ULL Grades

I have it on the very best authority. The elected representatives of the people of Louisiana passed a bill, signed into law by the Governor, that requires each "University of Louisiana" to use the city of location in its name. The fine, law-abiding folks associated with the University of Louisiana at Monroe are good examples for all citizens of the Pelican State to emulate. No so ULL, who insist on calling themselves "The University of Louisiana." 

ULL's affectation irritates ULM and LSU fans in equal proportion, so they refer to ULL as U-La-La. Rather than "Ragin' Cajuns", perhaps the University of Louisiana at Lafayette ought to be known as the "Scofflaws." 

But what's in a name? Whether Ragin' Cajuns or Scofflaws, the U-La-La football team served the function of a Week Five scrimmage opponent. For that dubious honor they were fairly compensated. Not only did they earn a big check, the Scofflaws took away some positive coaching points to use in practice. In the second half U-La-La out scored Alabama 14-7, converted 3 of 4 possession downs, and controlled the ball a full minute longer. 

A less than capacity crowd in Tuscaloosa watched Alabama boat-race another 2018 opponent 56-14, but mindful of Coach Saban's admonition to highlight the negative, here are some hard truths: U-La-La's starters were a better football team than Alabama's three and four deep rotation. Oh, and while I am highlighting the negatives, Alabama does not have a reliable field goal capability.

On the plus side, the score at the half was 49-0, Jalen Hurts played towards the end of the first quarter, with Tua returning to action late in the 2nd to get some reps in the two-minute offense. Mack Jones played most of the second half, and threw a touchdown pass. Alabama's ground game posted a season high 268 net yards rushing, and Jaylen Waddle returned a punt for Bama's fifth non-offensive touchdown of the season.

Because Alabama had to pay the Scofflaws, a one whole letter grade deduction will be assessed, and here is how I grade the game:

Offense:          B+        Yes, the offense failed to score more than a single TD in the second half, but the coach's decisions to go deep into the roster, and concentrate on the running game were clearly correct. Alabama gained 608 yards of total offense [268 rushing]; earned 26 first downs, converted 7 of 9 possession downs, and held the ball for 30:04.

Three QBs saw significant playing time. Tua completed each of his 8 passing attempts for 128 yards and 2 TDs. His longest completion gained 34 yards. Jalen completed 4 of his 6 pass attempts for 118 yards and 2 TDs. For the first time this season, Jalen showed off great strides he has achieved as a passer under the coaching of Dan Enos. Jalen made two excellent down field throws, the best of which was his 54 yard completion for a TD to Henry Ruggs, III. Mac Jones attempted only 2 passes, but his lone completion happened to be to Jaylen Waddle, who is simply too good to be stopped; 94 yards later Waddle scored his second receiving TD of the game.

Ruggs led all receivers with 5 catches gaining 116 yards scoring 2 TDs. Waddle caught 3 passes for 138 yards. Jerry Jeudy gained 58 yards on 2 receptions. In total 6 players caught passes.

Najee Harris gained 73 net yards rushing and scored a rushing TD. Brian Robinson, Jr. carried the ball 12 times for 65 yards. Josh Jacobs scored 2 rushing TDs and posted a rushing average of 8.2 yards on 6 runs. Eight different players ran the ball.

The offense scored a TD on each of its 6 offensive possessions of the first half. The Tide mounted 8 drives gaining 40 or more yards [72, 69, 80, 70, 62, 70, 89, 50] resulting in 6 TDs, a missed FG, and the end of the game.

Defense:         B-        Granted, lots of players took the field on defense  who may not see action again this year until the Citadel comes to town, but ULL gained an unacceptable 200 net yards rushing and 288 total yards. Deionte Thompson was the leading tackler with 7 total stops [4 solo]. Joshua McMillon recorded 6 tackles. Trevon Diggs and Xavier McKinney each made an interception. Diggs also forced a fumble that was recovered by ULL. In total, the Defense made 5 tackles for lost yardage [2 sacks] broke up 4 passes, and hurried the Scofflaw's QBs 3 times.

Special Teams:

Punting:         A+       No deduction here. The Bama punt block/return team blocked and recovered ULL's first punting attempt [Derek Kief].  The next time the Scofflaws punted, Jaylen Waddle returned the kick 63 yards for a TD. Waddle's return was sprung by a decisive block on the ULL long snapper. From there Waddle broke a tackle, set up his blocking, cut back across the field, and outran the pursuit. It was an electrifying return. Alabama did not punt. Not once. I have not checked the record book, but I do not recall another game where the Tide never even attempted a punt.

Kickoffs:         A           Joseph Bulovas kicked off 9 times for an average of 64.3 yards per kick. ULL only returned 2 of those kicks for a total of 39 yards.

Place Kicking:      D-     Bulovas converted each of his 8 PAT attempts. Otherwise, he missed each of his two FG attempts [24, 31]. I do not know what the fix is for Bama's place kicking woes, but whatever it is has to be found.

Coaching:        B             The Tide was penalized only 3 times for 15 yards. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action in the game. The state of Bama's place kicking game prevents awarding the +.

Games like this don't provide much fodder for analysis. Unlike losing to the U-La-La's of the world would have done. I am reminded of Coach Stallings' answer to a reporter who asked about whether games against inferior opponents were important. "Try losing one."

So I am delighted to share the following story that came my way during the first quarter of the ULL game:

Granddaughter (GD): "Opa, what if they have to go to the bathroom while running with the football?

Opa: "After they score, they go to the locker room and go to the bathroom."

GD:  "You mean scoring is more important than going to the bathroom?"

Opa: "Yes."

GD:  "WOW!"

This may be a cautionary tale. Scoring is indeed more important than going to the bathroom. Especially, so when you can't kick field goals from 24 and 31 yards. On the horizon are opponents with very good defenses. These opponents also have the ability to control the ball, run the clock, and win a close game in the fourth quarter. Did you watch Clemson's heroic comeback win over Syracuse?

We are living in a new world for Tide football. The offense is fun to watch, and through five games has been unstoppable. This team's identity is becoming defined by the offense. But remember: Tua has a 0% QB rating in the fourth quarter. Alabama has not been genuinely tested. The Tide has not had to prove it can win a game when the QB is having a bad day. These are unanswered questions. Perhaps these questions will never be raised in a game, but I believe sooner or later they will be.

The Hogs are next. The Porkers are now the most important game of the year so far.

Roll Tide, Y'all.

The Commissioner

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Texas A&M Tire Store Report

That’s a great set of The Grades, Commissioner.  Taking a quick glance at the calendar, we are surprised to learn that the regular college football season is now one-third over for the University of Alabama.  In an odd sort of way, despite having played two conference games, including one on the road, it feels like this season is at its very beginning.

Offense:  We aren’t as worried about our running game as lot of the folks around us seemed to be.  Basically, Ruggs’ long TD run was a running play -- if the quarterback had wanted to hand it to him instead of flipping it to him, he could have.  That would have pumped up the totals.  It looked to us like the A&M strategy was to stop our run game and force us to beat them with the passing game.  Perhaps a questionable gambit.  Now, that strategy may have been driven by the fact that they didn’t have the players to stop our passing game.  Whichever, for a decent part of the afternoon we seemed content to run running backs at the center of the line where they had stacked the box and called run blitzes, while the clock melted down.  We could have run outside effectively all day, y’all.  And if we knew it, the coaches knew it.

We do love the way this team plays for each other.  Jalen and Tua are well-documented.  On Ruggs’ long TD run, Josh Jacobs brushed back one defender on a block where we thought, “hm, that wasn’t much of an eff…” and before we could finish the thought he had knocked some kid literally off his feet to spring the play.  Which was fitting, because on Jacob’s waltz-untouched-over-the-goal play, Ruggs was the one who sealed the end for him. 

And credit to pass catching phenom Hale Hentges.  This guy was levelling Aggie defenders all day long and was rewarded with two touchdown receptions.  He was mobbed by his teammates.

We definitely have work to do on the interior offensive line.  It was encouraging that Womack was doing warm up drills to help with depth.  Make no mistake, though, y’all.  If Alabama had wanted to put 50 or 60 on Texas A&M, it wouldn’t have been much of a stretch. 

 

Defense:  There’s not really a lot to talk about here, outside of the pretty good A&M quarterback.  He made us miss several times (I do wonder about how often we practice actually sacking the quarterback, rather than just getting to him).  However, every team in football that I know about is in for difficult times if the other team’s quarterback is a threat to elude the rush and run for 20 - 30 yards.  Frankly, there aren’t a lot of them out there.  Besides that, the stop troops pretty well shut them down.  Mond had a less than 50% completion rate for just under 6 yards per attempt with two interceptions (one of which was a beautiful reaction play by Wilson and the other a fingertip catch worthy of WR status by Surtain).  Mond had 98 rushing yards; the rest of the team had 32.

Special Teams:  Kick coverage and kick returning appear to be fine.  Ruggs catching the punt on the fly at the one-yard line while looking up into a very high sky was a great play.  Bulovas seems to kickoff through the end zone every time he is allowed.  His PATs don’t necessarily look pretty, but so far they have all been credited with one point, so we don’t really care if they are uglier than green rims on a blue Cadillac.  You could hear the crowd hold its breath on the long field goal to end the half, but it looked and was good.  I will say there was sort of a jealous round of appreciation when their kicker nailed that 50-yarder -- he had plenty to spare.

We just don’t understand why our punter is trying to do that rugby style kick it on the run off the point of the ball trick.  He just looks uncomfortable, like he’s testing out some new cleats or something.  When he just stands back there and hits it, he can drill it.  The issue is the consistency.  In addition to that beauty of a punt that Ruggs caught, he also put one out of bounds that he got 13 yards' credit for, but we think that was just bad officiating.  He didn’t kick it much further than that guy in the kilt who was kicking for tuition.

 Maybe when the weather turns cooler all the parts of the kicking game will work on the same day.  Maybe.

Coaching:  He won’t admit it and we wouldn’t ask him, but Coach Saban was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to run the score up on Jimbo.  That’s fine.  And we are proud that our coach has the class to call off the elephants and isn’t the sort of fellow who’d take advantage of someone if they did him that favor.  Jimbo, not so much.  Those last two time outs had the crowd hooting and hollering. You know, he should have seen that game last year where FSU left their starting quarterback in after the issue was decided, got him injured, and ruined their season so badly their coach had to up and get out of town before….   Hey, wait a minute.

Officiating:  Well.  We have to say that was a good officiating effort by a bunch of guys who were pulled off the street at the last minute and were calling the first football game they ever saw.  You have to give a crew of volunteers like that the benefit of the doubt.  Otherwise, if this group even claimed to be experienced, highly-qualified officials who were, in fact, assigned to call the conference’s premier game of the week on a national broadcast, you’d laugh if you weren’t so busy crying.  And this was a little bit of everything -- missed calls, phantom calls, misunderstanding the rules….  Either these guys correctly understand the rule for starting the play clock on change of possession and everyone else in the NCAA is doing it wrong, or, well, we are getting irritated all over again.  It’s to the point where the players and coaches just look at each other and kind of shrug -- like the day J.D., the mechanic, called in sick and Pee Wee from the alignment machine tried to put a new starter in his mother’s car.  We knew it wasn’t going to work out, but it’s not like we had an option.  If you were going to send a tape of their errors to the SEC Office, which teams are allowed to do, there isn’t much need to edit it, just send the whole game film.  It’s going to be another one of those years during bowl season where a couple of unsuspecting teams from the Sunbelt and the ACC get assigned SEC officials and we are inclined to send both teams an apology card before the start of the game.

Gameday:  It’s a long story, but we were lucky enough to attend this week’s game, sort of at the last minute.  Some thoughts from around campus and game day.   The new metal detector system is a disaster.  Getting into the stadium was painfully, painfully slow.  First, it was 8 million degrees.  Then, it rained hard, twice.  Some places were worse than others.  The west side was the very worst, we hear, with some sections not full till halfway through the first quarter.  With a surly crowd building up, I watched them send the old man ahead of me (who was about as much of threat to be packing heat to shoot up the stadium as that teeny tiny cheerleader they put on top of the pyramid and toss 20 feet up on the sky and catch with one arm) back through the metal detector four times before they figured out it was the “Roll Tide” button pinned to his shirt that was setting it off.  People were picking up and carrying their kids because of the pushing and shoving.  Our recommendation is that if you are going to a game, get there a lot early.  Last Saturday, being in line an hour and ten minutes before kickoff was not early enough.

Campus is beautiful.  The facility team is doing a great job.  New buildings blend in with the old.  Some old buildings that didn’t used to fit in have been given a facelift. The core of campus around the Quad is still just like we remember when we first saw it back in, well, just never you mind how long ago.  It wasn’t this century.  And it wasn’t the last quarter of the last century, if that helps.

Texas A&M travelled pretty well.  Their fans were friendly enough and knowledgeable about their football, though they still speak in pretty glowing terms about Johnny Manziel, who we do think is still out of prison.  Once in a while they holler “Whoooooo” kind of without any rhyme or reason and talk about what is and isn’t “good bull”, but they make nice guests.  We hope to get out to College Station some day and several of them invited us to return the trip.

 

Roll Tide.  Beat Louisiana Tech/Louisiana University. 

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Texas A&M Grades

Vol Calls:

Bill:     Travis from Crossville, you’re on Vol Calls, keep it clean brother…

Travis: [Bleep] you Bill. Quit acting like you care about UT.

Bill:     Fine, Travis, do you have a question or comment?

Travis:  Yeah, I’ve got a question. Is Nick Saban some kind of evil alien super villain like that guy in the Avengers movie, Thanos? Is Saban really Thanos? Because that would explain a lot.

Bill:     Like what?

Travis:    Think about it:  Dave Hart. Derrick Dooley. Jeremy Pruitt. What do they all have in common?  Not to mention Butch Jones.

Bill:    Butch  Jones?

Travis:   Yes. Bill. Butch [bleep] Jones. Just when we are about to get the last [bleep] brick in the wall; get all the trash taken out; retire the [bleep] trophy for champions of Life, Saban hires him away.

Bill:    Uh….Travis….Butch Jones was actually fired, but…..

Travis:   Who cares? I want to know why UT doesn’t hire Lane Kiffen instead of Jeremy Saban Pruitt.

Bill:   Travis, don’t you remember 2010? You set all your furniture on fire. You burned up your apartment. You wrecked your four-wheeler, ended up in a psych hospital, and got banned from this show for an entire season. And while we’re at it, Lane Kiffen worked for Nick Saban as OC for three seasons.

Travis:   So what’s your [bleep] point? Why not hire Jimbo Fisher?

Bill:   Worked for Saban at LSU.

Travis: [bleep] [sound of dog yelping]

Bill:  Travis, did you just kick your dog?

Travis: Kirby Smart?

Bill:  Saban.

Travis: Jim McElwain?

Bill: Saban.

Travis: [dog yelping]

Bill: Travis … we need to change the subject, bro.

Travis:  OK. What about why don’t they change the fumble rule?

Bill: You mean the rule about fumbling through the end zone results in a touchback?

Travis: No. The rule that lets the other team recover every [bleep] time UT fumbles.

Bill:  OK, now you’re making sense …..

Callers to the shows covering Alabama were not as sped up as Travis. The Tide beat a good A&M team by more than three touchdowns. But somehow that 45-23 victory left a sense of unfinished business. Alabama ought to have scored more than 50. The Aggies ought not to have outplayed the Tide in the fourth quarter. Bama’s varsity kicking game ought to be at least as good as the campus-wide intermural flag football league. 

Because everyone needs to perform to a standard, here is how I grade the game:

Offense:          A-           Alabama gained 524 total offensive yards [109 rushing] earned 24 first downs, converted 4 of 10 third downs, and suffered no turnovers. Tua played deep into the third quarter. He completed 22 of 30 pass attempts gaining 387 yards and scoring 4 TDs. Jalen Hurts completed each of his three pass attempts for 28 yards.

Jerry Jeudy led all receivers with 6 receptions gaining 78 yards. For the first time this season, Jeudy did not have a TD reception. Irv Smith, Jr. gained 74 yards on 4 receptions. DeVonta Smith gained 56 yards and scored a TD on 4 receptions. Henry Ruggs, III caught a TD pass and gained 84 yards on 3 receptions. Hale Hentgens caught 2 pass, both for TDs and gained 29 yards. Eight individual receivers caught passes.

The run game was stymied all night. Damien Harris averaged 7.4 yards per rush on 7 carries [35 yards]. Najee Harris ran the ball 8 times for 43 net yards. Josh Jacobs scored a rushing TD and gained 11 net yards on 6 runs. Tua also scored a rushing TD and gained 10 yards on 4 carries.

The offense put together five drives gaining at least 40 yards [75, 75, 75, 80, 92] each culminating in a touchdown. Every Alabama offensive possession ended with a kicking play: 6 PATs, 6 punts, 1 FG.

The lack of production in the running game appeared to be the result of several factors; running backs were needed to provide TUA with protection from the Aggie pass rush; the O Line was never able to get a consistent push to open running lanes in the TAMU defensive front; and the passing game was so potent the it was hard to justify running the ball. In the final analysis, however, four games into the season, the O Line has not shown it can assert its will over a quality defense.

Defense:        A-          The defense made two interceptions [Mack Wilson, Patrick Surtain], 10 tackles for lost yardage [7 sacks]; broke up 5 passes and hurried the Aggie QB 12 times. Those sorts of stats clearly justify the A, but surrendering 130 net rushing yards, 22 first downs, 393 total offensive yards and allowing two drives of more than 85 yards each [99, 88]. Back on the plus side, however, the defense forced the Aggies to punt 5 times on possessions of 3 and out, and TAMU only converted 3 of 12 third downs.

 Dylan Moses led all defenders with 9 tackles. Xavier McKinney and Isaiah Buggs each made 7 stops. Treyvon Diggs was credited with 6 tackles. Buggs had a career night. Of his 7 tackles, 3 were sacks for a total of 12 yards.

Special Teams:

Punting:           C-          Skylar DeLong did not have a good game.  He punted 6 times for a net average of only 36 yards per punt. He had 2 punts that travelled more than 50 yards, and one was downed inside the Aggies’ one yard line! So do the math. In order to average in the mid 30’s DeLong shanked two attempted rugby style kicks that barely flew a dozen yards before sailing out of bounds. Jaylen Waddle returned 2 punts for 25 yards, but both plays were nullified by blocking penalties.

Kickoffs:          B            Joseph Bulovas averaged 52.4 yards per kick. One kick went out of bounds. A&M only mounted one return gaining 15 yards. The Aggies never gave Alabama a chance to return a kick.

Place Kicking:    A.             Bulovas was good from 47 yards on his lone FG attempt, and was perfect on 6 PATs.

Coaching:         B-               Alabama was penalized 9 times for 82 yards. The participation report lists 52 players who saw action in the game. The punting strategy was incomprehensible.  The Tide did not dominate this game. Coach Saban said as much at his post-game presser, where he also coached up the media; no more rat poison, give him some press clippings he can use to keep thing real with the players. “Look what they wrote about you, man. You need to get better.”

Week Four is now in the books, and things around the SEC are starting to come into focus. Arkansas is not a good football team. Auburn proved it winning 34-3 in the Village. [Our spy in Lee County confirms optimistic Tiger fans were buying out the toilet paper stock at Publix in the hours before kickoff.] Auburn is good, but not good enough to avoid at least two more regular season losses.

LSU may have had a bit of a hangover following the victory over Auburn in week three. The Bayou Bengals let La-Tech hang around but eventually put them away 38-21. Coach O has his team playing good football. The LSU-Alabama game will decide the SEC West.

Georgia is clearly the class of the SEC East. The Dawgs dispatched Missouri 43-29 on the road. I have not been able to determine whether the precipitous drop in undergraduate enrollment has produced empty seats in the Mizzou student section.

Kentucky is the surprise of the East. The Cats certainly surprised the Puppies from Mississippi State 28-7. Either UK is better than expected or MSU is not as good as advertised. Both could be true. Time will tell.

Ole Miss has now scored 168 points so far this season; an average of 42 points per game. The Totties still managed to score only 7 points against Alabama, so there’s that not-so-Hottie data point.

Tennessee will not be the betting favorite in any of its remaining conference games until, perhaps Vanderbilt. The Vols lost 4 fumbles, 2 interceptions, 2 turnovers on downs, and lost to Florida….again…..47-21. UT has not won an SEC game since November 2016. Jeremy Pruitt is a good person, and a fine football coach. Does he ever has his work cut out for him in Knoxville!

Alabama hosts “The University of Louisiana” in week five. The CBS Sports app still identifies them as “Louisiana-Lafayette”. Here at The Commissioner’s Blog, we identify them as the Most Important Game of the Year so Far!

Early kickoff this coming Saturday. Plan you week accordingly.

Roll Tide, Y’all.

The Commissioner    

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Tire Store Report -- Mississippi

Over the last two seasons, Alabama has beaten the University of Mississippi’s football team by a total score of  128 - 10.  Said another way, the universe is once again spinning in greased grooves.  Thanks for the analysis, Commissioner. The whole team had a pretty impressive evening and we seem to have gotten through without any (new) major injuries.

Offense:  That was a thrilling performance.  Did you know that it is legal in American college football to throw a forward pass to the tight end? You did, huh?  If we did, we’d forgotten it.  It’s a very effective weapon.  And as it turns out, you can even throw to two different tight ends in the same game -- they don’t have to report to the officials as eligible receivers or anything.  Sort of a trick play, I guess. 

Let’s not kid ourselves here.  Mississippi’s defense is, well, awful.  In fact, you might not even choose a well-defined term like “defense” and instead go with “the players who are on the field for Mississippi when the other team is on offense”.  Often when things are this bad for your team, you can at least fill your time with some analysis of what, exactly, is wrong.  In some cases, the answer is an issue with the defensive schemes and recognition; in other cases, it is a player personnel issue.  Said the other way, is it the X’s and O’s or the Jimmies and Joes?

After Saturday evening, we’d have to say it is choice C, All of the Above.  There were plays where inexplicably Mississippi had players reading keys that had them running away from the point of attack -- or maybe they had just seen enough of Harris #1 and Harris #2 running people over like so many ninepins.  On other plays, it seemed as if the player assigned to the play just didn’t have the physical ability necessary to do what was called for.  Case in point, on Jeudy’s touchdown, I don’t think that the defenders could have caught Jerry if he had had to run all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

With that said, it is hard to understate the dominance of Alabama’s offense.  (Do let that sink in for a minute -- savor it.  How many times have we all thought exactly that sentence, just substituting the word “defense” for “offense”?)  These guys had rolled up 248 yards passing and 170 yards rushing (418 total) by the end of the first half.  This was while the Mississippi defense was presumably fresh.

And yes, intellectually, we know you win with class.  You don’t run up a score just to embarrass your (hapless) opponent.  The guys who are third on the depth chart work hard and deserve a chance to show what they can do in an actual game, especially a conference game.  They need experience for the future. Coach Saban, in particular, is sensitive to his teams’ impact on his brothers in the coaching fraternity, blah, blah, blah.  But we have to admit, somewhere, deep down in the dirty bottom corner of the grease pit of our heart, we’d like to see our first string offense just turned loose to see how much havoc they could wreak.  Our guess is that when Tua Tagovailoa’s career is done, he will leave with the thanks of a grateful university, but also one that wishes it could have seen him run just a few more plays….  It’s kind of like that time the guy came in because he had gone through a set of brakes on his Maserati in less than 3000 miles and left it overnight for us to fix.  When it came time for the road test, well, maybe that is a story best saved for another day.

Defense:

The defense played its best game against its best competition this year.  Make no mistake, as poor as the Mississippi defense is, the offense could be outstanding.  Their quarterback, at least three of their receivers, and the center are all future NFL players.  The Alabama defense will not see another set of receivers this good this season, well, except every week in practice.

Let us give credit where credit is due -- the opening 73-yard pass play was a thing of beauty for them.  The ball was perfectly placed to hit the receiver in stride and he used every inch of his giant frame to haul it in, while keeping his balance.  Comments from the head coach and a couple of the players after the game made it sound as if Smith was expecting to have help from a safety that didn’t materialize.  So, that got fixed.  Want proof?  Mississippi had more passing yards on that one play than it had for the entire rest of the game.  In fact, aside from that completion Ta’amu threw for fewers than 60 yards on 21 tries.  The Mississippi offense did not snap a single play in the red zone.  In fact, on its last nine possessions, Mississippi didn’t manage to cross the 50-yard line.   We could go on, but regular readers of this space saw it for themselves.  Well, they saw it if they have ESPN Double Secret Channel 18453.

Some individuals acquitted themselves particularly well.  All of the DBs seemed to have solid games and freshman Patrick Surtain was in on a lot of plays.  Anfernee Jennings seems to be playing faster.  We expect that is a combination of confidence, recovery from surgery, and the fact that Mississippi’s play-calling did require him to play quite as much laterally.  Valiant Mack Wilson continues to play through his injury.  We are not clear whether this is something that rest would help or if it is going to require some sort of repair and a long recovery period.  Quinnen Williams will be making regular appearances in the nightmares of various Mississippi players for some weeks to come.

If this defense is able to develop into an elite group (and aside from injuries we don’t know why they won’t) this team will be very formidable, indeed.

Special Teams:

We hope problems on special teams are straightening out.  Of course, we don’t think any team is likely to actually punt the football anywhere near Jaylen Waddle for the rest of this season, at least not on purpose.  The same is likely now true for Jacobs on kickoffs (not that we are receiving a heck of a lot of kickoffs).  Our kickoffs are having a satisfactory rate of people fair catching them, returning them to short of the 25, or sailing through the dadgum end zone, which is how we like it. 

The rest of the kicking game still worries us.  Punting is not great.  We’d like to just forgive Skyler DeLong for short punts Saturday night in Oxford because it was so long between warm ups and his actual participation.  That ignores the same issues he had the first two games.  He seems to have developed some sort of hitch in his giddyup as he prepares to punt.  We get that the great J.K. Scott has come and gone and comparisons to him aren’t really fair.  Quick, name the player that took Michael Jordan’s spot with the Bulls after he retired.  Still, we wish the punts would get off a little quicker, go up a little higher, and travel a little farther.  PATs appear to have, ahem,  straightened themselves out with Bulovas taking over.  Now, there is something just wrong with having something that needs to be straightened out about PATs, but we’ll leave that alone hoping that we don’t have to think about it again this year.  Field goals.  Well, just think happy thoughts about going for it on 4^th and 2 at the opponents’ 34-yard line -- not to mention this team’s third down conversion rate which is spectacular.

Texas A&M and new (to them) Coach Jimbo Fisher come to town on Saturday.  This team played a great game against Clemson a week ago.  We will need to be ready.

Roll Tide, beat the Aggies.

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Ole Miss Grades

On November 17, 1968 the New York Jets, led by Joe Namath, were playing the Oakland Raiders and NBC was broadcasting the game live from Oakland. With a minute to play, the Jets kicked a field goal to break a tie and take the lead 31-29. 

As the game clock showed :50 Oakland's Daryle Lamoica completed a 20 yard pass to Charlie Smith. A Jets penalty added 15 more yards, and the line of scrimmage was on the Jets' side of mid-field. On the east coast, Jets fans were going crazy, screaming at their televisions to inspire the defense to stop the Raiders. Suddenly, every fan watching NBC's broadcast saw a little girl with braids skipping through a meadow in the Swiss Alps. NBC had switched from the live game to stay on schedule with the next show, a television broadcast of the movie Heidi.

Outraged football fans melted the NBC switchboard with angry phone calls. There is no telling what else furious New Yorkers did in the wake of missing Oakland's improbable comeback win. Certainly, they blamed NBC for depriving their Jets of the psychic energy generated telepathically from Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.  

NBC's snafu gave rise to what became known as "The Heidi Rule." For fifty years, the practice has been for broadcasters to stay until conclusion with the game being played, irrespective of how lopsided the score. At least that was so until Alabama 62 - Ole Miss 7. 

ESPN threw the Heidi Rule into the dust bin of history mid-way the fourth quarter, and Tide fans were forced to find ESPN-News, or some other outlet to follow the play of Mack Jones, and the rest of the Alabama third-team getting practice reps against what was left of the Rebel-Black Bear-Land Shark-Hotty Toddies. One member of a particular live game email thread was able to find the game in a Spanish language broadcast. (Fortunately, he understands football better than he does Spanish, so the language barrier was irrelevant.)

It just goes to show you .... the rest of the college football world, including the elite media, disrespect Alabama. Or as they say in Elba, Alabama: "Ain't nobody for us but us."

OK. I confess. That is pretty much absurd. Truth be told, just about everybody with a microphone, or laptop is talking and writing about nothing but how good the 2018 Alabama team is. Last season, Coach Saban correctly identified that sort of media hype for what it is: rat poison. 

The coaches have to find ways to protect the players from that poison; to keep them focused on getting better. For instance, with the score 49-7, Holly Rowe asked Coach Saban to assess the performance of the offense at the half. "We missed a few reads on some pressures" Saban said. 

Darned right we did! Better get those missed reads cleaned up before Texas A&M comes to Tuscaloosa. 

Fans can get caught up in the hype just like players. Alabama's success is unprecedented. It is easy to assume the Tide's offensive success will continue unabated; that nobody in America can defend against the Tide. 

Readers of this blog will remember, however, that it took a total effort to come back against Georgia. Alabama could not convert a makeable field goal to win the Championship Game in regulation. Through three games, the 2018 team has not faced a legitimate SEC defense. Ole Miss certainly does not possess one. There are challenges a-plenty coming on the schedule. The quest for daily improvement must continue. 

Because I need to keep myself from getting caught up in the hype, here is how I grade the game:

Offense:     A      Alabama gained 516 yards of total offense [210 rushing], earned 27 first downs, converted 6 of 13 third downs, and possessed the ball for 34:20 of game time. Tua started and completed 11 of 15 pass attempts for 191 yards and 2 TDs. Jalen Hurts played from mid-way the second quarter, completing 7 of 10 passes for 85 yards and 2 TDs. Mac Jones played part of the third, and all of the 4th quarters. He completed 1 of his 3 pass attempts for 39 yards.

Damien Harris caught 4 passes for 23 yards. Jerry Jeudy made three receptions for 136 yards and 2 TDs. Let me add here, that Jeudy is a phenomenal receiver. He is lightning fast, runs great routes, and has excellent ball skills. Don't be surprised if he eclipses Julio Jones and Amari Cooper before his career is over. If he doesn't claim the lion's share of receiving records, it will not be because opposing defenses have figured out how to cover him, it will be due to the skill of his teammates who also had eye-popping games against Ole Miss. Irv Smith, Jr., caught 3 passes for 42 yards and a TD; DeVonta Smith added 28 yards on 3 receptions; Henry Ruggs, III scored a TD and caught 3 passes for 25 yards. Jaylen Waddle made only 1 reception, but he made it count for 30 yards. Eight different players caught passes. 

Damien Harris led all rushers gaining 62 yards on 5 runs, and scored a rushing TD. Najee Harris added 38 net yards and a TD on 9 carries. Brian Robinson, Jr. gained 32 net yards on 10 runs. Josh Jacobs scored a rushing TD and accounted for 18 net rushing yards on 6 runs. 

The Tide offense put together 7 sustained drives [72, 80, 62, 60, 52, 50, 46] resulting in 5 TDs, a FG and one missed FG. The offense suffered two turn overs, and punted twice. Both punts came on three-and-out possessions. 

Defense:         A+         Ole Miss was held to 248 yards of total offense [115 rushing]. The Whatevers made 9 first downs and converted only 4 of 16 possession downs. 

Quinnen Williams led all tacklers with 6 stops [4 solo]. Christian Miller made 5 tackles including 2 sacks. Mack Wilson and Deionte Thompson each were credited with 4 stops. Collectively, the defense made 6 tackles for 21 yards of lost yardage [4 sacks]; forced [Xavier McKinney] and recovered [Phidarian Mathis] a fumble; broke up 6 passes, hurried the Ole Miss QB 4 times, and made two interceptions [McKinney, Thompson (TD)].

The Tide have scored 4 non-offensive TDs in their first 3 games.

Special Teams

Punting:         A          Skyler DeLong had time to work on his English Literature term paper until the last minutes of the game. He only punted twice for an average of 37 yards. Both punts were fair caught. Ole Miss punted 9 times. The Tide return game produced a single 37 yard return [Jaylen Waddle] that was a shoe-string tackle short of a touchdown.

Kickoffs:       A            Joseph Bulovas handled kickoff duties and achieved a net average of 43.5 yards per kick. Josh Jacobs returned 2 Ole Miss kicks for a total of 101 yards [74 yards longest].

Place Kicking:       B+     Bulovas missed a 38 yard FG attempt, but was successful from 20, and 44 yards. He was perfect on 8 PATs.

Coaching:        A          Alabama was penalized 8 times for 60 yards. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action in the game. ... Oh, and in the second half I think Alabama fixed that problem with missing pressure reads.

Ole Miss is not finished losing games this season. The Reb defense is not very good. They ought to be favored when they play Arkansas, but that may well turn out to be a game to determine which team finishes at the bottom of the league. The rest of the SEC West is starting look like the toughest conference in college football. LSU did not earn any style points, but the Bayou Bengals drove the field and kicked a game winning FG as time expired to beat Auburn in the Village. Auburn's offense leaves much to be desired, but the Tiger defense is very good. Mississippi State deserves its national ranking and had a decisive win over Louisiana Lafayette 56-10. 

Jimbo Fisher has A&M playing very well. The Tide will have its hands full this coming weekend. Forget all that rat poison about how good Alabama is. Stay focused on improving. Outwork yesterday. See you in Tuscaloosa on Saturday ...

Roll Tide, Y'all

The Commissioner 

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Tire Store Report -- Arkansas State

Stop us if you have heard this before….  Alabama started its season with a convincing victory over a Power 5 opponent, then returned to Bryant-Denny Stadium for its home opener, only to give a less-than-stellar effort against a lesser opponent, leading to some apprehension about the beginning of the SEC schedule.

In some ways, this season was different.  For one thing, we aren’t actually sure who would be the favorite in a game pitting Arkansas State against Louisville.  The Red Wolves are certainly not the equivalent of the Southeast Mississippi College of Cosmetology & Auto Body Repair.  Arkansas State received some votes to be ranked in the Top 25 last week, are favorites to win the Sunbelt conference, and consistently put up outstanding numbers in the passing game.  They could earn double digit wins this season.  We think it was appropriate not to do the letter grade deduction.

Also, for all the nitpicking and hand-wringing that we are inclined to do after the second game, we just hung half a hundred (plus) on these guys and only threw three passes in the entire fourth quarter.  We play to a standard and the Process says that each and every play has a life of its own.  Still, it just seems like quibbling to get wound up after beating a team by 50, especially after we decided to take it easy on them at the end.  Maybe we are just a tiny bit spoiled?

One other thing you might have heard before -- The University of Alabama Varsity Football Team is ranked #1 in the AP poll for this week.  As we write this on Sunday night, that means the University of Alabama has been ranked in the #1 position by the AP more than any other team, ever, at 106 weeks.  And in the unlikely event you are inclined to take him for granted, 75 of those weeks have been while the team had a head coach named Nick Saban.  Also, Alabama has been ranked #1 for at least one week in every season since 2008.  (To be fair, Alabama was having football success well before the poll started in 1938, but still).

Offense:  There were bright spots aplenty in this game.  You very correctly point out the receiving corps as having a great deal of talent and exploiting it.  We didn’t try to do anything fancy in the running game except for bouncing a few runs outside, and even then we had four running backs with double digit yardage as well as two of the quarterbacks.  Tagovailoa threw the ball on the money. Hurts threw the ball on the money.  Shoot, we even passed the ball to the tight end more than once, which watching us in some seasons you’d have thought was against the rules. 

If we have a concern on the offensive side of the ball, right now it is the offensive line itself -- the whole just seems to be somewhat less than the sum of its parts.  The Cardinals’ and the Red Wolves’ defenses both managed to find their way into our backfield, especially with well-timed blitzes, and our run blocking was not getting the push we expected.  We have time to clean this up, but it needs cleaning up.

Defense:  A lot of people expected Alabama to have trouble with the Red Wolves’ passing game.  As you point out, we had a lot of trouble with their offense in general.  We get that a decent number of those yards gained were against players who are, shall we say, the starters of the future.  But gracious.  

If there is work to do to clean up on offense, the work on defense may be like that Friday night Moses didn’t tighten up the plug on the 55-gallon drum of 10W-40 and by Monday morning just walking across the shop floor was like crossing a hockey rink.  Our defensive backs were confused as to placement a few times.  Our linebackers are still having communication issues and Mack Wilson is already playing with some sort of custom protective device on a broken foot.  He and Dylan Moses need work on diagnosing what is coming and getting us set to defend it.  The gallant Anfernee Jennings, who apparently came within a few hours of losing a leg after his injury last year, is not quite back to top speed yet. Along the line, Isaiah Buggs has a nagging ankle injury that cost him time Saturday. Reserves Johnny Dwight and Stephon Wynn, Jr. are also injured.  We even lost defensive back Jalyn Armour-Davis to a knee injury Saturday in warm ups.  Sheesh.

Kicking game:  Last week we wondered if there was something in the water in Tuscaloosa that was affecting the kickers.  A couple of alert readers pointed out that just bad water couldn’t possibly account for all of it.  One reader suggested voodoo was to blame, which makes as much sense as anything.  Bonking two PATs in a row off the uprights is just, well, nobody on the lug nut crew could remember that happening in an Alabama game, ever.  Much less by a transfer kicker who was in the top five in points scored in history for his old team. And collectively, we’ve seen a lot of games.  Perhaps Mr. Bulovas is the answer.  We recommend he not give anyone any hair clippings, just to be safe.  And you are right, Commissioner, despite Skyler DeLong having the most perfect kicker name ever, if he doesn’t get his punts off a little faster he’s going to be watching the ball travel backwards a few times this season.

Coaching:  The team was mostly ready to play in this game and the game plan itself seemed pretty vanilla, which was all it needed to be.  There are enough issues, noted above, to give the coaching staff plenty to fill up the meetings this week.  We are just going to trust the staff on the whole rotation concept for the quarterbacks.  I mean, we see rotations at other positions like we rotate tires around here, but it is one thing to see a second string tight end run on the field for a series -- keeps the first guy fresh and gets work for the second guy -- doing that with the quarterbacks seems like a novel way of proceeding.  Of course, we did win by 50, so there’s that.

On to the Rebellious Admiral Ackbar Black Bear Hotty Toddy Landsharks.  Make no mistake, we owe these guys.  They managed to put up 35 points in just the first half last Saturday.  On the other hand, they had given up 38 points to an FCS team.  Should be interesting.

Roll Tide, beat Mississippi.

 

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Arkansas State Grades

Readers of this blog no doubt have life experiences being either on the giving or receiving end of "To Do Lists." If your experience is like mine, many of the entries on your list of things you really need to do but have yet to accomplish start with the words: "Clean up the ....." The task list for the Crimson Tide football program ought to be no different.

Yes, Alabama defeated another FBS team by 50 points, gained one yard short of 600 yards, scored its third non-offensive touchdown in two games, and seems to solve the mystery of kicking PATs, but no matter how lopsided the score was, the game left a sense of unfinished business.  The O Line allowed the Red Wolf pass rush to generate too much pressure, the defense surrendered nearly 400 yards, State was able to run the ball more than 170 net yards, and opposing receivers were too often uncovered. These are just a few of the things the Tide has to clean up before starting SEC play this coming Saturday in Oxford.

Because there is no time like the present to clean and polish, here is how I grade the game:

Offense:      A        To be sure, Arkansas State was over-matched. Nevertheless, I do not think an automatic one grade reduction for quality of opponent is appropriate for this game. I will save that for The Citadel.  

The offense ran 73 total plays, earned 26 first downs, converted 10 of 15 third down opportunities (Tua was an astonishing 10 for 10 passing on third down), gained 278 net yards rushing, and controlled the ball for 31:44. All three Tide QBs played in the game. Tua completed 13 of 19 pass attempts for 228 yards and 4 TDs. He was sacked once. Jalen Hurts completed 7 of  9 pass attempts for 93 yards and 2 TDs. Mack Jones attempted one pass that was incomplete. 

Jerry Jeudy gained 87 yards and scored 2 TDs on 4 receptions. Irv Smith Jr. also caught 4 passes for 41 yards and a TD. DeVonta Smith caught 3 passes for 77 yards and a TD. Henry Ruggs, III added 56 yards and a TD on three pass receptions. Eight different players caught passes. This receiving corps is scary good. I cannot recall when Alabama has had a passing game so deep and deadly. Since there was only one Don Hutson, when Don Hutson was playing, I suspect there never has been a better group of Tide receivers. 

Najee Harris led all runners with a career high 135 net yards rushing and a TD on 13 attempts (10.4 yard avg.). Damien Harris gained 61 net yards on 12 rushing attempts. Brian Robinson [So. RB; 6-1, 221; Tuscaloosa] ran the ball 5 times for 16 yards. Josh Jacobs had 5 carries for 14 yards.

Alabama had 7 offensive drives that  gained 40 or more yards [75, 70, 83, 63, 52, 89, 75] resulting in 6 TDs and a lost fumble [Hurts]. Only one of those drives consumed lots of time [15 plays, 89 yards, 7:01]. Otherwise, Alabama struck quickly and often from long range. 

Defense:       B-         Saivion Smith returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown, while the pass defense broke up 11 passes, hurried the State QB 8 times, and made 3 tackles for lost yardage [1 sack]. 

Xavier McKinney made 7 tackles. Deionte Thompson was credited with 6 stops. Daniel Wright and Isaiah Buggs each made 5 tackles. 

The Stop Troops held State to only 4 of 19 third down conversions, but allowed the Red Wolves to convert twice on four forth down plays. 

The defense left quite a lot to clean up before taking on Ole Miss.

Special Teams:

Punting:       B         Skyler DeLong punted 4 times for a net average of 35 yards. Two punts were caught fair, and two were returned for zero yards. Jalen Waddle only had two return opportunities on which he lost a total of 6 yards. He misjudged one punt resulting in a scrum for a live ball. Disaster was avoided when an alert Alabama player recovered the muffed kick. DeLong's first punt was nearly blocked as State rushed the kick, and DeLong seemed to take a fraction of a second longer than we have become accustomed to when JK Scott was punting.

In the opening game against Louisville, the Tide special teams showed an explosive potential. The special teams coaches need to clean up some lack of consistency. 

Kickoffs:       B           Joseph Bulovas handled kick off duties and averaged 57 gross yards per kick. The coverage unit allowed one return of 21 yards, otherwise the Red Wolves were better off fair catching kicks than trying to return them.

Place Kicking:       C       Austin Jones, who transferred from Temple, where he was the number 4 all-time scorer in program history, in order to compete for place kicking duties with the Tide, missed two PATs in the first quarter. He was replaced by Joseph Bulovas [RS Fr; 6-0, 206; Mandeville, La.] who converted each of his PAT attempts and was good for a FG from 39 yards.

I hope the clean up on place kicking duties has been accomplished.

Coaching:      A         Alabama was favored by the betting line to win by 36 points. The Tide covered. Last week, penalties were a huge problem impacting every phase of the game. Against State, Alabama was flagged only 4 times for 35 yards. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action in the game. Based on promising performances against Arkansas State, here are a few more names you should get familiar with: Ale Kaho [not listed in the media guide]; Josh Jobe [Fr. DB; 6-1, 195; Cheshire Academy, Conn.]; Keaton Anderson [RS So. DB; 6-1, 196; Florence].

Before the season, many pundits were scoffing at Alabama's schedule. Some were saying the Tide would not face any serious test until the Iron Bowl. Cleaning up that rat poison has to be a high priority. 

Anyone paying attention knew the SEC West got tougher when Jimbo Fisher arrived in College Station. The Aggies out-played Clemson in the 4th quarter last night and proved Jimbo has cleaned up the trash left by his coaching predecessors. LSU's decisive opening weekend win over "The World's Greatest Human Being" and his Miami Hurricanes served notice that reports of the Tiger's demise were premature at best. Ole Miss may have made itself a laughing stock with their ridiculous new mascot, but the Rebs offense which gained 646 yards and scored 71 points against Southern Illinois is no joke. 

The Road to 18 has become a good deal tougher. Bama fans would be wise to make sure all your best Bama-flage is cleaned up, and ready to wear. The coaches and staff will surely be cleaning up the messy details in advance of Saturday's advent of SEC competition. 

Roll Tide, Y'all.

The Commissioner

  

  

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