That may be the best edition of The Grades yet this year,
Commissioner. We agree that this game
was a lot better performance in hindsight than it seemed while we were living
through it.
Speaking of, we may have to hunt a hobby a little less
stressful than November football as played by the University of Alabama. Our doctor is always going on about how getting
our heart rate up to certain numbers is good for it, just like exercising other
muscles, blah, blah, blah. We are not
just sure getting our heart rate up while sitting in the lucky recliner
watching Alabama play football is what Dr. Mike has in mind.
So maybe something a little less dramatic -- we could take
up tightrope walking or snake handling.
We saw a fellow on tv one night who juggled chain saws while they were running. Pee Wee saw a fellow in a Billy Joel video
juggling end wrenches and decided he could learn to do that. After almost a full rainy Thursday afternoon of
those things clanging around on the concrete in the service bay behind us we
put a stop to it. Pee Wee never got the
knack of it, though he did bang his knuckles up pretty good. (Just to be fair, we’re sure those guys
in the video couldn’t bust down a tire like Pee Wee can, either.) Made us wonder, though, how you learn to
juggle something like a running chain saw -- there’s just not much room for
error there.
Speaking of, there was not much room for error in Saturday’s
ball game in Starkville. As it turned
out, Alabama found out just how many errors it could make and still win at
football. Seems to us that one more
miscue -- fumble, interception, sack, dropped pass, missed kick, missed tackle,
wrong defensive alignment, pass interference -- and things might have turned
out very differently.
As noted, we agree with you, Commissioner. The result turned out far better than the
process looked. We were very surprised
to learn that Alabama had very close to 450 yards of total offense. The announcers kept harping on how many
minutes of possession Mississippi State had.
It turned out that they only ran about 70 plays in all those minutes,
though. So the defense was “on the
field” a lot. In this case, however,
being on the field meant just that. They
weren’t on the sideline sitting down, drinking Powerade, and getting coached
up. Even so, they weren’t exactly lining
up and thumping anyone either. Mostly,
they spent a decent amount of Saturday standing there watching Mississippi
State stand in the huddle. It was a decent
strategy by Coach Mullen; however, it really did serve only the purpose of
keeping Hurts, Ridley, Harris and company from being on the field to score
rather than wearing our defense to a frazzle.
Speaking of, the defense gave up a decent number of rushing
yards and three rushing TDs, and we can’t quite recall when that last happened
to an Alabama defense. And Mississippi
State did rush for a lot of yardage, as an absolute consideration. However, they ran for more yardage against each of LSU, Georgia, and Auburn, even though they had an FCS opponent to deal with
last week and this game was at home. Their quarterback, Fitzgerald, is a big
guy and ran hard, especially for the first three quarters. Given our situation at linebacker, especially
middle linebacker, it could have been worse.
A lot worse. The linebacker
situation is an issue and not exactly a surprise. Hamilton, whom the Saban guy says is one of
the smartest players on our defense and the signal caller went out against LSU. His back up, Wilson, also went out against
LSU (CBS still hasn’t noticed). So we
started the third stringer at a key point and his backup, the fourth stringer,
played significant snaps. We recruit
very well. Thinking there would not be a
drop off and it was just “next man up” is just hiding your head in the grease
rack. Especially when the player at the
other inside linebacker position is working through a very painful groin
injury. The defense gave up 296 yards to
the Bulldogs through three quarters, but only 34 in the fourth, when they
should have been worn out. That earns a
good grade.
Special teams weren’t so special on Saturday night. We might as well start with it. We aren’t much of a fan of the whole
“leaping” penalty. I’m not sure we
committed the foul to start with, the way the rule is written. Sure changed the game, though. We get it.
Player safety is an issue. If a
defender jumps up and over a blocker on the kicking team they are at risk when
he comes down cleats first on top of them.
The “leaper” is even more at risk because it does not take much of a
change of position by the blocker to flip him so that the first thing that hits
the turf is the back of his neck or the top of his helmet -- neither of which
should happen when it can be prevented.
That said, the rule specifically prohibits jumping over another player
-- not jumping up in the gap between
players in protection, presumably because that isn’t dangerous; it’s about the
same as jumping up to bat down a pass.
We aren’t sure whether that is what happened Saturday or not. What we are sure of is that the officials
couldn’t tell either. That penalty got
called twice on Saturday and for the first time we can recall, at least in a
long time. We suspect there was some
memo or email to the officials to be watching for it.
If we intend to keep that rule, though, we think it should
apply equally to offense. A ball carrier
who tries to leap over an opponent making a tackle seems to us to be at least
equally at risk. (Looking at you, Najee) We’ve learned by now not to look
for either consistency or good sense from the NCAA. However, in the future you just have to try
to block punts only from the side or behind the shield of blockers -- once
again a rule that favors the team with the ball. Don’t get us started on the way running backs
(ours included) are free to grab any defender’s face mask and try to twist his
head off, when if you change the direct object of the verb, the offense gets an
extra 15 yards. The penalty isn’t for “tackling
by the face mask” it’s “grabbing the face mask”.
This ought to be called fairly.
We’re also willing to give Pappanastos a break. His field goal attempt was within a
reasonable distance and he’s made further tries. But his kick began to hook there at the very
end. Had the offense not managed to lose yardage on both of the plays before
the attempt, that ball sneaks past the upright, at least. We are more concerned about the play calls
right before the attempt. We seemed to
be running the ball outside with authority. Therefore, we tried to pass a few
times in a row and lost yardage. Deliver
me.
Speaking of, this offense is more than capable of delivering a lot of points against anyone. Opposing defenses continue to
overload the line of scrimmage and dare Jalen Hurts to beat them throwing or
running. We seem to be getting better at exploiting that.
We are not as efficient yet as we need to be, but things are moving in
the right direction. The offense seemed
to be a little bit of boom and bust. We
had either long drives or three-and-out. A
little more consistency, just a little more, and Saturday’s game is a
comfortable win for Alabama. We
especially seem to be a mixed bag on the offensive line. It didn’t seem like it, but we ran on twice as many downs as we passed it on
Saturday. It still felt like there were
times, especially in the second half, when we were throwing it when a running
play might have been a better choice.
The coaches see and know a lot that we do. For example, in the fourth quarter we were hollering for Bo to get the
ball again so loud that the dogs ran under the coffee table. We were not aware he was
hurting and asked to come out of the game. Re-watching it, that was pretty obvious. A healthy #9 probably turns up field and
scores on that last carry, in fact. We
were not aware he was even dealing with some sort of injury. Oops.
It’s just a little hard on the old ticker when
we need to score 31 to put the game away.
At least we can.
On to Mercer, a team that gave Auburn absolute fits early in
the year. It’ll be Senior Day and this
has been a truly special bunch.
Roll Tide, everyone.
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