Look, he's wearing a crimson shirt too... Dude, nobody is saying that bama is not a great team... It's hard to tell how good a team really is (any team) if they're playing really inferior talent.. . We won 2 national championships against teams that were on record scoring years, until they played our defense... Oklahoma was averaging 50+points/gm and we held them to 14... OSU was up there as well and, with the exception of garbage time points, we held them well below their scoring average...
Using "only FBS opponents" is misleading IMO. There are some FBS teams who could get their ass beat by some FCS teams. There are a lot of really crappy FBS teams on this page so it would be a better discussion to look at conference opponents and who THEY played. Case in point, Miami who currently holds a 4-1 record, contributing 3 games to the FBS "win" column. Those would be wins against Savannah St, Toledo, and FIU. Lol. Auburn....the only quality win I would give them is against the Fuskies. Alabama St and Southern Miss don't exactly ring the "killer" bell. Alabama is working the system to perfection. We are 5 weeks in to this mother and Bama has played two conference opponents as well but certainly not the cream. They probably haven't played their 1st string more than 40% of any game so they are very healthy heading in to the bulk of conference play. Well done. Lots of talk about bias but it seems to me that, with no argument from me, that the SEC has superior talent so in that aspect, no team on that list has more than 2 conference games played except for Georgia, who now has 3 SEC WINS and 2 of those were on the road. They've also had some key injuries. They are beatable but if at all like last year, a consistent better 2nd-half-season team. Numbers look a lot different when considering only conference opponent's records. LSU-(7-3)* Clemson-(6-4) Georgia-(7-6) Bama-(6-4) *Again, see 2 non-conference wins for Auburn. Other than losing to LSU, Auburn's only other conference game, a win, was against the Hogs. Lol. Way too much football ahead and a lot of key games left to play.
I get what you're saying here and I also believe it comes with caveats. OSU had a good offense but it was no where near the juggernaut I think you're suggesting. As I recall, they were in the top 25% of total offenses that season. I can't recall their exact ranking--I want to say it was mid 30's to mid 40's--but I do recall Tennessee had a better offense than they did. Didn't LSU hold them to 14 in the SECCG? Also, I recall five or six SEC teams having a better offense than UT did that season. Yes, LSU held them below their normal scoring average--six or seven points as I recall. I get your mention of Oklahoma as well. And, as I recall, Kansas State had the best defense they faced in the conference schedule that season--a game they lost as well (seven points total in that game, right?) I recall the conversations here about how untested their offense was going into that title game. Seeing LSU hold the Sooners to 14 wasn't a surprise to me or you guys here. Now, the "talking heads" put it differently but that's common place now-a-day. Today? No offense intended but seeing the LSU passing defense in four games this year hasn't caused a lot of trepidation on my part. (I didn't watch the Southeastern La. game.) Can we learn anything from this upcoming weekend when Bama plays Arkansas? I don't know. I do hold doubts. However, they are allowing fewer passing yards per game than LSU through five games. LSU has had better numbers on rushing defense: 103 per game versus 106.
To build on this a bit. To date, Tua has played 57% of the snaps. If we take A&M out of the equation Tua has one more snap than Hurts: 113 to 112. Running backs are split pretty evenly between three guys--Harris leads the way with 36% of the snaps. Damien in his starting role has seen 33% of the snaps. Offensive line and wide receivers have remained pretty consistent until the second half of four of the five.
