Tire Store Report WKU

Boy, Coach seemed a little upset yesterday.  A lot of “p” words came to mind -- peeved, puckish,  piqued, provoked, perturbed, and just plain ol’ p.o.’d.   At one point we even thought of “persimmon-faced”.  What he wasn’t was pleased or proud.  His irritation extended from freshman players right up to his offensive coordinator who just got a contract worth a million-dollars-plus per year. 

We don’t think it was the final outcome that goat the coach’s goat, though.  That was another “p” word -- Process.

Alabama was not with the Process Saturday, and apparently hadn’t been all week in practice.  Coach Saban used the word “arrogant” in his post-game press conference.  If there’s one thing the coach can’t stand it’s not showing proper respect to your opponent.  He also corrected a reporter who suggested there had been a discussion with Coach Kiffin.  The compound noun chosen preferred by Saban was “ass chewing”.  We doubt it’ll be the last one this week.  I think it’s safe to say that at least one thing that was under the Coach’s skin was that they players weren’t all performing to a standard.  They left points, maybe sort of a lot of points, on the field.  They didn’t all play the very next play to the best of their ability, without regard to the opponent or the score on the scoreboard.

However, we actually thought several parts of the team looked pretty solid on Saturday.  As Wade so eloquently documented, the defense took a team with a future NFL wide receiver and an offense that had rung up almost 650 yards in total offense and made it look pretty inept.  WKU is a decent football team.  Certainly the Hilltoppers expect to go to a bowl game and were preseason favorites to win their conference.  Alabama beat them by four touchdowns and it could have, maybe should have, been worse.

The kicking game was solid.  When you get out to around 50 yards, I don’t blame the placekicker for missing a kick, I blame the offense for not getting him to a reasonable distance.  I think Hurts will be fine at quarterback.  He had a few throws that were just a little out of time.  Whether that was because he was late making the read and trusting the throw or his throwing motion is a little slow or because he didn’t lead the receiver enough sounds like different ways of saying the same thing.  According to the commentators we had receivers open all over the field all day.  With this receiving corps, we should have.

So why didn’t the offense do a little more on Saturday?  Aren’t we really covering up the lack of sustained drives that score touchdowns with explosive plays that score touchdowns?  Well, maybe.  But the object of the game is to score points.  You keep the other team’s defense out there running around, but you don’t get any more points for a 14-play, 80-yard drive than you do for a 6-play, 80-yard drive that includes a 46-yard pass completion.  It’s just not the way Alabama is used to scoring.

Our concern on offense has to do with the offensive line, specifically the interior of that line.  They just seem discombobulated up there.  We were surprised at the shift in center/guard positions late in fall camp.  Maybe the whole thing was just about covering till Taylor made it back from his suspension, but then Coach fussed on him publicly Saturday about his weight -- all of us who have tried to shed a few pounds know it’s not like he’s going to lose an easy 20 before next weekend, no matter how much he gets called out.  In addition to the snap over the quarterback’s head Saturday, we had several others that could have gone that way.  With a freshman quarterback trying to read defenses at this level, the last thing he needs to worry about is snap placement.  We are not running for much yardage and I don’t attribute all of that to inexperience in the backfield, or even much of it, really.  Here’s to hoping the offensive line looks a little more cohesive on Saturday.  It will probably help if the game plan is 100% focused on beating the other team, instead of also providing learning opportunities for the players, which I believe was going on with some of the offensive play-calling on Saturday.

The bottom line for me is that I think our head coach uses the media to send messages to his team.  Lord knows he isn’t using them to educate reporters about his players, coaches or schemes.  If the team had gotten a little big for their collective britches, then a bushel basketful of penalties the week before a huge game was excuse enough for the coach send them a message.  Dropped touchdown passes was putting fuel on the fire.  Giving up a fumble in the red zone and a touchdown at the end of the game to a team that hadn’t earned it, well, we’re not sure a tirade was out of bounds.

On other matters….

I finally gave up on listening to ESPN 2 and turned to Eli.  I know a lot of people like Beth Mowins and she seems knowledgeable about the game.  She does a way better job on player names than good ol’ Verne has done in about five seasons.  It’s the timbre of her voice I just can’t abide.  Reminds me for all the world of someone dragging a cat through a chain link fence by the tail, especially when she tries to talk louder because something exciting is going on.  I will say that compared to CBS the game was much better paced and less subject to the endless and innumerable television time outs. 

OK, this was clearly one of the worst officiated games we can remember.  Alabama drew a lot of flags.  The zebras seemed especially focused on false starts yesterday.  It’s like when the mayor tells the police chief city revenues are down and everyone starts getting tickets for not stopping before turning right on red or not signaling before changing lanes, even on deserted roads late at night.  Even the announcers seemed flummoxed a couple of times about exactly what or whom had done what to earn a penalty. 

The thing that made us ready to throw a lug wrench through the plate glass window was the penalties the blind mice didn’t call.  Bo Scarborough had his head pulled nearly to the ground by a Western Kentucky player holding his facemask.  Everyone knows tackling that way is against the rules because of the danger of someone getting their neck broken.  Call by the geniuses in the convict outfits on Saturday was apparently “No broken neck, no foul.”  Later in the game Stewart was behind the defense and caught a long pass from Hurts (a bit underthrown).  Just before he reaches the end zone, the defensive back grabs him by the back collar of his shirt and drags him to the ground. This form of tackling was also outlawed because of its injury potential.  Call from this crew?  Holding on Alabama.  Deliver me.

If you don’t know who we are playing this week, I am astonished that you are reading this blog.  We owe a really, really ugly turn to the Admiral Ackbar Rebellious Black Bears of Mississippi.  And Karma owes us big.  I won’t bring up why.

Roll Tide.  It’s sad to say at only the third game of the year, but this one may be for the SEC West.  Winning won’t guarantee it, but losing it is digging an awfully deep hole.  Let’s hope on Saturday night that the Head Coach as Pleased as Punch.

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