Tire Store Report -- LSU

Excellent work on a disappointing spectacle, Commissioner.  You did such an outstanding job on the performance of the various units, that we have little to add.  We'll spend our PSI on other issues.

Coaching:  We are glad we didn’t have to grade this category.  The second half adjustments were mostly very good.  The problem was, they needed to be brilliant and perfect, which they were not, because of how terrible the coaching was in the first half.  Alabama appeared to come out tight or flat or both, if that’s possible.  Aside from the very first, unproductive, drive, the first two quarters we were out-schemed by the LSU coordinators on both sides of the ball. 

Our redzone play calling has left some to be desired for a few weeks now.  However, Coach Sark has done a good job of playing to his team’s strengths and did a great job with Mac Jones in the Arkansas game.  Saturday afternoon?  Not so much.  Defensively, we allowed far too many LSU receivers to find empty spots in the field for uncontested catches.  On one touchdown, it appeared to us that two LSU receivers were wide open for the score.  Sometimes it is difficult to decide whether the issue is the scheme or the players.  The coaches can draw it up correctly, however, it is up to the players to be in the right spot and execute.  So you can attribute a few missed plays to players making errors, being in the wrong spot, tackling poorly, dropping a pass, etc.  It happens, especially in the college game.  A whole half of players out of position?  Nope, that is on the coaches.

Now, admittedly, this game may have actually been lost in fall camp as player after player was injured or chose to play and/or on the third Saturday in October and/or on the very strange injury to our best tight end.  Once it was obvious to everyone that Tua was: 1. Rusty; 2. Less than 100% healthy; and 3. Very unlikely to run or scramble, Alabama’s options offensive options became more limited in the game where that was least affordable.  Full credit to LSU for having a great plan, recognizing limitations, and executing their schemes.  Alabama turned the ball over three times a/k/a three times too many in what was essentially the Conference Championship play-in game.  And usually, when a team fumbles the ball, you credit the other team for a hard hit or the like.  No defender was within three yards on Tua’s fumble or the muffed punt snap (which appeared to us to be perfectly on target). So you are right, Commissioner, Alabama helped LSU beat Alabama.  You correctly point out that the punting issue was the same as a straight fumble.  And LSU converted both turnovers into points, as well as Tua's interception.  This team should have been better prepared.

Broadcasting:  F  I’m in favor of one of those fancy Go Fund Me campaigns to buy out the rest of the CBS contract.  Alabama probably cannot do it alone, but with 14 teams in the league, we ought to be able to make it happen.  Shoot, we’ll throw in a free balance and rotate for the first 50 people to sign up.  The commercials are still our major complaint.  No overtime and this game ran to nearly four hours long (aided by an awful lot of LSU player injuries from which most players recovered in a couple of downs).  Gary seemed particularly grating this time.  For example, no, Gary, Tua was not carrying the ball in his “non-dominant” hand on the first quarter fumble.  Tua is pretty famously right-handed; he just throws with his left.  Or at least we think a lot of people know that.  Gary doesn’t.  Good thing he isn’t being paid big bucks to know details about the teams he covers or anything like that.  And if we had a player make a reception like Moss’s at the goal line, do you think Gary wouldn’t mention that “controversial” call about 16 million times during the remainder of the game? As well as next year? “You know, Alabama wouldn’t really be ahead right now if that call on the sideline had gone the other way”; or “Alabama won by 5, but really that touchdown before the half should have been a penalty….”  Maybe before next season CBS will “promote” Gary to their NFL lineup.  We may ask Santa for that.

Officiating:  F.  These guys were truly, truly awful.  And with how low the SEC Bar for average officiating is currently set, that is saying something.  We’ll mention three things in particular.

First, it is a tribute to the Alabama conditioning program and the marvelous construction of the human body that Jalen Waddle was able to leave the game Saturday night with his head still attached to his body.  We cannot really recall a more obvious uncalled facemask infraction since, well, ever.   It wasn’t that his head moved, Waddle’s whole body turned around to face the official, opposite the direction he had just been running full speed.  The official was maybe 10 yards downfield.  Perhaps, in his infinite wisdom and experience he realized Waddle was going to take that one to the house so no reason to have to lean his overweight self over to pick up the flag from the turf.  But in a league that has supposedly gotten obsessed with player safety, ignoring a potential career-ending blow like that seems out of step.  Unless, of course, you weren’t watching the game.

Second, the little noticed targeting call on Barmore could have been a serious problem.  Barmore seemed to be our most effective player in the middle of the defensive line on Saturday.  Barmore has been called a couple of times this year for targeting -- one seemed legitimate, one not so much.  But this wasn’t even a particularly hard hit.  We understand that the officials are supposed to throw the flag on the field and let the booth sort it out.  As bad a night as they were having, we are very lucky he stayed in the game.  This is especially the case if you noticed that Tua was subject to several late-ish high hits in the pocket.

Third, the spots were an issue all night.  We are complaining about this only as part of a failure to meet a standard of competence, because it was bad for both teams.

Fourth, the Moss sideline catch was just incomprehensible (not taking anything from LSU, it was a perfectly placed ball and an athletic effort -- no angle we saw showed if he was in bounds at the time of the actual catch or not).  Otherwise, this has gone from ridiculous to ludicrous, or some such thing.  Words would fail Monsieur Roget himself. 

The SEC knows it has a serious officiating problem.  Now, we think they believe it is just an incorrect impression shared by fans and that they are actually doing a bang-up good job.  Rather than attempt in any public or demonstrable way that they are trying to improve the officiating, the League Office has embarked on a campaign to get people to not criticize its officials.  This campaign has included letting newspaper reporters pretend to be officials in a scrimmage or the like so they can see first-hand how “hard" the job is.  Well, that’s a fine exercise I guess, but no one is disputing that the task is difficult – the issue is that a difficult task is being performed poorly.  We suspect most of the reporters knew this and also knew this was nothing more than an opportunity to try to influence their reporting.

Next was an unprompted, longish vote of confidence from Conference Commissioner Sankey in response to, well, to nothing more than another lousy half season of officiating from his crews of blind mice. 

Then, CBS and ABC/ESPN adopted “rules experts” that they call on for interpretations in-game.  These are mostly retired officials, as far as we can tell.  The fairly obvious purpose is for them to be apologists for the on-field officiating to the viewing public.  Unfortunately, they are often in the spot of defending the indefensible.  We have never heard one consulted on a completely missed call, like the facemask on Waddle.  You might be interested to know that SEC Officials even have their own social media outlet to defend themselves.  Saturday evening their responses on Twitter about the sideline catch ruling was a sad and unintentionally hilarious montage that was somewhere between “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” and “There are no American troops anywhere in Iraq”.  The CBS expert was so perplexed that he talked with someone to get an explanation that he lamely trotted out several minutes after the fact.  Wonder who called whom?

The video replay booth appears to have joined the circle-the-wagons approach.  All too often the replay officials seem to be casting about for reasons to let calls stand than to get them right.  We have heard it proposed that the replay process in Major League Baseball be changed so that the officials in New York do not know what the umpire’s call on the field originally was.  I’m not sure how you do this because the original call is often obvious from the video, but it’s a great suggestion – that is, if what you are really focused on is getting the calls right rather than just making yourself look better than you actually are.

No help for any of that.  LSU played well and Alabama lost a winnable game.  The negative effects of that loss are far-reaching (though we think Coach O standing at mid-field and proclaiming that BDS was now "our house" was a bit over the top).  The coaches likely have a major task ahead in getting this team prepared to play on Saturday morning.  We are interested to see how they and the players respond.  That game will tell a lot about the character of this team.

Roll Tide.  Beat the Bulldogs.

 


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