Sadly, Commissioner, that set of The Grades was dead on
target, though in some cases you might have needed some grade lower than F.
The worst cliché is that you win some and you lose
some. But why did it have to be this one?
It is another cliché that you lose as a team and win as a
team. The fact it is trite doesn’t mean
it isn’t true.
Football has always seemed to us to be the ultimate team
game. We don’t know of another team
sport where everyone on the field must handle their assignments in order for the
team to achieve success in just the same way that football requires. (We think
an argument can be made for its older cousin, rugby.) Frankly, the intense team nature of the sport
is one of its attractions. Yes, just occasionally one player’s miscue can be
said to have led to a loss -- if the placekicker misses a last-second field
goal that means the difference between a win and a loss it is easy to point at
that individual player. On the other
hand, the rest of the team had 59 minutes and some seconds to keep that kick
from being necessary -- if the defense had prevented a couple of first downs,
if the offense had scored once more or gotten the kicker a little closer to the
goal posts at the end, blah, blah, blah.
In short, typically the blame for a loss in a football game can be
spread widely.
Unfortunately, the failures that led to Alabama’s loss on
Saturday night were spread through every phase of the game. The offense did not convert crucial third
downs and missed scoring opportunities.
The defense allowed third down conversions and occasionally tackled like
it was new innovation that they had been working on only since Wednesday. The kicking game was the high point of the
effort and earned an F by missing the snap on a chip shot field goal. The coaching staff had done a poor job of
getting the team ready to play and did a poorer job of making in-game
adjustments.
At the simplest level, Auburn performed much better as a
team than Alabama did on Saturday night and the final score pretty accurately
reflected that.
In addition to the team failures you so accurately
documented, Commissioner, we were quite surprised by what we identified as coaching
failures in this game. It is always hard to gauge, especially over a television
broadcast as opposed to in person, but Alabama just did not seem ready to
play. There was a missing level of
excitement and urgency. How can this
happen? These are not junior high school
students. At this level the players
should be able to be depended on to have themselves emotionally ready for the
game. However, we also think inducing
that sense of urgency is a coaching responsibility, though obviously there are
limits.
However, neither individual responsibility nor inspiration
by the coaches seems to have gotten the point home on Saturday. Sadly, we wonder, if you as an individual
player were unable to motivate yourself for this game, and the coaches were
similarly unable to persuade you to be motivated for it, what can you get
excited about? This was the premier game
in college football Saturday -- national television, a #1 ranking, a chance to
play for conference and national championships, the opponent was your
cross-state rival coached by a character that looks like a reject from The
Muppet Show, and you come out flat? It
is just very difficult to comprehend.
It is another cliché that you have to limit Monday morning
quarterbacking / Hindsight / Second-guessing.
We agree with that sentiment to a large extent. It’s just too easy to have a different idea
about whether the team should have gone for the touchdown or the field goal on
the last play of the game when you know the outcome of that particular
play. We think a different rule applies,
though, when you are instead considering overall game strategy and tactics. Alabama’s plans on both sides of the ball
were insufficient.
The thinking down here at the Tire Store was that with our
offense, holding the opponent to 26 points should regularly produce a win. Despite the scoreboard, however, the
defensive scheme was not sufficient to put the ball in the hands of the offense
nearly enough. The sellout blitzes left
numerous passing lanes open as well as scrambling avenues for the
quarterback. Nevertheless, we continued
to pursue that tactic all game long, managing exactly one sack.
Worse, the offensive production was, shall we say,
spotty. The first drive of the game was
quite efficient, until such time as we decided not to attempt a fourth and less
than a yard in the middle of the field.
That was puzzling and may have led the offense to question itself. The play calling and execution in the first
drive of the second half was a thing of beauty.
And it disappeared. Either the
opponent adjusted to it and we had no answer or we abandoned what was working. Our offensive line was clearly having trouble
with the pass rush, but we continued to call slow developing pass plays down
the field. Our quarterback appeared to
be struggling and the remedy for that appeared to be to put more responsibility
on his shoulders. Enough, we’ve just
sent Moses across the road to pick up Krystals for lunch and we are losing our
appetite.
Regular readers know that we do not usually call out
particular players in this space.
However, we hope that Damien Harris is suffering from some undisclosed
condition which leads to him only getting a few carries a game. He is the acknowledged starter, runs hard,
averages 8.2 yards a carry, and often disappears from the offense for entire
quarters or halves. Against Auburn he
carried the ball just six times, down from eight against Mississippi State, and
nine against LSU. In contrast, Auburn’s
Kerryon Johnson left with an injury and still had 30 carries, which is to say
more than Harris had against LSU, MSU and AU combined. I will regret it very much if Harris decides
to turn pro after this season (he is a junior and has played three years) if
any part of his decision is based on how little he gets the ball.
Another football cliché is that some teams play better at
home or on the road. We think really
excellent teams are not much affected by where they play. The 2016 edition of the Crimson Tide has not
performed well in hostile environments, of which there were just three this
year. At Texas A&M (7-4, 4-4, and rumored
to be firing their head coach) Alabama needed to recover an on-side kick to
assure a victory in a game that should have been settled in the third
quarter. In Starkville, against a
Bulldog team somewhat better than Texas A&M, things were cut even more
closely, with the game tied with under a minute left. Against an even more talented Auburn team,
well, you can see where that is going. At least whatever else this team does will be on a neutral field.
We are not just sure what all contributed to Saturday’s poor
performance. This is a very talented
football team. The team leaders are easy
to identify and effective. We have the
best coaching staff in the nation and not by a little bit. Injuries have certainly played a part. The SEC’s usual sorry officiating didn’t help
(though it didn’t decide the game). Perhaps
there is some truth to the idea that being the #1 team for too long leads to
pressure that eventually hinders a team.
Maybe Alabama was just due to turn in a poor performance. Whatever, at some point it will be possible
to look back on the season and decide that an 11-1 record and major blowouts of
many opponents was pretty dadgum good.
For now, though, it is hard to see the silver lining of an objectively
great season through the dark clouds of the chances that have been squandered.
So, the punditry has been desperately trying to sort out
whether Alabama can make it into the college football playoff. We understand the reasoning that says there
is a possibility, after all, Alabama ranks fifth with all of the teams above
them facing challenging opponents. We
think a return to the CFP is relatively unlikely, though enough chaos in the
games of the teams ranked ahead of Alabama may do the trick.
Four things are working against Alabama. First, Alabama Fatigue is a real thing
elsewhere in the country and there is a collective smug smile around college
football that the Crimson Tide has put itself in danger of being out of
contention. Second, unfortunately when you lose in the season has become
critical. Auburn’s opening week loss to
Clemson has all but been forgotten.
Alabama lost in its last game.
Third, the establishment of the playoff committee got its last boost of
momentum from people who objected to the All SEC Alabama/LSU championship game
in New Orleans. Whether they ever admit
it or not, the playoff committee is going to bend over backwards to try to make
sure there is “fair” regional representation in the seeded teams. If that means taking a two-loss team over a
one-loss team with some sort of justification about “better” losses or “tougher
schedule” or “peaking at the right time” or “playing an extra game” or “being
conference champion” or just “passing the eye test” then that is what they will
rely upon. Fourth, sitting home this weekend while the other contenders are all
involved in championships will hurt Alabama’s position with the committee – the
Committee was quick to say there was very little difference in teams 5-8. Let us hope we are wrong.
If not, then this edition of the Crimson Tide has one last
game to play together as a team. Will
this team go to a bowl game fighting for pride and honor and destroy someone
the way their predecessors did Michigan State in Orlando in 2011 or will they show up, pick
up their “swag bags” and otherwise enjoy a nice vacation trip with the game as
an afterthought, as they did against Utah in 2009? I would like to tell you that we had the answer
to that question. As big a cliché as it
is, after Saturday, we’d have to say we just don’t have a clue.
Roll Tide, everyone.
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