have yielded just one touchdown. That touchdown was on a drive that started at the opponent’s 48-yard line.
Alabama isn’t super great at starting fast, but they’ll need to figure out a way to build some confidence in that department before the bye week. All of Alabama’s national championship hopes are still on the table, and the strength of schedule in front of them is pretty mild compared to the rest of the SEC. They can’t afford any more mulligans, and they need to get a win against the Aggies before they start worrying about their one tough test the rest of the way, against LSU.
3. Texas’ secondary vs Ole Miss’ passing game
This one feels like a no brainer. There are so many key matchups in this game, but this one will be as important as any of them. That’s especially because of the fact that Colin Simmons will miss this game and the Longhorns biggest defensive weapon will be sidelined. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp will need his secondary to step up against Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss if they have a chance to win this game. Only one team has held Ole Miss under 30 points this season. That will be the starting point for Texas if they want to win this game because there’s nothing that points to the Longhorn offense being able to outscore anyone, let alone Ole Miss right now.
