Tire Store Report Alabama vs. Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn Tigers Plainsmen War Eagle Villagers

TO COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK.


Thanks, Commissioner, for that excellent and prompt edition of The Grades.  We aren’t accustomed to keeping the hours it takes to see a 99-point game that starts after dinner time.  We weren’t even in Tuscaloosa and we were still up till midnight trying to calm down.

Cooper correctly said that this team is used to and able to deal with adversity.  That is an excellent thing for the young men.  It will serve them well in life after their football careers are over.  However, on behalf of those of us who, um, have a few more miles on our tread, we’d just as soon have a little less “adversity” in one of these big games.  We hear this is the way they like their football out on the left edge of the country -- sketchy defense, 100-point totals, last one with the ball probably wins….  They can have it.  We’re quite happy with 21-14 and a goal line stand in the 4^th quarter, so long as we have the 21, thank you very much.

It is hard to believe that the regular season has ended, though we are very happy that we get to see this team play some more.  In many ways, we have seen this team grow up before our eyes. 

Offense:  After a promising start, the offense bogged down on the strength of three Blake Sims’ interceptions.  One of them, maybe, arguably, could have been prevented by a slightly more determined effort from the receiver.  The others, well, were just bad.  The good thing about this offense is that they don’t give up.  Sims may have been rattled, but he didn’t show it.  He ran the  ball sparingly, but with devastating effect.  We have heard repeatedly since A Day that Blake Sims did not have the arm to throw an effective deep ball.  The phrase “arm punt” was used.  He will never say it to anyone, such is his level of maturity, so we are glad to step up on his behalf and say “Na-Na-Na-Na-Nah Nah”.  On a deep throw to Cooper after the Perry interception return, Sims set up around the 45 and delivered a beautiful spiral that hit a wide open Amari Cooper near the 15.  Not enough for you?  The very next series Sims wound up in the middle of the field around his own 18 and hit Cooper in stride about the other 23, outside the numbers.  Not impressed?  Let’s see you do it.

Yeldon ran hard (of course).  When Cam Robinson went down with a sprained shoulder, the offensive line was reconfigured, but hardly seemed to miss a beat.  The offense overcame penalties in the red zone that would have often resulted in field goal attempts in prior years. We were excited to watch Julio Jones play as much as possible, because we expected we would not see his equal again in our remaining life time of watching football.  Boy, were we wrong.  Amari Cooper is the complete package -- route-running, hands, downfield blocking, knowing what will make a particular defender vulnerable, selling it when he is just a decoy….  Enjoy every minute of it, because we may not see his like again (hoping for the reverse jinx). Alabama’s offense delivered with contributions from future NFL stars as well as players that one day may be the answer to hard trivia questions.  A high grade is warranted.

Defense:  This was an odd sort of game.  Auburn had made a living this year running the ball.  Hard running up the middle, misdirection in the backfield, and so-called jet or speed sweeps around end had been their bread and butter.  On Saturday night, they came out throwing it.  In fact, before Saturday night their quarterback had averaged a little over 20 throws a game and had really only exceeded that total in a desperate comeback bid against Mississippi State.  Saturday night they were well over 40.  It was somewhat reminiscent of what Oklahoma did in the Sugar Bowl.  Fortunately, Alabama reacted much better and much more quickly than it did in January.  Nick Perry came up with a huge interception.  After performing, shall we say, less than optimally against West Virginia in the first game of the season, Bradley Sylve came on as cover corner and played lights out.  He broke up a pass in the end zone (well, he broke up that one pass about three  times) in excellent coverage and managed an outstanding interception he didn’t get credit for (see below).  The defensive line played way too many snaps again, but fatigue never seemed to be an issue.  Pettway slapped down a pass so hard it’s a wonder the ball didn’t burst like a water balloon.  Big men were chasing Nick Marshall hard and fast well into the fourth quarter.  A+?  When you give up more than 40 points?  Darn right.  

Special Teams:  What in the name of the entire Tiffin family is going on?  Our kickoff to start the game sure looked like some kind of on-side kick but it looked like only our kicker was in on the plan.  Perhaps our place kicking specialist hurt himself, or read a key no one else did, but it sure seemed like a bad omen. Later, we bailed the enemy out by fielding a kick off that was desperately trying to elude us and go out of bounds.  No harm done, we suppose.  Our punter continues to execute his main responsibility flawlessly.  In fact, it occasionally looks like he is showing off -- a 70-yard punt? Really?  His substitute efforts as primary kick off man were more than serviceable.  I know the Commissioner will hand out awards at the end of the season, but I nominate J.K. Scott for several, including Freshman of the Year.  He’s already a finalist for the Ray Guy Award.  The hidden yards you get when a guy like that flips the field with a big kick are just invaluable.

Coaching:  Wow.  Kirby Smart gets so little attention that it is pitiful.  As noted above, the defense was not prepared for much of what was thrown (quite literally) at them.  However, they bowed up when it counted, forcing field goal attempts repeatedly during series that began with “something and goal” keeping Alabama in the game until the offense settled down.  Perhaps one day some broadcast team will see fit to focus on this coach’s contributions.  The personnel change noted above was a great recognition of matching the right talent to the right situation.

Kiffin gets tons more camera time than Smart, for reasons we can guess.  A host of broadcasting teams, camera operators, producers, directors, etc. have been frustrated in efforts to show a giant shouting match between Coaches Saban and Kiffin.  If one didn’t break out Saturday night, it isn’t going to happen.  If you haven’t seen the video clip yet where Kiffin is already signaling “touchdown” on the play where Cooper breaks open in the middle before Sims has even thrown the ball do yourself a favor and Google it up.  It’s open for discussion whether Kiffin’s occasionally offensive (that pun not intended) attitude has changed for the better.  I suppose we’ll know more as play reaches the point that he has to be made available for interviews.  What should not be open for discussion is whether this guy can coach quarterbacks and call plays.  Sims put it best when he said he liked having a coach who told him: “here is what you are doing wrong and here is how we’ll fix it.”

Finally, a word about the head coach is called for.  Nick Saban has done some fairly amazing things thus far in his career.  However, without regard to what happens from this point forward, we think this may be his finest coaching job ever. It is worth noting that Alabama is playing one of the youngest rosters on the FBS list.  If you think back to early August, with practice reports saying that Sims couldn’t throw and Coker couldn’t learn the offense, a completely reconfigured offensive line, struggling defensive backs, a suspended defensive leader, all the drama about Kiffin’s hiring, blah, blah, blah, you couldn’t blame some who took a look at Alabama’s schedule and predicted three, maybe four, losses.  This was the classic “rebuilding year”.  We’d see if we could reset things for a run next year.   Then there was a raft of injuries -- Drake, Kelly, Yeldon, Cooper, Griffith, Jackson, Vogler, Stewart, Robinson, Foster, Sims. ugh, I’ll stop before I don’t feel well.  Yet here we are.  Alabama heads to the SEC Championship as the betting favorite, AP #1 (a spot now obtained at some point in the season for 7 straight years), and current #1 in the first four team Battle for the Big Gold Beer Tap. Saban may not win Coach of the Year, but I’d be interested to read the credits of the other contenders.

 Officiating:  We have heard for years from other teams’ fans (looking at you LSU) that some combination of the Red Elephant Club, the A-Club, the Illuminati, and your local Masonic Lodge have bought off each and every member of every officiating crew in the conference, every week, just to make sure all the calls went Alabama’s way.  The last two games in this series should put that Dan Brown-level conspiracy theory to rest. 

Actually, we thought Saturday night’s game was shaping up to be one of the officials’ better efforts (though that may be something like being the center on the Japanese National Basketball Team) and then the inevitable happened.  It’s one thing when SEC officials miss a call.  Even as hard as we at the Tire Store can be on the officiating, we understand that it is difficult to get the spot right, look at whether the ball was secured and the receiver’s foot was in bounds at the same time, tell whether an elbow hit before the ball started falling from the runner’s hands, etc.

But there no excuse, none at all, for not knowing the rules of college football.  Sylve intercepted a pass.  The “simultaneous” possession call on the boundary was just plain wrong.  The ball should have gone to the player possessing it whose foot touched in bounds first, before the players went out of bounds.  That was Sylve.  The officials, apparently including the one in the booth, got the wrong result.  It wasn’t because they didn’t see exactly what happened, but because they didn’t know the rule that applied to what they had seen.  It was not determinative, but it could have been.  If nothing else, maybe we’ll quit hearing that Alabama fans secretly funneled the missing fortune of the Knights Templar to the likes of Penn Wagers. 

On to a game with surprising SEC East Representative Missouri.  Interestingly, Missouri is the only SEC member against whom Alabama does not hold a winning record.  We can fix that.  Besides, we come from the generation that thinks winning the SEC Championship is a big deal.  A really big deal. Because it is.

Roll Tide, everyone.  Be careful driving over to (and in) Atlanta.