Championship Grades

People were worrying about me. Colleagues and co-workers were tentative, concerned I might not be taking the results of the Clemson game too well. Readers of The Commissioners Blog kept checking the settings on their phones just in case they had missed an email. Even my brother thought I had dropped off the face of the Earth after Monday night.

The truth is much more mundane. Tuesday was a work day. It has been a busy week. Friday night is really the first opportunity I have had to post my thoughts about the end of the 2016 season. That interval, however, proved to be just what I needed to process that game; to make sense of coming so close to making history.

As he is with most things football, Coach Saban was absolutely right in what he told the players in the locker room: One game does not define a team. One game does not define a team's character and competitive spirit or classify the players as winners or not. 

The 2016 Crimson Tide are winners. What the team accomplished this year is remarkable. What the senior class has accomplished in their playing years is nothing short of dynastic: three SEC Championships, three appearances in the CFB Playoffs, two appearances in the championship game, one national title. A three year record of 40-4. And all of this was achieved with a first-time starting quarterback each season. Who does that?

Alabama does.

The Tide's 31 points were enough to win the game, if the offense had been able to generate a few more first downs in the second half. Six tackles for lost yardage and two take-aways by the defense were enough to beat Clemson, if the defense had not had to play a game and a half in the span of four quarters. 

Clemson deserved to win the game......fair and square. DeShawn Watson is the best college football player in America in 2016. It is a laughable farce that the stiff-arm statue was awarded to a quarterback who lost three of his last four games-including one to Kentucky-and became more reliable for turnovers than touchdowns as the season wore on. The Downtown Athletic Club should do one of two things: (i) delay awarding the Heisman until the post-season is over; or (ii) quit making such a big deal about it. I can't recall a bigger fail by the Heisman voters than this year.

As deserving as Clemson clearly was, the fact is Alabama had the lead with 2:07 to play in the season. Watson made throws, and his receivers, especially Renfrow, made catches that were simply perfect. The defense was not laying back. The front rushed, the backs covered. Clemson just made the plays they needed to make. 

If you didn't care who won, it was a fantastic college football game. Everything on the line. Three lead changes in the final four minutes. Two teams loaded with more NFL talent than have taken the field since Alabama beat LSU in the BCS CG. It was a football game even Meryl Streep would love.

For me, the Best College Football Game Ever has been the 1973 Sugar Bowl....New Year's Eve, 1973.....Alabama vs Notre Dame. Coach Bryant vs. Ara Parseghian. I may rethink that after Alabama vs Clemson Part II.

Because I agree with Coach Saban, I do not believe it would be appropriate to award letter grades for this game. Nevertheless, here are what I think are the key statistics:

Offense: Alabama gained 376 total yards [221 rushing] earning 16 first downs, but only converted 2 of 15 third downs. 

Before leaving the game with a lower leg injury, Bo Scarbrough ran over and through the Clemson defense for 93 net yards on 16 carries. Jalen added 63 yards. Ardarius Stewart gained 25, Damien Harris ran for 24 and Josh Jacobs gained 16.

Jalen completed 13 of 31 pass attempts for 131 yards and a TD [OJ Howard]. Stewart completed a pass for 24 yards. Calvin Ridley caught 5 passes for 36 yards. OJ gained 106 yards on 4 receptions. Stewart and Bo each caught 2 passes for 12 and 7 yards respectively. 

Promising drives were cut short with dropped passes and offensive penalties. Favorable field position was wasted. The Tide only generated 4 sustained drives [59, 74, 79, 68] each resulted in a TD. Bama punted 11 times. Seven of those punts came after only three offensive plays. In the second half, Alabama had 8 possessions. Only 1 of those offensive opportunities lasted longer than 1:46 of game time. 

Defense: Clemson gained 511 yards of total offense [91 rushing] earned 31 first downs and converted 7 of 18 third down opportunities. Clemson's 99 offensive plays were 39 more than the 60 averaged by all other Tide opponents this season. 

Reuben Foster made 12 tackles [6 solo]. Rashaan Evans was credited with 11 tackles, and Ronnie Harrison made 10 stops [5 solo]. Watson was sacked 4 times. Ryan Anderson forced a fumble and is credited with 2 fumble recoveries for 14 yards.

Special Teams:

Punting: JK Scott had a punt partially blocked. Otherwise, he averaged 45.8 yards per punt and dropped 5 inside the Tiger 20 yard line. Gehrig Dieter returned one Clemson punt for 9 yards.

Place Kicking: Griff was good from 27 yards and perfect on 4 PATs.

Kickoffs:  Griff averaged only 58.5 yards per kick, none were touchbacks. The coverage team allowed Clemson 130 yards of kick returns, the longest of which was 34 yards.  The Tide return game only gained 57 yards. 

Coaching:   Alabama was penalized 9 times for 82 yards. Clemson was flagged 3 times for 35 yards.  The participation repot lists 49 players who saw action in the game. Clemson played 52.

In the run up to the game, a lot of media time was wasted on the Sark vs. Kiffin non-controversy. In my opinion, the play calling was fine. Communication from the sideline to the field appeared to be just right. With rare exceptions, Jalen had plenty of time on the play clock for each snap. In retrospect, perhaps we ought not to have attempted to play with "tempo." Alabama wins the game with just :08 seconds more time of possession. That, however, is the worst of arm-chair quarterbacking. 

So what happens now?

Nine freshmen recruits are already on campus, including Najee Harris, the consensus number 1 recruit in the nation. If Alabama did not sign another player in the 2017 recruiting class it would rank 7th nationally. In case you were wondering, Alabama does not intend to stop signing new players. Some experts are saying the 2017 recruiting class is shaping up to be the best Coach Saban has signed in his string of top-ranked classes. Let's hope this is true since word out of Tuscaloosa is that Marlon Humphrey, Ardarius Stewart and Cam Robinson are leaving early for the NFL where they will join perhaps as many as eight Tide seniors in the NFL draft. 

Can any program sustain this high level of recruiting? Can any team in the SEC West win a fourth straight SEC Championship? Can Alabama return to the final four? Make the CG a third straight year? Reach the end of the Road To 17?

Only Alabama can.

Coming so close and not finishing is hard, but isn't it great to be from Alabama. 

Roll Tide Y'all

The Commissioner 

 

     

Tire Store Report -- Peach Bowl/National Semifinal

Boy, that was a weird game.  

You go to a neutral site, you beat a conference champion by more than two touchdowns, they cross the 50-yard line exactly twice, including once when the game was decided, they never run a play from inside your 15-yard line, you get a pick six, hold the #4 offense in the country to 7 points, keep the nation’s best undefeated streak intact, your defense scores as many as their offense, you have a running back go for 180 yards including a run that should be on next year's pregame highlight reel, and you punch your ticket for the National Championship game and you feel, well, kind of underwhelmed.

Maybe that is because last year’s semifinal game was even more dominating.  Maybe it’s because we didn’t score 30.  Maybe it’s because the offense looked like it was the first game of the season, not the fourteenth -- bad enough to get the offensive coordinator run out of the complex to his new job.  Whatever.  We didn’t have to be the best team in football, just the best team in the stadium.  And we were.

We were lucky enough to get to go to the game.  Not surprisingly, there was a lot more crimson and white than gold and grape Koolaid color in the Georgia Dome for its last college game ever.  Aside from the one touchdown drive, we just never got the impression that Washington was going to score many points.  I don’t know how it looked on TV but Washington’s offensive players seemed frustrated and a little confused.  Unfortunately, so did ours.  The difference being is that what frustrated Washington was the Alabama defense.  What frustrated Alabama was somewhat attributable to Washington’s defense, but also attributable to Alabama itself.  The offense took some extraordinarily stupid and untimely penalties.  I lost count of how many times flags flew and we ended up with third and 20-something.  Early in the game we were snapping the ball with 20 seconds or more on the play clock.  Later in the game, we were taking delay penalties (one of which was completely bogus) because we weren’t getting the play in from the sidelines soon enough.  The offense just looked out of sorts.

For really the first time this year, Hurts looked confused and a bit indecisive.  We don’t know if it was something Washington was doing on defense or what.  On the zone read plays he had several downs where something in the formation told him to keep the ball, when from the stands you could tell that getting the ball to someone else would go for a good gain (once, we think Jacobs was in the game and Hurts kept it for no gain when Jacobs looked like he was standing in the middle of Old Man Kelsey’s empty pasture).   Also, we can think of a number of times where Hurts was just plain trying to do too much.  He would shake and bake and lose yardage instead of just plowing ahead for the two or three yards that were there.  He chose not to throw to safety valve/check down receivers on several occasions.  Neither our offensive line nor wide receivers did a lot to help him out, to be honest.  Most guilty, though, we think was the play calling.  Washington’s defense was constantly having either a LB or a DE crash down from the backside.  It seemed perfectly set up for a screen pass or some misdirection all evening -- plays we have run frequently and successfully this year.  We don’t remember many at all.

In person, it sort of looked like Alabama was playing an old-timey game from the 1940s.  Get a lead, don’t do anything stupid on offense to jeopardize it, punt them deep, and let the defense shut them down.  And it was certainly a winning, and therefore effective, strategy.  I don’t think Washington would have driven the length of the field for a touchdown if that game had lasted three more quarters. Having Hurts throw a pick six against one of the statistically most productive defensive backfields in football would have been pretty stupid in those circumstances.

So the question becomes, are we just spoiled?  Having had Saban as head coach for 10 years now, are we at the point where if we don’t dominate even a very high-caliber opponent in every phase of the game, a 17-point victory is just not enough?  I don’t think so.  Alabama fans tend to measure Alabama against itself -- a standard of excellence.  Saturday was not our most excellent outing and The Grades very much reflect that fact.  I think the apprehension is caused by that failure to meet our own standards combined with an impression (perhaps accurate) that if we play that way on Monday night, especially on offense, we won’t continue our winning streak which is now within two games of the best Alabama has ever done.  There are some other goals besides, of course.

The good news is that the old saying is true: offense wins games; defense wins championships.  Here’s hoping that by late Monday night we have trouble figuring out whether it was the offense or the defense that carried us to victory.

Roll Tide, everyone.  Beat Clemson.

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Washington Grades

The stage is now set. The two best college football teams in America will play each other on January 9. Those two teams are Alabama and Clemson. Washington and Ohio State have been ritually sacrificed. The Buckeye's and Huskies-the best team from the Big 10, and the PAC 12 Champion-combined to score a mere seven points against Alabama and a team coached by a beloved Tide alum. 

This dominance of the college football world by southern teams, which arguably began more than fifty years ago with Coach Bryant's first national title, is the realization of the future foreshadowed by Alabama's victory in the 1926 Rose Bowl over-who else?-the Washington Huskies. Bama's 24-7 win in its final appearance in the Georgia Dome, did not come easy. And the offense left fans nursing more headaches on New Years Day than did strong drink on New Year's Eve. During one particularly dreadful stretch in the second quarter, Washington was held to three consecutive possessions of three-and-out, advantageous field position allowed the Tide to start drives near mid-field, and the offense was unable to score any points. 

Fans watching at home were not alone in their criticism of Coach Kiffin's play selection. Hugh Freeze, Booger McFarland, and Jordan Rogers, from the SEC Network, were saying the same things as the people gathered in my TV room.  At the half, even Kirk Herbstreet called in to pile on.  McFarland said it best as he watched Bo Scarbrough run 68 yards for the clinching touchdown: "Coaches make football too complicated. Just give the ball to 9. Nobody on Washington's team wants to touch that man."

Play calling was not the only cause of Bama's offensive woes. Alabama suffered 11 penalties for 66 yards. Eight were against the offense, and most were drive killers. Add to those miscues a dropped pass by OJ Howard, and a Jalen Hurts' fumble recovered after losing a dozen yards. The result was a dismal offensive performance. 

Special teams were inconsistent. Kick coverage was excellent. Adam Griffith was good from 41 on his lone field goal attempt. JK Scott had an excellent game punting the ball, but the Tide had no answer for the Huskies' roll-out punter and surrendered a ghastly total of yards in lost field position.

It is easy to get caught up in complaining about what went wrong. Fans should not lose sight of what went right, and there was a great deal that went right. Because the purpose of this blog is to evaluate the whole contest, here is how I grade the game:

Offense: C The running game was nothing short of splendid. Bo Scarbrough gained 180 net yards rushing; more than any Alabama running back has achieved in any bowl game in history.   Bama gained 326 yards of total offense against a good Washington defense. The Tide earned 16 first downs but converted only 4 of 14 third downs. 

Jalen completed 7 of his 14 pass attempts for only 57 yards. He added 50 yards net rushing. He was sacked 3 times for a loss of 20 yards. OJ Howard led all receivers with 4 catches for 44 yards. Gehrig, Stewart and Ridley each made a single catch. 

The offense only mounted two drives that gained 40 or more yards [78, 98] both produced touchdowns. Four Alabama drives ended with a three-and-out. 

Defense: A+ Washington managed a single drive that gained 40 or more yards [64]. The Tide defense forced six three-and-outs, and forced three turnovers. 

Reuben Foster led all tacklers with 9, Anthony Averett was credited with 8 and Rashaan Evans recorded 7. Tide defenders made 7 tackles for lost yardage including 5 sacks. Averett forced a fumble that Jonathan Allen recovered. Ryan Anderson intercepted a pass, knocked the intended receiver to the ground and returned the ball 26 yards to record Alabama's 15th non-offensive TD of the season. Minkah Fitzpatrick made a fourth quarter interception in the end zone that he returned 28 yards. 

Washington led the nation in defensive turnover margin. On the night, Alabama took the ball away from the Huskies three times while the offense did not surrender a single turnover.

Special Teams:

Place Kicking: A Griff was good on his lone FG attempt and perfect on 3 PATs.

Kickoffs: A Griff averaged 65 yards on 5 kicks, two of which were touchbacks. The coverage team did an outstanding job bottling up the UW return game. The Huskies returned 3 kicks for an average of only 15 yards. Their longest return was 18 yards. 

Punting: B JK Scott averaged 46 yards on 8 punts. He kept UW in bad field position with 3 kicks inside the Huskie' 20 yard line. The Tide return game, however, was non-existent. Trevon Diggs returned only 1 of UW's 9 punts for only 3 yards. The Washington punter would roll to his right and his kicking motion was sort of outside-in across his body with his right leg. This produced long, low trajectory kicks with a difficult spin. The bottom line is that it neutralized the Tide return game. A fix needs to be found before Jan. 9. One other comment: in the third quarter, the UW punter was kicking out of his own end zone. After kicking the ball, he stepped on a Tide player who was lying face down on the turf. Rather than helping the Tide player up and apologizing for walking on him, the punter executed a flop to the ground so theatrical it would have drawn a yellow card in the Premier League.

Coaching: B- It is hard to grade the coaching in this game. On the one hand, the defense played an outstanding game. The offense ran the ball effectively. The passing game was not good, and the play calling was beyond my understanding. Penalties were unacceptably high, even taking into account the no-calls on Washington, and the unwarranted personal fouls called in the final minute. 

Alabama's rematch with Clemson is set. The Tigers are an outstanding football team with a quarterback who, in my opinion, is the nation's best at his position. Last year, I wrote that tackling DeShawn Watson was like trying to tackle smoke. If anything, the Clemson QB has become even more elusive with another season's experience. Clemson is on a mission. Players who lost to Alabama in last year's final, believe they have something to prove.

On the other hand, Alabama's defense believe they have something to prove as well. Don't forget the Tigers scored late, cutting a 12 point deficit to only 5. The Tigers believe if they had recovered their attempted on-side kick, they would have won last year's championship; they have been saying as much in the press. 

Unlike last year, when the Clemson players celebrated their semi-final victory as if it were an end in itself, this year, they resemble the Tide; focused on the game ahead.

It will be one heck of a college football game! 

Against Ole Miss, this team proved it had character. Against Tennessee, Alabama proved they could overcome self-inflicted mistakes and win impressively. Against TAMU, the Tide showed they could come from behind in the second half and dominate the 4th quarter. Against LSU, they displayed unmatched physical toughness and a refusal to lose in a hostile setting. Against Auburn, they imposed a relentless will and not only won, but closed out the month of November without surrendering a touchdown. Against Florida in the SEC CG, the Tide proved they could score in every phase of the game, deny an opponent on four plays inside the five, then march the length of the field to score a touchdown. 

Alabama has the best record in the country. The longest active winning streak. A roster of elite athletes at every position. The best coach in the game. And, The Process. 

But who makes history? Who wins five national championships in 8 seasons? Who goes wire-to-wire as the undisputed number one in this age of parity? Who wins a consecutive national title with a freshman quarterback? Who does that?

Alabama does.

Roll Tide, Y'all.....

The Commissioner