Florida Grades

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I was looking on the Internet for a recipe for fried alligator and I discovered they all required a common ingredient: gator tail cut into chunks. The Food Network's recipe claims it only takes 15 minutes to fry up the big lizard. It took the Alabama football team a bit longer than that last night, but the result was the same.

By the time the scoreboard clock ran down to all zeros, and the Million Dollar Band was serenading the Bama fans who made the trip to Gainesville with the Rammer Jammer, the Florida Gators had been cut into chunks at the line of scrimmage, dipped into hot sauce by a relentless defense, and fried by the Tide rushing attack that ran for 226 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Most Florida fans, of course, didn't stick around long enough to see how completely Alabama dominated the game. The trickle of departing blue and orange spectators that started at half-time became a river in the fourth quarter. Eddie Lacy's exclamation point touchdown was witnessed by more fans from Alabama than Florida. Reports from Our Correspondents who attended the game in person were complimentary of the Florida people who stayed faithfully to the end.

This was no fluke. Coach Saban's pre-game comments were spot-on. Bama's challenge was to absorb Florida's opining punch, not let the crowd and emotions get the better of them, and focus on execution. That's exactly what the players did. Florida came out slinging the ball down field and scored on the game's opening play, a 65 yard Brantley to Debose pass and run for a touchdown. There may have been a bit of hesitation on the part of Mark Barron, who seemed to be anticipating something to Demps or Rainey out of the backfield, and consequently left Dre Kirkpatrick without help covering the speedy Gator receiver. It would prove to be Florida's longest play from scrimmage. Debose caught only one more pass the entire night, and the Gator's next longest completion gained less than half of the yardage earned on that single play.

The offense took the ensuing kick off and put together a 12 play drive that gained 52 yards and ended with a field goal. While the offense was on the field, the defense was making adjustments; the Gators next possession gained only 55 yards and a earned only 3 points. That would prove to be the last Florida points for the game.

Marquis Maze and the Tide return team took the ensuing kickoff 70 yards to the Florida 29 yard line. From there, 5 runs by Trent Richardson and a key 18 yard pass to Maze set up a 5 yard touchdown run by Richardson. It was the first rushing touchdown allowed by the Florida defense this year. It would be the first of four that Alabama would score on the night.

This was total domination. The numbers tell the story. First downs: Alabama 21 [14 by rush], UF 9. Rushing yards: Alabama 226 [4 TDs], UF 15 [don't refresh your browser, that number is correct!]; Tackles for loss: Alabama 11 [54 yards] UF 4 [12 yards]. Sacks: Alabama 3, UF 0. Take-aways: Bama 2, UF 0. Third down conversions: Tide 7-13, UF 4-14. Time of possession: Alabama 34:41, Florida 25:19.

Alabama's offensive line, which has made steady improvement, played its best game so far this year. Coach Saban, in his post game comments, was highly complimentary of the play by the O-Line. So was A.J. who was only hurried once. So was the equipment staff, who didn't have to wash AJ's uniform.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense: A The ground game accounted for most of Alabama's offensive statistics [366 total; 226 rushing, 140 passing], but key completions kept drives alive. Marquis Maze caught a pass on the sideline for a gain of 18 yards, converting a 3rd down on Alabama's first scoring drive of the 4th quarter. Receivers were open for big gains, but timing was just a little bit off.

AJ completed 12 of 25 pass attempts to 7 different receivers. Michael Williams caught 3 passes for 32 yards. Maze caught 2 for 36. Trent caught 2 for 27 and Hanks caught 2 for 19.

Trent rushed for 181 yards on 29 carries [6.2 average] and two TDs. Eddie Lacy added 35 yards and 1 TD on 5 runs and Jalston Fowler gained 19 on 5 rushing plays. Trent had 208 all-purpose yards [181 rushing and 27 receiving].

The Tide had four drives that gained in excess of 40 yards [52 (12 plays), 61 (10 plays), 92 (11 plays), 46 (4 plays)] that resulted in 1 FG and 3 TDs.

Defense: A+ The stop-troops were a bit over-anxious at the start of the game but adjusted well to Florida's speed and took control at the line of scrimmage. While the Tide offense was averaging 5.3 yards per rush, Florida could only mange 18 inches. The Gator's dual rushing threat of Demps and Rainey was limited to only 8 yards rushing; 4 yards apiece. Think about that: Richardson and Lacey each averaged more yards per rush [6.2 and 6.4] than each of Florida's two world-class sprinters were able to gain all night.

Nico Johnson had 4 tackles, all solo, and recovered a fumble. Courtney Upshaw was a one man wrecking crew with 4 solo tackles, all for loss, including a sack, and a 45 yard interception return for a touchdown. Dont'a recorded 4 tackles [3 solo] and 1 for loss. Josh Chapman, Ed Stinson, and Dre each had 3 tackles, all solo, and all of Stinson's were for lost yardage.

Tide defenders made 11 tackles for 54 yards of lost yardage, forced 2 fumbles, and broke up 5 passes.

After scoring 10 points on its first two possession, Florida's remaining 9 possession resulted in 6 punts, an interception, a missed FG and a lost fumble. The high-octane Gator offense, which had averaged more than 200 yards rushing per game, had 6 possessions that were 3 and out.

Special Teams:


Punting: B Alabama officially punted 5 times for an average of 39.8 yards and nailed 5 punts inside the Florida 20. What keeps the grade from being higher is the interference penalty committed on the opening drive of the 3rd quarter. But for the interference penalty, Alabama would have kept the ball and benefited from a roughing penalty. Instead, the penalties off-set and we had to punt again.

Place Kicking: A Jeremy Shelley was good from 32 yards and was perfect on all 5 PATs.

Kickoffs: B- Maze's 70 yard return set up Alabama's first TD, however Bama averaged only 41.4 net per kick and we had no touchbacks.

Coaching: A+ This was a big-time win over a big-time, conference opponent. The participation report lists 62 players who saw action and Alabama was penalized only 3 times for 29 yards.

Luck had nothing to do with Alabama's dominating win over the Gators. This was a game where the better conditioned, stronger, and more talented team imposed its will and wore down a strong talented opponent. There were, however, other teams in the SEC that got lucky yesterday. One was Auburn. The Tigers were lucky that South Carolina has a dreadful offense. The other was Georgia. Because Carolina lost and John Brantley may be out for several games [at this writing, Brantley's injury status is uncertain], the Dawgs find themselves back in the hunt for the SEC East. Whoever wins the East will have to play either Alabama or LSU for the SEC Championship. The West representative will win the league title and play for the BCS Championship. But that is many games into the future.

Coach Saban would not allow himself to be drawn into discussing any future opponent than Vanderbilt, which comes to Tuscaloosa this Saturday. Not being constrained as Coach Saban is about discussing the future, however, I can indulge in a little crystal ball gazing. I predict a showdown on November 5 that will decide the eventual National Champion. I also predict that if Charlie Weis doesn't lose some weight, he's going to explode. Oh my goodness! Did you see him? Somebody must blow him up with helium before games. Either that or he's trying to become the world's oldest Sumo wrestler. Charlie: put down the fork, push away from the table, and get a membership at Jenny Craig.

Tide fans, on the other hand: go ahead and enjoy your fried gator, but only for a day. This season's serious work has only just begun.

The Commissioner