While the SEC West garners most of the attention, the SEC East is officially a mess.
As the only ranked SEC East program, the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs were the clear favorite to claim a division crown and play in the SEC Championship Game. Mark Richt‘s program held its destiny in its hands and fumbled it away Saturday.
The Florida Gators dominated at the line of scrimmage to earn a 38-20 victory over Georgia in Jacksonville, Fla. at the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”
With Georgia’s loss, the Missouri Tigers leap to the top of the SEC standings with a 4-1 conference record. These are the same Tigers who lost to the 3-5 Indiana Hoosiers 31-27 earlier in the season. Georgia crushed Missouri 34-0 three weeks ago, yet the Bulldogs are now looking up at them in the standings.
SEC East deserves its leader being a team (Missouri) that lost at home to the only team winless in B1G (Indiana).
— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonAspen) November 1, 2014
How the Gators beat the Bulldogs wasn’t hard to discern. Will Muschamp‘s offensive game plan was overly simplistic.
I seriously can’t believe Will Muschamp took an elementary, run only game plan into the Cocktail Party and stuffed the ball down UGAs throat
— Alge Crumpler (@Alge_Crumpler) November 1, 2014
Florida ran the ball 60 times for 418 yards. The Gators’ offensive line should receive the game ball after absolutely destroying Georgia’s defensive front. Florida called the same plays over and over again, and Georgia simply didn’t have an answer.
Freshman quarterback Treon Harris only attempted six total passes. He completed three of them for 27 yards.
Florida relied on a two-headed monster in its backfield. Both Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones ran for over 190 yards. Their individual efforts in the same contest will go down as the two of the best rushing performances in Florida’s history.
Taylor (197) tied Neal Anderson for No. 8 best single rushing total for #Gators. Jones (192) is 12th all-time.
— David Jones (@DaveJonesSports) November 1, 2014
Despite Georgia’s pathetic performance, the Bulldogs can still make an appearance in the SEC Championship Game. Missouri still faces the Texas A&M Aggies, Tennessee Volunteers and Arkansas Razorbacks. If it trips up along the way and Georgia wins out, the Bulldogs hold the tie-breaker. Georgia has to get by the No. 3 Auburn Tigers next week to have a shot of that happening.