As Alabama football continues its run as the only undefeated in the SEC, the rest of the pack continues to shuffle.
For Alabama football fans, things seemed to be a bit more normal post-Saturday evening, as the Tide pitched its first shutout of the season. With the next four teams not budging from their previous spots, there seems to be a clear cut delineation between the class of the SEC and the rest.
The biggest consistency of the Bama Hammer Power Rankings continues to be LSU’s inconsistency as they resumed their spot in the 2020 SEC pecking order by moving down five spots from last week after a disastrous road loss to Auburn on Saturday.
At this point, there are probably four teams with legitimate playoff potential going forward. Based on this season, though, that could be blown straight to hell by next weekend.
Here are the Week 9 SEC Power Rankings, beginning, of course, with Alabama Football.
No. 1 – Alabama Crimson Tide; 70 points – previous ranking, No. 1
Without a doubt, this was the Crimson Tide’s finest defensive performance of the Alabama football season, blanking Mike Leach’s Bulldogs. While Mississippi State was only averaging 19 points per game offensively, it’s telling that Nick Saban and Pete Golding’s Alabama football defense played up to a standard that didn’t appear to be visible prior to last night’s meeting.
The Tide defense held the Bulldogs to only 200 total yards and zero points. That’s the standard.
The offense continues to look unstoppable with Mac Jones and Devonta Smith hooking up 11 times for 203 of the squad’s 291 passing yards. And while Najee Harris was kept out of the end zone for the first time in 12 games, he still rushed for 119 yards on 21 carries.
No. 2 – Georgia Bulldogs; 63 points – previous ranking, No. 2
It was ugly (really ugly), but the Dawgs got it done on Saturday. By holding Kentucky to 229 total yards and 3 points, Georgia’s defense continues to be the best in the SEC. Their offense on the other hand? Hoo boy.
The Georgia Bulldog offense is not good. There’s no way to sugarcoat this. And while the Wildcats’ defense was second in scoring going into this game, the absurd talent advantage that Kirby Smart’s team has on both sides of the ball should be producing better results than 14 points. Georgia’s defense is going to keep them in games in the SEC, but if they think they’re going to win a national title averaging just shy of 28 points per game…
No. 3 – Texas A&M Aggies; 62 points – previous ranking, No. 3
The Aggies are tap tap tapping on the door in replacing the Dawgs at No. 2. This a strange team we’re seeing, here. They’re not flashy on either side of the ball, but their senior quarterback continues to play the best football of his career and with receiving options like Jalen Wydermeyer and Ainias Smith, it’s hard to convince any of us at Bama Hammer that they’re going to finish ranked lower than second in the West.
No. 4 – Florida Gators; 55 points – previous ranking, No. 4
A halftime brawl (and two straight weeks off due to COVID-19 issues) overshadow the fact that aside from a close loss to the Aggies in College Station, the Gators still control their own destiny in the East. They dispatched Mizzou on Saturday with relative ease 41-17, amassing over 500 yards of total offense.
Even the defense looked significantly better compared to its first three games. With a big game looming against Georgia this Saturday, Dan Mullen’s team could be in a position to make it to Atlanta for the first time since 2016.