It just does not seem like Alabama got its money's worth on Saturday. What is the point of paying the Catamounts $400 Large for three quarters of chop-blocks, cheap-shots, and trash-talk? And while I am on the topic of getting value for money: what is the point of paying the SEC whatever portion of the football program's revenue gets diverted to compensate those officials? I am confident that any random group of high school refs could have called yesterday's game with fewer blown calls, missed calls, and "inadvertent" whistles than the Zebras who stumbled bummed their way around Bryant-Denny Stadium.
I've got an idea: why not just have a chain-gang and a couple of guys to spot the ball after each play, and let the broadcast guys call the penalties, fumbles, catches and touchdowns from the instant replay! Palmer and Musburger ended up doing as much anyway.
There is so little benefit that comes from playing teams like Western Carolina. Beat them like a rented mule? Ho, hum. What else should you do when you play an overmatched opponent? Get in a dog fight and pull away late in the game? Good grief! What were the coaches doing all last week? Start slow for a quarter, but put the game away by the time the alumni-band takes the field at half-time? Holy cow! I knew I should not have given my brother-in-law WCU plus 40, but he's such an obnoxious Auburn fan!
Do you get my point here?
Alabama won the game handily, 48-14. The Tide set a school record for first downs (36), completed passes to 11 different receivers (another record), gained 612 yards of total offense, and held an opponent to -8.....that's right minus 8 yards rushing for the game. But on Sunday morning, it feels like a game that just was not worth playing. This is particularly so because as I write this column, the full report on injuries sustained during the game is yet to be made public.
Because of the quality of opposition, a full grade deduction is appropriate for the offense and defense. With that in mind, here is how I grade the game:
Offense: C+ The Tide rushed for 275 yards and gained another 337 through the air. Blake completed 17 of his 25 pass attempts for 222 yards and two TDs [Cam Sims; Derrick Henry]. Jake connected on 12 of his 18 pass attempts for 115 yards and a TD [Michael Nysewander-his first collegiate TD reception].
Chris Black was the leading receiver with 6 catches for 101 yards. ArDarius Stewart gained 51 yards on 5 receptions followed by Robert Foster who caught 4 passes for 40 yards. C. Sims and Amari Cooper each caught 3 passes, while OJ Howard and Malcom Faciane each caught 2.
Derrick Henry rushed for 92 yards on 12 carries and was finished for the day early in the second period. Tyren Jones gained 75 yards on 11 carries. Altee Tenpenny ran for 66 yards yards on 11 carries, all in the fourth quarter, including 6 consecutive plays in Bama's final, clock-killing possession. Jalston Fowler had a fine day running the ball [30 yards on 5 plays], so did Buddy Pell. ....
"Who", you ask? Buddy Pell. Oh come on! For crying out loud.....Buddy Pell. Two carries for 15 yards Buddy Pell.
No?
OK.....walk-on freshman running back from Mountain Brook. Grandson of Charlie Pell, Florida's head coach from '79 - '84 and long-time friend of Coach Bryant. ..... Talk about a Homecoming!
Bama's offense mounted 9 sustained drives [52, 63, 69, 77, 57, 51, 85, 68, 47] which produced 6 TDs, a FG, a missed FG and the end of the game. The Tide converted 9 of 14 third-downs, including 6 of 8 in the second half, and was 2 for 2 on 4th down conversions.
Defense: B The Catamounts scored 14 points including a TD on the game's opening drive, becoming the first opponent to do so this season. Of course the score was only made possible because the aforementioned.....uh....."officials"....gave the ball back to WCU after Alabama recovered a fumble on the third play of the drive. The excuse for this outrage was an "inadvertent whistle." A call that prompted the less polite fans to say: "Whistle THIS, you morons!" WCU's second TD came on a short field after Derrick Henry lost a fumble at the Alabama 12 yard line. One again, the Blind Mice blew the call, as replay clearly showed the receiver did not have possession of the ball until after he and it were lying on the ground in the end zone and he scooped it up.
Landon Collins made 7 tackles [4 solo]. Trey DePriest was credited with 5. Reggie Ragland, Xzavier Dickson and Cy Jones each made 4 stops. Collectively, Tide defenders made 6 tackles for lost yardage [2 sacks], broke up 1 pass, hurried the WCU QB 3 times, forced 8 punts, and limited the small-bodied predatory mountain felines to converting only 3 of 12 third-downs. Five times-all in the first half-WCU was held to possessions of 3 downs and out. Because of officiating malpractice, the Tide defense was denied a take-away, but they did hold WCU on a second-half drive resulting in a turnover on downs.
Special Teams:
Punting: B JK Scott did not punt a single time in the game. Neither did any other Tide player.....not even Buddy Pell, although I am confident that he would have given it a try if the coaches had asked him.....WCU's punting was atrocious. Bama's return game was reasonably good with the exception of one mishandled punt that was fumbled out of bounds.
Kickoffs: A+ JK Scott did the kicking duties and averaged a gross of 63.6 yards per kick with 2 touchbacks. The coverage unit bottled up the WCU return game and generated a net per kick of 44.1 yards. The Tide kick return game was materially assisted by short Western Carolina kicks, and the Catamounts net kicking average was only 26 yards.
Place Kicking: B Adam Griffith watched the WCU game from the Alabama sidelines as freshman walk-on, Gunnar Roborn [5' 10"; 180] handled the place kicking duties. Roborn, who hails from the same home town as former Tide punter, Cody Mandell, Lafayette, Louisiana, played his high school football at St. Thomas Moore, High School and was invited to walk on after coaches saw his performance in football camp. In his debut performance, Roborn was perfect on 6 PATs. He kick two good field goals from 20 and 28 yards, but missed from 31 in the 4th quarter.
Coaching: B Coach Saban told reporters that the team was not ready to play emotionally and that getting the players ready psychologically is his job. This lack of readiness manifested itself in poor ball security [2 turnovers] and penalties [5 for 50 yards]. The Tide gained 686 all purpose yards, and controlled the ball for a staggering 38:01 of the game. The participation report lists 71 players who saw action. Play calling was excellent some times and puzzling at others. Blake executed the two-minute-offense about as well as he did three weeks ago against LSU. This time, however, the season was not on the line.
At the risk of borrowing a metaphor from our Correspondent At The Tire Store, the game against Western Carolina turned out to be more than just a tune-up. It was like a bumper-to-bumper inspection that uncovered a couple of cracked hoses, a loose belt, and some worn break pads.....I think it is best if I stop right there with the mechanical analogy. That sort of writing requires a degree of specialization I do not have. Stay alert for Andy's report on Monday.
You can be sure that the Crimson Tide football players and coaches are already very alert to the repair work and preparations required between yesterday evening and this coming Saturday night's Iron Bowl. Some writer might call it: "The Showdown In T'Town." Another pundit may call it: "The Kick Six Revenge."
I don't call it anything other than "The Auburn Game." Those three words say it all.
The broadcast crew had a graphic: of the last five consecutive Auburn/Alabama games, the winner has played in the national championship game and has gone on to win the national championship 4 times. Of course, Alabama accounted for 3 of those 4 Championships; the Tigers having failed to bring the Big Crystal Football back to the State of Alabama last January. If you rewind the tape two additional seasons, the Iron Bowl winner has played in 6 national championship games and claimed the title 5 times.
The last time these two teams met, Alabama ran off the road to its 16th national championship and ended upside down in a ditch at Pat Dye Field.
That will not happen this year. Get ready for a game worth every penny of the price of admission.....and I won't even tell you how much I would pay for each time the fans do the Rammer Jammer!
Roll Tide, Y'all
The Commissioner
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