Missouri Grades

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According to a recent survey conducted by the Animal Planet channel, the tiger is the world’s favorite animal. Twenty one percent of those polled voted for the stripped predatory jungle cat, edging out man's best friend, the loyal dog, which was favored only by 20 %.

All I can say is: They didn't poll me.

Naturally, the elephant is my personal favorite animal, but I would take a Black Bear, or even a Fighting Chicken over a Tiger any day.  Yesterday was not a good day for Tigers in the SEC.  The Tide rolled all over the ones from the prairie and for the second time in as many week, the ones from the Village were beaten going away by a team that may not beat anyone else.

By the way, the cyber spooks at the NSA intercepted a tweet from @hogwildrider to @jayjacobs saying "She's blond, she's built and I don't want to hear a word about her out of you."

This prompted a reply from @jayjacobs saying "No prob. @coachdye sez to tell her 'welcome to the fambly.' "  

But, enough about the barn fire for now. This blog is about the Tide.

Our Correspondent From The Real Thing suggested that this edition of The Grades divide the game into two halves; before lightning struck and after. That's a tempting suggestion. Alabama certainly played a different game on either side of the enforced hazardous weather break. Before play was suspended, the thunder was supplied by the offensive line while Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon delivered the lightning with a scorching running attack. After the early and extended intermission, ball security became an issue, special teams became error-prone and for the second week in a row, Alabama was outplayed in the third quarter.

Every week this season, I have written that the coaches and players have work to do. This week is no exception, but the results of the game clearly reflect that the 2012 Tide is a very good football team. Alabama beat an SEC team 42-10 and the defense surrendered only 3 points and 3 yards rushing. The offense accounted for 533 total yards and featured a pair of ball carriers who had career high games. At the same time, however, Missouri was hamstrung by injuries at key positions and lacked the roster depth to genuinely challenge Alabama.

Nevertheless, Alabama is a very good football team. Maybe it is a great football team. Perhaps it is a championship team. Games against better competition will supply the answer. For now, here's how I grade the game:

Offense:         A-        This was Alabama's best game of the season running the football. The Tide earned 21 first downs [15 rushing] and 533 yards [362 rushing] and scored  six rushing TDs. However, what would otherwise be an A+ performance was marred by two lost fumbles. Granted, the weather was bad all game, and at times it was horrible, but Missouri was playing in the same weather as Alabama.

AJ completed 16 of 21 pass attempts and increased his school record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception to 227. Amari Cooper was AJ's favorite target. The freshman wide receiver caught 4 passes for 41 yards. Kevin Norwood added 25 yards on three receptions and Kenny Bell caught two passes for 46 yards. Eight different receivers caught passes.

Tide fans who have been wondering where the running game has been should have recorded yesterday's game. Eddie Lacy gained 177 yards on 18 carries, an average of 9.8 yards per rush, and scored 3 rushing TDs. TJ Yeldon rushed for 144 yards and scored 2 TDs. Kenyan Drake completed Bama's scoring with a 4th quarter touchdown and added 11 yards to the rushing total. Blake Sims, subbing for AJ in the final quarter, gained 36 yards on a single carry.

Alabama scored a touchdown on four of its first six offensive possessions; all prior to the suspension of play. The offense had six drives that gained at least 40 yards [75, 57, 50, 54, 41, 54] achieving 5 TDs and scored on 5 of its 6 possessions in the Mizzou red zone.  This dominance is reflected in the time of possession. Alabama held the ball for 36:29 including 11:01 of the 4th quarter.

The downgrade is due to the loss of two fumbles, and poor efficiency on possession downs where the offense converted only 2 of 9 third down opportunities.

Defense         A+       The Tigers only gained 129 yards [3 yards rushing] of total offense and converted only 2 of 15 third downs. Mizzou's redshirt freshman QB completed 12 of 29 pass attempts and was intercepted twice.

The Missouri offense had the ball 12 times. It achieved one field goal, 8 punts, 2 interceptions and a lost fumble. Six times the Tide defense held the Tigers to possessions of three-and-out.

CJ Mosley made 12 tackles [9 solo] and recovered a forced fumble. Dee Milliner was credited with 4 stops [3 solo] and forced a fumble. Adrian Hubbard forced a fumble and Vinnie Sunseri made a juggling interception. Blake Sims is also credited with an interception, which will come as a great surprise to him because he was on the sideline at the time. It will also come as a surprise to Haha Clinton-Dix who actually made the pick. (The host team has responsibility for compiling the official stat sheet.) The defense made 7 tackles for lost yardage including 3 sacks, and broke up 5 passes.

Special Teams:  The kicking game took a big step backwards yesterday. The weather was no doubt a factor, but the wind and rain do not account for allowing a 98 yard kick return for a touchdown.

Punting:         C         Cody Mandel averaged 38 yards on four punts. Two were downed inside the Mizzou 20 yard line, one carried more than 50 yards and 1 was fair caught. The problem is that he was supposed to have punted one more time but muffed the snap turning the ball over on downs. That would qualify for a failing grade, however, the punt defense blocked a Missouri punt attempt, recovered at the Tiger 17. Blocking a kick is an automatic "A."

Kickoffs:         F          Allowing a return for a TD is another one of those automatic failing grades. Otherwise, Cade Foster kicked 3 touchbacks and the two Joneses: Christion and Cyrus, combined for 38 yards on two returns.

Place kicking:           A         Jeremy Shelley was 100% on all 6 PAT attempts.

Coaching:     A-        The participation report lists 61 players who saw action. But it does not include Clinton-Dix. I don't know if other players were left off the stat sheet, but I kept looking for Ben Howell to make an appearance. I didn't see him. Alabama was penalized 7 times for 62 yards. Eddie Lacy was the Tide's leader with 194 of Alabama's 629 all-purpose yards.

Coach Saban took responsibility for not managing the team's energy coming out of the enforced weather delay. It was reported that the players changed jerseys and had something to eat.  Maybe that explains how Mizzou was able to return a kick for a TD immediately after the break; the players were still munching on a Chik-fil-A.

The injury report is not particularly scary. AJ sustained a bruised knee, Eddie Lacy bruised his hand and Christion Jones turned his ankle. All are expected to be 100% for Tennessee this coming Saturday.

Allow me a word or two about the CBS broadcast crew: "clowns" and "gas bags" are the ones that come most immediately to mind. I know that the game was not the SEC headliner; that distinction west to LSU vs. South Carolina. It didn't even have the dramatic story-lines of Ole Miss-Auburn or UT-Miss State. But, as they say on one of those talk shows on the Four Letter Network: "Come On Man!" Their customary buffoonery was tolerable until late in the 4th quarter when LaMichael Fanning was penalized for unnecessary roughness.

In case you missed it, Fanning tackled the Tiger ball carrier and flipped backwards, bringing the runner with him. Fanning landed on his back and shoulders while the ball carrier landed sort of face down. It was not the most spectacular tackle of the day. That one came when Christion Jones tried to leap over the Mizzou punter and instead did an aerial somersault that could have earned a phone call from Sarah Patterson.  Anyway, Fanning was flagged for a personal foul and Verne Lundquist took to his fainting couch. He and Danielson spent the rest of the game tut-tutting about Fanning. A few plays later, a Tiger receiver was actually injured on a routine tackle but the bloviators in the booth were undeterred; they were unrelenting in their castigation of the red-shirt freshman's tackle which in fact injured no one.  I suppose it's true: "Haters got to hate."

The Tigers of LSU kept their species from being extinguished this weekend. Les Miles' players rebounded from their loss to Florida a week ago and beat South Carolina in the 4th quarter. A week ago, the Yard Birds thrashed Georgia and last night they could manage only one sustained offensive scoring drive. Go figure. The Chickens' performance reminds me of 2010 when USCe played a perfect game to beat Alabama then laid eggs the rest of the season.  

Mississippi State beat UT and takes on MTSU this coming Saturday. The Puppies ought to be undefeated when they arrive in Tuscaloosa in two weeks.

The Vols are reeling this morning. Coach Derek Dooley has yet to coach the Big Orange to a victory over a ranked opponent and the calls for replacing him are growing louder by the week. Nothing would make Dooley's career and the Vols' season like beating Alabama this coming Saturday. Alabama has more horsepower on both sides of the ball than UT. If the team plays to the standards Coach Saban has set, we should win by three touchdowns.

The time has come to forget about Tigers, and Dogs, Roosters and Lizzards, and other critters in the college football barn-yard. This is Tennessee Week, y'all.  The Volunteers are capable of spoiling this season if given the chance. Everyone associated with the Alabama football program knows that. Look for the Tide to play very well and empty Neyland Stadium by the middle of the third quarter.

The Rammer Jammer never sounds sweeter than when it begins with "Hey Vols...."

The Commissioner  

Ole Miss Grades: The Report From The Tire Store

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Good grades, Commissioner.  I, too, felt better about the game in the light of a Sunday morning rather than the waning minutes of a Saturday night. 

Speaking of which, I know the conference has to worship at the altar of ESPN’s money, but just once I wish someone would have the courage to tell them to go back to Connecticut or Rhode Island or wherever they are from and pound sand.  It is ridiculous that we have players out playing college football on Saturday night at an hour which, if it was one day along on the calendar, the players would be breaking curfew.  Look, I know where ESPN is from every where is within 5 miles of every place else, Rhode Island itself being geographically smaller than Tuscaloosa County, and that every wide spot in the road has 2000 hotel rooms.  But where we live, it can be a long darn way to get home for a game that basically starts tonight and ends tomorrow morning.  And this was a relatively fast-paced game.   I digress….

Again, it is a measure of the program that we beat a division opponent by three scores, trailed for a total of 15 seconds and kept at least a two score lead through the second half, and the Grades are in the low B range.  But B=Good and beating Mississippi was good.  Nonetheless, as the head coach points out, the team needs to play to a standard of excellence, not to the level of the competition. Unquestionably there were areas where the Crimson Tide did not excel on Saturday night, whether it had to or not, which is troubling. 

Offense -- I might rate the offense even a little lower than you did.  Credit to Mississippi which was soundly coached and had a significant talent differential to overcome (giving up 30 pounds per man across the line has not been a formula for winning football since, say, Fred Sington played).  However, Mississippi put 7 or 8 players on the line of scrimmage, took a lot of risks - stunts, slants, run blitzes and probably some other things I don’t truly grasp all that well - and kept their team (sort of) in the game.  It certainly worked better than their base defense which gave up over 700 yards of offense to Texas.  On the other hand, rather than carve them up like a skillful surgeon with a mix of screen passes, play action and misdirection (counter, bootleg, end around, etc.) the offense seemed content just to bludgeon them to death with a caveman’s club.  Taking out sacks, the running game managed 4+ yards a carry.  If you are guaranteed four ypc, why would you ever pass?  (Any horrified Oregon fans who happen to be reading, I apologize for suggesting it.)  I’m going to give the coaching staff a pass here and say we didn’t do much creative because we didn’t have to.  But they HAVE to fix the attempting field goals in the red zone issue.  That bit us hard last year in November and will again this year if we don’t work it out.  I digress….

Defense -- I think that is a good grade for the defense.  Giving up the two long drives was not good.  Allowing two fourth down conversions was bad (though I think Williams stopped them short once and we got a lousy spot).  Mississippi covers talent gaps with lots of hurry up and odd plays.  On the whole, though, having our defense hold anyone to 14 points should be good enough to put us in at least Atlanta and probably Miami.  That earns a Good.

Special Teams -- Nothing to add to your excellent analysis, except to ask when was the last time we beat a conference opponent and the highest grades were reserved for the special teams?  With each game that we win the more comfortable and confident we become in our ST play.  It is hard to believe even as I type this, but Special Teams have become a strength -- shoot I don’t even close my eyes every time they take the field.  I don’t know if it is coaching, practice, weightlifting, maturity or what, probably a healthy combination of all, but Hurray for these guys.  Keep it up.

Officiating.  Well, Penn Wagers and the rest of the striped blind mice never fail to disappoint when it comes to disappointing.  In fairness, I’ll say this crew seems to get more than its share of close calls.  But the only advantage their replay team offers is that they seem to dress better than the on-field crew. 

The off week seems an appropriate time to comment on the schedule.  As in, when this year’s revised schedule came out after Missouri and Texas A&M entered the conference it led to a collective Crimson response of “blech”.  We have one home game in October and then not till just before Halloween, which is the prime month weather wise to be in Tuscaloosa.  (We did have some choice, with the “alternative” schedule having NO home games in October).  I understand that both of the new conference members wanted an Alabama game.  To get Missouri  Alabama at home (and the tv exposure and the RV caravan that comes with it) we dropped Vanderbilt, a quick 3-hour road trip up the interstate (and a short drive from the Tire Store HQ) for a 500-mile trip that starts with three hours of driving to get to the interstate from Tuscaloosa. LSU got a bye week before we traveled there to play. Our out of conference home games were Westerns Carolina and Kentucky plus Louisiana Monroe….  I know the league office thinks we will show up to see just about anyone, and generally they are correct, but let’s not mince words.  This year’s home schedule is a stinker and Coach Moore knows it.  Three digressions and you’re out….

At the time it came out, I was not a fan of where the bye week fell, either.  It would have been much better, I thought, to either match LSU’s off week, although that is terribly late, or to have it fall between trips to Missouri and Tennessee.  As it worked out, I think the off week is at a fortunate time.  Some of the injuries from Saturday and before need time to rest and heal, or where that is not possible (e.g. Fowler) we get a good week to practice some fundamentals and install some new players before going on the road.

Enjoy the off week.  There are several games Saturday with conference playoff implications and one (Arkansas @ Auburn) that is fascinating in a slow-down-and-stare-at-the-wreckage sort of way.  Lots of football yet to play, but given my choice, I’d take the results thus far without playing a down.

The Correspondent From The Tire Store