Tire Store Report Mississippi State

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Commissioner, those Grades were indeed worth waiting for.  We are glad that you and TCLSW were there to pull us through.  From the look and sound of things on television, the crowd had a major role to play in the game. 

Make no mistake, Alabama was a tired and physically beat up football team after last week’s overtime game in Baton Rouge.  Most regular players at the major college level are nursing some sort of injury -- bruise, sprain, strain, pull, etc. at this time of the season.  But not every team has to play LSU in Baton Rouge with a quick trip home to play a relatively rested #1 team.  If the team was fatigued, it didn’t show.

At half time Alabama’s head coach acknowledged that there was still a lot of football remaining.  He said the players had been encouraged to play like the score was 0-0.  Going by that standard, Alabama had lost the third quarter 3-0 and were quickly down by 7 more early in the fourth.  Then Alabama, behind some tough catches in traffic, outstanding scrambles by its quarterback, and determined running by its still-injured starting running back, melted nearly half of the quarter away and re-extended its lead to two scores.

Mississippi State got the ball with just under 4 minutes left, needing two trips to the end zone to win the game.  Early in the week, media reported that Mississippi State coaches had said they didn’t plan to double team Amari Cooper, because they planned to “do what we do”. (FWIW, it looked to us like they double teamed #9 a lot.) When you are undefeated, in first place in the best football conference in the country, and ranked first in the major polls, that’s probably a reasonable strategy.  But when Alabama apparently decided to trade yards for time, MSU seemed to become so focused on doing “what they do”, namely using their talented and experienced athletes to make big plays, that they lost track of the clock.  Mississippi State went with a variety of runs, swing passes,  and cut backs that wound up getting players tackled in bounds, and often short of the first-down marker.  Unlike O.J. Howard last week taking 6 yards on a catch and getting out of bounds to stop the clock, Mississippi State’s players would cut towards the middle of the field,  hoping to chew up a big chunk of yardage.  It never quite happened.  When Mississippi State finally reached the end zone, only 15 seconds remained and it was out of time outs.

Offense:  The offense is full of the walking wounded.  Robinson was back again this week, despite the high ankle sprain.  He struggled somewhat playing across from a fifth-year senior who is a likely All-American, but acquitted himself well.  He is not “going” to be a good one, he is good right now.  We suspect Yeldon probably had a set number of plays the training staff recommended he play because of his bad ankle.  We suspect he exceeded the limit.  Sims seemed reluctant to run for available first downs until crunch time.  His shoulder injury in the Florida game probably dictates discretion about carrying the football.  DeAndrew White suffered a hamstring injury, but showed up on the “hands” team to cradle the on-side kick. 

Defense:  This unit came up huge in the game.  I’ll bet if you had told most of the Alabama faithful that the defense would hold the Bulldogs under three touchdowns, they would have taken it without playing the game.  Unlikely heroes continue to pop up.  Nick Perry probably had his best overall effort since before he graduated from high school.  Teams continue to pick on Cyrus Jones.  Despite primarily defending a player who looked a full 6 inches taller, Jones mostly made Mississippi State regret that choice.  Collins is improving with every game, which given his performance last week, is a little hard to contemplate.  His stand-up stop on the last drive against one of the best running backs in the conference was a very impressive individual performance that cost MSU valuable time.

Special Teams:  When Griffith is good, he is very, very good.  His kicks elevate quickly, they rotate end over end, and mostly pass near the very middle of the uprights.  When not, well, the ball often seems like it never has a chance.  We suspect the injury the Coach has referred to has limited his practice repetitions.  Scott is just an outstanding punter.  Not an outstanding freshman punter, just an outstanding punter.  Not only was he hitting long ones when necessary and dropping short ones near the goal line otherwise but when a blown assignment allowed a Bulldog to come free up the middle on one punt, Scott coolly punched it out.    

Coaching:  Sure, there were things to question in this game.  If you take the ball after winning the coin toss, putting the one player everyone on the defense is going to key on in the backfield and handing him the ball, especially when he’s a wide receiver, might have done with some further thought. Right after Jones’s interception the decision to throw three straight passes and take only a minute or so off the clock was a head-scratcher.  The defense lost containment a few times, but with an athlete like Prescott, that’s probably just going to happen.  The coaches deserve top marks for having this team ready to go after the drama of last Saturday night.

You are correct to emphasize that Coach Saban is 5-2 all time against #1 teams.  Since he has been at Alabama, the Tide is 17-5 against top ten teams.  A defeat of Western Carolina on Saturday will secure Alabama another 10-win season, its seventh in a row with at least 10 wins. 

That kind of history leads to Alabama fans this morning on chat boards, in Sunday School classes, and at the local Cracker Barrel talking about where Alabama left points on the field or where the defense didn’t manage a stop.  Despite the facts that Alabama just defeated the #1 team in the country, is one conference win away from a return to the SEC Championship game, is ranked in the top 3 in both the AP and Coaches’ polls, sits at the top of the Sagarin Ratings, and is in control of its own destiny, Alabama fans are still hungry for more and better.  We can rest assured the head coach is.  Let us hope the team shares the attitude and ambition.  We think so.  As one of the former quarterbacks once said, “They talk about the Alabama family not being reasonable and realistic. Well hell no, we're not supposed to be reasonable and realistic. We're Alabama -- we're supposed to be the best.”  Nice to know you can depend on some things in this world.

Roll Tide, everyone.  Hope to see you at Saturday at homecoming.   I’ll be the one in the crimson shirt, telling all the students what it used to be like when I was at Alabama….