Basically, we were in the same boat with Cal and Penn State, all ranked in the same range, and all without a true test of any kind on the year, and we all played poorly.
Between the two polls, they treated each team roughly the same.
We should take care of Vandy without a ton of trouble even with our OL issues, and we'll move up a few spots before the Bama game. If we were to pull off a Bama upset, we'd make up a lot of that ground in a hurry. Of course, if our OL doesn't figure something out, Snead will get eaten alive on October 10.
Either way, it's all a good argument for polls not being released until mid-October. Pre-season polls inflate the value of some teams every year, and on the flip side, polls overreact often to early losses that turn out to be not so bad.