Nice effort with the Grades for Tennessee,
Commissioner. And we agree with all that
you point out about young minds still developing. The problem is that our cardiovascular system
already has more miles on it than an '85 Camry.
We're not just sure how much the old ticker and pipes can take while
these guys finish growing up.
As we mentioned last week, this bunch is
entertaining and exciting -- maybe too much so.
Would it be too much to ask to punch in some of those first and goals
instead of kicking field goals? It sure
would help us if we didn't have to hear the pulse pounding in our ears and our
stomach rolling right before dinner time.
On the other hand, getting a win against the
Volunteers always seems sweet no matter what the cost. We'll take this one, just like the last 8.
Offense: We
continue to be worried about the performance of the offensive line. Coker was harassed far too much on Saturday
and running backs dealt with defenders coming seemingly unblocked into the back
field far too often. The offense often
managed to shoot itself in the foot with silly penalties. In a couple of cases the coaching staff did
not do the team any favors with the play calls.
The game would have appeared very differently if the short field goals
had been touchdowns. After acknowledging
that, this was a gritty performance by a banged up group. Stewart, who had been MIA for much of the
season, had his best game ever. Howard
blocked and caught better than ever.
Henry has been a workhorse, His
last three carries were things of beauty, especially the one step inside fake
on the touchdown run. He's earned a day
off. Perhaps between now and the end of
the season we can get more running backs involved in the games. However, the whole goal is to score more than
the other team. The offense did that job
without any assistance this game from the defense. Good on them.
Defense: Any
time our defense holds an SEC offense to 14 points we should win the game. The defense was again on the cusp of scoring
points. We didn't see quite as many
opportunities for interceptions as Frick & Frack in the booth. However, there were at least three very good
chances. In fact, Fitzpatrick had one he
touched with both hands and his stomach with lots of beautiful green grass in
front of him. Robinson had a circus
catch opportunity, but if he was able to catch a ball that was within inches of
touching the turf at the same time he was falling headlong, he wouldn't be on
defense. Humphrey was very close to one
on Tennessee's next to last offensive play.
For a group that was much-criticized last year, this unit has come to
play. Again, though, fatigue was clearly
a factor. Even the normally unflappable
Cyrus Jones got lost in coverage on the first touchdown and was struggling to
keep up with Tennessee's receivers in the fourth quarter. The defensive line, despite being held and
occasionally actually tackled, came through in the clutch. There is not a college defense I would trade
them for.
Coaching: No
question that Alabama was a tired and beat up football team. Ever since the schedule came out we knew
October was a nightmarish month for Alabama.
Playing Georgia in Athens (the week after they played Southern),
Arkansas (the week after they played Tennessee), Texas A&M at newly
renovated Kyle Field (the week after they played Open), and Tennessee (the week
after they played Open) was going to be exhausting. The coaches were smart enough not to talk
about the fatigue factor beforehand, but Coach Saban acknowledged it in his
post-game comments. The coaches did a
good job getting the team ready to play for the whole month. We did question some of the play-calls,
especially inside the 10. For some
reason, this team seems to play a lot better on the road than at home, e.g.
Coker has thrown 7 interceptions, all in BDS.
Maybe figuring out how to get road performances for the home fans would
be a good project for the coaches during the off week.
Special Teams:
Regular readers know we have been fairly straightforward about our
criticism of this group throughout the fall.
Fair is fair. On Saturday, the
Volunteers brought one of the best special teams in the country to
Alabama. But the Alabama Special Teams
exceeded their performance. As ably
documented by the Commissioner, we beat them in every phase of special teams
performance. Our punting average was
back up to close to 50 yards per attempt.
We covered their very good return men nicely. We had good returns and good decisions on
which balls to fair catch and which ones to return. We made all our field goals and PATs with
room to spare. And, best of all to us
down here at the Tire Store, we kicked off the football into the dadgum end zone,
once all the way into the seats. Huzzah.
Broadcast:
F-. How do I hate thee, CBS? Let me count the ways. Gary and Verne seem to be downright bored
with covering Alabama. Even with an
earlier video showing miracle plays to beat Alabama, we reached a new low on
Saturday. Did we really, really need to
hear a five-minute interview with Peyton Freaking Manning where they acted like
it was an imposition to even show the plays on the field. No commentary on the action. Was the game that boring to you CBS? Maybe you should let a network interested in
college football broadcast the games.
Mind you, this was all going on with the game very much hanging in the balance
-- not garbage time of the fourth quarter of a blow out. And then we got to see Peyton's facial
expression with seemingly every snap of the fourth quarter. Pardon me, but who cares? What's that you say? Alabama has no one to
offer up? Well, we know for a fact that
the great Lee Roy Jordan was there, because Verne and Gary did manage to scrape
up a black and white photo of him. They mentioned AD Bill Battle, who played at
Alabama, coached at Tennessee, and came home when Mal Moore passed away
suddenly. We're pretty sure he was
there. Or, perhaps, you could have run
across the field during one of the seemingly half-hour long TV time outs to
interview A.J. McCarron, who has more National Championships than the
Magnificent Manning. Or, just maybe, you
could have picked out Terrence Cody, he was the really big guy in street
clothes on the Alabama sideline. He's hard to miss. And as you pointed out, we were one day short
of the anniversary of his two blocked field goal effort against Tennessee. He's got one of those nifty National
Championship rings, too. OK, we'll leave
it be, the old ticker's getting another work out.
Officiating:
F. OK, after Saturday we worry
that we are beginning to sound like those guys that think Apollo 11 didn't get
to the moon, Elvis is still alive, and Amelia Earhart was a secret Japanese Spy. Acknowledging that, some of those calls and
non-calls Saturday really got our goat.
We weren't quite sure given the camera angle whether our offensive line
was guilty of a chop block. We were sure
that our receivers were getting mugged (on one play the Tennessee defensive
back looked like he had both hands in the collar of Ridley's jersey, on the
broadcast you could hear the crowd booing it was so obvious), our defensive
linemen were getting tackled, etc. But
the worst of all was the Tennessee player that got away with not only spinning
the ball like a top, but also dancing a little jig. This was the rookie umpiring crew. For a few seasons now players have been in
the habit of giving the official the ball after every down. One reason for that is that you cannot be accused
of spiking or spinning the ball if you hand it, or toss it softly, to one of
the zebras. After already calling about
three unsporstman-like conduct penalties we were certain this behavior would be
flagged. It wasn't. We also heard over the weekend that the total
number of holding calls against Alabama opponents in SEC games this year is
ZERO (there was one in the Wisconsin game and one in MTSU, neither of which had
SEC officials, as we recall it). We are
too lazy busy serving our customers to look up how many pass plays that
covers but we are pretty sure the answer is "a lot" -- it's got to be
about 500 total plays after this many games.
We read that the SEC Commissioner was at the game. Perhaps seeing this game will open his eyes. Yeah, sure, and Lee Harvey Oswald was working
for Castro and the CIA.
Happy Halloween everyone. Like the team, we recommend you take next
weekend off to get yourself rested and ready.
If you aren't fired up about seeing what is statistically the best
running back in the country matched up against the best defense, well, then, we
are surprised you read this far. The
first Saturday night of November promises to be exciting
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