This morning when we woke up, the tail
end of a fairly solid rain storm was still washing across the county. An unbroken layer of gray and navy blue
clouds meant that “sun up” was just something we were taking on faith as the
sky went from pitch black to just not quite so dark. A stubborn easterly wind blew the unraked
leaves around the yard.
Loved ones quietly began making preparation for long drives
that would return them to homes in other states. From the back of the mind a few unbidden and unpleasant
memories came of projects we left undone at work on Wednesday afternoon; projects we were sure that the Tire Store elves
would show up to complete -- or we’d win the lottery Saturday, one or the
other.
We also remembered a metric ton of Christmas decorations
awaiting installation. Speaking of
tonnage, since last week we have avoided stepping on the bathroom scale like it
was a fire ant mound. We have gift lists in which we have not made the first
dent. Worst of all, we have some hard,
hard decisions to make with regard to the final disposition of certain parts of
a three-day-old feast, especially about half of a really outstanding pecan pie.
In short, it was the sort of morning that could make you want
to stay in bed and stick your head under the cool side of the pillow.
Just as all of that started to creep up the back of the neck
into something like a feeling of dread, a stray pair of two-digit non-prime numbers
crossed our mind, 52 and 21. Just like
that the dawning of a depressing day blossomed into a combination of Christmas
morning, the first day of summer vacation, and Independence Day fireworks, all
rolled into one. Alabama had beaten
Auburn by 31 points in a game where it had played, frankly, less than its
best.
Great set of grades, Commissioner. And thanks for imparting a little of the
spirit of the scene on the ground for those of us who were not able to be there in person. We have some
thoughts about the performance we saw on television.
The offense seemed out of synch in the first half. We think some of that had to do with the
other team dialing up run blitzes on what seemed like every down and positioning
their safeties in ways that caused problems with the pass routes we were
calling. This got straightened out at
half time and that is a credit to the offensive players and Coach Locksley,
who we understand is on the nominee list for assistant coach of the year. Auburn is not the first team this year to
apparently begin from the proposition that “we are not going to let Alabama
beat us with their running game”.
Now, we understand that facing the prospect of Jacobs, both
Harrises and Robinson can cause a defensive coordinator to have some sleepless
nights. But we aren’t sure we would
think the solution is to put the game in the hands of Tagovailoa, Ruggs,
Waddle, Smith, and Jeudy and say "see if you can beat us down the field". Perhaps there
isn’t a good option even if you just decide that every down you are going to hold on to the Alabama receivers like a pretty prom
date. The only quarterback
sack recorded by the Tiger/Plainsmen/Villagers/War Eagles was the result of an “intentional
grounding” flag when our receiver ran a post route and our quarterback was
clearly anticipating an out route.
Whatever, we think that putting 50+ on the cross-state rival deserved
the grade you issued, no matter what else.
The defense had a few predictable struggles in this
game. For whatever reason, the Lee County
Brain Trust that is the Auburn coaching staff continues to rely on a gimmicky playground
offense that scores a few points, but isn’t going to carry the day against a
well-coached defense. There were double
passes, end arounds, wildcats, sugar huddles (we do NOT want to know why they
call it that), quick snaps, and all sorts of other stuff, culminating in a field goal play
where half of the kicking team ran away from the center, half of it stayed up,
and a wide receiver threw a drag route pass to the kicker -- who was
appropriately dispatched by an alert freshman cornerback. It all reminds us of our old Sunday afternoon games in Don
McKenzie’s backyard -- “ok, Phil you run a curl route in front of the birdbath
and I’ll throw deep to Randall and try not to lead him into old lady Bensko’s
rose bushes. On two.” Difference is, no one in that huddle had a $32
million buyout.
There was a darker side
to the performance from the East Alabama Male College that you ably documented,
Commissioner. The “hit” on Waddle after
he signaled fair catch and the ball was still several feet in the air should
have warranted an apology, not a celebration.
Cut blocks are still permitted though we honestly cannot understand why. We hope that the gallant Isaiah Buggs can return
to action next week after taking a helmet in the shin/knee from an offensive
lineman. Perhaps Alabama should spend a
couple of weeks featuring this technique -- you can bet the relevant NCAA
committees would have no problem crafting a rule to outlaw them before the next
kickoff.
Penalties taken on this side of the ball, especially on
third down, just have to stop (though one of those was a pretty silly call,
which is to say par for the course for an officiating crew that could star in
any given episode of Funniest Home Videos, at least we didn’t have the Barnum
and Bailey rejects that showed up in College Station). It’s a new season and that sort of mental
error won’t cut it anymore. We have a
good bit of confidence the coaches will address this in the coming days.
Special teams misadventures continue and led indirectly to
one of the Auburn scores. Why one of
the three players in our picket in front of the punter would peel out of his
position to leave open a clear lane to the punter is a mystery. Why our punter (otherwise the feel good story
of the season on special teams) would rotate the ball and study it, like he was
trying to read the fine print on the leather regarding inflation pressures or
country of manufacture is more of a mystery.
Perhaps it is a good lesson learned.
We mentioned a few issues with the coaching on the other side, above. We thought it a measure of how much Alabama has changed its game that down by three with 2:30 left in the half, Auburn took the ball and decided to let the clock expire on the half, even though Alabama would get the ball to open the second half. We think that would have been handled differently last year. Our coach, and therefore our program, have changed with the times. In the past, no one particularly worried about an Alabama attack focused mostly on pounding a defense into dust, might take the ball with less than two minutes remaining and end up with a quick strike score. However, it has happened enough times this year that the Gus Bus, instead of choosing to run the double reverse flanker flea flicker with a half twist around the Iris bed, just sat quietly at idle till the half time whistle blew.
This group of seniors deserves a great deal of special
praise. Adversity comes in all sorts of
packages. Oddly enough, enjoying very
sustained success can lead to complacency, over confidence, laziness, hubris, there
are probably some more adjectives this side of “rat poison” but you get the
idea. It is a credit to this coaching
staff, full of new faces, that it has managed to keep this team focused on
achieving their goals and playing at the highest levels.
All that said, an undefeated regular season is a monumental
achievement. Winning games at a clip not
seen since the 1888 Yale team, which also dispatched its entire regular season
list of opponents by more than 20 points each, is worthy of note. However, most of this team’s goals are still
in front of it. Those goals are there
for the taking. This team has the talent,
the will, the schemes, and the coaching to do so. However, it is appropriate to take just a
minute or two to celebrate what has already happened in 2018. Hurrah for the dear old alma mater, hurrah
for the seniors, hurrah for the pecan pie.
That’s enough of that. I hope you all had a wonderful
Thanksgiving. It is now time for the
team to return to Atlanta for the second match up with the Georgia Bulldogs to decide a championship this calendar year. It promises to be
a great game. Have a safe week to make
sure you don’t miss it, even if you have to endure Gary Danielson to do so. Till then, keep in mind the numbers 52 and 21.
Roll Tide, everyone.
Beat Georgia.
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