MSU Grades: The Report From The Tire Store

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That’s a good set of grades, Commish. 

We were lucky enough to be in Tuscaloosa for the game on Saturday.  It is a good thing that homecoming day in Tuscaloosa is by definition beautiful, because otherwise, it really wasn’t.  It rained during the early morning hours of Saturday and the sky was thickly overcast all day.  The wind was pretty constant and gusty.  The Met Life blimp was blown around so badly that it often couldn’t get over the stadium.  They just gave up about the third quarter and went back to the hanger or dock or wherever it is you land a blimp.

Hats, toboggans and gloves were the order of the day.  The lines for coffee and hot chocolate were long.  I know a lot of people have mentioned fans in the upper decks leaving early (and the student part of the upper deck never did fill up) but frankly I didn’t blame them much.  Remember that on Friday the high was in the mid-80s and it was sunny.  It was not as cold as that night we played Mississippi State and Sly Croom was wearing that coat he borrowed from Huggy Bear on Starsky & Hutch, but it would have reminded you of it.

The lousy schedule that Alabama got from the conference after the new teams were admitted combined with TV scheduling continues to be a real hassle.   The last time Alabama played at home it was September, and game time temperatures on the field were in the mid to upper 90s.  We missed all of the good October weather.  The 7:30 time slot is just miserable, and particularly so on homecoming.  I wish someone had the guts to stand up to ESPN about this.  We stayed till the bitter end of the game.  It was past 11 p.m. before we made it out of the stadium.  Two accidents, including one that shut down Paul Bryant Blvd just past Calvary Baptist had traffic in a mess.  Not only can you still buy Western Carolina tickets, they are even offering discounts on concessions to get people to buy.  That’s also the effect of four home games in five weekends, and this one being against a lightly regarded opponent on Saturday before Thanksgiving.

The team’s respective attitudes during the game were interesting to see.  The Bulldogs were clearly excited and confident coming into the game.  By about the mid-point of the second quarter, you could tell that spark was fading.  Alabama was imposing its will.  MSU no longer “believed”.  But it affected Alabama, too.  I have seen it before this season.  I’m not sure what the proper description is -- Coach Saban resorted to boxing in the press conference.  I’ve considered everything from cats toying with mice, to fist fights, to naval encounters, even Auden.  Nothing quite fits.  There is just a sense you get from this team that they collectively decide the other team is just not that much of a threat --  we can score if we need to and our defense is figuring out their special wrinkles and shutting them down.  It’s not that they don’t try, but the intensity level sags a bit.  The offense quits stringing together first downs….  I can’t quite describe it, but it is palpable.  So long as they are not wrong and don’t let an opponent back in a game, I don’t guess it matters.  Think about this question: when was the last time A.J. McCarron had to play the entire fourth quarter?  Interesting answer, isn’t it?

A word about officiating.  All rules of reason have simply gone out the window.  Saturday night’s last two snaps were just stupid, as was the last penalty flag.  Both coaches were out as far as the numbers (not that this was a new spot for Mullen, who seemed to spend as much of the night on the field as A.J. McCarron) yelling at the referees to let the time run off.  No such luck.  The umpire Saturday night was constantly in the way.  Safeties, linebackers, running backs and tight ends were all having to run around his rather considerable girth.  He was hit with a pass and Yeldon lost yardage dancing around him on at least one notable occasion. It was as if the team managers had failed to remove a tackling dummy from the defensive backfield during a scrimmage and they decided to just play around it.

I was sitting in the endzone Saturday.  We need to do whatever we can to get our kickoffs back into the end zone.  Our lane discipline continues to be poor and there were several kick returns where the returner had multiple clear pathways.  As you pointed out, we were fortunate to get a couple of turnovers after long returns.  The next two games, in particular, field position may be critical.  We cannot continue to have our kick off coverage team put our defense in short field situations, especially right after we have scored.

A word about Vinnie Sunseri.  This is the sort of kid Coach Bryant just loved.  Relatively speaking, Vinnie is not really physically gifted enough to be playing where he is and achieving the sort of things he does.  But he doesn’t know it and I hope no one tells him.  The PA announcer credited him with four straight tackles on Saturday night.  He was MSU’s worst nightmare.  He stopped the run, he covered pass patterns, he tackled hard, he faked blitzes and then dropped back to spy the quarterback, he is a wrecking ball on special teams….

Our defensive backs played a great game Saturday and though you can’t see it on tv, often receivers were just so completely covered there was nothing for the MSU quarterback (who as you correctly point out continued to play tall after a pretty good beating) to do but throw it away.  The d-line was credited with 10 hurries out of 30 pass attempts.  Think about that for a minute.

Saturday night should be a great one.  The offensive line needs to step up and play to its billing.  MSU’s rather pedestrian defensive line hassled McCarron all night long.  That won’t do it in Red Stick.

Roll Tide.  Beat some more Tigers.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store

Mississippi State Grades

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I've been saying it for several weeks: Alabama needs to be challenged in a football game.  Now, however, I'm starting to wonder whether there is a team in the SEC that is up to the task.

In the run up to this week's homecoming game, I thought that Mississippi State was just such a team. The Bulldogs were 7-0 for only the second time in school history. Their quarterback was playing at a very high level. The State defense had proved itself to be tough and physical. They had a punishing running game. State had the motivation and appeared to have the talent to give Alabama its toughest test of the 2012 season.

Appearances can be deceiving. It turns out that Alabama was MSU's toughest test of the season and the Dogs failed it.

For the eighth game in a row, Alabama scored at least 30 points. Tide runners gained 179 yards rushing while the Bama defense held State to only 47. Alabama scored a touchdown on each of its first three possessions of the game. State opened with a blocked field goal, followed by six consecutive punts, an interception and back-to-back fumbles before finally cracking the scoreboard against Alabama's backup players.

What accounts for this? Recruiting certainly, but also relentless coaching. Nick Saban was asked about why he got upset with the reserve defensive players at the end of the game: "I got upset with our backup players because they can play better than that." It has become a cliche to say that Nick Saban never stops coaching. Cliches become cliches because they are true. In the case of the Alabama football program, the truth of that particular cliche extends to every member of the coaching staff.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense:         A         No + for the offense this week because of two periods of lackluster play. The first came in the second quarter with the score 21-0. Having scored on each of its first three possessions, the Tide offense went three-and-out on its next three. The second lull came in the third period which has been a chronic feature this season.

Alabama earned 22 first downs [13 rushing] but converted only 4 of 11 possession downs. Nevertheless, the Tide gained 414 total offensive yards and held the ball for 34:14 of game time.  TJ Yeldon gained 84 yards rushing and scored a rushing touchdown. Kenyan Drake scored a touchdown while accumulating 47 yards on 8 carries. Eddie Lacy added 20 yards on 10 carries, but he demonstrated once again what a tough determined runner he has become.

AJ completed 16 of 23 pass attempts without an interception and completed TD passes to Michael Williams and Kenny Bell.  Phil Ely completed his lone pass attempt to Eddie Lacy who actually caught the pass twice before securing the ball, turning up field and racing into the end zone for a 27 yard touchdown making the score at that point 31-0.

AJ continues his streak of consecutive pass attempts without an interception [262] and he now has 37 career touchdown passes which is good for 4th place all time in Alabama history behind JP Wilson [47], Brodie Croyle [44] and GMac [39]. With four games remaining this season, including the finale against Auburn which surrendered 63 points to Texas A&M last night, he is poised to eclipse these records. Having thrown 18 TD passes through 8 games, AJ is also likely to surpass GMac's season record of 20 TD passes.

Michael Williams caught 5 passes for 38 yards and a TD. Lacy gained 51 yards on 4 receptions. Amari Cooper caught 4 passes for 47 yards. Kenny Bell caught only a single pass, but what a catch it was! AJ found Bell on a deep crossing route and threw a perfect pass. Bell made the catch in stride and outran the State corner to score Alabama's second TD. A total of 7 different receivers caught passes in the game.

The offense generated four drives in excess of 40 yards [59, 80, 73, 43] and each resulted in a touchdown. Bama was perfect in the MSU red zone, converting its four trips inside the State 20 into 3 TDs and a FG.

Defense:        A+       The State offense was held to 256 yards of total offense [47 rushing] and 16 first downs [3 rushing]. Tyler Russell, the Dogs' very fine QB completed only 15 of 30 pass attempts and was intercepted in the end zone [Robert Lester].  That pick off ended State's best offensive drive of the night, a 16 play drive that gained 97 yards and consumed 8:23 of the clock. Russell was under pressure all night long. The stat sheet records 10 QB hurries, and most of them ended with a clean but hard knockdown. When he was able to actually throw the ball, 5 of his passes were broken up.

Vinnie Sunseri is making the case for being Alabama's most valuable member of the defensive secondary. Last night he recorded 8 tackles [7 solo]. CJ Mosley made 7 tackles [4 solo] and Nick Perry recorded 5 stops [4 solo]. 

Special Teams:

Place Kicking:          A+       Jeremy Shelley was good from 34 and perfect on PATs, but the + was earned by the PK-Defense which blocked State's attempt [Dee Milliner] on its opening drive.

Punting:         A+       Cody Mandell is going to have to finish his Econ homework today, because he didn't have a chance to do it last night in the second and third quarters. He punted 5 times for an average of 42.2 yards per punt. He nailed 3 inside the State 20 [2 inside the 10] and came within a whisker of knocking State dead at the one foot line. Two of his punts carried for more than 50 yards, and one was fair caught. The coverage unit made a heads up play to recover a punt that bounced off the back of a State blocker [Robert Lester is credited with the recovery].

Kickoffs:         A         Cade Foster continues to execute what I can only guess is an intentional strategy of kicking short enough to bait the opposition into returning the kick. I don't particularly like this strategy. It seems to me that it may yield high rewards [and certainly did last night with a recovery by Landon Collins of a fumble forced by Christion Jones] but it brings with it high risks of big returns, such as the returns of 33, 37 and 39 yards made by State last night.

Coaching:     A         Fifty five players are listed in the participation report. AJ and the entire starting offensive line came out of the game in the 4th quarter. Alabama gained 494 all purpose yards and was penalized 7 times for 63 yards.

Yesterday, Ole Miss came back to beat Arkansas in the fourth quarter; perhaps derailing John L. Smith's chances of being named the next head coach at Auburn. Speaking of Auburn, I've been wondering if the Tigers-War Eagles-Plainsmen-What Evers actually practiced during the off-season. After yesterday's shellacking by the Aggies [63-21; 674 total yards, 352 rushing yards] I'm starting to wonder if they practiced following last week's game at Vanderbilt. The only thing hanging from the Toomer's Corner trees these days are effigies of the coaching staff. Toilet paper is in abundant supply in all Lee County grocery stores and big-box retailers.

The NCAA ought to implement a lot of reforms, but one of the most urgently needed one is to restore the "Cocktail" to the "Party" for the name of the UGA-Florida game. Those two teams really needed to get together socially and have a beer or two. The level of hatred between the Dawgs and Lizards is really out of hand. True enough, the Dawgs upsetting the Lizards is a good story, but my goodness, did you watch that game? You don't see that many combined penalties in games played in prison leagues. The ref had to signal "unsportsmanlike conduct" so often that he's getting a cortisone shot in his rotator cuff to reduce the swelling.

Tennessee played its best game of the Derek Dooley era yesterday against USCe. Late in the game, trailing by only 3 points, the Vols were driving and made it into the Chickens' red zone when Jadeveon Clowney separated Tyler Bray from the football. The Birds recovered the fumble. Whether Tennessee can recover from the loss and win out against much easier competition in November remains to be seen.

The search for a significant challenge for Alabama is over. LSU and Texas A&M await the Tide over the next two Saturdays. This time next week, we will have a pretty good idea about the answer to the question I posed at the beginning of this week's edition of The Grades: Can anybody in the SEC really provide a significant challenge to the 2012 Crimson Tide?

Jeremy Shelley wears the number 5 jersey as a reminder of his break out performance last January in the BCS Championship Game. I don't believe that this year's team is going to need a repeat performance. 

The Million Dollar Band will make the trip to Baton Rouge. For those of you who may be joining them, remember, as originally written, the first words of the "Rammer Jammer" are "Hey, Tigers ..."

The Commissioner

Tennessee Grades: The Report From The Tire Store

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A beautiful Sunday morning , indeed. We know those who speak of a Sunday following an Auburn loss, a Tennessee loss, and an Alabama win as "Trifecta Sunday".  It was appropriate that Alabama took Tennessee to the woodshed on a night it "honored" Phil Fulmer, who as a secret witness, told lies to the NCAA in an attempt to destroy the Alabama football program and Peyton Manning who once "directed" the Tennessee band in playing Rocky Top after a victory over Alabama.  I mean, can you even imagine A.J. coming back out of the tunnel Saturday evening to direct the Million Dollar Band in playing the Rammer Jammer?  Me, either.   It was an appropriate night for a curb stomping .  The Crimson Tide delivered.

We do think the morning afterglow of a sound whipping and a fine cigar may have made you slightly generous in the grades, namely with regard to the kicking game.

 Saturday night was full of kicking miscues.  Tennessee's best drive of the night started with a great kickoff return.  Players have lost lane discipline in kick off coverage -- to be honest,  Patterson had his choice of avenues to return the ball.  The dropped PAT snap was the first time that has happened that we can remember in years.  A good kick return for us was negated by a foolish penalty that did not affect the play.  Neither of the missed FGs ever had a chance of being good and missing them gave Tennessee good field position.  Note: these were not 50+ yarders.  And for some reason, we suddenly stopped kicking off the football into the dadgum end zone and started kicking it short to Patterson -- one of the most dynamic return men in the conference -- actually, maybe the best return man in the conference. We did everything possible to keep this player from getting the ball as a wide receiver, and we kick off short to him.  Whether by accident or design, that was not a good thing.  We are lucky we didn't pay a higher price for it.  Jones was a shining exception to our otherwise iffy play on special teams.

 For these failures we take full responsibility.  We should not have bragged on the special teams in this space.  We hereby repent for that error and hope for improvement.

Otherwise, we agree with the grades.  The offense gained well over 500 yards.  It should have.  Tennessee's defense is a stinking pile of something.   For reference, the Tennessee stop squad gave up 560 yards to UGA and 555 yards to USCe.  Adding our total and the 450 Mississippi State managed, these guys have surrendered over a mile of offense to its four SEC opponents this year.  Nonetheless,  Alabama's offense took advantage of most of the openings Tennessee provided and proved it is not a one trick pony.  Alabama scored 44 points, had a touchdown called back on an iffy call, missed two field goals,  and played the second string in the fourth quarter.  All of which is to say it could have been much worse. The high grade was appropriate.

Tennessee's offense, on the other hand, is a very respectable squad.  In fact, they gained over 475 yards at UGA.   Bray has an impressive arm and we probably just saw the best group of three receivers we will see in the regular season.  We heavily recruited two of their offensive linemen.  As a unit, they have allowed very few sacks this year.  Alabama's defense held Tennessee in check in a way that was reminiscent of, well, of the 2011 Alabama defense -- no small praise. 

Oh, and because I'm less restrained that Mr. McCarron, I'll mention that he already owns more national championship rings than Manning, and our head coach has more National Championship rings in the last three seasons than Fulmer has total.

Hope to see you at homecoming.  Roll Tide.  Beat the Bulldogs.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store

Tennessee Grades

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It has gotten to the point where The Daily Fishwrapper is just not worth reading. If I didn't want people to think that we weren't home, there are days on end where I would not even bother to pick it up off the driveway. But not today!

On this gloriously beautiful and cool Sunday morning there is nothing I looked more forward to than drinking my coffee out on the back porch and reading every single word in the newspaper. At least every word in the sports section that is. And what interesting news! Both of the major college football programs from the State of Alabama traveled to Tennessee to play SEC opponents and left their mark.

The one from Tuscaloosa painted East Tennessee crimson, while the one from The Village came to Nashville and left sort of a brownish stain at the corner of West End Avenue and Natchez Trace. First responders were seen in Haz-Mat suits scrubbing down the area even before the Tigers' convoy cleared the Davidson County line.

The Fishwrapper's columnists are huffing and puffing this morning about how time is running out on Derek Dooley's tenure as Tennessee's head coach. They do have a point. Yesterday's game was Nick Saban's sixth consecutive victory as coach for the Tide in this border-state rivalry which, apart from the squeaker in 2009 when the faithless Lane Kiffin was coaching the Vols, have all been blow outs.

Alabama dominated Tennessee. The Vol offense had been highly productive, averaging 30 plus points per game. Against the Alabama defense, however, they were limited to 13 points on 203 total yards. Tyler Bray, who was once touted as a possible Heisman candidate, completed barely 50% of his pass attempts and threw two interceptions while the UT rushing attack was held to a mere 79 yards.

Tennessee's defense, still trying to adjust to Sal Sunseri's 3-4 concept, has struggled somewhat, but they came into the third Saturday in October fired up and talking trash. Defensive end, Darrington Sentimore, a student-athlete whose name could be part of the answer to a trivia question: "List three highly-recruited players kicked off the team by Coach Nick Saban", attracted lots of attention and several barrels of ink this week with his comments about how cold, unfeeling and off-putting he considers Coach Saban to be......OK he didn't use the words "off-putting" or "unfeeling" but he did say that Coach Saban would pass him in the hall and not speak to him and for that reason he really wanted to beat Saban more than Alabama. I suppose that in all their hallway chit-chat Dooley couldn't get it across to Sentimore that Coach Saban was not going to be on the field and he really ought to be thinking about containing the likes of TJ Yeldon who had his third 100+ yard rushing performance of the season, and Amari Cooper, whose 162 receiving yards against the Vols set a record for a true freshman.

Like every game this season, last night's contest was not a perfect performance for the Tide. It is unreasonable to expect otherwise. Tennessee gave a decent account of itself, especially in the first half, but was ultimately out manned and out played. And does that ever make for some great reading on a Sunday morning.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense          A+       Alabama earned 23 first downs [11 rushing] on 539 total yards [233 rushing] and dominated the clock [36:47 to 23:13]. AJ completed 17 of 22 pass attempts for 306 yards and 4 TDs, all career highs, and was a perfect 7 for 7 in the second half.

TJ Yeldon gained 129 yards on 15 carries [8.6 avg.] and scored 2 rushing TDs. Eddie Lacy gained 79 yards on 17 attempts while Kenyan Drake added 22 yards in his 4 runs.

Amari Cooper led all receivers with 7 catches for 162 yards and 2 TDs. Lacy caught 3 passes for 18 yards. Kenny Bell, Kevin Norwood and Michael Williams each had 2 receptions. Bell and Williams each caught a pass for a touchdown. Christion Jones rounded out the receiving with a solo catch for 9 yards.

Alabama had 8 offensive possessions that gained at least 40 yards [47, 43, 72, 53, 47, 67, 80, 58] resulting in 5 TDs, 1 FG and 2 misses. These long drives were made possible by very good efficiency on third down; the offense converted 6 of 12 possession downs and was perfect in the Tennessee red zone, scoring 2 TDs and a FG on its three trips inside the UT 20.

Defense         A+       Tennessee was held to 11 first downs, 282 total yards of offense [79 rushing] and was able to convert only 2 of 13 third downs. UT managed a field goal on its last offensive possession of the game when Bama was going deep in the roster. Otherwise, the Vols' second half offensive possessions resulted in 2 punts, 2 turnovers on downs and an interception in the end zone. That pick [Robert Lester] which came in the third quarter on a drive where Tennessee had gained 41 yards to the Alabama 21 and was threatening to score, ended the game for all intents and purposes.

CJ Mosley was the defensive player of the game with 7 tackles [4 solo] and an interception. Vinnie Sunseri and Trey DePriest each recorded 6 tackles while Dee Milliner and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix each made 5.

In addition tot he two interceptions, Tide defenders broke up 5 passes. Tyler Wilson was not sacked but Jesse Williams is credited with a QB hurry.

Special Teams

Punting:         A-        Cody Mandel averaged 44 yards on his two punts. Cyrus Jones returned 4 punts for 59 yards and would have had more but for a holding penalty on the return.

Place Kicking:          D         Jeremy Shelly made every PAT that he had a reasonable shot at. The one missed PAT was due to a muffed hold by AJ. Cade Foster missed from 44 and 45 yards.

Kick Offs:                   C         I don't know why, but Foster was very inconsistent in kicking off for a touchback. Perhaps it was deliberate and we were trying for hang-time in order to pin the Vol offense inside their own 25. If that was the plan it did not work every time. Cyrus Jones returned one UT kick for 27 yards and nearly broke it for a much longer gain.

Coaching      A         The participation report list 52 players who saw action against the Vols. Alabama suffered 4 penalties and gained 634 all purpose yards. Amari Cooper's 162 receiving yards earned the top spot for all-purpose players.

Derek Dooley is not the only SEC coach whose future is in doubt this morning. The newspaper does not report whether Gene Chizik returned to Auburn with his team or was trundled off to the bus station with a ticket back to Iowa. We also know that Joker Phillips is on his last legs at Kentucky and John L. Smith has never been more than a single-season head coach at Arkansas. All this coaching turmoil is fodder for speculation about who will be coaching where next season.

Vol fans are filling up the sports-talk radio shows with calls for John Gruden to be their next coach. I personally think that UT will get to 7-5 this year and make a bowl trip to Florida. Coach Saban gave Dooley lots of respect in his post-game remarks. Perhaps his comments were directed more to AD Dave Hart than to the assembled media. Tommy Tubberville would be the best fit for the Arkansas program. Like him or hate him, you have to admit that Tubs knows how to coach football and he would no doubt love to be in a position to coach against Auburn every year. Kentucky will probably hire somebody obscure whose task will be to be a place-holder between the end of the NCAA basketball tournament and Midnight Madness.

So what does Auburn do? I would prefer that Chizik be given a contract extension with a no-cut clause. For some reason, however, I do not think that is very likely. Therefore, I think that Jay Jacobs will search for a replacement who fits these criteria: (i) head coaching experience including in the SEC, (ii) popular with the sports media, and (iii) acceptable to Pat Dye. I think I know just the man, and maybe one day soon I will open the newspaper and read this headline: "AU Hires John L. Smith To Coach Tigers."

The Tide has no time for such idle speculation. Mississippi State is undefeated, nationally ranked and coming to Tuscaloosa this weekend with a potent offense and a tough defense. The Bulldogs are the team that Alabama has played more than any other. Coach Dan Mullen has done an impressive job and MSU will be ready to derail Alabama's season and the chance to play for the National Championship.

I think the Tide will be ready as well. Next Sunday's Fishwrapper will not devote very much coverage to the game, but you can be assured that The Grades will do so.

Roll Tide

Missouri Grades-The Report From The Tire Store

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I thought that was a very good and fair set of grades, Commissioner.  It was an odd game on an odd day.  It was interesting to hear Coach Saban critique himself after the game.  Because he did so, I feel free to, as well.  I know that going into the locker room with a delay of at least 30 minutes (but really no telling how long) must have been strange.  For an obsessive planner like Saban, it must have been disconcerting.  I’m not sure what the right thing to do was, but given results I’m pretty sure changing clothes and eating wasn’t the right thing to do.

It is easy to blame the weather delay for Alabama’s relatively mediocre performance after that time.  There may be something else going on, though.  In his interview after the initial BCS standings were announced, Coach Saban said, “Mindset is so important in this day and age and this game."  He talked about keeping the players focused on what they needed to do.  After the weather delay, Alabama seemed more focused on getting off the field and home without anyone else getting hurt than it did on taking the game to Missouri.  To be fair, they didn’t have to.  It’s almost like they became slightly disinterested in the rest of the proceedings.  I hope the fact that this team really hasn’t yet had to play for a full 60 minutes doesn’t mean that when they are called on to do so, they don’t know how.

Special teams play was a regression Saturday, but some of that regression was based on injuries.  DeAndrew White was a key contributor on kick coverage.  His being out may not be the reason Missouri ran one back, but it didn’t help.  We had bad field position on a couple of occasions because Dee Hart is out with a knee injury and not fielding kicks.  Why our punter mishandled a snap that was picture perfect I have no explanation for –none.  If he was going to muff one, though, Saturday was the day to do it.

A couple of notes.  I thought the officials handled any number of things badly on Saturday.  From accounts I have read, both coaching staffs and media members were suggesting it was time to get players and fans out of the lightning for several minutes before the officiating crew decided to accede.  With all the emphasis we currently have on “player safety” isn’t this an easy one?  Wouldn’t the zebras like to be out of harm’s way, too?  I just don’t get it.  Also, holding on the offensive line on pass plays was apparently deleted from the rule book when I wasn’t looking.  Teams (our included) are taking advantage.  Same thing with the so-called horse collar tackle, which probably could have been called about four times Saturday, on both teams.  Perhaps the rain obscured the officials’ vision.

My biggest gripe was the end of the game.  There is less than a minute remaining, Missouri had a fourth down near mid field in miserable conditions in front of a crowd the size of one at a mid-size Texas high school game.  The game was out of reach.  Most importantly, Missouri had a player lying immobile on the sideline about two yards off the field of play (we read he is in good shape and will be rejoining his teammates soon, thank heaven).  Trainers from both teams are looking at him.  They were bringing on the stretcher/backboard assembly….  How much wisdom does it take for the referee to say to both coaches, let’s just wind the clock and let the 50 seconds run off?  Instead, we go through the silly ritual of Missouri taking a knee on fourth down (thereby losing something like half of their net rushing yards for the day), stopping the clock, running respective offensive and defensive players from each side back onto the field, marking the ball for play, snapping it again….  I suppose I should be the last one expecting common sense and a humane reaction from the likes of a SEC officiating crew.

As I mentioned after the Arkansas game, I’ve had it with the CBS broadcasting crew.  For the second game of ours in a row, it was obvious they didn’t really want to be there.  As with Arkansas, Alabama’s opponent was weakened by not having its starting quarterback and best player available for the game.  Tough, it happens.  Some of their comments were silly.  Mr. Lundquist’s mispronunciation of names is a running joke (though no longer a funny one) on SEC football message boards. They seem not to like solid defensive efforts, apparently preferring the currently fashionable quasi-arena football being played by the likes of Oregon and West Virginia.  It is no big deal, but emblematic of the dunderheads at CBS, that they posted that ridiculous map about the “travels” of Jesse Williams.  Would it have been too much to do a little research and report about why he came to America in the first place?  Perhaps something about his family?  His fans in Australia who are now following American college football for the first time?  His interesting ethnic heritage?  No, instead we get a cartoony graphic map of the world and introduced to the fact that someone on the crack research staff at CBS thinks the best way to get to Arizona from Brisbane (which they put in the wrong part of Australia, by the way) is across the Atlantic Ocean.  Verne and Gary will be broadcasting from a Columbia for the second week in a row, so maybe Verne can get that right.  I just hope they don’t let the graphics folks set up their travel schedule, or they may go through Canada to get there….

More later in honor of UT Week. Roll Tide. Beat Tennessee.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store

Missouri Grades

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According to a recent survey conducted by the Animal Planet channel, the tiger is the world’s favorite animal. Twenty one percent of those polled voted for the stripped predatory jungle cat, edging out man's best friend, the loyal dog, which was favored only by 20 %.

All I can say is: They didn't poll me.

Naturally, the elephant is my personal favorite animal, but I would take a Black Bear, or even a Fighting Chicken over a Tiger any day.  Yesterday was not a good day for Tigers in the SEC.  The Tide rolled all over the ones from the prairie and for the second time in as many week, the ones from the Village were beaten going away by a team that may not beat anyone else.

By the way, the cyber spooks at the NSA intercepted a tweet from @hogwildrider to @jayjacobs saying "She's blond, she's built and I don't want to hear a word about her out of you."

This prompted a reply from @jayjacobs saying "No prob. @coachdye sez to tell her 'welcome to the fambly.' "  

But, enough about the barn fire for now. This blog is about the Tide.

Our Correspondent From The Real Thing suggested that this edition of The Grades divide the game into two halves; before lightning struck and after. That's a tempting suggestion. Alabama certainly played a different game on either side of the enforced hazardous weather break. Before play was suspended, the thunder was supplied by the offensive line while Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon delivered the lightning with a scorching running attack. After the early and extended intermission, ball security became an issue, special teams became error-prone and for the second week in a row, Alabama was outplayed in the third quarter.

Every week this season, I have written that the coaches and players have work to do. This week is no exception, but the results of the game clearly reflect that the 2012 Tide is a very good football team. Alabama beat an SEC team 42-10 and the defense surrendered only 3 points and 3 yards rushing. The offense accounted for 533 total yards and featured a pair of ball carriers who had career high games. At the same time, however, Missouri was hamstrung by injuries at key positions and lacked the roster depth to genuinely challenge Alabama.

Nevertheless, Alabama is a very good football team. Maybe it is a great football team. Perhaps it is a championship team. Games against better competition will supply the answer. For now, here's how I grade the game:

Offense:         A-        This was Alabama's best game of the season running the football. The Tide earned 21 first downs [15 rushing] and 533 yards [362 rushing] and scored  six rushing TDs. However, what would otherwise be an A+ performance was marred by two lost fumbles. Granted, the weather was bad all game, and at times it was horrible, but Missouri was playing in the same weather as Alabama.

AJ completed 16 of 21 pass attempts and increased his school record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception to 227. Amari Cooper was AJ's favorite target. The freshman wide receiver caught 4 passes for 41 yards. Kevin Norwood added 25 yards on three receptions and Kenny Bell caught two passes for 46 yards. Eight different receivers caught passes.

Tide fans who have been wondering where the running game has been should have recorded yesterday's game. Eddie Lacy gained 177 yards on 18 carries, an average of 9.8 yards per rush, and scored 3 rushing TDs. TJ Yeldon rushed for 144 yards and scored 2 TDs. Kenyan Drake completed Bama's scoring with a 4th quarter touchdown and added 11 yards to the rushing total. Blake Sims, subbing for AJ in the final quarter, gained 36 yards on a single carry.

Alabama scored a touchdown on four of its first six offensive possessions; all prior to the suspension of play. The offense had six drives that gained at least 40 yards [75, 57, 50, 54, 41, 54] achieving 5 TDs and scored on 5 of its 6 possessions in the Mizzou red zone.  This dominance is reflected in the time of possession. Alabama held the ball for 36:29 including 11:01 of the 4th quarter.

The downgrade is due to the loss of two fumbles, and poor efficiency on possession downs where the offense converted only 2 of 9 third down opportunities.

Defense         A+       The Tigers only gained 129 yards [3 yards rushing] of total offense and converted only 2 of 15 third downs. Mizzou's redshirt freshman QB completed 12 of 29 pass attempts and was intercepted twice.

The Missouri offense had the ball 12 times. It achieved one field goal, 8 punts, 2 interceptions and a lost fumble. Six times the Tide defense held the Tigers to possessions of three-and-out.

CJ Mosley made 12 tackles [9 solo] and recovered a forced fumble. Dee Milliner was credited with 4 stops [3 solo] and forced a fumble. Adrian Hubbard forced a fumble and Vinnie Sunseri made a juggling interception. Blake Sims is also credited with an interception, which will come as a great surprise to him because he was on the sideline at the time. It will also come as a surprise to Haha Clinton-Dix who actually made the pick. (The host team has responsibility for compiling the official stat sheet.) The defense made 7 tackles for lost yardage including 3 sacks, and broke up 5 passes.

Special Teams:  The kicking game took a big step backwards yesterday. The weather was no doubt a factor, but the wind and rain do not account for allowing a 98 yard kick return for a touchdown.

Punting:         C         Cody Mandel averaged 38 yards on four punts. Two were downed inside the Mizzou 20 yard line, one carried more than 50 yards and 1 was fair caught. The problem is that he was supposed to have punted one more time but muffed the snap turning the ball over on downs. That would qualify for a failing grade, however, the punt defense blocked a Missouri punt attempt, recovered at the Tiger 17. Blocking a kick is an automatic "A."

Kickoffs:         F          Allowing a return for a TD is another one of those automatic failing grades. Otherwise, Cade Foster kicked 3 touchbacks and the two Joneses: Christion and Cyrus, combined for 38 yards on two returns.

Place kicking:           A         Jeremy Shelley was 100% on all 6 PAT attempts.

Coaching:     A-        The participation report lists 61 players who saw action. But it does not include Clinton-Dix. I don't know if other players were left off the stat sheet, but I kept looking for Ben Howell to make an appearance. I didn't see him. Alabama was penalized 7 times for 62 yards. Eddie Lacy was the Tide's leader with 194 of Alabama's 629 all-purpose yards.

Coach Saban took responsibility for not managing the team's energy coming out of the enforced weather delay. It was reported that the players changed jerseys and had something to eat.  Maybe that explains how Mizzou was able to return a kick for a TD immediately after the break; the players were still munching on a Chik-fil-A.

The injury report is not particularly scary. AJ sustained a bruised knee, Eddie Lacy bruised his hand and Christion Jones turned his ankle. All are expected to be 100% for Tennessee this coming Saturday.

Allow me a word or two about the CBS broadcast crew: "clowns" and "gas bags" are the ones that come most immediately to mind. I know that the game was not the SEC headliner; that distinction west to LSU vs. South Carolina. It didn't even have the dramatic story-lines of Ole Miss-Auburn or UT-Miss State. But, as they say on one of those talk shows on the Four Letter Network: "Come On Man!" Their customary buffoonery was tolerable until late in the 4th quarter when LaMichael Fanning was penalized for unnecessary roughness.

In case you missed it, Fanning tackled the Tiger ball carrier and flipped backwards, bringing the runner with him. Fanning landed on his back and shoulders while the ball carrier landed sort of face down. It was not the most spectacular tackle of the day. That one came when Christion Jones tried to leap over the Mizzou punter and instead did an aerial somersault that could have earned a phone call from Sarah Patterson.  Anyway, Fanning was flagged for a personal foul and Verne Lundquist took to his fainting couch. He and Danielson spent the rest of the game tut-tutting about Fanning. A few plays later, a Tiger receiver was actually injured on a routine tackle but the bloviators in the booth were undeterred; they were unrelenting in their castigation of the red-shirt freshman's tackle which in fact injured no one.  I suppose it's true: "Haters got to hate."

The Tigers of LSU kept their species from being extinguished this weekend. Les Miles' players rebounded from their loss to Florida a week ago and beat South Carolina in the 4th quarter. A week ago, the Yard Birds thrashed Georgia and last night they could manage only one sustained offensive scoring drive. Go figure. The Chickens' performance reminds me of 2010 when USCe played a perfect game to beat Alabama then laid eggs the rest of the season.  

Mississippi State beat UT and takes on MTSU this coming Saturday. The Puppies ought to be undefeated when they arrive in Tuscaloosa in two weeks.

The Vols are reeling this morning. Coach Derek Dooley has yet to coach the Big Orange to a victory over a ranked opponent and the calls for replacing him are growing louder by the week. Nothing would make Dooley's career and the Vols' season like beating Alabama this coming Saturday. Alabama has more horsepower on both sides of the ball than UT. If the team plays to the standards Coach Saban has set, we should win by three touchdowns.

The time has come to forget about Tigers, and Dogs, Roosters and Lizzards, and other critters in the college football barn-yard. This is Tennessee Week, y'all.  The Volunteers are capable of spoiling this season if given the chance. Everyone associated with the Alabama football program knows that. Look for the Tide to play very well and empty Neyland Stadium by the middle of the third quarter.

The Rammer Jammer never sounds sweeter than when it begins with "Hey Vols...."

The Commissioner  

Ole Miss Grades: The Report From The Tire Store

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Good grades, Commissioner.  I, too, felt better about the game in the light of a Sunday morning rather than the waning minutes of a Saturday night. 

Speaking of which, I know the conference has to worship at the altar of ESPN’s money, but just once I wish someone would have the courage to tell them to go back to Connecticut or Rhode Island or wherever they are from and pound sand.  It is ridiculous that we have players out playing college football on Saturday night at an hour which, if it was one day along on the calendar, the players would be breaking curfew.  Look, I know where ESPN is from every where is within 5 miles of every place else, Rhode Island itself being geographically smaller than Tuscaloosa County, and that every wide spot in the road has 2000 hotel rooms.  But where we live, it can be a long darn way to get home for a game that basically starts tonight and ends tomorrow morning.  And this was a relatively fast-paced game.   I digress….

Again, it is a measure of the program that we beat a division opponent by three scores, trailed for a total of 15 seconds and kept at least a two score lead through the second half, and the Grades are in the low B range.  But B=Good and beating Mississippi was good.  Nonetheless, as the head coach points out, the team needs to play to a standard of excellence, not to the level of the competition. Unquestionably there were areas where the Crimson Tide did not excel on Saturday night, whether it had to or not, which is troubling. 

Offense -- I might rate the offense even a little lower than you did.  Credit to Mississippi which was soundly coached and had a significant talent differential to overcome (giving up 30 pounds per man across the line has not been a formula for winning football since, say, Fred Sington played).  However, Mississippi put 7 or 8 players on the line of scrimmage, took a lot of risks - stunts, slants, run blitzes and probably some other things I don’t truly grasp all that well - and kept their team (sort of) in the game.  It certainly worked better than their base defense which gave up over 700 yards of offense to Texas.  On the other hand, rather than carve them up like a skillful surgeon with a mix of screen passes, play action and misdirection (counter, bootleg, end around, etc.) the offense seemed content just to bludgeon them to death with a caveman’s club.  Taking out sacks, the running game managed 4+ yards a carry.  If you are guaranteed four ypc, why would you ever pass?  (Any horrified Oregon fans who happen to be reading, I apologize for suggesting it.)  I’m going to give the coaching staff a pass here and say we didn’t do much creative because we didn’t have to.  But they HAVE to fix the attempting field goals in the red zone issue.  That bit us hard last year in November and will again this year if we don’t work it out.  I digress….

Defense -- I think that is a good grade for the defense.  Giving up the two long drives was not good.  Allowing two fourth down conversions was bad (though I think Williams stopped them short once and we got a lousy spot).  Mississippi covers talent gaps with lots of hurry up and odd plays.  On the whole, though, having our defense hold anyone to 14 points should be good enough to put us in at least Atlanta and probably Miami.  That earns a Good.

Special Teams -- Nothing to add to your excellent analysis, except to ask when was the last time we beat a conference opponent and the highest grades were reserved for the special teams?  With each game that we win the more comfortable and confident we become in our ST play.  It is hard to believe even as I type this, but Special Teams have become a strength -- shoot I don’t even close my eyes every time they take the field.  I don’t know if it is coaching, practice, weightlifting, maturity or what, probably a healthy combination of all, but Hurray for these guys.  Keep it up.

Officiating.  Well, Penn Wagers and the rest of the striped blind mice never fail to disappoint when it comes to disappointing.  In fairness, I’ll say this crew seems to get more than its share of close calls.  But the only advantage their replay team offers is that they seem to dress better than the on-field crew. 

The off week seems an appropriate time to comment on the schedule.  As in, when this year’s revised schedule came out after Missouri and Texas A&M entered the conference it led to a collective Crimson response of “blech”.  We have one home game in October and then not till just before Halloween, which is the prime month weather wise to be in Tuscaloosa.  (We did have some choice, with the “alternative” schedule having NO home games in October).  I understand that both of the new conference members wanted an Alabama game.  To get Missouri  Alabama at home (and the tv exposure and the RV caravan that comes with it) we dropped Vanderbilt, a quick 3-hour road trip up the interstate (and a short drive from the Tire Store HQ) for a 500-mile trip that starts with three hours of driving to get to the interstate from Tuscaloosa. LSU got a bye week before we traveled there to play. Our out of conference home games were Westerns Carolina and Kentucky plus Louisiana Monroe….  I know the league office thinks we will show up to see just about anyone, and generally they are correct, but let’s not mince words.  This year’s home schedule is a stinker and Coach Moore knows it.  Three digressions and you’re out….

At the time it came out, I was not a fan of where the bye week fell, either.  It would have been much better, I thought, to either match LSU’s off week, although that is terribly late, or to have it fall between trips to Missouri and Tennessee.  As it worked out, I think the off week is at a fortunate time.  Some of the injuries from Saturday and before need time to rest and heal, or where that is not possible (e.g. Fowler) we get a good week to practice some fundamentals and install some new players before going on the road.

Enjoy the off week.  There are several games Saturday with conference playoff implications and one (Arkansas @ Auburn) that is fascinating in a slow-down-and-stare-at-the-wreckage sort of way.  Lots of football yet to play, but given my choice, I’d take the results thus far without playing a down.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store