During the 10th week of the SEC’s 2022 season, Florida defeated Texas A&M 41-24, Georgia defeated Tennessee 27-13, Kentucky defeated Missouri 21-17, LSU defeated Alabama 32-31 in overtime, Mississippi State defeated Auburn 39-33 in overtime and South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt 38-27 in conference games and Arkansas lost to Liberty 21-19 in a non-conference contest. Here are 10 numbers about the SEC’s Week 10 games:
1 SEC league game in the past seven seasons in which neither team’s offense gained at least 260 yards. In Kentucky’s 21-17 victory over Missouri on Saturday, the Wildcats gained 252 yards and the Tigers gained 232. Saturday’s game was the 21st conference contest this century in which neither team reached 260 yards, but it was the first since Florida defeated Georgia 24-10 on Oct. 29, 2016. The Gators had 231 yards, and the Bulldogs had 164. In its win over Missouri, Kentucky was penalized 12 times for 84 yards, giving the Wildcats their 10th consecutive victory in games in which they were penalized at least 10 times.
2 Vanderbilt turnovers were caused by South Carolina CB O’Donnell Fortune in the final five minutes of the Gamecocks’ 38-27 victory on Saturday. Fortune caused Vanderbilt TE Ben Bresnahan to fumble after a reception, and South Carolina recovered the loose football at the Commodores 46-yard line with 4:10 to play. Fortune then intercepted Vanderbilt QB Mike Wright at the South Carolina 38-yard line with 1:04 remaining in the game.
3 One-point losses for Alabama have featured a 2-point conversion by the opposition as the final points, including on Saturday, when LSU QB Jayden Daniels’ 2-point completion to TE Mason Taylor ended LSU’s 32-31 overtime victory against the Crimson Tide. Since college football introduced the 2-point conversion in 1958, Alabama has had 20 one-point losses. On Oct. 20, 1984, Tennessee defeated Alabama 28-27 when QB Tony Robinson scored a 2-pointer on an option run after Johnnie Jones’ touchdown with 2:09 remaining in the game. On Sept. 18, 1965, Georgia defeated Alabama 18-17 when Kirby Moore threw to Pat Hodgson after a hook-and-lateral play had gone for a 73-yard touchdown with a little over two minutes remaining. The 2-point play made the difference when Alabama’s David Ray missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt in the closing seconds. Alabama also has had two one-point losses when it failed on a 2-point try after its final TD. On Oct. 18, 1968, Alabama lost to Tennessee 10-9 when QB Scott Hunter couldn’t connect on the 2-point pass after throwing a TD pass to Donnie Sutton with one minute to play. On Nov. 17, 1962, Alabama lost to Georgia Tech 7-6 when it failed on a 2-pointer after a fourth-quarter TD, then got to the Yellow Jackets 14-yard line, where Don Toner intercepted a Joe Namath pass with about a minute to play. “When you’re No. 1 in the country, you don’t play for a tie,” Tide coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said after the game.
3 Consecutive Tennessee possessions ended in punts during the Volunteers’ 27-13 loss to Georgia on Saturday. Tennessee had only three previous instances in the 2022 season in which it had punted on back-to-back possessions. The first three-punt streak for the Vols came after they lost a fumble on their first possession and made a field goal on their second on Saturday. The first two of the punts came in the first quarter as Tennessee failed to score a first-quarter TD for the second time in Josh Heupel’s 22 games as the Vols coach. Georgia has not allowed a TD in the first quarter this season, and the field goal was the third in the first period against the Bulldogs in 2022.
4 Georgia players had their first sacks of the season in the Bulldogs’ 27-13 victory over Tennessee on Saturday. Javon Bullard, Warren Brinson, Jalen Carter and Trezmen Marshall recorded their first sacks of 2022. For Bullard and Marshall, the sacks were the first of their careers. Georgia had six sacks against Tennessee after recording 10 in its first eight games of the season. The Volunteers had given up 13 sacks in their first eight games in 2022.
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7 Alabama games have featured at least 50 passes by the Crimson Tide QB, including 51 by Bryce Young in a 32-31 overtime loss to LSU on Saturday. It was the fourth time in Alabama’s past 13 games that Young had passed at least 50 times. The Crimson Tide won the first of those 24-22 in quadruple overtime against Auburn on Nov. 27 but has since lost to Georgia in the CFP national championship game on Jan. 10, Tennessee on Oct. 15 and LSU on Saturday. The other games featuring at least 50 passes by an Alabama QB were posted by Scott Hunter in a 49-26 loss to Auburn on Nov. 29, 1969, David Smith in a 29-28 victory over Army in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 24, 1988, and John Parker Wilson in a 21-14 loss to Florida State on Sept. 29, 2007.
7 Straight possessions from the start of Saturday’s Florida-Texas A&M game ended in points. The flurry of four TDs and three field goals left the Gators ahead 20-17. After an exchange of punts, Texas A&M added another TD before halftime to take the lead. But on the 15 full possessions of the second half, only three ended in scores – two TD passes by QB Anthony Richardson and a TD run by RG Montrell Johnson Jr. – as Florida rallied for a 41-24 victory.
13 Points were scored by K Will Reichard in Alabama’s 32-31 overtime loss to LSU on Saturday. With four field goals and an extra point, Reichard became the Crimson Tide’s career scoring leader with 388 points. He broke the record of 385 points established by K Leigh Tiffin from 2006 through 2009. Reichard could become the third SEC player to reach 400 career points in the 2022 season, joining Auburn K Anders Carlson and Tennessee K Charles McGrath, who got to 401 with two field goals and an extra point in a 27-13 loss to Georgia on Saturday. Entering the season, five players in SEC history had scored 400 points – Auburn K Daniel Carlson, who holds the league record with 480, and four Georgia kickers – Rodrigo Blankenship, Blair Walsh, Billy Bennett and Marshall Morgan.
42 Years since the previous time that Texas A&M had a five-game losing streak. The Aggies lost their fifth in a row on Saturday when they fell to Florida 41-24 after losing to Mississippi State 42-24 on Oct. 1, Alabama 24-20 on Oct. 8, South Carolina 30-24 on Oct. 22 and Ole Miss 31-28 on Oct. 29. In 1980, Texas A&M lost consecutive games 17-7 to Houston, 46-7 to Baylor, 10-6 to Rice, 27-0 to SMU and 27-24 to Arkansas to fall to 2-7. Since 1980, Texas A&M had won at least four of its first nine games in every season until 2022, when the latest loss dropped the Aggies to 3-6.
75 SEC teams in this century have gained at least 235 rushing yards while holding their opponents to 35 or fewer rushing yards in a game. All had won until Saturday, when Auburn lost to Mississippi State 39-33 in overtime. With Robby Ashford becoming the first Tigers QB to reach 100 rushing yards in a game since Nick Marshall in 2014, the Tigers ran for 256 yards on 46 carries while limiting the Bulldogs to 13 yards on 18 rushing attempts. MSU was the 36th SEC team to finish a game with 13 or fewer rushing yards since 2000. The first 28 lost. But four of the past eight have won.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
