That was a lot of fun, Commissioner, both the Game and the
Grades. Down here at the Tire Store some
of us go back to the late 1970s when back-to-back efforts like that used to
happen sort of regularly. Those were,
shall we say, different days.
We really don't have anything to add to your excellent
analysis this week. High grades were
earned all around. We'll discuss a few
things we noticed (or as the Comptroller describes it "run off at the
mouth" for a bit.)
We've read some commentary over the weekend to the effect
that Vanderbilt and Mississippi are just not very good teams and should take a
thumping from Alabama. Fair enough,
perhaps, though there seems to be a lot of hindsight going on. Seems like we read and heard a whole lot
about Vanderbilt's #1 rated defense two weeks ago. Last week we certainly heard about
Mississippi's #1 rated passing attack (427 yards per game), its tall and fast
wide receivers, and the talented quarterback who extended plays which had for
several seasons been the one thing Alabama could not defend.
But by Sunday morning those two teams were now terrible,
maybe the dregs of the SEC. We don't buy
it. Missouri has lost its last three
games by a combined score of 97 - 30, none of those games really being as
competitive as their final scores would indicate. They were picked preseason to be the worst
football team in the SEC and are fighting valiantly to hold on to that dubious
honor. We expect Mississippi and Vanderbilt
would both give Mississippi State a good game.
Speaking of, Missouri is going to have to go to some lengths
to hold onto the crown of rock bottom dweller because of an early season charge
for that title from LSU, which lost to Mississippi State by 31 -- which seems
only sort of bad now that LSU lost its homecoming game to Troy -- a game in
which it never led. Now, all due respect
to Troy, which pulled off the biggest win in its history Saturday in Baton
Rouge, but something is rotten in the bayou.
We are even getting suspicious about Guice's "injury". Then, look at Tennessee, if you can without
wincing.... Therefore, in addition to
the not-too-good teams Alabama has beaten -- Mississippi and Vanderbilt, you
should add LSU, Mississippi State, and Tennessee. At this rate, we are closing up on declaring
half the conference to be bad.
At this point we are one-third of the way through the
regular season. We still think the top
of the conference is pretty stout -- Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn could
probably give a solid account against any team in America. Florida would be on that list if it had about
a dozen fewer players indicted, but it is still a sort of dangerous team. The issue with the conference is that, unlike
some previous years, the lower level teams are apparently pretty weak. Can't do anything except play who is on your
schedule, as Urban Meyer is so fond of saying. We hope by this time next week, we are
hearing that Texas A&M really wasn't as strong as a 4-1 record would have
indicated.
Getting back to Saturday night, we've even taken time to
look at the Rule Book. Whether and how
one player can dive at another player's knees to achieve a block is pretty
complicated, involving whether or not someone else is blocking them and how high, what o'clock the angle of the
hit is from, etc. Bottom line, it looks
like the rule is that if no one else is blocking a defensive player, an
offensive player can dive at his knee from more or less straight ahead, but not
from, roughly, the side or back. The
ESPN announcing crew seemed pretty certain that the block on Da'Shawn Hand was
legal under the rules. We aren't so sure. We are sure about two things.
First, if that block is legal then the rules need to be
changed. We believe that such a hit
would be flagged in the NFL and maybe even referred to the league office to
determine whether a fine was in order.
If your angle is such that you are going to hit the side or back of a
player's knee you need to either change the angle or block higher on his
body. The risk of destroying a player's
knee, perhaps his football career, and perhaps do permanent damage for even
day-to-day activity is too high.
Second, we tend to
cut players a lot of slack. FBS-level
college football is a violent game played by talented athletes who are
extensively trained and have to make split-second decisions at full speed. Far more often than not, we give a player the
benefit of the doubt on a particular play.
But Mississippi's defensive back had already gotten the benefit of the
doubt when he missed slamming into our receiver's head in the end zone by about
an inch -- mostly because the receiver's head was somewhat lower than would
have been expected. The zebras were so
intent on the head-to-head contact that they didn't notice the same player
shoving his hand through our players
face mask in an attempt to, we don't know, pull the old "I've got your
nose" gag that my Uncle Max used to be a fan of, maybe? Then there was the hit on Hand. About three plays later the same Mississippi
player made the same sort of knee-level hit from the side on Hand's
replacement, Isaiah Buggs, and he limped off the field. We are all out of doubtful benefits at this
point.
Speaking of penalties, a disturbing trend from last year
seems to be re-emerging. Before
Saturday's game, Alabama led all other teams in the category Opponent Penalty Yards
per Game. Said in English, on average Alabama's
opponents were penalized fewer yards than the opponents of any other team. So the whole "the officials cheat for
Alabama" concept isn't supported by what we call "math". In fact, just like last season, the opposite
seems to be the case. Last week, Alabama
ranked number 130 out of 130 teams on that measure. Things improved after Saturday night. We've moved up to 127th. We find it amazing that teams that play
against Alabama suddenly find it in themselves to play cleanly and within the
rules for that one week of the season.
We'd think against such a formidable appointment, cutting some corners
would be a good idea. Maybe we just
don't understand.
If you are going down to see the game in College Station be
advised that there was some issue with the plumbing in their fancy new stadium
on Saturday and that if you need to, um, answer the call of nature, you had to
leave the stadium to do so. A&M is
really rich -- maybe they'll pay the water bill before Saturday night.
Roll Tide, everyone.
Beat Texas A&M.
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