Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
No. 5 Georgia holds on, beats No. 13 Auburn
NO. 5 GEORGIA 21, NO. 13 AUBURN 14
AUBURN, Ala. — Jake Fromm passed for three touchdowns and No. 5 Georgia’s defense produced two late stops, clinching the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title with a victory over No. 13 Auburn.
The Bulldogs (9-1, 6-1 SEC, No. 4 CFP) sailed through three quarters with a 21-0 lead before Auburn (7-3, 4-3) rallied in the fourth.
Georgia held on to become the first team to win three consecutive SEC East titles since Florida won five in a row from 1992-96.
Fromm and De’Andre Swift delivered enough offense to keep the Bulldogs on track for a shot at the College Football Playoffs. Most of the way, though, it was clear the game featured two of the league’s top defenses.
Auburn scored two touchdowns in the fourth, then had a pair of drives stopped on fourth down in the final minutes. Freshman Bo Nix threw three incompletions and was sacked on the Tigers’ final drive starting from their 27.
Fromm was 13-of-28 passing for just 110 yards, but had a 51-yard touchdown pass to Dominick Blaylock and a pair of 5-yarders to Eli Wolf and Brian Herrien. Swift ran for 106 yards on 17 carries.
Nix completed 30 of 50 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown. He also ran 13 times for 42 yards. Seth Williams caught 13 passes for 121 yards.
NO. 1 LSU 58, MISSISSIPPI 37
OXFORD, Miss. — Joe Burrow threw for 489 yards and five touchdowns as No. 1 LSU built a big lead and held off Mississippi.
Coming off an emotional 46-41 home win at Alabama last week, the Tigers (10-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) scored on four of their first five possessions jump out to a 28-0 lead over the Rebels (4-7, 2-5).
The teams combined for 1,328 yards of total offense, including 714 by the Tigers. Burrow enhanced his Heisman Trophy front-runner status, completing 32 of 42 passes, including touchdown passes of 34, 51 and 61 yards to Ja’Marr Chase (227 yards) and 12 and 7 yards to Justin Jefferson (112 yards).
Burrow completed 17 consecutive passes at one point to set a school record. He threw two interceptions in the second half as Ole Miss climbed closer, but put the game away with a 61-yard touchdown pass to Chase with 5:11 remaining.
NO. 5 ALABAMA 38, MISSISSIPPI STATE 7
STARKVILLE, Miss. — What figured to be Tua Tagovailoa’s final series of the day against Mississippi State ended with Alabama’s star quarterback being carted off the field with a hip injury.
Now the question is not how much Alabama should play Tagovailoa against an overmatched opponent, but whether he will ever play for the Crimson Tide again?
Tagovailoa was injured while being dragged down late in the first half, with the Tide up four touchdowns, and No. 4 Alabama went on to beat Mississippi State in a game that might have cost the Crimson Tide one of the best players in college football.
Tagovailoa was tackled from behind by Bulldogs linebacker Leo Lewis. Tagovailoa’s helmet came off and he stayed down on the ground for several minutes as Alabama medical staff attended to him. He needed help getting to his feet and was carted off the field with 3:01 left in the second quarter. He also had a bloody nose.
“He has a hip injury. It’s going to be evaluated. I don’t think it’s related to any other injury that he has,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “It’s kind of a freak thing that you seldom see. So, I don’t really have anything else to say about that, and we’ll kind of go from there.”
Tagovailoa had been nursing an ankle injury and Alabama was considering holding him out of this game.
KENTUCKY 38, VANDERBILT 14
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kentucky rushed for a season-high 401 yards and kept its bowl hopes alive with a win over Vanderbilt.
Lynn Bowden and Chris Rodriguez both rushed for over 100 yards for the Wildcats (5-5, 3-5 Southeastern Conference).
Rodriguez led the way, rushing for 129 yards and two touchdowns against the Commodores (2-8, 1-6). Bowden, in his fifth game at quarterback since moving over form wide receiver, added 110 yards rushing and one TD.
“It’s just confidence in your teammates and pushing to get to the end zone,” Bowden said. “Once I see the end zone and once my teammates see the end zone, we try to get to the end zone as fast as we can.”
Kavosiey Smoke rushed for 95 yards and one TD for the Wildcats in a matchup between two teams near the bottom of the SEC’s Eastern Division.
TEXAS A&M 30, SOUTH CAROLINA 6
HOUSTON — Kellen Mond threw for 221 yards and a touchdown and ran for a second score as Texas A&M extended its winning streak to four games with a win over South Carolina.
Cordarrian Richardson ran for 130 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown, and added a TD reception to help the Aggies to the victory on a night they piled up 319 yards rushing.
With just four wins and one game left the loss guarantees that the Gamecocks (4-7, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) won’t make a bowl game for the first time in four seasons.
South Carolina fell to 0-6 all-time against Texas A&M and lost its second straight game this season after falling to Appalachian State last week.
NO. 11 FLORIDA 23, MISSOURI 6
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Nothing about Kyle Trask’s path to becoming Florida’s starting quarterback was easy. Something as trivial as a sluggish first half doesn’t rattle him.
Trask threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter to help No. 11 Florida shake free of Missouri.
The former high school backup, who took over for the Gators after an injury to Feleipe Franks earlier this season, completed 23 of 35 passes for 282 yards. That was plenty of offense for Florida (9-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference), which held Missouri to 204 total yards.