SEC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE: Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson, who rushed 28 times for 204 yards and scored three touchdowns against Ole Miss. He has 12 rushing scores this year.CO-DEFENSIVE: Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, who had five tackles, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and an interception in the 27-19 win at Texas A&M.CO-DEFENSIVE: LSU linebacker Devin White, who totaled 13 tackles, including an 8-yard sack, in the win at Florida. White also batted down a pass to seal the upset victory.SPECIAL TEAMS: Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson, who made five extra-point attempts and three field-goal tries in becoming the SEC's all-time leading scorer with 413 points.FRESHMAN: Kentucky receiver and return specialist Lynn Bowden, who had 128 all-purpose yards against Missouri, averaging 16.3 yards on receptions and 26.3 on kickoffs.OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: Georgia left tackle Isaiah Wynn, who graded out at 92 percent and had eight knockdown blocks for an offense that had 423 rushing yards at Vanderbilt.DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: South Carolina's D.J. Wonnum, who had four tackles, including a tackle for loss, and broke up two passes in helping the Gamecocks rout Arkansas.- David Paschall
If past performances were a guarantee of future results, Arkansas would be in for a long night Saturday inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The Razorbacks might be, anyway.
Alabama's powerful run through the 2017 college football season took a slight stumble this past weekend, as a 24-3 lead at Texas A&M early in the third quarter unraveled somewhat before the Crimson Tide posted a 27-19 win. Nick Saban's teams haven't endured many single-digit victories the past couple of seasons, and when they have, they typically respond with another string of blowout triumphs.
"As a coach, you always want to see your team play well," Saban said Monday in his weekly news conference, "and I think we got punched in the nose a little bit, especially when we fumbled the ball and they scored a touchdown and the crowd got in the game. It's important how your team learns to respond from that, and I guess we can debate whether we responded to that very well or not.
"In my opinion, it wasn't as well as we needed to. There is definitely an opportunity to learn from that experience."
Two years ago, Alabama lost its Southeastern Conference opener at home 43-37 to Ole Miss before posting double-digit wins over Georgia (38-10), Arkansas (27-14) and Texas A&M (41-23). The Crimson Tide then had to rally past Tennessee 19-14 before getting to their open date and closing with impressive SEC triumphs over LSU (30-16), Mississippi State (31-6) and Auburn (29-13).
Alabama won last year's league opener 48-43 at Ole Miss before racking up seven straight decisive wins to close league play, including triumphs over four teams - Arkansas (49-30), Tennessee (49-10), LSU (10-0) and Auburn (30-12) - that were ranked in the top 16 at the time of the matchup.
Saban praised Texas A&M's production and heart but added that his team was "ordinary" by its standards.
"I do think that when things don't go so well, people are a little more willing to respond," he said. "I'm hopeful our team will respond well in this circumstance."
Alabama's players believe what transpired Saturday night in College Station can very much serve as a positive moving forward. Even in the close call, the Tide rushed for a decent 232 yards and held the Aggies to 184 rushing yards below their season average.
"I think we kind of needed a game like that, a closer game," Tide junior defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said Monday. "For one, it allowed the starters to play all four quarters, from the first play to the last play. We didn't have anybody coming in and out, and we needed that, because it challenged us as a team offensively and defensively.
"It also showed us some things we need to work on, which is good."
Junior running back Damien Harris didn't think Saturday's experience was good. He thought it was great.
"It was great for our team, because it showed not all games are going to go the way they had in the last couple of games, when we had some big-time wins (59-0 over Vanderbilt and 66-3 over Ole Miss)," Harris said. "We know this is a long season filled with great opponents. We're going to play a lot of good teams in a lot of hostile environments, and things aren't always going to go our way.
"You always want to have success, but that's not how football works."
Saturday night will be homecoming in Tuscaloosa, and Arkansas enters with a 2-3 record and coming off a 48-22 loss at South Carolina. The Razorbacks have lost 10 in a row to Saban's Tide, though they fell just 14-13 in 2014 and threw for 400 yards in last season's shootout in Fayetteville.
Alabama led Arkansas 42-17 early in the third quarter of last year's game before struggling to keep the Razorbacks offense off the field.
"Last year they challenged us, and it was similar to this past week," Fitzpatrick said. "We were blowing them out at the beginning of the game, and we allowed them to come back. It was really uncharacteristic stuff by us."
Not adding up
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema never won fewer than seven games in a season during his seven years with Wisconsin, but his Razorbacks have won more than seven games only once. Bielema, in his fifth season in Fayetteville, could be hard-pressed to win seven this season should his Hogs fall to 2-4 Saturday night.
"There is no doubt in my mind we'll get it where it needs to be," Bielema said Monday in a news conference. "I don't really worry about win totals until the end of the year. I think it's a great measurement at the end of the year, but right now all you can worry about is the game in front of you."
Tide tidbits
Alabama's game next week against visiting Tennessee will be televised by CBS. ... Cornerback Trevon Diggs was back at practice Monday after missing the Texas A&M game with a foot injury.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.